New YorkerestEssential reads from every New Yorker issue

December 29, 2025 & January 5, 2026

Latest Issue
The New Yorker cover for December 29, 2025: “Goodbye to All That,” by Lorenzo Mattotti.

“Goodbye to All That,” by Lorenzo Mattotti.

What Zohran Mamdani Is Up Against

When the thirty-four-year-old socialist is sworn in as mayor, he will have to navigate ICE raids, intransigent city power players, and twists of fate and nature, Eric Lach writes.

“The Welfare State”

Fiction by Nell Zink: Julia had longed to be an educated mother like Vroni, but there was never a serviceable father in view, so she had limited herself to being educated.