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British historians Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland offer a unique perspective on America's 250th anniversary, challenging the U.S. narrative of the Revolution by highlighting its lesser significance in British history and its entanglement with slavery. They delve into the complexities of the founding, including the hypocrisy of slaveholding revolutionaries and the concurrent rise of abolitionism in Britain. The conversation also explores Donald Trump's "colossally consequential" presidency as an expression of deep-seated American populism, contrasts British and American political cultures, and assesses the enduring nature of the British monarchy in the modern media landscape.
When “Jaws” hit theatres in 1975, no one—neither the studio executives involved nor the film’s twenty-six-year-old director, Steven Spielberg—was betting on its success. But it dominated at the box office and promptly revolutionized the way movies were promoted, distributed, and merchandised. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz trace how Spielberg inaugurated a new phenomenon in Hollywood: the blockbuster. He would tap his own playbook again ...
The former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sat down with David Remnick at the 92nd Street Y, in New York, on Monday evening, after the Trump Administration announced a memorandum of understanding to end its war in Iran. Remnick asked whether the United States lost this war. “Yes,” Clinton replied. “The United States has come out weaker. Iran has come out stronger.” According to Clinton, Israel repeatedly tried to pressure the Obama Administration into backing a similar action in Iran, but she...
The sports journalist Pablo Torre recently won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for audio reporting for an investigation on his podcast, “Pablo Torre Finds Out.” Torre talks with David Remnick about the challenge of investigative reporting in professional sports—where leagues, owners, players, and sometimes even fans don’t welcome hard questions. “As much as I am doing that and urging people to join me in the pool,” he says, “it kind of feels like I’m the guy who is the proverbial turd” in that pool. But...
When Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s son, Hersh, was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023, she became a prominent spokesperson for the families of Israeli hostages. Throughout Hersh’s captivity, and then after his murder, Goldberg-Polin, who was born in Chicago and emigrated to Israel in 2008, argued that Israel’s priority should be to bring the hostages home, and that the killing of all innocents, Israeli and Palestinian, must stop. She advocated with Israeli politicians, Pope Francis, and other l...
In April, the four crew members of NASA’s Artemis II mission were the first humans to ever glimpse something that cannot be seen from Earth—the so-called dark side of the moon. The mission’s commander, the former Navy captain Reid Wiseman, is fifty years old, which also makes him the oldest person ever to travel beyond low Earth orbit. Wiseman sat down recently with the New Yorker contributor David W. Brown. They talked about the challenge of NASA returning to the moon after many decades, Wisema...
Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of John F. Kennedy, was one of a number of Kennedy family members who spoke out against the policies and the character of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Schlossberg became a public figure on social media, often trolling the right, doing his imitation of Vladimir Putin, or claiming that Usha Vance was carrying his baby. But, when Schlossberg decided to run for an open seat in Congress, critics pointed to his lack of experience in governing, or even holding a job. In some wa...
In a guest appearance on WNYC’s “Brian Lehrer Show,” David Remnick, who hosts the New Yorker Radio Hour, discusses the Democratic Party’s identity crisis and the candidates vying in the midterm elections; the late newspaper magnate Donald Newhouse, and the importance of editorial independence in journalism; Remnick’s upcoming live taping at the Tribeca Festival, with “Pod Save America” ’s Jon Lovett, on June 10th; and, most important of all, the Knicks. Join David Remnick and Jon Lovett at the T...
Colson Whitehead is one the few novelists, and the only still alive, to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction—for “ The Underground Railroad ” and “ The Nickel Boys .” Whitehead’s protagonist in the Harlem trilogy is Ray Carney, a small-time crook who fences stolen goods while working as a furniture salesman. Ray first appeared in “ Harlem Shuffle ,” and the final book of the trilogy, “ Cool Machine ,” will be published in July. David Remnick and Whitehead discuss the trilogy’s second book, “ Croo...
Dan Osborn, an independent Senate candidate from Nebraska, shares his journey from a blue-collar mechanic and union president to a political hopeful. He explains his decision to run without party affiliation, critiques the influence of money in politics, and highlights how his campaign is funded by small donations. Osborn also addresses his nuanced views on fiscal policy, social issues, and the impact of national policies on Nebraska's agricultural sector, offering a unique perspective shaped by working-class experiences and a commitment to principles over party.
The Trump Administration has made little secret of its desire to dismantle the Federal Emergency Management Agency and give states the responsibility to respond to all manner of natural disasters on their own. FEMA has endured tremendous internal strife over leadership, and reports have suggested its mission has been compromised by partisan decision-making: President Trump—the sole arbiter of who ultimately gets FEMA relief—has rejected aid for Democratic-led states at the highest rate in the ag...
There will be a variety of celebrations to honor America’s two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary this year. Much of it is to be expected: fireworks, red, white, and blue lights, even a military parade. But something else is happening, something that probably wouldn’t occur if anyone other than Donald Trump were President. The Ultimate Fighting Championship, the premier league for mixed martial arts, is staging a fight at the White House. The U.F.C. was founded in 1993, and exploded in popularity ...
The staff writer and historian Jill Lepore is an admirer of the Federal Writers’ Project, and the man-on-the-street form of documentary it helped to pioneer. This type of journalism, she thinks, is integral to the democratic project. As part of a special episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour, Lepore collaborated with the audio-storytelling group Transom to create a new documentary on how Americans perceive their country on the eve of its two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary. Producers conducted i...
The two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence arrives during intense disputes about American history, as the Trump Administration demands a more glorifying view of the nation’s past at federally run historical sites and in federally funded projects. The staff writer Jill Lepore (who won the Pulitzer Prize in History this month for her book “ We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution ”) guest-hosts a special episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour about this fra...
Harriet Clark’s novel, “ The Hill ,” is one of the most anticipated works of fiction of the year. It’s a story of a girl growing up visiting her mother, who is serving a life sentence in prison for a politically motivated crime. And although “The Hill” is a work of fiction, it follows the contours of Clark’s own life closely: her mother is Judy Clark, who drove a getaway car after a robbery in which two police officers and a security guard were killed. One of “The Hill” ’s enthusiastic admirers ...
Peter Slevin interviews Barack Obama about his post-presidency in the Trump era, exploring the public's desire for his increased involvement versus his family's wish for a quieter life. Obama admits to underestimating Trump's impact and candidly shares his diminished confidence in America's future. He outlines his focus on mentoring a new generation of leaders through the Obama Presidential Center, while grappling with ongoing political challenges and personal attacks.
Most basketball fans first took note of Steve Kerr when he played for the Chicago Bulls in the nineteen-nineties, but it’s through coaching that Kerr really came to the fore in the N.B.A. For more than twelve years, he’s led the Golden State Warriors to four titles, and a record seventy-three-win season, in 2016. He also took home an Olympic gold medal as the coach of the U.S. men’s team in 2024. Kerr has used his platform, at times, to wade into politics. He’s spoken at the Democratic National ...
In the governor’s race in California, the leading Republican candidate appears to be Steve Hilton, a British-born political consultant and former Fox News contributor. Hilton has been endorsed by Donald Trump, which may not help him in the heavily Democratic state. His lead may owe something to California’s unusual primary system, but it’s not the first time a Republican has had a strong showing in the state: former Republican governors include Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Hilton is ...
Emma Copley Eisenberg is the author of a new collection of short stories entitled “ Fat Swim .” Her work questions body image and the suppression of fatness in contemporary culture; Eisenberg recently paid for a billboard over a busy highway in Philadelphia bearing the slogan “Your gut is a terrible thing to lose.” Eisenberg talked with The New Yorker’s Jennifer Wilson about using fiction to explore body image, and the fatphobia that she finds in literature by some of today’s acclaimed writers. ...
One of Donald Trump’s few critics within his party is the libertarian-leaning senator Rand Paul, from Kentucky. Paul was recently the sole Republican to vote in favor of restricting the President’s power to make war in Iran. He also opposed Trump on tariff policy, and on his budget bill in 2025. “He loves voting ‘NO’ on everything,” the President fumed. Paul ran for President in 2016, and is considering another run for the White House in 2028. He talks with David Remnick about how he would diffe...
When Patrick Radden Keefe was living in London while shooting the TV adaptation of his book “ Say Nothing ,” he heard about a teen-ager who fell from a luxurious apartment tower in mysterious circumstances. As he looked into it, he learned that the boy, Zac Brettler, had assumed an alternate identity as the son of a Russian oligarch, and had connected with dangerous people—just as mysterious. His story in The New Yorker , “ A Teen’s Fatal Plunge into the London Underworld ,” became the basis of ...
Omer Bartov is an Israeli professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University. He grew up in a Zionist home and served as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, but he has long been concerned about Israel’s use of military power. In a new book called “ Israel: What Went Wrong? ,” Bartov argues that Zionism has morphed into an ideology of extremism that led to genocide in Gaza following the Hamas attacks of October 7th. “There is growing criticism of American support for these kinds...
Anna Wintour graces the cover of Vogue’s May issue alongside her theatrical double: Meryl Streep in the role of Miranda Priestly, from “The Devil Wears Prada,” whose much-anticipated sequel comes out on May 1st. Wintour and David Remnick spoke last fall on the day that a sea change took place at Vogue : it was announced that Chloe Malle would take over the editorial direction of the American edition of the publication. They discussed her storied career; her decision to wear Prada to the premiére...
At the end of February, OpenAI’s C.E.O., Sam Altman, made headlines by swiftly cutting a deal with the Pentagon for his company to replace Anthropic, which had balked at the Trump Administration’s bid to use its A.I. technology to power autonomous weapons and aid in mass surveillance. Days earlier, Altman had publicly supported Anthropic’s position in the dispute. Altman’s rise to power and his founding of OpenAI were predicated on placing safety above other concerns in developing artificial gen...
The New Yorker staff writer Louisa Thomas, who writes the Sporting Scene column, talks with David Remnick about the biggest basketball stories this season: how LeBron James embraced a new late-career persona as a great supporting player for the Los Angeles Lakers; the coaching genius of the Celtics’ Joe Mazzulla; and the ongoing scandal over teams deliberately tanking games to secure better prospects in the N.B.A. draft. Further reading: “ How Much Is a Home Team Worth? ,” by Louisa Thomas “ LeB...
In 2021, when Olga Rudenko and other journalists launched the English-language news outlet the Kyiv Independent , they were committed to making a publication that wouldn’t face political pressure from an owner. A few months later, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the Independent began reporting breaking news from the front lines, and conducting investigations of the Ukrainian government. David Remnick talks with Rudenko, the Independent’s editor-in-chief, about the challenge...
Thousands of federal prosecutors have been fired or have resigned from their roles since Pam Bondi took over as Attorney General. She has made no secret of weaponizing the Justice Department to pursue Donald Trump’s vendettas. One of those prosecutors is Troy Edwards, who quit a senior national-security position in the Eastern District of Virginia. As an assistant U.S. attorney in DC, Edwardshad won convictions against members of the Oath Keepers for January 6th-related offenses. Edwards is also...
The new play “Giant,” on Broadway, dramatizes the scandal around Roald Dahl, the beloved children’s-book author who, in the nineteen-eighties, began making antisemitic statements and invoking stereotypes about Jewish influence. John Lithgow portrays Dahl as he faces off against his American publisher, who presses him to retract his statements. The events that the show focusses on took place more than forty years ago, but they couldn’t be more relevant today, as antisemitism surges during a war i...
Julio Torres got his big break as a writer on “Saturday Night Live,” and went on to make the cult favorites “Los Espookys” and “Fantasmas” for HBO. He also wrote and directed the film “Problemista,” about a toy designer facing deportation. There’s a particular kind of surrealism to Torres’s humor; “I just don’t think his mind works quite like anyone else’s,” the staff writer Michael Schulman says, comparing Torres to “a guest lecturer at an art school . . . laying out his very particular way of ...
The staff writer Jon Lee Anderson has reported from Cuba for many years, and recently wrote about the deteriorating economic conditions on the island. His newest piece for the magazine dives into the potential outcomes of Donald Trump’s desire to pursue regime change. Anderson explores the economic impact of the United States blocking Venezuelan oil from reaching Cuba, which could be a death knell for the Communist government. Anderson and David Remnick discuss the current negotiations between t...
