Centrist Democrats have their hair on fire over Sanders as the front-runner. Is he the Party’s future, or an electoral disaster? Plus, Gish Jen on baseball and artificial intelligence.

Hilton Als talks about what a performer who committed misconduct owes to his audience. And will any of the Democratic front-runners attract enough black voters to win the Presidency?

The science-fiction author grapples with the racism at the foundation of her genre; and a Washington correspondent considers the impact of John Bolton.   

A New Yorker critic names the best films of 2019; and two prison abolitionists explain a vision of the world of ‘decarceration,’ where only a tiny number of people are locked up.

Mass incarceration has been profoundly harmful to communities of color. Ten years after “The New Jim Crow” helped to identify the problem, how much headway have we made? 

Eric Lach is in Iowa ahead of the next debate, where the Democratic candidates are honing their responses to the situation in Iran. Plus, an insider’s disenchantment with Silicon Valley.

The celebrated interviewer opens up about finding her radio voice and what she’s given up to host “Fresh Air.” Plus, New Yorker writers pick sides for an age-old battle: cats or dogs?

A machine-made wave could make surfing a conventional sport—or destroy its spirit. Plus: an amateur conductor takes the baton of a major orchestra, and Kelefa Sanneh on Christian rock.

“Game of Thrones” made the actor a superstar; now he returns to his roots on stage. And Kathleen Turner, in the role of Satan, answers children’s letters intended for Santa.