Surveillance and the Loneliness of the Long-Distance Trucker

Plus: the killing of Tyre Nichols and the issue of race; the green comet approaches Earth; and Gary Shteyngart remembers Paul La Farge. View in browser | Update your preferences Tuesday, January 31, 2023 In today’s newsletter, the pitfalls of spying on workers, and then: • The killing of Tyre Nichols and the issue of race • The secrets of the green comet approaching Earth • Gary Shteyngart remembers Paul La Farge Surveillance and the Loneliness of the Long-Distance Trucker A new book shows how electronic tracking systems have failed to make trucking safer. But they have helped companies spy on their workers. Illustration by Nicholas Konrad / The New Yorker; Source photographs by Getty When the sociologist Karen Levy was a graduate student at Princeton, she became deeply invested in the trials and tribulations of long-haul truckers. She had a background in the law as well as academia, and that “predisposed her to reflect on situations that dramatized the peculiar relationship between formal codes (the realm of the law) and practical expediency (the realm of the ethnographer),” as Gideon Lewis-Kraus writes, in an engrossing review of Levy’s new book, which examines the role of workplace surveillance in trucking. In 2017, a federal mandate required electronic logging devices to be installed in trucks, but data from the first years of the new rules have shown that these devices may actually “lead to an increase in trucking accidents,” as Lewis-Kraus writes. Lewis-Kraus talks to Levy about the surprising world of trucker lingo—read to find out what the terms “reefer,” “chicken coop,” and “reset your seventy” mean—and explores the mounting difficulties within the industry, where decades-long industry veterans are opting for early retirement out of frustration with the mandate. And the story goes well beyond truckers, to consider the consequences of integrating new technologies into every aspect of our lives. Read the story Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today » From the News Desk Daily Comment The Killing of Tyre Nichols and the Issue of Race The case dispatches several assumptions associated with police reform. By Jelani Cobb Elements What the Green Comet Tells Us About the Past—and the Future Comets are inspiring marvels in the night sky. They may also hold the secrets of habitable planets. By Rivka Galchen Atlanta Postcard Tots vs. Cop City Preschoolers at an anti-racist school in East Atlanta speak out against a police-training center to be built in the woods nearby, then play with blocks. By Charles Bethea Tune in: On The Political Scene podcast, David Remnick talks with a linguist of slang about what “woke” really means, and how the term became so powerful. 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By Will Nediger Daily Shouts What’s on Your Favorite Streaming Service This Month We added a standup special by a male comic past his prime, and got rid of that show that made you sign up for this service in the first place. By Carlos Greaves Crossword A Moderately Challenging Puzzle Start of many a rap moniker: three letters. By Anna Shechtman Daily Cartoon Tuesday, January 31st By Evan Lian P.S. Yuja Wang played all four of Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, as part of a four-and-a-half-hour marathon performance that the Times described as “the kind of feat for which the phrase ‘once in a lifetime’ was invented.” In 2016, Janet Malcolm spoke with Wang about her talent for channelling the “hot-blooded” Russian Romantics, even as she was drawn to an increasingly experimental and modern repertoire. “But once in a while I crave those Russians,” Wang said. “My heart is crying, Where are they?” Today’s newsletter was written by Jessie Li. Thanks for reading. 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