The Magazine
March 8, 2021
Reporting
Letter from Gambia
Fish Farming Is Feeding the Globe. What’s the Cost for Locals?
In the small coastal country, an exploding industry has led to big economic promises, and a steep environmental price.
Personal History
How to Practice
I wanted to get rid of my possessions, because possessions stood between me and death.
Annals of Technology
How to Build an Artificial Heart
Millions of hearts fail each year. Why can’t we replace them?
A Reporter at Large
Last Exit from Afghanistan
Will peace talks with the Taliban and the prospect of an American withdrawal create a breakthrough or a collapse?
The Critics
Books
When the Barbizon Gave Women Rooms of Their Own
The story of New York City’s most famous women-only hotel is also a story of class and sexual politics in the twentieth century.
Books
Kazuo Ishiguro Uses Artificial Intelligence to Reveal the Limits of Our Own
In his latest novel, the gaze of an inhuman narrator gives us a new perspective on human life, a vision that is at once deeply ordinary and profoundly strange.
Podcast Dept.
The Musicological Zest of “Switched On Pop”
The show’s hosts deliver charmingly rigorous dissections of Taylor Swift and Weeknd songs, slipping in a fair amount of music history and theory.
On Television
The Dizzying Hairpin Turns of “Behind Her Eyes”
It is hard to tell who is warden and who is prisoner, who is crazy and who is sane, and the Netflix show revels in this uncertainty.
The Current Cinema
Anthony Hopkins Rules the Screen in “The Father”
Florian Zeller’s adaptation of his play about old age shows Hopkins at the frightening summit of his powers.
The Talk of the Town
Amy Davidson Sorkin on hope amid COVID; touring the rooms at the top; a P.S.A. for the M.T.A.; mining Minecraft for wisdom; true selves on display.
Worst Case Dept.
Problem-Solving with Minecraft’s Zombies
Mel Brooks’s son, the author and worst-case scenarist Max Brooks, thinks his new novel, based on the video game, can teach kids critical-thinking skills, like how to approach asymmetric warfare.
Authenticity Dept.
Tallying the Lost Years for L.G.B.T. Seniors
An art exhibition at a Brooklyn retirement home features twelve of the country’s three million L.G.B.T. elders, many of whom fear having to go back into the closet when they enter senior housing.
Hometown Heroes
An Instagram Influencer Recruits A-Listers to Help Rescue the M.T.A.
The documentarian Nicolas Heller, better known as New York Nico, has championed bodega owners online. Now he’s recording new subway announcements with Jerry Seinfeld, Remy Ma, and Fran Lebowitz to boost morale and shame door holders.
Comment
With a Third Vaccine, from Johnson & Johnson, Are We Finally Winning Against COVID-19?
It’s been a year of emotional ups and downs, but for now, at least, even with more variants of the virus, the ups seem to be winning.
Sky Line Postcard
Andi Schmied’s Billionaire-Espionage Art Project
The Hungarian artist, undercover as an oligarch, infiltrated Manhattan’s ultra-luxury high-rises with her fake husband, Zoltan, for a book of intentionally unartful photos.
Shouts & Murmurs
Shouts & Murmurs
Beyond Hygge
Cartoons
1/11
“I just want to name her something that one day will be a great crossword-puzzle clue.”
Cartoon by Pia Guerra and Ian Boothby
Fiction
Fiction
The Crooked House
Puzzles & Games Dept.
Poems
Poems
Number Theory
Goings On About Town
Tables for Two
Vietnamese Specials at Ha’s Đặc Biệt
Anthony Ha and Sadie Mae Burns, who worked in high-profile kitchens until last March, opened a pop-up offering set meals and add-ons, for delivery or takeout, inspired by home cooking, their travels in Vietnam, and whatever strikes their fancy.
Art
The Unparalleled Art of Lorraine O’Grady
On March 5, the Brooklyn Museum opens a retrospective of the artist, who has been centering Black lives in her performances and photo-based works for four decades.
Mail
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