The Miseducation of the American Boy
Why boys crack up at rape jokes, think having a girlfriend is “gay,” and still can’t cry—and why we need to give them new and better models of masculinity
January/February 2020
In This Issue
The miseducation of the American boy, John Hendrickson on Joe Biden's stutter, 20,000 feet under the sea, and a thriving conservative-Catholic community in Kansas. Plus Charlize Theron, Silicon Valley's failure to deliver, the myth of free shipping, how flamenco went pop, and more.
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History’s Largest Mining Operation Is About to Begin
It’s underwater—and the consequences are unimaginable.
The Christian Withdrawal Experiment
Feeling out of step with the mores of contemporary life, members of a conservative-Catholic group have built a thriving community in rural Kansas. Could their flight from mainstream society be a harbinger for the nation?
What Joe Biden Can’t Bring Himself to Say
His verbal stumbles have voters worried about his mental fitness. Maybe they’d be more understanding if they knew he’s still fighting a stutter.
The Fight to Decolonize the Museum
Textbooks can be revised, but historic sites, monuments, and collections that memorialize ugly pasts aren’t so easily changed. Lessons from the struggle to update the Royal Museum for Central Africa, outside Brussels.
Dispatches
Photo rendering: Patrick White The Real Trouble With Silicon Valley
The toxicity of the web is peanuts compared with Big Tech’s failure to remake the physical world.
Arinze Stanley Charlize Theron Knows a Monster When She Sees One
The making of Bombshell and the eerie similarities between Roger Ailes and Harvey Weinstein
Giacomo Bagnara Stop Believing in Free Shipping
How retailers hide the costs of delivery—and why we’re such suckers for their ploys
Alex Merto Our Predictions About the Internet Are Probably Wrong
It’s easy to forget how unforeseeable the “unforeseeable” really is.
Joshua Dudley Greer Christmas Under the Bypass
A photograph by Joshua Dudley Greer
Culture & Critics
Illustration by Simon Montag; David M. Bennett / Getty How Flamenco Went Pop
The Spanish star Rosalía has made the harrowing music of Andalusia into a global phenomenon.
Kelsey Dake Cool It, Krugman
The self-sabotaging rage of the New York Times columnist
Clemens Habicht The Woman Who Made Modern Journalism
Ida Tarbell championed reportorial methods and investigative goals that are as potent today as ever.
Chau Luong Inside Tech’s Fever Dream
Drawn into the tech world, a 20-something wonders why she—and the rest of us—didn’t wise up to the grandiose myopia sooner.
Front & Back
The Commons
Readers respond to our November 2019 issue and more.
Pablo Amargo An Ode to Middle Age
Your body begins to betray you. You have neither the vitality of youth nor the license of old age. But being over the hill has its pleasures.
Poetry
Paul Spella
