The Silicon Valley Suicides
Why are so many kids with bright prospects killing themselves in Palo Alto?
December 2015
In This Issue
The disturbing trend of teen suicide in Silicon Valley, memorializing Stalin’s victims, Bill de Blasio’s crusade to progress, ugly sweater science, the greatest actor alive and more
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Hollywood on the Yellow Sea
Wang Jianlin, one of China’s richest men, is creating a rival to the American dream factory, from scratch.
The Equalizer: Bill de Blasio vs. Inequality
The New York City mayor has some big ideas, but they may be too much too fast.
Why Primo Levi Survives
His will to bear witness, and record the hellish particularity of the Holocaust, helped save his life in Auschwitz. It also inspired the writing he will be remembered for.
Short Story: Attitude Adjustment
After surviving a gruesome accident, a Catholic priest struggles with life. A short story
Dispatches
The Front-Runner Fallacy
Early U.S. presidential polls have tended to be wildly off-target. There’s no reason to think this time is different.
John Cuneo The Return of Electroshock Therapy
Can Sarah Lisanby help an infamous form of depression treatment shed its brutal reputation?
Marco Goran Why You Bought That Ugly Sweater
The scientific tricks stores use to part you and your money
Alvaro Dominguez The End of Thirst
How we will find enough water for a warming planet
Max Avdeev Remembering the Soviet Union’s Disappeared
Russia has never fully reckoned with Stalin’s atrocities. Now a grass-roots effort is memorializing victims, plaque by plaque.
Joe McKendry Texting in the Cockpit
A very short book excerpt
Dan Balilty / AP Big in Israel: Vegan Soldiers
How the IDF is handling the changing dietary preferences of its servicemen and women.
The Culture File
Matt Taylor The Double Life of John le Carré
How a con-artist father and treason in MI6 created the bard of the Cold War
Justin Renteria The Secret of Rome’s Success
Mary Beard’s sweeping history is a new read of citizenship in the ancient empire.
Nicolas Guerin / Contour / Getty The Greatest Actor Alive
The rich career of the 87-year-old Max von Sydow, whose late-in-life projects include Star Wars and Game of Thrones
Angie Wang The Big Green Tent and the Subversive Power of Books
Ludmila Ulitskaya’s familiar portrait of the Soviet intelligentsia
University of Minnesota Press Our Gang: A Racial History of The Little Rascals
A new book offers a different perspective on the feisty crew of kids.
Departments
The Conversation
Readers write in about ‘The Black Family in the Age of Incarceration’ and more.
Graham Roumieu What Is the Greatest Comeback of All Time?
A big question.
Poetry
Toll
A poem
