The New Yorker’s Josh Rothman finds it hard to get a conversation going about romance novels with male friends or acquaintances. He talked with Curtis Sittenfeld—whose fiction often contains a romantic story, though her books aren’t romance novels, per se—about why that is. Sittenfeld’s most recent book, “Eligible,” is a retelling of the ur-rom ...…

Jason Matthews spent over thirty years in the C.I.A., working in the former Soviet bloc and other hot spots, and when he retired he turned to the next best thing: writing spy novels. And while they’re contemporary—Vladimir Putin appears as a character—they have more in common with John le Carré’s tales than with the action thrillers of the post ...…

Removing plants from Central Park is illegal. But when Manhattan salad bars are charging up to $8.99 a pound, what’s a thrifty New Yorker to do? After receiving a lesson in edible plants, Patricia Marx picks a salad of things growing in the park, avoiding the hemlock and the crocuses. And The New Yorker’s Kathryn Schulz shares her love of count ...…

At an undisclosed location in Western Europe, a group called Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) is gathering evidence of war crimes perpetrated by the Syrian government. It’s unclear when or how Assad might ever stand trial, and securing the evidence is extremely dangerous. But CIJA is hoping to build the strongest w ...…

When Al Franken ran for Senate, his years as a founding writer on Saturday Night Light and as the author of books like “Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot” were held against him. So once in Washington, he buttoned up his sense of humor. Until now. His new book is “Al Franken, Giant of the Senate,” and the cover is a portrait of Franken sitting in ...…

Ryan Lizza and David Remnick listen to excerpts from the infamous late-night call that ended Anthony Scaramucci’s brief term as White House communications director. While Scaramucci’s behavior and language on that call were shocking even by Trump standards—he called Reince Priebus “a paranoid schizophrenic” and accused him of leaking his financ ...…

The Irish writer Sally Rooney, who is twenty-six, wrote the first draft of her début novel, “Conversations with Friends,” in a several-month-long torrent of creativity, when she was just twenty-three. Rooney’s editor calls her a “Salinger for the Snapchat generation,” and The New Yorker’s Alexandra Schwartz speaks with Rooney about how fictiona ...…

George Strait is a superstar of country music. He rarely gives interviews, but he agreed to speak with Kelefa Sanneh, who marked the occasion by ironing his shirt. Lawrence Wright talks with David Remnick about the politics of Texas, which he sees as a harbinger of what will happen in the United States: the state is redder than ever, even as th ...…

A rookie reported from Vietnam in 1967, and his eyewitness report on the strategic demolition of a village helped change how we saw the Vietnam War.

Maggie Haberman covered Donald Trump years ago for the New York tabloids. Now, in the White House, she has a front-row seat to an Administration in which “rival gangs” are vying for control. Plus, Bob Odenkirk’s amazing exercise tips, and Bruce Eric Kaplan on the naughty TV specials of his youth.

Phil Davies doesn’t seem like a mad scientist bent on conquering another planet: he’s a mild-mannered general practitioner in a small town in southern England. But, with a telescope and an array of lasers, he’s making a claim that he owns Mars, and he’s presented it to the United Nations. Some thirteen thousand prospective landowners have signe ...…

The future of health care in America hangs in the balance as the Senate releases a revised bill to replace the Affordable Care Act. David Remnick talks with the historian Jill Lepore, and with Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, an architect of Obamacare who has met with the Trump Administration, about the future of expanding coverage.…

Lucinda Williams won a Grammy for the song “Passionate Kisses,” which was performed by Mary Chapin-Carpenter; but she spent many years overlooked by the music industry: she was too country for rock and too rock for country. In 1998, American music caught up to her, and her album "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" broke through. The staff writer Arie ...…

James Taylor’s songs are so familiar that they seem to have always existed. On stage at the New Yorker Festival in 2010, Taylor peeled back some of his influences: the Beatles, Bach, show tunes, and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Taylor played a few of his hits and gave staff writer Adam Gopnik a quick lesson.…

Donald Trump’s winter White House is his private club and family residence, Mar-a-Lago. We go there ourselves to take the political temperature of Palm Beach and sample the President’s brand of Chardonnay, while, somewhere nearby, the President deals with a foreign-policy crisis.

David Remnick talks with the writer Jon Ronson about the surreal world of "Okja" he co-wrote with director Boon Joon-ho. Plus the U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith takes us on a walk in the woods.

Donald Trump’s policy of “America First” gives a rising China more room to flex its muscles. This week, we consider from many sides the complex relationship between the U.S. and China. David Remnick talks with Ai Weiwei, the dissident and global art star; a congressman asks us to reconsider trade with China; and Chinese students explain why Iva ...…

As scientists learn more about how genes affect everything from hair color to sexual orientation and mental health, we’re faced with moral and political questions about how we allow science to intervene in the genetic code. In this episode, Siddhartha Mukherjee, the author of the book “The Gene: An Intimate History,” talks with David Remnick ab ...…

The director James Ivory talks about the film “Maurice,” based on a groundbreaking E. M. Forster novel—a gay love story with a happy ending. Jon Lee Anderson, who has covered Latin American insurgency and war, talks about his prison interview with the late Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega. And David Remnick assesses the chances for a peacefu ...…

A reverend and political activist thinks that Democrats and Republicans alike need to bring a sense of morality and Christian love back into their politics. But he’s not shy about calling conservative policies “heresy.” Paul Theroux, best known as a travel writer, explains why he set his new novel in his home town. And Kristen Wiig reads a stor ...…

As talk of a possible impeachment for President Trump grows more serious, Evan Osnos speaks with an expert about what impeachment really is, and what it takes to pull it off. In his first novel, a journalist imagines our current political divisions leading to all-out civil war. We talk with Jerrod Carmichael, whose comedy is not afraid to ackno ...…

Lena Dunham joined David Remnick hours before her thirtieth-birthday party to face the angst of leaving her twenties behind. The New Yorker staff writer Evan Osnos asks a lifelong N.R.A. member and former gun dealer how the organization’s marketing squares up with reality. And we learn how it feels when your stepfather is mistaken for your brot ...…

Marking one hundred days of the Trump administration, David Remnick convened a group of journalists to discuss covering this presidency: Lydia Polgreen, editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post; Eli Lake, a correspondent for Bloomberg View; MSNBC host Joy Reid; and Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold. It was recorded at New York City's Pub ...…

Some have called the firing of James Comey, the F.B.I. director, a constitutional crisis; The New Yorker’s legal expert Jeffrey Toobin weighs in. Michael Anton, of the National Security Council, tries to explain Trump’s foreign policy, while the journalist Robin Wright assesses Trump’s agenda for his first trip abroad. And a playwright revisits ...…

In these three conversations from past New Yorker Festivals, some no-longer-covert agents share the truth about espionage. Roger Corman talks about creating a new template for independent movies, and whether “Sharktopus” has a message. And the actress Toni Collette revisits the many characters she’s played, including Tara, who suffers from diss ...…

At NBC, Jeff Zucker put Donald Trump on national TV; now he’s at CNN, and Trump seems to have it in for all the “fake news” that he claims Zucker promotes about the Administration. A reporter digs for clues about Steve Bannon’s murky years in Hollywood. A cartoonist and TV writer fulfills his lifelong dream of crawling inside the television. An ...…

The senior senator from Massachusetts tells David Remnick her plan for the Democrats to regain lost ground. The poet Gregory Pardlo remembers his father’s role in the infamous strike that led to more than eleven thousand air-traffic controllers losing their jobs. And the cartoon editor Bob Mankoff shows up in David Remnick’s office with his wee ...…

An evangelical Christian climate scientist speaks with David Remnick about explaining global warming to skeptical audiences. Margaret Atwood reflects on the realism of her novel “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Robin Wright explores “Theatre of War,” a production which brings ancient Greek tragedies to military audiences. Plus, Kristen Wiig and Bill Hade ...…

In the years after September 11th, Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show” made political satire a central part of the media landscape. This hour, we hear from some of today’s leading practitioners: The New Yorker’s Andy Borowitz; Trevor Noah, of “The Daily Show”; Bassem Youssef, and the founders of Reductress. Plus, an alt-right blogger turned White House ...…

The playwright Lynn Nottage and the director Kate Whoriskey talk about the factory town that inspired “Sweat,” Nottage’s new play about the economic recession in the Rust Belt. Actress Jessica Lange tells Hilton Als about her acting début in “King Kong” and her latest role, Joan Crawford, in “Feud.” Plus, some new ideas (fictional, fortunately) ...…

Mo Willems, the children’s-book author who created the “Elephant and Piggie” series, stands alongside America’s literary greats. The fiction writer Rivka Galchen is moved to tears when she reads his books to her daughter. Also this week, Jill Lepore explains what the judicial philosophy known as originalism means and talks about how liberal Sup ...…

Modelling can be a tricky business for Muslim women who cover up. Judith Thurman visits Nailah Lymus, the head of a new modelling agency that represents the modestly dressed, and admires the bright, bold hijabs Lymus designs. Jill Soloway, the creator of “Transparent,” joins David Remnick in a discussion about her new show, “I Love Dick.” And t ...…

This podcast bonus episode features David Remnick in conversation with three great writers—the playwright Tony Kushner, the poet Claudia Rankine, and the novelist Salman Rushdie. This is an edited and condensed recording of "The Stuff of Fiction," a panel in the four-part event series Public Forum: A Well-Ordered Nation, a collaboration between ...…