American Madness
Thousands of people with severe mental illness have been failed by a dysfunctional system. My friend Michael was one of them. Twenty-five years ago, he killed the person he loved most.
May 2023
In This Issue
America’s failure to help the mentally ill, Holocaust education, the mysterious health benefits of ice cream, and a trip through Ron DeSantis’s Florida. Plus how to look at a Vermeer, the myth of the broke Millennial, good art by bad people, Taylor Swift, bananas, Jorie Graham, street photography, and more.
Cover Story
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Nutrition Science’s Most Preposterous Result
Studies show a mysterious health benefit to ice cream. Scientists don’t want to talk about it.
Is Holocaust Education Making Anti-Semitism Worse?
Using dead Jews as symbols isn’t helping living ones.
How Did America’s Weirdest, Most Freedom-Obsessed State Fall for an Authoritarian Governor?
A journey through Ron DeSantis’s magic kingdom
Vermeer’s Revelations
The artist left behind few clues about his life or intentions, but the paintings themselves teach the viewer new ways to see.
Dispatches
Patrick White The Myth of the Broke Millennial
After a rough start, the generation is thriving. Why doesn’t it feel that way?
Jamel Shabazz Street Photography From ’80s and ’90s New York
Armed with his camera and a collection of albums, Jamel Shabazz documented Black life in the city.
Culture & Critics
Photo-illustration by Gabriela Pesqueira. Sources: Amy Sussman / Getty; Frazer Harrison / Getty. Taylor Swift and the Sad Dads
On the unlikeliest, most fruitful collaboration in contemporary music
Photo-illustration by Vanessa Saba The Pornography Paradox
Reformers fear that ever more outré sites are warping users’ desires. But transgression has always been part of the appeal.
Marine Buffard ‘Notice All That Disappears’
Jorie Graham is a poet facing down the end of the world.
Photo-illustration by Oliver Munday. Sources: Samir Hussein / WireImage / Getty; Alfred Ellis and Walery / Getty. It’s Okay to Like Good Art by Bad People
Art transcends the artist.
Departments
The Atlantic The Commons: ‘Joe Biden’s Show Lacks Entertainment Value’
Readers respond to our March 2023 cover story and more.
Tim Lahan An Ode to Bananas
Their cartoon yellowness, their absurd curvature, their fragility, their cordial blandness
Poetry
Gabriela Pesqueira
