All across campus, you can see people carrying The New Yorker tote bags. The magazine is currently offering a free tote bag with subscriptions, so that readers can have something to carry their magazines in and something that declares how sophisticated and pretentious they are to everyone around them. It’s a great advertising scheme, both for The New Yorker and its subscribers.
I also cashed in on this deal several months ago and got an outrageously cheap subscription for 12 weeks, although I never received my promised tote bag. (I suspect my landlord stole it.) Despite feeling a little salty about that, I read The New Yorker on a regular basis. I occasionally read the political analyses, but my favourites are the longform pieces that tell interesting, nuanced stories. They are excellent examples of in-depth reporting and fantastic writing, and they usually make me consider subjects that don’t normally cross my mind.
If you’d like to join the ranks of people who can proudly proclaim that they’ve read The New Yorker, here are five great articles and essays to choose from.
1. “Can Hollywood Changes Its Ways?” by Dana Goodyear
Published on January 8, 2018, Dana Goodyear’s “Can Hollywood Change Its Ways?” examines the culture shift that has been forced to happen in Hollywood since the emergence of the #MeToo movement. Goodyear speaks to entertainment reporters who have noticed changes in behaviour amongst male movie executives, such as refusing to have private meetings with women anymore, or insisting that the door remain open when a woman enters his office. The article discusses the methods of damage control that executives and production companies are implementing to appear on the right side of the war on sexual harassment. It says that, while things like putting women into leadership positions and creating legal funds for victims of sexual harassment are good, “changing century-old norms will require overcoming deep unconscious biases.” Hollywood is on the right path toward change, but the road is long and far from easy.
2. “Reddit and the Struggle to Detoxify the Internet” by Andrew Marantz
Published on March 19, 2018, Andrew Marantz’s “Reddit and the Struggle to Detoxify the Internet” addresses the precarious balancing act of trying to maintain the democratic, open nature of a website like Reddit while keeping hate speech off it. Marantz speaks to one of Reddit’s co-founders and C.E.O., Steve Huffman, about he and Alexis Ohanian’s original vision for Reddit as irreverent college students and how it has evolved over time. The article pays particular attention to how Reddit turned into a gathering place for ardent Trump supporters during the 2016 American presidential election. While the article often focuses on the garbage fire aspects of Reddit, it ends by showing that there are more good people in the world than trolls.
3. “Why Aren’t You Laughing?” by David Sedaris
Published on June 19, 2017, David Sedaris’s “Why Aren’t You Laughing?” is a nuanced personal essay about a family’s struggle to come to term with a mother’s addiction. In typical Sedaris style, he takes a while to get to the point, but he paints an amusing picture for the reader to look at while he’s making his way to the heart of the essay. This piece reflects on how people tend to ignore the uglier sides of the people they love in favour of remembering them purely with affection and love. Although discussing a serious subject, Sedaris manages to keep the reader laughing and entertained with his signature absurdity and eloquence.
4. “What Does It Mean to Die?” by Rachel Aviv
Published on February 5, 2018, Rachel Aviv’s “What Does It Mean to Die?” dissects the definition of brain-dead and hears the evidence for and against assuming that someone in a coma is no longer alive. This article tells the incredible story of Jahi McMath, a thirteen-year-old girl from Oakland, California who has been in a coma for over four years. Aviv speaks to Jahi’s mother and grandmother about their belief that Jahi is still alive, and that she shouldn’t be taken off life support, despite what some doctors say. The article also addresses the disparity in the quality of healthcare given to white and black people, and the lengths to which parents will go to take care of their children. Jahi’s case will make you question the ethics of declaring someone to be brain-dead and and taking their organs when those organs are still keeping their body alive.
5. “Thresholds of Violence” by Malcolm Gladwell
Published on October 19, 2015, Malcolm Gladwell’s “Thresholds of Violence” examines the science behind how school shooters are shaped and why the United States is experiencing an epidemic of them. The article examines one sociological theory as to why people do things that do not align with their morals, and why not all school shooters are psychopaths. Gladwell looks at multiple school shooters over the years and compares their different personalities and circumstances to determine that there is not just one recipe for a school shooter. The issue of young American men suddenly rising up and becoming violent—sometimes for no apparent reason—runs deep.