The 11.8.20 Issue

Highlights

Feature
When the Virus Came for the American Dream
Buford Highway, in suburban Atlanta, has long been a place where immigrant entrepreneurs could build businesses and get ahead. Not this year.
By Matthew Shaer
CreditNicole Craine for The New York Times
Feature
How Gillian Welch and David Rawlings Held Onto Optimism
The uncertainties of 2020 led the folk duo to discover a new emotional urgency in songs about the slow, challenging, beautiful heat of living.
By Hanif Abdurraqib
CreditKristine Potter for The New York Times
Feature
How Do You Know When Society Is About to Fall Apart?
Meet the scholars who study civilizational collapse.
By Ben Ehrenreich
CreditKenji Aoki for The New York Times
Screenland
Watch This Snowball Fight From 1897 for a Jolt of Pure Joy
A viral clip of old-timey French people pelting one another with snowballs perfectly distills our current mayhem. It’s my favorite film of 2020.
By Sam Anderson
CreditPhoto illustration by Najeebah Al-Ghadban

Poem: Landing Here
Who knows what will happen? Where will we land? How will we spend the winter?
By Margaret Noodin and Naomi Shihab Nye
Credit
Poem
Greta Thunberg Hears Your Excuses. She Is Not Impressed.
“If you fully understand the science, then you know what you as an individual have to do. You know then that you have a responsibility.”
By David Marchese
CreditPhoto illustration by Bráulio Amado
Talk
Should I Accept Free Covid Testing I Don’t Really Need?
The magazine’s Ethicist columnist on taking free weekly Covid-19 tests provided by your company when you don’t necessarily need them — and more.
By Kwame Anthony Appiah
CreditIllustration by Tomi Um
The Ethicist
Judge John Hodgman on Forcing People to Watch Funny Videos
Should your husband be allowed to push his phone into your face whenever he wants?
By Judge John Hodgman
CreditIllustration by Louise Zergaeng Pomeroy
Judge John Hodgman
Who Should Get a Covid-19 Vaccine First?
It depends on a complicated interplay of transmission rates, available doses and societal goals.
By Kim Tingley
CreditIllustration by Ori Toor
Studies Show

This French Onion Tart Is a Straight-Up Classic
The legendary chef André Soltner made it for decades at his Manhattan restaurant Lutèce — and it’s still perfect.
By Gabrielle Hamilton
CreditPhotograph by Heami Lee. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Rebecca Bartoshesky.
Eat
Behind the Cover: Covid-19 in Georgia
A look at how the pandemic has affected the American dream, particularly businesses on Buford Highway in Georgia.

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Issue 11.8.20