How a self-taught linguist came to own an indigenous language.

A visit to the massive Northern California surf break.

Life as a young actor when you’re about to become a movie star.

Lessons from the last Swiss finishing school.

A profile of the filmmaker.

Life after unintentionally causing someone else’s death.

On the outsized pleasures of the very small.

The archive of Mexican architect Luis Barragán has been hidden away for decades. Then an artist decided to make a performance of getting it back.

A reporter lounges at the exclusive club for months to study the beautiful people sipping rosé poolside—and whether they’re actually doing any work.

On cattle auctions, reality TV and coming of age during the Great Recession.

On Leon Botstein and the future of Bard College, which he has run for four decades.

A profile of photographer Ryan McGinley.

“I never attacked anyone weak. Only bullies, secure in their courts, bureacracies, fifedoms.”

An essay on working at Sotheby’s.

Art pricing is not absolute magic; there are certain rules, which to an outsider can sound parodic. Paintings with red in them usually sell for more than paintings without red in them. Warhol’s women are worth more, on average, than Warhol’s men. The reason for this is a rhetorical question, asked in a smooth continental accent: “Who would want the face of some man on their wall?”

"I have the sensation, as do my friends, that to function as a proficient human, you must both 'keep up' with the internet and pursue more serious, analog interests."

An essay on technology’s reach into daily life.