Why the Polar Bear Is an Indisputable Image of Climate Change
Last Sunday, a polar bear turned up in Norilsk, an industrial city in Siberia known for the production of nickel, for the first time since 1977. Visibly sick—thin and weak, with diarrhea and watering eyes—she roamed the city, feeding from a garbage dump and resting in the lot of a sand and gravel factory. In…
The Devil Critiques Expressions That Mention Him
Idle hands are the devil’s workshop. I won’t go into detail, but my workshop is a lot more bitchin’ than just a bunch of idle hands, or whatever. And, although there are lots of hands, let’s just say they’re not idle. They’re . . . up to stuff. The devil is in the details. Well, yeah—and in the…
Nineteenth-Century Novels, with Better Birth Control
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The Trials of Human-Trafficking Victims, and Dexter Filkins on Ominous Signs from Iran
Listen with: iTunes WNYC Stitcher TuneIn The New Yorker’s Dexter Filkins talks with David Remnick about why Iran would provoke a U.S. President who seems to have it in for the nation. A reporter looks at how the Trump Administration is undermining a critical visa program that protects victims of human trafficking. Plus, Kelefa Sanneh…
The Unimaginable Reality of American Concentration Camps
Like many arguments, the fight over the term “concentration camp” is mostly an argument about something entirely different. It is not about terminology. Almost refreshingly, it is not an argument about facts. This argument is about imagination, and it may be a deeper, more important conversation than it seems. In a Monday-evening live stream, Representative…
The Nostalgia in Beto O’Rourke’s Indie-Rock Videos
When the Democratic Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke was a younger man, he played in a band called Foss. It was a relatively obscure group, both inside and outside of El Paso, O’Rourke’s home town, where the band was based. (One of O’Rourke’s bandmates, Cedric Bixler-Zavala, later went on to sing in both the post-hardcore band…
Here Comes Boris Johnson!
On Thursday, the British Conservative Party took another step toward making Boris Johnson, Member of Parliament and instrument of wreckage, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The race is now between Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, who nobody thinks can beat him. Not even Hunt seems to think so; his campaign is…
Where Are They Now?: Notable Pickup Artists from the Golden Age of Pickup Artistry
Pickup-artist culture peaked in 2007, when VH1 ordered two seasons of “The Pickup Artist,” a show hosted by a Canadian man who went by the name Mystery. (In the world of P.U.A., monikers were used to protect practitioners’ identities, as they were doing some truly reprehensible things.) Here, more than a decade past their prime, we check in…
In Orlando, Trump Kicks Off His Reëlection Campaign with an Old, Divisive Message
In a political speech, an emphasis placed on a single word can turn a promise into a threat. “Republicans believe welfare, schools, hospitals, and public resources should be protected for all Americans,” Donald Trump said on Tuesday night, as he launched his reëlection campaign at a rally in Orlando. Stress the word “all” and that…
Natasha Trethewey Reads Charles Wright
Listen with: iTunes WNYC Stitcher TuneIn Natasha Trethewey joins Kevin Young to read and discuss Charles Wright’s poem “Toadstools,” and her own poem “Repentance.” Trethewey, a former U.S. Poet Laureate, is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her most recent poetry collection…