Open Questions In “The Score,” the philosopher C. Thi Nguyen argues that play is the meaning of life. January 9, 2026 Illustration by Josie Norton You’re reading Open Questions, Joshua Rothman’s weekly column exploring what it means to be human. Every summer for the past few years, I’ve taught a…

Why in some games is it fun and satisfying to try to increase your score, C. Thi Nguyen asks, while in other games it can crush your spirit?Credit...Video by Alex Goodlett For The New York Times In a new book, C. Thi Nguyen looks to his personal passions — from video games to yo-yoing — to…

As I write this in early 2025, a quiet revolution is unfolding within the U.S. government. Inside the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), teams of young tech operatives are systematically dismantling democratic institutions and replacing them with proprietary artificial…

By now you will have probably read thousands of words about Trump’s sweeping election victory, so what can I hope to add? The biggest puzzle for me, and I suspect many others both inside and outside the US, has always been to understand Trump’s appeal to voters. After all, unlike 2016, this time…

For liberals, Donald Trump’s victory this week prompts adjectives like scary, terrifying, depressing, and demoralizing. But one word it should not evoke is this: surprising. In a downwardly mobile country, Democrats’ rejection of working-class politics — and the party’s open hostility to populist…

I woke up yesterday morning to learn that Don Trump—the famed rapist, convicted felon, and white christian presidential candidate—had mimed performing a blowjob on his microphone stand to the clear delight of his crowd. There's a famous Christian thinker named Jesus H. Christ who you may have heard…

Mung bean liang fen (jelly) crowned with raw green Sichuan pepper.Credit...Photograph by Anthony Cotsifas. Set design by Martin Bourne. Food styling by Suea food matters The mouth-numbing spice — more popular than ever in the West — remind us why we seek out unfamiliar tastes. Mung bean liang fen…

Joe Biden was about to become president, and the Alito household was in distress. On May 16, the New York Times reported that, during the tense period between the January 6 insurrection and Biden’s in

The Supreme Court of the United States did a grave disservice to both the Constitution and the nation in Trump v. Anderson. In a stunning disfigurement of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Court impressed

"This is not subjective. We all saw it. Plenty of leaders today try to convince the masses we did not see what we saw, but our eyes don’t deceive. (If leaders began a yearslong campaign today to convince us that the Baltimore bridge did not collapse Tuesday morning, would you ever believe them?)…

This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here. For most of his life

In the late nineteen-nineties, a neuroscientist named Mark Blumberg stood in a lab at the University of Iowa watching a litter of sleeping rats. Blumberg was then on the cusp of forty; the rats were n

When Bill Watterson walked away from Calvin and Hobbes in 1995, he was exhausted. The comic strip had consumed ten years of his life, the latter half of which were spent fighting his syndicate for cre

Clarence and Ginni Thomas in October 1991. Photo: Harry Benson This article was featured in One Great Story , New York’ s reading recommendation newsletter. Sign up here to get it nightly. Clarence Th

A few months before the midterms, with pollsters spewing red wave predictions and post-Roe conservatives planning to force raped children to give birth, a bit of political news added to progressives’

In the winter of 2005, Elizabeth Hargrave, a health policy analyst, took a ski trip with a group of friends from her church. The problem was, she said, she grew up in Florida, “and I don’t actually en

‘They Thought It Was Black Magic’: An Oral History of TiVo How the original DVR paved the way for Netflix and the cord-cutter movement Published inOneZero · 21 min read· Apr 2, 2019 -- It’s hard to be

The American media, over the past year, has been trying to work out something of a mystery: Why is the Republican electorate supporting a far-right, orange-toned populist with no real political experi

Today marks the 16-month anniversary of Donald Trump becoming the 45th president of the United States, and nowhere has our unlikeliest commander-in-chief placed a greater stamp on America's place in t

In the Great American Indian novel, when it is finally written, all of the white people will be Indians and all of the Indians will be ghosts. —Sherman Alexie, How to Write the Great American Indian N

“A Human Stain” by Kelly Robson is a disturbing horror novelette about a British expatriate at loose ends who is hired by her friend to temporarily care for his young, orphaned nephew in a remote cast

Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War. Film Frame..©Marvel Studios 2018 A Tale of Two Scenes Ever watched a film with a friend where you both have completely different reactions to the same exact moment? Yo

Search Find anything you save across the site in your account The Political Scene How the Administration’s loyalists are quietly reshaping American governance. May 14, 2018 Amid purges, infighting, an

Economics Economics Indicators Central Banks Jobs Trade Tax & Spend Inflation & Prices Economics Turkey’s Credit Outlook Raised by Fitch as New Policies Pay Off Economics Portugal’s Outlook Raised to

On the afternoon of November 8, 2016, Kellyanne Conway settled into her glass office at Trump Tower. Right up until the last weeks of the race, the campaign headquarters had remained a listless place.

Ali Zaidi was five years old when his parents moved him from Pakistan to the United States, in 1993. Later he’d marvel at American parents who agonized over the trauma that some trivial relocation—say

The former House speaker feels liberated—but he’s also seething about what happened to his party. Former House Speaker John Boehner tinkers with his lawn mower. | Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Poli

1. In The Way In·ter·sec·tion·al·i·ty: the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlappin

The most important book ever written on presidential impeachment is only 69 pages long. Charles Black, Jr.,’s Impeachment: A Handbook was published in the summer of 1974, at the height of the Watergat

On Wednesday Fox News announced that it would sever ties with Bill O’Reilly in response to multiple charges of sexual harassment and the retreat of a number of sponsors from "The O’Reilly Factor." Wit

The real-estate market in any sophisticated city reflects deep aspirations and fears. If you had a feel for its ups and downs—if you understood, say, why young parents were picking this neighborhood a

Comey Tried to Shield the F.B.I. From Politics. Then He Shaped an Election. James B. Comey. WASHINGTON — The day before he upended the 2016 election, James B. Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau

“The folksiness will irk some critics … But criticizing Friedman for humanizing and boiling down big topics is like complaining that Mick Jagger used sex to sell songs: It is what he does well.” –John

Latino protesters wave signs during a march and rally against the election of Republican Donald Trump as president of the United States in Los Angeles on November 12. Latino protesters wave signs duri

1. "THE CORE" STAR WARS. THOSE TWO WORDS CAN ELICIT ENTIRE WORLDS OF THOUGHT. SAY THEM AND IT'S NOT JUST A SINGULAR NOTION THAT COMES TO MIND, INSTEAD AN ENTIRE HISTORY BEGINS RATTLING AROUND IN OUR B

TO PROPERLY GET AT A DIFFICULT IDEA, SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO START AT THE BEGINNING. * * * 1. ON DIALOGUES THE WORD "FEMINISM" MEANS MANY DIFFERENT THINGS TO MANY DIFFERENT PEOPLE. BRING THE WORD UP IN ANY SOCIAL CONNOTATION AND THAT FACT BECOMES PRETTY OBVIOUS. ITS MEANING CAN RUN THE SPECTRUM OF…