The New Yorker

Adam Entous (“The Biden Inheritance,” p. 30), a staff writer, was a member of a team at the Washington Post that won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 2018. Nicola Twilley (“The Cold Rush,” p. 16), a frequent contributor to the magazine, co-hosts the podcast “Gastropod.” She is working on a book about refrigeration’s transformative power. José Antonio Rodríguez (Poem, p. 51) is a poet, a memoirist, and a translator. His latest book is “This American Autopsy.” Nicole Rifkin (Cover), a cartoonist and an illustrator, is based in Brooklyn. Alejandro Zambra (Fiction, p. 54) is the author of several books, including “My Documents” and “Chilean Poet.” His novel “Bonsai,” translated, from the Spanish, by Megan McDowell, was published in English this month. Rachel Syme (Books, p. 60), a staff writer, has covered Hollywood, style,…

STORIES AS MEDICINE As a founder of the discipline of narrative medicine, I thank Jerome Groopman for his piece about doctors and storytelling (Books, July 25th). Narrative medicine applies the skills that one acquires from analyzing literature to the practice of medicine; it not only makes room for the sharing of war stories but also provides literary, philosophical, and psychological training that allows medical professionals to perceive and interpret what goes on in the care of the sick. As Groopman learned, complex narrative abilities are needed to comprehend patients’ experiences of illness, and to represent with fidelity what one has witnessed. When practiced rigorously, narrative medicine can lead to the activism and advocacy necessary to critique—and fix—our health-care system. Rita CharonDivision of Narrative MedicineColumbia UniversityNew York City Groopman’s description of his struggle to…

AUGUST 17 – 23, 2022 The Texas singer Leon Bridges emerged, in 2015, as a convincing throwback, with everything from the shoes on his feet to the croon on his lips paying homage to a faded era of classic soul. In his more recent work, including last year’s down-tempo LP, “Gold-Diggers Sound,” the singer effectively reset his time machine to the present, covering a breadth of soul music in the process. On Aug. 18, Bridges headlines at Forest Hills Stadium, with an opening set from the Swedish electro-pop band Little Dragon. As ever, it’s advisable to check in advance to confirm engagements. THE THEATRE Into the Woods Lear deBessonet directs this delectable revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s musical from 1987, which braids several classic fairy tales into a two-act piece that begins as…

Most conversational podcasts have a time-tested—if increasingly tired—formula: two or three hosts gab at length about a given subject, be it soccer, silent films, skin-care products, or snack foods. (Or, in the case of certain celebrity-led podcasts, the hosts just kibbitz with their famous friends.) If you are into a topic, no matter how obscure, the odds are good that there are podcasters out there chatting about it. Still, despite the glut of talky pods, it can be difficult to find one that has real verve. What elevates a show is an undeniable chemistry between the hosts, and “Celebrity Book Club with Steven & Lily” is dripping with good chemistry. The show’s subject matter—revisiting the memoirs of the rich and famous—is fertile terrain, but it’s the giddy, urbane, and downright…

When a friend heard, recently, that I was planning a trip to City Island, which is connected to the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx by a short bridge, he asked, “Are you going to Tony’s or to Johnny’s?” At the southern tip of City Island Avenue—the main thoroughfare, which runs the length of the narrow landmass, about a mile and a half—you’ll find two mid-century-era seafood restaurants, Johnny’s Reef and Tony’s Pier. With apologies to loyalists of either (Mike Bloomberg is a known Johnny’s guy), they’re nearly identical: both counter service, with a charmingly retro system of ordering that’s similar to the one at Katz’s Deli, featuring different stations (raw, steamed, broiled, fried, frozen tiki drinks), and both with ample outdoor picnic-table seating—beware of hungry gulls. Johnny’s and Tony’s are…

In January, 2000, during the run-up to the New Hampshire primaries, Presidential candidates in the Granite State were confronted by a young man—a recent Dartmouth graduate—wearing a red cape, orange long johns, and yellow-painted galoshes. He called himself Captain Climate, and asked any candidate within shouting distance, “What’s your plan?” All the candidates ignored him, except one. That candidate was John McCain, then the senior United States senator from Arizona. McCain went on to win New Hampshire’s Republican primary and then to lose the nomination to George W. Bush. He had been troubled enough by the shouted question that he returned to Washington that spring and held a series of hearings on climate change. At the first hearing, he apologized for not having a plan to deal with the problem, but…