New York Magazine July 18-31, 2022

1 For the cover of New York’s annual television issue, Lila Shapiro profiled Nathan Fielder, the “reality comedy” absurdist behind projects like Nathan for You and HBO’s new The Rehearsal (“Nathan Fielder Is Out of His Mind (and Inside Yours),” July 4–17). Producer Chris Bentley called it “hilarious, uncomfortable and sneakily poignant, just like its subject,” and The New Yorker’s Emily Nussbaum wrote, “Great piece on a slippery fish of a performer, with insight into how the subjects of his shows feel (multiple, contradictory ways).” The Daily Beast’s Helen Holmes said, “This profile convinced me I genuinely dislike someone I previously had a warm opinion of, which means it’s great writing,” adding, “There’s something sinister about a person who lives to interrogate and flummox everyone around him but who thinks…

BACK IN MAY, WHEN Justice Samuel Alito’s leaked opinion draft confirmed that Roe v. Wade was on its last legs, a fundraising video from 2020 titled Traffic Stop started to recirculate on social media. The one-minute short depicts a mother and her teenage daughter being pulled over by the cops. After a brief interrogation, it is revealed that the girl is pregnant and seeking an out-of-state abortion, which leads the officers to drag her screaming out of the car. In real life, the impending crackdown on abortion will probably involve more snitching and surveillance than militarized border checkpoints. People looking to terminate their pregnancies will be suspected of crimes, while providers, for now, will bear the brunt of the legal consequences. The liberal PAC MeidasTouch, which made the video, seemed…

ON A RECENT MORNING in Washington Square Park, vendors in the indie weed trade were busy opening shop. They set up card tables to display their offerings, which included pre-rolled joints and candy-colored edibles, and unfolded camp chairs and rainbow beach umbrellas in preparation for the long day ahead. Some mumbled, “Pre-rolls, pre-rolls,” to parkgoers who paused nearby, while others sat back and let their wares speak for themselves. “I was working at Amazon, and, you know, I just had a baby,” said Namiii, 27, who started selling his wares at the park several months ago. “So my friend was just like, ‘Maybe you could try coming out here.’ I made more than I did in two checks at Amazon.” Namiii lost his job the next day; he didn’t mind.…

DEEP IN THE SWAMPLAND suburbs of Charleston, South Carolina, is a road that winds through the palmetto trees and culminates at an unmarked industrial complex wedged between distribution centers for Budweiser and Walmart. Inside is a 50,000-square-foot production studio with museum-quality galleries where more than a dozen employees tinker with doodads and dark hallways are illuminated by almost 150 television monitors. Ambient music pipes through the speakers as the boss, Mike Winkelmann, a.k.a. Beeple, sits in his office with his back to six cable-news channels playing on mute. The adjacent wall is decorated with a framed portrait of the video-game character Mario undergoing a bloody Cesarean section with a green 1-UP mushroom emerging from his womb. “It’s one of my favorites,” the artist says, patting the plumber’s bare chest. This…

DONALD TRUMP WAS impeached twice, lost the 2020 election by 7,052,770 votes, is entangled in investigations by federal prosecutors (over the Capitol insurrection and over the mishandling of classified White House documents and over election interference) and the District of Columbia attorney general (over financial fraud at the Presidential Inaugural Committee) and the Manhattan district attorney (over financial fraud at the Trump Organization) and the New York State attorney general (over financial fraud at the Trump Organization) and the Westchester County district attorney (over financial fraud at the Trump Organization) and the Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney (over criminal election interference in Georgia) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (over rules violations in plans to take his social-media company public through a SPAC) and the House Select Committee on January…

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving in 2021, Jennifer Crumbley pushed through the glass door at the Accurate Range. Jennifer, who goes by “Jehn,” appeared self-assured—a tall 43-year-old mother in jeans and a nubbly sweater coat. In her left hand, she carried a black case that held the SIG Sauer 9-mm. semi-automatic pistol her husband, James, had purchased at a gun shop near their home in Oxford, Michigan, the previous day. The Crumbleys’ 15-year-old son, Ethan, had come along. He stood awkwardly by, glancing distractedly at the semiautomatic rifles for rent on the wall. After consulting with him, Jehn paid cash for half an hour of range time, 100 rounds of 9-mm. ammunition, and two paper targets. It’s not unusual to see kids at the Accurate Range, which markets itself as…