The New Yorker

Sebastião Salgado’s View of Humanity The photojournalist documented some of the greatest human horrors of the past century, but he said, “I never, I never, photograph the misery.”

The photojournalist Sebastião Salgado documented some of the greatest human horrors of the past century, but he said, “I never. . . photograph the misery.”

The Invention of “Sesame Street” Renata Adler’s 1972 review of the program that revolutionized children’s television.

“Sesame Street” and its sequel, “The Electric Company,” were, “with lapses, the most intelligent and important programs in television,” Renata Adler wrote, in 1972.

The Vatican Observatory Looks to the Heavens It’s run by a Michigan-born Jesuit—and a meteorite expert—known as the Pope’s Astronomer.

Guy Consolmagno is an M.I.T.-educated astrophysicist and science-fiction enthusiast who hails from Michigan. He’s also the Pope’s official astronomer.

Jane Jacobs, Georgia O’Keeffe, and the Power of the Marimekko Dress Who could be more desirous of forgetting what they had on than women such as Jacobs and O’Keeffe, who had so much to do?

From 2017: Marimekko was made for the working woman who could afford to ungirdle herself, one in a long line of “reform-dress” movements that started with the nineteenth-century feminist bloomer.

Almost Everything in “Dr. Strangelove” Was True How Stanley Kubrick’s film “Dr. Strangelove” exposed dangers inherent in nuclear command-and-control systems.

How Stanley Kubrick’s film “Dr. Strangelove” exposed dangers inherent in nuclear command-and-control systems.

What Is Lost in Luka Dončić’s Glow-Up The rebrand of the Los Angeles Laker—who appeared on the cover of Men’s Health looking lean, buff, and bronze—makes sense. That doesn’t make it less sad.

The Los Angeles Laker Luka Dončić’s buff glow-up is only partly about basketball. It’s also an exercise in brand management, Louisa Thomas writes.

The Politics of Fear As a Presidential candidate, Donald Trump made his world view plain: there was “us” and there was “them.” Once he was in the White House, the fear factor would prevail.

Even as President Trump’s disapproval ratings climb, the Democratic Party continues to languish. Its leadership is “woefully scattered and deficient,” David Remnick writes. “Still, resolve comes in many forms.”

Three Plays on the Pancake A masa-based version at Hellbender, a riff on soufflé at Pitt’s, and a modern-classic stack at S&P Lunch.

Despite its fundamental humility, the pancake has long been a kingmaker: a killer stack can put a restaurant on the map. @hels.bsky.social recommends three new takes on the breakfast staple that are very much worth seeking out.

The Art of Decision-Making Your life choices aren’t just about what you want to do; they’re about who you want to be.

We say that we “decide” to get married, to have children, to live in particular cities or embark on particular careers, and in a sense this is true. But how do we actually make those choices?

What a Major Solar Storm Could Do to Our Planet Disturbances on the sun may have the potential to devastate our power grid and communication systems. When the next big storm arrives, will we be prepared for it?

Some scientists believe that there is an approximately 12-per-cent chance of a severe solar storm striking the Earth in the next decade—which could devastate our power grid and communication systems. Are we prepared?

Keith Haring, the Boy Who Cried Art Was he a brilliant painter or a brilliant brand?

Was Keith Haring a brilliant painter or a brilliant brand?

Can You Love the Art and Hate the Monster? In “Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma,” Claire Dederer attempts the impossible task of disentangling herself from the figures whose work has made her who she is.

Can you truly love the art but hate the artist?

At the Edge of Life and Death in Ukraine A new photo book by Eddy van Wessel, with nearly two hundred images taken over the course of three years, offers a visual history of the war’s devastation.

In Eddy van Wessel’s photographs of Ukraine after Russia’s invasion, he develops an intimacy with the country and its people that, on the page, is both painful and revealing.

“Moonstruck” Knows That the Best Things in Life Aren’t Chosen If the movie has a clear through line, it is about things that are wrong getting made right, a winding process that often involves committing some new wrongs along the way.

Nobody in “Moonstruck” behaves reasonably. And yet it feels completely true to people as they are: ridiculous and passionate, in search of answers, and taking what they can get.

Yoko Ono’s Art of Defiance Before she met John Lennon, she was a significant figure in avant-garde circles and had created a masterpiece of conceptual art. Did celebrity deprive her of her due as an artist?

Yoko Ono is best known for her marriage to John Lennon. But she was one of the first artists to make conceptual art, and the creator of one of the movement’s masterpieces.

Watching the “King of the Hill” Revival from Texas In the age of MAGA, the show’s small-town values are both a relief and slightly outdated. In the end, will we and the animated characters all live like city people?

“King of the Hill” evokes a prelapsarian period when problems were small and solvable, and the ugliness of the world was held at bay. But can the show’s revival reconcile its easygoing charms with our current fraught reality?

The Banal Provocation of Sydney Sweeney’s Jeans The American Eagle campaign, with its presentation of Americana as a zombie slop of mustangs, denim, and good genes, is lowest-common-denominator stuff.

Sydney Sweeney has an adoring legion, the most extreme of whom want to recruit her as a kind of Aryan princess. Doreen St. Félix writes about the actress’s controversial denim ad.

The California Town Owned by a New York Investment Firm Scotia was created, a century and a half ago, so that lumberjacks could live near the trees they cut down. Its current owners have been trying for more than a decade to bring new residents to town.

Scotia, California, was created, a century and a half ago, so that lumberjacks could live near the trees they cut down. A New York investment firm tried for more than a decade to bring new residents to town.

How I Learned to Cycle Like a Dutchman In the bike-friendly Netherlands, cyclists speed down the road without fearing cars. For an American, the prospect is thrilling—and terrifying.

In the bike-friendly Netherlands, cyclists speed down the road without fearing cars. For an American, the prospect is thrilling—and terrifying.

The Root of All Cruelty? Perpetrators of violence, we’re told, dehumanize their victims. The truth is worse.

Perpetrators of violence, we’re told, dehumanize their victims. The truth is worse.

The Repressive, Authoritarian Soul of “Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends” Wilbert Awdry, who created Thomas the Tank Engine, disliked change, venerated order, and craved the administration of punishment.

Wilbert Awdry, who created Thomas the Tank Engine, disliked change, venerated order, and craved the administration of punishment.

The Strangeness of Grief V. S. Naipaul reckons with the different forms of loss.

“We are never finished with grief. It is part of the fabric of living,” V. S. Naipaul writes, in a Personal History. “Love makes memories and life precious; the grief that comes to us is proportionate to that love and is inescapable.”

Did a Best-Selling Romantasy Novelist Steal Another Writer’s Story? Tracy Wolff, the author of the “Crave” series, is being sued for copyright infringement. But romantasy’s reliance on standardized tropes makes proving plot theft tricky.

In the “romantasy” genre, “copycats are commonplace,” the book blogger and author Jenny Trout said. “Authors are giving the people what they want, but it’s also like you’re reading the same book over and over again.”

Economic Reality Bites Trump and His Protectionist Trade Policies The White House promised that tariffs would make America boom. But job growth has stalled and the President has been reduced to firing an official scorekeeper.

The July jobs report showed that employment growth over the past three months has been weaker than in any comparable period since the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, Donald Trump fired the commissioner of the bureau that produces the report.

The Ambitious Film Deconstructions of Stan Douglas Also: the nostalgia of Vacation sunscreen, Tiler Peck’s Jerome Robbins festival, and more.

This week’s Goings On newsletter highlights an outstanding and ambitious new show by Stan Douglas, Tiler Peck’s Jerome Robbins festival, and a theatrical experience that consists of harrowing escape acts. See all our recommendations.

The Disappearance of the World’s Greatest Free Diver Natalia Molchanova excelled at one of the world’s most dangerous sports. Now she has vanished in the water.

Natalia Molchanova excelled at one of the world’s most dangerous sports. Then she vanished in the water.

Mary Had Schizophrenia—Then Suddenly She Didn’t Some psychiatric patients may actually have treatable autoimmune conditions. But what happens to the newly sane?

Some psychiatric symptoms may actually be the result of autoimmune conditions. Rachel Aviv reports on the case of a woman diagnosed with schizophrenia who was cured after two decades of psychosis.

The Objectively Objectionable Grammatical Pet Peeve A semi-attentive investigation into a confounding sentence type.

A century or so ago, it seems that no writers had this grammatical tic. Now it is everywhere.

Notes on Work There’s a masochistic pride to overworking. How heavy a workload can I truly handle? How many plates can I keep in the air?

“Workaholics are addicted to the solace they find in extreme fatigue; it’s like the high that a marathon runner might get in her last mile,” Weike Wang writes in an essay on work.

After 300 days of war, the UNRWA issued an analysis describing Gaza’s trauma as “chronic and unrelenting.” Mohammed R. Mhawish writes about the catastrophic effects this trauma has had on the mental-health of the people, especially children, in Gaza. www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...