Magazine / The Mail / The Mail
"Letters respond to Merve Emre’s piece on gimmicks, David Remnick’s Comment on the Presidential election, and James Wood’s essay about knowing God."

Magazine / A Critic at Large / What Henry Adams Understood About History’s Breaking Points
"He devoted a lifetime to studying America’s foundation, witnessed its near-dissolution, and uncannily anticipated its evolution."

Magazine / Poems / “Winter Song for One Who Suffers,” by Brenda Hillman
"Poetry by Brenda Hillman: “Friend, you chose / to live. How?”"

Magazine / Brave New World Dept. / What if You Could Outsource Your To-Do List?
"Virtual assistants are one click—but often one continent—away. A new industry for bringing order to our work lives could shift the order of our workforce."

Magazine / Legacies / The Treasure in Frank Zappa’s Secret Subterranean Vault
"Taking a break from “Bill & Ted,” Alex Winter dug into the rock star’s archives to make a documentary that frames him as a First Amendment culture warrior in the tradition of Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor."

Magazine / On Television / “Roadkill” Offers the Fantasy of Politics as Usual
"The British political thriller, full of small-bore scandals and Victorian twists, can hardly compete with reality."

Magazine / Musical Events / What Does It Mean to “Reimagine” an Orchestra Season?
"With live performances constrained by the pandemic, musical ensembles are streaming productions for listeners curious enough to seek them out."

Magazine / Fiction / “Dietrologia”
"Fiction by Paul Theroux: “He knew what she meant: All this furniture, all these books, the pictures, the vases, the house itself—dispose of it. Then proceed to the unit.”"

Magazine / Comic Strip / A Cheery Story
"Comic Strip by Roz Chast: After the Degenerate Era comes the Black Hole Era, which lasts until the black holes themselves start to die. Which they do."

Magazine / Letter from Los Angeles / Using the Homeless to Guard Empty Houses
"As the pandemic makes an already terrible housing crisis worse, a new version of house-sitting signals a broken real-estate market."

Magazine / Books / Why New York’s Mob Mythology Endures
"We hang on to legends of the Mafia’s inner workings as parables for the wider world."

Magazine / Social Contract Dept. / The Brooklyn School Suing the C.D.C.
"Coney Island Prep’s lawsuit alleges that the government’s incompetence in dealing with COVID is not just destructive—leaving people dead and making it hard for many others to do their jobs—but also illegal."

Culture / 2020 in Review / My Year of Making Lists
"Maybe it would someday be useful to have a spreadsheet detailing how I spent my pandemic—every nineties movie I rewatched, everything I bought online."

Books / This Week in Fiction / Paul Theroux on Making Sense of One’s Life
"The author discusses “Dietrologia,” his story from this week’s issue of the magazine."

Cartoons / Daily Cartoon / Daily Cartoon: Monday, November 30th
"“After a nice long weekend, it’s so hard to get back into the swing of fearing the collapse of society.”"

Humor / Satire from The Borowitz Report / Trump Tries to Prove He Is Fitter Than Biden by Playing Fetch with Pence on White House Lawn
"The outgoing President, seated on a golf cart, hurled tennis ball after tennis ball at his Vice-President, who obediently retrieved them."

Humor / Daily Shouts / New Uses for Forgotten Office Items
"The stapler is now . . . cake."

News / Our Columnists / Why the Assassination of a Scientist Will Have No Impact on Iran’s Nuclear Program
"Since Friday’s killing, the question increasingly being asked in Washington and the Middle East is about motive."

Magazine / The Firm / Tobias Menzies of “The Crown” Crashed on Helena Bonham Carter’s Couch Before Lockdown
"Prior to playing Prince Philip, the British actor took on Wallace Shawn’s “The Fever,” Brutus, and a cursed bridegroom in “Game of Thrones.”"

Culture / 2020 in Review / The Best Books We Read in 2020
"The fiction and nonfiction, old and new, that kept us going."