How Marlon Brando Almost Torpedoed One of His Greatest Roles
On this week’s podcast, Stephen Rebello goes inside On the Waterfront
Spies Like Us
With Michael Fassbender heading up a starry cast that includes Richard Gere and Jeffrey Wright, can The Agency match its peerless French forebear, Le Bureau?
Down and Dirty On the Waterfront
How the classic film, made in the wake of the McCarthy-era Red-hunting trials, pitted director Elia Kazan against star Marlon Brando
The Payday of the Jackal
When Frederick Forsyth wrote his groundbreaking thriller, he had no idea how successful—or how enduring—his tale of an assassin would be
Flameout
At the Paris Opera, a Handmaid’s Tale makeover for Spontini’s Napoleonic La Vestale
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss an homage to New Yorker cartoonists, a biography of the brash newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin, and a heartwarming novel set in a small Irish town
Alicja Kwade’s Guide to Berlin
The Polish artist shares her favorite spots in her adopted city
The Dorothy Parker Tapes
A biographer of the great 20th-century wit goes in search of 12 hours’ worth of lost recordings made by Gloria Vanderbilt’s husband Wyatt Cooper
Teenage Wasteland
A new book of photographs by Beth Garrabrant—the artist behind Taylor Swift’s recent album covers—documents youth in the American suburbs
High Noonan
The Pulitzer Prize–winning political columnist Peggy Noonan discusses her note from Trump, the surprising reason why he is not a Neanderthal, and writing in Edmund Burke for president
Deadly Pleasures to Read and Watch
Distract yourself from real-life nightmares with this month’s best mystery book and TV series
Paradise Found
Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania’s celebrated arboretum and a pioneer public garden, unveils its new, 17-acre expansion
Inside the Mysterious Murder of Sean Combs’s Father
On this week’s podcast, Legs McNeil details how the death of the rapper’s father may have influenced him
Lunch with Amy Sedaris
On this week’s episode of Table for Two, the comedian and Mandalorian actress comes clean about her tanorexia, the Girl Scout badges she didn’t get, and her obsession with high heels
Mekki Leeper
The Emmy-nominated Jury Duty and Sex Lives of College Girls actor stars in the new mockumentary sitcom St. Denis Medical
The Mysteries Continue
The gift that even Scrooge can’t resist? A subscription to the best spy novels of all time, curated by the London bookseller Heywood Hill
The High Priestess of Grind House
Stephanie Rothman was a rare female director in 1970s Hollywood. What kept her from following in the footsteps of Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese?
Let Them Drink Vodka
The statewide water shortage is driving New Yorkers to desperate measures
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss the tale of Genghis Khan’s grandson, an examination of Queen Victoria’s relationships with her prime ministers, and a biography of the Brothers Grimm