The Magazine
November 1, 2021
Reporting
Profiles
How Patrick Soon-Shiong Made His Fortune Before Buying the L.A. Times
The billionaire doctor has become one of Los Angeles’s most prominent civic leaders, after a boundary-pushing ascent in medicine.
Annals of Justice
When a Witness Recants
At fourteen, Ron Bishop helped convict three innocent boys of murder. They’ve all lived with the consequences.
American Chronicles
Brené Brown’s Empire of Emotion
How a Texan’s stories teach a nation to be vulnerable.
Letter from Israel
The Arab-Israeli Power Broker in the Knesset
Is Mansour Abbas changing the system or selling out the Palestinian cause?
The Critics
Books
Where Have All the Insects Gone?
Scientists who once documented new species of insects are now charting their perilous decline—and warning about what it will mean for the rest of us.
The Art World
The Insurrection of Surrealism
A deliriously entertaining survey at the Metropolitan Museum shows how the craze for Surrealism surged like a prairie fire around the world.
Books
Our Planet Is Heating Up. Why Are Climate Politics Still Frozen?
Centuries after colonial and corporate powers set the stage for our environmental crisis, governments remain convinced that the market will solve it.
The Theatre
An American Dream and an American Nightmare
“The Lehman Trilogy” and “Dana H.” explore stories of success and survival.
Musical Events
Jonas Kaufmann’s Gilded Voice
A recital at Carnegie Hall confirms the tenor’s talent but leaves questions about the depth of his artistry.
Books
Is Amazon Changing the Novel?
In the new literary landscape, readers are customers, writers are service providers, and books are expected to offer instant gratification.
Books
Briefly Noted
“The Book of Form and Emptiness,” “The War for Gloria,” “Read Until You Understand,” and “The End of Bias.”
The Current Cinema
The Elegant Containment of “The French Dispatch”
Wes Anderson’s portmanteau of four stories confirms him as a director who trusts the expressive powers of the sketch more than the heft of a finished portrait.
The Talk of the Town
Jelani Cobb on Dave Chappelle’s provocations; Robert Caro lets go; flyover country; of course the rats are real; on the cheese clock.
Below Street Level
Cheeses, They’re Just Like Us!
The wheels at Crown Finish Caves, in Crown Heights, have spent months quarantined indoors, growing mold. Sound familiar?
Dept. of Education
Conflict Reporting Goes Virtual
Two former foreign correspondents launched a virtual-reality course to prepare journalists to encounter the angry, violent mobs calling them “fake news” and throwing Molotov cocktails.
Passing the Buck Dept.
The One Per Cent vs. the Two Per Cent in the Hamptons
If the East Hampton airport shuts down, owing to noise complaints, planes and helicopters from Manhattan will land in Montauk. Guess who’s unhappy about it?
Comment
The Power of Dave Chappelle’s Comedy
He has always understood the risk, in riffing on the racial absurdities of American culture, of reinforcing rather than undermining them. The absence of concern of this kind about the impact of “The Closer” is striking.
Tidying Up Dept.
Why Robert Caro Now Has Only Ten Typewriters
The biographer of Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson visits his archive, which, after getting the Marie Kondo treatment, is on exhibit at the New-York Historical Society.
Shouts & Murmurs
Shouts & Murmurs
Extinct-Species Waiting List
Cartoons
1/16
“Welcome to the open house. If you happen to battle any other couples to the death, we just ask that you don’t do it on the new carpets.”
Cartoon by Drew Panckeri
Fiction
Fiction
The Depletion Prompts
Puzzles & Games Dept.
Goings On About Town
Tables for Two
Daniel Boulud’s French Showpiece with a Manhattan View, Le Pavillon
At his latest restaurant, in the midtown skyscraper One Vanderbilt, the chef continues to elevate the essence of ingredients, in such dishes as oysters Vanderbilt and Noisette Chocolat.
Movies
Halloween Scares at Anthology Film Archives
The “Folk Horror” series includes Kier-La Janisse’s new documentary, “Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched,” alongside dramatic classics such as “The Wicker Man,” from 1973.
Mail
Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to themail@newyorker.com. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and may be published in any medium. We regret that owing to the volume of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter.
The Political Scene Podcast
Ronan Farrow on the Scheme at the Heart of Trump’s New York Trial
A back-room deal between the former President, his then lawyer, and the C.E.O. of American Media plays a central role in the criminal felony charges he faces in Manhattan.
The Front Row
The Rediscovery of a Depression-Era Masterpiece
A new restoration of Frank Borzage’s “Man’s Castle,” starring Loretta Young and Spencer Tracy, showcases the visionary Hollywood director’s lusty yet spiritual artistry.
The New Yorker Classics Newsletter
How Apollo 13 got lost on its way to the moon—then made it back.
The New Yorker News & Politics newsletter
Amy Davidson Sorkin on the oral arguments in Fischer v. United States. Plus: the power of misinformation; “Civil War” plays both sides; and the fate of Israel’s hostages.
Under Review
Trump’s America, Seen Through the Eyes of Russell Banks
In his last book, “American Spirits,” Banks took stories from the news about rural, working-class life and turned them into fables of national despair.
Daily Comment
The Supreme Court Asks What Enron Has to Do with January 6th—and Trump
The former President notwithstanding, the government’s position in Fischer v. United States is unsettling.
Infinite Scroll
The Internet’s New Favorite Philosopher
Byung-Chul Han, in treatises such as “The Burnout Society” and his latest, “The Crisis of Narration,” diagnoses the frenetic aimlessness of the digital age.
Secret Ingredients