The 9.16.18 Issue

Highlights

Feature
How Maya Rudolph Became the Master of Impressions
The actress and comedian can move up and down the scales of race, age and gender with hilarious ease — a talent that grew from finding her place in a world where no one looked like her.
By Caity Weaver
CreditAlex Prager for The New York Times. Painting by Vanessa Prager.
Feature
‘True Detective’ Director Cary Fukunaga Is Bringing His Obsessions to Netflix
With the new show ‘Maniac,’ he continues bringing an auteur’s sensibility — and a fanatical attention to detail — to the small screen.
By Willa Paskin
CreditRichard Burbridge for The New York Times
Feature
Americans Want to Believe Jobs Are the Solution to Poverty. They’re Not.
U.S. unemployment is down and jobs are going unfilled. But for people without much education, the real question is: Do those jobs pay enough to live on?
By Matthew Desmond
CreditDevin Yalkin for The New York Times
Feature
‘If This Book Is Not Expressing Everything, What Am I Doing With My Life?’
Daniel Mason, a 42-year-old practicing psychiatrist, spent 14 years writing his latest novel, his first about a doctor — and the costly mistakes he makes.
By Wyatt Mason
CreditNoel Spirandelli for The New York Times

A Trail of ‘Bread Crumbs,’ Leading Conspiracy Theorists Into the Wilderness
Followers of the bizarre “QAnon” theory imagine they can follow preposterous internet hints to some great truth. But that’s rarely where a trail of crumbs takes you.
By Mattathias Schwartz
CreditIllustration by Derek Brahney
First Words
Traveling in Vietnam, His Leg Swelled Terribly. Had He Caught Something?
It started with vomiting after a day of sightseeing and ended with edema that just wouldn’t go away.
By Lisa Sanders, M.D.
CreditIllustration by Andreas Samuelsson
Diagnosis
What Should I Do With Old Racist Memorabilia?
The magazine’s Ethicist columnist on preserving racially prejudiced — or otherwise bigoted — historical artifacts.
By Kwame Anthony Appiah
Credit Tomi Um
The Ethicist
Google Knows Where You’ve Been, but Does It Know Who You Are?
How looking at the location data that the company collects about you lets you see yourself in a whole new way.
By John Herrman
CreditIllustration by Jon Han
On Technology
Spoil Them a Little With Homemade French Fries
For special occasions, or just because your kids are home with you.
By Gabrielle Hamilton
CreditGentl and Hyers for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Rebecca Bartoshesky.
Eat

John Kerry Says the World Is Worried About America
The former politician on John McCain, the senatorial virtues of a military background and the absurdity of withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Interview by Audie Cornish
CreditCeleste Sloman for The New York Times
Talk
Letter of Recommendation: Murphy Beds
The grandfather of moving furniture is looking as good as it has in decades.
By Jody Rosen
CreditWurts Brothers/Museum of the City of New York
Letter of Recommendation
New Sentences: From Chelsea Hodson’s ‘Tonight I’m Someone Else’
On the joy of being almost done.
By Sam Anderson
Credit
New Sentences
Poem: On a Line by Proust
Selected by Rita Dove.
By Adam Giannelli
Credit
Poem
Judge John Hodgman on a Garage Mural
Which takes priority, recreating a geometric pattern from Pinterest or repainting the kitchen?
By John Hodgman
CreditKyle Hilton
Judge John Hodgman