The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake
The family structure we’ve held up as the cultural ideal for the past half century has been a catastrophe for many. It’s time to figure out better ways to live together.
March 2020
In This Issue
The 2020 disinformation war, David Brooks on the nuclear family, #MeToo and the abortion-rights movement, and new fiction by Samantha Hunt. Plus trusting Nate Silver, the Supreme Court’s enduring bias, climate change and peer pressure, an ode to cold showers, and more.
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The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President
How new technologies and techniques pioneered by dictators will shape the 2020 election
The #MeToo Case That Divided the Abortion-Rights Movement
When an activist accused one of the most respected physicians in the movement of sexually assaulting her, everyone quickly took sides.
Fiction
Peter Marlow / Magnum Go, Team
A short story
Dispatches
Photo rendering by Patrick White Thy Neighbor’s Solar Panels
When our peers take actions to preserve the planet, we’re more likely to follow suit. How the human instinct to conform could help us address the climate crisis.
Arinze Stanley Why Witchcraft Is on the Rise
Americans’ interest in spell-casting tends to wax as instability rises and trust in establishment ideas plummets.
Daniel Savage What Does Nate Silver Know?
The famous data journalist thinks the media are making the same mistakes this year as they did in 2016.
Giacomo Bagnara Why the Restoration Hardware Catalog Won’t Die
The surprising persistence of the mail-order business
Objects courtesy of Mmuseumm; collected by Stefan Ruiz, Roberta Ruiz, and Gordon Stevenson
Culture & Critics
Oliver Munday The New Rules of Music Snobbery
Hulu’s High Fidelity reboot captures the end of elitist condescension and the rise of fervent eclecticism.
Rodrigo Corral The Supreme Court’s Enduring Bias
Over the past half century, siding with the powerful against the vulnerable has been the rule in almost every area of the law.
Illustration: Paul Spella; Sal Alas / Westend61 / Getty The Art of Second Chances
In Emily St. John Mandel’s disaster-steeped fiction, a derailed life can take multiple forms.
Cecilia Carlstedt Abraham Lincoln’s Radical Moderation
What the president understood that the zealous Republican reformers in Congress didn’t
Departments
The Commons
Readers respond to our December 2019 “How to Stop a Civil War” issue.
Luci Gutiérrez An Ode to Cold Showers
Fling wide the plastic curtain, take a breath, and step right in.
Poetry
Paul Spella
