Gary Marcus looks at “What Should We Be Worried About?”, a collection of essays by 150 top scientists and writers: “it may sound comforting to say that ‘the only thing we need to worry about is worry itself’ (as several contributors suggested), but anybody who has lived through Chernobyl or Fukushima knows otherwise… many of the essays are insightful, and bring attention to a wide range of challenges for which society is not yet adequately prepared…” http://nyr.kr/1084vun

After twenty years as The New Yorker’s chief theatre critic, John Lahr will give up regular reviewing to focus on the Profiles he also contributes to the magazine, as well as on book projects.

Click-through for more on Lahr at The New Yorker, and for links to some of Lahr’s favorite pieces that he has written for the magazine.

Photograph by Jill Krementz.

Posted by Jon Michaud: “Nothing is easier nowadays than to get a feeling of being entirely surrounded by Gore Vidal,” Richard H. Rovere wrote in a 1960 Talk of the Town story. At that time, Vidal was a regular guest on television talk shows, his play “The Best Man” was a hit on Broadway, and several movies made from his screenplays or based on his books were in the theatres. If that was not enough, Vidal was also running for Congress in upstate New York. Asked by Rovere how he expected to win, the candidate responded, “By superior industry.” Vidal, who lived a long and industrious life, died yesterday, in Los Angeles. During the nineteen-nineties, he contributed frequently to our pages Here’s a guide to his pieces in The New Yorker: http://nyr.kr/Mj9lQ1

(Source: newyorker.com)