Reporting
- Letter from Iten
Why Were Two Female Running Champions Killed in Kenya?
Iten, a small town in the Great Rift Valley, became the long-distance-running capital of the world. Then, within a span of six months, two élite athletes were found dead.
- Annals of Gastronomy
How Slutty Vegan Puts the Party in Plant-Based Food
Pinky Cole’s Atlanta-based burger chain is valued at a hundred million dollars. Can racy branding take vegan food mainstream?
- A Reporter at Large
The Covert Mission to Solve a Mexican Journalist’s Murder
After the death of a reporter who investigated narcopolitics, her colleagues formed a secret collective to bring the killers to justice—and challenge a culture of impunity.
- American Chronicles
How One Mother’s Love for Her Gay Son Started a Revolution
In the sixties and seventies, fighting for the rights of queer people was considered radical activism. To Jeanne Manford, it was just part of being a parent.
The Critics
- Books
The Exhausting History of Fatigue
Having too much to do can be tiring; having nothing to do may be worse.
- Books
The Oddballs and Odysseys of Charles Portis
In “True Grit,” and other novels, Portis displayed a genius that went beyond character in the strictly literary sense.
- Books
Briefly Noted
“The Diary Keepers,” “The Dean of Shandong,” “The Laughter,” and “Pineapple Street.”
- Pop Music
The Otherworldly Compositions of an Ethiopian Nun
Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, who died recently, wrote pieces that were elegiac, but suffused with a sense of survival: we are broken, we are wounded, we carry on.
- Musical Events
The Doleful Minimalism of Max Richter
The composer is everywhere on film and television soundtracks, promising that we will dissolve in mist before the apocalypse arrives.
- The Theatre
The Country Corn of “Shucked”
Despite its lack of unitary purpose, this new musical comedy, with songs by Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, is idiotic in the best possible way.
- On Television
Comic High Jinks and Repressed Despair in Netflix’s “Beef”
The drama, starring Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, is a study of male loneliness—a familiar theme in prestige TV that finds renewed urgency in an Asian American context.
- The Current Cinema
The Warmth and Weirdness of “Air”
Ben Affleck’s pacy, adept portrayal of Nike’s pursuit of Michael Jordan, co-starring Matt Damon and Viola Davis, kneels at the altar of high capitalism.
The Talk of the Town
Amy Davidson Sorkin on Trump’s felony case; down at the courthouse; an opera star puts his gloves on; questionable club membership; Larkin Poe.
- Comment
How Will Donald Trump’s Trial Play on the Campaign Trail?
Trump must now operate with two calendars in mind—the court’s and the campaign’s—and so must much of the machinery of American politics.
- Blind Justice Dept.
On the Docket with Donald Trump
One was charged with criminal obstruction of breathing. One allegedly kicked someone in the back. And one, uncuffed, was charged with falsifying business records.
- Dept. of Preparation
An Opera Singer Jabs and Weaves
Speedo Green, named after his father’s favorite underwear, fell in love with “Carmen” at fourteen. Now he’s training to box for Terence Blanchard’s opera “Champion.”
- New Faces Dept.
New York’s D.I.Y. Private Club
Want the night life of Eric Adams but can do without the glitz or the starch? Try Maxwell; you make the food and store the liquor in a twelve-thousand-dollar locker.
- Pivot Dept.
The Ministers of the Lap-Steel Revival Tour
The sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell, of the rock band Larkin Poe, hit up a guitar store before a gig at Webster Hall.
Shouts & Murmurs
- Shouts & Murmurs
His Secret Life
He’d disappear to the Coast for weeks at a time. He’d check into hotels using an assumed name. And why did I keep seeing him on “The View”?
Cartoons
Fiction
- Fiction
“Evensong,” by Laurie Colwin
“Then one day I had an actual revelation. It came to me that I might never know very much about anything.”
Puzzles & Games Dept.
Poems
Goings On About Town
- Dance
The Ever-Radiant Ayodele Casel
For City Center’s “Artists at the Center” series, the tap dancer has programmed several short works and an extended version of her 2021 piece “Where We Dwell.”
- Tables for Two
Spectacular Southern-Thai Food, at Chalong
Each dish is a standout at the new restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen, including a refreshing oyster salad, “puff sticks,” and cured, deep-fried branzino.
