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The New York Times Magazine – Oct 22, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (October 22, 2023): The latest issue features In Search of Kamala Harris; Longer Commutes, Shorter Lives: The Costs of Not Investing in America and The Botched Hunt for the Gilgo Beach Killer….

In Search of Kamala Harris

Vice President Kamala Harris stands with her arms crossed.

After nearly three years, the vice president is still struggling to make the case for herself — and feels she shouldn’t have to.

By Astead W. Herndon

All the conditions seemed right for a chance to reset the narrative.

At the Munich Security Conference in February, amid rising international angst about Russia’s war in Ukraine, Vice President Kamala Harris led a delegation of Americans, including around 50 lawmakers from both parties. She spent her first day in Germany in seclusion, preparing for the next 48 hours: meetings with European leaders the first day and a keynote speech the next in the ornate ballroom of the Hotel Bayerischer Hof. When she emerged, head high and shoulders back, Harris exuded what her staff members have argued is a particular comfort with her role on the international stage. There, they say, she is respected.

Longer Commutes, Shorter Lives: The Costs of Not Investing in America

An illustration of various historical photographs depicting technologies in a collage.

For decades, spending on the future put the nation ahead of all others. What would it take to revive that spirit?

By David Leonhardt

Every morning in 21st-century America, thousands of people wake up and prepare to take a cross-country trip. Some are traveling for business. Others are visiting family or going on vacations. Whether they are leaving from New York or Los Angeles, Atlanta or Seattle, their trips have a lot in common.

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The New York Times Magazine – Oct 15, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (October 15, 2023):

My Delirious Trip to the Heart of Swiftiedom

All the photographs in this article are black-and-white. Taylor Swift onstage facing away from the camera.

Taylor Swift’s greatest gift is for telling her own story — better than any journalist could. But Taffy Brodesser-Akner gives it a shot anyway.

By Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Section 301, in the second-to-highest tier of Levi’s Stadium, floats 105 feet above Santa Clara, Calif. It comprises 251 seats — a mere hamlet in the vast 64,000-seat general kingdom of the place, but it was our hamlet, and on the last Saturday in July, we took up each one of those seats and watched, our collective breath held, as Taylor Swift emerged from a bevy of billowing pastel parachutes and rose up on a platform to perform the 47th show of her Eras Tour. A few songs in, she announced, laughing, that her father told her that Santa Clara had named her its honorary mayor during her two-night stay there and that the entire town had been renamed Swiftie Clara. 

How Jesmyn Ward Is Reimagining Southern Literature

Jesmyn Ward

The novelist is competing with giants like William Faulkner, while mapping territory all her own.

By Imani Perry

Jesmyn Ward gestured with her eyes and a tilt of her face, hands on the wheel. “This crazy colored house right here? That’s my grandmother’s house. That’s the house I grew up in. And her sister lives there” — she pointed — “and then that little blue house? That’s my great-grandparents’ house.” She was driving me around DeLisle, Miss., her hometown and the inspiration for Bois Sauvage, the fictional setting of her first three novels. It is Deep South-in-August hot outside, and the air-conditioning was a relief. “My mom’s side of the family was all clustered around this road.”

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Views: The New York Times Magazine – October 8, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (October 8, 2023):

Who Hired the Hitmen to Silence Zitácuaro?

An illustration of a broken camera and blood splatter.

In one small Mexican city, journalists who tried to expose cartel violence and government corruption became swept up in the murders devouring the country.

By Nicholas Casey

The Genius Behind Hollywood’s Most Indelible Sets

Jack Fisk looks up.

How Jack Fisk, the master production designer behind ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ and many other films, brings the past to life.

By Noah Gallagher Shannon

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Views: The New York Times Magazine – October 1, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (October 1, 2023):

The Lawyer Trying to Hold Gunmakers Responsible for Mass Shootings

The lawyer Josh Koskoff.

Josh Koskoff’s legal victory against Remington has raised the possibility of a new form of gun control: lawsuits against the companies that make assault rifles.

Why Can’t We Stop Unauthorized Immigration? Because It Works.

Our broken immigration system is still the best option for many migrants — and U.S. employers.

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Views: The New York Times Magazine – Sept 24, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (September 22, 2023): The 9.24.23 Issue features Hannah Dreier on migrant children working in dangerous conditions; McKenzie Funk on Hank Asher, a drug smuggler who became a pioneer in data mining; Sonia Shah on new research that suggests animals are saying more than we think; and more.

The Animals Are Talking. What Does It Mean?

A collection of black and white illustrations of animals are arranged into the shape of a speech bubble.

Language was long understood as a human-only affair. New research suggests that isn’t so.

Can a mouse learn a new song?

Such a question might seem whimsical. Though humans have lived alongside mice for at least 15,000 years, few of us have ever heard mice sing, because they do so in frequencies beyond the range detectable by human hearing. As pups, their high-pitched songs alert their mothers to their whereabouts; as adults, they sing in ultrasound to woo one another. For decades, researchers considered mouse songs instinctual, the fixed tunes of a windup music box, rather than the mutable expressions of individual minds.

A Chile Paste So Good, It’s Protected by the U.N.

Real-deal Tunisian harissa is an anchor to the motherland and a bright, specific accent to countless dishes.

By Eric Kim

Last year, UNESCO officially deemed harissa, the brick red, aromatic chile paste, “an integral part of domestic provisions and the daily culinary and food traditions of Tunisian society.” Keyword: Tunisian.

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Views: The New York Times Magazine – Sept 17, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (September 17, 2023): The 9.17.23 Issue features Emily Bazelon on abortion rights being won through state ballots after the Dobbs decision; Audra D.S. Burch on the death of Elijah McClain in Aurora, Colorado and the city’s deep divide over policing; Teju Cole on Greek tragedies; Dan Brooks on the Italian rock band Måneskin; and more.

The Surprising Places Where Abortion Rights Are on the Ballot, and Winning

After Dobbs, the political ground seems to be shifting in some unpredictable ways.

By EMILY BAZELON

The Trials of Aurora: A Colorado City’s Deep Divide Over Policing

After Elijah McClain died in 2019, the case seemed to be closed. The George Floyd protests — and the backlash to them — would change everything.

By Audra D. S. Burch

One by one, the five men — three police officers and two paramedics — walked up before the judge one afternoon this January. Their lawyers stood beside them, and the wooden benches of the Colorado courtroom were filled with family, friends and fellow police officers and paramedics.

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Views: The New York Times Magazine – Sept 10, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (September 10, 2023): The Education Issue features Americans Are Losing Faith in the Value of College. Whose Fault Is That?; Affirmative Action Is Still in Effect. For Men, and more….

Americans Are Losing Faith in the Value of College. Whose Fault Is That?

For most people, the new economics of higher ed make going to college a risky bet.

By Paul Tough

A decade or so ago, Americans were feeling pretty positive about higher education. Public-opinion polls in the early 2010s all told the same story. In one survey, 86 percent of college graduates said that college had been a good investment; in another, 74 percent of young adults said a college education was “very important”; in a third, 60 percent of Americans said that colleges and universities were having a positive impact on the country. Ninety-six percent of parents who identified as Democrats said they expected their kids to attend college — only to be outdone by Republican parents, 99 percent of whom said they expected their kids to go to college.

Affirmative Action Is Still in Effect. For Men.

The scene outside a bar that is popular among Tulane students.

Declining male enrollment has led some colleges to adopt an unofficial policy that many find objectionable: “We need to admit men, and women are going to suffer.”

By Susan Dominus

In the spring of 2021, about 2,000 students on the campus of Tulane University in New Orleans received an email they were expecting. They had filled out an elaborate survey provided by Marriage Pact, a matchmaking service popular on many campuses, and the day had come for each of them to be given the name of a fellow student who might be a long-term romantic partner. When the results came in, however, about 900 straight women who participated were surprised by what the email offered: a friend match instead of a love interest. 

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Views: The New York Times Magazine – Sept 3, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (September 3, 2023) – The 9.3.23 Issue features Michael Steinberger on how the war in Ukraine turned tennis into a battlefield; Keri Blakinger on the Dungeons and Dragons players on death row; Jennifer Szalai on Naomi Klein’s new book about her doppelganger; and more.

How the War in Ukraine Turned Tennis Into a Battlefield

All the photographs in this article are black-and-white. This shows a raised fist with a tennis ball in it.

For Ukrainian players, as well as those from Russia and its allies, the unceasing conflict at home has bled into the game. Now they face off at the U.S. Open.

By Michael Steinberger

It was a few days before the start of Wimbledon this summer, and Elina Svitolina, just off a flight from Geneva, had come to the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club to check in for the tournament. She was returning after a year’s absence. “It feels like it has been 10 years,” she said as she got out of the car. A lot had happened since she last competed at Wimbledon, in 2021. She had given birth to a daughter named Skaï, the first child for her and her husband, the French player Gaël Monfils. Also, her country, Ukraine, had been invaded by Russia.

When Your ‘Doppelganger’ Becomes a Conspiracy Theorist

Naomi Klein.

If you’re Naomi Klein, you write a book about it.

By Jennifer Szalai

In June, the Canadian journalist and activist Naomi Klein was sitting in the dark gray booth of a recording studio in Lower Manhattan. Dressed simply for the New York City heat — white linen top, light cropped pants, white sneakers — she was reading from a script, and there was a line that was giving her a bit of trouble.

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Views: The New York Times Magazine – August 27, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (August 27, 2023) – In this week’s cover story, Jen Percy reports on what people misunderstand about rape. Plus, the case that could unravel an art dynasty and a Harvard professor who is also an alien hunter.

What People Misunderstand About Rape

A photo illustration of a woman in a black-and-white collage.

Sexual assault often goes unpunished when victims fail to fight back. But investigators, psychologists and biologists all describe freezing as an involuntary response to trauma.

By Jen Percy

There’s a lingua franca that women use, a repeated vocabulary to describe what they experience and think during a sexual assault. Variations of “freezing” are often part of that vocabulary. But the word has so many referents in its colloquial usage that it’s hard to know precisely what it means to each person saying it.

“I just absolutely froze,” Brooke Shields said in the documentary “Pretty Baby,” describing how she felt when being raped. “And I just thought, Stay alive and get out.”

The Inheritance Case That Could Unravel an Art Dynasty

How a widow’s legal fight against the Wildenstein family of France has threatened their storied collection — and revealed the underbelly of the global art market.

By Rachel Corbett

Twenty years ago, a glamorous platinum-blond widow arrived at the Paris law office of Claude Dumont Beghi in tears. Someone was trying to take her horses — her “babies” — away, and she needed a lawyer to stop them.

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Views: The New York Times Magazine – August 20, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (August 20, 2023) – In this week’s cover story, what are “forever chemicals” and what are they doing to us? Plus, inside the racism scandal that rocked an affluent town’s high school and checking in with the dancehall star Sean Paul.

‘Forever Chemicals’ Are Everywhere. What Are They Doing to Us?

PFAS lurk in so much of what we eat, drink and use. Scientists are only beginning to understand how they’re impacting our health — and what to do about them.

By Kim Tingley

The Faroe Islands, an incongruous speckling of green in the North Atlantic, are about as far away as you can hope to get on Earth from a toxic-waste dump, time zones distant from the nearest population centers (Norway to the east, Iceland to the west). Pál Weihe was born in the Faroes and has lived there for most of his life. He is a public-health authority for the nation, population around 53,000; chairman of the Faroese Medical Association and chief physician of the Department of Occupational Medicine and Public Health in the Faroese hospital system. He is also vice chairman of the Faroe Islands Art Society; a widower; a grandfather. A crumpled funeral program and half-empty juice boxes share space in the back seat of his Land Cruiser.

The ‘World’s Happiest Man’ Shares His Three Rules for Life

By David Marchese 

Matthieu Ricard is an ordained Buddhist monk and an internationally best-selling author of books about altruism, animal rights, happiness and wisdom. His humanitarian efforts led to his homeland’s awarding him the French National Order of Merit. (Ricard’s primary residence is a Nepalese monastery.) He was the Dalai Lama’s French interpreter and holds a Ph.D in cellular genetics. In the early 2000s, researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that Ricard’s brain produced gamma waves — which have been linked to learning, attention and memory — at such pronounced levels that the media named him “the world’s happiest man.”