The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books
To read a book in college, it helps to have read a book in high school.
To Find Alien Intelligence, Start With the Mountains
The key to complex life might be hiding miles below our feet.
What the Democrats Do Now
Party leaders have spent much of the past six days dissecting what went wrong. Now they’re pitching their vision for the future.
The Exhibit That Will Change How You See Impressionism
The National Gallery’s “Paris 1874” explores the movement’s dark origins.
In Praise of Clarity
There is no ambiguity here.
Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid
It’s not just a phase.
How America Got Mean
In a culture devoid of moral education, generations are growing up in a morally inarticulate, self-referential world.
Trump Won. Now What?
The United States is about to become a different kind of country.
‘Make America Healthy Again’ Sounds Good Until You Start Asking Questions
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s health agenda is politically slippery.
A ‘Crazy’ Idea for Treating Autoimmune Diseases Might Actually Work
Lupus has long been considered incurable—but a series of breakthroughs are fueling hope.
The Trump-Whim Economy Is Here
Expectations of who will gain, and who will lose, from the president-elect’s second term are already moving markets.
Why Gossip Is Fatal to Good Writing
A new book compares the authors and frenemies Joan Didion and Eve Babitz, but its fixation on their rivalry obscures the complicated truth.
Helping Ukraine Is Europe’s Job Now
Trump is closer to Putin than to any of the continent’s democratic leaders.
Richard Price’s Radical, Retrograde Novel
In Lazarus Man, he rejects the tropes of contemporary literature.
An American Catastrophe
The secret history of the U.S. government’s family-separation policy
Dear Therapist: My Brother-in-Law Is a Thanksgiving Freeloader
Do I have to invite him this year?
Why Democrats Are Losing the Culture War
The booming right-wing influencer ecosystem helped reelect Donald Trump—and the other side may not have an answer.
Bad News
Legacy media must compete against a choose-your-own-adventure reality.
What the Left Keeps Getting Wrong
Democrats should not dismiss Trump’s win as the result of sexism and racism alone.
Democracy Is Not Over
Americans who care about democracy have every right to feel appalled and frightened. But then they have work to do.