Culture | Opinion

A fiction writer challenges an A.I. chatbot to a duel.

Climbing is a sport in which the sexes are reaching parity. And that has led to pushback.

Pop culture is serving up dark visions full of labyrinthine bunkers, endless loops and characters who feel hopelessly mired. Welcome to the stucktopia.

On the other side of honesty is the possibility of change.

It would be so easy to find a new and less harmful way to celebrate the founding of a nation.

An alternative photographic history of the Pride march shows that real belonging starts in the crowd, where people find refuge and community.

The celebrated show is both a product of our unhealthy obsession with toxic restaurant culture and a potential remedy for it.

Our kids’ lingo is not only better than any we used; it’s a useful window into the way they think.

A pop diva inspires and unites fans in ways that few other cultural figures can. Which is why we should all be rooting for Celine Dion.

We had a chance to treat sex categories in sports with curiosity and compassion instead of condemnation. We still can.

Everything Donald Trump knows about picking a running mate in 2024 he learned while hosting “The Apprentice.”

There were no trees. There was no road. I was the trees, and I was the road. That darkness was like no darkness I’ve ever known.

When I met Morgan Spurlock, he was trying to make amends. What I saw changed how I think about #MeToo.

Intentional periods of sexual abstinence can help us better understand the nature of our desire. If we do Dry January, why not Dry Spell July?

Some say that becoming as dull as a rock is an effective way to disengage.

Betting puts pressure on pro athletes. The cracks are starting to show.

Nashville’s Parthenon proves that doing the right thing with looted artifacts doesn’t have to be a fight.

The past can look very different with the passage of time.

The Golden State Warriors were young once, and now they’re not.

The liberal arts are fading just when we need them most.

Comedies make you laugh. Thrillers make you cheer. Some Hollywood films used to make you sob your eyes out. We need those movies again.

We are very different writers, but I have kept Alice Munro in mind, daily and for decades, as an example to follow.

Gotham’s 400th birthday calls for a celebration worthy of the great metropolis it is.

A beef between two rap titans isn’t just about egos. It’s about the future of the genre, as determined by the legacy of its past.

It was one of the best Black musicals ever to make it to Broadway, and you’ve probably never heard of it.

We need to rethink the policy of preserving families, seemingly at all costs.

In an era of sexual decline, celebrities are dressing up in outfits that are barely there. But no one seems to be enjoying it much.

We must be able to create a more civic-minded internet, with tools that would empower users to better control what they see.

We live in a complex world. We can’t afford to make art that serves up only simple moral lessons.

The effects of semaglutide drugs won’t be just cosmetic.

An artist in Ukraine considers “The Zone of Interest” and what happens when the horrors on the other side of the wall are too close to home to ignore.

Tiger Woods said he owes his career to Charlie Sifford, the first Black member of the P.G.A. But the golf world has done far too little to promote Black players.

A new film is not a dangerous provocation. It’s a necessary warning.

Larry David’s long-running show was hilarious, but it also revolved around a complex view of modern philosophy.

Stephen King’s debut novel, about a bullied girl who gets revenge, used to horrify me. Now I find Carrie’s story inspiring.

Beyoncé singing country music in this political climate was always going to cause a stir.

How an introvert rediscovered the power of friendship on an improbable 15-person adventure.

As a professional climber, I needed to be able to suffer to stand out. Then I began to question that mentality.

Her special is a harbinger of how the weight-loss industry is rebranding: Obesity is a disease, and — for the first time — it’s not your fault.

Private equity is cannibalizing the music industry by buying up old hits and pushing them back into our cultural consciousness.

The conviction of a “Rust” crew member in a tragic on-set death highlights what Hollywood must do to avoid fatal accidents.

The Oscar-winning film centers on one man’s remarkable history. My uncle’s life tells a very different story about the fallout of the atomic bomb.

In the movie’s central love triangle, I rooted for one outcome. But my dating life told a different story.

“Zone of Interest” avoids the pitfalls of fictionalizing the Holocaust. It is also unsettlingly relevant to our current moment.

In a popular TV show, my grandmother is fictionalized as one of Truman Capote’s swans. I wish she’d had the chance to tell her story in her way.

It’s time to find out what the film industry’s new normal looks like.

The literary canon is constantly evolving — and critics’ often-frustrating kvetching about reissues is a key part of that evolution.

Spring training means new hope for a glorious season. But for me, it’s the prospect of losing that keeps me hooked.

Chaim Soutine’s identity was never integral to his art, even as a Jew whose death Nazis caused. Artists in Gaza, Syria and Ukraine share his universality.

I ask my writing students to stand in another person’s shoes. They’re finding it harder and harder to do.