This Week’s Issue: Twenty Years, from Ground Zero to Afghanistan

Plus: convincing progressives that genetics matters; Amia Srinivasan on feminism and trans liberation; and learning to love music—and hate it, too.  View in browser | Update your preferences     A Reporter at Large The Other Afghan Women In the countryside, the endless killing of civilians turned women against the occupiers who claimed to be helping them. By Anand Gopal Listen to this story Have a world-class narrator read this to you.     Comment The Lessons of Defeat in Afghanistan After twenty years, it hardly needs saying that America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were disastrous to U.S. interests and standing. By Steve Coll     Books Did Making the Rules of War Better Make the World Worse? Why efforts to curb the cruelty of military force may have backfired. By Dexter Filkins     On Television The Messy Introspection of Spike Lee's "N.Y.C. Epicenters" The director's new HBO documentary may have inadvertently captured our collective psyche. By Doreen St. Félix     Books Convincing Progressives That Genetics Matters The behavior geneticist Kathryn Paige Harden is waging a two-front campaign. By Gideon Lewis-Kraus     Annals of Activism Who Lost the Sex Wars? Fissures in the feminist movement should not be buried as signs of failure but worked through as opportunities for insight. By Amia Srinivasan     Personal History The Education of a Part-Time Punk Learning to love music—and to hate it, too. By Kelefa Sanneh     Books Benjamín Labatut's "When We Cease to Understand the World," Reviewed The Chilean writer's haunting new book is a cautionary tale about science that raises uncomfortable questions about fiction. By Ruth Franklin     The Current Cinema The Smell of Villainy Wafts Compellingly Through "Azor" Andreas Fontana's début feature avoids overt horrors, preferring to examine the inexhaustible human talent for averting one's gaze. By Anthony Lane   Humor from The New Yorker     Shouts & Murmurs Wedding Update: It's Still On! Check in to the Marriott, log into the Zoom dance party, and get ready for the Rapid-Test Roast! By Susanna Wolff     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.