The Magazine
January 16, 2023
Reporting
Letter from Italy
The Crisis of Missing Migrants
What has become of the tens of thousands of people who have disappeared on their way to Europe?
Annals of Inquiry
How Should We Think About Our Different Styles of Thinking?
Some people say their thought takes place in images, some in words. But our mental processes are more mysterious than we realize.
U.S. Journal
UPS and the Package Wars
The company offers old-fashioned middle-class jobs and is enjoying record profits. So why is a strike looming?
Profiles
How Much Netflix Can the World Absorb?
Bela Bajaria, who oversees the streaming giant’s hyper-aggressive approach to TV-making, says success is about “recognizing that people like having more.”
The Critics
A Critic at Large
What the January 6th Report Is Missing
The investigative committee singles out Trump for his role in the Capitol attack. As prosecution, the report is thorough. But as historical explanation it’s a mess.
Books
Briefly Noted
“Wade in the Water,” “The Mountain in the Sea,” “Slouching Towards Utopia,” and “Sybil & Cyril.”
Books
Franz Kafka, Party Animal
We think of him as a recluse, but an unfiltered translation of his diaries reveals an artist who was often antic, alive, and in motion.
The Current Cinema
An Anatomy of a Murder in “Saint Omer”
Based on an actual case, the first feature by the French documentarian Alice Diop is a troubling story of matricide, racism, and sorcery.
The Theatre
Three London Productions Stretch the Boundaries of Reality
Getting lost with “Orlando,” “My Neighbour Totoro,” and “The Burnt City.”
The Talk of the Town
Dhruv Khullar on China’s covid reckoning; Kevin McCarthy’s C-SPAN purgatory; off-grid N.Y.C.; Vicky Krieps, Dancorcist; Brideshead Disputed.
Cotswolds Postcard
For Sale: Evelyn Waugh’s Manor House, 8 BR/24 Acres/1 Waugh-Obsessed Tenant
The estate where the author lived while writing “Brideshead Revisited” was recently sold, but the renters—a Waugh superfan and her partner—are refusing to leave.
The Pictures
Vicky Krieps Meets Her Painted Doppelgänger
After a night of clubbing in Brooklyn, the star of “Corsage” visits the Neue Galerie to find a lookalike.
Brave New World
Off the Grid in the Big City
Josh Spodek disconnected the circuit breaker in his apartment, and now—thanks to solar-powered vegan stew—his carbon footprint is about that of three house cats.
Comment
The Dire Aftermath of China’s Untenable “Zero COVID” Policy
Why did the nation, which suppressed the virus for years, fail to prepare for the inevitable?
Wind On Capitol Hill
C-SPAN Unleashes Its Inner Scorsese
The network’s coverage is usually inert—Lights! Camera! Inaction!—but endless Speaker elections have turned A.O.C., George Santos, and Kevin McCarthy into action stars.
Shouts & Murmurs
Shouts & Murmurs
The Infinite-Monkey Theorem: Field Notes
Cartoons
1/15
“Now whose arms are tiny and useless!”
Cartoon by Farley Katz
Fiction
Fiction
Hammer Attack
“If COVID had been a giant upender of life’s order, this new regime of fear was even more despotic.”
Puzzles & Games Dept.
Poems
Poems
Picture This
Poems
Weather Conditions
Goings On About Town
The Theatre
Lively Experimental Theatre, in Under the Radar
The return of the Public’s annual festival includes “LatinXoxo,” by the Venezuelan-born performance artist Migguel Anggelo.
Tables for Two
Kwame Onwuachi’s Electric Tatiana, at Lincoln Center
At a new restaurant in David Geffen Hall, the young Black chef delivers an autobiographical menu, with riffs on the food of his ancestors.
Mail
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