The Magazine
August 18, 2025
Goings On
Goings On
Richard Brody’s Summertime Movie Picks
Plus: Lady Gaga and the Black Keys, Indian dance by the New York Harbor, the Time:Spans festival, and more.
Book Currents
Getting in Marc Maron’s Head
The podcast host recommends three recent favorites—about the gentrification of punk, what makes a great actor, and the corrosive influence of social-media platforms.
The Food Scene
Three Plays on the Pancake
A masa-based version at Hellbender, a riff on soufflé at Pitt’s, and a modern-classic stack at S&P Lunch.
The Talk of the Town
Jonathan Blitzer on redistricting in Texas; hunting the pink whale; among the virtual clouds; Ben Folds live; hot-boxing.
Comment
Can Democrats Fight Back Against Trump’s Redistricting Scheme?
Fleeing lawmakers in Texas are unlikely to stop Republicans from redrawing the state’s congressional maps, but their effort has offered a rallying cry—and a reminder of the Democratic Party’s weaknesses.
Leisure Dept.
King Charles’s Crony Catches the Salmon of the Year
A Park Avenue finance guy goes fishing with a royal nanny and hooks a fifty-two-pounder.
Sneak Preview
A Visit from the V.R. Squad
Jon Griffith, a filmmaker on his third commission from Meta, has been strapping strangers into V.R. headsets in their living rooms and taking them up, up, and away.
The Musical Life
Ben Folds’s Latest Thing
After quitting his gig with the Kennedy Center in protest, the Gen X indie rocker is turning his talents toward MAGA trolls and Charlie Brown.
Rarities
Ripping Cards with Emma Roberts
The scream queen is a card-collecting obsessive, and her new favorite haunt is Tom Brady’s CardVault, in East Hampton.
Reporting & Essays
Annals of Medicine
How an Ultra-Rare Disease Accelerates Aging
Teen-agers with progeria have effectively aged eight or nine decades. A cure could help change millions of lives—and shed light on why we grow old.
Profiles
Is Mac DeMarco the Last Indie Rock Star?
The musician’s overwhelming popularity can overshadow his ethos of self-reliance. On his new album, “Guitar,” he played every instrument and is releasing it on his own label.
A Reporter at Large
How Much Is Trump Profiting Off the Presidency?
An honest accounting of our Executive-in-Chief’s runaway self-enrichment.
Takes
Takes
Andrew Marantz on Janet Flanner’s “Führer”
Flanner’s tone was cool and ironic, above taking sides. But, in a Profile of Adolf Hitler, refusing to take sides can be a way to miss the story.
Shouts & Murmurs
Fiction
Fiction
“The Corn Woman, Her Husband, and Their Child”
The Earliwoods didn’t recognize that they would be outsiders forever, people denigrated for being unable to hold on to a weathervane.
The Critics
A Critic at Large
The Lives and Loves of James Baldwin
An older generation dismissed him as passé; a newer one has recast him as a secular saint. But Baldwin’s true message remains more unsettling than either camp recognizes.
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Books
Why Hasn’t Medical Science Cured Chronic Headaches?
More than 1.2 billion people worldwide suffer from migraine and other debilitating conditions that are under-studied and often not taken seriously.
On Television
Hollywood’s Conservative Pivot
After the success of “Yellowstone” and “The Chosen,” the industry is chasing other red-state hits—an uneasy context for the revival of the Texas-set “King of the Hill.”
The Current Cinema
“Weapons,” “Harvest,” and the Shackles of the Horror Genre
Zach Cregger’s and Athina Rachel Tsangari’s films show different ways of working within a genre whose stories are preordained by a need to scare.
Poems
Poems
“I Was a First Alto in the 1980s”
“I used to sit for hours / at an electric typewriter. / I remember well its hum.”
Cartoons
Puzzles & Games
The Mail
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