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There they are. The Zuckerbergs. Both in black slacks and plain shoes. Both in zanily patterned shirts that look made to wick sweat. No heavy... Read More

There is a paradox at the heart of American pop culture. The United States, in recent years, has never had a higher share of foreign-born... Read More

At a conference about a decade ago in Silicon Valley, I ran into venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson during a break. “Hey, what’s... Read More

During a dark stretch of Covid, I dove into Joan Didion’s “The Year of Magical Thinking,” her book about processing her... Read More

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Positioned next to Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, at the start of what would be a nine-month odyssey,... Read More

What’s your story? The story that you live by, that your cells are geared to, even or especially when you’re not thinking about... Read More

When did a teenager’s social awkwardness become a sure sign of autism? When did a tween’s forgetfulness become a symptom of... Read More

On an evening in late 2021, in a pristine baseball complex in central Santo Domingo, a baby-faced 14-year-old outfielder in athletic gear... Read More

If you've read Nicholas Russell, here or elsewhere, you've gathered that he is thoughtful, erudite, and extremely curious. In addition to... Read More

The recently published memoir “The Make-Believe” by former “Game of Thrones” star Hannah Murray provides a terrifying... Read More

There was a time when people would line up for hours to watch amateur comedians make shit up. For just five dollars, you could buy a ticket... Read More

One of the pleasures of fiction is reading about largely disreputable characters being disreputable. It’s a great deal of fun to ride... Read More

Only about a third of Americans today think their country is going in the right direction. When Americans debate what is necessary to get the... Read More

Recently I’ve been asking myself if “we” (i.e. my corner of Substack) continue to believe that we are cultivating a... Read More

Every year, the world’s happiest countries are ranked, which makes me wonder: Just how happy would we all be if we traveled to one of... Read More

For Christmas, one of our children gave us tickets to the US Open, matches over the Labor Day weekend. So my wife and I joined him in the... Read More

This article represents the views of the author and is not an official position of OpenAI. Before last week’s viral warnings from... Read More

In one of the most haunting opening lines to a novel in the last hundred years, Albert Camus begins The Stranger: “Mother died today.... Read More

Something awful happens when you start to achieve a degree of success as a writer. All of a sudden, people sidle up to you at parties, stick... Read More

For nearly as long as I have been a fan of the novels of Anne Tyler, I have been a reluctant fan of the novels of Anne Tyler. From the time I... Read More

I had my first sight of Edna O’Brien on the stage of the Gate Theater in Dublin in the mid-Sixties. Censorship of books, plays and... Read More

My intention on an early July morning was not to wake up at four o’clock to check on my students’ AP scores. It’s obsessive... Read More

The first thing I saw was a poem. A friend posted Wendell Berry’s “How to Be a Poet (to remind myself),” and at first, it... Read More

“I’m never happier than when I’m with my dad, watching baseball on TV, drinking whiskey and talking about the... Read More

In January 2020, I was house-sitting in Honolulu, on the island of Oahu. My then-girlfriend visited from New York. Walking on a beach, we saw... Read More

Grandma bought the tape at an I-40 truck stop on the way to Albuquerque for a horse race. Grandma didn’t like stopping. Didn’t... Read More

You are probably familiar with the Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times." Such was the course of life of the Marquis de... Read More

KESSA ENTERS MY OFFICE in Uptown Manhattan full of anxious energy, fidgety, fast-talking, desperate for a quick fix.* The 16-year-old... Read More

The ongoing dispute over how the Smithsonian should present American history has pitted the Trump administration against the museum... Read More

We have reached that time of year again. Every good tomato suddenly prompts the pondering: Will this be the last one for the season? The heat... Read More

Like reading classic literature, viewing and studying classic film is a means of examining our consciences and safeguarding against the... Read More

Every kid has a favorite athlete. If you loved speed, it was Rickey Henderson or Randy Moss. Agility? Barry Sanders. Attitude? Allen Iverson.... Read More

The last remaining 15 terrorist detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison are considered the “worst of the... Read More

The emergency call alerting police to what might quite reasonably be labeled Tiger Woods’s Fourth Great Automotive Disaster came at... Read More

As smoking gives us something to do with our hands when we aren’t using them, so Time [magazine] gives us something to do with our... Read More

The rumoured demise of books has produced plenty of books. In 1985, Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death explained how the showy... Read More

Ever since Peter Plagens nominated me the principal critic of art critics (I think he was irritated at the time, because I’d been... Read More

For almost two decades, I believed the closest I’d ever get to the life of Bret Easton Ellis was living in the Bennington College dorm... Read More