The New Yorker – September 18, 2023 issue: The new issue features R. Kikuo Johnson’s “Bodega Cat”, where the the artist discusses pivotal moments and his relationship to pets.

Ross Douthat’s Theories of Persuasion

At a time of distrust and polarization, the conservative Times columnist seeks to bridge the worlds of the Christian right and the secular left.

By Isaac Chotiner

This summer, Ross Douthat, liberal America’s favorite conservative commentator, wrote a piece about liberal America’s least favorite Democrat, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Douthat argued in his New York Times column that an unwillingness to debate Kennedy—who has claimed that childhood vaccines cause autism, that 5G networks are part of a mass-surveillance system, and that covid was designed to spare Jewish and Chinese people—was an insufficient response to voters who are increasingly distrustful of the establishment. 

What Kate DiCamillo Understands About Children

Her books for young readers have sold more than forty-four million copies. They are full of yearning, loneliness, ambivalence, and worry.

By Casey Cep

Three winters in a row, Kate DiCamillo went into the hospital, never sure if she would come home and always a little scared to do so. One of those winters, when she was four years old and the air outside was even colder than the metal frames of the oxygen tents she’d grown accustomed to having above her bed, her father came to see her. He was wearing a long black overcoat, which made him look like a magician. “I brought you a gift,” he said, pulling something from his pocket as if from a top hat.