This Week’s Issue: The Looming Threat of a Nuclear Crisis with Iran

Plus: Parul Sehgal on the trouble with the trauma plot; Evan Osnos on Dan Bongino and Trumpist talk radio; and Nathan Heller on what Joan Didion saw. View in browser | Update your preferences Dept. of Diplomacy The Looming Threat of a Nuclear Crisis with Iran The Biden Administration faces a potential confrontation with a longtime rival that is better armed and more hard-line than at any time in its modern history. By Robin Wright Letter from Fuling China’s Reform Generation Adapts to Life in the Middle Class My students from the nineteen-nineties grew up in rural poverty. Now they’re in their forties, and their country is unrecognizable. By Peter Hessler Profiles Dan Bongino and the Big Business of Returning Trump to Power The Secret Service agent turned radio host is furious at liberals—so he’s trying to build a right-wing media infrastructure in time for 2024. By Evan Osnos Onward and Upward with the Arts Bridget Everett Is Larger Than Life The comedian survived waitressing and the alternative-cabaret circuit before creating and starring in “Somebody Somewhere,” her new series, on HBO. By Michael Schulman Comment Mining the Bottom of the Sea The future of the largest, still mostly untouched ecosystem in the world is at risk. By Elizabeth Kolbert Postscript What Joan Didion Saw Her writing and thinking captured momentous change in American life—and in her own. By Nathan Heller A Critic at Large The Case Against the Trauma Plot Fiction writers love it. Filmmakers can’t resist it. But does this trope deepen characters, or flatten them into a set of symptoms? By Parul Sehgal Podcast Dept. Does Wisdom Really Come from Experience? In “70 Over 70,” we learn what binds—and separates—the old and the young. By Rachel Syme Musical Events Claire Chase Taps the Primal Power of the Flute A monumental project to expand the flute repertory will continue until 2036. By Alex Ross Humor from The New Yorker Shouts & Murmurs Constitutional Crisis No. 1 A twelvemonth after the Capitol riot, a look back at Dr. Franklin’s views on preserving the Republick. By Teddy Wayne 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.