The 4.4.21 Issue

Highlights

The City Losing Its Children to H.I.V.
A pediatric outbreak in a remote city in Pakistan shows the urgency of global health after Covid.
By Helen Ouyang and Sarah Caron
CreditSarah Caron for The New York Times
I Spent My Life Consenting to Touch I Didn’t Want
A year of isolation made me consider all the casual, unwanted touch women endure — and why it’s so hard to refuse it.
By Melissa Febos
CreditMarta Blue for The New York Times
Philip Roth Was His Own Favorite Subject. What’s Left for a Biographer?
One of the great chroniclers of America’s literary lives takes on the author who fought to control his own story.
By Mark Oppenheimer
CreditPhilip Montgomery for The New York Times
Talk
Sen. Mazie Hirono Wonders How Some Republicans Live With Themselves
“When they vote en masse to screw people over, it’s hard to be all warm and fuzzy — and I’m not a warm and fuzzy person to begin with.”
By David Marchese
CreditMamadi Doumbouya for The New York Times

How I Learned to Love Cardboard During the Pandemic
It was a key prop in my childhood games. Now I’ve decided to use it to make toys for my quarantined toddler.
By Tomás Q. Morín
CreditPhoto illustration by Derek Brahney
Letter of Recommendation
We Expect Sports Stars to Be Heroes. What About Our Politicians?
A postgame interview offers a reminder that the spectacle of public life is best backed up with real work.
By Jason Zengerle
CreditPhoto illustration by Najeebah Al-Ghadban
Screenland
A Hygienist Had Covid. Shouldn’t My Dentist Have Told Me?
The magazine’s Ethicist columnist on balancing health care providers’ privacy against patients’ concerns, creating an equitable vaccine system and more.
By Kwame Anthony Appiah
CreditIllustration by Tomi Um
The Ethicist
She Suffered Balance Issues for Years. Was It a Brain Tumor?
A visit to the dentist unexpectedly led to a resolution.
By Lisa Sanders, M.D.
CreditPhoto illustration by Ina Jang
Diagnosis
Is Baked Alaska the Secret to a Long Life?
A 117-year-old nun in France made me think it might be.
By Dorie Greenspan
CreditHeami Lee for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Amy Wilson.
Eat

Poem: If I Should Come Upon Your House Lonely in the West Texas Desert
Natalie Diaz can be fiercely political, but, oh, my, can she also remind us to love.
By Natalie Diaz and Reginald Dwayne Betts
Credit
Poem
How to Befriend an Eagle
It won’t be easy, but patience and raw meat will help.
By Malia Wollan
CreditIllustration by Radio
Tip
Judge John Hodgman on Running Out of Underwear
A married couple’s contention over a broken washer.

CreditIllustration by Louise Zergaeng Pomeroy
Judge John Hodgman