A Passage to Parenthood with I.V.F.

Plus: Justice Stephen Breyer’s decision to retire; the Biden Presidency and the crisis with Russia; and Chopin’s Nocturnes. View in browser | Update your preferences Thursday, January 27, 2022 In today’s newsletter: • Justice Stephen Breyer’s decision to retire • Does the Biden Presidency hang on the crisis with Russia? • A sublime new recording of Chopin’s Nocturnes A Passage to Parenthood “One of the reasons I began thinking about the actuality of having a child was that I was overflowing with love for my wife and wanted a place to put that love,” Akhil Sharma writes. Illustration by Dadu Shin When Akhil Sharma and his wife, Christine, began discussing I.V.F., he was forty-nine and she was fifty. Sharma had never wanted a child, and his wife had given up hope of having one. But then a colleague mentioned a friend who was in her sixties and had just given birth. “Our minds snagged on this anecdote,” Sharma writes, in a gorgeous personal essay in this week’s issue. So begins their journey into the roller-coaster world of donor eggs, fertility-clinic visits, and regular hormonal injections. The process prompts Sharma and his wife to reflect on and even reconcile themselves with painful memories from their youth, including experiences with poverty, illness, and difficult relationships. They nickname their unborn baby Ziggy, for “zygote,” and start imagining what she could be like—law-abiding, but with a “strong mocking personality.” Sharma reads biographies of female scientists and politicians, and wonders, could Ziggy be the next Janet Yellen, running the Federal Reserve? Sharma’s essay is about the many trials and marvels of crossing the bridge into parenthood. But it is also about the stories we tell about ourselves—and, even before they’re born, of our children. —Jessie Li, newsletter editor Read the story. From the News Desk Daily Comment Breyer’s Decision to Retire Is in Keeping with His Tenure The Justice knows what a major crossroads the Court is at, with the conservative super-majority feeling its strength. By Amy Davidson Sorkin Daily Comment Does Biden’s Presidency Hang on the Crisis with Russia? Potentially at stake is everything America has built since Biden was born and the United States became a superpower. By Robin Wright As Told To The Realities of Abortion for Latina Women A conversation with Elizabeth Estrada, of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice. By Lizzie Widdicombe Editor’s Pick Chopin’s Nocturnes Are Arias for the Piano Illustration by Yann Kebbi Listening to all of Chopin’s Nocturnes in one sitting might have struck the composer as bizarre, Alex Ross notes, in a review of three new recordings. Live performances of the whole set are rare, but enjoying them in the intimacy of your own home is a special experience—one that “gathers its own dream logic.” If you’re new to the Nocturnes, listen to a few renditions, linked below at Spotify and Apple Music, of the C-sharp-minor Nocturne, which Ross uses to compare different pianists’ styles: The Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki follows “the high-Romantic school of Chopin playing” in his recording, creating an ethereal atmosphere that explodes into a tempestuous middle section. In the hands of the French artist Alain Planès, “the principal melody feels fragile and hesitant, in an expressively effective way.” And the British polymath Stephen Hough plays the Nocturne “markedly faster” than the other two performers, but, Ross writes, “What is immediately and magically apparent is the singing quality of the melody.” Read the review. Culture Dept. Afterword One of the Last Men Who Served Time at Alcatraz Even after prison, Russell Wayne Carpenter’s life remained eventful. By Susan Orlean Listening Booth Tanya Tagaq’s Experimental Inuit Throat Singing Her new album, “Tongues,” balances the chant-like reflexivity of throat singing with detail-driven storytelling. By Sheldon Pearce Video Dept. Screening Room The Complicated Music of Fathers and Sons In “Stenofonen,” an old family story reveals a child’s otherworldly talent. This is one of seven New Yorker films that have been short-listed for the ninety-fourth Academy Awards. Film by Nicolaj Kopernikus Text by Lauren Elyse Garcia Fun & Games Dept. Name Drop Play Today’s Quiz Can you guess the notable person in six clues or fewer? By Will Nediger Daily Cartoon Thursday, January 27th By Brendan Loper Daily Shouts Dog Meets the New Addition Learning to live with Baby. By Nguyên Khôi Nguyễn P.S. Another virtuoso, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was born on this day in 1756. He’s been depicted as an “antic boy-man,” an “idle hooligan,” a “potty-mouthed punk,” an “aloof, tortured character,” an “agent of sexual subversion,” an “idiot savant,” and a “clandestine social revolutionary”—among many other appellations. But behind the myth of Mozart was a hardworking and determined musician, Alex Ross writes. “Ambitious parents who are currently playing the ‘Baby Mozart’ video for their toddlers may be disappointed to learn that Mozart became Mozart . . . by working himself to death.” Today’s newsletter was written by Jessie Li. Thanks for reading. Let us know your thoughts about today’s edition. Plus, browse more newsletters and invite a friend to sign up for The Daily. You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for The Daily from The New Yorker. Manage your preferences | View our Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2022. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.