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Culture and Ideas
Book reviews, cultural critiques, essays on the zeitgeist, and profiles of the avant-garde.
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My Week Trying to Get Rich on Prediction Markets
Joe Nocera ditched his day job and disappeared into the world of Kalshi to see why it is a booming business. It was obsessive, exhilarating, and…
Joe Nocera
The Art World Has a Theft Problem
Stolen art is hard to move, but a market does exist. Prosecuting the buyers is the only fix.
Matthew Campbell
Inside the Crowd at Trump’s Big Fight
‘It’s the president’s birthday, somebody needs to get knocked out,’ said one of the guys I watched UFC Freedom 250 with.
River Page
Steven Spielberg’s ‘Disclosure Day’ Is a Dud
In an era primed for a great UFO movie, the film arrives with impeccable timing and almost nothing interesting to say.
Will Rahn
Olivia Rodrigo Murdered Her Love Songs
It was supposed to be about a happy relationship—but when her heart got broken, she rewrote her lyrics for a generation cynical about love.
Kat Rosenfield
The Death of the Summer Job
When I was a teenager, the end of school meant it was time to get to work. Summers spent busing tables were more transformative than a trip to Europe.
Larissa Phillips
New York Needs Gustavo Dudamel
The New York Philharmonic has spent years chasing politics and prestige. The celebrated conductor will bring back the one thing that matters: music.
Liel Leibovitz
The Patriotic Case for the World Cup
To the Americans who spent their childhoods racing through the wet grass of suburban soccer fields—and who eventually traded soccer for something else…
Jillian Lederman
‘Love Island’ Fans Are Awful
The contestants are young, dumb, and unbelievably hot. Yet spectators demand that none of them ever, ever made a teenage mistake on the internet.
Kara Kennedy
The Show Millennial Moms Can’t Stop Watching
‘Off Campus’ is about college kids hooking up and falling out—so why can’t happily married fortysomethings stop watching?
Dana Schuster
Rafael Nadal and the Price of Greatness
‘Rafa,’ the new Netflix documentary about Rafael Nadal, isn’t just about why the great tennis player was willing to endure so much but whether it was…
Joe Nocera
The Ideologues Are Wrong About ‘Obsession’
Feminists think the horror film is about the toxicity of the Nice Guy; the manosphere argues that it proves women are crazy. But it’s much deeper and…
Kat Rosenfield
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