The Top New Yorker Stories of 2020

Jane Mayer on Mitch McConnell; James Baldwin’s “Letter from a Region in My Mind”; the top forty movies on Netflix; and more. View in browser | Update your preferences On the evening of Tuesday, March 10th, as the threat of the novel coronavirus became increasingly plain in New York City, the staff of The New Yorker went home and never returned to our offices in One World Trade Center. The final editing, fact-checking, and other work on the following week’s issue—the cover depicted domino pieces in a pattern resembling the novel coronavirus—took place remotely. Over the next nine months, an unrelenting onslaught of news consumed the country—and The New Yorker. As of this writing, the magazine’s editorial staff has put out thirty-seven print issues and published an additional three and a half million words online, all while collaborating day after day through squares on our laptop screens. To mark the end of this uniquely trying year, we are sharing a list of the most popular New Yorker pieces of the past twelve months. (Just as we did last year, we are using a metric that tracks what people read on their way to subscribing.) Piece by piece, the stories encapsulate our year. They include: Carolyn Kormann’s portrait of the novel coronavirus, Charles Duhigg’s investigation of the differing responses to early outbreaks in Seattle and New York, James Baldwin’s classic “Letter from a Region in My Mind,” Jane Mayer’s examination of Mitch McConnell’s alliance with Donald Trump, and Richard Brody’s list of the forty best movies on Netflix. I hope that you enjoy each of these pieces—and that, if you’re not already a subscriber, you’ll consider becoming one and supporting our journalism. —Michael Luo, editor of newyorker.com A Reporter at Large How Mitch McConnell Became Trump’s Enabler-in-Chief The Senate Majority Leader’s refusal to rein in the President is looking riskier than ever. By Jane Mayer A Reporter at Large Why Trump Can’t Afford to Lose The President has survived one impeachment, twenty-six accusations of sexual misconduct, and an estimated four thousand lawsuits. That run of good luck may well end, perhaps brutally, if Joe Biden wins. By Jane Mayer Medical Dispatch Amid the Coronavirus Crisis, a Regimen for Reëntry Health-care workers have been on the job throughout the pandemic. What can they teach us about the safest way to lift a lockdown? By Atul Gawande Elements From Bats to Human Lungs, the Evolution of a Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 behaves like a monstrous mutant hybrid of all the coronaviruses that came before it. By Carolyn Kormann The Front Row Forty of the Best Movies on Netflix Right Now Just as mud is a good place to find gold nuggets, Netflix, with some careful sifting, is a good place to find great movies. By Richard Brody The New Yorker Interview Fran Lebowitz Is Never Leaving New York The writer on growing old, life in quarantine, and the sadness of seeing her city shut down. By Michael Schulman News Desk The Secret History of Kimberly Guilfoyle’s Departure from Fox A former assistant at the network accused Guilfoyle, one of the Trump campaign’s top fund-raising officials, of sexual harassment—and of attempting to buy her silence. By Jane Mayer Annals of Epidemiology Seattle’s Leaders Let Scientists Take the Lead. New York’s Did Not The initial coronavirus outbreaks on the East and West Coasts emerged at roughly the same time. But the danger was communicated very differently. By Charles Duhigg Photo Booth A Photographer’s Parents Wave Farewell Deanna Dikeman’s portrait series doubles as a family album, compressing nearly three decades of her parents’ adieux into a deft and affecting chronology. By Eren Orbey The Future of Democracy The Last Time Democracy Almost Died Learning from the upheaval of the nineteen-thirties. By Jill Lepore Reflections Letter from a Region in My Mind From 1962: “Whatever white people do not know about Negroes reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves.” By James Baldwin 2020 in Review The Top Twenty-five New Yorker Stories of 2020 Piece by piece, the list encapsulates a uniquely trying year. By Michael Luo Humor and Puzzles Daily Shouts Americana in 2020 “Vaccine Day in Times Square” and other masterworks representative of the times. By Nikki Palumbo and Ari Saperstein Crossword The Holiday Crossword: 2020 in News and Politics ___ event (Trump’s Rose Garden ceremony for Amy Coney Barrett, for one) (September, 2020): thirteen letters. By Natan Last Daily Cartoon Thursday, December 31st By Liz Dickson Kenseth and Lars Kenseth 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.