Guest Essays

More than any other presidential actions, clemencies tell us who presidents are.

By Jeffrey Toobin

While what is happening to us is as serious as a guillotine, we must harness our best humorous selves in order to keep it from falling.

By Gary Shteyngart

Telling stories is how we make sense of life and what it means to be human.

By Margaret Renkl

Smartphones are becoming casinos. Trump, whose son is invested in the industry, is only goosing the business.

By Jonathan D. Cohen and Isaac Rose-Berman

The administration’s plan would defund the very intervention that has ended homelessness for people across the country.

By Philip Mangano

Literature is fragile. It serves no obvious purpose. But it is also as close to immortal as any cultural endeavor has ever been.

By Gerald Howard

Trying to find purpose in an endless scroll of A.I.-generated videos.

By Bobbie Johnson

Since the first election of President Trump, Hollywood has fretted about portraying rural and red state Americans. Some new TV series show how to get it right.

By Alan Sepinwall

Shutting out China’s best minds will only push them into a homegrown Chinese research ecosystem that is eclipsing American universities.

By Bethany Allen and Jenny Wong Leung

Democrats’ vision for the country won’t matter unless they can get people to pay attention to it.

By Chris Hayes

Virginia Roberts Giuffre spent so much of her life telling the story of her abuse.

By Amy Wallace

Why Congress should take up Insurrection Act reform.

By Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith

The Trump administration risks squandering the progress it has made in securing the border.

By Tom Suozzi

Who lost the debate may be clearer than who won.

By Mara Gay, Nicole Gelinas, Josh Barro and John Guida

Trump’s crypto windfall represents a mixing of personal and government interests at an unprecedented scale.

By Jacob Silverman

The secret of Donald Trump’s success with the Israeli prime minister was offering carrots on domestic politics — not sticks on foreign policy.

By Dana Stroul

The way to advance his worldview, he argues, is to show that it works.

By E. J. Dionne Jr.

Generative A.I. can do many things human beings can do. But that misses the point about how A.I. can truly benefit us.

By Gary Marcus

I fear that my daughter’s experience is too often sidelined in favor of a more palatable version.

By Emily May

Thousands of hostages are still awaiting freedom.

By Andrew Ross