The Magazine
August 11, 2025
Goings On
Goings On
The Ambitious Film Deconstructions of Stan Douglas
Also: the nostalgia of Vacation sunscreen, Tiler Peck’s Jerome Robbins festival, and more.
The Talk of the Town
David Remnick on the politics of fear; ferrying around; the “world’s greatest pedestrian”; Low Cinema; Trump’s crypto reserve.
Comment
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.
On the Water
The Governors Island Ferry Goes Electric
This month, the old diesel-powered Governors Island ferry will be retired, and the Harbor Charger—New York’s first hybrid-electric ferry—will (quietly) hit the water.
Dept. of Tourism
Sign Here! The World’s Greatest Autograph Collection Is Rediscovered
In the early nineteen-hundreds, Josip Mikulec walked the globe, collecting famous signatures (Thomas Edison, Teddy Roosevelt, Admiral Tōgō). Now the mayor of his Croatian home town has purchased the three-thousand-page tome.
How-To Dept.
How to Make a Movie House with John Wilson
The Ridgewood, Queens, filmmaker, known for his HBO series “How To,” has opened Low Cinema—a neighborhood movie joint, for lovers of odd programming and second-run flicks.
Sketchpad
New Coins in the Crypto Reserve
Forget gold. Time to stock up on Eggcoin (very valuable) and Scamcoin (not a scam).
Reporting & Essays
Annals of Psychology
The Pain of Perfectionism
It’s the fault people humblebrag about in job interviews. but psychologists are discovering more and more about the real harm it causes.
American Chronicles
The Engines and Empires of New York City Gambling
As plans are laid for a new casino, one can trace, through four figures, a history of rivalry and excess, rife with collisions of character and crime.
Brave New World Dept.
How to Live Forever and Get Rich Doing It
As researchers work to make death optional, investors see a chance for huge returns. But has the human body already reached its limits?
Portfolio
ICE’s Spectacle of Intimidation
Immigrants showing up for court dates in Manhattan must now navigate past rows of masked federal agents.
Takes
Takes
Jane Mayer on John Hersey’s “Hiroshima”
His monumental report changed history, journalism, and me.
Shouts & Murmurs
Fiction
Fiction
“An Unashamed Proposal”
Look, Sunny said, however progressive my mother is, she is an Indian woman from another generation. Do you really think I can tell her that we sleep in the same bed?
The Critics
A Critic at Large
The Iranian Revolution Almost Didn’t Happen
From a dying adviser to a clumsy editorial, the Revolution was a cascade of accidents and oversights.
Books
How the Poet James Schuyler Wrung Sense from Sensibility
Schuyler once told a friend that “life had been after him with a sledgehammer.” But the poet’s work was sharp and humane, a marvel of twentieth-century literature.
Musical Events
There Is More to French Opera Than “Carmen” and “Faust”
The Bru Zane label is recording dozens of forgotten works that testify to a Romantic golden age.
On Television
Sterling K. Brown’s Upstanding Archetype
In Hulu’s soapy “Washington Black,” about an early-nineteenth-century slave who escapes to Halifax, Brown rises above the material.
Poems
Poems
“The Eulogy I Didn’t Give (I)”
“My ambition to be done with ambition / suffered a setback at my father’s funeral.”
Cartoons
Puzzles & Games
The Mail
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