The Trump Campaign Pitches Its Crypto-Majority Argument to Women
“We ask for the wisdom of God to be upon our President, upon our Vice-President, upon every person in the campaign—that you would supernaturally download strategies from Heaven, that you would give us the mind of Christ according to Philippians, Chapter Two, Verse Five.” So went the opening prayer from Paula White, Donald Trump’s personal…
Two Comedy Writers Take “Face/Off” to a New Level of Weirdness
On a recent Sunday afternoon, Cage in the Park, a theatre series created by Sebastian DiNatale and Zachary DiLanzo, staged a Shakespearean reënactment of the 1997 action film “Face/Off,” at the Grecian peristyle at the southern end of Prospect Park. DiNatale and DiLanzo, both of whom are staffers at “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,”…
Campbell McGrath Reads Czeslaw Milosz
Listen with: iTunes WNYC Stitcher TuneIn Campbell McGrath joins Kevin Young to discuss “Realism,” by Czeslaw Milosz, and his own poem “The Human Heart.” McGrath has published several poetry collections and received fellowships from the Library of Congress, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. His latest book is “Nouns & Verbs: New and Selected…
Trump, the Squad, and the “Standard Definition” of Racism
It’s useful, always, to consult the stylebook. Earlier this year, the Associated Press belatedly revised its entry on race, which now reads, “Do not use racially charged or similar terms as euphemisms for racist or racism when the latter terms are truly applicable.” The recommendation is a concession to clarity, not to passion or politics.…
Trump, Pelosi, and the Squad Are Fighting Over Who Belongs in Government
Who can govern? Every American election poses this question. Formally, the question is, who will represent the people best? But the underlying question is, invariably, who belongs in government? Can a Catholic be President? Can a black man? A white woman? A man with no government experience? A gay man? A philanderer? A man accused…
Neil Armstrong, Over the Moon Among the Pandas
In June, 2001, I took Neil Armstrong and his wife, Carol, to the National Zoo. I love pandas. As it turned out, Neil Armstrong did, too. The visit happened after my neighbor Joe Allen, another early astronaut, called to ask if I could arrange for the Armstrongs to see the young pandas, who’d recently arrived from China…
What the Superhuman Controversy Reveals About the Shifting Ethics of Software
In recent months, those attuned to the affinities of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists have been hearing about a young San Francisco startup called Superhuman. Though its name suggests a nootropics concern or a purveyor of networked exercise equipment, Superhuman’s unbodied offering is productivity software for the inbox. Its e-mail client—essentially, it’s an interface…
Finding Stillness in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters in the Age of Trump
In the summer of 2014, Thomas Tidwell, who had worked for the U.S. Forest Service for thirty-seven years, the last five of those as its chief, decided to visit the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, a mosaic of more than a thousand lakes and rivers on almost 1.1 million acres in northern Minnesota, along the…
Trump’s Overt Racism Is Uniting Democrats and Unnerving Some Republicans
As Donald Trump would be the first to tell you, he’s a political genius. Certainly, in a period of a little over twenty-four hours on Sunday and Monday, he accomplished three things that many observers had considered impossible. First, he made it even more clear than it was before that he is a garden-variety racist.…