The Bench
In Georgia Judge, Has Trump Finally Met His Audience-Thrilling Match?
by Charles Bethea
Scott McAfee, the cello-playing, What-A-Man-pageant-winning judge presiding over the only televised Trump trial, wants to avoid becoming “the next Judge Ito.”
How Elon Musk Went from Superhero to Supervillain
by Jill Lepore
Walter Isaacson’s new biography depicts a man who wields more power than almost any other person on the planet but seems estranged from humanity itself.
Dept. of Public Health
The Lies in Your Grocery Store
by Sarah Larson
Most people accept the gimmicks of food labelling. One lawyer can’t stomach them.
In the Water
Tits Out Under the Verrazzano
by Daniel Shailer
Leslie Hamilton, an accountant, battled sea lice and rusting garbage barges as she became the first person on record to swim a lap around Staten Island since 1979.
What Happens to All the Stuff We Return?
by David Owen
Online merchants changed the way we shop—and made “reverse logistics” into a booming new industry.
Letter from Iran
The Protests Inside Iran’s Girls’ Schools
by Azadeh Moaveni
From the start, women were at the center of the demonstrations that swept Iran last year. Schoolgirls emerged as an unexpected source of defiant energy.
The Civil-Rights Showdown Nobody Remembers
by Louis Menand
Clinton High was the first Southern school to be integrated by court order. Why did reluctant acceptance turn to violence?
A Small-Town Paper Lands a Very Big Story
by Paige Williams
In Southeast Oklahoma, a father-son reporting duo’s series on the county sheriff led to an explosive revelation.
Big Heat and Big Oil
by Bill McKibben
A rapid end to burning fossil fuel would arrest the heating that has caused extreme damage in recent weeks; and that rapid end is possible.
After “Barbie,” Mattel Is Raiding Its Entire Toybox
by Alex Barasch
In an era when “pre-awareness” rules Hollywood, the company is ginning up plots for everything from Hot Wheels to UNO.