A Very Small Animal Entirely Surrounded by Water
A poem for Sunday
How Outfits Define Those Who Wear Them
In many works of art, clothes are more than mere decoration; they are vital elements of story: Your weekly guide to the best in books
The Game
A poem by Marie Howe, published in The Atlantic in 1996
Rewriting the History of American Food
Our national cuisine has roots much deeper than the contributions of any individual icon: Your weekly guide to the best in books
The Miraculous Sound of Forgiveness
In his thrillingly transgressive opera The Marriage of Figaro, Mozart pulled off his most amazing musical feat.
Let the Record Show Is an Essential Story of the AIDS Movement
Sarah Schulman’s outstanding book is an exemplary model for creating a more complete history of a political movement.
The Literary Politician
When political figures make art, the resulting works usually reveal more about their creators than they do about our government: Your weekly guide to the best in books
The Martial Art I Can’t Live Without
Brazilian jiu-jitsu has been compared to chess, philosophy, even psychoanalysis. But its real appeal is on the mat.
The Personality Test in Your Closet
The novelist Haruki Murakami’s understated love letters to his T-shirts convey how we give life to our things and vice versa.
The Key to Julia Child’s Success Hid in Plain Sight
The chef’s almost mythical origin story can obscure a fundamental privilege she carried: She was American.
A Better Way to Write About Sex
Works that question how we think about love and desire: Your weekly guide to the best in books
The Problem With Emily Ratajkowski’s My Body
The model and actor’s new book of essays is a fascinatingly solipsistic portrait of the tension between empowerment and objectification.
Emerson Didn’t Practice the Self-Reliance He Preached
How Transcendentalism, the American philosophy that championed the individual, caught on in tight-knit Concord, Massachusetts
Animals of the Future
Lizards’ feet are morphing, squid are shrinking, rats’ teeth are getting shorter. What’s in store for us?
The Infant’s Eyes
A poem for Sunday
A New Way to Look at the Natural World
A defamiliarizing eclipse, a sunbathing cormorant, trees that sing, and more: Your weekly guide to the best in books
They Printed in the Medical History
A poem for Sunday
Talking to Strangers Is Good For You
We have much to learn from conversations with people we don’t know: Your weekly guide to the best in books
The Perils of the Springsteen-Obama Echo Chamber
Can a serious and heartfelt dialogue between two famous friends heal our national wounds?
Photos Are Too Flattering Now
An ode to the bygone days of blurry, poorly lit images