Long before it became an archaic and filthy symbol of everything wrong with America’s broken cities, the New York subway was a marvel.
In recent years, it has been falling apart.
Today on The Sunday Read, a look at why failing to fix it would be a collective and historic act of self-destruction.
Nov 24
The Autism Diagnosis Problem
<p>Once primarily limited to severely disabled people, autism began to be viewed as a spectrum that included children and adults far less impaired. Along the way, the disorder also became an identity, embraced by college graduates and even by some of the world’s most successful p ... Show More
32m 40s
Nov 23
Sunday Special: Wicked, Good?
<p>“Wicked” was one of the biggest movies of 2024. It was culturally ubiquitous, a box office smash and an Oscar nominee for Best Picture. Now, a year later, “Wicked: For Good” arrives in theaters to finish the tale of the complicated friendship between Glinda the Good Witch and ... Show More
51m 44s
Mar 2022
New York Goes Underground
March 12, 1888. There’s been a blizzard in New York. Wind, ice, and snow have brought the city to a halt. Stagecoaches are stuck, elevated trains are frozen. By the time the storm is over, 400 New Yorkers will die. The public outrage is severe, and many blame New York City’s faul ... Show More
31m 11s
Mar 2016
EXTRA - Introducing The Author’s Voice: New Fiction from The New Yorker
<p>Beginning March 21, you’ll be able to hear the stories that appear in <em>The New Yorker</em>, read by their authors, on our new podcast, The Author’s Voice: New Fiction from The New Yorker. For this special, one-time preview episode of the podcast, we’ve put together an antho ... Show More
1h 22m
Jul 2020
Philip M. Plotch, "Last Subway: The Long Wait for the Next Train in New York City" (Cornell UP, 2020)
Ever since New York City built one of the world’s great subway systems, no promise has been more tantalizing than the proposal to build a new subway line under Second Avenue in Manhattan. Yet the Second Avenue subway--although first envisioned in the 1920s, did not open until 201 ... Show More
39m 15s