Piece by piece, the list encapsulates a uniquely trying year. On the evening of Tuesday, March 10th, as the threat of the novel coronavirus became increasingly plain in New York City, the staff of The...

The fiction and nonfiction, old and new, that kept us going. “Cleanness,” by Garth Greenwell The casual grandeur of Garth Greenwell’s prose, unfurling in page-long paragraphs and elegantly garrulous sentences,...

None of these thirty-six films has made a difference in the nation’s crises this year—but inner truth of experience and authenticity of emotion are, in and of themselves, cleansing to a defiled mediasphere....

I found myself watching all species of television this year, including what I typically neglect (Taiwanese baseball, for instance), because what else was there to do? In early spring, there were plenty...

As the pandemic set in, the shows that stood out to me most were those that transported me—especially when they made me laugh. 2020 in Review New Yorker writers reflect on the year’s highs and lows. The...

What music will forever be “pandemic music,” and what music will carry over with the best music of other years into the great historical record? A lot of music released this year never had the opportunity...

Despite everything, it’s been a hell of a year for cookbooks. Here are ten of the best. The African elephant holds the earthly record for the longest gestation period, a whopping six hundred and forty-five...

If you, like me, need a fun-filled break from the past twelve pretty uneventful months, feast your eyes on these cartoons. Ah, what a joy to be at the end of the year, and to reflect on 2020! It’s true...

Although I saw only three in-person events after mid-March, this COVID-19 year still brought music that was beautiful and melancholy, scrappily joyous, and everything in between. At the close of a catastrophic...

From a transportive bath oil to an old-timey banker’s lamp to actually fun Zoom games, here are a few ways to spread the joy we all need right now. I used to dread buying holiday gifts, even though I love...

From Trump impressions to extinction comedy to Sacha Baron Cohen’s punking of Rudy Giuliani, the humor of 2020 managed to make light of a dark time. The past year breaks down into a few eras—none of them,...

Actors always allow us to imagine lives beyond our own; this year, they were our avatars, roaming free while we sat and watched and waited. Performance was an old concept made new in 2020. Stuck in our...

Maybe it would someday be useful to have a spreadsheet detailing how I spent my pandemic—every nineties movie I rewatched, everything I bought online. This February, I began obsessively making lists. with...

In my listening this year, I wanted only to be felled instantaneously—works by Dua Lipa, Adrianne Lenker, and eight more artists did so. It seems safe to assume that 2020 is a year that not many of us...