The Power of Police Unions
The repeal of Section 50-A of the New York State Civil Rights Law was no technical change. Passed in the wake of the George Floyd protests, it was a big victory for police-reform activists. 50-A shiel...
4 Jan 202224min
Amanda Gorman on Life After Inauguration
One year ago, Amanda Gorman delivered the inaugural poem on the day that Joe Biden became President. Gorman was just twenty-two years old, and it was just two weeks after Trump supporters had assaulte...
31 Dec 202125min
For a French Burglar, Stealing Masterpieces Is Easier Than Selling Them
Vjeran Tomic has been stealing since he was a small child, when he used a ladder to break into a library in his home town, in Bosnia. After moving to Paris, he graduated to lucrative apartment burglar...
28 Dec 202121min
Rhiannon Giddens, Americana’s Queen, Goes Global
By the standards of any musician, Rhiannon Giddens has taken a twisting and complex path. Trained as an operatic soprano at the prestigious Oberlin Conservatory, Giddens fell almost by chance into the...
24 Dec 202129min
When Snow Came to San Juan
For several years in the early nineteen-fifties, Puerto Rico received snow, right around Christmas. Children in San Juan rode a sled and had a giant snowball fight in the tropical weather. It wasn’t a...
21 Dec 202127min
Is the Gift of Tuition Enough?
Élite schools are trying hard to recruit students of color and students who are less well-off financially; Yale University, as one example, now covers full tuition for families making less than sevent...
17 Dec 202122min
Millennial Writers Reflect on a Generation’s Despair
The eldest millennials turned forty this year, and the producer Ngofeen Mputubwele comments on a sense of despair he finds in his generation, having to do with the state of the planet, the nation, the...
14 Dec 202131min
Paul Thomas Anderson, Poet Laureate of the San Fernando Valley
Paul Thomas Anderson first made a splash in Hollywood with his film “Boogie Nights,” a portrait of the porn industry that burgeoned in the San Fernando Valley, the much-mocked suburbs of Los Angeles. ...
10 Dec 202118min
