The Living-Room M.F.A.
As the cost of graduate writing programs goes up and the degree’s perceived value declines, alternatives are springing up far from campus
The Ives Conundrum
Celebrating 150 years of Charles Ives, the masterful American composer we’re still quick to dismiss as a crank
Ave Maria!
She got Rudy Giuliani to fiddle with his crotch in the Borat sequel. Now Maria Bakalova steals the show as Ivana Trump in the new movie The Apprentice
A Lotta Ins, a Lotta Outs, a Lotta What-Have-Yous
The origin—and immortality—of The Big Lebowski
The Sinner of City Hall
There was a time when New Yorkers loved a fun-loving, hard-partying, bribe-taking, crony-rewarding mayor
Rosario Candela’s New York
The Jazz Age architect invented penthouse living, remaking the city’s skyline—and attracting buyers including Jackie O—along the way
Does It Be Best?
Melania Trump’s book is the red Christmas tree of First Lady memoirs
This Little Light of Mine
How the secret “cabin songs” of the enslaved took over the world
Luke Edward Hall’s Guide to London
The British artist and designer shares his favorite spots in his adopted city
The Breakfast Clubs
America’s morning television brightens the day but deadens the soul. Not the case in the U.K., where the shows are so bizarre, they can’t help but delight
Theft on the Nile
How a pair of intrepid, 19th-century British women smuggled an ancient coffin right out from under the noses of Egyptian site guards
The Invisible Man
Accompanying a retrospective in Barcelona, a new book collects more than 150 photographs by Louis Stettner, who captured the trials and triumphs of the 20th century’s working class while remaining virtually unknown
James Carville on What Kamala Needs to Do to Win
On this week’s podcast, the brains behind Bill Clinton’s upset victory looks at the current race
Dream Machines
Jean Tinguely’s kinetic sculptures come alive at Pirelli HangarBicocca, a contemporary-art space in Milan
Lunch with Lee Daniels
On this week’s episode of Table for Two, Lee Daniels reveals how Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor inspired him to become a director
Ariella Glaser
The 19-year-old actress discusses her first starring role, in White Bird, alongside Helen Mirren
We Are Family (for Now … )
Elliot Grainge is about to join his father, Sir Lucian Grainge, atop the global music industry. Is he a nepo baby? Or a patricide in the making?
Dirty Beast
Roald Dahl’s sadistic brilliance and disturbing anti-Semitism are the centerpiece of a dazzling new play at London’s Royal Court Theatre
Not So “Easy Peasy”
Although commonplace in American and British jargon today, the origins of this popular phrase remain nebulous
