This Week’s Issue: The Therapeutic Power of Gardening

Plus: the renegade priest helping undocumented people survive the pandemic, the plight of the whale, and Catherine Lacey. View in browser | Update your preferences Annals of Horticulture The Therapeutic Power of Gardening Can anxious minds find solace working with plants? A therapist and her husband, a garden designer, say yes. By Rebecca Mead Our Local Correspondents The Renegade Priest Helping Undocumented People Survive the Pandemic Juan Carlos Ruiz, a Mexican pastor in Brooklyn, does everything from human-rights advocacy to grocery delivery. By Jonathan Blitzer Letter from Michigan The Militias Against Masks Groups protesting lockdown measures see the coronavirus pandemic as a pretext for tyranny—and as an opportunity for spreading rage. By Luke Mogelson Profiles Michael Rakowitz’s Art of Return Through playful, outraged interventions, a sculptor seeks to reclaim a lost Iraq. By Raffi Khatchadourian Comment Do V.P. Picks Matter? What the choice of Kamala Harris does, and doesn’t, tell us about the future of the Democratic Party. By Margaret Talbot A Critic at Large What Have We Done to the Whale? The creatures once symbolized our efforts to save the planet; now they demonstrate all the ways we have devastated it. By Amia Srinivasan Books Catherine Lacey and the Art of Enigma A puzzling stranger puts a religious community to the test in Lacey’s new novel, “Pew.” By James Wood Books Alice Oswald’s Homeric Mood Her poetry conjures the worlds of the Iliad and the Odyssey with startling, sometimes vexing, beauty. By Judith Thurman Newsletters Sign Up for the New Yorker Recommends Newsletter Discover what our staff is reading, watching, and listening to each week. Humor from The New Yorker Shouts & Murmurs Virtual Freshman Orientation Bullies: you’ll have to cope with your parents’ divorce some other way. Stoners: as you were. By Nicky Guerreiro and Ethan Simon Cartoons From The Issue Cartoons from the Issue Drawings and drollery from this week’s magazine. This e-mail was sent to you by The New Yorker. To insure delivery, we recommend adding newyorker@newsletters.newyorker.com, to your contacts, while noting that it is a no-reply address. Please send all newsletter feedback to tnyinbox@newyorker.com. For more from The New Yorker, sign up for our newsletters, shop the store, and sign in to newyorker.com, where subscribers always have unlimited access. Contact us with questions. View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2020. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.