{"version":"https://jsonfeed.org/version/1","title":"October 31, 2026 – Air Mail","description":"Welcome to Air Mail Issue number 381.","favicon":"https://static.airmail.news/assets/icons/apple-touch-icon.png","home_page_url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31","feed_url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31.json","items":[{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/the-view-from-here","title":"The View from Here","content_text":"On October 22, 1926, Jocelyn Gordon Whitehead went straight for Harry Houdini’s greatest asset: his guts. Whitehead, a student at McGill, was aware of the world-renowned magician’s boast that he could withstand any man’s punch. Catching him off guard in his dressing room at the Princess Theatre in Montreal, he delivered a combination of knockout blows to the escape artist’s abdomen. Houdini, splayed on a couch, didn’t tense in time. Two days later, his appendix ruptured. He died from an infection just over a week later, on Halloween, exactly 100 years ago.The impact of Whitehead’s fist has often ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/the-view-from-here","summary":"On October 22, 1926, Jocelyn Gordon Whitehead went straight for Harry Houdini’s greatest asset: his guts. Whitehead, a student at McGill, was aware of the world-renowned magician’s boast that he could withstand any man’s punch. Catching him off guard in...","tags":["The View from Here","But First ..."],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/nje5pzfb07fuym2fop6q1b3rpb1y-7dc211d22cdb815fad6d1c8ecaf29226.jpg","author":{"name":"Kyle MacNeill"},"date_published":"2026-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"October 31, 2026","date":"2026-10-31","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/kyle-macneil\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eKyle M\u003cem\u003eac\u003c/em\u003eNeill\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"Harry Houdini died 100 years ago this Halloween. But he left behind an unfinished book about the dangers of magical thinking that is unfortunately more relevant than ever","shorts":false,"banner":"But First ...","category":"The View from Here"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/barry-blitts-sketchbook","title":"Barry Blitt’s Sketchbook","content_text":null,"url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/barry-blitts-sketchbook","summary":null,"tags":["Sketchbook","Barry Blitt's Sketchbook"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/pdoqotomu1nhzdhnejmz9k9fmlg5-1b416d9f1321703b20f4db07ae9ed616.jpg","author":{"name":"Barry Blitt"},"date_published":"2026-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"October 31, 2026","date":"2026-10-31","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/barry-blitt\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eBarry Blitt\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":null,"shorts":false,"banner":"Barry Blitt's Sketchbook","category":"Sketchbook"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/jamaicas-vanishing-coastline","title":"Jamaica’s Vanishing Coastline","content_text":"A decade ago, while working for a travel magazine, I got into a conversation one day with a few colleagues about which countries, for moral reasons, we would never write about. One person said Saudi Arabia, until it allowed women to drive. Another mentioned Uganda, or any country that persecuted gays.I wouldn’t have said Jamaica back then; in fact, that year I visited Jamaica and wrote a short, positive piece about one of its hotels. However, today if I had to pick a country whose economy I refuse to support, it would be Jamaica, the island nation long defined by beaming smiles, party music, and the all-inclusive resort model, which it invented. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/jamaicas-vanishing-coastline","summary":"A decade ago, while working for a travel magazine, I got into a conversation one day with a few colleagues about which countries, for moral reasons, we would never write about. One person said Saudi Arabia, until it allowed women...","tags":["News","a shore ting"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/8sp8mzftzahszydy3hc5wbs6worj-0156c00bda11dd24651bf57863d454a3.jpg","author":{"name":"Ben Ryder Howe"},"date_published":"2026-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"October 31, 2026","date":"2026-10-31","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/ben-howe\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eBen Ryder Howe\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"All-inclusive resorts and private compounds now control more than 99 percent of the country’s world-famous beaches. Ordinary Jamaicans are fed up","shorts":false,"banner":"a shore ting","category":"News"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/the-meghan-we-didnt-know","title":"The Meghan We Didn’t Know","content_text":"Talk about a stiff upper lip. While Meghan Markle was having children, starting over in America, hanging out with Oprah, and perfecting her jams, she was also living with disturbing allegations about her father—allegations she now says explain why she kept him away from Archie and Lilibet. Much of the press had settled on a simpler explanation: she was a snob who had married a prince and discarded her commoner father.Meghan and Thomas Markle Sr. have been estranged since 2018. After her wedding to Prince Harry, Meghan received a copy of a letter her father’s first wife had sent to the Metropolitan Police. According to ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/the-meghan-we-didnt-know","summary":"Talk about a stiff upper lip. While Meghan Markle was having children, starting over in America, hanging out with Oprah, and perfecting her jams, she was also living with disturbing allegations about her father—allegations she now says explain why she...","tags":["The Royal Family","Royal Follies"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/3hmwbl1gxyb0dzubx617ih72kwje-91a5db807203391fced2a2d283568c8b.jpg","author":{"name":"Ashley Baker"},"date_published":"2026-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"October 31, 2026","date":"2026-10-31","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/ashley-baker\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eAshley Baker\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"Disturbing allegations against the Duchess of Sussex’s father cast their estrangement—and the events leading up to Megxit—in a new light. Does the press owe her an apology?","shorts":false,"banner":"Royal Follies","category":"The Royal Family"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/how-to-disappear-completely","title":"How to Disappear Completely","content_text":"Frank Ahearn was in a Borders bookstore on Route 17 in New Jersey when he spotted a man carrying a book on offshore banking and a travel guide to Belize. Ahearn was working as a skip tracer at the time—someone paid to find those who “skip town” and disappear—and suspected that this stranger was eyeing an exit from his life. Ahearn offered some unsolicited advice. You’ll be easily found, he warned. The credit card the man was about to use would leave a trail to the bookstore and, potentially, to his destination.The two men got chatting, and it ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/how-to-disappear-completely","summary":"Frank Ahearn was in a Borders bookstore on Route 17 in New Jersey when he spotted a man carrying a book on offshore banking and a travel guide to Belize. Ahearn was working as a skip tracer at the time—someone...","tags":["Modern Times","the invisible man"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/newzu68uct1jza85t9eugam4dotm-354cd2feca3ea7257ff33173b156ef51.jpg","author":{"name":"Mark Ellwood"},"date_published":"2026-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"October 31, 2026","date":"2026-10-31","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/mark-ellwood\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eMark Ellwood\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"Frank Ahearn used to find people who didn’t want to be found. Now he helps them vanish","shorts":false,"banner":"the invisible man","category":"Modern Times"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/silurians-in-the-doghouse","title":"Silurians in the Doghouse","content_text":"New York has three major press clubs for the city’s legions of journalists, whether working, retired, or somewhere in between: the Deadline Club, the New York Press Club, and the Society of the Silurians. The last one is the oldest and its members skew oldest, a reputation they enthusiastically lean into—the Silurian period occurred roughly 400 million years ago and marked the first time invertebrates walked on land.When they started the club in Greenwich Village in 1924, the founders chose the name to show they’d been around for a while. Early members (it was initially men only) included William Randolph Hearst, Lincoln Steffens, and John Steinbeck. Today, the group hosts monthly luncheons—recent guest speakers have included Trump nemesis E. Jean Carroll; Maggie Haberman, of ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/silurians-in-the-doghouse","summary":"New York has three major press clubs for the city’s legions of journalists, whether working, retired, or somewhere in between: the Deadline Club, the New York Press Club, and the Society of the Silurians. The last one is the oldest...","tags":["Modern Times","Reporters in the Ruff"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/7nbast8vd0wq3vusd9snuvzlulr1-f16219916e1502667085e22bd3a404dc.jpg","author":{"name":"Wendell Jamieson"},"date_published":"2026-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"October 31, 2026","date":"2026-10-31","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/wendell-jamieson\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eWendell Jamieson\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"A member of New York’s oldest press club sued the National Arts Club for banning her incontinent service poodles. Now its septuagenarians have been evicted, too","shorts":false,"banner":"Reporters in the Ruff","category":"Modern Times"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/carnival-of-souls","title":"Carnival of Souls","content_text":"Herk Harvey’s only narrative feature film is an atmospheric and macabre indie masterpiece, exploring emotional distance ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/carnival-of-souls","summary":"Herk Harvey’s only narrative feature film is an atmospheric and macabre indie masterpiece, exploring emotional distance ...","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/mhalx0vfh68x2tusue8pq4nvd0f8-c3265fd819256f4f7db0bbda9817cb4f.png","author":{"name":"Eve Eismann"},"date_published":"2026-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"October 31, 2026","date":"2026-10-31","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/eve-eismann\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eEve Eismann\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"watch","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/leica-x-formula-1","title":"Leica x Formula 1","content_text":"Fresh off the United States Grand Prix in Austin, with Las Vegas still to come, Leica has unveiled its first official partnership with Formula 1","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/leica-x-formula-1","summary":"Fresh off the United States Grand Prix in Austin, with Las Vegas still to come, Leica has unveiled its first official partnership with Formula 1","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/hs41tjwjz1inu2cxcyox56cwp1fq-27a72faf9d8c6e5278840d8b20b6c615.png","author":{"name":"Gabriella Maestri"},"date_published":"2026-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"October 31, 2026","date":"2026-10-31","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/gabriella-maestri\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eGabriella Maestri\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"shoot","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/pomellato","title":"Pomellato","content_text":"For this year’s Memorie d’Archivio—a heritage capsule collection that reimagines beloved designs from Pomellato’s storied archives ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/pomellato","summary":"For this year’s Memorie d’Archivio—a heritage capsule collection that reimagines beloved designs from Pomellato’s storied archives ...","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/kt6m76qtzva0mvw3oh1pikh4bdu7-3dd64932e8aa9d45229ec2fd456df719.png","author":{"name":"Jimena Elmufdi"},"date_published":"2026-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"October 31, 2026","date":"2026-10-31","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/jimena-elmufdi\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eJimena Elmufdi\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"sparkle","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/joy","title":"Joy","content_text":"One of the first sentences in multi-disciplinary artist Maira Kalman’s latest book, Joy—“Suffering and sorrow envelop our planet ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/joy","summary":"One of the first sentences in multi-disciplinary artist Maira Kalman’s latest book, Joy—“Suffering and sorrow envelop our planet ...","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/sb6c8e736jrdkmieat2pdlim14mn-206a03595f4413fadc87aaaa1d333ced.png","author":{"name":"Eve Bromberg"},"date_published":"2026-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"October 31, 2026","date":"2026-10-31","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/eve-bromberg\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eEve Bromberg\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"look","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/the-complete-kubrick","title":"The Complete Kubrick","content_text":"“Watching a Kubrick film is like gazing up at a mountaintop,” Martin Scorsese once said. “You look up ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/the-complete-kubrick","summary":"“Watching a Kubrick film is like gazing up at a mountaintop,” Martin Scorsese once said. “You look up ...","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/drlkp8zaxbcs85v8yrmhe24xnlfw-18246cc55800750d0e3e7f7bfa6551dc.png","author":{"name":"Maggie Turner"},"date_published":"2026-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"October 31, 2026","date":"2026-10-31","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/maggie-turner\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eMaggie Turner\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"buy","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/hotel-farm","title":"Hotel \u0026 Farm","content_text":"Ben Katchor calls himself a cartoonist, but what I call him is a novelist of heartbreaking brilliance whose graphic novels","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/hotel-farm","summary":"Ben Katchor calls himself a cartoonist, but what I call him is a novelist of heartbreaking brilliance whose graphic novels","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/ub6lv6so3tnb6y3xbn1l3nkkmuyl-d013c7496d443690fdfc60d28217b02e.png","author":{"name":"Jim Kelly"},"date_published":"2026-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"October 31, 2026","date":"2026-10-31","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/jim-kelly\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eJim Kelly\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"read","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/a-night-celebrating-sarah-anderson-and-carlos-barragan","title":"A Night Celebrating Sarah Anderson and Carlos Barragán","content_text":"The crowd that filled the storied Lambs Room at Keens Steakhouse on Tuesday evening could be best described by Tom Wolfe himself. “They were\u0026#8230; well, Beautiful People! - not ‘students’, ‘clerks’, ‘salesgirls’, ‘executive trainees’ - Christ, don’t give me your occupation-game labels,” he wrote in his 1968 counterculture chronicle, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. “We are Beautiful People, ascendant from your robot junkyard.” (Or, as master of ceremonies Patricia Clarkson put it with no less verve, “an illustrious, literary, yummy, divine, sexy-ass crowd!”)These days, that “robot junkyard” Wolfe wrote about decades ago feels more prevalent than ever, ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/a-night-celebrating-sarah-anderson-and-carlos-barragan","summary":"The crowd that filled the storied Lambs Room at Keens Steakhouse on Tuesday evening could be best described by Tom Wolfe himself. “They were\u0026#8230; well, Beautiful People! - not ‘students’, ‘clerks’, ‘salesgirls’, ‘executive trainees’ - Christ, don’t give me your...","tags":["Style","After Hours"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/d9dpfkaryrd320yc271lpekltvmh-5934e1d519d182ed94d61e38162de205.png","author":{"name":"Maggie Turner"},"date_published":"2026-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"October 31, 2026","date":"2026-10-31","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/maggie-turner\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eMaggie Turner\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"At a dinner hosted by AIR MAIL and Montblanc, Patricia Clarkson, Parker Posey, Katie Holmes, and Jay McInerney toasted the winners of the second annual Tom Wolfe literary prizes","shorts":false,"banner":"After Hours","category":"Style"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/how-frank-capra-got-his-wings","title":"How Frank Capra Got His Wings","content_text":"Since returning from the war, Frank Capra had begun to think that maybe what they had said about him was true—he was Pollyanna, he made manipulative, facile, sentimental shit. “Perhaps I had put too much faith in the human race—you know, in the pictures I had made,” he reflected. “Maybe they were too much as things should be.” But then, how could Frank Capra, who had lost his faith in man to be and do good above all, make a Frank Capra movie?He hadn’t made a picture in four years, hadn’t run the big guild meetings or presided ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/how-frank-capra-got-his-wings","summary":"Since returning from the war, Frank Capra had begun to think that maybe what they had said about him was true—he was Pollyanna, he made manipulative, facile, sentimental shit. “Perhaps I had put too much faith in the human race—you...","tags":["Books","once more, with feeling"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/6o4vrl14il3lmlc6oddpuyt3tj1n-906810c7281a700bf70fe82664059241.jpg","author":{"name":"Sam Wasson"},"date_published":"2026-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"October 31, 2026","date":"2026-10-31","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/sam-wasson\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eSam Wasson\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"The horrors of World War II shook the director’s faith in humanity. Making \u003cem\u003eIt’s a Wonderful Life\u003c/em\u003e restored it. An exclusive excerpt from \u003cem\u003eFrank Capra\u003c/em\u003e","shorts":false,"banner":"once more, with feeling","category":"Books"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/jaalen-best","title":"Jaalen Best","content_text":"Seven years ago, Jaalen Best had never boxed, never landed a major role, and never met Michael B. Jordan. He was a student at East Carolina University, studying exercise physiology to become a physical or occupational therapist. He’d also walked onto the college’s basketball team, balancing four hours of practice a day with school. “I never wanted to be an actor growing up,” he says.But during his junior year, in 2019, Best enrolled in his first acting class to fill an elective requirement. To his surprise, the teacher told him he “had a face for television,” a compliment he took all the way back to his hometown in Alexandria, Virginia, where he auditioned for a local production of ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/jaalen-best","summary":"Seven years ago, Jaalen Best had never boxed, never landed a major role, and never met Michael B. Jordan. He was a student at East Carolina University, studying exercise physiology to become a physical or occupational therapist. He’d also walked...","tags":["Film and Television","Close-up"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/if6ioxsmuyqbynykj6t16gxtxo8k-f35e567e310e2598a0e337d42cb952f9.jpg","author":{"name":"Maggie Turner"},"date_published":"2026-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"October 31, 2026","date":"2026-10-31","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/maggie-turner\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eMaggie Turner\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"He took his first acting class to fill a college elective. Seven years later, the 28-year-old is stepping into the role of Muhammad Ali in a new series about the boxer, and has found a mentor in Michael B. Jordan","shorts":false,"banner":"Close-up","category":"Film and Television"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/letters-from-monet","title":"Letters from Monet","content_text":"Publishers are rarely mentioned in book reviews, but an exception ought to be made for Thames \u0026 Hudson and their growing collection of artists’ letters. In 2020, there was Van Gogh: A Life in Letters. Selected, illustrated, and contextualized with intelligence and care, it fulfilled the subtitle’s promise, giving the measure of Vincent’s inner life and aesthetic philosophy. Their task was aided by his drawings, which complement and enliven the text, and by what he called his “irresistible passion for books.” Vincent’s references are wide and keenly felt, from the Bible and devotional literature to Aeschylus, Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/letters-from-monet","summary":"Publishers are rarely mentioned in book reviews, but an exception ought to be made for Thames \u0026 Hudson and their growing collection of artists’ letters. In 2020, there was Van Gogh: A Life in Letters. Selected, illustrated, and contextualized with...","tags":["Books"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/gzpo3g4lvlxg6dkd1n6tea1rvt1a-e692a133658552c1ccd31d74503ffe58.jpg","author":{"name":"Max Carter"},"date_published":"2026-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"October 31, 2026","date":"2026-10-31","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/max-carter\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eMax Carter\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":null,"shorts":false,"banner":"Books","category":"Books"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/the-hardest-reservation-in-africa","title":"The Hardest Reservation in Africa","content_text":"Shortly after sunrise on the tip of a peninsula in Rwanda’s Lake Ruhondo, Dieuveil Malonga walks from his house to the water’s edge. The 35-year-old chef boards a kayak to meet the fishermen who have caught perch and crayfish for the day’s menu. Soon, boats carrying his 39-person team will arrive from the mainland. Together, they carry supplies up the hill to his restaurant, Meza Malonga. (Meza is the Bantu word for table.) Inside the bright, spacious kitchen, featuring full views of green hills and the snow-ringed volcanoes beyond, the young men and women begin the intricate work of preparing the day’s meal. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/the-hardest-reservation-in-africa","summary":"Shortly after sunrise on the tip of a peninsula in Rwanda’s Lake Ruhondo, Dieuveil Malonga walks from his house to the water’s edge. The 35-year-old chef boards a kayak to meet the fishermen who have caught perch and crayfish for...","tags":["Food and Drink","Pan-African"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/z3xnbvsduh5pzucxdepsrwm0u6b2-5e40574d9651e2f52ac5a74cc039fd23.jpg","author":{"name":"Christine Muhlke"},"date_published":"2026-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"October 31, 2026","date":"2026-10-31","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/christine-muhlke\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eChristine Muhlke\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"At a four-table restaurant on Rwanda’s Lake Ruhondo, Rick Owens’s former private chef is putting African cuisine on the global culinary map","shorts":false,"banner":"Pan-African","category":"Food and Drink"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/arte-poveras-feminine-force","title":"Arte Povera’s Feminine Force","content_text":"Beginning in the 1960s, the messy debate about whether artists’ lives could be separated from their work became particularly challenging. Art and personal narratives often came wrapped in the same skin. Marisa Merz, an Italian artist who ignored the boundaries of traditional art, was categorical. She said, “There’s never been a separation between my work and my life.” ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/arte-poveras-feminine-force","summary":"Beginning in the 1960s, the messy debate about whether artists’ lives could be separated from their work became particularly challenging. Art and personal narratives often came wrapped in the same skin. Marisa Merz, an Italian artist who ignored the boundaries...","tags":["Culture","Highlight"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/8b7y8ak8pwntqq28zeyb8fey8dmn-db82206b1d49042d1a710e9c88c21d36.jpg","author":{"name":"Patricia Zohn"},"date_published":"2026-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"October 31, 2026","date":"2026-10-31","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/patricia-zohn\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003ePatricia Zohn\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"A century after Marisa Merz’s birth, three exhibitions in Italy pay homage to the only woman in the radical art movement built on humble materials, non-commercial spaces, and ephemeral installations","shorts":false,"banner":"Highlight","category":"Culture"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/pieces-de-resistance","title":"Pièces de Résistance","content_text":"Perhaps only a first-generation immigrant can truly understand America. “We are outsiders,” explains Eliane Laffont, wife of the French photographer Jean-Pierre Laffont. “Whether we like it or not. You know, we are not your typical Americans, so it’s very easy for us to see what’s good and what’s bad and what’s ugly \u0026#8230;”Few have had a better vantage point than Jean-Pierre Laffont. Since his arrival in New York, in 1964, Laffont has photographed America at its most restless, rebellious, and unruly, capturing the civil-rights movement, anti–Vietnam War protesters, hippies turned Rajneeshees in Oregon, the gay-liberation movement, gangs in the Bronx, and the street culture that gave rise to hip-hop. He insists politics have never entered into it. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31/pieces-de-resistance","summary":"Perhaps only a first-generation immigrant can truly understand America. “We are outsiders,” explains Eliane Laffont, wife of the French photographer Jean-Pierre Laffont. “Whether we like it or not. You know, we are not your typical Americans, so it’s very easy...","tags":["Books","Open Book"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/508iifadfvmbqlf7yb9j5p8aalz4-5c846eb793f285c5b669e2a69f01e231.jpg","author":{"name":"Elena Clavarino"},"date_published":"2026-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"October 31, 2026","date":"2026-10-31","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-10-31"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/elena-clavarino\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eElena Clavarino\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"Ahead of the midterms, a new book of photographs by Jean-Pierre Laffont captures two decades of American defiance","shorts":false,"banner":"Open Book","category":"Books"}}]}