Misery Porn
Blonde is sexist, cruel, and degrading—so why is it currently the No. 1 film on Netflix?
Lift Every Voice and Sing
From Heartbeat Opera, a Fidelio for our time
Before Gwyneth Paltrow, There Was Lydia E. Pinkham
For a time, the face of a popular yet ineffective health tonic was the most recognizable woman in America. Her marketing set the stage for today’s $4.4 trillion wellness industry
Whine O’Clock
Just in time for next week’s return of Archetypes … What if Meghan Markle and First Lady Imelda Marcos reclaimed the word “diva” and didn’t kiss any frogs?
Caio Twombly
The 26-year-old curator spotlights young artists at his new East Village gallery
Anthony Bourdain’s Last Days, Revisited
How the chef’s biographer got past the guardrails of France’s Le Chambard hotel and into the room where Bourdain took his last breath
How a Rollicking New Play Came to Be
John Lithgow and Douglas McGrath take us inside the making of their new Off Broadway show
Murder, They Wrote
Mystery books past and present honor Queen Elizabeth II and the kingdom she leaves behind
The Anxiety of Assimilation
The powerful new play Leopoldstadt mirrors its author’s journey from Tomáš Sträussler to Tom Stoppard
Turning Point
Patrice Chéreau’s “Centennial Ring” at the Bayreuth Festival in 1976 changed history
Staff Picks
Don’t miss a look back at the 1920s’ most transfixing murder, the final installment of a three-part history of Napoleon, and a robust argument for prison reform
Mind Games
The New Yorker writer Rachel Aviv, whose debut book is out now, discusses mental illness in its many forms
Memories of Mantel
Hilary Mantel’s longtime editor remembers the singular talent and warm generosity of the writer who brought us the Thomas Cromwell trilogy
Abbott and Costello Go to Bat Against Monkeypox
And the result is a comedy of errors
The Last Laugh
Fawlty Towers could never be made today. But 47 years after it premiered, the show still perfectly captures a certain type of small-minded, social-climbing, xenophobic Englishman who is now all but extinct
Their Back Pages
The Byrds invented folk rock and went on to become founding fathers of psychedelic rock, jazz rock, and country rock. A new book revisits the band’s mid-60s prime