Category Culture

Obama Flinches at His Own Legacy

A movie produced by the former president tries and fails to grasp the consequences of American empire. Credit: John Gress Media Inc Before alien invasion stories, there were just invasion stories. At the height of the British Empire, the British…

An Economics Lesson from Tolstoy

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story In 1886, Leo Tolstoy published a short story called “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” Its protagonist, a poor farmer named Pahóm, dreams of becoming a landowner. He thinks, “If…

The Expansive Musical Range of Ryuichi Sakamoto

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Alex BaraschCulture editor You’re reading the Goings On newsletter, a guide to what we’re watching, listening to, and doing this week. Sign up to receive it in your in-box. If your…

Reviving the Classic American Burger

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this storyYou’re reading the Food Scene newsletter, Helen Rosner’s guide to what, where, and how to eat. Sign up to receive it in your in-box. As with pizza, barbecue, and other archetypal American…

Фанко Поп: От Любви к Коллекционированию

В мире где искусство, развлечения и культура переплетаются, существует явление, которое завоевало сердца миллионов фанатов по всему миру. Это необычные, милые и креативные виниловые фигурки, называемые “Фанко Поп”. Сегодня давайте погружаемся в удивительный мир Фанко Поп, изучим его историю, популярность…

Pascal Campion’s “Winter Sun”

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story In his cover for the January 22, 2024 issue, the artist Pascal Campion set out to capture a distinctive aspect of winter in New York: the way the low sun hits…

How Much of the World Is It Possible to Model?

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story It’s hard for a neurosurgeon to navigate a brain. A key challenge is gooeyness. The brain is immersed in cerebrospinal fluid; when a surgeon opens the skull, pressure is released, and…

Dickson Despommier Wants Our Cities to Be Like Forests

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story In 2000, Dickson D. Despommier, then a professor of public health and microbiology at Columbia University, was teaching a class on medical ecology in which he asked his students, “What will…

Coming of Age at the Dawn of the Social Internet

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Like so many millennials, I entered the online world through AOL Instant Messenger. I created an account one unremarkable day in the late nineteen-nineties, sitting in the basement of my childhood…

Working with Joan Acocella

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Not long ago, I became a kind of undertaker. I was a fact checker at this magazine until recently and, in the final months of my tenure, it felt as if…