An Unbeliever’s View of the Jonestown Massacre - Shiva Naipaul’s newly reissued book of reportage, “Journey to Nowhere,” from 1980, is far less interested in the trope of the charismatic cult leader than in the mechanisms of belief. (www.newyorker.com)
V.A.R. and the Rise of Our New Tech Overlords - The World Cup replay system has fostered a very contemporary kind of paranoia about who controls the machines. (www.newyorker.com)
How to Write When You’re Feeling Stuck - If you focus on writing a thousand words a day, you won’t feel overwhelmed by the fact that you’ve been trapped in a submarine for the past year and a half. (www.newyorker.com)
Democratic Schadenfreude and the Latino Vote - Trump’s once strong approval rating among Latinos has collapsed, but Democrats can’t count on their support. (www.newyorker.com)
Donald Trump’s Needless War with Iran Is His Biggest Economic Blunder - As the midterm elections approach, gas prices have started to rise again, and the President’s poll ratings are in the cellar. (www.newyorker.com)
Meet the Minion-Maker - Off the release of “Minions & Monsters,” the director Pierre Coffin reflects on creating the language of Minionese, partly inspired by Indian food. (www.newyorker.com)
Madonna Wants to Take You There - The pop star launched her new album, “Confessions II,” at a party in London, complete with watery drinks and nostalgic hits. Her co-host for the evening? Grindr. (www.newyorker.com)
New York Is a Pickle Kind of Town - The Dutch authors of a new book, “The Pickled City: The Story of New York Pickles,” stop by the brined-delicacy staple Russ & Daughters. (www.newyorker.com)
The Met Turns Orientalism Inside Out - In a new show, exotic colonial fantasies are set beside paintings that depict the so-called East from within. (www.newyorker.com)
Letters from Our Readers - Readers respond to Melanie Thernstrom’s piece about a concierge women’s-health doctor, Burkhard Bilger’s piece about the lone-star tick, and Adeline Goss’s piece about the potential connections between frontotemporal dementia and criminality. (www.newyorker.com)
Voting Rights, Updated - To run for office in New York, you must play pickleball with the guy they call Zohran the Man and be able to wear a yarmulke, a crucifix, and a rainbow Pride wig simultaneously. (www.newyorker.com)
Franz Wright’s Final Poems, Reviewed - In his final days, Franz Wright tapped into a rich vein of material, recording dark, beautiful, and self-deprecating poems on tape and in scribbles all over his apartment. (www.newyorker.com)
The Lost Art of the Bromance - New books, articles, and shows lament a crisis of connection among American men. But the picture of friendship that emerges can feel romanticized and brittle. (www.newyorker.com)
Inside ICE’s Largest Detention Center - On a military base in West Texas, where the government has built a sprawling tent complex to hold thousands of immigrants, deprivation and dire conditions are part of the design. (www.newyorker.com)
How “Piss Christ” Became a Culture-War Bomb - The fight over Andres Serrano, Robert Mapplethorpe, and the National Endowment for the Arts became a preview of the politics that followed. (www.newyorker.com)
“Review to Remember,” by Terrance Hayes - “You argued whether one had to lie to dream, / the tensions between charm & narcissism, / & the existence of Time with everyone younger than you.” (www.newyorker.com)
The Remaking of Lindsey Graham - Once a harsh critic of Donald Trump, the South Carolina senator became one of the President’s most dependable allies—a sign of what it takes to remain influential in today’s Republican Party. (www.newyorker.com)