Category Culture

Breaking the String of Jewels

The Reagan National Airport crash was decades in the making. Credit: Ceri Breeze/Shutterstock Loading the Elevenlabs Text to Speech AudioNative Player… When I was a child growing up in Northern Virginia, a favorite summer evening activity in my family was…

Doggone It

President Trump doesn’t need a canine companion. Americans should learn from his example. Credit: Bildengater Zoonar GmbH/Shutterstock Loading the Elevenlabs Text to Speech AudioNative Player… Through executive orders and rhetorical bluster, Donald Trump has set about undoing many of the…

Frederick Wiseman’s Real-Life Epics

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Richard BrodyStaff writer 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. Frederick Wiseman…

The Blissful Neglect of Advertisers

The only thing worse than marketers ignoring you is their attention. Loading the Elevenlabs Text to Speech AudioNative Player… As if we did not already have enough to feel aggrieved about, there’s this: Nearly half of Americans (44 percent) feel…

Catherine Breillat’s Unsettling Cinema of Desire

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story In the French director Catherine Breillat’s film “Fat Girl,” from 2001, two adolescent sisters go on summer holiday with their parents near the seaside. The older sister, Elena, is thin, beautiful,…

Kadir Nelson’s “Messenger”

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story For the cover of the February 3, 2025, issue, the artist Kadir Nelson captured the emotion he experienced when, walking downtown, he startled a flock of pigeons. “I felt that a…

The Player’s the Thing in “Grand Theft Hamlet”

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story In an 1818 lecture, on the subject of “Hamlet,” Samuel Taylor Coleridge had this to say: Persons conversant in deeds of cruelty contrive to escape from conscience by connecting something of…

David Lynch’s (Possible) Realism

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story In his memoir, “Room to Dream,” from 2018, David Lynch recalled an idyllic time in his life. He was in his late twenties and had just finished shooting his first feature…