The Magazine
November 15, 2021
Reporting
Letter from Honduras
Is the President of Honduras a Narco-Trafficker?
For decades, the U.S. has accommodated corruption in Central America. Now it is contending with the results.
The Control of Nature
Deer Wars and Death Threats
A small subset of wild animals thrive alongside humans. An unusual—and polarizing—set of conservation projects have sprung up in response.
Annals of a Warming Planet
What It’s Like to Fight a Megafire
Wildfires have grown more extreme. So have the risks of combatting them.
A Reporter at Large
The Great Organic-Food Fraud
There’s no way to confirm that a crop was grown organically. Randy Constant exploited our trust in the labels—and made a fortune.
The Critics
Books
Are There Hidden Advantages to Pain and Suffering?
Two new books examine how we benefit from unpleasant experiences.
Books
A Fearless Experimentalist’s Stealth Reputation
Revered among better-known New Narrative writers, Dodie Bellamy has made uncompromising excess her artistic credo.
Books
Victoria Chang’s Correspondence with Grief
In “Dear Memory,” Chang experiments with the grammar of loss, addressing letters to those who will never respond, and finding meaning in their silence.
The Art World
Choose Your Own Kandinsky Adventure at the Guggenheim
“Vasily Kandinsky: Around the Circle” takes the viewer from joy to perplexity—or the reverse—depending on where you start on the museum’s ramp.
The Theatre
“Morning Sun” Glimmers with Meaning
In Simon Stephens’s dreamily extended riff, Edie Falco plays a woman whose life is dramatic but unsung, the kind that never makes headlines but is nonetheless dense with incident.
The Current Cinema
In “Spencer,” Kristen Stewart’s Princess Diana Is Forever Trying Out Roles
Pablo Larraín’s film, less a bio-pic than a set of variations on the theme of Diana, is drunk on the princess’s perception of the world.
The Talk of the Town
Elizabeth Kolbert on the climate talks at COP26; slow news meets high tech; the George Floyd curriculum; Parquet Courts for the dance floor; a sweatsuit shutdown.
Field Trip
George Floyd Curriculum
Grade schoolers from P.S. 213, in East New York, took a school bus with Terrence Floyd, George’s brother, to participate in his new lesson plan.
Slow News Day
Thanks for the Bitcoin! How Does It Work?
A quirky Toronto broadsheet, beloved by Justin Trudeau and Margaret Atwood, gets tech support from an Ethereum founder.
On the Airwaves
Parquet Courts on the Dance Floor
A night out in Brooklyn with the psychedelic-punk band’s frontmen, Andrew Savage and Austin Brown, just before the release of their pandemic opus “Sympathy for Life,” which, naturally, was recorded before the pandemic.
Comment
Running Out of Time at the U.N. Climate Conference
To really appreciate America’s fecklessness, you have to go back to the meeting that preceded all the bad COPs—the so-called Earth Summit, in 1992.
L.A. Postcard
The Death of a Sweatpant
After announcing the end of his pandemic-favorite leisure-wear brand Entireworld, the designer Scott Sternberg hits a high-fashion department store to feel some fabrics and rue the price points.
Shouts & Murmurs
Shouts & Murmurs
Cutting Screen Time: A Parents’ Guide
Cartoons
1/16
“I used to want to be an astronaut, but now I think I’d rather be a billionaire space tourist.”
Cartoon by Barbara Smaller
Fiction
Fiction
Hello, Goodbye
Puzzles & Games Dept.
Poems
Poems
The End of the World
Poems
Thin Air
Goings On About Town
Movies
Winter Movies Preview
Major movies held over from last year, such as Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story,” join new productions, including Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog,” for a teeming year-end calendar.
Dance
Winter Dance Preview
The tap dancer and choreographer Ayodele Casel’s “Chasing Magic,” new works by Jamar Roberts, Pam Tanowitz’s “Four Quartets,” and more.
The Theatre
Winter Theatre Preview
Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster in “The Music Man,” Beanie Feldstein in “Funny Girl,” Lynn Nottage’s “MJ,” and more.
Night Life
Winter Contemporary-Music Preview
Bob Dylan on tour, Kacey Musgraves at Madison Square Garden, Playboi Carti and the Strokes at Barclays Center, and more.
Art
Winter Art Preview
Sophie Taeuber-Arp makes modernism joyful at MOMA, Holbein builds character at the Morgan Library, the New Museum surveys the illustrious career of Faith Ringgold, and more.
The Theatre
The Vampy Comedy of “Nollywood Dreams”
The formative era of Nigeria’s film industry, in the nineteen-nineties, is the setting for this new play by Jocelyn Bioh, opening on Nov. 11, at MCC Theatre.
Tables for Two
At Senza Gluten, the Gluten Isn’t Missed
There are few surprises at this gluten-free Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village, which serves lasagna, chicken parm, and spaghetti alla pomodoro—and that’s largely the point.
Classical Music
Winter Classical-Music Preview
The Met’s New Year’s Eve production of “Rigoletto,” Prototype Festival premières, Death of Classical’s subterranean “Cave Sessions,” and more.
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.