Why Do We Eat Bad Food? Why Do We Eat Bad Food?
Mark Bittman’s new history looks at the economy and politics of junk food.
May 18, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Bill McKibben
Richard Wagner’s Pandemonium Richard Wagner’s Pandemonium
The contested life and afterlife of the composer.
May 18, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Mina Tavakoli
Jordan Peterson’s New Rules Are Old News Jordan Peterson’s New Rules Are Old News
The Canadian contrarian is back with another book. It isn’t any better than the last one.
May 18, 2021 / Column / Katha Pollitt
The City That Embodies the United States’ Contradictions The City That Embodies the United States’ Contradictions
In the history of St. Louis, we find both a radical and reactionary past—and a more hopeful future too.
May 17, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Robert Greene II
The Mundane and Alienated Life of a Freelancer The Mundane and Alienated Life of a Freelancer
Kavita Bedford’s novel Friends and Dark Shapes explores the false promises and precarity of writing in the age of the gig economy.
May 13, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Lily Meyer
Mike Gold, Avant-Garde Bard of Proletarian New York Mike Gold, Avant-Garde Bard of Proletarian New York
A new biography charts Gold's many lives—as a novelist and journalist, as a working-class militant, and as a forerunner to the Beats.
May 12, 2021 / Books & the Arts / J. Hoberman
History Lessons From 3021 History Lessons From 3021
Maybe one day the future will learn from our mistakes.
May 11, 2021 / Tom Tomorrow
Diane Seuss’s American Gothic Diane Seuss’s American Gothic
frank: sonnets is an oracular collection of verse on mortality, tragedy, love, and life.
May 11, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Lauren Stroh
What ‘Girlhood’ Means in 2021 What ‘Girlhood’ Means in 2021
A conversation with Melissa Febos about her radical essays on youth and gender.
May 10, 2021 / Q&A / Naomi Gordon-Loebl
A Prophet at the Barbecue: Larry McMurtry, 1936–2021 A Prophet at the Barbecue: Larry McMurtry, 1936–2021
Three views of a Texas giant.
May 7, 2021 / Feature / Benjamin Moser