The New Yorker
Stepping Out
Band kids today don’t just parade up and down the field playing fight songs. They flow across it in shifting tableaux, with elaborate themes and spandex-clad dancers, playing full symphonic scores. Burkhard Bilger reports on the extreme sport of competitive marching bands. Photographs by Brian Finke.
Today’s Mix
We Might Have to “Shut Down the Country”
Anthony Romero, the A.C.L.U.’s executive director, talks about what he thinks could happen if the Trump Administration defies the authority of the courts.
Elizabeth Warren Fights to Defend the Consumer Protection Agency She Helped Create
Elon Musk’s campaign to shutter the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will end up hurting the very people Donald Trump promised to safeguard.
Lorne Michaels Is the Real Star of “Saturday Night Live”
He’s ruled with absolute power for five decades, forever adding to his list of oracular pronouncements—about producing TV, making comedy, and living the good life.
The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer and Rachel Aviv Win Polk Awards
The prizes recognize investigations into misconduct by the newly confirmed Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, and the family life of the late Nobel laureate Alice Munro.
The New Yorker Turns 100
This month marks a hundred years since the first issue of The New Yorker was published, in February, 1925. Since then, the magazine has become renowned for its reporting, commentary, criticism, fiction, humor, and more. Explore a special collection of history and writing to celebrate the turn of our century.
From The Anniversary Issue
Onward and Upward
Harold Ross founded The New Yorker as a comic weekly. Today, we’re doubling down on our commitment to the much richer publication it became.
Sisterhood
Nuns from a convent outside Waco have repeatedly visited women on death row—and even made them affiliates of their order. The story of a powerful spiritual alliance.
A Newly Discovered Poem by Robert Frost
“Nothing New,” which the American poet wrote in 1918, is published for the first time in The New Yorker’s Anniversary Issue.
An Academic’s Journey Toward Reporting
I was used to a disembodied way of working: identify a philosophical problem, then study it. What could spending time with a philosopher teach me about his ideas?
The Lede
A daily column on what you need to know.
Danielle Sassoon’s American Bravery
A conservative prosecutor in New York makes the first bold move against Donald Trump’s rampaging Presidency.
The Strategy Behind Trump’s Defiance of the Law
His violations follow an old playbook—trigger lawsuits, giving the Supreme Court a chance to declare statutes unconstitutional.
It Took Trump Only Twenty-four Days to Sell Out Ukraine
Amid the chaos in Washington, the President’s phone call with Putin has Moscow filled with glee.
What the Assault on Public Education Means for Kids with Disabilities
The future of the Department of Education may hinge on the world views of two billionaires who abhor what they perceive as weakness and waste.
Donald Trump’s Pro-Union Labor Secretary
The nomination of Lori Chavez-DeRemer reflects MAGA’s working-class contradictions.
Gaza Must Be Rebuilt by Palestinians, for Palestinians
Trump’s proposal to turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East” is a call for more ethnic cleansing.
The Eternal Mysteries of Red
It’s often deemed the first color, the strongest color, the color that stands for color itself. So why does it keep slipping out of our grasp?
The Critics
The Man Who Captured the Unique Beauty of Snowflakes
The microphotographic innovator Wilson Bentley believed that “every crystal was a masterpiece of design.”
The Manic Brilliance of “Breakfast of Champions”
Scorned by critics on its release, in 1999, Alan Rudolph’s Kurt Vonnegut adaptation now emerges as an inspired comic extravaganza, whose very originality was its undoing.
The Uneven Cross-Cultural Comedy of “Paddington in Peru” and “Universal Language”
Cinematic nods abound in two tales of homecoming, one starring Paddington Bear and the other set somewhere between Canada and Iran.
L&L Hawaiian Barbecue Brings New Yorkers the Plate Lunch
The Honolulu-based franchise specializes in simple meals that stick to the ribs.
Bartees Strange’s Interior Hauntings
On his third studio album, “Horror,” the genre-spanning musician deconstructs old fears and finds ways to survive new ones.
The Old-School Heroics of “The Pitt”
The hectic medical drama, now streaming on Max, is a throwback to a different era of television—and a counterintuitive comfort watch.
The Best Books We Read This Week
A sweeping study that examines the results of land changing hands throughout history; a poetry collection recasts Helen of Troy as an Appalachian housewife; a novel that presents a familiar tale of war and homecoming; and more.
Our Columnists
Stephen A. Smith for President
If the Democratic Party has a problem drawing young men who believe that the excesses of wokeness have left them behind, could there be a more appealing figure than the guy they’ve been watching argue about sports for the past decade?
The Tragedy and Farce of Luka Dončić’s Trade
The Dallas Mavericks handed their leading man to the Los Angeles Lakers. Now everyone is trying to make it make sense.
What Did the War in Gaza Reveal About American Judaism?
Peter Beinart on the story of Israel and the moral blind spot of the Jewish diaspora.
Elon Musk’s A.I.-Fuelled War on Human Agency
Musk seeks not only to dismantle the federal government but to install his own technological vision of the future at its heart—techno-fascism by chatbot.
Can the Human Body Endure a Voyage to Mars?
In the coming years, an unprecedented number of people will leave planet Earth—but it’s becoming increasingly clear that deep space will make us sick.
Ideas
How the Tiger Really Got His Stripes
People have wondered forever what determines the patterns that animals wear. We’re starting to figure it out.
Searching for Alien Life During the Cold War
For American and Soviet scientist trying to contact extraterrestrials, crossing the Iron Curtain was as hard as sending messages beyond the solar system.
The Frustrated Promise of the Rape Kit
Standardized forensic exams are a useful tool for sexual-violence investigations—or they would be if police consistently tested their findings.
The Long Quest for Artificial Blood
One of the most valuable substances in the world has never been replicated. Are we close?
A Visit to Madam Bedi
I was estranged from my own mother, so a friend tried to lend me his.
James Baldwin’s “Letter from a Region in My Mind”
The essay served as a definitive diagnosis of American race relations. Events soon gave it the force of prophecy.
Puzzles & Games
Take a break and play.
