“Everyone knew I was on track to win Best in Show someday. Even with the bad hip, Mom could still train, groom, drink Kahlúa mudslides, and drive—but I was Mr. Showtime.” From a new story by Andrew Norman Wilson.

“ROBESON: You are the author of all the bills that are going to keep all kinds of decent people out of the country. WALTER: No, only your kind.” By Marjorie Garber, from Paul Robeson’s 1956 testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

“Blakely’s suggestion that interpretive research might be better suited to the unique threat posed by MAGA is likewise unpersuasive.” Colin Cepuran contends with Jason Blakely’s essay on political science in the age of Trump. harpers.org/archive/2026...

“I remember those days in the weeks after we first arrived as passing in a state of exultancy that I attributed largely to the light.” Nicole Krauss on Caravaggio and Georges de la Tour.

“If I could muster this kind of enthusiasm for any real-life task that’s just as conceptually boring, I’d be unstoppable, but alas, this is the only world with free soap.” From reviews of the video game PowerWash Simulator 2.

“But a dance can last only so long. He could find better ways to luxuriate in his loneliness. Let’s help him out and say he’s obsessed with baseball.” Dan Piepenbring on Robert Coover’s The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.

“There is potential for current or planned actions in orbit to cause serious degradation of the orbital environment or lead to catastrophic outcomes.” Enter a new satellite tool— the CRASH clock. .buff.ly/PwMlrUJ

“The anal specialist—‘my butt doctor,’ the rabbi proudly called him—did not forbid anal intercourse.” From the novel My Lover, the Rabbi, by @waynekoestenbaum.bsky.social.

“After the Second World War, sumo was the first of Japan’s traditional cultural institutions to stage a comeback, probably because its connections to the empire were poorly understood by the Allied forces.” —@viajoshhunt.bsky.social

“Night: children’s great no-man’s-land. We were also worthy of love. But we didn’t want to live.” From Mariella Mehr’s “Nightmare of the Embryos, out in March with New Directions.

“I’ve always been drawn to Caravaggio. You can look at his paintings and feel you’re witnessing the birth of cinema, of a drama that unfolds in the medium of light.” —Nicole Krauss harpers.org/archive/2026...

“In the absence of incontrovertible proof that Iran has developed a bomb, or seeks to do so, the crisis is about intentions, and no outsider knows Iran's intentions, or how the country is changing as a result of international pressure and threats.” (July 2006)

“With all this money and opportunity, a person can no more fail than someone can go hungry at a restaurant that serves all you can eat.” Dennis Cass on the promise of Silicon Valley (July 2000).

“My lover, the rabbi, developed an anal ailment, not life-threatening, not connected to digestion, not caused by sexual activity, not contagious, not within the purview of most medical practitioners he consulted …” — Wayne Koestenbaum

“The techno-industrialists believe that America needs to apply modern computing capabilities to industrial production. They believe that technology has drifted too far into the invisible realm of bits or into the digital cloud.” —Maddy Crowell

“We feel, as her camera takes them in, that the narrator has reached the limit of what she can know about her parents. And perhaps that Hjorth, too, has reached the limit of what she can tell us about this family from the perspective of the wronged daughter.”

“The merest departure from orthodoxy whipped its theologians into a lather. It’s always enjoyable to see rationalists behaving irrationally, especially when they’re as costive and comically German as this bunch.” Dan Piepenbring on A Scandal In Königsberg. harpers.org/archive/2026...

From July 2006: “Now there is no Khomeini, less religiosity, and, instead of specific hatreds, a generalized cynicism toward those who hold political power—whether in Iran or elsewhere.” —Christopher de Bellaigue buff.ly/pOJBrmp

“We often think of the Renaissance as a rediscovery of Greek and Roman thought and of the best of its humanism, but in fact, since time and history move in one direction only, it was less a rebirth than a relearning how to see.” —Nicole Krauss

“Once, San Francisco drew in runaway children, artists, and freaks; today it’s an enormous magnet for highly agentic young men. I set out to meet them.” — Sam Kriss

“There is potential for current or planned actions in orbit to cause serious degradation of the orbital environment or lead to catastrophic outcomes.” .buff.ly/PwMlrUJ

“It was always about that. The search for a lost land. Love. This fucked-up youth, always exploited, betrayed, bribed, lost.” From Mariella Mehr’s “Nightmare of the Embryos, out in March with New Directions.

“The soap is easily the best addition to the game’s already rock-solid cleaning loop. There are also new and more varied types of dirt.” From reviews of the video game PowerWash Simulator 2. harpers.org/archive/2026...

“Do dogs even care about beauty-pageant success? If people fashion the breed standards, can’t they change them so dogs are healthier? Wouldn’t everyone be happier if we all decided to sculpt clay instead of flesh?” —Andrew Norman Wilson

“Watching arguably the greatest rikishi in history at the peak of his powers was all that kept many fans from abandoning the scandal-plagued sport, though some still struggled with the fact that he wasn’t Japanese.” — @viajoshhunt.bsky.social

For the second time in less than a year, the U.S. military has attacked Iran—both times without President Trump seeking congressional approval. Read the argument @chrislehmann.bsky.social made for Trump’s impeachment after the 2025 strikes on nuclear facilities.

Every month in our Findings column, Rafil Kroll-Zaidi presents a constellation of the most—and least—important scientific discoveries. buff.ly/MolprzJ

From the March Harper’s Index. buff.ly/qQiAADA

“Was there ever another painter who so consistently corralled tension, conflict, emotion, and light to scale the apogee of human drama on the canvas?” Nicole Krauss on Caravaggio and Georges de la Tour.

We’re excited to announce that the American Society of Magazine Editors has recognized Daniel Kolitz’s “The Goon Squad” and John Jeremiah Sullivan’s “Twain Dreams” as finalists for the National Magazine Awards.

“Hjorth, a devoted reader of Kierkegaard, subjects the mothers in her novels to a special kind of moral scrutiny.” Elaine Blair on Vigdis Hjorth.

“Roy Lee is not like other people. He belongs to a new and possibly permanent overclass.” Sam Kriss reports from San Francisco on the next generation of AI technologists. harpers.org/archive/2026...

“He’s captured, actually too well, the all-encompassing power of make-believe, which feeds with one hand as it chokes with the other.” Dan Piepenbring on Robert Coover’s The Universal Baseball Association.

“Trotsky screamed in such a way that Mercader immediately knew that he would never forget the sound as long as he lived.” From Josh Ireland’s The Death of Trotsky, out with Dutton ( @duttonbooks.bsky.social ).

“As a festival of flattery, the Kennedy Center Honors aligns precisely with the MAGA sensibility.” Thomas Frank on the culture wars at the Kennedy Center.

“The main premise of ‘techno-industrialism’ was that Silicon Valley might help solve the riddle that had stumped policymakers for more than forty years: how to reverse the tide of deindustrialization in a globalized economy.” —Maddy Crowell

“Considered as part of Hjorth’s body of work on the story of family abuse, Repetition offers her most sustained attempt to imagine the parents’ morally compromised existence.” Elaine Blair on the novel Repetition.

What is access to the best journalists, essayists, critics, novelists, and poets every month for only $25.99/year? buff.ly/bFhTu1Q

“Night then—we were rolled up together like embryos in strange sheets—was another world. Dormitories, embryos in beds, craving a womb.” —Mariella Mehr harpers.org/archive/2026...

“In the glow of candlelight or the compassion of a certain kind of attention, all enter equally into the sacred.” Nicole Krauss on Caravaggio and Georges de la Tour. harpers.org/archive/2026...

“The day was fair. The red was idle there, / unfixed, unpredicated, hanging around / behind the sign at the scene of the accident.” From a manuscript in progress by Jeff Dolven. harpers.org/archive/2026...

“Pierson walks me through the kind of workplace you’re supposed to envy. She shows me an impressive model of the Golden Gate Bridge made out of soda cans as well as an ugly couch whose significance I don’t understand.” — Dennis Cass

“He is as patriotic an American as there can be, and you gentlemen belong with the Alien and Sedition Acts, and you are the nonpatriots, and you are the un-Americans, and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves.” —Paul Robeson

“He seemed to squeeze his rival, then whisked him from the ring like a dancer leading his partner across a ballroom. Like most sumo matches, it was over in a matter of seconds.” @viajoshhunt.bsky.social reports on the cultural politics of sumo wrestling.

“For a long time, the tech industry liked to think of itself as a meritocracy: it rewarded qualities like intelligence, competence, and expertise. But all that barely matters anymore.” Sam Kriss reports on the next generation of AI technologists.

“Netscape is famous for fun. After it was bought by the despised monolith America Online, the web browser lost its indie charm, but my expectations are still high.” Dennis Cass on the promises of Silicon Valley (July 2000). harpers.org/archive/2026...

“Living in Rome last year, we saw a lot of Caravaggio, and even when we didn’t, we felt him near, charismatic and directing our attention toward the light.” —Nicole Krauss

“It all started before I turned one, when Dad abandoned Mom and me. A blessing in disguise for her, since she won their Winnebago in the settlement and was free to pursue her heart’s desire: professional show-dog-handling.”— Andrew Norman Wilson

“It’s totally fine that he spends long nights at his kitchen table, subsisting on beer and pastrami while he rolls the dice. He’s now a witness to sports history.” Dan Piepenbring on Robert Coover’s The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.

“Honeywell suggested that ‘reindustrialization,’ just like the midcentury manufacturing boom it was constantly calling back to, would depend principally on its connection with one sector of the economy: the defense industry.”—Maddy Crowell