The trash movie is more a matter of sensibility than it is of thematic preoccupation or stylistic continuity. It is difficult to pin down its hallmarks, except to insist that it would find even the smallest dose of self-awareness fatal. Becca Rothfeld on the cinematic trash-master Neil Breen and what makes a movie so bad it’s sublime.

Flash floods, triggered by a glacial collapse in the Himalayas, have killed at least five hundred people in a nation that has contributed little to climate change but is disproportionately affected by it.

At only twenty-one, the tennis phenom is likely already the best-ever player from Southeast Asia. Now she is seeking her first Grand Slam title at this summer’s U.S. Open.

By Albert Samaha

Yes, there are Botox parties and rollerblading dates, but the women in the family’s latest spinoff give the sense that they are just clocking in at the reality-show office.

By Naomi Fry

Heading to the playa like Paris Hilton and Mark Zuckerberg once did? Need a faux-fur coat or a secret stash pouch? The Burning Man Bazaar has you covered.

By Henry Alford

Even while refusing to admit legal fault, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram has accepted, for the first time, that much of its business model is unacceptable for children.

By Nathaniel Lubin

As A.I. becomes increasingly unpopular among voters, the politics of data centers are scrambling political lines across the country—including in a tight race for the Wisconsin governor’s mansion.

By Dan Kaufman

Democratic socialists are getting more of the attention, but Democratic Christians may prove more influential this November.

By Bill McKibben

A case for cautious optimism about the Trump Administration’s war on vaccines.

By Dhruv Khullar

Lindsey Graham’s younger sister, who was appointed to his South Carolina Senate seat upon his death, may soon be elected to a full term. Political insiders say she is a “black box.”

By Charles Bethea

Donald Trump’s Transportation Secretary got his big break on reality TV, and is now out with a six-part YouTube show about a family road trip. How bad could it be?

By Jon Allsop

Essay

My old friends and I have ended up scattered across different states, in different time zones, but we’ve made our own neighborhood inside the black and blue bubbles of our phones.

By Hanif Abdurraqib

We will always love you.

By Françoise MoulyArt by Nicole Rifkin

The death of Parton’s husband, in March, 2025, called rare attention to a steadfast union that the fame-friendly country star had kept private for decades.

By Casey Cep

She was commonly called the Queen of Country Music, but that is exactly wrong: she was democratic to her bones.

By Kathryn Schulz

Thinking about Parton’s music and beauty means thinking about what it means to be a visionary–inventing a whole world from nothing.

By Amanda Petrusich

Dolly Parton belonged to a beloved category: the outlaw Christian, who loved Jesus and refused to hate anyone else.

By Casey Cep

Dispatch

In the city’s burnt neighborhoods, rebuilding is brutally expensive. Now residents have turned to a lost art: moving entire houses to their vacant lots.

By Nicola Twilley

Sheldon Pearce looks forward to the Texas singer-songwriter’s upcoming show at Madison Square Garden. Plus, Richard Brody on Ridley Scott’s latest movie, starring Jacob Elordi; and more.

The salinity, the lightness, the slipperiness, even its intoxicating effects: a raw oyster belongs at a bar, with all the other alchemical things one can sip and shoot and gulp, Helen Rosner writes.

Inkoo Kang on how the FX series, which is returning for a second season, won’t restore the genre to its normcore roots—but, happily, it has no interest in doing so.

The photographer, who played bass for Hole and the Smashing Pumpkins, captured a moment in which one generation’s subculture became the next generation’s mainstream, Kelefa Sanneh writes.

Annals of Inquiry

When we drink, our bodies convert alcohol into a chemical called acetaldehyde. Some companies claim that it’s the cause of hangovers—and that a chemical called DHM can keep it in check. But the health effects of these substances are surprisingly complicated.

By Shayla Love

A wide-ranging history of the ideas and technology that have transformed political life; an unsparing novel that asks readers to reconsider what they owe their families, particularly in light of what they owe themselves; and more.

Flash Fiction

It was the end of the world, and a number of us had gathered in a large, abandoned house.

By Caleb Crain

With his new album “Iceman,” Drake, the master of the summer banger, is not done airing his grievances.

By Vinson Cunningham

Ella Langley’s chart-topping lament is about what everyone wants to do in mid-August: give in and let go.

By Amanda Petrusich

Jason Isbell’s tune, from 2017, is the song of summers past and summers to come.

By Casey Cep

The 2013 Daft Punk track was uncannily evocative of the late nineteen-seventies.

By Lucy Sante

Kylie Minogue’s 2023 track belongs to a category of solid, danceable pop music that barely penetrates the eardrums of self-professed thirtysomething old folks.

By Lauren Michele Jackson

As extreme heat overwhelms the Continent’s great cities, they are racing to transform themselves for a climate that they were never built to withstand.

By Eric Klinenberg

From branding irons to iris scans, the ancient business of proving who you are has never been stranger—or more lucrative.

By Jill Lepore

For decades, the condition was thought to be psychological, and women were shamed for their illness. Now a scientist has found a biological cause.

By Anna Russell

Scientists used to think oxygen could only be found near Earth’s surface, where plants and algae grow. Then they found it deep underground—raising profound questions about what else could be down there.

By James Dinneen

Annals of Activism

A Midwestern Muslim family’s story of immigration, assimilation, and how one year changed the life of its youngest son.

By Rozina Ali

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