The Top Twenty-five New Yorker Stories of 2021

At its outset, 2021 looked like it would be a time of reëmergence. The arrival of vaccines appeared to signal that the end of the pandemic was near. It seemed, too, that a frightening period in our politics would soon be behind us. But, instead, the year has had a suspended quality. Trumpism lingers, even if Trump is gone; the arrival of the Omicron variant marks the beginning of yet another phase in the pandemic. We are in an interregnum, and optimism eludes our grasp.

The year’s top New Yorker stories seem to reflect our moment of in-betweenness. The list includes a slew of stories about democracy under threat, but also two articles about the possibility that aliens have visited Earth, an essay on marital loneliness, and a feature about the science of energy and how to get it. (We compiled this year’s list using data that tracks what people have read on their way to becoming New Yorker subscribers.) Even though he vacated the White House on January 20th, the forty-fifth President has continued to command readers’ attention: nine articles on the list––including three each by Jane Mayer and by Ronan Farrow––are about his disastrous Presidency, the January 6th insurrection, or his election lies. Luke Mogelson’s brave reporting on the Capitol siege makes the list twice, in written form and in a harrowing video that he filmed from the floor of the Senate.

Arguably the most significant story of the second half of 2021 was the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. We published Anand Gopal’s exhaustive reporting from rural Afghanistan, which shows how America lost its longest war. An investigation by Jia Tolentino and Farrow on Britney Spears’s conservatorship is perhaps the least surprising piece on the list, given its celebrity subject. But I was encouraged that readers appreciated less showy offerings, too, such as a ruminative essay by Ann Patchett on unburdening herself of possessions.

I found the fact that there was only one piece on COVID––a striking photo essay that celebrates women growing out their gray hair during quarantine––to be both expected and unexpected. Pandemic exhaustion has set in. At times, readers simply looked to us for diversion. The humorist David Sedaris published two essays on the list; a Daily Shouts imagining “Fran Lebowitz’s one-star Amazon reviews” turned into a hit. People lapped up a lancing Profile of the “Succession” actor Jeremy Strong, who insists that the show isn’t a comedy. We’re all looking for a laugh. May we do it more often in 2022.

The Capitol was breached by Trump supporters who had been declaring, at rally after rally, that they would go to violent lengths to keep the President in power. A chronicle of an attack foretold.

Using his phone’s camera as a reporter’s notebook, Luke Mogelson followed Trump supporters as they forced their way into the Senate chamber.

How the pop star’s father and a team of lawyers seized control of her life—and have held on to it for thirteen years.

The Texas-based pilot was with a group that descended on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office suite.

After the Capitol assault—and after losing his perch as Majority Leader—the senator finally denounced the outgoing President. Was it a moral reckoning or yet another act of political self-interest?

Donald Trump’s attacks on democracy are being promoted by rich and powerful conservative groups that are determined to win at all costs.

I wanted to get rid of my possessions, because possessions stood between me and death.

Insiders say that the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation has dramatically intensified since the former President left office. “It’s like night and day,” says one. According to another, “They mean business.”

Instead of “Welcome,” the doormat should say “O.K. Fine. You’re here. I’m here. Let’s get this over with.”

For decades, flying saucers were a punch line. Then the U.S. government got over the taboo.

With the approval of the government, a renowned sexologist ran a dangerous program. How could this happen?

“I take him as seriously as I take my own life,” he says of his character, Kendall Roy.

The new “Scenes from a Marriage,” on HBO, avoids the dark questions that Ingmar Bergman confronted in the original.

How claims by Rudy Giuliani and Alex Jones spurred a parent of eight to become one of the Capitol riot’s biggest mysteries, and a fugitive from the F.B.I.

“Roadrunner,” by the Oscar-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville, presents Bourdain as both the hero and the villain of his own story.

The strange fate of a group of skiers in the Ural Mountains has generated endless speculation.

An eminent astrophysicist argues that signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life have appeared in our skies. What’s the evidence for his extraordinary claim?

After thirty years together, sleeping is the new having sex.

Young people in a Missouri college town kept killing themselves. A parent of one victim is convinced that her son’s friend encouraged the deaths. Has a sinister figure been exposed, or is it a case of misplaced blame?

In the assault, organized groups with military experience played an active role.

One final dispatch from Trump’s Washington.

The pandemic obliged—or enabled—many women to go gray. They’re still reckoning with the transformation.

“Who are you?” I want to ask the gentle gnome in front of me. “And what have you done with Lou Sedaris?”

All of us know people who have more energy than we do, but the science of the phenomenon is just coming into view.

In the countryside, the endless killing of civilians turned women against the occupiers who claimed to be helping them.