Dept. of Influences
The Roots of the Tony-Winning “Stereophonic”
by Michael Schulman
Ken Caillat, who was an engineer on the Fleetwood Mac album “Rumours,” went to see David Adjmi’s hit play and was surprised by the similarities with his own memoir.
Dept. of Close Calls
Ear Injuries Through History
by Zach Helfand
When a bullet wounded Donald Trump’s ear at a recent rally, the former President joined a long list of historical and literary precedents, from Evander Holyfield to Hamlet’s father.
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.
Dept. of Song
Todd Rundgren, Renaissance Rocker
by Nick Paumgarten
Besides “Hello It’s Me,” his C.V. includes playing in a Bowie tribute band, producing Meat Loaf as a Springsteen parody, and getting drunk with Mrs. Soupy Sales.
Dept. of Reading
The Enduring Allure of Choose Your Own Adventure Books
by Leslie Jamison
How a best-selling series gave young readers a new sense of agency.
New York’s Dreamy, Disorienting Reopening
Photography by Matthew Pillsbury
Text by Zach Helfand
Matthew Pillsbury’s long-exposure photographs capture the return of crowds after COVID lockdown. As communal city life comes back, can we find one another?
How a City Comes Back to Life
by Adam Gopnik
After a year of tragedy and uncertainty, New Yorkers are revisiting old haunts—and sharing them with new faces.
Has an Old Soviet Mystery at Last Been Solved?
by Douglas Preston
The strange fate of a group of skiers in the Ural Mountains has generated endless speculation.
The Fiftieth Anniversary of “Feliz Navidad,†the Simplest Song Ever Written
by Michael Schulman
José Feliciano looks back on the nineteen-word Christmas song, which he wrote in ten minutes and recorded in a single take.
Dept. of Wormholes
A Tale of Two Harveys
Stranger than fiction! One of Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers represented a man who, in 1993, kidnapped another Harvey Weinstein and kept him captive for twelve days in a pit next to the West Side Highway.
by Bruce Handy