“As the country’s post-millennial mood has soured its politics have turned increasingly toxic for Presidents seeking reëlection,” Susan Glasser writes. nyer.cm/iHOPmaO

“For the sort of evening when you’d normally roast a chicken, and you want to make dinner into *dinner,* duck is your friend,” Helen Rosner writes. nyer.cm/JeZNivD

“Critics reach for a few key words with Anni Albers: ‘crisp,’ ‘precise,’ ‘mathematical.’ I would like to propose ‘frightening.’ Her work arouses the suspicion that beauty is simple and we’ve all been overthinking it,” Jackson Arn writes. nyer.cm/dlRX1Q0

It’s becoming harder, or at least less common, to read the old-fashioned way. But the new ways of reading are not all bad. nyer.cm/HMWxxbM

From The New Yorker Humor, it's time to start preparing those taxes. This quiz may help. nyer.cm/7va5feZ

A cartoon by Mads Horwath. #NewYorkerCartoons nyer.cm/02s7oIn

On #NewYorkerRadio , Stephania Taladrid reports on a rare example of bipartisan action in Texas that carved out two exemptions to the state’s strict abortion laws. nyer.cm/l3xOzv0

From The New Yorker Humor: Attention, viewer—this material may not be suitable for parents who have to verbally identify every actor who appears on the screen. nyer.cm/rblMs6B

“There’s no term I wouldn’t contest personally, because I’m a contestor,” Maggie Nelson, the author of “The Argonauts” and the new collection “Like Love,” tells Lauren Michele Jackson. nyer.cm/4KLcPQi

On the wonders of overnight oats, a breakfast for grownups who get things done. nyer.cm/03ulQyk

A new book follows a narrator stricken by sudden deafness, treating hearing loss as both a “medical condition and a metaphor for the incompleteness of our knowledge of the world,” Katy Waldman writes. nyer.cm/24iSWOT

In John Cazale’s five cinematic roles—a list that includes Sal in “Dog Day Afternoon” and Fredo in the first two “Godfather” films—he excelled at playing people who are weak, weird, and uncomfortable in their own skins, Jackson Arn writes. nyer.cm/gqLRZMt

The Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham speaks to Isaac Chotiner about his investigations of the I.D.F.’s use of A.I.-backed targeting systems and the dire cost to Palestinian civilians. nyer.cm/ZolIZLp

Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Dan Misdea. #NewYorkerCartoons nyer.cm/Hrv5dhc

The photographer Becky Wilkes’s series “Till Death Do Us Part” is a visceral and tender archive of what turned out to be the final years of her parents’ lives. nyer.cm/8d5B2QC

“The People’s Joker” shows what superhero movies could become if they were liberated from the constraints of overlong copyright protection, Richard Brody writes. nyer.cm/XHseW1S

Apocalypse Nikon: on the ambitious through-a-lens-darkly muddle of Alex Garland’s CIVIL WAR, a thought experiment that ultimately short-circuits thought. newyorker.com/magazine/2024/…

The Sullivanians were hidden in plain sight, enacting their beliefs on an island of nearly eight million people—often while holding down high-status jobs as physicians, attorneys, computer programmers, and academics. nyer.cm/e8jiGCq

Befriending a rock star isn’t necessarily as cool as you’d think—particularly when tragedy happens. Michael Azerrad reflects on his friendship with Kurt Cobain. nyer.cm/89ilsyP

In today’s mini-crossword: _____ theory (academic subject for Michel Foucault and Judith Butler) (five letters). nyer.cm/6dd10fs