New novel: THE BREAKUP. Previous: Evil Geniuses, Fantasyland, Can’t Spell America, Heyday, Turn of the Century. Ex Studio 360, New York, SPY.
Articles by Kurt Andersen
8 New Books We Love This Week
8 New Books We Love This Week Reading recommendations from critics and editors at The New York Times Aug. 27, 2026, 2:00 p.m. ET Every week, the critics and editors at The New York Times Book Review pick the most interesting and notable new releases, from literary fiction and serious nonfiction to thrillers, romance novels, fantasies, mysteries and everything in between.
Scott Simon's Open Book
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Florida DSA candidate Angie Nixon wins Senate primary
The cast of “Spa Weekend” takes viewers behind the scenes of new comedy
Joe blasts Mike Johnson over economy comments
The cast of “Spa Weekend” takes viewers behind the scenes of new comedy
Opråb til borgerne i Vesthimmerland om solceller og vindmøller
På vegne af borgergruppen ” Grøn omstilling med omtanke”, Kurt Andersen, Præstegårdsvej 15, Vester Hornum Skal vi borgere finde os i usandheder, lovning om guld og grønne skove fra politikerne og Borgmesterens side? Nej det skal vi ikke!. Borgmesteren står frem ved sidste byrådsmøde(18. juni), og siger at al den strøm som kan produceres af vindmøller og solceller imellem Farsø, Vester Hornum og Haubro, som i øjeblikket er høring, kommer borgerne i Vesthimmerland til gode. Dette er ikke korrekt.
Rep. Jared Huffman: Christian nationalism is ‘America’s most dangerous political movement’
The cast of “Spa Weekend” takes viewers behind the scenes of new comedy
Author Kurt Andersen on “The Breakup”
The cast of “Spa Weekend” takes viewers behind the scenes of new comedy
Retired Navy admiral reacts to Trump’s Oman comments
On Monday, President Donald Trump threatened to "bomb the s--- out of" Oman, a U.S. ally, if the nation interferes in negotiations over the Strait of Hormuz. Former White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby, a retired rear admiral, calls the moment a "head-scratcher," telling Morning Joe Oman is working "diligently" with the U.S.
THE BREAKUP | Kirkus Reviews
A politically charged vision of what our civil strife might look like just a bit down the road. It’s 2045. AI runs the world. Earth’s first trillionaire has “overdosed en route to Mars,” and his successor in the world of the superwealthy is conducting eldritch explorations of animal intelligence to possibly nefarious ends.
The Breakup a book by Kurt Andersen
Bookshop.org has the highest-rated customer service of any bookstore in the world Description NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • A marriage cracks apart as a near-future United States redraws its borders in this penetrating and moving novel from the author of Fantasyland. “This remarkable book contains multitudes.
‘Jagged’: Joe blasts Trump for scaling back military exercises with South Korea
The AP reports that, on Sunday, President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to scale back annual military exercises with South Korea because, he said in a Truth Social post, South Korea refused to help with "denuclearization" efforts against Iran. Joe blasts the move, calling it part of a pattern of the president's "jagged" and "ad hoc" foreign policy.
Navy Vet Mark Kelly rips Trump's response to USS Lincoln
On Friday, President Donald Trump swatted down a question on the record-breaking deployment of the USS Lincoln, telling a reporter the ship hasn't been deployed "nearly long enough" despite concerns from family members of sailors who report deteriorating conditions on the ship. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-AZ, who served as a captain in the U.S.
WSJ reporter on the furniture designer who revolutionized Ukraine’s drones
The cast of “Spa Weekend” takes viewers behind the scenes of new comedy
Jon Ossoff goes viral after jabs lobbed at Trump
WSJ reporter on the furniture designer who revolutionized Ukraine’s drones Jon Ossoff goes viral after jabs lobbed at Trump Jeff Daniels on playing Ronald Reagan in ‘The Brink of War’ WSJ reporter on the furniture designer who revolutionized Ukraine’s drones Jon Ossoff goes viral after jabs lobbed at Trump Jeff Daniels on playing Ronald Reagan in ‘The Brink of War’
'Disunion,' a Short Story by Kurt Andersen
February 2045 I took longer than some people to start calling it the war. And by some people, I mainly mean my husband, Asher. “This is it, Natalie,” he said to me that first Friday, back in June 2036, after watching the news coverage from Oklahoma City for three hours straight. siege: more than 300 killed and 400 wounded in terrorist military attacks, the headlines read. “It’s started. The civil war.” He claims I rolled my eyes. I don’t think I did.
Has the US Already Undergone a Soft Breakup? [Disunited States of America]
Has the US Already Undergone a Soft Breakup? [Disunited States of America] Aug. 9, 2026 nytimes.com/…erica-politics-blue-red-democrats-re… By Kurt Andersen Mr. Andersen is the author of the forthcoming novel “The Breakup.” “I actually think,” Rush Limbaugh told his many millions of listeners during the weeks between Donald Trump losing the 2020 election and his supporters’ assault on the Capitol, “that we’re trending toward secession. It can’t go on this way.
Has America Already Undergone a Soft Breakup?
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. Has America Already Undergone a Soft Breakup? Credit...Igor Bastidas Mr. Andersen is the author of the forthcoming novel “The Breakup.” “I actually think,” Rush Limbaugh told his many millions of listeners during the weeks between President Trump’s losing the 2020 election and his supporters’ assault on the Capitol, “that we’re trending toward secession.
Carlos Castaneda: la misteriosa vida del bestseller, que pasó de gurú de culto a líder de una peligrosa secta
El libro del día: “American Trickster”, de Ru Marshall ¿Alguien menor de 50 años sabe quién fue Carlos Castaneda? Hacia 1970, los libros de este antropólogo sobre aventuras psicodélicas en México con un brujo indígena llamado Don Juan lo convirtieron en uno de los escritores más leídos del mundo. Hoy, es un personaje poco recordado. ¿Por qué, entonces, una biografía seria por parte del escritor y artista Ru Marshall? Castaneda tuvo una influencia cultural considerable.
The Huckster Shaman Who Founded a Cult
The Huckster Shaman Who Founded a Cult In “American Trickster,” Ru Marshall takes on the epic story of Carlos Castaneda. In order to burnish his mysterious image, Carlos Castaneda lived the reclusive life of a nonpublic intellectual. Credit...Eddie Adams/Eddie Adams Photographic Archives, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin Kurt Andersen is the author of nine books, including “The Breakup,” a forthcoming novel.
Gene Shalit Was the Real Thing
Today’s goofball movie critic was my first boss — and the best one I’ll ever have. Gene Shalit (1926–2026) and friend. Gene Shalit (1926–2026) and friend. In the spring of 1976, a New York movie critic and entertainment journalist came across the 38th annual movie issue of the Harvard Lampoon, where I was an editor. He phoned the magazine’s offices, where I happened to be the only person in the room where the only phone was, so I answered.
Gene Shalit Was the Real Thing
Today’s goofball movie critic was my first boss — and the best one I’ll ever have. Gene Shalit (1926–2026) and friend. Gene Shalit (1926–2026) and friend. In the spring of 1976, a New York movie critic and entertainment journalist came across the 38th annual movie issue of the Harvard Lampoon, where I was an editor. He phoned the magazine’s offices, where I happened to be the only person in the room where the only phone was, so I answered.
Solitude ≠ Loneliness
Solitude ≠ Loneliness The 2026 Edward Stanley Award Essay on the Humanities The standard take on Edward Hopper is that he’s the great visual chronicler of the loneliness, alienation, and anomie of Americans and America in the rah-rah American Century. That cliché, like most clichés, isn’t entirely untrue, but Hopper resisted it.
The Breakup by Kurt Andersen: 9781984801371
ISBN9781984801371 Published onAug 18, 2026 Published byRandom House Pages576 Dimensions6-1/8 x 9-1/4
Kom til åbent hus hos Langelands Golf Klub 12. april
Annonce Ugeavisen Øboen Annonce
RFK Jr. Was My Drug Dealer
Kennedy’s endorsement of Donald Trump raises an awkward question. The leading third-party candidate for president—an environmental lawyer and activist, a son and nephew of legendary liberal Democratic politicians—just quit the race and announced that he is joining the campaign of the most anti-environment president and presidential nominee in recent history, the leader of a Republican Party he has turned into a right-wing, anti-democratic, protofascist personality cult.
RFK Jr. Was My Drug Dealer
T he leading third-party candidate for president—an environmental lawyer and activist, a son and nephew of legendary liberal Democratic politicians—just quit the race and announced that he is joining the campaign of the most anti-environment president and presidential nominee in recent history, the leader of a Republican Party he has turned into a right-wing, anti-democratic, protofascist personality cult.
'Unrepentant' 'J6 Praying Grandma' - who raised money promoting Capitol riot - avoids jail
A 72-year-old Colorado woman who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, will avoid jail time after a judge sentenced her to a year of probation and a $103,000 fine Monday, the Colorado Sun reports. Rebecca Lavrenz, who took on the moniker “J6 Praying Grandma,” was convicted on four misdemeanor counts for entering the Capitol and disorderly conduct for participating in the insurrection, according to the Sun.
Musk staffers highly doubt DDOS attack caused Trump interview failure: report
Elon Musk blamed the launch failure of his scheduled X Spaces livestream interview with Donald Trump on a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDOS), but some members of his staff called the explanation baloney, according to The Verge. An unnamed staff member from the company told The Verge that there was a “'99 percent’ chance Elon was lying about an attack.” Another source told The Verge that the technical malfunction was not due to a DDOS attack.
Musk's 'yeah, yeah' spectacle: Social media pans rambling Trump interview
After being plagued by technical problems for nearly half an hour, the livestream interview between former President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk went live, covering topics including the assassination attempt on the former president, immigration, inflation and the Russian war against Ukraine.
Mockery online as slurring Trump steamrolls Musk 'sounding like Sylvester the Cat'
Donald Trump’s interview with Elon Musk got off to a rough start Monday night after being delayed due to technical issues, but once the talk began listeners noticed something else was off: Trump’s speech. “Why is Trump slurring his S sounds” asked author Kurt Andersen. “Shuch a shad s----uation’?” The scheduled chat started 30 minutes late after Musk’s platform failed to launch a livestream, which Musk attributed to a “DDOS” attack.
SPEAK, MEMORY
THE CULTURE INDUSTRY about memory. Memory, all kinds of memory, is exploding. Since the early '80s, when I switched from merely typing words to processing them, the memory in my desktop computer has got four hundred thousand per cent bigger. Back then, almost all mechanical communication took place by phone; now, however, much of the best chatter is by microprocessed fax and E-mail, stored indefinitely in bottomless computer memories.
Bill Ackman Is a Brilliant Fictional Character
Listen1.0x 0:0029:31 Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration. This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. Before last month I knew next to nothing about Bill Ackman. I probably would have recognized his name. I guess I knew he was a hedge-fund billionaire, and his reputation as kind of a jerk.
What Does Walter Isaacson Know About Elon Musk?
Walter Isaacson. Photo: Dan Winters It’s a Saturday night in August, and Walter Isaacson is sitting in the back of Lilette, a restaurant on Magazine Street in his hometown of New Orleans, swizzling a Sazerac. “The question for a biographer,” he tells me, holding forth a little, “is to show how the demons of a person are totally connected to the drive that gets their rockets to orbit.
'Succession' Nailed the Unreal Way We Live Now
Like most of the great cable dramas, and to me, like so much of contemporary life, "Succession" was simultaneously tragic and comic, entertaining and horrifying.
Eit viktig val på vegen
Lesarbrev Dette er eit debattinnlegg, skrive av ein ekstern bidragsytar. Innlegget gir uttrykk for skribenten sine haldningar. Alkohol og trafikk er ein livsfarleg kombinasjon, og våren og sommaren er dessverre høgsesong for dødsulykker. Vi har ingen å miste. 2022 var eit mørkt år på norske vegar. Då mista 118 personar livet i trafikken, mot 80 personar året før. Spesielt sommaren var prega av dystre nyheiter, og alle aktørar i trafikken blei sette i alarmberedskap for å redusere dødstala.
Remembering István Bányai
Like his masterly art, my friend István was charming, brilliant, mischievous, unique — and now, alas, he’s gone and zoomed away In the 1990s, when magazines still consisted only of their paper editions, because the internet hadn’t yet changed everything (or practically anything), I took over the weekly New York.
Our Best-Case Scenario: A Negotiated Breakup
It’s not unreasonable to think that we can make out the shape of things to come 28 years in the future. It was right around 28 years ago that the foundations of now emerged: about-to-be ubiquitous personal computers and the internet, cell phones, Fox News, conservative hegemony on economic and social policy, exploding inequality, ultra-assholes’ takeover of the GOP, “political correctness,” and more.
Do Not Let the Doctor Leave You! — Church Anew
This is the third in a series of posts where Dr. Brueggemann reflects on the book Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History by Kurt Andersen. Read the first posts here. * See note about title In his remarkable, important book, Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History (2020), Kurt Andersen has traced the planning of a political party to take over the government.
The Discomforting Gift of Newness — Church Anew
This is the second in a series of posts where Dr. Brueggemann reflects on the book Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History by Kurt Andersen. Read the first post here. In his remarkable, important book, Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History (2020), Kurt Andersen has traced the planning of a political party to take over the government. Near the end of his book, Andersen lists eight claims in the playbook that he believes generate their action.
Is It Okay to Hate Highbrow Culture?
Episode Transcript * * * Today on the show: What makes art “highbrow” or “lowbrow”? * * * Still to come on No Stupid Questions, Stephen and Angela discuss the courage that it takes to embrace your preferences in spite of what society says. * * * Now, back to Stephen and Angela’s conversation about why Americans are attracted to lowbrow culture. * * * No Stupid Questions is produced by me, Rebecca Lee Douglas.
Why Democrats Are Now Seeing the Ugly Truth About Bill Clinton -- New York Magazine
Until he was an ex-president, I never felt any special fondness for Bill Clinton. From the start, he seemed a bit skeevy to me. On the night in 1992 that he accepted the nomination, as he dined in midtown with Hillary and the Gores, he was introduced to a reporter from Spy, of which I was then editor. The future president smiled, popped to his feet, and ushered the reporter off for a private chat.
Ten Lessons From the 2008 Presidential Campaigns -- New York Magazine
Trying to make sense of the election before this week’s primaries is presumptuous and possibly idiotic, a little like summing up the Civil War in late June 1863, just before Gettysburg. On the other hand, certain salient features of this manic, Rube Goldbergian process seem most visible now, in the middle of the flux and frenzy, before outcomes have hardened into ex post facto clarity. 1. The candidates are all freaks. And I’m not even talking about Dennis Kucinich or Mike Gravel.
Why Demographics Aren't Always Destiny in the Clinton-Obama Race -- New York Magazine
This year’s Democratic presidential race is so interesting in so many different ways. There’s the exceptional length and geographical breadth of the electoral drama. Then there’s the fact that the two superstar contenders are almost identical programmatically, yet so different as human beings—that is, as “brands.” By which I don’t only or even mainly mean that one is a woman and one is black. But then, of course, there is that.
Is the Debate on Iraq Turning Into Kabuki Theater? -- New York Magazine
We’re seriously debating immigration. We may be about to begin a serious debate on health care. But we aren’t debating Iraq, not really, if by that we mean a tough, thorough, honest national conversation about how we’re going to cope for the long term with the staggering mess we’ve unleashed. We only pretend to debate Iraq.
Iraq, Iran, and the President Who Cried Wolf -- New York Magazine
We’re approaching a dangerous crossroads. What to do about Iran has grown into the thorniest foreign-policy dilemma since the Cold War—for the U.S. in general, but with special acuteness for those of us generally (but not suicidally) disinclined to support war as a means of securing the national interest.
If Barack Obama Is Out of Touch With America, Is the Media Too? -- New York Magazine
People with the slightest interest in politics, especially journalists, spent 2006 and 2007 smacking their lips and rubbing their hands in anticipation of 2008, relishing the prospect of gorging on the story of a lifetime: no incumbents running, a free-for-all of mad-interesting candidates, world-historical issues at stake. Mmmm! Be careful what you wish for.
Ten Reasons to Worry About Obama's Chances in November -- New York Magazine
This is not the end, nor even the beginning of the end, but it is, finally, the end of the beginning. And what a relief. Even though Hillary Clinton refused to let everyone exhale until she said we could, Obama won. Period. So why am I not utterly elated? It’s partly the weird slow-motion victory, a slog punctuated by a few thrilling nights (Iowa in January, the Potomac and Wisconsin primaries in February, North Carolina a month ago) but no knockout punch, no definitive high-five moment.
The Legacy of 'New York' Founding Editor Clay Felker by Kurt Andersen-- New York Magazine
The main reason that most city magazines suck, and have always sucked, is that their founders misapprehended Clay Felker’s biggest Big Idea. The brilliant germ of this magazine, when Felker launched it in 1968, wasn’t the duh geographical idea, covering a particular set of Zip Codes stylishly and colorfully on glossy paper. Rather, New York’s central subject has always been our local pageant of ambition, the yearning and hustling and jostling for power and—even more—status.
Is the Post-Russert Commentariat Any More Powerful? -- New York Magazine
One of the reasons Tim Russert’s death last month struck such a nerve, especially among people in his business, is that it felt emblematic of the decline and fall of serious-minded, voice-of-God mass media: Network-news audiences are steadily shrinking, newspaper readership is in free fall, the newsmagazines struggle for relevance and profit, and now Russert’s gone.
Why the McCain and Obama Campaigns Lack a Sense of Humor -- New York Magazine - Nymag
One of the reasons a lot of us looked forward to this particular presidential matchup, John McCain versus Barack Obama, was the prospect of a contest between two appealingly human candidates. And each man’s menschiness (especially McCain’s) derives in part from a manifest instinct for irony. There have been funny presidential nominees before—Jack Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, even George W. Bush in his way—but never in my lifetime (unless you count Reagan versus Walter Mondale) two at once.
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