July 2025

In This Issue

Witness: Inside America's death chambers. Plus J. D. Vance, the business of animal cloning, Tracy Anderson's luxury-fitness empire, Paul Gauguin, the Rolling Stones play zydeco, James Joyce, our feudal future, the great teen movies, the world's hardest bluffing game, and more.

Cover Story

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Features

a collage of three different photos of Vice President J. D. Vance, with a red hue
Photo-illustration by David Samuel Stern*

The Talented Mr. Vance

J. D. Vance could have brought the country’s conflicting strands together. Instead, he took a divisive path to the peak of power.

Fiction

Dispatches

Culture & Critics

  • illustration with black-ink sketch of Mick Jagger singing into a mic on left and Clifton Chenier wearing crown and playing accordion on right, with 3 white circles on red background
    Illustration by Jan Robert Dünnweller. Sources: Edd Westmacott / Alamy; Paul Natkin / Getty.

    The Rolling Stones Play Zydeco

    How the legendary rock band discovered the music of Clifton Chenier

  • Graphic-illustration with cut-out photos of teen-movie characters collaged on notebook paper.
    Photo-Illustration by Colin Hunter. Sources: Getty; Steve Schapiro / Getty; Paramount / Everett Collection; Universal / Everett Collection; Lionsgate Entertainment; CBS Photo Archive / Getty; Silver Screen Collection / Getty.

    Fast Times and Mean Girls

    What the great teen movies tell us about American adolescence

Departments

Poetry

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