All Hail the King
A new book looks back at the singular life and illustrious career of American singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole
Not Your Classic Hollywood Ending
The Game of Thrones finale is as controversial today as it was the night it first aired, in 2019. Now we know why
Opera Pick of the Week
With the recital album Baritenor, the singer-scholar Michael Spyres mines music history for sheer delight
Highsmith Confidential
Newly released diaries reveal Patricia Highsmith’s affair with a married woman—and an uncharacteristically tender side to the infamous author
The Lost Boys of Fiction
Oh where, oh where have the young male novelists gone?
Blurred Lines
Kurt Vonnegut’s notes and early drafts provide the missing link between his fictional characters and his own personal life
The Podcast You Need
Smart takes, a new issue, and the skinny on Squid Game. Morning Meeting has it all
Victimhood Goes Mad
The tribulations of the brainy and beautiful. Tiny violins, please!
The Boss of Ted Lasso
Hannah Waddingham has found stardom and an Emmy as the accidental owner of A.F.C. Richmond
A Man for All Seasons
From fashion to film to a stint at magazine editing, Tom Ford does it all. In the foreword to a new book, the author tries to describe how Ford became Tom Ford
Body and Soul
Soul music to make you move, from Billy Preston, Prince, George Duke, D’Angelo, and more
The Last Picture Show
The illustrious illustrator recalls the humble 1950s graphic publication with big dreams he founded on a whim with Seymour Chwast and Milton Glaser
Shows and Tales
A new oral history brings back the glory days of the rock concert, starting with rock’s post–World War II R&B roots and going all the way through 1985’s Live Aid
Mann, Uninterrupted
Aimee Mann, who provided the songs for Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia and was one of the Big Lebowski nihilists, has a new album
The Squid Game Secret
People have chalked up the South Korean TV show’s unprecedented popularity to word of mouth. Here’s the real source of its success
Jaden Michael
Colin Kaepernick meets his match in the star who plays him as an aspiring high-school football player grappling with racism in Colin in Black & White
Staff Picks
This week, don’t miss a collection of letters by writers from Beckett to Vonnegut; a history of the 13th Tour de France; and a guide to the world’s most peculiar foods
