On Tilt – America’s new gambling epidemic
The Sanctuarium – The Philippines reckons with its war on drugs
Another London – Excavating the disenchanted city
by Hari Kunzru
Category Archives: Culture
THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE – JANUARY 26, 2026
THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE: The latest cover features Adrian Tomine’s “Post-Vacation” – Staying warm.
Why Trump Supports Protesters in Tehran but Not in Minneapolis
During the President’s second Administration, universal principles such as self-determination and due process are wielded only opportunistically.
By Benjamin Wallace-Wells
The Lights Are Still On in Venezuela
After the ouster of President Nicolás Maduro, some residents fear that one unelected despot has been swapped for another.
By Armando Ledezma
n+1 Magazine – Winter ’26
n+1 Magazine: The latest issue features the ‘Winter 2026 issue, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS’ – H is for hawks. Trump’s cleavage: a semiotic investigation. Haters, waiters, trash containers. Emily Callaci and Dayna Tortorici on intra-feminist debates. Matthew Porges on new space odysseys.
Sinophobic Sinophilia
In the contemporary Chinese context, the idea that crucial parts of the central government could simply cease to operate for more than a month, as part of a procedural standoff between rival governing factions, would beggar belief. And in turn, to an American observer, the thought that miles of new high-speed rail lines could simply materialize by bureaucratic fiat, unencumbered by years of legislative horse-trading, environmental review, suburban backlash, and budgetary overshoot, is no less astonishing.
City of Meh
Adams will be remembered for his petty corruption, his self-mythologizing, and his ignominious dealmaking with the Trump White House; but he should also be remembered as the mayor who got New Yorkers to stop tossing giant bags of trash onto city sidewalks as if there were no alternative. You can laugh at a New York mayor who walks into a press conference wheeling out a trash can, beaming as if he invented the contraption, while “Empire State of Mind” blares triumphantly in the background. But truly, Adams’s proclaimed “trash revolution” represented a tremendous advance over abysmal past practice.
Mere Domination
“Men make their own history,” Marx wrote, “but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past.” That may be broadly true, but Dick Cheney got to make history under the exact circumstances he would have chosen.
The New Criterion – FEBRUARY 2026 Preview
THE NEW CRITERION: The latest issue features…
More than doctrinaire by Steven McGregor
Loving Malcolm Cowley by Bruce Bawer
Robert A. M. Stern, 1939–2025 by Peter Pennoyer
The Peruvian uncertainty principle by James Como
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE- January 18, 2026
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: The 1.18.26 Issue features Robert Draper on Marjorie Taylor Greene; Ferris Jabr on a science experiment to help make the oceans less acidic; Jonathan Mahler on Christian Zionism and MAGA; and more.
Kílian Jornet on What We Can Learn From Pushing Our Bodies to Extremes
Imagine yourself on an isolated mountain pass. The wind is whipping, the air is thin, there is nothing around you except the sky and the sound of your feet hitting the craggy ground. Many of us have experienced the wonder and exertion that comes with a great hike in a wild landscape. These are places we may love to visit, but for Kílian Jornet, this is where he is most at home.
The MAGA Plan to Take Over TV Is Just Beginning
Under Trump, the F.C.C. has used obscure regulatory powers to crack down on network TV. Some conservatives are pushing back. By Jim Rutenberg
Trump’s Fight With Minnesota Is About More Than Immigration
The state embodies a civic ideal that the administration in Washington wants to discredit. By Charles Homans
Orion Magazine – WINTER 2026 – Nature & Culture
ORION MAGAZINE: The Winter 2026 Issue features the elusive cryptid—creatures that, despite mysterious sightings, dedicated societies, and extensive mythologizing, have not been scientifically proven to exist. Across the issue, writers grapple with questions of belief: Why do we want to believe in the things that we do? What might our enthusiastic focus on creatures like Bigfoot be preventing us from seeing, and protecting, in the real world? What do the stories we tell about the natural world really reveal about ourselves? Ranging from the playful to the impassioned, the fantastical to the deadly serious, Cryptids: On the Trail of Bigfoot and Other Improbable Beasts offers a tour through a menagerie both real and imagined. Inside:
Jeff VanderMeer asks what the widespread fascination with Bigfoot might be preventing people from appreciating in the world around them- J. Drew Lanham wades into the debates about the extinction of the ivory-billed woodpecker
- Tove Danovich investigates a bizarre pattern of cattle mutilations in the West
- Katherine Cusumano dives into the myths and the muck of the Gowanus Canal
- Lance Richardson retraces the steps of Peter Matthiessen in his legendary quest for the snow leopard
THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY – JANUARY 16, 2026 PREVIEW
THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘The New Age of Empire’
We’re just a couple of weeks into 2026 and already it feels like an eternity has passed.
From Venezuela to Greenland, a blitz of revanchist US foreign policy moves by Donald Trump has thrown the world into turmoil. Domestically, it’s little better: in Minneapolis, the killing last week of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent – who was defended aggressively by Trump – prompted shock and fury across America.
While some argue that recent events simply represent a more honest, open approach towards US policy goals than in the recent past, others believe such brazen expansionism profoundly threatens the world order.
In a terrific essay this week, our senior international correspondent Julian Borger argues that these events signal a shift away from the postwar rules-based order and into a new age of global imperialism where, alongside Vladimir Putin’s Russia and Xi Jinping’s China, powerful nations use overtly brute force to achieve their objectives.
Spotlight | Iran protests: ‘The streets are full of blood’
After several days of protests amid an information blackout and a brutal crackdown, demonstrators recount their experiences on the frontlines to Deepa Parent and William Christou
Technology | Elon Musk’s pervert chatbot
‘Add blood, forced smile’: Amelia Gentleman and Helena Horton investigate how Grok’s AI nudification tool went viral
Feature | Trump’s assault on the Smithsonian
The US president has vowed to kill off ‘woke’ in his second term in office, and the venerable cultural institution a few blocks from the White House is in his sights. Charlotte Higgins reports
Opinion | As the bombs fell, my family planted hope in a garden in Gaza
Amid constant danger, Taqwa Ahmed al-Wawi’s seed-planting was a tiny act of resistance, offering food – and a sense of achievement among the devastation
Culture | Interview with Park Chan-wook
The South Korean film director talks to Steve Rose about cultural dominance, the capitalist endgame and why we can’t beat AI
THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE – FEBRUARY 2026 PREVIEW
Donald Trump Wants You to Forget This Happened
January 6, five years later
The Purged
Donald Trump’s destruction of the civil service is a tragedy not just for the roughly 300,000 workers who have been discarded, but for an entire nation.
An Act of Cosmic Sabotage
How Donald Trump tried to ground NASA’s science missions
I Tried to Be the Government. It Did Not Go Well.
My five-month quest to monitor the weather, track inflation, and inspect milk for harmful microorganisms
THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE – JANUARY 19, 2026
THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE: The latest cover features Barry Blitt’s “Guzzler” – Trump’s thirst for Venezuela.
Donald Trump Was Never an Isolationist
He once defied the G.O.P. by blasting military interventions. But what looked like anti-interventionism is really a preference for power freed from the pretense of principle. By Daniel Immerwahr
Denmark Is Sick of Being Bullied by Trump
The U.S., once Denmark’s closest ally, is threatening to steal Greenland and attacking the country’s wind-power industry. Is this a permanent breakup? By Margaret Talbot
How Marco Rubio Went from “Little Marco” to Trump’s Foreign-Policy Enabler
As Secretary of State, the President’s onetime foe now offers him lavish displays of public praise—and will execute his agenda in Venezuela and around the globe. By Dexter Filkins
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE- January 11, 2026
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: The 1.11.26 Issue features Sam Anderson on “The Pitt”; Matthew Shaer on bullying; Pahrul Sehgal on the “masculinity crisis”; and more.
On ‘The Pitt,’ E.R. Doctors Try to Fix This Broken World
Noah Wyle and his castmates turned one harrowing day at an E.R. into an unforgettable season of television. Can they do it again?
The ‘Masculinity Crisis’ Is Real. This Forgotten Book Explains Why.
Why do men find it so hard to connect with other people, and their own emotions? By Parul Sehgal
Could Viral Protest Videos Create a Backlash Against ‘Less Lethal’ Weapons?
They were developed during the civil rights movement to reduce harm, but their rampant use during anti-ICE protests has led to a new kind of violence. By Clayton Dalton
He Tried to Protect His Son From Bullies. He Didn’t Know How Far They Would Go.
After his son was repeatedly attacked, Rick Kuehner reached out to his suburban school, to the police and to other parents. The violence only got worse. By Matthew Shaer
Boomers Daily 