January 3, 2026 – Air Mail

THE ODD COUPLE

David Margolick reveals how hustler-producer Lawrence Schiller battled and bonded with Norman Mailer to create a Marilyn Monroe biography, in part two of our series …

ONE FOR THE MONEY

If the 60s were Swinging, what are the 2020s? Helen Schulman argues we’re in the Smash-and-Grab Decade, driven by brazen power grabs and public acquiescence …

SEE YOU IN COURT

When screenwriter Michael Elias found himself playing tennis with fugitive from justice Abbie Hoffman, Hollywood superficiality collided with firebrand radicalism …

THE REICH STUFF

The murder of a college student in affluent Orange County exposes the hidden networks of neo-Nazis, online radicalization, and white-supremacist violence reshaping America …

BEAUTY SLEEP

From $5,000 smart mattresses to sleep-engineered private jets, the ultra-wealthy have turned rest into the next frontier of performance optimization …

WEARING THIN

As Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs remake our bodies, users are discovering something more unsettling: being skinny confers a powerful—and deeply unequal—social advantage …

AND GOD CREATED WOMEN

A new coffee-table book pays tribute to 13 female film luminaries of the French New Wave, from Brigitte Bardot to Jean Seberg …

BUT, WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

Turner’s watercolors light up Scotland’s gloomy winters … Emily Bader stars in Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation … our wellness guide for starting 2026 off right … and friends of AIR MAIL share their insider’s guides to cities around the world, from Nashville to Cairo …

Issue No. 338

The View from Here Every decade has a reigning ethos—a Zeitgeist, as the Germans say. In the 2020s, it’s smash-and-grab

By Helen Schulman

Read On

The Oddest Couple in American Literature: Part II Norman Mailer and Lawrence Schiller’s Marilyn: A Biography sold more copies than anything Mailer ever wrote. He also believed it cost him a Nobel Prize

By David Margolick

Read On

The Weekly Waffle

A positively addictive word game to go with your morning coffee

Playing Tennis with Abbie Hoffman It’s 1974, you’re a Los Angeles sitcom writer, and you’ve just been asked to hit some balls with a notorious fugitive from justice. Where’s your racket?

By Michael Elias

Read On

Living the Dream Money can’t buy happiness, but from $5,000 smart mattress covers to circadian-tuned private jets, the .1 percent is determined to buy a good night’s sleep

By Andrew Zucker

Read On

New Year, New Wellness

Here’s to a fresh start that looks suspiciously like last year, but with new ways to drain your lymph. AIR SUPPLY has Esker Lymphatic Drainage Dots, Dyson’s formaldehyde purifier, and more

Shop

Photo: Jack Mitchell/Getty Images (Swanson)

Amaryllis Fraser’s Favorite Things The U.K.-based intuitive keeps her energy aligned with Theodora Warre earrings, a Filson duffel, and Vyrao Witchy Woo

Shop

supplement Biologica Hormones are real, and science is finally catching up. Biologica’s effervescent sachet delivers everything a woman needs…

look Elton John: Icon Elton John’s first photo shoot was in January 1968, a year before his debut album released. But he wasn’t exactly “Elton John” then…

shop ATM A lot of designers claim they have created the perfect T-shirt. Anthony Melillo actually did it—and it became the foundation…

dine Aki It’s not as easy to find a decent meal in central London as it might seem. Its finest restaurants skew heavy and classic English…

read The Pub What better way to avoid the terrors of Dry January than by sneaking yourself into the cozy snug of The Pub…

listen Jorma Kaukonen The peerless acoustic-blues guitar picker Jorma Kaukonen turned 85 on December 23and is in the midst of a celebratory tour…

supplement Biologica Hormones are real, and science is finally catching up. Biologica’s effervescent sachet delivers everything a woman needs…

look Elton John: Icon Elton John’s first photo shoot was in January 1968, a year before his debut album released. But he wasn’t exactly “Elton John” then…

shop ATM A lot of designers claim they have created the perfect T-shirt. Anthony Melillo actually did it—and it became the foundation…

dine Aki It’s not as easy to find a decent meal in central London as it might seem. Its finest restaurants skew heavy and classic English…

read The Pub What better way to avoid the terrors of Dry January than by sneaking yourself into the cozy snug of The Pub…

listen Jorma Kaukonen The peerless acoustic-blues guitar picker Jorma Kaukonen turned 85 on December 23and is in the midst of a celebratory tour…

“I start every year vowing not to make the same mistakes. That’s my first mistake.”

Pretty Privilege for Sale GLP-1s are making it possible to rig the genetic lottery. What happens to the people who can’t afford them?

By Aimee Donnellan

Read On

Stockholm

Maria Veerasamy, the C.E.O. of the interior design company Svenskt Tenn, shares her favorite spots in the Swedish capital…

Tangier

Jasper Conran, who turned Saint Laurent’s former home into the Villa Mabrouka hotel, shares his guide to the Moroccan coastal city…

New York

Thelma Golden, the chief curator of the Studio Museum, not to mention a Harlem fixture, shows us around the neighborhood…

Nashville

Dolly Parton shares her guide to performance venues and other sights in the town where she she became a star…

Cairo

Laila Gohar, New York’s favorite culinary artist, takes us across her favorite spots in the city where she grew up…

Paris

The founder of Bureau Betak, Alexandre de Betak, tells all on the antiques and furniture stores that inspire his work…

Promising Young Women Jean Seberg, Brigitte Bardot, Jeanne Moreau, Agnès Varda … a coffee-table book pays tribute to the women of the French New Wave

14

Anna Karina in *A Woman Is a Woman,* directed by Jean-Luc Godard, 1961.

*Top,* Louisa Colpeyn and Karina in *Band of Outsiders,* by Godard, 1964; *above,* Catherine Deneuve in *The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,* by Jacques Demy, 1964.

A poster for *A Married Woman,* by Godard, 1964.

*Top,* Corinne Marchand in *Cléo from 5 to 7,* by Agnès Varda, 1962; *above,* Varda on the set of *Le Bonheur,* 1965.

Brigitte Bardot, photographed by Sam Lévin for *Contempt,* by Godard, 1963.

*Top,* Françoise Fabian in *My Night at Maud’s,* by Éric Rohmer, 1969; *above,* Karina behind the camera for her film *Vivre Ensemble,* 1973.

Jean Seberg in *Bonjour Tristesse,* by Otto Preminger, 1958.

*Top,* Jeanne Moreau and Jean-Marc Bory in *The Lovers,* by Louis Malle, 1958; *above,* Haydée Politoff in *La Collectionneuse,* by Rohmer, 1967.

Moreau and Miles Davis during the recording of the soundtrack for *Elevator to the Gallows,* by Malle, 1958.

Bardot on a poster for *Plucking the Daisy,* by Marc Allégret, 1956.

*Top,* Bernard Noël and Macha Méril in *A Married Woman; above,* Delphine Seyrig in *Stolen Kisses,* by François Truffaut, 1968.

Françoise Dorléac in *The Soft Skin,* by Truffaut, 1964.

*Top,* Deneuve and Dorléac in *The Young Girls of Rochefort,* by Demy, 1967; *above,* Moreau and Serge Rezvani in *Jules and Jim,* by Truffaut, 1962.

Marie-France Pisier in *French Postcards,* by Willard Huyck, 1979.

Read On

Wendell Jamieson On

American Reich: A Murder in Orange County, Neo-Nazis, and a New Age of Hate

by Eric Lichtblau

Read On

“Listen up. We unload the frankincense and the myrrh, and we don’t know nothin’ about no gold. Capiche? ” — “Listen up. We unload the frankincense and the myrrh, and we don’t know nothin’ about no gold. *Capiche?* ”

Emily Bader Armed with a natural curiosity and a lifelong love of romance, the 29-year-old actress is taking on the lead role in the eagerly anticipated film adaptation of Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation

By Paulina Prosnitz

Read On

Ostend Harbour, by J. M. W. Turner, circa 1840.

Every January 1 since 1901, small crowds have gathered outside the national galleries in Dublin and Edinburgh. For just one month, precious watercolor paintings by the English Romantic artist J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851) are on view, gifts to both institutions from one of Victorian Britain’s greatest art collectors, Henry Vaughan. READ ON

Read On

Was Founded By

Graydon Carter and Alessandra Stanley

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Julia Vitale

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John Tornow

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Ashley Baker Ash Carter Elena Clavarino George Pendle

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Ann Schneider

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Paloma Huerre

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H. Scott Jolley

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Carolina de Armas Jeanne Malle Paulina Prosnitz

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Emine Sevim

Designer

Zoé Gillette

Columnists

Dana Brown Cazzie David Lisa Henricksson
Walter Isaacson Pico Iyer Rachel Johnson
John Lahr Jonathan Margolis Linda Wells
James Wolcott

Writers at Large

Lili Anolik Johanna Berkman Joseph Bullmore Spike Carter Vassi Chamberlain William D. Cohan Rich Cohen Matthew Gurewitsch Victoria Herman Michael Hainey Stuart Heritage George Kalogerakis Sam Kashner James Kirchick Alexander Lobrano Alexandra Marshall Daphne Merkin Sam Wasson

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Contributing Photographers

Jonathan Becker Justin Bishop Alex Board James Emmerman Marcos Fecchino Daniel Paik Art Streiber Sharon Suh Justin Weiner

Architectural Consultant

Basil Walter

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Rachel LeSage

Audience Growth Manager

Merritt Johnson

Cartoon Editor

Bob Mankoff

Music Supervisor

Randall Poster

Technology

Brooks Oakley Justin Rubaloff

General Manager, Commerce & Brand Partnerships

Anjali Lewis

Business Development Director

Catherine Scott

European Sales Director

Selim Mataraci

Financial & Business Operations

Marc Leyer

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Adam Mendelsohn

AIR SUPPLY

Editor, Commerce, and Chief Merchandiser

Jennifer Noyes

Shop Editor

Jessica Iredale

E-Commerce Manager

Isaac Metlitsky

In Memoriam

Peter Bogdanovich Milton Esterow Duncan Hannah Jane Larkworthy Douglas McGrath Richard David Story André Leon Talley David Yaffe

The View from Here Every decade has a reigning ethos—a Zeitgeist, as the Germans say. In the 2020s, it’s smash-and-grab

The Oddest Couple in American Literature: Part II Norman Mailer and Lawrence Schiller’s Marilyn: A Biography sold more copies than anything Mailer ever wrote. He also believed it cost him a Nobel Prize

The Weekly Waffle

A positively addictive word game to go with your morning coffee

Playing Tennis with Abbie Hoffman It’s 1974, you’re a Los Angeles sitcom writer, and you’ve just been asked to hit some balls with a notorious fugitive from justice. Where’s your racket?

Living the Dream Money can’t buy happiness, but from $5,000 smart mattress covers to circadian-tuned private jets, the .1 percent is determined to buy a good night’s sleep

Here’s to a fresh start that looks suspiciously like last year, but with new ways to drain your lymph. AIR SUPPLY has Esker Lymphatic Drainage Dots, Dyson’s formaldehyde purifier, and more

Amaryllis Fraser’s Favorite Things The U.K.-based intuitive keeps her energy aligned with Theodora Warre earrings, a Filson duffel, and Vyrao Witchy Woo

Pretty Privilege for Sale GLP-1s are making it possible to rig the genetic lottery. What happens to the people who can’t afford them?

Promising Young Women Jean Seberg, Brigitte Bardot, Jeanne Moreau, Agnès Varda … a coffee-table book pays tribute to the women of the French New Wave

Emily Bader Armed with a natural curiosity and a lifelong love of romance, the 29-year-old actress is taking on the lead role in the eagerly anticipated film adaptation of Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation

Was Founded By

And Is Edited By

Design Director

Chief Technology Officer

Senior Editors

Books Editor

Arts Intel Report Editor

Photo Director

Art Director

Copy Editor

Legal Editor

Production Associate

Associate Editors

Senior Photo Editor

Designer

Columnists

Writers at Large

Contributing Artists

Contributing Photographers

Architectural Consultant

Social Media Manager

Head of Audience Development

Audience Growth Manager

Cartoon Editor

Music Supervisor

Technology

General Manager, Commerce & Brand Partnerships

Business Development Director

European Sales Director

Financial & Business Operations

Account Manager

Chief Strategy Adviser

Editor, Commerce, and Chief Merchandiser

Shop Editor

E-Commerce Manager

In Memoriam