The Bizarre Relationship of a ‘Work Wife’ and a ‘Work Husband’
The work marriage is a strange response to our anxieties about mixed-gender friendships, heightened by the norms of a professional environment.
I See Your Smartphone-Addicted Life
I’ve never owned the device, and I’m not sure I ever want to.
What the Next Phase of Trump’s Presidency Will Look Like
The president got his “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Can he sell it to voters?
What Your Favorite Grocery Store Says About You
Once a place of utility, the supermarket is now an object of obsession.
What It Means to Be a Mystic Girl
Camp was the place these girls felt safe and free.
How the Grateful Dead Nearly Solved the Problem With Live Music
The band’s innovative sound system made them sound better than ever. It also nearly broke them.
What Really Happened to Malaysia’s Missing Airplane
Five years ago, the flight vanished into the Indian Ocean. Officials on land know more about why than they dare to say.
What Exactly Is Required to Preserve Our Democracy?
It will take a “total mobilization of our forces,” in the words of new Autocracy in America host Garry Kasparov.
A Sea Story
One of the worst maritime disasters in European history took place in 1994. It remains very much in the public eye. On a stormy night on the Baltic Sea, more than 850 people lost their lives when a luxurious ferry sank below the waves. From a mass of material, including official and unofficial reports and survivor testimony, our correspondent has distilled an account of the Estonia’s last moments—part of his continuing coverage for the magazine of anarchy on the high seas.
Let Your Kid Climb That Tree
It could actually make them safer.
Elon Musk Updated Grok. Guess What It Said?
After praising Hitler earlier this week, the chatbot is now listing the “good races.”
The Courts Won’t Save Democracy From Trump
George Conway on Trump, the rule of law, and why the legal system is failing
Men Might Be the Key to an American Baby Boom
Fertility policy has a big missing piece.
That Dropped Call With Customer Service? It Was on Purpose.
Endless wait times and excessive procedural fuss—it’s all part of a tactic called “sludge.”
The Great American Novels
136 books that made America think
A Strange Time to Be Trans
In this particular culture war, some self-described skeptics look less like truth-tellers than merchants of doubt.
America’s Coming Smoke Epidemic
The research on what smoke does to a body is just beginning.
The Whole Country Is Starting to Look Like California
Housing prices are rising fast in red and purple states known for being easy places to build. How can that be?
Zohran Mamdani Reveals the Absurdity of Affirmative Action
Is the nominee for New York City mayor “African American”? Wrong question.
Why Evangelicals Turned Their Back on PEPFAR
A religious movement that has so often taken public stands has been unusually quiet since Trump gutted the program to combat AIDS in Africa.