{"version":"https://jsonfeed.org/version/1","title":"May 23, 2026 – Air Mail","description":"Welcome to Air Mail Issue number 358.","favicon":"https://static.airmail.news/assets/icons/apple-touch-icon.png","home_page_url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23","feed_url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23.json","items":[{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/the-view-from-here","title":"The View from Here","content_text":"At the Cannes Film Festival last week, Demi Moore shared her thoughts on the arrival of A.I. in the film industry. She told a reporter from Variety that Hollywood should “find ways [to] work with it” because its involvement is inevitable. “A.I. is here,” she said. “And so to fight it is to fight something that is a battle that we will lose.” But she assured the crowd that, while Hollywood could do more to “protect” itself, “the truth is there really isn’t anything to fear because what it can never replace is what true art comes from, which is not the physical, it comes from the soul…. And that they can never recreate through something that is technical.” Except, of course, they already have. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/the-view-from-here","summary":"At the Cannes Film Festival last week, Demi Moore shared her thoughts on the arrival of A.I. in the film industry. She told a reporter from Variety that Hollywood should “find ways [to] work with it” because its involvement is...","tags":["The View from Here","But First ..."],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/o8d64asvkl99d83zy7ipe5eglzdm-822f4a44fba78057e4f5d7ffac23b0c9.jpg","author":{"name":"Olivia Rutigliano"},"date_published":"2026-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"May 23, 2026","date":"2026-05-23","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/olivia-rutigliano\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eOlivia Rutigliano\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"The proliferation of A.I. fembots is only the latest iteration in a centuries-old quest to create the “perfect” woman","shorts":false,"banner":"But First ...","category":"The View from Here"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/barry-blitts-sketchbook","title":"Barry Blitt’s Sketchbook","content_text":null,"url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/barry-blitts-sketchbook","summary":null,"tags":["Sketchbook","Barry Blitt's Sketchbook"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/799d4my9d23cy4dvaa0wfuveqqdw-4b2296ddef38c90d609315d5b412097d.jpg","author":{"name":"Barry Blitt"},"date_published":"2026-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"May 23, 2026","date":"2026-05-23","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23"},"_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/2026-5-23/end-times-at-harvard-yard","title":"End Times at Harvard Yard","content_text":"While sitting in seminars, Harvard junior Adam Chiocco has seen his classmates prompt ChatGPT about their discussion topic, then read the chatbot’s answer aloud as if it were their own. In lectures, he has seen students scrolling through eBay on their laptops. “I also know that there’s, like, an 80 percent chance that that person got an A or an A-minus,” says Chiocco, a philosophy major, “which I definitely think is a problem.”Harvard’s professors clearly agree. This week, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted by 458 to 201 to limit A grades to no more than 20 ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/end-times-at-harvard-yard","summary":"While sitting in seminars, Harvard junior Adam Chiocco has seen his classmates prompt ChatGPT about their discussion topic, then read the chatbot’s answer aloud as if it were their own. In lectures, he has seen students scrolling through eBay on...","tags":["News","grade expectations"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/ci4vaby8ncalm9xerl0jlxgkus97-9cde5e7efb4165cf9c46a94c94df8517.jpg","author":{"name":"Sage Lattman"},"date_published":"2026-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"May 23, 2026","date":"2026-05-23","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/sage-lattman\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eSage Lattman\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"Harvard’s decision to cap A grades has sent students spiraling. Now the over-anxious undergraduates must confront the unthinkable: an occasional B-plus","shorts":false,"banner":"grade expectations","category":"News"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/murder-in-rio","title":"Murder in Rio","content_text":"Divorce is rarely amicable. Given all the heartbreak, frustration, and unending financial attrition, one would expect a little bad feeling to seep out from time to time. However, in the case of famed New York gallerist Brent Sikkema, there is a possibility that things got out of hand. For Sikkema was stabbed to death in 2024, and his estranged husband now finds himself at the center of a salacious murder-for-hire trial.Sikkema was a well-known figure on the art circuit, counting the Obamas as friends. Championing diverse contemporary artists from his Chelsea gallery, Sikkema Malloy Jenkins, long before the ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/murder-in-rio","summary":"Divorce is rarely amicable. Given all the heartbreak, frustration, and unending financial attrition, one would expect a little bad feeling to seep out from time to time. However, in the case of famed New York gallerist Brent Sikkema, there is...","tags":["Crime and Scandal","still life"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/6mzt52b9cccdpr23ucio2j5jk84c-96083c744b58f2db6cbb085463b8dcfa.jpg","author":{"name":"Stuart Heritage"},"date_published":"2026-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"May 23, 2026","date":"2026-05-23","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/stuart-heritage\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eStuart Heritage\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"The art world is reeling over a murder-for-hire trial accusing famed New York gallerist Brent Sikkema’s husband of his killing, over an alimony dispute involving sex, drugs, and parties","shorts":false,"banner":"still life","category":"Crime and Scandal"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/sword-fight","title":"Sword Fight!","content_text":"“I’m pretty sure there’s a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good-looking. And I plan on finding out what that is,” Ben Stiller’s character memorably proclaimed in Zoolander, the early-aughts comedy that introduced mainstream audiences to the idea of men’s beauty culture—even if it did so with its tongue firmly in its cheek. Today, amid the rise of looksmaxxing and mogging, the notion that men should constantly be working to improve their appearance has become more normalized than ever.And while the looksmaxxing community—its most recognizable figure being the 20-year-old streamer Clavicular—remains as easy to parody as Zoolander’s signature smolder, Brandon Palas recognized this growing interest in male beauty even earlier, and saw within it an opportunity. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/sword-fight","summary":"“I’m pretty sure there’s a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good-looking. And I plan on finding out what that is,” Ben Stiller’s character memorably proclaimed in Zoolander, the early-aughts comedy that introduced mainstream audiences to the...","tags":["Crime and Scandal","foreskin in the game"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/9ysjng29hq4jfliyeq4ff8p40cbt-400f5894798f1a0176818ef5d8ce8ce6.jpg","author":{"name":"Carolina de Armas"},"date_published":"2026-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"May 23, 2026","date":"2026-05-23","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/carolina-de-armas\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eCarolina \u003cem\u003ede\u003c/em\u003e Armas\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"Beau D., a small Malibu men’s beauty brand whose main product is, yes, a penis cream, is taking on Brad Pitt’s skin-care line, Beau Domaine, over a trademark violation","shorts":false,"banner":"foreskin in the game","category":"Crime and Scandal"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/the-duke-hunter","title":"The Duke Hunter","content_text":"It is a spring morning, and I am sitting with Andrew Lownie in the anteroom to his study in his Westminster town house. Around us teeter stacks of books on the royal family and a pile of Freedom of Information requests. A coffee press and two cups sit between us. At present, it’s hard to think of a more consequential British writer than Lownie.Last year’s publication of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, a biography-cum-assassination of the erstwhile Prince Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, contained so many revelations about the couple—Andrew’s cruelty to his staff, Sarah’s money-grubbing ways, and, most damningly, their close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein—that the book made headlines around the world. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/the-duke-hunter","summary":"It is a spring morning, and I am sitting with Andrew Lownie in the anteroom to his study in his Westminster town house. Around us teeter stacks of books on the royal family and a pile of Freedom of Information...","tags":["Books","Royal Follies"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/n9s50blyr06m5x5hodvzylug1ut5-20a7ab8bc35097ceb417b7273153ea65.jpg","author":{"name":"Charlie Baker"},"date_published":"2026-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"May 23, 2026","date":"2026-05-23","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/charlie-baker\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eCharlie Baker\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"Andrew Lownie’s biography of the Yorks helped bring down the former Prince Andrew. With new allegations in the forthcoming U.S. paperback, the scourge of the royals is still in hot pursuit","shorts":false,"banner":"Royal Follies","category":"Books"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/the-layover-look","title":"The Layover Look","content_text":"I love a uniform, especially at the airport. Soft navy cady suit. Unlined blazer with outer patch pockets, whose importance cannot be overstated. Pull-on pants. White T-shirt. Compression socks. Oversize Hermès scarf. Nothing wrinkles. Everything layers. Every item has a job. I generally treat this outfit with the level of loyalty usually reserved for serious medication.On a recent trip, however, for reasons still unclear to me, I decided to change things up. I wore silk pants, a white T-shirt, and threw a sweater over my shoulders. Casual. Fun. Potentially cool. Likely influenced by the women on my feed who glide through airports in tonal cashmere layers carrying nothing but a Rimowa and emotional stability. I spent the entire day annoyed. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/the-layover-look","summary":"I love a uniform, especially at the airport. Soft navy cady suit. Unlined blazer with outer patch pockets, whose importance cannot be overstated. Pull-on pants. White T-shirt. Compression socks. Oversize Hermès scarf. Nothing wrinkles. Everything layers. Every item has a...","tags":["Style","Notes on an Aesthetic"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/w39g8zw68sn8ypgra6alyhc27ydl-ed47a5bdd19d09173573b62b139c8f16.jpg","author":{"name":"Jennifer Noyes"},"date_published":"2026-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"May 23, 2026","date":"2026-05-23","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/jennifer-noyes\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eJennifer Noyes\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"The secret to looking good at the airport isn’t suffering beautifully. It’s wearing clothes that quietly do their jobs so that you don’t lose your mind","shorts":false,"banner":"Notes on an Aesthetic","category":"Style"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/where-have-all-the-teenagers-gone","title":"Where Have All the Teenagers Gone?","content_text":"Each day brings news of climate disasters, rising tides, heat waves, floods. But no one is talking about another sign of impending doom: the disappearance of teenagers. Before you jump on a Reddit thread to disprove this (“I just saw one in Starbucks!”), try taking a walk around your city or town—if you still leave your house instead of being chronically online—and see how many teenagers you encounter outside. You probably won’t see many.Things were once very different—especially in New York, where I live. I may notice the de-teenification of public spaces more than most because, about 30 ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/where-have-all-the-teenagers-gone","summary":"Each day brings news of climate disasters, rising tides, heat waves, floods. But no one is talking about another sign of impending doom: the disappearance of teenagers. Before you jump on a Reddit thread to disprove this (“I just saw...","tags":["Modern Times"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/1ri4kxmw34jkj14kfuf2d00bwxbd-a87ff679a2f3e71d9181a67b7542122c.jpg","author":{"name":"Nancy Jo Sales"},"date_published":"2026-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"May 23, 2026","date":"2026-05-23","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/nancy-jo-sales\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eNancy Jo Sales\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"New York’s streets and parks used to be teeming with them. Now they’re inside on their phones—and the city’s culture is all the worse for it","shorts":false,"banner":"Modern Times","category":"Modern Times"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/a-very-unusual-way","title":"A Very Unusual Way","content_text":"At the Tonys in 1982, the grandmaster Stephen Sondheim’s original score for Merrily We Roll Along lost the statuette to Nine ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/a-very-unusual-way","summary":"At the Tonys in 1982, the grandmaster Stephen Sondheim’s original score for Merrily We Roll Along lost the statuette to Nine ...","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/q0oni0b3fzt8nyblpf6ytvk0vm0q-27a72faf9d8c6e5278840d8b20b6c615.png","author":{"name":"Matthew Gurewitsch"},"date_published":"2026-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"May 23, 2026","date":"2026-05-23","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/matthew-gurewitsch\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eMatthew Gurewitsch\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"read","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/wanda","title":"Wanda","content_text":"Wanda is Barbara Loden’s first and final film—and the very first ever directed, written by, and starring a woman. The 1970 drama ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/wanda","summary":"Wanda is Barbara Loden’s first and final film—and the very first ever directed, written by, and starring a woman. The 1970 drama ...","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/yasx16n6x2yckaw91klyse4kiim8-7af73b77dbbc5cc576171e7c8190e2fa.png","author":{"name":"Eve Eismann"},"date_published":"2026-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"May 23, 2026","date":"2026-05-23","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23"},"_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/2026-5-23/trudeau-doonesbury","title":"Trudeau \u0026 Doonesbury","content_text":"There are comic strips, and then there is Doonesbury, the outstanding chronicle by Garry Trudeau ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/trudeau-doonesbury","summary":"There are comic strips, and then there is Doonesbury, the outstanding chronicle by Garry Trudeau ...","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/9vthybb0loh9w63sdpzno0grfoyu-18246cc55800750d0e3e7f7bfa6551dc.png","author":{"name":"Jim Kelly"},"date_published":"2026-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"May 23, 2026","date":"2026-05-23","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23"},"_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/2026-5-23/uniqlo-x-cecilie-bahnsen","title":"Uniqlo x Cecilie Bahnsen","content_text":"In a collaboration with Uniqlo, Cecilie Bahnsen’s signature puff sleeves, romantic silhouettes, and storybook ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/uniqlo-x-cecilie-bahnsen","summary":"In a collaboration with Uniqlo, Cecilie Bahnsen’s signature puff sleeves, romantic silhouettes, and storybook ...","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/i3y4dgds3anu8r3qzyml27tbl4hv-206a03595f4413fadc87aaaa1d333ced.png","author":{"name":"Jennifer Noyes"},"date_published":"2026-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"May 23, 2026","date":"2026-05-23","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/jennifer-noyes\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eJennifer Noyes\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"shop","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/mellerio","title":"Mellerio","content_text":"What do Marie Antoinette and Carlos Alcaraz have in common? They share the same jeweler. Well, kind of. Founded in 1613 in Paris’s","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/mellerio","summary":"What do Marie Antoinette and Carlos Alcaraz have in common? They share the same jeweler. Well, kind of. Founded in 1613 in Paris’s","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/u21r7h5plw9deyb9byqnxigv2ft5-a3a6e4afc2384239a4fe6614c94aa062.png","author":{"name":"Gracie Wiener"},"date_published":"2026-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"May 23, 2026","date":"2026-05-23","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/gracie-wiener\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eGracie Wiener\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"sparkle","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/ykra","title":"YKRA","content_text":"Discovering YKRA recently has given me a hit of joy similar to when I first came across Fjällräven in high school, before they had ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/ykra","summary":"Discovering YKRA recently has given me a hit of joy similar to when I first came across Fjällräven in high school, before they had ...","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/m9t2sg456uqy6z0zx9k4jkf7zbo0-92e02ccdb7a4978b0e742b9f6bd7c438.png","author":{"name":"Spike Carter"},"date_published":"2026-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"May 23, 2026","date":"2026-05-23","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/spike-carter\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eSpike Carter\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"carry","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/the-great-broth-revival","title":"The Great Broth Revival","content_text":"If there’s a better smelling house on the block right now, I’d like an invite.I’ve got six pounds of chicken bones and a mess of vegetable scraps burbling away in a 10-quart stockpot. Little, golden globules of fat are pooling on the surface like Monet lily pads. The pot has been going for about three hours, and its comforting aroma has walked right through the front door and into our building’s hallway. You don’t need to live here to know what’s on the stove.I should point out that ours is a brothy household. To start, my family has ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/the-great-broth-revival","summary":"If there’s a better smelling house on the block right now, I’d like an invite.I’ve got six pounds of chicken bones and a mess of vegetable scraps burbling away in a 10-quart stockpot. Little, golden globules of fat are pooling...","tags":["Food and Drink","Food"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/fcqy0gv7z2edf9xkf2ibmlnrhj92-28c5ee1546c40808151d138166b205b4.jpg","author":{"name":"Adam Rapoport"},"date_published":"2026-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"May 23, 2026","date":"2026-05-23","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/adam-rapoport\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eAdam Rapoport\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"Flavor in a cup—from Brodo, to Bar Chimera’s beef iteration, to Cove’s seasonal-vegetable elixir—is back, and you can make a really good one at home","shorts":false,"banner":"Food","category":"Food and Drink"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/fire-island-time","title":"Fire Island Time","content_text":"Fire Island Art: 100 Years is “only masquerading as a coffee-table book,” its editor, John Dempsey, said at the launch party in late March. On the top floor of the Nine Orchard hotel, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, a group of men, young and old, and some women sprinkled in, gathered to celebrate the publication. As Dempsey explained, the book is more than a collection of images. It holds the story of Fire Island, a history that hasn’t been fully told until now.Built up in the 1870s as a resort for nuclear families, Fire Island was destroyed by a hurricane in the 1930s, which quickly chased away its upper-class vacationers. In their absence, a queer utopia was born. Just a 90-minute drive from ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/fire-island-time","summary":"Fire Island Art: 100 Years is “only masquerading as a coffee-table book,” its editor, John Dempsey, said at the launch party in late March. On the top floor of the Nine Orchard hotel, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, a group...","tags":["Books","Open Book"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/6j9t9ywn9ack5ri1f6o4lvsf0qai-303670d35f5062c33d85b972ae1d10f3.jpg","author":{"name":"Jeanne Malle"},"date_published":"2026-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"May 23, 2026","date":"2026-05-23","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/jeanne-malle\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eJeanne Malle\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"A new coffee-table book looks beyond the island’s reputation as a queer summer utopia, revealing it, for the first time, as a creative hub that influenced artists from Richard Avedon to Wolfgang Tillmans","shorts":false,"banner":"Open Book","category":"Books"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/murder-they-wrote","title":"Murder, They Wrote","content_text":"There’s a lot of cool tradecraft in James Comey’s new espionage thriller, Red Verdict: notes hidden inside fake rivets on subway-platform pillars, deluxe surveillance strollers equipped with listening devices, dust-dispensing machines that return a searched room to its original state. It’s hard to believe that an author so sophisticated about super-secret things would send a murderous message to the president via a sinister Instagram photo of… seashells?Given the weakness of the Department of Justice’s case against Comey, I hope the former F.B.I. director will be able to continue his thriving career as a fiction writer, because he’s quite adept at it and shouldn’t become another victim of Trump’s retribution tour. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/murder-they-wrote","summary":"There’s a lot of cool tradecraft in James Comey’s new espionage thriller, Red Verdict: notes hidden inside fake rivets on subway-platform pillars, deluxe surveillance strollers equipped with listening devices, dust-dispensing machines that return a searched room to its original state....","tags":["Books"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/0yovz5z3sc63zd6fpnsrj77tjxer-c1db73e38ecb39c88a43b2e8b54d3b78.jpg","author":{"name":"Lisa Henricksson"},"date_published":"2026-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"May 23, 2026","date":"2026-05-23","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/lisa-henricksson\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eLisa Henricksson\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"This month in mysteries: James Comey’s new espionage thriller and the latest installment in Anthony Horowitz’s meta-mystery series","shorts":false,"banner":"Books","category":"Books"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/requiem-for-a-dreamscape","title":"Requiem for a Dreamscape","content_text":"Beginning with the Beat Generation, slowly and gently, like pot smoke seeping from a college dorm room, America’s counterculture of the 1950s and 1960s insinuated itself in unlikely places with unexpected results. In Denmark, the architect Verner Panton, a scion of Bauhaus rationalism and Scandinavian good taste, picked up the scent. He went on to design mind-bending interiors and a singular chair that is erotic in its sensuality. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/requiem-for-a-dreamscape","summary":"Beginning with the Beat Generation, slowly and gently, like pot smoke seeping from a college dorm room, America’s counterculture of the 1950s and 1960s insinuated itself in unlikely places with unexpected results. In Denmark, the architect Verner Panton, a scion...","tags":["Culture","Highlight"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/akbxt7wm4w2nomqfjr1x7an2lx8v-8ac4e11e549f5af3c8938936ada2e151.jpg","author":{"name":"Lewis Jacobsen"},"date_published":"2026-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"May 23, 2026","date":"2026-05-23","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/lewis-jacobsen\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eLewis Jacobsen\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"A retrospective in Germany honors Verner Panton, the Danish designer who transformed the spirit of American counterculture into psychedelic interiors blending color, sensuality, and fun","shorts":false,"banner":"Highlight","category":"Culture"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/the-viscontis-of-georgia","title":"The Viscontis of Georgia","content_text":"On 4,000 acres along the Flint River in Gay, Georgia, about 90 minutes from Atlanta, down an inconspicuous driveway, you’ll find Quercus. The hotel recently joined Relais \u0026 Châteaux, alongside Blackberry Farm, in Tennessee, and Le Sirenuse, in Positano. Rates start at $2,700 a night, all-inclusive, adults only. On paper, it sounds improbable. Then you arrive, and it quickly does not.The story of Quercus begins, as many good stories do, with lineage and escape. In the late 1970s, amid Italy’s Years of Lead—a period of bombings, kidnappings, and political assassinations—Uberto and Antonella Visconti di Modrone, members of the same family as the filmmaker Luchino Visconti, left Milan ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/the-viscontis-of-georgia","summary":"On 4,000 acres along the Flint River in Gay, Georgia, about 90 minutes from Atlanta, down an inconspicuous driveway, you’ll find Quercus. The hotel recently joined Relais \u0026 Châteaux, alongside Blackberry Farm, in Tennessee, and Le Sirenuse, in Positano. Rates...","tags":["Travel","View With a Room"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/nrpfs0o9rgispy4m5j5f81m3lfje-6e7742c57a1cc6ee57875178703afca3.jpg","author":{"name":"Jennifer Noyes"},"date_published":"2026-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"May 23, 2026","date":"2026-05-23","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/jennifer-noyes\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eJennifer Noyes\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"Fleeing the Years of Lead in the 1970s, a branch of the Italian aristocracy traded Milan for rural Georgia—where their family estate has since become one of the South’s most singular hotels","shorts":false,"banner":"View With a Room","category":"Travel"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/eric-hansons-sketchbook","title":"Eric Hanson’s Sketchbook","content_text":null,"url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23/eric-hansons-sketchbook","summary":null,"tags":["Sketchbook","Eric Hanson's Sketchbook"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/v0my3afm2jwupk9kptoxt6m80ve0-90ade1dec62c0c22197e9182dac9eb89.jpg","author":{"name":"Eric Hanson"},"date_published":"2026-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"May 23, 2026","date":"2026-05-23","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-5-23"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/eric-hanson\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eEric Hanson\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":null,"shorts":false,"banner":"Eric Hanson's Sketchbook","category":"Sketchbook"}}]}