This Week's Issue: Learning to Ski in a Country of Beginners

Plus: the rise of Black homeschooling; Omar Sy; and the battle over the coronavirus lab-leak theory.  View in browser | Update your preferences     A Reporter at Large Learning to Ski in a Country of Beginners As China prepares to host the Winter Olympics, its people get on skis. By Peter Hessler Listen to this story Have a world-class narrator read this to you.     Annals of Education The Rise of Black Homeschooling Black parents are banding together to educate their children, sometimes with an unexpected funding source: the Koch family and other conservative donors. By Casey Parks     Profiles The Formidable Charm of Omar Sy How the star of "Lupin" pulled off his greatest confidence trick. By Lauren Collins     Onward and Upward with the Arts The Musical Mysteries of Josquin During the Renaissance, his crystalline choral works led him to be celebrated as the Michelangelo of music. But many works attributed to him may be those of gifted contemporaries. By Alex Ross     Comment The Battle Over the Coronavirus Lab-Leak Theory The debate about the origin of the pandemic has become loud, contentious, and infused with politics. We need to find real answers. By Amy Davidson Sorkin     A Critic at Large When Graphs Are a Matter of Life and Death Pie charts and scatter plots seem like ordinary tools, but they revolutionized the way we solve problems. By Hannah Fry     Books The Deep Sea Is Filled with Treasure, but It Comes at a Price We've barely explored the darkest realm of the ocean. With rare-metal mining on the rise, we're already destroying it. By Elizabeth Kolbert     The Current Cinema Harmony Rules in "In the Heights" Jon M. Chu's adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway musical presents an uplifting portrait of a Dominican neighborhood in New York where political strife rarely intrudes. By Anthony Lane     The New Yorker Live Words of Desire On June 28th, the celebrated authors Emma Cline, Garth Greenwell, and Ottessa Moshfegh will discuss the fiction and politics of passion as part of The New Yorker Live, exclusively for subscribers. By The New Yorker Live   Humor from The New Yorker     Shouts & Murmurs A Lexicon for the Late Pandemic Brush up on your post-plague terminology: "Orca Face," "Covalgia," "Phantom-Mask Syndrome" (the feeling after you've taken off your mask that there's still something covering your face that isn't skin). By Jay Martel     Cartoons from the Issue Cartoons from the Issue Drawings and drollery from this week's magazine.   You're receiving this e-mail because you signed up for This Week's Issue from The New Yorker. Was this e-mail forwarded to you? Sign up.   Unsubscribe | Manage your e-mail preferences | Send newsletter feedback | View our privacy policy    Copyright © Condé Nast 2021. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.