The Obama Doctrine
The U.S. president talks through his hardest decisions about America’s role in the world.
April 2016
In This Issue
Jeffrey Goldberg interviews Obama, a preview of the new Black Panther comic, why you should quit your job, David Bowie’s resurrections, the bold history of abolition, and more
Cover Story
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The Return of the Black Panther
A behind-the-scenes look at the revival of Marvel’s first black-superhero series—and an exclusive preview of the first issue
In the Land of Missing Persons
Two families, two bodies, and a wilderness of secrets
The New Fiction of Solitude
For an influential group of writers, the purpose of novels is to bear witness to the spectacle of aloneness.
Dispatches
Oliver Munday How to Reverse Citizens United
What campaign-finance reformers can learn from the NRA
John Cuneo The Man Who Invented Dothraki
How one linguist creates obsessively detailed—and fully functional—languages for Game of Thrones and other shows
Alvaro Dominguez The Future Will Be Quiet
Even sirens, airplanes, and leaf blowers may make less noise.
Luci Gutiérrez Quit Your Job
A midlife career shift can be good for cognition, well-being, and even longevity.
Justin Renteria The Art of Marketing Marijuana
How to make pot seem as all-American as an ice-cold beer
Marco Goran Romano CEOs Behaving Badly
What a chief executive’s golf game and handwriting say about his compensation—and his leadership
Jan Buchczik Exercise in Futility
What if physical activity doesn't help people lose weight? New research suggests working out might slow metabolism down.
Joe McKendry Chinese Solar Torture
A very short book excerpt
Maxim Shipenkov / EPA / Corbis Big in Moscow: Combat Chic
Why Russian civilians are embracing “patriotic glamour”
The Culture File
Ian Wright The Resurrections of David Bowie
What made him one of rock’s most potent lyricists
AS400 DB / Corbis The Patron Saint of Inner Lives
Wallace Stevens answered ultimate questions in language no one had used before.
Tim McDonagh The Truth About Abolition
The movement gets the big, bold history it deserves.
Harry Campbell How to Listen to Music
Escaping algorithms and musical ruts
A 19th-Century Bookseller’s Obsession With a Lost Masterpiece
A short review of Laura Cumming’s The Vanishing Velázquez
Departments
Ruven Afanador Portrait of a Presidential Mind
Reflections on Jeffrey Goldberg’s interview with President Obama and our April issue
The Conversation
Readers weigh in on our January/February cover stories.
Graham Roumieu What Are the Best Last Words Ever?
A big question
Poetry
Weeds
A poem
