What Does Boredom Do to Us?

Plus: the ethics of keeping coronavirus patients breathing, the context of Steve Bannon’s arrest, and the rare birth of a panda cub. View in browser | Update your preferences Annals of Inquiry What Does Boredom Do to Us—and for Us? Humans have been getting bored for centuries, if not millennia. Now there’s a whole field to study the sensation, at a time when it may be more rampant than ever. By Margaret Talbot Medical Dispatch The Complicated Ethics of Keeping a COVID-19 Patient Breathing During the pandemic, the question of who receives tracheostomies, and when, has presented doctors with one of their most difficult decisions. By Zach Helfand Our Columnists Bannon, Manafort, and the History of MAGA Money-Grubbing The alleged corruption surrounding We Build the Wall, Inc., is just the latest chapter in a saga of shady fund-raising efforts surrounding Donald Trump. By John Cassidy Q. & A. The “Narcissism and Ego” That Led to Bannon’s Arrest Joshua Green, the author of “Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising,” on Bannon’s indictment on charges of fraud. By Isaac Chotiner Our Columnists The Miracle of Breeding a Panda Cub During a Pandemic The National Zoo used eight hundred million frozen sperm to help its aging panda matriarch defy the one per cent chance she would give birth. By Robin Wright Newsletters Sign Up for The New Yorker’s Crossword-Puzzle Newsletter Never miss another New Yorker crossword again. On This Day Sci-Fi Take Me Home Today marks the hundredth anniversary of Ray Bradbury’s birth. From 2012: Bradbury recalls how he “went a trifle mad” as a child when he discovered Buck Rogers and Edgar Rice Burroughs while living in his grandparents’ boarding house in Illinois. By Ray Bradbury Culture and More Fiction “Cicadia” “I am the cicada, Max thinks. Or the cicada is me.” By David Gilbert Humor and Puzzles Daily Shouts Getting Dressed for a Quaran-date So you’ve snagged a date during COVID-19. Obviously, your next thought is, What do I wear? By Alaina Ewins Crossword The Weekend Puzzle George Eliot or George Orwell, e.g.: seven letters. By Caitlin Reid 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.