The Supreme Court We Need

November 5, 2020 issue

The Pleasures of Authoritarianism

November 5, 2020 issue

Red Wedding

November 5, 2020 issue

Rival Realities

November 5, 2020 issue

A Portrait of the Fascist as a Young Man

Robert Rundo’s career—nasty, brutish, and short—is a case study in the dangerous evolution of American far-right militancy.

October 22, 2020

The Women’s March of Belarus

Just when liberal democracy looked on the point of collapse, a popular movement is resurrecting it in a country where it had seemed impossible.

October 20, 2020

The Syrian Mercenaries Abroad

The nearly decade-long civil war has created an entire generation of young men whose only marketable skill is fighting.

October 16, 2020

The Stones of Lewis

A line of monoliths once stretched from this “Stonehenge of the North” to the large outcrop of Lewisian gneiss that I used to climb from my sister Franki’s house.

October 9, 2020

How China Beat Its Covid Crisis

China’s bureaucracy controlled the pandemic. But some Chinese see flaws in the authoritarian state.

November 5, 2020 issue

Mourning in Place

It’s hard to figure out how to mourn during a pandemic. Our mourning rituals have all been disrupted or taken away.

September 24, 2020 issue

An Ethical Path to a Covid Vaccine

Many idealistic young people seem willing to risk their health for the common good. The question is how to make Phase I studies safe and fair.

July 2, 2020 issue

Buzz Buzz Buzz

Humans have spent decades trying to teach other animals our languages, but we’ve made little effort to learn theirs.

August 20, 2020 issue

He Tried to Be a Badger

To appreciate what it’s like to be an otter, try catching fish in your mouth

June 23, 2016 issue

Tigers, Humans, and Snails

Whether birdsong at dawn or just a weed in a sidewalk, nature is all around us. Yet all too frequently we only appreciate it when it’s out of reach.

February 10, 2011 issue

The Mental Life of Plants and Worms

Do jellyfish have minds?

April 24, 2014 issue

Bella Abzug’s Fight for a Broader Feminism

On the feisty congresswoman’s posthumous return to the spotlight.

November 5, 2020 issue

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 1933–2020

The late justice not only wrote about the connection between sex equality and liberty; she lived it.

October 22, 2020 issue

A Moral Witness

Martha Gellhorn’s letters to her lovers and intimate friends involve a remarkable feat of reportage on the war within Gellhorn herself

October 8, 2020 issue

Charm Defensive

Mike Nichols was charismatic, witty, invariably quotable. But do I feel I knew him? Not at all.

September 24, 2020 issue

Sun Ra: ‘I’m Everything and Nothing’

The photographer Ming Smith’s pictures of Sun Ra from 1978 beautifully capture his energy.

July 23, 2020 issue

The Banality of Empathy

Narrative is an incredible vehicle for virtual experience—we think and feel with characters. It simulates empathy, so we believe it stimulates it. But if witnessing suffering firsthand doesn’t spark good deeds, why do we think art about suffering will?

March 2, 2019

Glossing Africa

Whenever African writers are on a panel together, we are asked about the continent as a whole. When African writers get together on our own, we talk about glossaries.

August 21, 2017

A Letter to My Sister, Miss Angela Davis

January 7, 1971 issue

See America First

January 1, 1970 issue

The Perils of Pauline

August 14, 1980 issue

The Bull on the Mountain

June 28, 1984 issue

Lying in Politics: Reflections on The Pentagon Papers

November 18, 1971 issue

Billie Holiday

March 4, 1976 issue

Remembering Orson Welles

June 1, 1989 issue

Michael

August 13, 2009 issue