The Magazine
April 14, 2025
Goings On
Goings On
The Evolution of Dance Theatre of Harlem
Also: Rachel Syme on the latest in charms, the Chicago rapper Saba, turtle races in Bed-Stuy, Caspar David Friedrich paired with Schumann, and more.
The Talk of the Town
David Remnick on Trump and the Smithsonian; Seth Rogen traumatizes execs; Peter Wolf’s beer games; the good old days at the F.A.A.; road-tripping to fascism.
Comment
At the Smithsonian, Donald Trump Takes Aim at History
The urge to police the past is hardly an invention of the Trump Administration. It is the reflexive obsession of autocrats everywhere.
Dept. of Suits
Seth Rogen Has Some Notes
Over a power lunch with some of his castmates from “The Studio,” the actor considers the job description of a studio head: must love movies but be willing to ruin them.
Around the Saloon
Another Round with Peter Wolf
In a corner of McSorley’s, the J. Geils Band survivor unspools some tales: sharing pants with Bob Dylan, being David Lynch’s art-school roommate, and putting away a record thirty-seven mugs of beer.
Dept. of Airspace
Protecting the National Airspace, Post-DOGE
For nearly seventy years, the F.A.A.’s experimental safety lab near Atlantic City has run turbulence tests, set fire to seat cushions, and dropped crash-test dummies. Will it survive Elon Musk?
Sketchpad
Your Handy Road Map to Authoritarianism
Turn right at Toxic Masculinity and continue straight through Weakening Checks and Balances.
Reporting & Essays
Profiles
Sayaka Murata’s Alien Eye
The author of “Convenience Store Woman” has gained a cult following by seeing the ordinary world as science fiction.
Onward and Upward with Technology
Bluesky’s Quest to Build Nontoxic Social Media
X and Facebook are governed by the policies of mercurial billionaires. Bluesky’s C.E.O., Jay Graber, says that she wants to give power back to the user.
Annals of Zoology
The Dire Wolf Is Back
Colossal, a genetics startup, has birthed three pups that contain ancient DNA retrieved from the remains of the animal’s extinct ancestors. Is the woolly mammoth next?
Letter from Brazil
The Brazilian Judge Taking On the Digital Far Right
Alexandre de Moraes’s efforts to fight extremism online have pitted him against Jair Bolsonaro, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump.
Takes
Takes
Margaret Atwood on Mavis Gallant’s “Orphans’ Progress”
Gallant observed with the “cold eye” that Yeats recommended for writers, even when drawing on her own life in fiction.
Shouts & Murmurs
Shouts & Murmurs
Return of the Plastic Straw
Paper straws are out at the Department of Justice. Also banned: Dijon mustard, flimsy paper napkins, and the word “Whiffenpoof.”
Fiction
Fiction
“From, To”
How little it takes for people to feel “unsafe”—that glib euphemistic construction. The opposite of safe is not unsafe, as the opposite of love is not unlove.
The Critics
Books
Environmentalists Are Rethinking Nuclear. Should They?
Fourteen years after the Fukushima disaster, nuclear power is being rebranded as a climate savior, and fission is in fashion.
Books
James C. Scott and the Art of Resistance
The late political scientist enjoined readers to look for opposition to authoritarian states not in revolutionary vanguards but in acts of quiet disobedience.
Books
It’s a Typical Small-Town Novel. Except for the Nazis
In “Darkenbloom,” by the Austrian novelist Eva Menasse, the citizens of a European border town have secrets they’d prefer to forget.
Pop Music
The Evolution of a Folk-Punk Hero
Nine years after retiring his alter ego, Pat the Bunny, Patrick Schneeweis is ready to sing again.
The Art World
The Frick Returns, Richer Than Ever
After a few years away, the Frick Collection reopens with a renovated grandeur that marries Old Master power portraits to a domestic intimacy.
The Theatre
Retro Masculinity in “Glengarry Glen Ross” and “Good Night, and Good Luck”
Kieran Culkin and Bob Odenkirk try to close the deal in David Mamet’s classic, and George Clooney stars in a timely portrait of media courage.
The Current Cinema
“Warfare” Offers a Hyperrealist Rebuke of the American War Movie
Alex Garland’s latest film, which he co-directed with the former Navy SEAL Ray Mendoza, dramatizes a little-known 2006 episode from the Iraq War.
Poems
Poems
“Cirrus”
“ ‘I don’t have time,’ I told / myself, ‘To kill myself: I have / to write a paper on Rimbaud.’ ”
Cartoons
Puzzles & Games
The Mail
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