The Secret Life of James Dean
Never-before-seen correspondence sheds fresh light on the 1950s Hollywood heartthrob’s long-speculated-about sexuality
Welcome to Trumpomuskovia!
Timothy Snyder, the author of the best-selling On Tyranny, discusses the new era of American oligarchs and explains why Trump is little, while Musk is big
Deadly Pleasures to Read and Listen To
Courtroom dramas in the form of Scott Turow’s latest novel and a true-crime podcast are this month’s best mysteries
A Fairly Mixed-Up Young Man
In 2015 (ages before Rivals!), Alex Hassell grabbed the brass ring as Shakespeare’s Henry V
Silvia Tcherassi’s Guide to Cartagena
The Colombian fashion designer shares her favorite spots in the port city
When Film Set the Fashion
Theadora Van Runkle—the costume designer behind Bonnie and Clyde, Bullitt, and The Thomas Crown Affair—defined Hollywood cool
A Champion for Clara
Alexandra Dariescu makes a specialty of the other Schumann piano concerto
Where to Escape from 2025
On this week’s podcast, Pico Iyer discusses his favorite retreat in the world and the power of reflection
The Kid Stays Out of the Picture
In a secluded monastery perched high above the Pacific, one writer discovered the monk’s greatest gifts: Bob Evans and getting away from it all
Car Trouble
Written by Ian Fleming with a screenplay by Roald Dahl, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang remains a strange yet scrumptious children’s classic—but it barely made it to the screen
Of Course It Kills Them
The secret inspiration for Ernest Hemingway’s greatest novel
Grit and Glam
From tabloid shots in New York to portraits of Hollywood stars, the Ukrainian photographer Weegee did it all
Bunkers on Broadway
The playwright Patrick Marber has long struggled with tackling the Holocaust onstage. But now he’s happily directing a revival of Mel Brooks’s The Producers—complete with high-kicking storm troopers
Crafting Modernity
An exhibition of tapestries by Joan Miró, Henri Matisse, Alexander Calder, and others celebrates the craft’s 20th-century shift from classicism to modernism
The World in Watercolor
Adam Van Doren’s paintings, inspired by J. M. W. Turner and John Singer Sargent, go on show in Boston
How Two Cops in 80s Miami Set the Mold for The Sopranos
On this week’s podcast, Josh Karp looks at Miami Vice on its 40th anniversary, and how it changed TV
Reel Treasure
Anthony Quinn, Gregory Peck, and Omar Sharif battle it out in the forgotten film version of an Emeric Pressburger novel
Maeve Brennan’s New York
The collected stories of a mid-20th-century Irish writer in Manhattan recall a bygone era of Truman Capote and 50-cent martinis
A “Modern-Day Casablanca”
How Miami Vice brought Hollywood-size ambition to the small screen—and sold a lot of Ray-Bans
