The Computers Are Getting Better at Writing

Whatever field you are in, if it uses language, it is about to be transformed. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

The Challenges of Animal Translation

Artificial intelligence may help us decode animalese. But how much will we really be able to understand? | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

The Secret Footage of the NRA Chief’s Botched Elephant Hunt

Wayne LaPierre has cultivated his image as an exemplar of American gun culture, but video of his clumsy marksmanship—and details regarding his Rodeo Drive shopping trips—tells another story. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

Peter Singer Is Committed to Controversial Ideas

The philosopher of animal liberation and effective altruism considers cancellation, capitalism, and the pandemic. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

TikTok and the Vibes Revival

Increasingly, what we’re after on social media is not narrative or personality but moments of audiovisual eloquence. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

New York, Told Through Its Trash

In 1948, the landfill at Fresh Kills was marketed to Staten Island as a stopgap measure. No one guessed that it would remain open for more than half a century. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

A New Sky Garden for London

Like New York’s version, the Camden Highline will be designed by James Corner, occupy a former rail track, and attract selfie-taking tourists. Unlike New York’s, it may not invite a boom of luxury condos. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

Why Bitcoin Is Bad for the Environment

Cryptocurrency mining uses huge amounts of power—and can be as destructive as the real thing. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

The Purging of Chinese from America

The surge in violence against Asian-Americans is a reminder that America’s present reality reflects its exclusionary past. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

Grammar-Nerd Heaven

A new exhibit showcases the surprisingly contentious history of English grammar books. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

A Neuroscientist’s Poignant Study of How We Forget Most Things in Life

An efficient memory system, Lisa Genova writes, involves “a finely orchestrated balancing act between data storage and data disposal.” | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

A Doctor’s Dark Year

In the heart of the pandemic, a trauma surgeon travels to the edge and back. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

The E-Scooters Loved by Silicon Valley Roll into New York

Fleets of electric scooters have taken over city streets worldwide. With New York finally climbing aboard, do they represent a tech hustle or a transit revolution? | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

The Day the San Francisco Sky Turned Orange

On September 9, 2020, a convergence of wildfire smoke and fog cast an eerie tint over the Bay Area. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

Has a remote Amazonian tribe upended our understanding of language? (2007)

Has a remote Amazonian tribe upended our understanding of language? | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

Do Brain Implants Change Your Identity?

As neural devices proliferate, so do reports of personality changes, foundering relationships, and people who want to leave their careers. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

The Rise of North Korea's Hacking Army

The country’s cyber forces have raked in billions of dollars for the regime by pulling off schemes ranging from A.T.M. heists to cryptocurrency thefts. Can they be stopped? | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

What Will It Take to Pandemic-Proof America?

When the next virus strikes, we’ll look back on this moment as an opportunity that we either seized or squandered. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

The Prickly Genius of Jonathan Blow (2016)

The video-game designer’s latest project, The Witness, reflects his personality: logical, stubborn, unsuffering of fools. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

The Pleasant Head Trip of Liminal Spaces

The lockdowns seem to have sharpened our appetite for parking garages, gas stations, dead malls, shuttered Kmarts, and paintings by Edward Hopper and David Hockney. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

How Did a Self-Taught Linguist Come to Own an Indigenous Language?

The Penobscot language was spoken by almost no one when Frank Siebert set about trying to preserve it. The people of Indian Island are still reckoning with his legacy. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

Biden Finally Got to Say No to the Generals (Ends War in Afghanistan)

Critics be damned, the President is ending the Forever War waged by Bush, Obama, and Trump in Afghanistan. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

Sweden’s Pandemic Experiment

When the coronavirus arrived, the country decided not to implement lockdowns or recommend masks. How has it fared? | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

A Decade of Delusion at WeWork

Jed Rothstein’s film about the rise and fall of Adam Neumann’s real-estate startup isn’t an example of epic, Ken Burns-style storytelling. But it’s a good yarn. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

Paul Theroux – Facing Ka‘ena Point: On Turning Eighty

My life has involved enormous upsets and reverses—illness, wealth, and near-bankruptcy, the usual snakes and ladders that people endure—except that I have been privileged to write about them. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

Surviving the Crackdown in Xinjiang

As mass detentions and surveillance dominate the lives of China’s Uyghurs and Kazakhs, a woman struggles to free herself. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

How People Learn to Become Resilient (2016)

Resilience is a set of skills—and psychologists know how you can learn them. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

The Rise of the Athlete Podcaster

How players began telling a new story about sports. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

Measure for Measure: The strange science of Francis Galton (2005)

The strange science of Francis Galton. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

Why Animals Don’t Get Lost

Birds do it. Bees do it. Learning about the astounding navigational feats of wild creatures can teach us a lot about where we’re going. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

Why Computers Won’t Make Themselves Smarter

We fear and yearn for “the singularity.” But it will probably never come. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

Elizabeth Loftus Changed the Meaning of Memory

The psychologist taught us that what we remember is not fixed, but her work testifying for defendants like Harvey Weinstein collides with our traumatized moment. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

Why Computers Won’t Make Themselves Smarter

We fear and yearn for “the singularity.” But it will probably never come. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 2 years ago

The Collapse of Puerto Rico’s Iconic Telescope

The uncertain future of the Arecibo Observatory, and the end of an era in space science. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 3 years ago

The Collapse of Puerto Rico's Iconic Telescope

The uncertain future of the Arecibo Observatory, and the end of an era in space science. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 3 years ago

Inside the Koch-Backed Effort to Block the Largest Election-Reform Bill in Half a Century

On a leaked conference call, leaders of dark-money groups and an aide to Mitch McConnell expressed frustration with the popularity of the legislation—even among Republican voters. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 3 years ago

The Secrets Philip Roth Didn’t Keep

Roth revealed himself to his biographer as he once revealed himself on the page, reckoning with both the pure and the perverse. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 3 years ago

Historical Revisionism: New Yorker claims Poland behind WWII death of 3M Jews

To exonerate the nation of the murders of three million Jews, the Polish government will go as far as to prosecute scholars for defamation. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 3 years ago

The Young Political Spaces of the Internet

How a new generation has embraced extreme views online. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 3 years ago

Beeple Crashed the Art World

An N.F.T., or “non-fungible token,” of the digital artist’s work sold for sixty-nine million dollars in a Christie’s auction. It’s good news for crypto-optimists, but what about for art? | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 3 years ago

Bassoonfluencers: The World of Instagram Practice Accounts

The bassoonist Morgan Davison is part of a flourishing micro-niche of online orchestral practicing. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 3 years ago

The Revolution in Classic Tetris

How a younger generation used the Internet to master the falling blocks. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 3 years ago

Bringing Keats Back to Life

To celebrate the two-hundredth anniversary of the poet’s death, a foundation created a C.G.I. rendering that looked and spoke like he did. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 3 years ago

What Data Can’t Do

When it comes to people—and policy—numbers are both powerful and perilous. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 3 years ago

Should Gig Work Be Government Run?

The labor reformer Wingham Rowan wants to reimagine labor markets for the digital age. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 3 years ago

The Bell Curve (2004)

The difference in effectiveness between treatment centers can be enormous. Historically, patients haven’t known this. So what happens when they find out? | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 3 years ago

Sherry Turkle's Plugged-In Year

The sociologist has critiqued our digital addictions. Now, like the rest of us, she’s been trapped behind her screens. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 3 years ago

How Politics Tested Ravelry and the Crafting Community

The Facebook of knitting and crocheting was a rare online haven. Then came the Pussyhat, Deplorable Knitter, and more. | Continue reading


@newyorker.com | 3 years ago