March 28, 2021

7 Screenland Reality Check By Adlan Jackson / 11 Talk Dr. Diane E. Meier By David Marchese / 14 The Ethicist Different Universes By Kwame Anthony Appiah / 16 Studies Show Coffee? By Kim Tingley / 18 Letter of Recommendation Biking at Night By Daniel Peña / 20 Eat Chicken-Meatball Hot Pot By Tejal Rao

22 In Search of a Lost Pastime 28 Face Time 36 Tracking the Covid Code By Rowan Ricardo Phillips / Major League Baseball By Vanessa Grigoriadis / How social media stars By Jon Gertner / Ultracheap DNA sequencing now wants to welcome Negro-leagues stats like Addison Rae (and her 78.4 million followers) could help end the pandemic — and reshape into its record books — but the numbers are just gave the cosmetics industry a makeover. the future of health care. a small part of what needs to be remembered.

Josh Gibson, regarded in his day as ‘‘the Black Babe Ruth,’’ scoring during the Negro-leagues East-West All-Star Game at Comiskey Park in Chicago in 1944. Page 22. Photograph from Bettmann Archive, via Getty Images via Getty Archive, Bettmann from Photograph

4 Contributors / 5 The Thread / 10 Poem / 14 Judge John Hodgman / 19 Tip / 44, 45, 46 Puzzles / 45 Puzzle Answers

Behind the Cover Gail Bichler, creative director: ‘‘Th is week’s cover story is about how the beauty industry has been transformed by social media stars like Addison Rae, whose over 78 million followers make her TikTok account the platform’s second-most popular. Rae is her own brand, so we designed a cover that refl ects her: splashy and irreverent.’’ Photograph by Paola Kudacki for Th e New York Times.

Copyright © 2021 The New York Times 3 Contributors

Vanessa Grigoriadis ‘‘Face Time,’’ Vanessa Grigoriadis is a contributing writer for Editor in Chief JAKE SILVERSTEIN Page 28 the magazine. Her last article examined the Deputy Editors JESSICA LUSTIG, BILL WASIK influence of Madonna over the past 40 years. Managing Editor ERIKA SOMMER Her profile of Karl Lagerfeld won a National Creative Director GAIL BICHLER Director of Photography KATHY RYAN Magazine Award and she’s also the author Art Director BEN GRANDGENETT of a book about sexual assault, ‘‘Blurred Lines: Features Editor ILENA SILVERMAN Rethinking Sex, Power and Consent on Campus.’’ Politics Editor CHARLES HOMANS Culture Editor SASHA WEISS For this issue, she writes about the impact the Digital Director BLAKE WILSON beauty industry has had on the psychology of Story Editors NITSUH ABEBE, SHEILA GLASER, American girls now that TikTok, Instagram and CLAIRE GUTIERREZ, YouTube have replaced magazines for many LUKE MITCHELL, ISMAIL MUHAMMAD, young people. ‘‘The idea of celebrities and social RAHA NADDAF, media stars selling their own cosmetic products, DEAN ROBINSON, instead of simply sponsoring products, fascinated WILLY STALEY Assistant Managing Editor JEANNIE CHOI me,’’ Grigoriadis says. ‘‘I wanted to know how Associate Editors IVA DIXIT, that sell was changing the self-conceptualization KYLE LIGMAN Poetry Editor REGINALD DWAYNE BETTS of their fans.’’ Staff Writers SAM ANDERSON, EMILY BAZELON, RONEN BERGMAN, TAFFY BRODESSER-AKNER, C. J. CHIVERS, Jon Gertner Jon Gertner is a contributing writer for the PAMELA COLLOFF, ‘‘Tracking the NICHOLAS CONFESSORE, Covid Code,’’ magazine and the author of ‘‘The Ice at the End SUSAN DOMINUS, Page 36 of the World.’’ He writes frequently about science MAUREEN DOWD, NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES, and technology, including features on Tesla JAZMINE HUGHES, and about Climeworks, a Swiss company that is JENEEN INTERLANDI, MARK LEIBOVICH, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. JONATHAN MAHLER, DAVID MARCHESE, WESLEY MORRIS, MARCELA VALDES, Adlan Jackson Screenland, Adlan Jackson is a writer from Kingston, JENNA WORTHAM Page 7 Jamaica, who writes about music in New York. Digital Art Director KATE LARUE Deputy Art Director ANNIE JEN This is his first article for the magazine. Designers CLAUDIA RUBÍN, RACHEL WILLEY Deputy Director of Photography JESSICA DIMSON Senior Photo Editor AMY KELLNER Photo Editor KRISTEN GEISLER Contributing Photo Editor DAVID CARTHAS Copy Chief ROB HOERBURGER Copy Editors HARVEY DICKSON, David Marchese Talk, David Marchese is a staff writer for the DANIEL FROMSON, Page 11 MARGARET PREBULA, magazine and the columnist for Talk. Recently ANDREW WILLETT he interviewed Phoebe Bridgers about success Head of Research NANDI RODRIGO Research Editors RILEY BLANTON, and happiness; Kevin Garnett about how ALEX CARP, basketball has changed; and Ninja about the CYNTHIA COTTS, gender dynamics of gaming. JAMIE FISHER, LU FONG, TIM HODLER, ROBERT LIGUORI, LIA MILLER, Rowan Ricardo ‘‘In Search of Rowan Ricardo Phillips is the author of three STEVEN STERN, Phillips a Lost Pastime,’’ books of poetry — most recently, ‘‘Living Weapon’’ MARK VAN DE WALLE, Page 22 BILL VOURVOULIAS — two books of nonfiction and a book-length Production Chief ANICK PLEVEN translation of fiction. He is the recipient of, Production Editors PATTY RUSH, among other honors, a Guggenheim Fellowship, HILARY SHANAHAN Managing Director, MARILYN McCAULEY a Whiting Award and the PEN/ESPN Award for Specialty Printing Literary Sports Writing. Manager, Magazine Layout THOMAS GILLESPIE Operations Manager TARA NULTY Editorial Assistant ALEXANDER SAMAHA Paola Kudacki ‘‘Face Time,’’ Paola Kudacki is a photographer and director Page 28 known for her portraiture. Her work has appeared NYT FOR KIDS on the covers of Time magazine, GQ and Rolling Editorial Director AMBER WILLIAMS Stone, and she recently directed two music videos Design Director DEB BISHOP Managing Editor MOLLY BENNET for the Foo Fighters. She last photographed Associate Editor LOVIA GYARKYE two new Democratic congresswomen for the Social Editor ALEXA DÍAZ cover of the magazine. Editorial Adviser CAITLIN ROPER

4 3.28.21 The Thread

Readers respond to the 3.14.2021 issue. photographers and others for creating a Despite being a member of ‘‘the youth unique and thoroughly enjoyable presen- revolt’’ 50 years ago, I fi nd myself whining RE: 19 SONGS THAT MATTER RIGHT tation online. As an older guy, I know that these days about these annoying young NOW much of this music is not in my wheel- people and their cellphones. Then I watch The annual Music Issue chronicled the house, but the experience was analogous J. D. Beck and DOMi nail Coltrane’s songs and artists that have helped us through to visiting a museum with a new exhibit ‘‘Giant Steps,’’ and I remember what a the pandemic. that opens a door to a style or a genre not wise sage of my generation once wrote: normally pursued. The kids are all right. THE ISSUE, TC, Westport, Conn. ON TWITTER Michael Simmons

Sweet interactive I think maybe you did a disservice to all design & music site the wonderful classical and jazz musi- from NYT. cians who have kept many of us going @ELeighton60 through this pandemic. Maybe I have missed the point of your issue, which is really well done, by the way. And maybe classical and jazz are in a diff erent class or category. But if your focus is music that is getting us through the pandemic, then I’m sure many of your readers have no idea who these musicians are. That’s not to say they aren’t excellent. It’s just my fi rst reaction to this. As a locked-down baby boomer who has Lyn Banghart, Easton, Md. listened ad infi nitum these past months to old CDs featuring artists ranging from Your inclusion of the great Bill Frisell and As a 2020 college graduate, I think it’s Sinatra to the Beatles to Simon and Gar- his HARMONY collective took me back easy to feel that the world has forgotten funkel, I wondered, ‘‘What’s the big deal?’’ to the last Hardly Strictly Bluegrass free us since last May. Here, I feel a sense of as this year’s Grammys bore down on us festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate community I have been longing for. I’m with what seemed to me like an amor- Park in October 2019, months before not familiar with all the artists, but this phous mass of musicians I too often strug- the pandemic. It was a typically balmy has given me the language to describe gle to delineate and understand. Then, on fall afternoon, and thousands of people why I have not been able to stop listening the very day of the awards show, along were there to see and hear the likes of to ‘‘WAP’’ since it was released. came this wonderful issue off ering fas- Frisell as Pacifi c breezes mingled with With so little in my control and no cinating back stories of artists and their their beautiful melodies and harmonies social outlet, the song is an escape. It feels music to give me perspective. Thanks to in that idyllic setting. At the time, no one daring, powerful. I watched the video you, I was gently nudged out of dwelling in could have anticipated what was lurking only once but was moved by the celebra- the past to fully appreciate the present — a just around the corner, nor that this would tion of Black women, the reclamation of lesson transcending music at a challeng- be the last such gathering for some time our sexuality. ing time in our lives, when the tendency to come. The recollection of that glorious My graduation ceremony has been is to be down and fi xated on ‘‘the good old afternoon and music, however, reassures pushed to 2022, I haven’t been able to days.’’ Your incisive, impassioned writing me that because of such spirits and mem- hold my diploma, job searching has been has lifted and inspired, causing me to look ories, we shall, indeed, overcome. a nightmare. In its own unconventional forward with hope and anticipation. Steve Griffi th, Oakland, Calif. way, ‘‘WAP’’ has kept me going: There is Greg Joseph, Sun City, Ariz. joy, there is power, there is a future drip- ping in the promise of a good time of my This issue smacked me in the face with the own creation. fact that at 78, I am no longer cool, hip or NW, Raleigh, N.C. in the know anymore. I recognized Drake, Dua Lipa and, of course, Taylor Swift, but Thank you for putting Sam Hunt in here! I was totally ignorant of the other artists. He’s so underrated. That song has made The article on J. D. Beck and DOMi was so ‘I was gently me happy-dance all over my living room fascinating, and I am thrilled to have now this past year, wishing I could walk down ‘‘discovered’’ their brilliance. Thank you! nudged out to my favorite bar, dance with my girl- Ellen Prague, Winter Park, Fla. of dwelling friends and fl irt with random strangers in the past to over a cold beer. Fantastic use of technology. Hearing Stella, New York while reading is so much more enlight- fully appreciate

Photograph by John Edmonds John by Photograph ening. Kudos to the authors, editors, the present.’ Send your thoughts to [email protected].

Illustrations by Giacomo Gambineri 5

Screenland Reality Check

For months, fi nance gurus on YouTube switched from dreams of wealth to dreams of government relief. ⬤ By Adlan Jackson ⬤ ‘‘Mark your calendar, there’s a big day coming!’’ On Jan. 9, with the dream of $2,000 stimulus checks not yet defl ated, the Southern California real estate broker Kevin Paff rath uploaded a video to his ‘‘Meet Kevin’’ YouTube channel, updating viewers on the status of the stimulus. Sitting

3.28.21 7 Screenland

before an array of glowing LED screens investing, to subscribe to his channel and, The audiences glass of Champagne from a fi rst-class and pop-culture paraphernalia (a star of course, to smash that ‘‘like’’ button. airplane seat and off ered to explain how from the Super Mario games, Thor’s This video would be just one of dozens they had he used airline rewards to get there. Now hammer from the Marvel movies), Paff - about potential stimulus packages post- been teasing all that had changed. The thumbnails rath, a wiry white man in his late 20s with ed that day, even that evening — many with paths to on their channels may have kept their a close-cropped beard, leaned into the of them from fi nance infl uencers like usual style — buff oonish facial expres- lights and greeted his viewers. Using Paff rath, whose pitches normally involve affluence had sions, glaring yellow text — but it was the earnest eye contact of a veteran You- real estate, stocks or airline points. A year ended up sitting videos about stimulus checks that came Tuber, he ran through a summary of the ago, they were promising to share their around with to dominate their feeds. They vied for the situation: the interests at play in Con- proprietary secrets for achieving wealth, role of soothsayer before a rapt audience gress, the details of proposed bills, the staging monologues in the drivers’ seats everyone with a seemingly insatiable demand for tangled qualifi cations for relief. Out of of luxury cars and poolside on cruise else, hoping information about when the government focus, over his shoulder, the monitors ships. Brian Kim, a Chicago accoun- for a check. would off er fi nancial relief. reminded us to visit his ‘‘Meet Kevin tant, had previously been explaining tax Personal-fi nance infl uencers turned School’’ and sign up for courses to ‘‘Mas- preparation, including how high-earn- out to be naturals for this part. They were ter Stocks’’; at the end of the video, we ers could reduce their obligations; Ramy already performing as the shamans of a

are invited to ‘‘#BecomeMore’’ through Wahby once raised a complimentary core American mythology: that though YouTube from grabs and opening page: Screen Above

8 3.28.21 Photo illustration by Ricardo Santos the world may be divided into haves In Paffrath’s case, stimulus-check Among Paffrath’s between housing and eviction. These audi- and have-nots, the only thing standing updates began doubling his other videos in popular streams and ences didn’t want yesterday’s news, or videos this winter: between you and life among the haves was view counts; one update became the most even this morning’s; the slightest budge some arcane savvy. The infl uencers were popular video on his channel, with 1.1 mil- • ‘‘When Will toward progress was meaningful and wel- exactly like you, they promised; it’s just lion views. For other fi nance gurus, these Stimulus Checks come. So the output of YouTube updates Arrive? [New Details that they had cracked the code and would, updates took over their output entirely. From Treasury]’’ was relentless: Every hour, a glut of new in their magnanimity, break a taboo to Their audiences grew dramatically, but the • ‘‘McConnell videos provided the latest on whether share its secrets with you. (Simply sign up shift required a tacit admission: that the Speaks in Senate! relief was coming and how many dollars for their classes, buy their books and use people they had been teasing with paths to [$2,000 Stimulus of it were likely to arrive. Check Update?]’’ the appropriate coupon codes at check- aff luence had ended up sitting around with • ‘‘Did Trump Paff rath typically uploaded two videos out.) Their shift to stimulus content was everyone else, hoping for a check. JUST Sign the each day. Some content makers uploaded sudden and signifi cant, but it was mere- Viewer demand didn’t come from Insurrection Act?’’ three or more. There was, often, simply ly a change to the type of knowledge in upward-bound entrepreneurs after all, it not much to say. The key to collecting which their enlightened-everyman perso- seemed, but rather from those enduring views was simply to serve as foil to what nas were trained: Instead of decoding real the kind of precarity where the precise the audience saw as an infuriating lack estate or cryptocurrencies, they opined timing of a $2,000 deposit could mean of urgency from Congress and the presi- on means-testing and party politics. keeping the lights on or the diff erence dent. The YouTubers tended to mimic the

9 Screenland calm, authoritative style of cable-news Even at the Poem Selected by Reginald Dwayne Betts anchors, but other than reading other peoples’ reporting off printer paper, there height of I’ve been reading the poems of Honorée Fanonne Jeff ers since I was a boy in prison. And was little to do beyond trying to match desperation, now, more than a score of years later, her verse is still making the same complicated music. their viewers’ exasperation. The visuals, nothing can It’s hard, truly, to make some things that need to be said sing. And this poem reminds me comically, featured the same techniques of the hardest of call-and-responses. If you can’t see yourself in the conversation being had used to press investment schemes: stock ever dispel betwixt and between these lines, the poem becomes a question: What have you chosen to images of fanned-out $100 bills and tanta- the mirage ignore during your days? lizing click bait like ‘‘$4,200 STIMULUS!’’ that riches are Paffrath has a charisma that cuts through all this. He’s exceptionally tal- available to ented at talking to a camera, a natural anyone with salesman. But when he turns to a fl ow- the work ethic chart breaking down the Biden stimulus proposal, what might even be sincerity and (if you leaks out. Judging by the ad hoc commu- insist) a nity formed in his comments sections, his little savvy. viewers appreciate it. Then you remember the neon adver- tisements behind him and the exhorta- tions to go ‘‘from $0 to millionaire and Note to Black Women in America beyond.’’ That Paff rath, a multimillionaire By Honorée Fanonne Jeff ers landlord who once extolled the virtues of misleading tenants and vigorously refus- Don’t think well of your self ing to rent to people with suboptimal (drink your anger) credit scores, has come to be an exasper- Don’t think well of your body ated avatar for emergency economic relief (eat your anger) for the neediest — most of whom would be Don’t think well of what spending it on rent — feels deeply, typical- you do with your hands ly American. A CNBC profi le reported that your feet your tongue Paff rath actually makes most of his money your mind your god not from the industry he built his status whispering rare prophecies on, not from investing or even from buy- that no one else can hear ing rental properties, but via his audience (drink your anger) itself, from his YouTube channel’s adver- Don’t think well of your tising revenue and affi liate programs. heroines your revolutions This confl uence of the sincere and the (eat your anger) cynical recurs constantly in stimulus- Your courageous ones check YouTube. It serves a uniquely whose voices won’t American need: Even at the height of rattle when they demand desperation, nothing can ever dispel the what is due what to do mirage that riches are available to anyone in this nation of cages with the work ethic and (if you insist) a and well-explained blood little savvy. (drink your anger) In the days leading up to the relief bill And remember becoming law, Paff rath’s stimulus con- don’t think well tent remained his most popular product; of your children soon he was posting videos calming those or your children’s children members of his audience for whom the (eat that anger) $1,400 deposit had not yet arrived. Can They are only on loan the path forward for someone like Paff - to you until we name rath really lead back to making videos the day of the slaughter from the driver’s seat of a Tesla, prom- ising to make viewers rich? Or will what he has seen during this stint — months Reginald Dwayne Betts is a poet and lawyer. He created the Million Book Project, an initiative to curate of tending to a public desperate for news microlibraries and install them in prisons across the country. His latest collection of poetry, ‘‘Felon,’’ explores the of a couple thousand dollars — open his post-incarceration experience. In 2019, he won a National Magazine Award in Essays and Criticism for his article in Th e Times Magazine about his journey from teenage carjacker to aspiring lawyer. Honorée Fanonne eyes to the possibility of being just anoth- Jeffers is a poet, novelist, critic and professor of English at the University of Oklahoma. Her latest collection, er rich person hustling the poor? ‘‘Th e Age of Phillis,’’ was published by Wesleyan University Press.

10 3.28.21 Illustration by R. O. Blechman Talk B y David Marchese Dr. iane E. Meier on existential cataclysms in health care. ‘My point is not that my colleagues don’t want to be bothered. They can’t bother.’

Photograph by Mamadi Doumbouya 11 Talk

Serious illness and suff ering. Fear and have palliative- care colleagues who will Below: Dr. Diane E. Has the pandemic aff ected our collective fresh awareness of death. The uncer- take the time that they know their patients Meier in her office attitude toward grief? There are many at Mount Sinai in 1997. tainty they all bring and what, for each, and patients’ families need. That enables Opposite page: shadow pandemics. One is the trauma to would constitute humane and eff ective our colleagues to overcome the moral dis- Meier and a Mount the entire health profession during this last medical treatment. Those physical and tress and ethical inner confl ict that the Sinai colleague, year. The other trauma is the roughly 10 Dr. R. Sean Morrison emotional concerns, central to palliative business side of medicine creates. (right), discussing people for every person who has died from care, have forced their way into so many Do patients feel diff erently about palli- palliative care with Covid who are grieving. That’s over fi ve of our lives during the pandemic, even as ative care when the need for it is caused Senator Sheldon million people. That is a shadow pandemic we edge toward some skewed version of by something unfamiliar like Covid-19 as Whitehouse of Rhode that will be with us long after we get the Island in Washington normalcy. They’re also the concerns that opposed to, say, a cancer diagnosis? The in 2011. virus under control. Our current president Dr. Diane E. Meier has been working on fear and anxiety is completely diff erent. It’s has worked hard to begin to address that and thinking deeply about for decades. not that getting a diagnosis of dementia or through the ritual ceremonies to remem- Meier, 68, is the longtime director of the cancer or kidney failure is not frightening. ber the dead and honor them, and he has Center to Advance Palliative Care, which It is, but it’s somewhat normalized. You talked a lot about his own losses, to normal- is part of New York City’s Mount Sinai know people it’s happened to. Where- ize talking about losses and how they’re Hospital, and a 2008 recipient of a MacAr- as the Covid pandemic — there was so with you every day. That’s important. We thur Foundation ‘‘genius’’ fellowship. She much interesting coverage marking the need other people to do it too. has been a uniquely qualifi ed observer of 500,000th death about how invisible all the This is a bit of a sidetrack: In December, the Covid-induced cataclysms — often grieving is and how the whole country is in you published a piece in JAMA Internal existential — experienced by patients a state of numbness and denial because it Medicine about the ‘‘slippery slope’’ of and physicians. ‘‘If ever we needed to be is all too much to take in. It is too much to increased access to physician- assisted reminded of how important human con- process. Let’s say that’s been your mind- death.1 But I’m still not quite clear why nection and support is for people with set: It’s not going to happen to me. Then there would be a major concern about serious illness,’’ Meier says, ‘‘this pandem- it does. All that denial falls apart. All that people unduly requesting medical assis- ic has made the point very, very clearly.’’ numbness won’t protect you. It is fright- tance with ending their life when, by and David Marchese ening, and compounded by the fact that is the magazine’s Talk large, people don’t want to die. Countries In September, you were quoted in The family members can’t be with patients. columnist. that have enabled euthanasia or assisted Washington Post saying that during the pandemic, other physicians have been looking to palliative- care doctors ‘‘to be the human side of medicine.’’ What does that imply about the medical system’s defi ciencies? That the public’s experience with the medical profession has been sub- sumed by the marketplace, where there is enormous pressure on everyone working in the system to see multiple patients in a very short period of time and ensure that the services we off er are well reimbursed. Which is why the pandemic was such a blow to the economy of many health care systems: The major sources of income, which had to do with elective surgical and other procedures, were shut down because of the need to repurpose health systems for masses of people with Covid. The pandemic is the exemplar of why that is such a fragile foundation for a major fi rst-world country’s health care system. The drivers are about doing what is nec- essary to get paid as opposed to what we thought our profession was all about, which was serving human beings who are suff ering. It’s not that my colleagues are uncaring or don’t realize that their relationship with patients is a powerful instrument of healing; my point is not that my colleagues don’t want to be bothered. They can’t bother. So they’re relieved to

12 3.28.21 suicide have claimed that it has to be 1 Meier’s article, totally voluntary, cannot be due to fi nan- ‘‘The Treatment of Patients With cial or family pressures, cannot be due to Unbearable Suffering untreated or unrecognized depression — The Slippery and cannot be due to untreated, poorly Slope Is Real,’’ was written in response managed pain. They state that, and yet to the Dutch study there is no evidence that those are not the ‘‘Euthanasia and major factors driving this. What it takes Physician-Assisted to adhere to those guidelines is incredibly Suicide in Patients With Multiple expensive and time-consuming and doesn’t Geriatric Syndromes.’’ happen. That’s the situation in the Nether- That study, which lands and Belgium and Canada:2 All the was published in the same issue of JAMA heartfelt adherence to restrictions that are Internal Medicine, announced when you fi rst get the public to looked at the vote in favor of this go up in smoke once complicated factors the practice is validated. And it’s always that lead to older people requesting with the talking points that it’s about relief euthanasia or of suff ering, that the person, even though physician- he cannot say this, would agree that he assisted death. would be better off dead. Ethically, do I 2 All three countries think people should have the right to con- allow euthanasia trol the timing of their death? I do. I think or physician-assisted it’s dangerous public policy. It’s a danger- death. In the United pain.’’ It was not just pain or constipation or a determinative human characteristic, and States, assisted death ous path to go down with the claim that is currently legal in fatigue or depression or diffi culty sleeping. it informs so many aspects of our society. I it is all about respect for autonomy, when California, Colorado, It was issues of purpose, meaning, identi- also don’t see a disconnect between what the real drivers are getting rid of a painful Hawaii, Maine, ty, relationships. So while the practice of has happened to the practice of medicine and expensive burden on society. Montana, New Jersey, medicine is pretty good at the mechanics and that reality, because what’s happened Oregon, Vermont, But couldn’t we always say that if peo- Washington and the of treating things that cause tremendous to medicine is being driven by a societal ple had access to better care then they District of Columbia. suff ering, the existential, spiritual and commitment to profi t above all else. And wouldn’t consider this other option? relationship fundamentals are addressed what is that? It’s trauma. 3 This is a reference What if the reality is that access to better to Roger Foley, an very often in the purview of palliative-care You could imagine somebody rolling their care isn’t there? Are we saying to suff er- Ontario man suffering teams. We see that as part of our job. In eyes at you, saying, ‘‘You’re saying capi- ing people, ‘‘There are ways to still fi nd from cerebral ataxia, the rest of medicine, clinicians don’t, and talism is trauma?’’ What has happened to meaning in life; we just can’t necessarily who in 2018 released people are left to fi nd their way. If they’re the practice of medicine is that the public recordings that he guarantee you’ll be able to take advantage claims are proof that not strongly embedded in a faith commu- perception is that it has become totally of them’’? There is a real tension there. health care workers nity or extended family, it causes tremen- transactional. That we do things either to Our system is so broken. But do we solve tried to coerce dous suff ering, because meaning comes make money or to avoid spending money. him into choosing that problem by off ering them physician- assisted death. through relationship. The fear of death So, for example, many people of color fear assisted death? I wouldn’t want to be part is about the loss of relationship with the that a conversation about whether or not of that society. There was a recent case in 4 The Englishwoman world and the people in it. they want cardiopulmonary resuscitation Canada: a guy with neuro degenerative who founded St. At this stage of your career,5 are there is not about what’s best for that patient; 3 Christopher’s Hospice disorder who was cognitively intact. In in London. Saunders aspects of the human experience of it’s about saving money for the hospital. order to go home from the hospital, he is considered the chronic illness or pain that used to be Those perceptions are not wrong. That’s needed 24-hour care, and the government founder of the mysterious to you that you now under- the problem. And there’s more than a would not pay for 24-hour care. He record- modern palliative- stand? It has to do with trauma. Trauma is kernel of truth in the perceptions of peo- care movement. ed hospital staff off ering him medical aid She died at St. widespread. In wealthy families and poor ple feeling as if they or their loved one is in dying as an alternative. You think that Christopher’s in 2005 families; individual and family trauma; being put through a marketplace of M.R.I.s doesn’t create pressure on people who at age 87. community trauma and societal trauma. and P.E.T. scans and specialists and sub- already feel like burdens? They need to 5 Meier will step down We have so much of that here — just start specialists, and everybody is billing. The be met with a resounding commitment to as director of the with racism and go on. It is repressed and visibility of the extraction mind-set of the continued relationship. Not: ‘‘You’re right. Center to Advance treated with denial. That doesn’t make it go practice of medicine — it’s not subtle, and I agree you’d be better off dead. Here’s a Palliative Care this away. It’s controlling how people respond the public knows it. I’m worried about spring but will continue prescription.’’ That pushes someone who on as director to new trauma, whether it’s a diagnosis or blowing the hard-earned trust that our is struggling right over the cliff . emeritus and a pandemic or a January 6th. So my per- profession worked toward over hundreds Should we think of suff ering as inevitable? strategic spective on trauma has a bigger scale than of years through, essentially, the commer- medical adviser. That’s a great question, and the answer it used to — a species-level and tribal-level cialization of health care delivery. to any great question is ‘‘It depends.’’ It scale. And as I read the news, I don’t know depends on the type of suff ering. Dame whether we’re going to evolve our way out Th is interview has been edited and condensed 4 This page: Kevin Wolf/Associated Press, for Center to Advance Palliative Care. Opposite page: Linda Rosier. Opposite Care. Palliative Advance to Center for Press, Wolf/Associated This page: Kevin Cicely Saunders used to talk about ‘‘total of this. The need to hate and kill the other is for clarity from two conversations.

13 The Ethicist By Kwame Anthony Appiah

approving mention of a notorious 1968 speech in which the politician Enoch My Friends Are Wonderful, but Powell declared that Britain was being menaced by nonwhite immigration. The younger woman she’s talking to is Also — I’m Learning — Racist. appalled and jolted by a sense that the two ‘‘lived in diff erent universes,’’ which were ‘‘separated by a wall, infi nitely high, Bonus Advice How Should I Respond? impermeable.’’ It sounds as if you’ve recently had an experience like that. From Judge The word ‘‘racism’’ actually came into John Hodgman widespread use in English in reference to Nazi attitudes toward Jewish people. Krisa writes: My friend Ken and I had Being the victim of prejudice, however, dinner plans. But does not inoculate us from our own prej- after a day at the udices. Edward Augustus Freeman, who vet with my sick went on to be Regius professor of history dog, I texted that I might not be home at Oxford, wrote, while visiting America in time for dinner in 1881, that his interlocutors generally and attended to agreed with his proposal that ‘‘this would Maybelline. Next be a grand land if only every Irishman morning, I awoke to his texts that he went would kill a Negro and be hanged for to the restaurant, it.’’ Yet WASP bigotry toward the Irish because my message immigrants didn’t save them from bigot- was ‘‘unclear.’’ He brings this story up ry toward Black people. (Nor, converse- repeatedly. We need ly, did suff ering from anti-Black animus an official ruling! prevent the likes of Frederick Douglass ———— from disparaging Irish-Americans.) I’ve Even after all this time at home, I can heard Africans complain about being think of no better subject to racism from Europeans and evening than staying Americans while denigrating Africans in with a dog. Sorry, Ken. But also: sorry, of certain other ethnic groups in ways you. You were Although Sydney, Australia, has been when so many Indigenous Australians, that sound awfully like racism. Consider, unclear. Now that my home for almost 40 years, I am who make up more than 3 percent of our for that matter, the tensions that have we’re inching back temporarily living in Melbourne to be population, live in fourth-world conditions? lately arisen between Asian-Americans to socializing, here’s a cancel-culture close to family. Th e Covid-19 situation My friendships have endured because and Black Americans . ‘‘Suff ering is par- refresher: It’s OK here has caused a lot of anger among I have found my friends to be loving, tial, shortsighted and self-absorbed,’’ to cancel any plan. many residents. We went into a second family-oriented and honest citizens. Th ey the philosopher Olufemi O. Taiwo Usually you shouldn’t have agreed to lockdown following outbreaks in aged-care observe the Jewish concept of chesed observes. ‘‘We shouldn’t have a politics it anyway. And the facilities and in the city’s public-housing (kindness) to its limit. However, this recent that expects diff erent: Oppression is not other person will estates, which have a high concentration racist narrative disturbs me deeply. I a prep school.’’ always be fine with of Sudanese and Asian immigrants. have rehearsed several responses to the Nor is displaying lovingkindness (as it, especially if it’s me. But sometimes Th e handful of friends I have in this city ‘‘these ethnics’’ comments along the the King James Bible I grew up with it’s Ken, who will live in the very affl uent eastern suburbs lines of ‘‘Except for our Aboriginal people, often translated chesed) toward your always go to the (as do we) and have relatively little cause we are all ethnics in this country,’’ in-group incompatible with displaying restaurant. You owe for concern. Yet they are fuming over while sugg esting charities to which my hostility toward members of an out- these creatures of pure hope your the fact that we are inconvenienced because friends can contribute so that their group. I think of the writer Doris Less- honesty, clarity and of people whom they repeatedly refer to fellow Melburnians receive basic care. ing’s memoir about trips she took as an a reply text! Get well as ‘‘these ethnics.’’ Th is is clearly intended I can be very direct when I respond adult to Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), soon, Maybelline! as a racial slur and causes me much to injustice and racism. I am afraid where she grew up. She had left, in part, angst. My friends, like me, are Jewish; my responses will be misconstrued and because she detested the racism and sex- To submit a query: unlike me, they are children of Holocaust mark the beginning of the end of a ism of her fellow white colonials. Yet she Send an email to survivors. Should they not feel greater very long friendship. What is the most managed to convey the appealing sense ethicist@nytimes .com; or send mail compassion for the suff ering of those appropriate response in this situation? of community among the whites with to The Ethicist, The recent immigrants escaping violence and whom she stayed, including her brother. New York Times ethnic cleansing in their home countries? Name Withheld Because she was only visiting, she didn’t Magazine, 620 Australian colonists decimated native bother to challenge their racist attitudes Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018. populations and stole native land. Is it In Jonathan Coe’s Brexit novel ‘‘Mid- — she thought it would make no diff er- (Include a daytime

ethical for us to be so self-congratulatory dle England,’’ a British woman makes ence — and she didn’t have to decide phone number.) Pomeroy Zergaeng Louise by Illustration

14 3.28.21 Illustration by Tomi Um whether to be friends with the people can be chesed in lovingly calling friends There can be my spouse’s connections to move to the who had them. to account and reminding them that, in front of the line within my group? You, on the other hand, are not merely Heschel’s simple formulation, humanity chesed in visiting, however long you stay in Mel- is one. We can hope that your friends will lovingly calling Name Withheld bourne. So far as I can see, you’ve got take your thoughtful responses for what friends to three choices. One is simply to tolerate they are — a sign that you care about our People like your spouse have a profes- your friends’ intolerance — though my common humanity and that you care account and sional responsibility not to use their role sense is that this won’t work for you. about them. Of course, they could be reminding in the system to get special treatment for Another is to conclude that these moral off ended or else simply decide to shut up them that, in their own families, in violation of their failings are an obstacle to friendship; about the ‘‘ethnics’’ when you’re around. duty to give equal consideration to those friendship is a moralized relationship, But it’s just possible that the warmth of Heschel’s with equal entitlements. The principles after all, and taking certain values seri- your conviction will prompt them to simple that led you not to seek vaccination before ously can entail not condoning them in reconsider their attitudes. It would be a formulation, others in your category count against your friends. But at this point in your life, kindness, anyway, to try. jumping the line within your category too. you’re clearly reluctant to lose longstand- humanity You can safely continue to live the way ing, meaningful relationships. My spouse, a health care provider in is one. you do, working at home and taking the That leaves you trying to scale a formi- charge of vaccine distribution for a large necessary precautions when you’re out. dable wall. You’re in good company. The health system, received the Covid-19 Indeed, because (as the evidence suggests) great rabbi and civil rights leader Abra- vaccine in the fi rst few days of distribution. your spouse is now unlikely to transmit ham Heschel, who lost much of his family I am in my 50s, healthy and working the virus to you, you’re already benefi ting in the Holocaust, worried about the many from home, so I am toward the end from your spouse’s vaccination.
people whose ‘‘moral sensitivity suff ers a of the line. My spouse and I decided blackout when confronted with the Black not to use my spouse’s position to help man’s predicament’’; he wanted each of me jump the line and be vaccinated Kwame Anthony Appiah teaches philosophy at N.Y.U. His books include ‘‘Cosmopolitanism,’’ us to be the sort of person who, like you, with higher-risk groups. But when my ‘‘The Honor Code’’ and ‘‘The Lies That Bind: ‘‘resents other people’s injuries.’’ There group’s turn comes, is it ethical to use Rethinking Identity.’’ Studies Show By Kim Tingley

Should you drink coff ee? If so, how much? If randomized control trials or These seem like questions that a society able to create vaccines for a new respi- ratory virus within a year should have no observational studies alone can’t say trouble answering. And yet the scientifi c literature on coff ee illustrates a frustra- whether coff ee is good for our hearts, tion that readers, not to mention plenty of researchers, have with nutrition studies: maybe machine learning can help. The conclusions are always changing, and they frequently contradict one another. This sort of disagreement might not matter so much if we’re talking about foods or drinks that aren’t widely con- sumed. But in 1991, when the World Health Organization classifi ed coff ee as a possible carcinogen, the implications were enor- mous: More than half of the American population drinks coff ee daily. A possible link between the beverage and bladder and pancreatic cancers had been uncov- ered by observational studies. But it would turn out that such studies — in which researchers ask large numbers of people to report information about things like their dietary intake and daily habits and then look for associations with particular health outcomes — hadn’t recognized that those who smoke are more likely to drink cof- fee. It was the smoking that increased their cancer risk; once that association (along with others) was understood, coff ee was removed from the list of carcinogens in 2016. The next year, a review of the avail- able evidence, published in The British Medical Journal, found a link between coff ee and a lower risk for some cancers, as well as for cardiovascular disease and death from any cause. Now a new analysis of existing data, published in the American Heart Associ- ation journal Circulation: Heart Failure, suggests that two to three (or more) cups of coff ee per day may lower the risk of heart failure. Of course, the usual caveats apply: This is association, not causation. It could be that people with heart disease tend to avoid coff ee, possibly thinking it will be bad for them. So . . . good for you or not good for you, which is it? And if we can’t ever tell, what’s the point of these studies? Critics have argued, in fact, that there isn’t one — that nutrition research should shift its focus away from observational studies to randomized control trials. By randomly giving coff ee to one group and withholding it from another, such trials can try to tease apart cause and eff ect. Yet when it comes to understanding how any aspect of our diet aff ects our health,

16 3.28.21 Illustrations by Ori Toor both approaches have signifi cant limita- in science using your own biases, and you it could be trained to scan photographs of tions. Our diets work on us over a lifetime; get a publication out of it,’’ says Steven subjects’ meals and interpret their macro- it’s not feasible to keep people in a lab, Heymsfi eld, a professor of metabolism nutrient level. It could also analyze data monitoring their coff ee intake, until they and body composition at the Pennington from geolocation devices, activity sensors develop heart failure. But it’s notoriously Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana and social media. diffi cult to get people to accurately report State University. To illustrate this point, a But machine learning is only as good as what they eat and drink at home. Ideally, widely cited 2013 review in The American the data being analyzed. Without careful to get to the bottom of the coff ee question, Journal of Clinical Nutrition searched for controls, says Michael Kosorok, a pro- you would know the type of coff ee bean 50 common cookbook ingredients in the fessor of biostatistics at the University of used and how it was roasted, ground and scientifi c literature; 36 had been linked North Carolina at Chapel Hill, ‘‘it gives us brewed — all of which aff ect its biochem- individually to an increased or decreased the ability to make more and more mis- istry — plus the exact amount ingested, its risk of cancer, including celery and peas. takes.’’ If, for instance, it is applied to data temperature and the amount and type of Kao, however, didn’t start with a sets that aren’t diverse or random enough, any added sweetener or dairy. Then you hypothesis. Instead, he used a powerful the patterns it sees won’t hold up when would consider all the other variables that and increasingly popular data-analysis the algorithm then uses them to make infl uence a coff ee drinker’s metabolism technique known as machine learning real-world predictions. This has been a and overall health: genome, microbiome, to look for links between thousands of serious problem with facial-recognition lifestyle (sleep habits, for example) and patient characteristics collected in the software: Trained primarily on white male socioeconomic status (is there household well-known Framingham Heart Study subjects, the algorithms have been much stress? poor local air quality?). and the odds of those patients’ develop- less accurate in identifying women and Randomized control trials could still ing heart failure. The algorithm ‘‘will start people of color. Algorithms must also be yield useful insights into how coff ee infl u- to line up the variables that contributed programmed to handle uncertainty in the ences biological processes over shorter the most to the variance in the data,’’ or data — as when one person’s reported periods. This might help explain, and thus the range of cardiac outcomes, says Diana ‘‘cup of coff ee’’ is six ounces and another’s validate, certain longer-term associations. Thomas, a professor of mathematics at is eight ounces. But before doing a trial on a given nutri- West Point. ‘‘And that’s objective.’’ An analysis like Kao’s, which starts ent, scientists need to have some reason The ability of machine learning to pro- with no preconceived notions about what for thinking that it might have a mean- cess vast amounts of data could transform the data might say, can reveal connections ingful impact on lots of people; they also the ability of nutrition researchers to study no one has thought of. But those fi ndings need to already have plausible evidence their subjects’ behavior more precisely and must be rigorously tested to see if they that testing the compound on human sub- in real time, says Amanda Vest, medical can be replicated in other contexts. After jects won’t do them lasting harm. director of the Cardiac Transplantation the link appeared between coff ee intake The Circulation study employed obser- Program at Tufts Medical Center, who and a reduced risk of heart failure in the Kim Tingley is a vational data, but its initial aim was not to contributing writer for wrote an editorial that was published Framingham data, Kao confi rmed the assess the relationship between coff ee and the magazine. with the Circulation study. For example, result by using the algorithm to correct- heart failure. This is how the lead author ly predict the relationship between cof- David Kao, a cardiologist at University fee intake and heart failure in two other of Colorado School of Medicine, char- respected data sets. Kosorok describes acterized it to me: ‘‘The overall question the approach as ‘‘thoughtful’’ and says was, What are the factors in daily life that that it ‘‘seems like pretty good evidence.’’ impact heart health that we don’t know Still, it’s not defi nitive. Rather, it’s part about that could potentially be changed of a growing body of evidence that, at the to lower risk.’’ Because one in fi ve Ameri- moment, can say little about how much cans will develop heart failure, even small coff ee people should drink. ‘‘It may be changes in their behaviors could have a good for you,’’ says Dariush Mozaff arian, big cumulative impact. dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Traditionally, researchers start out Science and Policy at Tufts University. ‘‘I with a hypothesis — coff ee lowers the think we can say with good certainty it’s risk of heart disease, for example. Then not bad for you.’’ (Additives are another they compare subjects’ coff ee intake with story.) Getting more specifi c will require their cardiovascular history. One draw- more research. Last year, Mozaff arian and back to this process is that there are all others called on the National Institutes of sorts of ways researchers’ preconceived Health to establish an institute for nutri- notions can lead them to fi nd false rela- tion science that could coordinate those tionships by infl uencing which variables eff orts and, crucially, help people inter- they include and exclude in the analysis pret the results. ‘‘We need a well-funded, or by prompting unscrupulous researchers well-organized, coordinated eff ort to to manipulate the data to fi t their theory. fi gure out nutrition,’’ he says. ‘‘No single ‘‘You can dredge up any fi nding you want study gets to the truth.’’

17 Letter of Recommendation Biking at Night

By Daniel Peña

‘‘I’m going for a ride,’’ I told my wife one rides could be superspreading events. An orienting midnight, I had the city mostly to myself. night in early November, as a second I’d need a way to move around. celebration in a time Just me and the odd taxi driver cruising of disorientation. Covid wave was sweeping through Berlin. As I was heading out, my wife threw the streets. We were living in a basement apartment me a scarf and a skullcap to wear beneath The joys of the night ride were the joys on Solmstrasse in Kreuzberg, a former my helmet. No one wears a helmet in of feeling present in my body again, ori- punk neighborhood turned hipster haven. Berlin, but I did even if the roads were enting myself amid the disorientation of We had come to Germany on account of mostly empty. The spätkaufs — late-night pandemic life, which has a tendency to her mother’s surgery. Mortality was on convenience stores with cheap beer erase the body even as it threatens it, everyone’s mind, and we seldom left the and welcoming benches — had long even as it demands of it endless produc- apartment. Still, my friend suggested I been shuttered by government order, tivity. Pedaling felt like a celebration of get a bike with two locks. ‘‘Bikes are like along with bars and clubs . A rare blan- kinetic energy, of blood, cartilage and gold now,’’ he said. Soon mass-transit ket of silence fell over everything. After bone. A reminder that my body was still

18 3.28.21 Photograph by Steven John Irby healthy and functioning despite the pan- Removed from only to the moment. If I didn’t, I’d hit the only a stipend of 300 deutsche mark and demic, despite the two heart operations pothole in the road, or my wheel would Oral-Turinabol, an anabolic steroid, to I had as a kid to correct my tachycardia, my family, fall into some precarious groove. So by fuel his endless rides through Berlin. The which took me out of sports entirely. I my friends, my necessity, I became present, and I felt Stasi knew that he was mostly in search remember the doctor’s orders: no foot- former life, present, which is to say everything start- of some escape, to fi nd himself on the ball, no physical education. ed to feel fun again. other side of something. After the wall They told me I was fragile, and so I I still existed in This was especially true when I fell, he was caught by American intelli- became fragile. I was in middle school these streets. reached Karl Marx Allee, my favorite gence in 1991 working as a metro driver then. It felt as if my body had been taken street in Berlin for its Soviet-style archi- in Berlin, still cruising the streets. away from me. They put me in a combi- tecture and for its unusual straightness, Of course, you can see why. The night nation swing-dance-and-painting-class which invites the cyclist to really ham- ride is the easiest way of seeing yourself instead. I did terrible still lifes in low light mer the pedals. Whenever I passed it, I on the other side of something. East gone with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy on a loop. It couldn’t help thinking of Jeff rey Carney, west gone east. The convergence of the was the turn of the millennium, and the an American double agent, who must entire world into a set of streets. And for post-dotcom years in Austin were full of have ridden down this street, too. He was the span of darkness, there’s the illusion foreclosures and wide streets with few an asset for the East German Stasi and that if only by bike, you might escape cars. Lance Armstrong was still a legend an avid Berlin cycling enthusiast himself. compass and orientation entirely. You then. The doctors never said no cycling, He exchanged American intelligence for might just go anywhere. and for a brief moment in central Texas, biking became more popular than foot- ball, which salvaged my social life. I still believe that the speed, the wind, the Tip B y Malia Wollan ‘‘Don’t go out alone,’’ says Collins, who blood in your ears on a silent street can recommends collecting wood in teams do that to a body — manifest it into exis- How to Collect of two or three. Always wear long pants tence once again. and shirts, boots, ear protection and hel- Maybe it was for these reasons I devel- Firewood mets. The United States Forest Service oped an aff ection for the night ride. Below and the Bureau of Land Management the whoosh of the wind, I listened for my allow fi rewood collection on many public heart, then the rhythm of my tires over lands with a permit for a small fee. Follow pavement. I watched the streetlamps their rules on what, how and when to cut. passing by, syncopated. Eventually the Mostly you’ll want to take trees that are pain of hard physical exertion would already dead. Hardwoods like oaks tend set in, not to mention the wind lashing to burn hotter and longer than coniferous my face or the occasional, teeth-rattling softwoods like pines. Don’t enter a forest cobblestone street. The jolts of the road willy-nilly as if you own the place. ‘‘Go were constant reminders that there was with respect for the land,’’ Collins says. a road beneath my tires and the possibil- Before fi ring up your chain saw, look ity of travel. The stress on both the body up for what foresters call widowmakers and the bike made tangible what I’d sus- — large branches that could fall and pected all along: that removed from my ‘‘Worst-case scenario, the tree ends up crush you. Never take down trees when family, my friends, my former life, I still falling on you, and you end up dying,’’ it’s windy. Once a tree is on the ground, existed in these streets. says Trennie Collins, 36, a member of the remove branches and slice the trunk into In the quiet of the night, I got lost. I Southern Ute tribe who lives in Durango, rounds, which you’ll load into your truck fl ew down hills and blew through stop Colo. Picking up sticks with your hands is or trailer using a wheelbarrow. Chop the signs. I went 35 miles per hour on an for amateurs. To cut enough fi rewood to rounds using an ax or mechanical splitter. empty pedestrian walkway. I thought of keep a house warm in winter, you need to Swing the ax with your whole body, and all the other bodies that had inhabited know your way around a chain saw as Col- always spread your legs to avoid cleaving those spaces, too, and the city suddenly lins does; in her early 20s, she became one one of your feet. unfurled itself under my tires. of the fi rst women on her reservation cer- The mutual-aid group stores fi rewood There was a frivolity to the night tifi ed to take trees down as a faller. When on a nearby farm, where it hosts what Col- ride, too, a kind of frivolity I hadn’t felt the pandemic started last spring, Collins lins calls ‘‘splitting parties’’ of volunteers these past months. I’d spent so much of saw how many people were struggling who show up with their own axes. Many the pandemic sitting at a desk, sitting for basic needs like food and heat. She of those receiving donated fi rewood are in bed, sitting on a couch. Sitting and helped start the Four Corners Mutual Aid Indigenous elders who rely on wood for worrying and doom-scrolling. My days Network, a volunteer organization that heat but cannot aff ord to buy it or chop were defi ned by a constant dread, and the Daniel Peña provides all kinds of assistance, including their own. Gathering wood is hard work; world felt like a thing that happened to is a Pushcart Prize- fi rewood, to several southwestern Colora- you will be tired. For Collins, giving that winning writer me, not something I could participate in. and professor from do counties and to the Ute Mountain Ute, wood away is deeply gratifying — a gift of But during the night ride, I paid attention Houston, Texas. Southern Ute and Navajo reservations. warmth when the world is cold.

Illustration by Radio 19 Eat B y Tejal Rao It’s All in the Pot: This ginger-spiked chicken-meatball nabe is best made in a donabe, Japan’s ubiquitous clay vessel.

A donabe is a Japanese cooking vessel toward it for the simmering dish known Earthen flavor: soft tofu with whatever vegetables looked made of clay — do means ‘‘clay,’’ nabe as a nabe, or hot pot. ‘‘The most com- Chicken-meatball good. ‘‘I loved it, but didn’t think it was hot pot. means ‘‘pot.’’ But if you talk to Naoko Takei mon style when I was growing up was anything special,’’ she said. Moore, it’s also a way of thinking about yosenabe , which means anything goes,’’ That changed after Takei Moore cooking, a way of fi nding joy in the day-to- she said. Some nights, that meant a pot immigrated to Los Angeles, where she day of the kitchen. Takei Moore, who was of fi sh and vegetables in a miso broth, or worked in the music industry. On a visit born in Yokohama and grew up in Tokyo, a clean-out-the-fridge pot of scraps sim- home, Takei Moore tasted rice cooked remembers the communal-style donabe mered in dashi. Some nights it was tiny in a traditional donabe again and saw it at the center of her family’s dining table handmade meatballs seasoned with white all diff erently. ‘‘I had a moment of crazy year round, and how it drew everyone miso and ginger, or big wobbly cuts of happiness,’’ she said. ‘‘I already knew

20 3.28.21 Photograph by Heami Lee Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Rebecca Bartoshesky. how rice cooked in a donabe could taste My only donabe a chicken-meatball hot pot made with a or other tender green, cut into bite- wonderful, but this was just so striking.’’ mix of mushrooms, big pieces of delicate size lengths The pot seemed almost magical to her, is an old online fresh tofu and tender greens, added just 1 tablespoon roasted white sesame seeds, though she knew exactly how it worked purchase — at the end so they wilt into the seasoned ground — unglazed clay, which is porous, takes nothing fancy dashi. The meatballs, mixed with miso Yuzu shichimi togarashi, to taste time to build up heat, and the donabe’s and grated raw ginger, come together in thick walls distribute that heat gently, — chipped and just a few minutes. And as the meatballs 1. Prepare the meatballs: In a medium bowl, combine all the ingredients for the meatballs, then cools down slowly. Like the clay singed and simmer in the dashi, they complicate and knead with your hands until the mix is pots of so many other cuisines, the pot still completely it and infuse it with even more fl avor. smooth and shiny. Cover, and refrigerate until didn’t just distribute heat diff erent- Although the recipe calls for dashi, ready to shape and cook. ly from stainless steel and cast iron; it reliable. Takei Moore says you can get away with 2. Prepare the hot pot: Place a large donabe, also imparted fl avor — a certain level of just soaking a piece of kombu in water Dutch oven or other heavy-bottomed pot over sweetness, richness and possibly even because the meatballs and mushrooms medium-high heat and bring the dashi to some minerality from the clay itself. release so much of themselves as they a simmer. Add the mirin and tamari. Whisk in ‘‘Some people want to feel happiness cook, making the dish richer and richer miso: You can put the miso in a strainer and that’s too big,’’ Takei Moore said. ‘‘But as it simmers. If you don’t have a don- hold it directly in the broth as you whisk, so it dissolves smoothly. for me, every day, I just look for some- abe, you could make it in another kind of thing small.’’ It can be as small as cooking wide, heavy-bottomed pot. Or, you could 3. With wet hands, shape the chicken mixture something delicious for herself, or even try getting an inexpensive donabe to see into tablespoon-size balls to make about 30 teaching someone else to cook it. Back how you like it. meatballs, then drop them into the simmering in Los Angeles, she started to teach Jap- Though high-end handmade donabe broth. Add the mushrooms and tofu. (If using very delicate tofu, wait and add it with anese-cooking classes out of her home, can be expensive, they aren’t the only the greens.) showing people how to use a donabe, kind. My only donabe is an old online how to steam and braise with it and how purchase — nothing fancy — chipped 4. Bring the broth back up to a simmer, turn to build one-pot meals in layers. She and singed and still completely reliable the heat down to low, and cover. Simmer gently until all the ingredients are cooked through, explained to each student how the clay for that meatball nabe with scoops of about 10 minutes. from Japan’s Iga region was a lake bed soft tofu and a tangle of pea shoots on a about four million years ago, and how rainy spring night. And as Takei Moore 5. Add the greens, and cover for 1 more minute, that clay was now used by ceramists to reminded me, earthen pots shouldn’t be then serve with sesame and togarashi. make the donabe she sold. Online, Takei set aside on a high shelf just for display, Yield: 4 servings. Moore even started to go by the name or only reserved for special occasions. Mrs. Donabe. ‘‘I come from donabe culture,’’ she said. Adapted from Naoko Takei Moore. As demand for the pots and other ‘‘And over there, the donabe is really for Japanese cookware in Los Angeles everybody, and for every day.’’ grew, Takei Moore opened a small shop called Toiro in West Hollywood, full of clay bowls and many diff erent styles of Tsukune Miso Nabe (Chicken-Meatball Hot Pot in Miso Broth) donabe — some brushed with stripes, Time: 30 minutes some with curved lids that doubled as serving platters. For anyone not used For the meatballs: to cooking with clay, a row of beautiful 1 pound ground chicken and delicate donabe can be intimidating. 2 scallion greens, thinly sliced As the donabe is used, over and over, 1 tablespoon grated ginger it gets darker and the inside fi lls with 1 tablespoon white miso fi ne crackles, which can also make new- 1 tablespoon potato starch comers to clay cooking nervous. ‘‘The patina grows,’’ Takei Moore said, refer- ½ teaspoon fi ne sea salt ring to the changes in the surface as the pot ages. ‘‘And that’s part of the donabe For the hot pot: growing with you.’’ She doesn’t think 1 quart dashi chips or stains are anything to worry 2 tablespoons mirin about. ‘‘If it still looks brand-new after 3 teaspoons white tamari, or soy sauce a year, then you get embarrassed — it ¼ cup white miso means you’re not cooking with it!’’ 8 ounces mixed mushrooms, such as Takei Moore cooks with a donable shimeji, maitake and enoki, sliced or daily, and even wrote a cookbook titled torn roughly into bite-size pieces ‘‘Donabe’’ in 2015. She regularly shares 14 ounces soft or medium fi rm tofu, cut or new nabe recipes on her website. One of scooped out into about 8 pieces my favorites is her tsukune miso nabe, 4 ounces spinach, pea shoots, rapini

21 In Search of a Lost Pastime ⬤ Major Le Negro-leagues stats into its record bo part of what needs to be remembered.

22 eague Baseball now wants to welcome o oks — but the numbers are just a small . ⬤ By Rowan Ricardo Phillips to challenge that home-run record. How did it come about?’’ Refl ective sentences in the third person usually obscure or repress something. The Henry ‘‘aw shucks’’ of Aaron’s line rises in a bubble only to be popped by the pointed question that follows: How did it come about? The question seems rhetorical, but it is intended for us. Aaron, Back in 1952, the Boston Braves spent $10,000 to purchase the rights to sign Aaron from the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League. The Braves’ general manager, John Quinn, considered the price a steal. In fact, the Negro leagues paid the steepest cost for baseball’s integration. Their Black fans fl ocked to major-league games to catch a glimpse of the new dawn; Black newspapers likewise turned much of their attention to the fortunes of Black players in the big leagues; and major-league teams were learning through trial and error how to siphon the best talent from Negro-leagues rosters. Just two years earlier, the Braves had to pay the Montreal Royals, the Brooklyn Dodgers’ top minor-league team, $200,000 for the former Negro American who died in January, will forever cast a long shadow over Major League League star Sam (the Jet) Jethroe, who at 33 would become the fi rst Black Baseball. It was Aaron, of course, who broke Babe Ruth’s career record of 714 player for the Braves and the 1950 National League Rookie of the Year. (He home runs on April 8, 1974, on his way to fi nishing with 755 after 23 seasons remains the oldest player ever to win the award.) Aaron, on the other hand, in the majors. In that time, he drove in more runs and amassed more total was signed at 18 and, after two years of terrorizing minor-league pitching, bases than anyone else ever has. He ranks fourth all-time in runs created and joined the Braves in the major leagues. But he would never play with the Jet, third all-time in hits. Afi cionados of the counting stats — the ones you can who was out of the league before Aaron hit his fi rst big-league home run. add to, one at a time, like hits, home runs, R.B.I. s — like to recite how you can When Aaron made his debut with the Braves — who had moved to Mil- discount all of Aaron’s home runs and he would still have more than 3,000 waukee — in April 1954, Jackie Robinson was entering his eighth season in hits. Proponents of advanced statistics turn to other measures of Aaron’s the majors, and the game was still being integrated at a slow trickle. Then greatness, such as wins above replacement: According to the essential online suddenly, in that one month, Tom Alston became the fi rst Black player for database Baseball Reference, if you consider that 19,902 players have played the St. Louis Cardinals, Curt Roberts became the fi rst Black player for the in Major League Baseball through its 150 years — I’m including the National Pittsburgh Pirates and Chuck Harmon and Nino Escalera became the fi rst Association, from 1871 to 1875 — Aaron scores higher than 19,895 of them. Black players for the Cincinnati Reds. But both Alston and Harmon would But numbers tell only part of the story. Players will come along and sur- be out of the league after four years, Roberts after three. Escalera would pass Aaron, statistically speaking, at least — Barry Bonds already did, with play just the 1954 season. Baseball being a numbers game meant something his 762 home runs (although the persistent specter of doping makes his diff erent for Black players, most of whom broke their teams’ color barrier home-run crown ring hollow). And yet, here was a player mined from the and quickly disappeared from the game. Twenty years later, on the verge of platinum ore nestled deep into the bedrock of the history of Black baseball: surpassing Major League Baseball’s greatest number, Aaron’s essay would Aaron was the last full-time major-league ballplayer to fi rst make his mark run under the title ‘‘I Can’t Do It Alone.’’ in the Negro leagues — and the last Negro-league ballplayer ever to start in a major-league game. Baseball was forged amid the fi res of the Civil War, and segregated baseball Henry Aaron is where statistics and society meet. As Aaron approached arose from the rancidness that followed Reconstruction. ‘‘The end of the Babe Ruth’s career home-run total, he received constant threats to his life Civil War, and the apparent liberation, gave Blacks the notion that there as well as to the lives of his family. His journey to home run No. 715 was could be mutual benefi t in the existence of Black teams, if not yet in the open a miserable one for him. As he pursued Ruth’s record, he was pursued by integration on the ball fi eld,’’ Mark Ribowsky writes in ‘‘A Complete History mail, much of it vicious. And that’s how Aaron unexpectedly toppled yet of the Negro Leagues: 1884 to 1955.’’ As a result, a Black baseball ‘‘scene’’ another record, the Guinness world record for the most fan mail received had emerged by 1865, centered in the East. In 1867, the National Association in one year by a private citizen: 900,000 letters. About a third of them, of Base Ball Players, the sport’s fi rst governing body, enacted a resolution Guinness notes, ‘‘were letters of hate engendered by his bettering of Babe barring any club whose roster included players of color. For the next 50 Ruth’s career record for ‘home runs.’ ’’ When Babe Ruth hit his fi nal home years, Black baseball would be a tenuous, peripatetic enterprise. Giants run, in 1935, Henry Aaron was a year old. No Black ballplayer had played nevertheless walked the earth: the mighty Cuban Giants, Page Fence Giants, in what were considered the major leagues in 51 years. Cuban X Giants, Columbia Giants, Leland Giants, Philadelphia Giants and Most players live off their milestone moments, but Aaron always seemed Birmingham Giants were just a few of the Black professional teams that to have simply survived his. It is chiseled into baseball lore: a classic Aaron were active around the turn of the 20th century. (Some even chose names swing at an Al Downing high fastball in the fourth inning on that warm without ‘‘Giants’’ in them, like the French Lick Plutos.) and cloudy early-spring night in Atlanta. When offi cials paused the game It was not until February 1920 that Rube Foster, whom The Chicago to celebrate the historic occasion, Aaron stood before a microphone and Tribune referred to as a ‘‘budding entrepreneur’’ and ‘‘booking agent,’’ was said, ‘‘I just thank God it’s all over.’’ Who could blame him? able to breathe life into his cherished vision of a Negro National League. A month earlier, as the inevitability of breaking Ruth’s record was sinking Under Foster, who had been an outstanding pitcher on the various circuits in for him and the nation, an essay by Aaron appeared in papers across the that popped up and also failed with great frequency across the country country: ‘‘The Babe is a legend now,’’ he wrote. ‘‘He created more excite- before the Negro leagues, the N.N.L.’s fl agship teams included the Chicago ment than any player who ever lived. What I fi nd so hard to believe is that Giants, Cuban Stars, Dayton Marcos, Detroit Stars, Indianapolis ABCs, Hank Aaron, a nobody from Mobile, Alabama, is the fi rst player in 40 years Kansas City Monarchs, St. Louis Giants and his own team, the Chicago American Giants. The league fl ourished. By 1926, however, the imposing ⬤ Opening pages: The East team of the 1936 East-West All-Star Game, a Negro- and infl uential Foster was incapacitated by mental illness, and by 1930 leagues exhibition game held at Comiskey Park in Chicago, included fi ve Hall he was dead. Robbed of Foster’s organizational acumen, and battered of Famers: Biz Mackey (standing, sixth from right); Josh Gibson (standing, seventh from right); Satchel Paige (standing, ninth from right); Cool Papa Bell by the fi nancial impacts of the Great Depression, the Negro National (seated, third from left); and the manager Oscar Charleston (kneeling, far left). League folded in 1931.

24 3.28.21 Six other leagues sprang up as rivals or successors to the N.N.L.: The Eastern Colored League ran from 1923 to 1928, before part of it splintered ⬤ Henry Aaron waiting for the train in Mobile, Ala., in 1952, off into the American Negro League for a single season in 1929; the East-West en route to Winston-Salem, N.C., to meet up with his fi rst professional team, the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League. League started in 1932 but made it through only half a season; the Negro Southern League, considered a minor league of the Negro leagues, played the 1932 season as a major league, then disappeared in 1936; a second Negro National League fared far better, lasting from 1933 until 1948; and the Negro American League, home of Henry Aaron’s Indianapolis Clowns, began in 1937 and stayed afl oat until 1962. (A version of the Clowns, as much a comedy troupe as baseball team by the end, played exhibition games into the 1980s.) These seven leagues constituted the Negro leagues. Last December, just fi ve weeks before Aaron’s death, Major League Baseball released a statement intended to change both the history and the future of the game. It began: ‘‘Commissioner of Baseball Robert D. Manfred Jr. announced today that Major League Baseball is correcting a longtime oversight in the game’s history by offi cially elevating the Negro leagues to ‘Major League’ status.’’ The Negro leagues had never been recognized by Major League Baseball as a minor league, let alone a major league. They were cultivated in what little space Major League Baseball allowed them to exist, separate and profoundly unequal. And in calling this injustice ‘‘a longtime oversight,’’ Major League Baseball is wading, rather gently, into the historical mess it has made of the game it champions and represents but does not and will not ever own all to itself. The potential impact of Major League Baseball’s decision is as if the Inter- national Astronomical Union had, in 2006, upgraded a number of celestial bodies around Pluto to planets instead of downgrading Pluto to a dwarf planet, leaving us suddenly with several more planets in our solar system and new names to put to heart — Ceres, Eris, Makemake, Haumea. Life’s day-to-day would have gone on seemingly unchanged, but the very scope of where we begin and where we end — the boundaries and populace of our League Baseball cited as a prime factor in its decision to incorporate imagined community, and the scope of our dreams — would have certainly Negro-leagues records. ‘‘But it might change current perceptions of his- changed. A planet, of course, is not a statistic, and baseball is not astronomy. tory, by directing attention to players and teams and leagues that were Nevertheless, the prospect of seeing the Homestead Grays legend Josh Gib- much easier to ignore before.’’ son — regarded in his day as ‘‘the Black Babe Ruth’’ (though Black fans often At the height of the Negro leagues, despite the constant challenge of keep- called Ruth ‘‘the white Josh Gibson’’) — at the top of the list of single-season ing them in operation, the quality of play was extraordinary. That Josh Gibson, records for batting average with a .441 in 1943 brings to mind Copernicus’s Cool Papa Bell, a young Satchel Paige and so many others were barred from eventually winning the argument that the sun is indeed at the center of our playing offi cial major-league games against major-league talent — and also solar system. From now on, it might be Gibson and not Ted Williams — who barred from equal wages, barred from full public recognition, barred from hit .406 in 1941 — who will be regarded as the last major-league player to earning a pension from Major League Baseball — is a great tragedy for the have hit better than .400 in a season. Gibson’s mind-blowing average would sport itself. And the current plan announced by Major League Baseball to also go down as the highest single-season batting average, outpacing Hugh account for this comes with a severe stipulation: The league intends to incor- Duff y’s .440 in 1894, when professional baseball was in its seventh year of porate regular-season Negro-leagues statistics from box scores and game strictly, although silently, enforced segregation. reports for only the years from 1920 to 1948. In the estimation of Major League Consider other additions to the record books, like Leon Day, who threw Baseball, teams before 1920 primarily played in exhibition games and barn- a no-hitter on opening day 1946 for the Newark Eagles. Previously, only Bob storming tours, where the quality was below that of Major League Baseball. Feller managed that feat in the major leagues, with his opening-day no-hitter And yet, a number of those players are in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. for Cleveland in 1940. The eff ects of these shifts in the annals of achievement Are we separating 29 years of Black baseball from its 100 years of will have a long-term eff ect on the game’s history. I remember learning about history just because some box scores are available? ‘‘This may sound baseball history when current players neared historical marks: George Brett’s strange coming from someone who compiles statistics,’’ Ashwill said. ‘‘I and Tony Gwynn’s coming close to .400 brought up constant references actually think people are focusing too much on the numbers. To me the to Williams’s .406. Now these records will put players and teams from the important element of M.L.B.’s decision is the recognition of Black players, Negro leagues in the thoughts and words of many more people. teams and leagues as equals.’’ He went on: ‘‘There’s no doubt that from ‘‘That is the intention of what we are working on,’’ says Pat Courtney, head the 1880s to 1919, many of the best baseball players in the world — John of communications for Major League Baseball. ‘‘If a graph were to pop up Henry Lloyd, Pete Hill, Rube Foster, Joe Williams, Dick Redding, Grant saying that ‘Pitcher X is the fi rst to do Y since Pitcher Z back in 1930,’ the Johnson — played for Black independent teams. I’d say recognition is goal is to include Negro-leagues stats and game records,’’ Courtney said, due to them as well.’’ referring to an imagined moment during a broadcast when an announcer Black baseball before 1920 and after 1948 remains outside the Major might ask, for example, which major-league pitcher threw a no-hitter on League Baseball realm for now. (As do — another missed opportunity — opening day. ‘‘At some point in the coming months, we will be able to the pioneering women who played in the Negro leagues, like Toni Stone, answer, ‘Bob Feller in 1940 and Leon Day in 1946.’ ’’ Mamie Johnson and Connie Morgan.) A part of me wonders if Major League A small step toward not forgetting. But is it enough? ‘‘It doesn’t change Baseball would have given more thought to including Negro-leagues stats history,’’ Gary Ashwill told me in an email. Ashwill is a baseball historian after 1948 if Henry Aaron had hit eight home runs for the Clowns instead of

Opening pages: Heritage Auctions. Right: Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Leagues Negro Right: Auctions. Opening pages: Heritage and co-founded the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database, which Major fi ve — because those extra eight home runs would have put him back ahead

The New York Times Magazine 25 ⬤ Cool Papa Bell, with the St. Louis Stars in the 1920s. Bell is considered Josh Gibson, with the Pittsburgh Crawfords in the 1930s. Gibson’s career to be one of the fastest players to ever play the game. batting average and home runs are among the highest in baseball history.

of the controversial and thus far Hall-of-Fame-denied Bonds. But that way the United States, the organization was now ‘‘elevating’’ the Negro leagues? a world of archival entropy lies. The implications that the Negro leagues were beneath Major League Baseball Baseball operates on a steady diet of fact and folklore. Josh Gibson may are obvious and tired, and they certainly did not escape notice, especially have hit almost 800 home runs in league and independent baseball during by the families of the former players, most of whom are dead. Should their his 17-year career — it says so on his Hall of Fame plaque. Research into Gib- families say thank you? Courtney could not recall how the language of the son’s career home run totals is ongoing, but Baseball Reference thus far has statement came to be in there, but he admitted that he realized quickly there him at 113; Seamheads says 239. Who knows what will become of all those was a messaging problem. ‘‘I don’t know if that was universally felt,’’ Courtney other hundreds of home runs that lived in the hearts and minds of fans of told me, ‘‘but I do know that there were particular people that felt that way.’’ the Negro leagues? There are no plans at present to change his plaque, nor ‘‘I think that a lot of people fi nd this disturbing,’’ Shieber told me. And with should there be. Folklore needs fact to ground it, but fact needs folklore to good reason. Research by Todd Peterson, who edited ‘‘The Negro Leagues thrive. It bears repeating: Baseball numbers never give us the full story. As Were Major Leagues,’’ has found that between 1900 and 1948, Black baseball Tom Shieber, senior curator of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, told me, teams played against ‘‘intact major-league outfi ts, as well as games against statistics form part of the whole, but not the how and the why of it. Given the all-star aggregations,’’ 617 times, posting a record of 315 wins, 282 losses infrastructural inequalities at play, any rush to compare Negro-leagues stats and 20 ties — a winning percentage of .527. These games, however, like so to non-Negro-leagues stats seems willfully ahistoric. Shieber, for example, many games played by Negro-leaguers, were not offi cial. argues that some of these infrastructural inequalities — borderline unplayable During segregation, white baseball was commonly referred to as ‘‘orga- fi elds, for example, or poor night lighting — could aff ect player performance nized baseball.’’ What is elevated to Major League Baseball status may now in ways that are impossible for statistics to quantify for Negro-leagues players. be not only a matter of race but also a matter of reliable archival material. And what to do with the numbers when the numbers themselves are ‘‘ ‘Disorganized’ is looking at it through the lens of M.L.B.,’’ Shieber said, as we not necessarily even the numbers? Did Gibson hit .441 in 1943? Or did spent part of our Zoom call looking over old photos and box scores of Cuban he hit even higher: .466? The lower batting average includes all-star and Giants games against Wesleyan College’s varsity team from the 1890s. ‘‘That’s postseason appearances, which are not included in Major League Baseball’s not a knock against M.L.B.,’’ he added. ‘‘It’s a knock against discrimination.’’ He regular-season statistics. Embracing new data means more work is to be done paused and thought quietly for a moment. ‘‘We at the museum really need help by baseball researchers and historians. Ashwill told me he and his colleagues telling this story,’’ he continued. ‘‘There’s just no way of getting around that.’’ at Seamheads have box scores for 72.45 percent of known Negro-leagues ‘‘There was no written rule barring Negroes from organized baseball,’’ games from 1920 to 1948. ‘‘We will likely nudge this number up, but it’s quite Robert W. Peterson writes in his 1970 book, ‘‘Only the Ball Was White: A unlikely we will ever get very close to 100 percent,’’ he added. ‘‘Newspapers History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams.’’ simply did not publish box scores for every game, and league records were And yet, he wonders, if that was the case, what caused managers like John either not kept or no longer exist.’’ McGraw and Connie Mack to suddenly get cold feet when they were on the cusp of signing Black players? There was nothing in the rule books against As we wait for these Negro-leagues numbers to be adjudicated, what we have doing so. ‘‘Presumably,’’ Peterson writes, ‘‘the answers lie in the attitudes from Major League Baseball are its words, and the very fi rst words of the of the other major-league operators.’’ league’s statement are reason to feel concerned that Major League Baseball And those attitudes were largely upheld in silence, powered by stale is still stuck in its ways. Who thought it was a good idea to announce that rationalizations that still exist today in order to justify the past: namely,

after half a century of segregating and sabotaging Black baseball players in that enfranchising Black people would make some white people upset; page: Day: National Right Fame. of Baseball Hall Images. Gibson: National via Getty The Sporting News, page: Bell: Left Images. via Getty Archive, Bettmann Paige: Fame. of Baseball Hall

26 3.28.21 ⬤ Leon Day, with the Newark Eagles. Day is one of only two Satchel Paige, with the Kansas City Monarchs in 1942. Paige’s wins in professional pitchers to throw a no-hitter on opening day, in 1946. the Negro leagues may soon be added to the M.L.B. history books.

that an integrated team traveling across segregated America would create Street: There’s the place to buy Thai or Indian or Mexican or Mediterranean, logistical nightmares for all involved; and that the players who would be there’s the wine store where Jason greets you by name, there’s the post offi ce, enfranchised lacked the skills required to make such eff orts worth all of the the ice cream place, an independent bookstore and a corporate chain, a yoga upheaval — all of which, if it needs to be said, was overwhelmingly untrue. studio, a cinema. If you were to stand under its marquee and roll a baseball ‘‘Unspoken, but underlying all the stated objections,’’ Peterson concludes, southward down Spring Street’s slight slope, in no time it would arrive at a ‘‘was the most compelling reason of all: baseball tradition.’’ plaque fastened to a stone in the ground. This plaque honors Frank Grant, who In a 1942 news release, for example, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the strin- was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. The stone represents where gent commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1920 until his death in he once lived, when he and his family moved to town from nearby Pittsfi eld. 1944, declared: ‘‘There is no rule against major clubs hiring Negro baseball ‘‘Frank Grant, born in Pittsfi eld in 1865, was regarded by many of his contempo- players. I have come to the conclusion it is time for me to explain myself raries as the greatest African-American baseball player of the 19th century. He moved on this important issue. Negroes are not barred from organized baseball to Williamstown in 1871, where he lived with his family on Spring Street. Playing by the commissioner and have never been since the 21 years I have served. primarily second base, Grant played fi rst with integrated minor-league teams before There is no rule in organized baseball prohibiting their participation to my playing a decade with top Negro-league teams. His reputation as a premier versatile knowledge.’’ Major League Baseball’s ‘‘longtime oversight’’ was actually a player with speed and a powerful bat was recognized with his induction into the longstanding blindness infl icted upon itself. When Oedipus fi nally discov- Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. Mr. Grant died in New York City on May 27, 1937.’’ ered the horrible truths in front of him, truths he had been hiding from, he Grant was born Ulysses Franklin Grant, in Pittsfi eld, Mass., on Aug. 1, 1865. blinded himself by stabbing his eyes with golden brooches. His given name was an inheritance of the Civil War, as was his love of baseball. Major League Baseball’s capacity and penchant for self-harm has always The game was already popular in the 1860s and became a mainstay activity for been astounding. Barring many of the best players of the game for well idle troops, prisoners of war and free Black Americans. Although the historical over half a century simply because of the color of their skin is but the most material on Black players in baseball at the time is spotty, Robert Peterson’s egregious example. ‘‘Organized baseball was steeped — perhaps a better research found that by 1867 teams were ‘‘suffi ciently well organized, at least word would be ‘pickled’ — in tradition,’’ according to Peterson. ‘‘Since there in the North, to have challenge matches for supremacy.’’ That same year, the had not been a Negro in the organized leagues in the memory of most National Association of Base Ball Players was concerned enough with the baseball men, it must be part of God’s plan that there should be none.’’ And question of the possible eff ects emancipation might have on the game that it if things in Major League Baseball were segregated from top to bottom, took the clarifying step at its annual convention — attended by representatives because of God’s plan, that meant that the tradition of segregation and the from 237 teams — of voting unanimously to bar individual Black players as history that arose from it were out of everyone’s hands. well as any Black baseball clubs from membership, and to expel any club with a Black player on its roster. ‘‘Beadle’s Dime Base Ball Player,’’ one of the I have lived in Williamstown, Mass., for the better part of a year now and earliest baseball guides, subsequently summarized the benign intention of have gotten to know it well — as well as one can know a place in the middle the N.A.B.B.P. in the spirit of racial gaslighting later put to use by Landis by of a plague. As with most New England college towns, Williams College’s helpfully pointing out to its readers that the organization’s goal behind this campus bejewels the Main Street with its manicured quad and latticework ban was merely ‘‘to keep out of the Convention the discussion of any subjects of stone and brick buildings. having a political bearing, as this undoubtedly had.’’ A quaint one-way street where you’ll fi nd most of the shops in the center of This was the world of ‘‘organized baseball’’ — a term that would come into town runs perpendicular to Main Street. This is Spring Street. You know Spring vogue at the height of the Negro leagues to simply (Continued on Page 45)

The New York Times Magazine 27 KYLIEKYL COSMETICS MatteMat Liquid Lipstick >>

HONEST BEAUTY Crème Cheek Blush >

RARER BEAUTY SoftS Pinch LiquidL Blush >>

FENTY BEAUTY Sun Stalk’r Instant Warmth Bronzer >>

ITEM BEAUTY Air Hug Concealer >>

HONEST BEAUTY Invisible Blurring Loose Powder >>

How social media stars like Addison Rae (and her 78.4 million fol RARERA BEAUTY StaySt Vulnerable MeltingM Blush >>

HONEST BEAUTYY Liquid Eyeliner>>

>>

ITEMITE BEAUTY LashLas Snack Lengthening MascaraMa >>

KYLIEK COSMETICS BlushB >>

FENTY BEAUTY Match Stix Contour Skinstick >>

lowers) gave the cosmetics industry a makeover. By Vanessa Grigoriadis

29 Item Beauty, a reference to the way that two peo- ple who are in a state of romantic swoon are an ‘‘item,’’ which you would assume meant Rae her- self, the icon, and a fan, who would seek to align herself with Rae. But when we spoke, she off ered a diff erent meaning. ‘‘Me and my makeup are a pair,’’ she told me. ‘‘We’re working together, and we’re together.’’ In other words, the commercial relationship was the primary one. Rae’s deal with Ipsy was but a small part of a major shift in the beauty industry, which is nowhere more complex, and profi table, than the United States. People with clout, from celebri- ties to social media stars to lifestyle infl uencers, are changing the way the sell works, exploiting the intimate relationships they have with their fans in a way that wasn’t possible before in the industry. And while most of their profi ts aren’t close to comparable to established brands, at the moment, beauty is big business: Americans have long spent more in aggregate on beau- ty and personal care than any country in the world, about $92.8 billion in 2019, according to Euromonitor, a consumer-research company. Though revenues dipped during quarantine, over all, global consumers have close to doubled their spending in the past 15 years, as prices of products have risen and beauty has entered a little over a year ago, Addison Rae Easterling rode TikTok when she met Camberos, but within a phase of total pop-culture domination, on par down the boulevards of Beverly Hills in an Uber year she amassed 73 million — a population larger with hip-hop and gaming. to meet with Marcelo Camberos, the chief execu- than that of the United Kingdom. As with gaming, it’s the interactivity of the tive offi cer of Ipsy, the largest beauty subscription Now Rae found herself in a strange and mod- web, particularly YouTube (the fun of following serviceA in the United States. Ipsy, named after an ern predicament: She had become very famous along with tutorials about how to contour eyes to intensive pronoun in Latin, ipse, sells small ‘‘glam and needed to get paid for it. Rae would start make them appear larger, for example) and Insta- bags’’ of beauty companies’ products like, say, selling merch, making T-shirts with the phrase gram (where you boastfully show off your face’s cheek highlighter in a shade of tiramisù. For $12 ‘‘I’m a Bad Bleep,’’ a reference to a viral song fi nal look) that has made beauty’s pop-culture and up a month, the company mails those bags by Australian rapper The Kid Laroi (‘‘I need a gambit such a success. TikTok, rapidly becoming to millions of subscribers, many of whom listen bad bitch/Addison Rae’’), but continuing down a dominant force in media, was equally fertile to advice from Ipsy’s vast network of vloggers, that road, the typical infl uencer-hawking-vi- ground. ‘‘Makeup does well in any type of video infl uencers and stylists. Now, in a new venture tamins-for-your-hair route, may have seemed format where you see transformation, a before called Madeby Collective, the company hoped too small. So Rae followed a new path, recent- and after,’’ says Michelle Lee, editor in chief of to manufacture and develop entirely new lines ly forged by many social media stars and A-list Allure. Trends bubble up on TikTok now, and of makeup on its own. What Ipsy needed was a celebrities (two quantities that seem as if they will then we’re talking about them in the real world, face to help them sell it. eventually merge) like Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, on TV, on websites. ‘‘When I was growing up, Easterling, 20, professionally known by only Kylie Jenner, Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga and I would watch Nickelodeon and think, I need her fi rst two names, seemed like an ideal candi- others who come to mind when you imagine a this slime, and now TikTok is taking that place, date. In 2019, she was a college freshman dejected mistress of the universe beaming her wants and where kids look to see ‘What are these cool peo- over not making the Louisiana State Universi- desires at Earth like lasers. She wanted to start ple doing, what are they wearing,’ ’’ Chloe Hall, ty pep squad and had been fi lming videos of her own beauty brand. the digital beauty director of Elle, says. ‘‘Some herself doing slithery hip-hop dances that call At her meeting in Beverly Hills, which took of the best beauty personalities on TikTok right to mind Max Headroom as a belly dancer. In a place at Rae’s agent’s offi ce, Camberos pulled out now are 14-year-olds in their basement. It’s wild.’’ surreal turn of events appropriate for our times, some makeup testers he had brought along: lip As beauty has become a pop phenomenon, a cheerleader-ish girls dancing just this way to rap gloss, rouge, powder. She turned them over in her radical change in the perception of the cosmet- music was the height of entertainment during palms, considered their colors. Afterward, Rae ics business has also taken place. When Naomi the pandemic, whether enjoyed genuinely or agreed not to the usual sponsored-content deal Wolf wrote ‘‘The Beauty Myth’’ more than three for laughs. Soon Easterling, or Rae, became the of posting thrilled accolades about the products decades ago, she chastened the industry for second-most-popular human being on TikTok, on her social media feeds, nor the 1990s perfume pushing an unrealistic standard of beauty that Gen-Z’s social media platform of choice. (The deals in which celebrities branded fragrances prevented women from reaching their full poten- most popular, Charli D’Amelio, was also a slithery with their own names, but rather to putting out tial, much as ideals of domesticity, motherhood dancer, this time from Connecticut.) Rae estimat- her fi rst makeup and skin-care line with Madeby and chastity once did. She compared the process ed that she had about three million followers on Collective as a co-founder. They called the line of making yourself conventionally attractive to

30 3.28.21 ITEM BEAUTY Lip Quip Moisturizingng ‘IT’S Lip Oil>> BRAINSTORMING THE ENTIRE TIME, WHICH IS SO FUN. AND I HAVE THE CRAZIEST IDEAS SO RANDOMLY.’

ITEMITTEMM BEAUTY a work shift, orr thethhe that we pay to our coming to Hollywood and making it as a beauty CheekChC eek Money Swipe & Glow ‘‘third shift’’ (thee ootherther looks, but Zoom mogul. Did Rae always imagine this? ‘‘Yeah,’’ she bronzerbronz contour duo >> shifts being yourur prppro-o- meetings, FaceTime said. ‘‘I feel like for every girl, it’s a dream.’’ fessional life andnnd ccareaare family chats and of the household).ld)).. BBututt iinn ouourur neneww vivirtualirtual sosociety,cic ete awkward video cocktail hours have brought UNTIL THE LATE 19TH century, according to the same beautyy inindustrydud stry tthathah t wawass ononcence mmalignedaligi nen many of us closer to the sight of our own faces, Geoff rey Jones’s 2010 book, ‘‘Beauty Imagined,’’ has been embraced as a universal good. Beauty and I’ve found myself confronted by pores and the beauty business was a mostly local enter- companies are lauded for providing us with tools blemishes that I would have preferred weren’t prise where pamphleteers sold advice and pots of self-expression and celebrating the human viewed by others in high defi nition. We seem to of rouge. But then factories began spitting out desire to adorn the face using something other be among the fi rst people in history to be both in tubes of lipstick en masse, and the availability than the tricks of social media (fi lters, lighting, the midst of a global pandemic and also obliged of portrait photography became widespread, Facetune). And many individuals and compa- to project an attractive image of ourselves to which inspired some to change their appear- nies within the industry have capitalized on this the outside world. ance. Some beauty brands that began in the impression. Applying cosmetics is a worthy life- On the day of our call, smoke from nearby fi res 1920s are still around in some form, often under style choice characterized as self-love, self-care in Los Angeles, where Rae lives, was obscuring the names adopted by their eccentric founders. and wellness — all positive, healthful qualities, the blue sky. Despite the environmental chaos Many didn’t use their birth names or real stories. even if you have the sneaking suspicion that taking place outside her window, Rae, who was Estée Lauder was born Josephine Esther Men- ‘‘wellness’’ is mostly a coded word for the pur- sitting in a bedroom with blindingly white walls tzer in Corona, Queens. Helena Rubinstein was suit of being skinny and pretty, or tamping down at her parents’ house, was poised and spunky. She born Chaja Rubinstein in Poland in 1872; after anxiety about not being skinny and pretty. wiggled a little in her seat, just enough for me refusing an arranged marriage, she emigrated Though I am the type of person who spends to spy a neatly made bed behind her decorated to Australia and began selling a cream that she as much time trying to avoid myself in the mir- with a pillow that read Team Addison. Despite claimed had been formulated from herbs in the ror as I do looking in it, I should admit that the cumbersome technology, her deep brown, Carpathian Mountains. Max Factor was born before hopping on a video call with Rae this saucer-size eyes seemed to draw me right into Maksymilian Faktorowicz in Lodz, then part fall, I spent quite a bit of time prepping my own her soul, a prerequisite for success when trying of Russia, and became the cosmetician for the face. I’ve worn makeup nearly every time I’ve to make it in the transactional world of beauty, Imperial Russian Grand Opera before leaving appeared in public since about her age, though where such intimacy is the currency of the day. for America. Elizabeth Arden, born Florence my regimen was never terribly time-consuming. Rae’s voice was soft and breathy. Her gold Nightingale Graham outside Toronto, opened You could have reasonably expected that Covid- hoop earrings bounced a little as she gestured salons across the world; married a man who era sequestration would dampen the attention with her hands. It’s very 21st century to dream of had a doubtful royal title; and famously had her

Opening pages and above: Photographs by Jens Mortensen for The New York Times The New York Times Magazine 31 horses’ legs rubbed down with her Eight Hour Cream. For about a hundred years, some of the com- panies started by these founders earned many millions. Legacy brands are doing well globally, especially in China, where people are now addict- ed to American beauty brands. According to the NPD Group, a market-research company, sales volume in China of prestige beauty products, a category that includes brands like MAC and Nars, now exceeds that in the U.S. But this entrenched structure of large corporations is now far from the only way to create beauty products. And those who have worked in big beauty for decades are trying their hand at independence. (Bobbi Brown, the face of corporate beauty takeovers when Estée Lauder bought her brand in the 1990s, said that she wore a necklace bearing the date that her non- compete clause expired before beginning a beauty line of her own, Jones Road.) ‘‘Some big brands aren’t innovating and they aren’t growing,’’ says Linda Bolton Weiser, an industry analyst at D. A. Davidson. ‘‘Have you looked at CoverGirl pack- aging recently? It looks like it’s from the 1970s.’’ As the business becomes atomized and we spend more time at home scrolling skin-care ads on Instagram, the role of retail has a murkier future. Brands have traditionally drawn business from customers browsing in actual stores. If you’ve ever been to a Sephora on a pre-pandemic Friday night, you know it can be a party in there, with 9-to-5-ers blowing off steam by sticking their fi n- gers in fomites of lip-gloss jars, then hitting happy hour nearby. The bulk of sales, pre-Covid, was still coming from retail. But in 2020, according to the NPD Group, prestige beauty brands declined 19 percent, while direct retailers of consumer cos- metics fell only 4 percent. ‘‘What Covid did, in my view, is speed up the whole process by three to fi ve years of retailers that were frail and now are collapsing,’’ Jeff rey Ten, a beauty-brand consultant, said. The benefi ciaries, he said, were e-commerce companies, big-box retailers and Amazon. In many ways, the business today resembles the original beauty business of a century ago, when showy salespeople with innovations — or at least what they claimed were innovations — was once seen as the blond, blue-eyed American And if you were Black? Conglomerates did not dominated. ‘‘Fashion’s always been where the ideal, with the occasional woman of color thrown make a line expressly for Black women until romance is and where the glamour is,’’ says Sarah in (Eva Longoria). Fracturing this hegemony 2006, when CoverGirl introduced Queen, with Brown, a brand adviser and a former beauty required someone extraordinary from outside Queen Latifah. ‘‘‘You could walk into a drugstore director of Vogue. ‘‘But now for people who want the system to exert pressure on gatekeepers, and and get products that were quote unquote tai- to be stars, who want to be C.E.O.s, who want to by that I mean Rihanna. lored for you,’’ says Amanda Johnson, co-founder be wealthy, start a business, sell a business — they In 2017, when Rihanna and LVMH started of Mented, an indie lipstick brand that focuses want to be in beauty.’’ (There may currently be the makeup line Fenty (Rihanna’s surname), on women of color . ‘‘But without proper focus too many of these people. Lee, of Allure, told she pushed the concept of creating foundations and investment, you ended up with products me that she regarded the current proliferation that actually matched the color of your skin. This that were somewhat subpar.’’ of entrepreneurs as a bubble.) was something beauty conglomerates had the Today many companies are celebrating the The primary innovations, now, are less techno- practical capacity to do for decades but often true spectrum of American skin tones, and many logical than cultural. And many of these changes didn’t, choosing instead to make women like new beauty stars don’t have a traditional blonde, are far overdue. The beauty industry has long me, with dark olive skin, paint from the same blue-eyed look. Those who don’t hew to the for- exhibited devotion in its advertisements to what palette as Caucasians from Northern Europe. mer ideal are increasingly highlighted, like Pat

32 3.28.21 Photograph by Paola Kudacki for The New York Times McGrath, the 51-year-old British Black makeup was adamant about was that she wanted Item’s videos about the importance of using your ring star who developed Giorgio Armani’s beauty products to fi t into a small bag, because she likes fi nger to apply under-eye concealer, sometimes line in the 1990s before introducing her own, her makeup to be easy to carry. The fi rst time with cameos from her cat, or shared her beauty Pat McGrath Labs. (This year, she became the she fl ew with her mother to Los Angeles, when rules in a soft voice over spalike piano music, fi rst makeup artist to be appointed a dame of the she was 16, long before she became a famous like the fact that you must fi ll in eyebrows with British Empire.) We are being fed diff erent imag- TikToker — before TikTok even existed — the fi rst a color three shades lighter than your hair color. es in advertisements than we were only a few thing they did at the car-rental agency was rush Rae missed Phan’s heyday, but she absorbed years ago: We see some plus-size models, trans to the bathroom to put on makeup (lip liner, for the generation of YouTubers that came afterward. models and a supermodel with vitiligo, Winnie Rae, was key) in case they saw anyone famous or From age 12, she began developing a talent for Harlow. Ipsy has even incorporated this change anyone famous saw them or they were somehow applying her own makeup with a steady hand and into its nomenclature; after I interviewed Rae, it otherwise discovered to be the stars that they good sense of color. She had her favorite infl u- acquired another company and formed a larger were fated to be. encers, including the glamorous male makeup entity, BFA Industries, short for Beauty for All. Rae seemed genuinely excited about Item’s fi gure James Charles and the trans woman Nikkie Consumers have been behind some of these line, but she didn’t seem able to get into specifi cs de Jager. ‘‘These infl uencers let you in on their changes; when they don’t see their identities about producing it and did not comment on her beauty secrets — it seemed like something they included in brands, they demand representation fi nancial arrangement with Ipsy, which might be hadn’t shared before, and they provided a level or will spend their money elsewhere. Powerful far smaller than her title of co-founder implies. of intimacy, or at least alleged intimacy,’’ Kathleen voices, too, are trying to maintain momentum In fact, most stars who were now saying they Hou, beauty director of The Cut, says. ‘‘Then it’s toward more diversity. ‘‘I’m fearful it’s a trend, ‘‘have’’ new beauty brands were benefi ting from like being a fan of an indie band, and they used or a moment, and so I think we need to hold a fi ne semantic distinction: They weren’t actually to play at your local bar. You keep watching as their feet to the fi re and make sure we change making the formulas or managing production, they become more and more popular.’’ the composition of the executive boards,’’ Hall, meaning dealing with research and development Having developed fan bases in the millions, Elle’s digital beauty director, says. and manufacturers and shipping. Manufacturers some infl uencers exerted extraordinary power Though a majority of infl uencers paid to like Seed, in Oxnard, Calif., were doing most of by positioning themselves as beauty critics. A represent brands these days resemble Rae — the work, and partnering with stars to put their social media star like Rae, hoping to make it in and tend to command higher fees than their names on products. Although these ‘‘white label’’ the beauty business, would normally have had to Black counterparts, according to Bloomberg manufacturers have come into the light a bit, they spend an inordinate amount of time deferring to Businessweek — their primary occupation is have traditionally been averse to publicity, says them (sending gift bags, upbeat D.M.s, bartered speaking a fan’s language and drawing them Linda Wells, who was the editor in chief of Allure mentions and perhaps cash). But Rae’s 73 million close, becoming both friend and muse. They for 25 years. When I reached out to Seed, their followers had sort of fallen out of the sky, and it are the beauty industry’s de facto mouthpieces press contact was so diffi cult to fi nd that I was seemed her clout was equal to or exceeded theirs. now. They, too, speak the language of wellness passed among various people, including one So to promote Item, Rae generated TikTok and seem to share the same elevated morals (or whose email signature said she was a dog mom videos of herself looking cute in a new lip gloss the elevated morals we project on them). The obsessed with crème eye shadow. They declined while sashaying around to a rap song — basically relationship a celebrity can have with a fan is far to be interviewed. what she was doing before she had her own lip more elaborate than the one between a brand These manufacturers, according to Raina gloss to sell. In one photo for Item, she bit on a and a customer, even though, at its core, those Penchansky, head of the infl uencer marketing tube of makeup while winking, and in a video, relationships are the same. company Digital Brand Architects, are playing she faux-slept in a bed with a made up face, then an increasingly important role in the new beau- pretended to wake up and immediately spray her THOUGH RAE DREAMED of becoming a beauty ty ecosystem, particularly where infl uencers are face with setting mist, a liquid spray with water mogul when she was younger, it was hard to imag- concerned. ‘‘There used to be straight licens- and alcohol that stops makeup from wearing off . ine how this was going to happen. Rae’s mother ing deals, where a company gets to use some- What I found less of in Rae’s feed were vid- was 21 when Rae was born and split with Rae’s one’s name for a combination of a design fee, a eos demonstrating the doubtlessly painstaking father shortly thereafter. Mother and daughter percentage of sales, a royalty and sometimes a labor that went into achieving her look. This was lived in towns including Lafayette, La., while minimum guarantee — that was the traditional, curious, because YouTube makeup tutorials have her mother tried to make a go of consignment old-school way,’’ Penchansky said. ‘‘But now a lot become central to beauty culture. You could call boutiques named Déjà Vu and Cha Cha Charms. of manufacturers, especially in California, are them the Us magazine of our era, a way of demon- Her father was in and out of the picture, though going to an infl uencer and saying: ‘We’re going strating ‘‘Stars: They’re just like us.’’ During the both parents now appear in the background of to launch this brand together. We’re the back-end videos, stars not only seem to be taking their Rae’s 15-second TikTok videos as a happy family. manufacturer, and we own, say, between 80 and beauty regimens extremely seriously, but they’ll Rae made sure to build her unvarnished cheer 50 percent of the brand, and you own the other school you in the reasons you should, too. Jes- into her beauty line, collaborating on piquant piece of it. And when it sells, we get an exit.’ ’’ sica Alba, the actor turned head of the Honest names for her products, like Cheek Money for For Item, what was perhaps more important Company, the organic baby-and-beauty-product bronzer, Lip Quip for lip gloss and Lash Snack than Rae’s actually making the line was her rela- behemoth (and one of many newer beauty stars for mascara. ‘‘My team and I do tons of calls, tionship with other social media stars and infl u- who is Latina), recently made a video in which almost every other week,’’ she told me. ‘‘It’s brain- encers. Networking has been a key part of the she walked the viewer through her day-to-night storming the entire time, which is so fun. And I business for at least a decade. In 2011, Michelle beauty routine, capped with a smoky eye. ‘‘As a have the craziest ideas so randomly. So it consists Phan, considered the fi rst beauty infl uencer, woman in the world, trying to do the things, get very much of me randomly having an outburst co-founded Ipsy, then called MyGlam. Phan pio- your hustle on, wearing all the hats, I think it’s of an idea and then the team making it come to neered the YouTube beauty tutorial — a block- important that we take the time to take care of life, which is really, really cool.’’ One thing Rae buster feat. A calm Floridian, she made dreamy ourselves,’’ Alba says, staring earnestly into her

The New York Times Magazine 33 RARE BEAUTY Stay Vulnerable Glossyssy ‘SOME OF Lip Balm >> THE BEST BEAUTY PERSONALITIES ON TIKTOK RIGHT NOW ARE 14- YEAR-OLDS IN THEIR BASEMENT.

RARE BEAUTY IT’S WILD.’ Positive Light Liquidd Luminizer >> camera. ‘‘It’s important. And don’t let anyone take retro-style bottle while emitting a satisfi ed that away from you.’’ sigh), and shot a Miramax fi lm (a gender-role-re- Clara Bow in the 1920s, the gaptoothed look of For Alba, a skin-care routine seemed to be a versed remake of ‘‘She’s All That,’’ in which she Lauren Hutton in the 1960s, the hooded eyes and genuine act of empowerment, a radical way of played a character who turns an unpopular straight brows of Cheryl Tiegs in the late 1970s. reclaiming the right to take time for yourself. It’s boy into a prom king). She released a single, Kylie was ours. the same eff ective rhetoric that has fanned out ‘‘Obsessed,’’ a female empowerment anthem from Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop to sell mascara, about becoming obsessed with yourself. And A YEAR AGO, Rae went on a YouTube mukbang Botox, expensive exercise classes and other prod- more and more, she was wearing heavy makeup (a type of video popularized in Korea featuring ucts that are considered a path to ‘‘me time’’ and (and possibly using fi lters) in nearly all her videos. people eating food but now typically referring to ‘‘living your best life.’’ But Rae was selling her fans I almost couldn’t see the person beneath it, and I videos in which social media stars eat, talk and a diff erent dream: the dream of an ordinary girl wondered whom she was trying to look like. Put- promote). After the makeup artist James Charles who fi nds herself, quite surprisingly, swept up ting on cosmetics is a highly mimetic activity: In tended to her face, Rae said she wanted to do a in the world of glamour. She didn’t need to issue your mind’s eye, when you’re looking at yourself ‘‘collab’’ with Kylie. ‘‘Hit me up, Kylie,’’ she purred. proclamations about how hard it was to fi nd the in the mirror, you’re keeping in mind an idol as There is no evidence that Kylie took the hint; time to make herself look pretty. When Rae start- much as you’re creating a better version of your- instead, Rae became tight with Kourtney Kar- ed becoming famous, she had the ‘‘no-makeup self. You may not be Snow White’s evil stepmoth- dashian, the sister who tends to get less screen makeup’’ look of a lot of young women, where er demanding to know who is more beautiful, time. Kourtney connected with Rae last year after the objective is to cover up any irregularities and but you are engaging in a sort of fortunetelling Kourtney’s preteen son asked if he could meet enhance the natural pigment of lips but not go and imaginative scrying. You’re envisioning who her: For kids that age, who don’t intersect with wild with glitter and blue eye shadow. And her you will be in the future when you have polished the world of cosmetics, Rae was just a tween pop ideology about cosmetics, if you could identify your look and what that suddenly more glorious idol. The women apparently hit it off . Kourtney, such a thing, was in line with this look. moment may hold. 41, and Rae, 20, have spent time being videotaped But this winter, as Rae’s TikTok followers grew As I watched Rae make love to the camera, for the internet. They work out, lie by the pool to more than 78 million from 70 million, I noticed the woman who popped into my mind was the in their bikinis and eat-slash-promote healthful that something was diff erent about her videos. one whom so many in Rae’s generation were snacks from Kourtney’s wellness site, Poosh. She had started promoting all manner of stuff , infl uenced by: Kylie Jenner. Every era has its Still, Kylie was the one that many beauty entre- including Coca-Cola (which paid her to sip from a aesthetic signifi ers — the tiny rosebud lips of preneurs aspired to be. She has a wildly popular

34 3.28.21 Photographs by Jens Mortensen for The New York Times brand. She sold hundreds of products, including Instagram — a two-sided marketplace of faces and about skin care, the magical goop that fi lls so Kyshadow, Kylie Skin, plus a $95 pink minifridge eyeballs — has landed on this surprisingly homo- many pretty jars and tubes. He didn’t think high- to keep all the products in. And in 2020, after she geneous set of beauty standards. Little about Kylie end moisturizers worked beyond moisturizing was featured on the cover of Forbes magazine as seemed to be real, and yet, when Rae was growing and called many products mostly marketing fl uff the ‘‘youngest self-made billionaire’’ in American up, many people wanted to look like her. ‘‘Every- backed up by dubious science. history for the success of her beauty line, she sold one is image-literate these days to some extent, I wondered if Romanowski found this mad- 51 percent of the company, at a valuation of $1.2 and our teenagers more than the rest of us, so dening — an America so deeply bought into billion, to the publicly traded beauty giant Coty, they’re very aware that images are doctored, but the illusion that beauty can be found in just the a legacy beauty conglomerate that was founded that doesn’t actually change the way it enters their right product, but very little ‘‘right product’’ to be by the early-20th-century perfume entrepreneur self-perception,’’ says Heather Widdows, a British found. ‘‘No, it makes people happy, and how can François Coty and was now trying to stay relevant. philosopher and the author of ‘‘Perfect Me,’’ a 2018 that be maddening?’’ he said. ‘‘Yes, you’re being Coty needed a splashy purchase like Kylie’s study of contemporary beauty norms. duped a bit. You’re being told a story. But it’s like company. According to Forbes, Kris Jenner had On closer examination, our defi nition of beau- reading a novel.’’ Refl ecting on the information shown a Forbes reporter tax returns that the mag- ty has not expanded as much as we may imag- that he shared with me, he added, ‘‘Do people azine came to believe may have been doctored. ine, Widdows says. She believes that we defi ne really want to know this?’’ Forbes said Kylie was not, in fact, a billionaire. beauty today in four ways: smoothness (lack of Over Zoom, I had asked Rae what makeup (Kylie and Kris Jenner have denied falsifying any pores, blemishes or body hair), thinness (with was for, why so many of us wear it. ‘‘I guess tax returns.) The chief executive of Coty stepped some curves), fi rmness and youth. Generally, our makeup is something you do when you want down, and Coty and Kylie’s company were sued beauty infl uencers and advertisements shift only to help the way you feel about yourself. I mean, by Seed, the third-party manufacturer for her line, one of these categories — for example, a plus-size I literally have a breakout right here, and I’m which argued that Kylie’s company stole trade infl uencer will meet the ideal in all ways other using foundation to cover it up,’’ she told me, secrets when she sold the stake to Coty. (Coty says than weight. Widdows thinks that these images pointing to a cheek. ‘‘It’s another form of paint- that it will vigorously defend the lawsuit, which it are not challenging overall beauty norms but ing, and you’re doing it on your skin. I think considers meritless. Kylie declined to comment.) rather embedding them. you should for sure work on enhancing your In her social media posts, Kylie was often own features and embracing that if there’s a fl aw clad in brightly colored unitards or neon string LIKE RAE IN her initial conversation with Cam- in you, it’s something that sets you apart from bikinis no larger than children’s headbands. beros, I spent a lot of time turning over Item’s other people. Maybe it’s not even a fl aw, it’s just But it was her face that was the extraordinary products in my palms, trying to understand what something you think is a fl aw, but it’s really part part of her — the tiny tapered chin, the skin that they were communicating. I peered at Item’s of who you are and makes you diff erent.’’ appeared to be several shades darker than her ingredient list. Her concealer included Carica This is the party line of contemporary beauty natural color, the oversize lips (she fi rst received papaya extract, and the Lip Quip had camellia culture: cosmetics are tools of free expression and lip fi llers at 16). This face has become so wide- japonica seed oil. There were words in those self-enhancement, rather than self-erasure. But the spread that it’s actually not called ‘‘Kylie face.’’ phrases that I didn’t recognize. more time that I spent studying Rae’s accounts, It’s called Instagram face. ‘‘Consumers always get dissatisfi ed with beauty the more I felt this was only part of the story. You’ve seen Instagram face before, whether products and want something new, but the reali- Unlike models of the past, who rarely revealed you use Instagram or not. In addition to Kylie, ty is technology in cosmetics hasn’t substantially their innermost issues when they were in their her sister Kendall Jenner and supermodels Bella changed in 30 or 40 years,’’ Perry Romanowski, a heyday — lest they be shamed for being too beau- and Gigi Hadid have it. It’s rarely accomplished cosmetic chemist, said. These oils and extracts tiful to have problems — Rae had forged a direct via biology, but through a process of dermato- likely add little to nothing, he said, like a vast relationship with her fans, and she wanted to talk logic procedures involving lifting foreheads with majority of press-release-friendly ingredients in to them about emotional and personal issues. threads or injecting lips with fi ller every three other beauty products (CBD, noni fruit). But peo- TikTok videos are too abbreviated to com- months. (I am not claiming these women have had ple perk up when they read them on a label. municate much about our deepest feelings, but these procedures, though I will admit to visiting Romanowski has the weary air of someone I found that Rae was open about her insecuri- social media accounts suggesting this is the case). who has spent his life in a fun house pointing ties everywhere she could be, like her Twitter Jonquille Chantrey, a cosmetic surgeon in out the warps. He said that innovation has largely account, which was peppered with some shock- London, describes Instagram face as having a stalled, partly because many companies no lon- ingly vulnerable statements such as, in August, sort of heritage pastiche: smooth forehead and ger test products on animals. ‘‘Cosmetic products ‘‘why am i crying,’’ and, ‘‘hi whoever needs to wider eyes, or, if the eye hikes up at the end, ‘‘fox are regulated, and color cosmetics are the most hear this. . . . YOUR BODY IS PERFECT. YOU are eye’’; fuller lips, with the height of the top lip regulated of all, and that environment leads to perfect. I love you.’’ We might imagine Rae spent equal to the bottom; tapered nose and chin; and a lot of limitations on how you can diff erentiate her days with a boyfriend splashing in a pool a very, very high cheekbone. These may be char- your product,’’ he said. or opening elaborate gifts from companies that acteristics of diff erent ethnicities, but they are I asked him what the diff erence was between hoped she would post pictures of their presents. rarely seen together in one real face. Instagram the stick of lipstick that is inside a tube of Chanel And from her social feeds, that seemed to be face — an averaging of many possible inputs — is and the one inside a tube of Cover Girl. ‘‘There’s true, but at night, sometimes, other things hap- not one that exists among humanity. It may not not really a diff erence,’’ he answered. ‘‘It’s a pack- pened. In confessional mode, she often dropped even exist among Kardashians. aging and marketing story. There might be some the bubbly cheerleader act, explaining in a tweet So while the range of skin tones celebrated aesthetic diff erences, but the Chanel product can last April, ‘‘I’m not asking for everyone to like by the beauty industry and the news media has be made at the same price level that the Cover- me or love who I am/what I look like . . . but I expanded considerably, under the democratiz- Girl can be made. The amount of money that am asking that everyone be positive or not say ing forces of social media, something unusual has you have to spend for it has little to do with how anything at all.’’ In her mentions, she was called a also happened: The constant global pageant of much it costs to make it.’’ Romanowski also talked whale; someone else said (Continued on Page 43)

The New York Times Magazine 35 Tracking the Covid Code

1 attaaaggtt tataccttcc caggtaacaa accaaccaac tttcgatctc ttgtagatct 6001 tgatcttgta ccaaaccaac catatccaaa cgcaagcttc gataatttta agtttgtatg 12001 ttcactactt tctgttttgc tttcca 61 gttctctaaa cgaactttaa aatctgtgtg gctgtcactc ggctgcatgc ttagtgcact 6061 tgataatatc aaatttgctg atgatttaaa ccagttaact ggttataaga aacctgcttc 12061 agaaatgctg gacaacaggg caacct 121 cacgcagtat aattaataac taattactgt cgttgacagg acacgagtaa ctcgtctatc 6121 aagagagctt aaagttacat ttttccctga cttaaatggt gatgtggtgg ctattgatta 12121 atcatatgca gcttttgcta ctgctc 181 ttctgcaggc tgcttacggt ttcgtccgtg ttgcagccga tcatcagcac atctaggttt 6181 taaacactac acaccctctt ttaagaaagg agctaaattg ttacataaac ctattgtttg 12181 ttctgaagtt gttcttaaaa agttga 241 cgtccgggtg tgaccgaaag gtaagatgga gagccttgtc cctggtttca acgagaaaac 6241 gcatgttaac aatgcaacta ataaagccac gtataaacca aatacctggt gtatacgttg 12241 ccgtgatgca gccatgcaac gtaagt 301 acacgtccaa ctcagtttgc ctgttttaca ggttcgcgac gtgctcgtac gtggctttgg 6301 tctttggagc acaaaaccag ttgaaacatc aaattcgttt gatgtactga agtcagagga 12301 gtataaacag gctagatctg aggaca 361 agactccgtg gaggaggtct tatcagaggc acgtcaacat cttaaagatg gcacttgtgg 6361 cgcgcaggga atggataatc ttgcctgcga agatctaaaa ccagtctctg aagaagtagt 12361 gcttttcact atgcttagaa agttgg 421 cttagtagaa gttgaaaaag gcgttttgcc tcaacttgaa cagccctatg tgttcatcaa 6421 ggaaaatcct accatacaga aagacgttct tgagtgtaat gtgaaaacta ccgaagttgt 12421 aagagatggt tgtgttccct tgaaca 481 acgttcggat gctcgaactg cacctcatgg tcatgttatg gttgagctgg tagcagaact 6481 aggagacatt atacttaaac cagcaaataa tagtttaaaa attacagaag aggttggcca 12481 tgtcatacca gactataaca catata 541 cgaaggcatt cagtacggtc gtagtggtga gacacttggt gtccttgtcc ctcatgtggg 6541 cacagatcta atggctgctt atgtagacaa ttctagtctt actattaaga aacctaatga 12541 atcagcattg tgggaaatcc aacagg 601 cgaaatacca gtggcttacc gcaaggttct tcttcgtaag aacggtaata aaggagctgg 6601 attatctaga gtattaggtt tgaaaaccct tgctactcat ggtttagctg ctgttaatag 12601 tgaaattagt atggacaatt caccta 661 tggccatagt tacggcgccg atctaaagtc atttgactta ggcgacgagc ttggcactga 6661 tgtcccttgg gatactatag ctaattatgc taagcctttt cttaacaaag ttgttagtac 12661 ggccaattct gctgtcaaat tacaga 721 tccttatgaa gattttcaag aaaactggaa cactaaacat agcagtggtg ttacccgtga 6721 aactactaac atagttacac ggtgtttaaa ccgtgtttgt actaattata tgccttattt 12721 gtcttgtgct gccggtacta cacaaa 781 actcatgcgt gagcttaacg gaggggcata cactcgctat gtcgataaca acttctgtgg 6781 ctttacttta ttgctacaat tgtgtacttt tactagaagt acaaattcta gaattaaagc 12781 caacacaaca aagggaggta ggtttg 841 ccctgatggc taccctcttg agtgcattaa agaccttcta gcacgtgctg gtaaagcttc 6841 atctatgccg actactatag caaagaatac tgttaagagt gtcggtaaat tttgtctaga 12841 atgggctaga ttccctaaga gtgatg 901 atgcactttg tccgaacaac tggactttat tgacactaag aggggtgtat actgctgccg 6901 ggcttcattt aattatttga agtcacctaa tttttctaaa ctgataaata ttaCaatttg 12901 ttgtaggttt gttacagaca caccta 961 tgaacatgag catgaaattg cttggtacac ggaacgttct gaaaagagct atgaattgca 6961 gtttttacta ttaagtgttt gcctaggttc tttaatctac tcaaccgctg ctttaggtgt 12961 aggattaaac aacctaaata gaggta 1021 gacacctttt gaaattaaat tggcaaagaa atttgacacc ttcaatgggg aatgtccaaa 7021 tttaatgtct aatttaggca tgccttctta ctgtactggt tacagagaag gctatttgaa 13021 acaagctggt aatgcaacag aagtgc 1081 ttttgtattt cccttaaatt ccataatcaa gactattcaa ccaagggttg aaaagaaaaa 7081 ctctactaat gtcactattg caacctactg tactggttct ataccttgta gtgtttgtct 13081 tgctgtagat gctgctaaag cttaca 1141 gcttgatggc tttatgggta gaattcgatc tgtctatcca gttgcgtcac caaatgaatg 7141 tagtggttta gattctttag acacctatcc ttctttagaa actatacaaa ttaccatttc 13141 taattgtgtt aagatgttgt gtacac 1201 caaccaaatg tgcctttcaa ctctcatgaa gtgtgatcat tgtggtgaaa cttcatggca 7201 atcttttaaa tgggatttaa ctgcttttgg cttagttgca gagtggtttt tggcatatat 13201 ggaagccaat atggatcaag aatcct 1261 gacgggcgat tttgttaaag ccacttgcga attttgtggc actgagaatt tgactaaaga 7261 tcttttcact aggtttttct atgtacttgg attggctgca atcatgcaat tgtttttcag 13261 ccacatagat catccaaatc ctaaag 1321 aggtgccact acttgtggtt acttacccca aaatgctgtt gttaaaattt attgtccagc 7321 ctattttgca gtacatttta ttagtaattc ttggcttatg tggttaataa ttaatcttgt 13321 acctacaact tgtgctaatg accctg 1381 atgtcacaat tcagaagtag gacctgagca tagtcttgcc gaataccata atgaatctgg 7381 acaaatggcc ccgatttcag ctatggttag aatgtacatc ttctttgcat cattttatta 13381 ctgcggtatg tggaaaggtt atggct 1441 cttgaaaacc attcttcgta agggtggtcg cactattgcc tttggaggct gtgtgttctc 7441 tgtatggaaa agttatgtgc atgttgtaga cggttgtaat tcatcaactt gtatgatgtg 13441 gtcagctgat gcacaatcgt ttttaa 1501 ttatgttggt tgccataaca agtgtgccta ttgggttcca cgtgctagcg ctaacatagg 7501 ttacaaacgt aatagagcaa caagagtcga atgtacaact attgttaatg gtgttagaag 13501 ccgtgcggca caggcactag tactga 1561 ttgtaaccat acaggtgttg ttggagaagg ttccgaaggt cttaatgaca accttcttga 7561 gtccttttat gtctatgcta atggaggtaa aggcttttgc aaactacaca attggaattg 13561 aaagtagctg gttttgctaa attcct 1621 aatactccaa aaagagaaag tcaacatcaa tattgttggt gactttaaac ttaatgaaga 7621 tgttaattgt gatacattct gtgctggtag tacatttatt agtgatgaag ttgcgagaga 13621 gaagatgaca atttaattga ttctta 1681 gatcgccatt attttggcat ctttttctgc ttccacaagt gcttttgtgg aaactgtgaa 7681 cttgtcacta cagtttaaaa gaccaataaa tcctactgac cagtcttctt acatcgttga 13681 caacatgaag aaacaattta taattt 1741 aggtttggat tataaagcat tcaaacaaat tgttgaatcc tgtggtaatt ttaaagttac 7741 tagtgttaca gtgaagaatg gttccatcca tctttacttt gataaagctg gtcaaaagac 13741 ttctttaagt ttagaataga cggtga 1801 aaaaggaaaa gctaaaaaag gtgcctggaa tattggtgaa cagaaatcaa tactgagtcc 7801 ttatgaaaga cattctctct ctcattttgt taacttagac aacctgagag ctaataacac 13801 aaatacacaa tggcagacct cgtcta 1861 tctttatgca tttgcatcag aggctgctcg tgttgtacga tcaattttct cccgcactct 7861 taaaggttca ttgcctatta atgttatagt ttttgatggt aaatcaaaat gtgaagaatc 13861 acattaaaag aaatacttgt cacata 1921 tgaaactgct caaaattctg tgcgtgtttt acagaaggcc gctataacaa tactagatgg 7921 atctgcaaaa tcagcgtctg tttactacag tcagcttatg tgtcaaccta tactgttact 13921 gactggtatg attttgtaga aaaccc 1981 aatttcacag tattcactga gactcattga tgctatgatg ttcacatctg atttggctac 7981 agatcaggca ttagtgtctg atgttggtga tagtgcggaa gttgcagtta aaatgtttga 13981 cgtgtacgcc aagctttgtt aaaaac 2041 taacaatcta gttgtaatgg cctacattac aggtggtgtt gttcagttga cttcgcagtg 8041 tgcttacgtt aatacgtttt catcaacttt taacgtacca atggaaaaac tcaaaacact 14041 attgttggtg tactgacatt agataa 2101 gctaactaac atctttggca ctgtttatga aaaactcaaa cccgtccttg attggcttga 8101 agttgcaact gcagaagctg aacttgcaaa gaatgtgtcc ttagacaatg tcttatctac 14101 gatttcatac aaaccacgcc aggtag 2161 agagaagttt aaggaaggtg tagagtttct tagagacggt tgggaaattg ttaaatttat 8161 ttttatttca gcagctcggc aagggtttgt tgattcagat gtagaaacta aagatgttgt 14161 ttaatgccta tattaacctt gaccag 2221 ctcaacctgt gcttgtgaaa ttgtcggtgg acaaattgtc acctgtgcaa aggaaattaa 8221 tgaatgtctt aaattgtcac atcaatctga catagaagtt actggcgata gttgtaataa 14221 ttaacaaagc cttacattaa gtggga 2281 ggagagtgtt cagacattct ttaagcttgt aaataaattt ttggctttgt gtgctgactc 8281 ctatatgctc acctataaca aagttgaaaa catgacaccc cgtgaccttg gtgcttgtat 14281 aaactctttg accgttattt taaata 2341 tatcattatt ggtggagcta aacttaaagc cttgaattta ggtgaaacat ttgtcacgca 8341 tgactgtagt gcgcgtcata ttaatgcgca ggtagcaaaa agtcacaaca ttgctttgat 14341 tgtttggatg acagatgcat tctgca 2401 ctcaaaggga ttgtacagaa agtgtgttaa atccagagaa gaaactggcc tactcatgcc 8401 atggaacgtt aaagatttca tgtcattgtc tgaacaacta cgaaaacaaa tacgtagtgc 14401 ttcccaccta caagttttgg accact 2461 tctaaaagcc ccaaaagaaa ttatcttctt agagggagaa acacttccca cagaagtgtt 8461 tgctaaaaag aataacttac cttttaagtt gacatgtgca actactagac aagttgttaa 14461 gtagtttcaa ctggatacca cttcag 2521 aacagaggaa gttgtcttga aaactggtga tttacaacca ttagaacaac ctactagtga 8521 tgttgtaaca acaaagatag cacttaaggg tggtaaaatt gttaataatt ggttgaagca 14521 ttacatagct ctagacttag ttttaa 2581 agctgttgaa gctccattgg ttggtacacc agtttgtatt aacgggctta tgttgctcga 8581 gttaattaaa gttacacttg tgttcctttt tgttgctgct attttctatt taataacacc 14581 cacgctgctt ctggtaatct attact 2641 aatcaaagac acagaaaagt actgtgccct tgcacctaat atgatggtaa caaacaatac 8641 tgttcatgtc atgtctaaac atactgactt ttcaagtgaa atcataggat acaaggctat 14641 cttactaaca atgttgcttt tcaaac 2701 cttcacactc aaaggcggtg caccaacaaa ggttactttt ggtgatgaca ctgtgataga 8701 tgatggtggt gtcactcgtg acatagcatc tacagatact tgttttgcta acaaacatgc 14701 gactttgctg tgtctaaggg tttctt 2761 agtgcaaggt tacaagagtg tgaatatcac ttttgaactt gatgaaagga ttgataaagt 8761 tgattttgac acatggttta gccagcgtgg tggtagttat actaatgaca aagcttgccc 14761 ttctttgctc aggatggtaa tgctgc 2821 acttaatgag aagtgctctg cctatacagt tgaactcggt acagaagtaa atgagttcgc 8821 attgattgct gcagtcataa caagagaagt gggttttgtc gtgcctggtt tgcctggcac 14821 ccaacaatgt gtgatatcag acaact 2881 ctgtgttgtg gcagatgctg tcataaaaac tttgcaacca gtatctgaat tacttacacc 8881 gatattacgc acaactaatg gtgacttttt gcatttctta cctagagttt ttagtgcagt 14881 gattgttacg atggtggctg tattaa 2941 actgggcatt gatttagatg agtggagtat ggctacatac tacttatttg atgagtctgg 8941 tggtaacatc tgttacacac catcaaaact tatagagtac actgactttg caacatcagc 14941 tcagctggtt ttccatttaa taaatg 3001 tgagtttaaa ttggcttcac atatgtattg ttctttctac cctccagatg aggatgaaga 9001 ttgtgttttg gctgctgaat gtacaatttt taaagatgct tctggtaagc cagtaccata 15001 tatgaggatc aagatgcact tttcgc 3061 agaaggtgat tgtgaagaag aagagtttga gccatcaact caatatgagt atggtactga 9061 ttgttatgat accaatgtac tagaaggttc tgttgcttat gaaagtttac gccctgacac 15061 caaatgaatc ttaagtatgc cattag 3121 agatgattac caaggtaaac ctttggaatt tggtgccact tctgctgctc ttcaacctga 9121 acgttatgtg ctcatggatg gctctattat tcaatttcct aacacctacc ttgaaggttc 15121 tctatctgta gtactatgac caatag 3181 agaagagcaa gaagaagatt ggttagatga tgatagtcaa caaactgttg gtcaacaaga 9181 tgttagagtg gtaacaactt ttgattctga gtactgtagg cacggcactt gtgaaagatc 15181 gccactagag gagctactgt agtaat 3241 cggcagtgag gacaatcaga caactaTtat tcaaacaatt gttgaggttc aacctcaatt 9241 agaagctggt gtttgtgtat ctactagtgg tagatgggta cttaacaatg attattacag 15241 atgttaaaaa ctgtttatag tgatgt 3301 agagatggaa cttacaccag ttgttcagac tattgaagtg aatagtttta gtggttattt 9301 atctttacca ggagttttct gtggtgtaga tgctgtaaat ttacttacta atatgtttac 15301 aaatgtgata gagccatgcc taacat 3361 aaaacttact gacaatgtat acattaaaaa tgcagacatt gtggaagaag ctaaaaaggt 9361 accactaatt caacctattg gtgctttgga catatcagca tctatagtag ctggtggtat 15361 aaacatacaa cgtgttgtag cttgtc 3421 aaaaccaaca gtggttgtta atgcagccaa tgtttacctt aaacatggag gaggtgttgc 9421 tgtagctatc gtagtaacat gccttgccta ctattttatg aggtttagaa gagcttttgg 15421 caagtattga gtgaaatggt catgtg 3481 aggagcctta aataaggcta ctaacaatgc catgcaagtt gaatctgatg attacatagc 9481 tgaatacagt catgtagttg cctttaatac tttactattc cttatgtcat tcactgtact 15481 tcatcaggag atgccacaac tgctta 3541 tactaatgga ccacttaaag tgggtggtag ttgtgtttta agcggacaca atcttgctaa 9541 ctgtttaaca ccagtttact cattcttacc tggtgtttat tctgttattt acttgtactt 15541 acggccaatg ttaatgcact tttatc 3601 acactgtctt catgttgtcg gcccaaatgt taacaaaggt gaagacattc aacttcttaa 9601 gacattttat cttactaatg atgtttcttt tttagcacat attcagtgga tggttatgtt 15601 cgcaatttac aacacagact ttatga 3661 gagtgcttat gaaaatttta atcagcacga agttctactt gcaccattat tatcagctgg 9661 cacaccttta gtacctttct ggataacaat tgcttatatc atttgtattt ccacaaagca 15661 tttgtgaatg agttttacgc atattt 3721 tatttttggt gctgacccta tacattcttt aagagtttgt gtagatactg ttcgcacaaa 9721 tttctattgg ttctttagta attacctaaa gagacgtgta gtctttaatg gtgtttcctt 15721 gatgctgttg tgtgtttcaa tagcac 3781 tgtctactta gctgtctttg ataaaaatct ctatgacaaa cttgtttcaa gctttttgga 9781 tagtactttt gaagaagctg cgctgtgcac ctttttgtta aataaagaaa tgtatctaaa 15781 aactttaagt cagttcttta ttatca 3841 aatgaagagt gaaaagcaag ttgaacaaaa gatcgctgag attcctaaag aggaagttaa 9841 gttgcgtagt gatgtgctat tacctcttac gcaatataat agatacttag ctctttataa 15841 actgagactg accttactaa aggacc 3901 gccatttata actgaaagta aaccttcagt tgaacagaga aaacaagatg ataagaaaat 9901 taagtacaag tattttagtg gagcaatgga tacaactagc tacagagaag ctgcttgttg 15901 aaacagggtg atgattatgt gtacct 3961 caaagcttgt gttgaagaag ttacaacaac tctggaagaa actaagttcc tcacagaaaa 9961 tcatctcgca aaggctctca atgacttcag taactcaggt tctgatgttc tttaccaacc 15961 ggctgttttg tagatgatat cgtaaa 4021 cttgttactt tatattgaca ttaatggcaa tcttcatcca gattctgcca ctcttgttag 10021 accacaaacc tctatcacct cagctgtttt gcagagtggt tttagaaaaa tggcattccc 16021 tctttagcta tagatgctta cccact 4081 tgacattgac atcactttct taaagaaaga tgctccatat atagtgggtg atgttgttca 10081 atctggtaaa gttgagggtt gtatggtaca agtaacttgt ggtacaacta cacttaacgg 16081 tttcatttgt acttacaata cataag 4141 agagggtgtt ttaactgctg tggttatacc tactaaaaag gctggtggca ctactgaaat 10141 tctttggctt gatgacgtag tttactgtcc aagacatgtg atctgcacct ctgaagacat 16141 gacatgtatt ctgttatgct tactaa 4201 gctagcgaaa gctttgagaa aagtgccaac agacaattat ataaccactt acccgggtca 10201 gcttaaccct aattatgaag atttactcat tcgtaagtct aatcataatt tcttggtaca 16201 tatgaggcta tgtacacacc gcatac 4261 gggtttaaat ggttacactg tagaggaggc aaagacagtg cttaaaaagt gtaaaagtgc 10261 ggctggtaat gttcaactca gggttattgg acattctatg caaaattgtg tacttaagct 16261 aattcacaga cttcattaag atgtgg 4321 cttttacatt ctaccatcta ttatctctaa tgagaagcaa gaaattcttg gaactgtttc 10321 taaggttgat acagccaatc ctaagacacc taagtataag tttgttcgca ttcaaccagg 16321 tgctgttacg accatgtcat atcaac 4381 ttggaatttg cgagaaatgc ttgcacatgc agaagaaaca cgcaaattaa tgcctgtctg 10381 acagactttt tcagtgttag cttgttacaa tggttcacca tctggtgttt accaatgtgc 16381 gtttgcaatg ctccaggttg tgatgt 4441 tgtggaaact aaagccatag tttcaactat acagcgtaaa tataagggta ttaaaataca 10441 tatgaggccc aatttcacta ttaagggttc attccttaat ggttcatgtg gtagtgttgg 16441 agctattatt gtaaatcaca taaacc 4501 agagggtgtg gttgattatg gtgctagatt ttacttttac accagtaaaa caactgtagc 10501 ttttaacata gattatgact gtgtctcttt ttgttacatg caccatatgg aattaccaac 16501 gtttttggtt tatataaaaa tacatg 4561 gtcacttatc aacacactta acgatctaaa tgaaactctt gttacaatgc cacttggcta 10561 tggagttcat gctggcacag acttagaagg taacttttat ggaccttttg ttgacaggca 16561 attgcaacat gtgactggac aaatgc 4621 tgtaacacat ggcttaaatt tggaagaagc tgctcggtat atgagatctc tcaaagtgcc 10621 aacagcacaa gcagctggta cggacacaac tattacagtt aatgttttag cttggttgta 16621 agactcaagc tttttgcagc agaaac 4681 agctacagtt tctgtttctt cacctgatgc tgttacagcg tataatggtt atcttacttc 10681 cgctgctgtt ataaatggag acaggtggtt tctcaatcga tttaccacaa ctcttaatga 16681 tatggtattg ctactgtacg tgaagt 4741 ttcttctaaa acacctgaag aacattttat tgaaaccatc tcacttgctg gttcctataa 10741 ctttaacctt gtggctatga agtacaatta tgaacctcta acacaagacc atgttgacat 16741 gttggtaaac ctagaccacc acttaa 4801 agattggtcc tattctggac aatctacaca actaggtata gaatttctta agagaggtga 10801 actaggacct ctttctgctc aaactggaat tgccgtttta gatatgtgtg cttcattaaa 16801 aaaaacagta aagtacaaat aggaga 4861 taaaagtgta tattacacta gtaatcctac cacattccac ctagatggtg aagttatcac 10861 agaattactg caaaatggta tgaatggacg taccatattg ggtagtgctt tattagaaga 16861 gttgtttacc gaggtacaac aactta 4921 ctttgacaat cttaagacac ttctttcttt gagagaagtg aggactatta aggtgtttac 10921 tgaatttaca ccttttgatg ttgttagaca atgctcaggt gttactttcc aaagtgcagt 16921 tcacatacag taatgccatt aagtgc 4981 aacagtagac aacattaacc tccacacgca agttgtggac atgtcaatga catatggaca 10981 gaaaagaaca atcaagggta cacaccactg gttgttactc acaattttga cttcactttt 16981 attactggct tatacccaac actcaa 5041 acagtttggt ccaacttatt tggatggagc tgatgttact aaaataaaac ctcataattc 11041 agttttagtc cagagtactc aatggtcttt gttctttttt ttgtatgaaa atgccttttt 17041 tatcaaaagg ttggtatgca aaagta 5101 acatgaaggt aaaacatttt atgttttacc taatgatgac actctacgtg ttgaggcttt 11101 accttttgct atgggtatta ttgctatgtc tgcttttgca atgatgtttg tcaaacataa 17101 agtcattttg ctattggcct agctct 5161 tgagtactac cacacaactg atcctagttt tctgggtagg tacatgtcag cattaaatca 11161 gcatgcattt ctctgtttgt ttttgttacc ttctcttgcc actgtagctt attttaatat 17161 tgctctcatg ccgctgttga tgcact 5221 cactaaaaag tggaaatacc cacaagttaa tggtttaact tctattaaat gggcagataa 11221 ggtctatatg cctgctagtt gggtgatgcg tattatgaca tggttggata tggttgatac 17221 aaatgtagta gaattatacc tgcacg 5281 caactgttat cttgccactg cattgttaac actccaacaa atagagttga agtttaatcc 11281 tagtttgTCT GGTTTTaagc taaaagactg tgttatgtat gcatcagctg tagtgttact 17281 aattcaacat tagaacagta tgtctt 5341 acctgctcta caagatgctt attacagagc aagggctggt gaagctgAta acttttgtgc 11341 aatccttatg acagcaagaa ctgtgtatga tgatggtgct aggagagtgt ggacacttat 17341 gatatagttg tctttgatga aatttc 5401 acttatctta gcctactgta ataagacagt aggtgagtta ggtgatgtta gagaaacaat 11401 gaatgtcttg acactcgttt ataaagttta ttatggtaat gctttagatc aagccatttc 17401 gccagattac gtgctaagca ctatgt 5461 gagttacttg tttcaacatg ccaatttaga ttcttgcaaa agagtcttga acgtggtgtg 11461 catgtgggct cttataatct ctgttacttc taactactca ggtgtagtta caactgtcat 17461 cgcacattgc taactaaggg cacact 5521 taaaacttgt ggacaacagc agacaaccct taagggtgta gaagctgtta tgtacatggg 11521 gtttttggcc agaggtattg tttttatgtg tgttgagtat tgccctattt tcttcataac 17521 atgaaaacta taggtccaga catgtt 5581 cacactttct tatgaacaat ttaagaaagg tgttcagata ccttgtacgt gtggtaaaca 11581 tggtaataca cttcagtgta taatgctagt ttattgtttc ttaggctatt tttgtacttg 17581 gttgacactg tgagtgcttt ggttta 5641 agctacaaaa tatctagtac aacaggagtc accttttgtt atgatgtcag caccacctgc 11641 ttactttggc ctcttttgtt tactcaaccg ctactttaga ctgactcttg gtgtttatga 17641 gctcaatgct ttaaaatgtt ttataa 5701 tcagtatgaa cttaagcatg gtacatttac ttgtgctagt gagtacactg gtaattacca 11701 ttacttagtt tctacacagg agtttagata tatgaattca cagggactac tcccacccaa 17701 aacaggccac aaataggcgt ggtaag 5761 gtgtggtcac tataaacata taacttctaa agaaactttg tattgcatag acggtgcttt 11761 gaatagcata gatgccttca aactcaacat taaattgttg ggtgttggtg gcaaaccttg 17761 gctgtcttta tttcacctta taattc 5821 acttacaaag tcctcagaat acaaaggtcc tattacggat gttttctaca aagaaaacag 11821 tatcaaagta gccactgtac agtctaaaat gtcagatgta aagtgcacat cagtagtctt 17821 ccaactcaaa ctgttgattc atcaca 5881 ttacacaaca accataaaac cagttactta taaattggat ggtgttgttt gtacagaaat 11881 actctcagtt ttgcaacaac tcagagtaga atcatcatct aaattgtggg ctcaatgtgt 17881 accactgaaa cagctcactc ttgtaa 5941 tgaccctaag ttggacaatt attataagaa agacaattct tatttcacag agcaaccaat 11941 ccagttacac aatgacattc tcttagctaa agatactact gaagcctttg aaaaaatggt 17941 aaagtaggca tactttgcat aatgtc

The full genome of the B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant. Ultracheap DNA sequencing could help end the pandemic — and reshape the future of health care. By Jon Gertner

atgca gggtgctgta gacataaaca agctttgtga 18001 agtcttgaaa ttccacgtag gaatgtggca actttacaag ctgaaaatgt aacaggactc 24001 caagaggtca tttattgaag atctactttt caacaaagtg acacttgcag atgctggctt ttaca agctatagcc tcagagttta gttcccttcc 18061 tttaaagatt gtagtaaggt aatcactggg ttacatccta cacaggcacc tacacacctc 24061 catcaaacaa tatggtgatt gccttggtga tattgctgct agagacctca tttgtgcaca caaga agcttatgag caggctgttg ctaatggtga 18121 agtgttgaca ctaaattcaa aactgaaggt ttatgtgttg acatacctgg catacctaag 24121 aaagtttaac ggccttactg ttttgccacc tttgctcaca gatgaaatga ttgctcaata aagaa gtctttgaat gtggctaaat ctgaatttga 18181 gacatgacct atagaagact catctctatg atgggtttta aaatgaatta tcaagttaat 24181 cacttctgca ctgttagcgg gtacaatcac ttctggttgg acctttggtg caggtgctgc ttgga aaagatggct gatcaagcta tgacccaaat 18241 ggttacccta acatgtttat cacccgcgaa gaagctataa gacatgtacg tgcatggatt 24241 attacaaata ccatttgcta tgcaaatggc ttataggttt aatggtattg gagttacaca aagag ggcaaaagtt actagtgcta tgcagacaat 18301 ggcttcgatg tcgaggggtg tcatgctact agagaagctg ttggtaccaa tttaccttta 24301 gaatgttctc tatgagaacc aaaaattgat tgccaaccaa tttaatagtg ctattggcaa gataa tgatgcactc aacaacatta tcaacaatgc 18361 cagctaggtt tttctacagg tgttaaccta gttgctgtac ctacaggtta tgttgataca 24361 aattcaagac tcactttctt ccacagcaag tgcacttgga aaacttcaag atgtggtcaa ataat acctcttaca acagcagcca aactaatggt 18421 cctaataata cagatttttc cagagttagt gctaaaccac cgcctggaga tcaatttaaa 24421 ccaaaatgca caagctttaa acacgcttgt taaacaactt agctccaatt ttggtgcaat aaaaa tacgtgtgat ggtacaacat ttacttatgc 18481 cacctcatac cacttatgta caaaggactt ccttggaatg tagtgcgtat aaagattgta 24481 ttcaagtgtt ttaaatgata tccttGcacg tcttgacaaa gttgaggctg aagtgcaaat gttgt agatgcagat agtaaaattg ttcaacttag 18541 caaatgttaa gtgacacact taaaaatctc tctgacagag tcgtatttgt cttatgggca 24541 tgataggttg atcacaggca gacttcaaag tttgcagaca tatgtgactc aacaattaat aattt agcatggcct cttattgtaa cagctttaag 18601 catggctttg agttgacatc tatgaagtat tttgtgaaaa taggacctga gcgcacctgt 24601 tagagctgca gaaatcagag cttctgctaa tcttgctgct actaaaatgt cagagtgtgt aataa tgagcttagt cctgttgcac tacgacagat 18661 tgtctatgtg atagacgtgc cacatgcttt tccactgctt cagacactta tgcctgttgg 24661 acttggacaa tcaaaaagag ttgatttttg tggaaagggc tatcatctta tgtccttccc actgc ttgcactgat gacaatgcgt tagcttacta 18721 catcattcta ttggatttga ttacgtctat aatccgttta tgattgatgt tcaacaatgg 24721 tcagtcagca cctcatggtg tagtcttctt gcatgtgact tatgtccctg cacaagaaaa gtact tgcactgtta tccgatttac aggatttgaa 18781 ggttttacag gtaacctaca aagcaaccat gatctgtatt gtcaagtcca tggtaatgca 24781 gaacttcaca actgctcctg ccatttgtca tgatggaaaa gcacactttc ctcgtgaagg ggaac tggtactatc tatacagaac tggaaccacc 18841 catgtagcta gttgtgatgc aatcatgact aggtgtctag ctgtccacga gtgctttgtt 24841 tgtctttgtt tcaaatggca cacactggtt tgtaacacaa aggaattttt atgaaccaca aaagg tcctaaagtg aagtatttat actttattaa 18901 aagcgtgttg actggactat tgaatatcct ataattggtg atgaactgaa gattaatgcg 24901 aatcattact acaCacaaca catttgtgtc tggtaactgt gatgttgtaa taggaattgt atggt acttggtagt ttagctgcca cagtacgtct 18961 gcttgtagaa aggttcaaca catggttgtt aaagctgcat tattagcaga caaattccca 24961 caacaacaca gtttatgatc ctttgcaacc tgaattagac tcattcaagg aggagttaga cctgc caattcaact gtattatctt tctgtgcttt 19021 gttcttcacg acattggtaa ccctaaagct attaagtgtg tacctcaagc tgatgtagaa 25021 taaatatttt aagaatcata catcaccaga tgttgattta ggtgacatct ctggcattaa aaaga ttatctagct agtgggggac aaccaatcac 19081 tggaagttct atgatgcaca gccttgtagt gacaaagctt ataaaataga agaattattc 25081 tgcttcagtt gtaaacattc aaaaagaaat tgaccgcctc aatgaggttg ccaagaattt cacac tggtactggt caggcaataa cagttacacc 19141 tattcttatg ccacacattc tgacaaattc acagatggtg tatgcctatt ttggaattgc 25141 aaatgaatct ctcatcgatc tccaagaact tggaaagtat gagcagtata taaaatggcc tttgg tggtgcatcg tgttgtctgt actgccgttg 19201 aatgtcgata gatatcctgc taattccatt gtttgtagat ttgacactag agtgctatct 25201 atggtacatt tggctaggtt ttatagctgg cttgattgcc atagtaatgg tgacaattat ggatt ttgtgactta aaaggtaagt atgtacaaat 19261 aaccttaact tgcctggttg tgatggtggc agtttgtatg taaataaaca tgcattccac 25261 gctttgctgt atgaccagtt gctgtagttg tctcaagggc tgttgttctt gtggatcctg gtggg ttttacactt aaaaacacag tctgtaccgt 19321 acaccagctt ttgataaaag tgcttttgtt aatttaaaac aattaccatt tttctattac 25321 ctgcaaattt gatgaagacg actctgagcc agtgctcaaa ggagtcaaat tacattacac tgtag ttgtgatcaa ctccgcgaac ccatgcttca 19381 tctgacagtc catgtgagtc tcatggaaaa caagtagtgt cagatataga ttatgtacca 25381 ataaacgaac ttatggattt gtttatgaga atcttcacaa ttggaactgt aactttgaag aacgg gtttgcggtg taagtgcagc ccgtcttaca 19441 ctaaagtctg ctacgtgtat aacacgttgc aatttaggtg gtgctgtctg tagacatcat 25441 caaggtgaaa tcaaggatgc tactccttca gattttgttc gcgctactgc aacgataccg atgtc gtatacaggg cttttgacat ctacaatgat 19501 gctaatgagt acagattgta tctcgatgct tataacatga tgatctcagc tggctttagc 25501 atacaagcct cactcccttt cggatggctt attgttggcg ttgcacttct tgctgttttt taaaa actaattgtt gtcgcttcca agaaaaggac 19561 ttgtgggttt acaaacaatt tgatacttat aacctctgga acacttttac aagacttcag 25561 cagagcgctt ccaaaatcat aaccctcaaa aagagatggc aactagcact ctccaagggt acttt gtagttaaga gacacacttt ctctaactac 19621 agtttagaaa atgtggcttt taatgttgta aataagggac actttgatgg acaacagggt 25621 gttcactttg tttgcaactt gctgttgttg tttgtaacag tttactcaca ccttttgctc tactt aaggattgtc cagctgttgc taaacatgac 19681 gaagtaccag tttctatcat taataacact gtttacacaa aagttgatgg tgttgatgta 25681 gttgctgctg gccttgaagc cccttttctc tatctttatg ctttagtcta cttcttgcag acatg gtaccacata tatcacgtca acgtcttact 19741 gaattgtttg aaaataaaac aacattacct gttaatgtag catttgagct ttgggctaag 25741 agtataaact ttgtaagaat aataatgagg ctttggcttt gctggaaatg ccgttccaaa atgct ttaaggcatt ttgatgaagg taattgtgac 19801 cgcaacatta aaccagtacc agaggtgaaa atactcaata atttgggtgt ggacattgct 25801 aacccattac tttatgatgc caactatttt ctttgctggc atactaattg ttacgactat acaat tgttgtgatg atgattattt caataaaaag 19861 gctaatactg tgatctggga ctacaaaaga gatgctccag cacatatatc tactattggt 25861 tgtatacctt acaatagtgt aacttcttca attgtcatta cttcaggtga tggcacaaca cagat atattacgcg tatacgccaa cttaggtgaa 19921 gtttgttcta tgactgacat agccaagaaa ccaactgaaa cgatttgtgc accactcact 25921 agtcctattt ctgaacatga ctaccagatt ggtggttata ctgaaaaatg ggaatctgga cagta caattctgtg atgccatgcg aaatgctggt 19981 gtcttttttg atggtagagt tgatggtcaa gtagacttat ttagaaatgc ccgtaatggt 25981 gtaaaagact gtgttgtatt acacagttac ttcacttcag actattacca gctgtactca atcaa gatctcaatg gtaactggta tgatttcggt 20041 gttcttatta cagaaggtag tgttaaaggt ttacaaccat ctgtaggtcc caaacaagct 26041 actcaattga gtacagacac tggtgttgaa catgttacct tcttcatcta caataaaatt gtgga gttcctgttg tagattctta ttattcattg 20101 agtcttaatg gagtcacatt aattggagaa gccgtaaaaa cacagttcaa ttattataag 26101 gttgatgagc ctgaagaaca tgtccaaatt cacacaatcg acggttcatc cggagttgtt gggct ttaactgcag agtcacatgt tgacactgac 20161 aaagttgatg gtgttgtcca acaattacct gaaacttact ttactcagag tagaaattta 26161 aatccagtaa tggaaccaat ttatgatgaa ccgacgacga ctactagcgt gcctttgtaa atttg ttaaaatatg acttcacgga agagaggtta 20221 caagaattta aacccaggag tcaaatggaa attgatttct tagaattagc tatggatgaa 26221 gcacaagctg atgagtacga acttatgtac tcattcgttt cggaagagac aggtacgtta attgg gatcagacat accacccaaa ttgtgttaac 20281 ttcattgaac ggtataaatt agaaggctat gccttcgaac atatcgttta tggagatttt 26281 atagttaata gcgtacttct ttttcttgct ttcgtggtat tcttgctagt tacactagcc attgt gcaaacttta atgttttatt ctctacagtg 20341 agtcatagtc agttaggtgg tttacatcta ctgattggac tagctaaacg ttttaaggaa 26341 atccttactg cgcttcgatt gtgtgcgtac tgctgcaata ttgttaacgt gagtcttgta tagtg agaaaaatat ttgttgatgg tgttccattt 20401 tcaccttttg aattagaaga ttttattcct atggacagta cagttaaaaa ctatttcata 26401 aaaccttctt tttacgttta ctctcgtgtt aaaaatctga attcttctag agttcctgat gagag ctaggtgttg tacataatca ggatgtaaac 20461 acagatgcgc aaacaggttc atctaagtgt gtgtgttctg ttattgattt attacttgat 26461 cttctggtct aaacgaacta aatattatat tagtttttct gtttggaact ttaattttag aggaa ttacttgtgt atgctgctga ccctgctatg 20521 gattttgttg aaataataaa atcccaagat ttatctgtag tttctaaggt tgtcaaagtg 26521 ccatggcaga ttccaacggt actattaccg ttgaagagct taaaaagctc cttgaacaat tagat aaacgcacta cgtgcttttc agtagctgca 20581 actattgact atacagaaat ttcatttatg ctttggtgta aagatggcca tgtagaaaca 26581 ggaacctagt aataggtttc ctattcctta catggatttg tcttctacaa tttgcctatg ctgtc aaacccggta attttaacaa agacttctat 20641 ttttacccaa aattacaatc tagtcaagcg tggcaaccgg gtgttgctat gcctaatctt 26641 ccaacaggaa taggtttttg tatataatta agttaatttt cctctggctg ttatggccag ttaag gaaggaagtt ctgttgaatt aaaacacttc 20701 tacaaaatgc aaagaatgct attagaaaag tgtgaccttc aaaattatgg tgatagtgca 26701 taactttagc ttgttttgtg cttgctgctg tttacagaat aaattggatc accggtggaa ctatc agcgattatg actactatcg ttataatcta 20761 acattaccta aaggcataat gatgaatgtc gcaaaatata ctcaactgtg tcaatattta 26761 ttgctatcgc aatggcttgt cttgtaggct tgatgtggct cagctacttc attgcttctt tacta tttgtagttg aagttgttga taagtacttt 20821 aacacattaa cattagctgt accctataat atgagagtta tacattttgg tgctggttct 26821 tcagactgtt tgcgcgtacg cgttccatgt ggtcattcaa tccagaaact aacattcttc atgct aaccaagtca tcgtcaacaa cctagacaaa 20881 gataaaggag ttgcaccagg tacagctgtt ttaagacagt ggttgcctac gggtacgctg 26881 tcaacgtgcc actccatggc actattctga ccagaccgct tctagaaagt gaactcgtaa ggggt aaggctagac tttattatga ttcaatgagt 20941 cttgtcgatt cagatcttaa tgactttgtc tctgatgcag attcaacttt gattggtgat 26941 tcggagctgt gatccttcgt ggacatcttc gtattgctgg acaccatcta ggacgctgtg catat acaaaacgta atgtcatccc tactataact 21001 tgtgcaactg tacatacagc taataaatgg gatctcatta ttagtgatat gtacgaccct 27001 acatcaagga cctgcctaaa gaaatcactg ttgctacatc acgaacgctt tcttattaca gtgca aagaatagag ctcgcaccgt agctggtgtc 21061 aagactaaaa atgttacaaa agaaaatgac tctaaagagg gttttttcac ttacatttgt 27061 aattgggagc ttcgcagcgt gtagcaggtg actcaggttt tgctgcatac agtcgctaca gacag tttcatcaaa aattattgaa atcaatagcc 21121 gggtttatac aacaaaagct agctcttgga ggttccgtgg ctataaagat aacagaacat 27121 ggattggcaa ctataaatta aacacagacc attccagtag cagtgacaat attgctttgc ttgga acaagcaaat tctatggtgg ttggcacaac 21181 tcttggaatg ctgatcttta taagctcatg ggacacttcg catggtggac agcctttgtt 27181 ttgtacagta agtgacaaca gatgtttcat ctcgttgact ttcaggttac tatagcagag tagaa aaccctcacc ttatgggttg ggattatcct 21241 actaatgtga atgcgtcatc atctgaagca tttttaattg gatgtaatta tcttggcaaa 27241 atattactaa ttattatgag gacttttaaa gtttccattt ggaatcttga ttacatcata tgctt agaattatgg cctcacttgt tcttgctcgc 21301 ccacgcgaac aaatagatgg ttatgtcatg catgcaaatt acatattttg gaggaataca 27301 aacctcataa ttaaaaattt atctaagtca ctaactgaga ataaatattc tcaattagat cacac cgtttctata gattagctaa tgagtgtgct 21361 aatccaattc agttgtcttc ctattcttta tttgacatga gtaaatttcc ccttaaatta 27361 gaagagcaac caatggagat tgattaaacg aacatgaaaa ttattctttt cttggcactg gtggc ggttcactat atgttaaacc aggtggaacc 21421 aggggtactg ctgttatgtc tttaaaagaa ggtcaaatca atgatatgat tttatctctt 27421 ataacactcg ctacttgtga gctttatcac taccaagagt gtgttagagg tacaacagta atgct aatagtgttt ttaacatttg tcaagctgtc 21481 cttagtaaag gtagacttat aattagagaa aacaacagag ttgttatttc tagtgatgtt 27481 cttttaaaag aaccttgctc ttctggaaca tacgagggca attcaccatt tcatcctcta ctact gatggtaaca aaattgccga taagtatgtc 21541 cttgttaaca actaaacgaa caatgtttgt ttttcttgtt ttattgccac tagtctctag 27541 gctgataaca aatttgcact gacttgcttt agcactcaat ttgcttttgc ttgtcctgac agtgt ctctatagaa atagagatgt tgacacagac 21601 tcagtgtgtt aatcttacaa ccagaactca attaccccct gcatacacta attctttcac 27601 ggcgtaaaac acgtctatca gttacgtgcc agatcagttt cacctaaact gttcatcaga tgcgt aaacatttct caatgatgat actctctgac 21661 acgtggtgtt tattaccctg acaaagtttt cagatcctca gttttacatt caactcagga 27661 caagaggaag ttcaagaact ttactctcca atttttctta ttgttgcggc aatagtgttt cttat gcatctcaag gtctagtggc tagcataaag 21721 cttgttctta cctttctttt ccaatgttac ttggttccat gctaTACATG tctctgggac 27721 ataacacttt gcttcacact caaaagaaag acagaatgat tgaactttca ttaattgact aaaac aatgttttta tgtctgaagc aaaatgttgg 21781 caatggtact aagaggtttg ataaccctgt cctaccattt aatgatggtg tttattttgc 27781 tctatttgtg ctttttagcc tttctgctat tccttgtttt aattatgctt attatctttt ctcat gaattttgct ctcaacatac aatgctagtt 21841 ttccactgag aagtctaaca taataagagg ctggattttt ggtactactt tagattcgaa 27841 ggttctcact tgaactgcaa gatcataatg aaacttgtca cgcctaaacg aacatgaaat ttcct tacccagatc catcaagaat cctaggggcc 21901 gacccagtcc ctacttattg ttaataacgc tactaatgtt gttattaaag tctgtgaatt 27901 ttcttgtttt cttaggaatc atcacaactg tagctgcatt tcaccaagaa tgtagtttac aaaca gatggtacac ttatgattga acggttcgtg 21961 tcaattttgt aatgatccat ttttgggtgt TTAttaccac aaaaacaaca aaagttggat 27961 agtcatgtac tTaacatcaa ccatatgtag ttgatgaccc gtgtcctatt cacttctatt ttact aaacatccta atcaggagta tgctgatgtc 22021 ggaaagtgag ttcagagttt attctagtgc gaataattgc acttttgaat atgtctctca 28021 ctaaatggta tattagagta ggagctaTaa aatcagcacc tttaattgaa ttgtgcgtgg gaaag ctacatgatg agttaacagg acacatgtta 22081 gccttttctt atggaccttg aaggaaaaca gggtaatttc aaaaatctta gggaatttgt 28081 atgaggctgg ttctaaatca cccattcagt Gcatcgatat cggtaattat acagtttcct atgat aacacttcaa ggtattggga acctgagttt 22141 gtttaagaat attgatggtt attttaaaat atattctaag cacacgccta ttaatttagt 28141 gtttaccttt tacaattaat tgccaggaac ctaaattggg tagtcttgta gtgcgttgtt cagtc ttacaggctg ttggggcttg tgttctttgc 22201 gcgtgatctc cctcagggtt tttcggcttt agaaccattg gtagatttgc caataggtat 28201 cgttctatga agacttttta gagtatcatg acgttcgtgt tgttttagat ttcatctaaa gtgct tgcatacgta gaccattctt atgttgtaaa 22261 taacatcact aggtttcaaa ctttacttgc tttacataga agttatttga ctcctggtga 28261 cgaacaaact aaaatgtctC TAaatggacc ccaaaatcag cgaaatgcac cccgcattac catca cataaattag tcttgtctgt taatccgtat 22321 ttcttcttca ggttggacag ctggtgctgc agcttattat gtgggttatc ttcaacctag 28321 gtttggtgga ccctcagatt caactggcag taaccagaat ggagaacgca gtggggcgcg tcaca gatgtgactc aactttactt aggaggtatg 22381 gacttttcta ttaaaatata atgaaaatgg aaccattaca gatgctgtag actgtgcact 28381 atcaaaacaa cgtcggcccc aaggtttacc caataatact gcgtcttggt tcaccgctct caccc attagttttc cattgtgtgc taatggacaa 22441 tgaccctctc tcagaaacaa agtgtacgtt gaaatccttc actgtagaaa aaggaatcta 28441 cactcaacat ggcaaggaag accttaaatt ccctcgagga caaggcgttc caattaacac gtgtt ggtagcgata atgttactga ctttaatgca 22501 tcaaacttct aactttagag tccaaccaac agaatctatt gttagatttc ctaatattac 28501 caatagcagt ccagatgacc aaattggcta ctaccgaaga gctaccagac gaattcgtgg ctggt gattacattt tagctaacac ctgtactgaa 22561 aaacttgtgc ccttttggtg aagtttttaa cgccaccaga tttgcatctg tttatgcttg 28561 tggtgacggt aaaatgaaag atctcagtcc aagatggtat ttctactacc taggaactgg cgctc aaagctactg aggagacatt taaactgtct 22621 gaacaggaag agaatcagca actgtgttgc tgattattct gtcctatata attccgcatc 28621 gccagaagct ggacttccct atggtgctaa caaagacggc atcatatggg ttgcaactga tgctg tctgacagag aattacatct ttcatgggaa 22681 attttccact tttaagtgtt atggagtgtc tcctactaaa ttaaatgatc tctgctttac 28681 gggagccttg aatacaccaa aagatcacat tggcacccgc aatcctgcta acaatgctgc accga aattatgtct ttactggtta tcgtgtaact 22741 taatgtctat gcagattcat ttgtaattag aggtgatgaa gtcagacaaa tcgctccagg 28741 aatcgtgcta caacttcctc aaggaacaac attgccaaaa ggcttctacg cagaagggag agtac acctttgaaa aaggtgacta tggtgatgct 22801 gcaaactgga aagattgctg attataatta taaattacca gatgatttta caggctgcgt 28801 cagaggcggc agtcaagcct cttctcgttc ctcatcacgt agtcgcaaca gttcaagaaa acaaa ttaaatgttg gtgattattt tgtgctgaca 22861 tatagcttgg aattctaaca atcttgattc taaggttggt ggtaattata attacctgta 28861 ttcaactcca ggcagcagta ggggaacttc tcctgctaga atggctggca atggcggtga cacct acactagtgc cacaagagca ctatgttaga 22921 tagattgttt aggaagtcta atctcaaacc ttttgagaga gatatttcaa ctgaaatcta 28921 tgctgctctt gctttgctgc tgcttgacag attgaaccag cttgagagca aaatgtTtgg atatc tcagatgagt tttctagcaa tgttgcaaat 22981 tcaggccggt agcacacctt gtaatggtgt tgaaggtttt aattgttact ttcctttaca 28981 taaaggccaa caacaacaag gccaaactgt cactaagaaa tctgctgctg aggcttctaa attct acactccagg gaccacctgg tactggtaag 23041 atcatatggt ttccaaccca ctTatggtgt tggttaccaa ccatacagag tagtagtact 29041 gaagcctcgg caaaaacgta ctgccactaa agcatacaat gtaacacaag ctttcggcag tctac tacccttctg ctcgcatagt gtatacagct 23101 ttcttttgaa cttctacatg caccagcaac tgtttgtgga cctaaaaagt ctactaattt 29101 acgtggtcca gaacaaaccc aaggaaattt tggggaccag gaactaatca gacaaggaac tatgt gagaaggcat taaaatattt gcctatagat 23161 ggttaaaaac aaatgtgtca atttcaactt caatggttta acaggcacag gtgttcttac 29161 tgattacaaa cattggccgc aaattgcaca atttgccccc agcgcttcag cgttcttcgg gtgct cgtgtagagt gttttgataa attcaaagtg 23221 tgagtctaac aaaaagtttc tgcctttcca acaatttggc agagacattg Atgacactac 29221 aatgtcgcgc attggcatgg aagtcacacc ttcgggaacg tggttgacct acacaggtgc tttgt actgtaaatg cattgcctga gacgacagca 23281 tgatgctgtc cgtgatccac agacacttga gattcttgac attacaccat gttcttttgg 29281 catcaaattg gatgacaaag atccaaattt caaagatcaa gtcattttgc tgaataagca caatg gccacaaatt atgatttgag tgttgtcaat 23341 tggtgtcagt gttataacac caggaacaaa tacttctaac caggttgctg ttctttatca 29341 tattgacgca tacaaaacat tcccaccaac agagcctaaa aaggacaaaa agaagaaggc tgtac attggcgacc ctgctcaatt acctgcacca 23401 ggatgttaac tgcacagaag tccctgttgc tattcatgca gatcaactta ctcctacttg 29401 tgatgaaact caagccttac cgcagagaca gaagaaacag caaactgtga ctcttcttcc tagaa ccagaatatt tcaattcagt gtgtagactt 23461 gcgtgtttat tctacaggtt ctaatgtttt tcaaacacgt gcaggctgtt taataggggc 29461 tgctgcagat ttggatgatt tctccaaaca attgcaacaa tccatgagca gtgctgactc tcctc ggaacttgtc ggcgttgtcc tgctgaaatt 23521 tgaacatgtc aacaactcat atgagtgtga catacccatt ggtgcaggta tatgcgctag 29521 aactcaggcc taaactcatg cagaccacac aaggcagatg ggctatataa acgttttcgc atgat aataagctta aagcacataa agacaaatca 23581 ttatcagact cagactaatt ctcAtcggcg ggcacgtagt gtagctagtc aatccatcat 29581 ttttccgttt acgatatata gtctactctt gtgcagaatg aattctcgta actacatagc agggt gttatcacgc atgatgtttc atctgcaatt 23641 tgcctacact atgtcacttg gtgcagaaaa ttcagttgct tactctaata actctattgc 29641 acaagtagat gtagttaact ttaatctcac atagcaatct ttaatcagtg tgtaacatta gagaa ttccttacac gtaaccctgc ttggagaaaa 23701 catacccaTa aattttacta ttagtgttac cacagaaatt ctaccagtgt ctatgaccaa 29701 gggaggactt gaaagagcca ccacattttc accgaggcca cgcggagtac gatcgagtgt cacag aatgctgtag cctcaaagat tttgggacta 23761 gacatcagta gattgtacaa tgtacatttg tggtgattca actgaatgca gcaatctttt 29761 acagtgaaca atgctaggga gagctgccta tatggaagag ccctaatgtg taaaattaat agggc tcagaatatg actatgtcat attcactcaa 23821 gttgcaatat ggcagttttt gtacacaatt aaaccgtgct ttaactggaa tagctgttga 29821 tttagtagtg ctatccccat gtgattttaa tagcttctta ggagaatgac aaaaaaaaaa atgta aacagattta atgttgctat taccagagca 23881 acaagacaaa aacacccaag aagtttttgc acaagtcaaa caaatttaca aaacaccacc 29881 aaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaa aaa ctgat agagaccttt atgacaagtt gcaatttaca 23941 aattaaagat tttggtggtt ttaatttttc acaaatatta ccagatccat caaaaccaag

37 code also set the testing industry into motion. symptoms appear. The Harvard geneticist George Only by analyzing characteristic aspects of the Church told me that one day sensors might ‘‘sip virus’s genetic sequence could scientists create the air’’ so that a genomic app on our phones can kits for the devices known as P.C.R. machines, tell us if there’s a pathogen lurking in a room. which for decades have used genetic information Sequencing might even make it possible to store to formulate fast diagnostic tests. any kind of data we might want in DNA — such In the meantime, sequencing was put to use an archival system would, in theory, be so effi cient to track viral mutations — beginning with studies and dense as to be able to hold the entire contents published in February 2020 demonstrating that of the internet in a pillowcase. the virus was spreading in the U.S. This kind of Historians of science sometimes talk about new work falls within the realm of genomic epidemi- paradigms, or new modes of thought, that change ology, or ‘‘gen epi,’’ as those in the fi eld tend to our collective thinking about what is true or pos- call it. Many of the insights date to the mid-1990s sible. But paradigms often evolve not just when and a group of researchers in Oxford, England, new ideas displace existing ones, but when new Holmes among them. They perceived that fol- tools allow us to do things — or to see things — that lowing evolutionary changes in viruses that gain would have been impossible to consider earlier. lasting mutations every 10 days (like the fl u) or The advent of commercial genome sequencing every 20 days (like Ebola) was inherently similar has recently, and credibly, been compared to the to — and, as we now know, inherently more useful invention of the microscope, a claim that led me than — following them in animals, where evolu- to wonder whether this new, still relatively obscure tion might occur over a million years. technology, humming away in well- equipped labs An early hurdle was the tedious nature of the around the world, would prove to be the most work. The Oxford group had to analyze genetic important innovation of the 21st century. Already, markers through a slow and deliberate process in Church’s estimation, ‘‘sequencing is 10 million dward Holmes was in Australia on a Saturday that could provide insight into a few dozen char- times cheaper and 100,000 times higher quality morning in early January 2020, talking on the acteristics of each new variant. It wasn’t until the than it was just a few years ago.’’ If a new tech- phone with a Chinese scientist named Yong-Zhen late 2000s that drastic improvements in genetic- nological paradigm is arriving, bringing with it a Zhang who had just sequenced the genome of sequencing machines, aided by huge leaps in future in which we constantly monitor the genet- a novel pathogen that was infecting people in computing power, allowed researchers to more ics of our bodies and everything around us, these Wuhan. The two men — old friends — debated easily and quickly read the complete genetic sequencers — easy, quick, ubiquitous — are the the results. ‘‘I knew we were looking at a respi- codes of viruses, as well as the genetic blueprint machines taking us into that realm. ratory virus,’’ recalls Holmes, a virologist and for humans, animals, plants and microbes. And unexpectedly, Covid-19 has proved to professor at the University of Sydney. He also In the sphere of public health, one of the fi rst be the catalyst. ‘‘What the pandemic has done is knew it looked dangerous. big breakthroughs enabled by faster genomic accelerate the adoption of genomics into infec- Could he share the genetic code publicly? sequencing came in 2014, when a team at the tious disease by several years,’’ says de Souza, Holmes asked. Zhang was in China, on an airplane Broad Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard began the Illumina chief executive. He also told me he waiting for takeoff . He wanted to think it over for sequencing samples of the Ebola virus from believes that the pandemic has accelerated the a minute. So Holmes waited. He heard a fl ight infected victims during an outbreak in Africa. adoption of genomics into society more broadly attendant urging Zhang to turn off his phone. The work showed that, by contrasting genetic — suggesting that quietly, in the midst of chaos ‘‘OK,’’ Zhang said at last. Almost immediately, codes, hidden pathways of transmission could and a global catastrophe, the age of cheap, rapid Holmes posted the sequence on a website called be identifi ed and interrupted, with the poten- sequencing has arrived. Virological.org; then he linked to it on Twitter. tial for slowing (or even stopping) the spread of Holmes knew that researchers around the world infection. It was one of the fi rst real-world uses of One morning last August, after the pandemic’s would instantly start unwinding the pathogen’s what has come to be called genetic surveillance. fi rst wave had ebbed on the East Coast, I visited code to try to fi nd ways to defeat it. A few years later, doctors toting portable genom- the New York Genome Center in Lower Manhat- From the moment the virus genome was fi rst ic sequencers began tracking the Zika virus tan to observe the process of genetic sequencing. posted by Holmes, if you looked, you could fi nd around Central and South America. Sequencers On that day, lab technicians were working on a a genetic component in almost every aspect of were getting better, faster and easier to use. slew of SARS-CoV-2 samples taken from patients our public-health responses to SARS-CoV-2. It’s To many, the most familiar faces of this tech- at New Jersey’s Hackensack University Medical typically the case, for instance, that a pharmaceu- nology are clinical testing companies, which use Center. Dina Manaa, a lab manager at the center, tical company needs samples of a virus to create a sequencing machines to read portions of our handed me a blue lab coat upon my arrival. ‘‘I’ll vaccine. But once the sequence was in the public genetic code (known as ‘‘panels’’ or ‘‘exomes’’) to walk you through the entire process,’’ Manaa said, realm, Moderna, an obscure biotech company in investigate a few crucial genes, like those linked and over the next 20 minutes, we went up and Cambridge, Mass., immediately began working to a higher risk of breast cancer. But more pro- down the lab’s aisles as she explained the work. with the National Institutes of Health on a plan. found promises of genome sequencing have been The sequencing of a virus, much like the ‘‘They never had the virus on site at all; they really accumulating stealthily in recent years, in fi elds sequencing of human DNA from a cheek swab just used the sequence, and they viewed it as a from personal health to cultural anthropology or a drop of blood, is painstaking. Samples are software problem,’’ Francis deSouza, the chief to environmental monitoring. Crispr, a technol- moved along what is essentially an assembly executive of Illumina, which makes the sequencer ogy reliant on sequencing, gives scientists the line: ‘‘weighed’’ on exquisitely sensitive ‘‘scales’’ that Zhang used, told me with some amazement potential to repair disease-causing mutations in to check the mass of the specimen; bathed with last summer, six months before the Moderna vac- our genomes. ‘‘Liquid biopsies,’’ in which a small chemical solutions known as reagents; tagged cine received an emergency-use authorization by amount of blood is analyzed for DNA markers, with a ‘‘bar code’’ of genetic material so each the Food and Drug Administration. The virus’s off er the prospect of cancer diagnoses long before sample can be individually tracked. Most of the

38 3.28.21 preparations, Manaa explained, are about check- features, apart from a large touch-screen inter- of an iPhone, containing four hollow chambers. ing the quality of the virus sample and then ampli- face and a vent pipe that rises from the back of She then carefully popped the fl ow cell into a fying its genetic material — in eff ect, transforming the device to the ceiling. Each machine costs drawer slot in a NovaSeq 6000. a tiny and invisible amount of the coronavirus roughly $1 million; there are about 1,000 of them ‘‘OK, keep your fi ngers crossed,’’ she said after extracted from a swab into vast quantities of in the world right now. At a nearby lab bench, punching some instructions into a touch-screen DNA, all in preparation for being read and ana- a technician named Berrin Baysa was pipetting and then tapping ‘‘GO.’’ She held up both hands lyzed by a device built to do exactly that. minuscule amounts of clear, virus- laden solu- and crossed her own fi ngers. In another lab, Manaa paused by a row of fi ve tions from one tube to another and moving her For this particular task, it would take the sleek and identical new machines, the Illumina mixtures into small, spinning centrifuges. After machine two days to complete the readings, she NovaSeq 6000 — or ‘‘Nova- seeks,’’ as they’re called. nearly two days of preparation, these were the said — meaning that at that point, the full genetic These were similar to the machines used in China fi nal steps for the Hackensack samples. At last, sequences of the virus would be ready for the to sequence the virus for the fi rst time, six months Baysa combined the tiny cocktails she had made ‘‘bioinformaticians,’’ who would look for patterns before. The Nova Seqs are about the size of an by pouring them together into something known and variants in the samples. offi ce photocopier and have few distinguishing as a fl ow-cell, a fl at glass cartridge about the size The NovaSeqs represent the culmination of about two decades of technological develop- ment that in large part began with the Human Surveilling the Enemy Genome Project, which was completed in 2003 When viruses replicate, copying errors regularly arise in the code. The image on the previous pages and funded mainly by the National Institutes is the entire genome sequence of the B.1.1.7 variant of the coronavirus, all of the 29,885 ‘‘letters’’ of the code, with places marked where nucleotides, represented by A, C, T or G, have either been of Health. The project showed that the human deleted or have morphed from one to another. (In SARS-CoV-2, which is composed of RNA rather genome — ‘‘nature’s complete genetic blue- than DNA, one of the virus’s four distinctive building blocks can be represented by either a U or a T, print for building a human being,’’ as the N.I.H. as it is here.) B.1.1.7 is the version of the corona virus that swept through Britain at the end of 2020, describes it — is composed of a sequence of a more contagious variant that is expected to soon become the most dominant in the United States. about three billion ‘‘base pairs.’’ These are bond- ed chemicals coded as A, C, G and T, where A stands for adenine, C for cytosine, G for guanine 21661 acgtggtgtt tattaccctg acaaagtttt cagatcctca and T for thymine. The chemical pairs are fre- 21721 cttgttctta cctttctttt ccaatgttac ttggttccat quently grouped together on our chromosomes, 21781 caatggtact aagaggtttg ataaccctgt cctaccattt in about 30,000 information- dense strings, or 21841 ttccactgag aagtctaaca taataagagg ctggattttt ggtactacttclumps. The clumps are our genes. 21901 gacccagtcc ctacttattg ttaataacgc tactaatgtt The Human Genome Project required 13 years of work and cost more than $3 billion. Jeff ery 21961 tcaattttgt aatgatccat ttttgggtgt TTAttaccac Schloss, who for many years oversaw technology 22021 ggaaagtgag ttcagagttt attctagtgc gaataattgc grants at the National Human Genome Research 22081 gccttttctt atggaccttg aaggaaaaca gggtaatttc Institute, a division of the N.I.H., told me that in 22141 gtttaagaat attgatggtt attttaaaat atattctaag 2002, he attended a meeting to map out the future 22201 gcgtgatctc cctcagggtt tttcggcttt agaaccattg of sequencing. ‘‘This had been a massive eff ort, 22261 taacatcact aggtttcaaa ctttacttgc tttacataga to sequence the human genome,’’ Schloss recalls, ‘‘but we knew it was just the beginning of what 22321 ttcttcttca ggttggacag ctggtgctgc agcttattat we needed to do, which meant that sequencing 22381 gacttttcta ttaaaatata atgaaaatgg aaccattaca had to change dramatically. And in the course of 22441 tgaccctctc tcagaaacaa agtgtacgtt gaaatccttc that meeting, some people brought up this crazy 22501 tcaaacttctThe mutation that aactttagag scientists believe tccaaccaac agaatctatt idea: What if you could sequence a big genome 22561 aaacttgtgcmay be most consequential ccttttggtg in B.1.1.7 aagtttttaa cgccaccaga for a thousand dollars? What would that enable?’’ is referred to as A23063T, which Most of the scientists in Schloss’s circle believed 22621 gaacaggaagmeans that, at theagaatcagca 23,063rd of the actgtgttgc tgattattct it might lead to profound revelations. By studying 22681 attttccactoriginal SARS-CoV-2 tttaagtgtt genome’s atggagtgtc tcctactaaa 29,903 letters, the nucleotide base the genomes of a large population of, say, Alzhei- 22741 taatgtctathas changed from gcagattcat A to T. Scientists ttgtaattag aggtgatgaa mer’s patients, researchers might piece together 22801 gcaaactggasuspect that this aagattgctg change alters attataatta taaattacca how certain genes, or combinations of genes, an amino acid in the virus’s ‘‘spike 22861 tatagcttggprotein’’ in a way aattctaaca that allows it atcttgattc taaggttggt could make someone more likely to become ill. 22921 tagattgtttto latch more tightly aggaagtcta to human cells, atctcaaacc ttttgagaga In an even larger sweep, they might gain insights making for a more successful infection. 22981 tcaggccggt agcacacctt gtaatggtgt tgaaggtttt into the health or disease markers of entire pop- ulation groups or countries. Sequencing might 23041 atcatatggt ttccaaccca ctTatggtgt tggttaccaa fi nd uses beyond basic science — routine clinical 23101 ttcttttgaa cttctacatg caccagcaac tgtttgtgga scans for prenatal testing, say, or for genes known 23161 ggttaaaaac aaatgtgtca atttcaactt caatggttta to increase the likelihood of certain cancers. 23221 tgagtctaac aaaaagtttc tgcctttcca acaatttggc Schloss’s offi ce invested $220 million in various 23281 tgatgctgtc cgtgatccac agacacttga gattcttgac start-ups and ideas over a period of about 15 years. 23341 tggtgtcagt gttataacac caggaacaaa tacttctaac The ultimate goal was to help bring down the cost, and raise the speed, of whole- genome sequenc- 23401 ggatgttaac tgcacagaag tccctgttgc tattcatgca ing. Even if the $1,000 genome remained out of reach, perhaps a new generation of machines X Nucleotide mutations XXX Nucleotide deletions xxx Spike-protein region might come close. ‘‘It was really unclear how long it would take for any of those to get into Source of virus code: New York Genome Center York New virus code: of Source

The New York Times Magazine 39 commercialization,’’ Schloss recalls. ‘‘They had to was the decrease in cost. Illumina achieved the traits — could inform diagnosis and treatment. become commercially successful. It was all pretty $1,000 genome in 2014. Last summer, the com- What is the best medication based on a patient’s uncertain.’’ Indeed, many of the sequencing start- pany announced that its Nova Seq 6000 could genome? What is the ideal dosage? ‘‘We’re trying ups from the early 2000s ultimately failed in the sequence a whole human genome for $600; at to address a very important question that’s never marketplace. A few, however, were subsumed into the time, deSouza, Illumina’s chief executive, told been answered at this scale,’’ Elemento explained: the core technology of other fi rms. A company me that his company’s path to a $100 genome ‘‘What is the utility of whole- genome sequencing?’’ known as Solexa, for instance, developed inge- would not entail a breakthrough, just incremental He said he believed that within one or two years, nious ideas — known as ‘‘sequencing by synthe- technical improvements. ‘‘At this point, there’s no the study would lead to an answer. sis’’ — that involved measuring genetic samples miracle that’s required,’’ he said. Several of Illu- optically, with fl uorescent dyes that illuminated mina’s competitors — including BGI, a Chinese Some of the grandest hopes for sequencing have elements of DNA in the samples. That company genomics company — have indicated that they arisen from the notion that our genes are deter- was ultimately bought by another fi rm — Illumina, will also soon achieve a $100 genome. Those in ministic — and that by understanding our DNA’s which quickly became a leader in the industry. the industry whom I spoke with predicted that code, we might limn our destiny. When an early As machines improved, the impact was felt it may be only a year or two away. reading of the human genome was unveiled in mainly in university labs, which had relied on a These numbers don’t fully explain what fast- 2000, President Bill Clinton noted that we were process called Sanger sequencing, developed in er speeds and aff ordability might portend. But getting a glimpse of ‘‘one of the most important, the mid-1970s by the Nobel laureate Frederick in health care, the prospect of a cheap whole- most wondrous maps ever produced by human- Sanger. This laborious technique, which involved genome test, perhaps from birth, suggests a kind.’’ But the map has often proved hard to read, running DNA samples through baths of electrical- signifi cant step closer to the realization of per- its routes unclear. The past 20 years have demon- ly charged gels, was what the scientists at Oxford sonalized medicines and lifestyle plans, tailored strated that inherited genes are just one aspect of had depended upon in the mid-1990s; it was also to our genetic strengths and vulnerabilities. a confounding system that’s not easily interpret- what Dave O’Connor, a virologist at the Univer- ‘‘When that happens, that’s probably going to ed. The progress of using gene therapy to treat

Quietly, in the midst of chaos and a global catastrophe, the age of cheap, rapid sequencing has arrived.

sity of Wisconsin, Madison, was using in the early be the most powerful and valuable clinical test diseases, for instance, has been halting; it wasn’t 2000s, as he and his lab partner, Tom Friedrich, you could have, because it’s a lifetime record,’’ until last year that physicians had a resounding tracked virus mutations. ‘‘The H.I.V. genome has Maniatis told me. Your complete genome doesn’t success with a treatment on several patients with about 10,000 letters,’’ O’Connor told me, which change over the course of your life, so it needs to heritable genes for sickle- cell anemia. In the makes it simpler than the human genome (at be sequenced only once. And Maniatis imagines meantime, scientists have come to realize some- three billion letters) or the SARS-CoV-2 genome that as new information is accumulated through thing else: A complex overlay of environmental (at about 30,000). ‘‘In an H.I.V. genome, when we clinical studies, your physician, armed with new and lifestyle factors, as well as our microbiomes, fi rst started doing it, we would be able to look at research results, could revisit your genome and appear to have interconnected eff ects on health, a couple hundred letters at a time.’’ But O’Connor discover, say, when you’re 35 that you have a development and behavior. says his work changed with the advent of new mutation that’s going be a problem when you’re And yet, in the course of the past year, some of sequencing machines. By around 2010, he and 50. ‘‘Really, that is not science fi ction,’’ he says. the extraordinary hopes for genomic sequencing Friedrich could decode 500,000 letters in a day. ‘‘That is, I’m personally certain, going to happen.’’ did come true, but for an unexpected reason. A few years later, it was fi ve million. In some respects, it has begun already, even During the summer and fall, I spoke frequently By 2015, the pace of improvement was breath- amid a public-health crisis. In January, the New with executives at Illumina, as well as its com- taking. ‘‘When I was a post doctoral fellow, I actu- York Genome Center began a partnership with petitor in Britain, Oxford Nanopore. It was clear ally worked in Fred Sanger’s lab,’’ Tom Maniatis, Weill-Cornell and NewYork-Presbyterian hospi- that the pandemic had meant a startling inter- the head of the New York Genome Center, told tals to conduct whole- genome sequences on thou- ruption in their business, but at each company me. ‘‘I had to sequence a piece of DNA that was sands of patients. Olivier Elemento, a doctor who the top executives perceived the situation as an about 35 base pairs, and it took me a year to do leads the initiative at Weill-Cornell, told me that opportunity — the fi rst pandemic in history in that. And now, you can do a genome, with three the goal is to see how a whole- genome sequence which genomic sequencing would inform our billion base pairs, overnight.’’ Also astounding — not merely the identifi cation of a few genetic decisions and actions in real time.

40 3.28.21 From the start, the gen-epi community under- typically passive, reactive, uncoordinated and Such technological leaps are rare. They represent stood that the SARS-CoV-2 virus would form new underfunded.’’ Every scientist I spoke with breakthroughs that give rise to ‘‘platforms’’ — variants every few weeks as it reproduced and understood that the virus could evolve into dan- cellphones, say, or web browsers — that in time spread; it soon became clear that it could develop gerous new variants; it was many months before revolutionize markets and society. one or more alterations (or mutations) at a time one in particular, known as B.1.1.7, emerged and The immense value of a platform innovation in the genome’s 30,000 base letters. Because of demonstrated that it was more transmissible and is related to how it can be adapted for a range of this insight, on Jan. 19, 2020, just over a week after most likely more deadly. Researchers were simi- uses that are unforeseen at its inception. It can the virus code was released to the world, scien- larly worried that our sequencing eff orts to track be like a toolbox, waiting at the back of a closet. tists could look at 12 complete virus genomes the pathways of infection — unlike more serious What happened with sequencing during the pan- shared from China and conclude that the fact that and government-supported eff orts in Britain or demic serves as a good example. Another is San- they were nearly identical meant that those 12 Australia — were fl ailing. jana’s work on new Crispr technologies, which he people had been infected around the same time One of the Biden administration’s approaches uses to modify or repair strings of DNA to better and were almost certainly infecting one another. to slowing the pandemic has been to invest $200 understand the genetic basis of human disease. ‘‘That was something where the genomic epide- million in sequencing virus samples from those Twenty years ago, when offi cials at the N.I.H. talk- miology could help us to say, loudly, that human who test positive. With the recent approval of the ed about investing in the future of sequencing, transmission was rampant, when it wasn’t really $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, a further $1.75 altering the human, plant or animal genome on a being acknowledged as it should have been,’’ billion will be allocated to the Centers for Dis- regular basis was not something they could have Trevor Bedford, a scientist at the Fred Hutchin- ease Control and Prevention to support genomic predicted. But Crispr requires Sanjana to con- son Cancer Research Center, told me. sequencing and disease surveillance. stantly evaluate his editing by using sequencers When Bedford’s lab began studying viral In late January, the C.D.C. began disbursing — usually a desktop Illumina model, in his case genomes in Seattle, he could go a step further. money to public-health laboratories around the — to check the results. ‘‘It would be impossible to By late February, he concluded that new cases he country to bolster the sequencing work already do these experiments otherwise,’’ he says. was seeing were not just being imported to the being done at academic labs. But the eff ort was It has been the case historically that platform U.S. from China. Based on observations of local starting from a low baseline. One calculation in innovations don’t merely create new applica- mutations — two strains found six weeks apart The Washington Post noted that the United States tions. They create new industries. And while looked too similar to be a coincidence — commu- had ranked 38th globally in terms of employing countless genomics companies have already nity transmission was happening here. On Feb. sequencing during the pandemic; as of mid- sprung up, for now just four companies run most 29, Bedford put up a Twitter post that noted, chill- February, the U.S. was still trying to catch up of the sequencing analyses in the world. These ingly, ‘‘I believe we’re facing an already substan- to many European and Asian countries. And it are Illumina and Pacifi c Biosciences, based in the tial outbreak in Washington State that was not therefore couldn’t be said that new or danger- United States; Oxford Nanopore Technologies, detected until now.’’ His proof was in the code. ous variants weren’t landing on our shores or based in Britain; and China’s BGI Group. Bedford’s lab was one of many around the emerging here afresh. What could be said is that According to the Federal Trade Commission, world that began tracking the virus’s evolution and we were unable to know. Illumina controls roughly 90 percent of the mar- sharing it in global databases. In the meantime, ket for sequencing machines in the U.S., and by gen-epi researchers used sequencing for local the company’s own assessment, it compiles experiments too. In the spring of 2020, a team 80 percent of the genomic information that of British scientists compared virus sequences exists in the world in a given year. It is some- sampled from ill patients at a single hospital to times described as the Google of the genomics see if their infections came from one another or business, not only because of its huge market from elsewhere. ‘‘We were able to generate data share but also because of its products’ ability that were useful in real time,’’ Esteé Torok, an aca- to ‘‘search’’ our complete genetic makeup. In demic physician at the University of Cambridge short, it dominates the business. Last year, the who helped lead the research, told me. ‘‘And in fi rm took in over $3 billion in revenue and about an ideal world, you could do that every day.’’ In $650 million in net income. In its hunger for other words, sequencing had advanced from a few expansion, the company has recently made a run years ago, when scientists might publish papers of acquisitions. In late September, for example, a year after an outbreak, to the point that genetic Illumina announced that it intended to acquire, epidemiologists could compare mutations in a for $8 billion, a biotech company called Grail, specifi c location in order to be able to raise alarms which has created a genomic test that runs on — We have community spread! Patients on Floor 3 an Illumina sequencer and that an early study are transmitting to Floor 5! — and act immediately. suggests can successfully detect more than 50 To watch the pandemic unfold from the per- types of cancers from a small sample of blood. spective of those working in the fi eld of genom- On a recent corporate earnings call, deSouza ics was to see both the astounding power of new called Grail and early cancer detection ‘‘by far sequencing tools and the catastrophic failure of the largest clinical application of genomics we’re the American public- health system to take full likely to see over the next decade or two.’’ advantage of them. At the end of July, the Nation- As the pandemic unfolded, I spoke often to al Academy of Sciences released a report not- genomics executives about which industries ing that advances in genomic sequencing could ne day at the New York Genome Center, a research- could be transformed by their technologies and enable our ability ‘‘to break or delay virus trans- er named Neville Sanjana told me that he thinks how their machines would be deployed in the mission to reduce morbidity and mortality.’’ And of genetic sequencers not as a typical invention years to come. One model for the future was built yet the report scathingly noted that sequencing but as a kind of ‘‘platform technology.’’ The phrase around the strengths of Illumina — big machines endeavors for the coronavirus were ‘‘patchy, resonates among those who study innovation. like the Nova Seq, with an extraordinary capacity

The New York Times Magazine 41 for sequencing, housed in central testing labs eff orts in Britain and the U.S. that are increasing In many respects, a genetic sequencer is (as they are now) and run by specialists. But a demand for his company’s products, as hasten- over-engineered for the task of simply testing very diff erent set of ideas emerges from one of ing the culture’s genomic transition. He said he for a virus. A P.C.R. machine is faster, cheaper Illumina’s main competitors, Oxford Nanopore. sees no obstacle to a $100 whole human- genome and less complex. And yet there are potential Oxford’s sequencers involve a technology that is sequence in the near future. His company, he told advantages to the sequencer. Illumina eventual- electronic rather than optical; it is based on the me, is also working with a new chip that may ly won emergency approval from the Food and concept of moving a sample of DNA through tiny eventually bring down the cost to $10. Drug Administration for a diagnostic test for the holes — nanopores — in a membrane. The device NovaSeq that can run about 3,000 swab samples, measures how genetic material (extracted from It seems beyond debate that the pandemic has simultaneously, over the course of 12 hours. Thus, a sample of blood, say) reacts to an electric cur- demonstrated that we can benefi t from genomic a single machine could do 6,000 coronavirus tests rent during the process, and it registers the letter sequences even before we fully unravel all their per day. Two hundred NovaSeqs could do more sequence — A, G, C, T — accordingly. One dis- mysteries. We can use them as a sort of global than a million. In addition to this immense capac- tinctive feature is that a nanopore device can read alarm system, for instance, much as they were ity, it’s viable to test for the virus and sequence longer threads of DNA than an Illumina device, used by Eddie Holmes and Yong-Zhen Zhang the virus at the same time: An analysis run on a which can be helpful for some applications. It when they shared the SARS-CoV-2 sequence in sequencer could inform patients whether they can also give readouts in real time. January 2020. As it happens, there are a variety have the virus, and the anonymized sequencing Yet the biggest diff erence may be its porta- of diff erent surveillance eff orts underway, some data on positive samples could give public-health bility. In 2015, Oxford Nanopore began selling driven by health agencies and others by academ- agencies a huge amount of epidemiology data for a sampling and sequencing gadget called the ics, that would go much further than simply post- use in tracking variants. ‘‘I can envision a world Minion (pronounced MIN-eye-on) for $1,000. It is ing a sequence on a website — eff orts that would where diagnosis and sequencing are kind of one smaller than a small iPhone. The chief executive share critical public-health information faster and the same,’’ Bronwyn MacInnis, who directs of Oxford Nanopore, Gordon Sanghera, told me and, more broadly, might be useful for anoth- pathogen genomic surveillance at the Broad he sees his company’s tool as enabling a future in er new coronavirus, a deadly infl uenza strain or Institute, told me. ‘‘We’re not there yet, but we’re which sequencing insights can be derived during even a bioterror attack. not a million miles off , either.’’ every minute of every day. Inspection offi cers Pardis Sabeti, a geneticist at Harvard, told me Last summer, a few big clinical laboratories, working in meatpacking plants would get results that last May she received a philanthropic grant notably Ginkgo Bioworks in Boston, began plans about pathogenic infection in minutes; surveyors to help develop and deploy a pandemic ‘‘pre- to roll out tests for Illumina sequencers, pend- doing environmental monitoring or wastewater emption’’ network called Sentinel. ‘‘We’ve always ing authorization from the F.D.A. Ginkgo, with analysis can already do the same. Your dentist aimed for that ability to do surveillance,’’ she told help from investments from Illumina, as well as might one day do a check of your oral micro- me, adding that the goal of Sentinel would be to a grant from the N.I.H., began building a huge biome during a regular visit, or your oncologist use genomic technologies everywhere — in rural new laboratory next to its current one, where the might sequence your blood once a month to clinics in Europe, villages in Africa, cities in China company would install 10 NovaSeqs. ‘‘After we get see if you’re still in remission. A transplantation — to detect familiar pathogens within a single day the big facility built, that’s when we’d be trying specialist might even check, on the spot, about of their appearance and novel pathogens within to hit 100,000 tests a day,’’ Jason Kelly, Ginkgo’s the genomic compatibility of an organ dona- a week. The system would then race to share the chief executive, told me at the time. It was tech- tion. ‘‘The company’s ethos,’’ Sanghera says, ‘‘is data, via mobile networks, with health workers nically possible to sequence many of the positive the analysis of anything, by anyone, anywhere.’’ and communities so as to elicit a rapid response: coronavirus samples, too, he said. Indeed, there happens to be a Minion on the travel restrictions, quarantines, medicine. Any- When I asked Kelly what he would do if his International Space Station right now. thing necessary to break chains of transmission. capacity goes unused, he didn’t seem con- The technology, compared with Illumina’s, With a virus that spreads exponentially, a day cerned. He doubted his sequencers would be is considered by most scientists I spoke with to could matter. A week could mean the diff erence idle. ‘‘By betting on sequencers as our Covid be less accurate, but it has advantages beyond between a small but deadly outbreak and a global response,’’ he remarked, ‘‘we get fl exibility for those that Sanghera mentioned. It was the Min- cataclysm. (The time between the fi rst case of what you can use this for later.’’ After the pan- ion that enabled scientists to test for diseases like Covid-19 and the release of the sequence of the demic, in other words, there will still be new Zika without any infrastructure beyond a laptop; virus was most likely about two months.) strains of fl u and other viruses to code. There more recently, it’s what allowed Esteé Torok and As successive waves of the pandemic washed will be a backlog of sequencing work for cancer other researchers in Britain to track viral muta- over the world, I noticed that the buzzword at and prenatal health and rare genetic diseases. tions in real time in a hospital. ‘‘That ability to the sequencing companies also became ‘‘sur- There will be an ongoing surveillance eff ort for do sequencing in the fi eld, even in rural Africa, veillance.’’ For the most part, it meant tracking SARS-CoV-2 variants. An even bigger job, more- has opened up possibilities that were never pre- new variants and using sequencing codes to help over, involves a continuing project to sequence viously even envisioned,’’ Eric Green, who runs reveal paths and patterns of transmission. Yet untold strains of microbes, a project that Ginkgo the National Human Genome Research Institute, surveillance sometimes seemed a fl exible con- has been involved with in search of new phar- part of the N.I.H., told me recently. cept, given that Illumina and Oxford Nanopore maceuticals. ‘‘I think of this as like building fi ber Bringing the equivalent of an iPhone into were selling fl exible machines. Surveillance could in the late 1990s, for the internet,’’ Kelly said. genomics may not eff ect a revolution overnight. mean the search for the next novel virus in Asia ‘‘Back then, we laid down huge amounts of fi ber, Sanghera doesn’t imagine that big central test- or even early cancer detection in our bodies. And then everything crashed.’’ ing labs, or Illumina, could fade away anytime it sometimes meant mass testing too. Last year, But it turned out that a decade after the dot- soon; indeed, his own company markets a line of both deSouza and Sanghera successfully adapted com crash, optical fi ber was essential for the large sequencers for big labs, too. And for sure, their companies’ machines to do clinical diag- expanding traffi c of the web. And what Kelly related technologies can coexist, much like cloud nostic tests for the corona virus; the goal was to seemed to be saying, I later realized, was that he computing and desktop computing, especially if step in and help increase global testing capacity would expand his lab because sequencing had to they solve diff erent problems. For now, Sanghera at a moment when many medical facilities were be the future, in all kinds of diff erent ways. There regards the corona virus, and the surveillance overwhelmed by the demand. was no going back.

42 3.28.21 Beauty Instagram face — an was proudest of, though, Rae said, ‘‘Just staying (Continued from Page 35) mentally healthy has been a really big accom- averaging of many possible plishment for me.’’ that he saw ‘‘hotter girls everyday.’’ ‘‘Things like It was a bit chilling to think about linking this can tear someone’s self-esteem up if they’re inputs — is not one these two things, a beauty brand and mental already having negative thoughts in their own health, especially as our era of global pandemic head,’’ she wrote. that exists among humanity. comes to a close and we emerge in the light, I asked Rae how she could believe what she blinking, looking to create new idols. In Septem- had just told me — that makeup is just about It may not even exist ber, Selena Gomez, who has been open about enhancing your inherent beauty — while also among Kardashians. her bipolar disorder, introduced her own line, at times feeling terrible about her own looks. Rare Beauty. In marketing eff orts, the company, Rae tapes a weekly, roughly 20-minute Spo- which off ers soft concealers, foundations and tify podcast with her mother, ‘‘Mama Knows blushers, vowed that ‘‘we will use makeup to Best,’’ and on one episode she said that she was shape positive conversations around beauty, sometimes so down about her appearance that how I looked. The life I led online was picture self-acceptance and mental health.’’ And short- she wouldn’t eat before fi lming TikTok videos. perfect. But in reality, I was carefully curating ly before the musician Halsey began promoting ‘‘How do you square self-love and self-hate?’’ the image of a life I wanted, not had.’’ her new makeup line in early 2021, she chose I asked. Working within the system, Rae was trying to to post an old photo of her emaciated body on ‘‘I think it’s something that I’m fi guring out address the way that she was also torn apart by a Instagram, explaining that she suff ered from an for myself,’’ Rae answered, a bit hesitant. ‘‘And lot of the same concern over her looks that other eating disorder. Kylie, too, recently put a saying I’m not 100 percent sure how to handle it yet, people had. She even built vulnerability into the from a self-help author on her Instagram — ‘‘may but I’m working on it.’’ She paused. ‘‘I think at branding of her makeup line. Last year, Rae and the dark thoughts, overthinking, and doubt exit the end of the day, it’s just realizing that I am Item sold a round, orange-colored compact, and your mind right now,’’ it read in part — along who I am for a reason, and this is what I was when you opened it, it had a mirror with the with a photo of a bathtub and naked legs, slight- given — this is the body I was given. So I might words ‘‘I love you say it back.’’ This was a riff on ly covered in suds, against which rested a clear as well love it, because it’s the only one I have.’’ a popular meme, a standard-issue message of pink bottle from her skin-care line. This was a lovely answer, if a mix of genu- girlboss empowerment but also an acknowledg- Normalizing mental-health issues was a ine belief and proverb. Yet what was becoming ment of widespread insecurity that Rae, and the worthy goal. ‘‘Think of the way it used to be in clear was that social media has demystifi ed and person buying the compact, might feel. the past, when beauty messaging was hugely deglamorized beauty just as it has made it a I thought that was sweet, but an intimate chauvinistic and about how a product would more constant pressure. All of us, including relationship with the idol was also what the con- help you attract a man or about your acne being Rae, can really envy the gorgeous infl uencers sumer was demanding. A display of insecurity so shameful,’’ Kathleen Hou of The Cut says. on our feeds in a way we might not have envied from Rae, or at least an acknowledgment that ‘‘I think beauty is more aware today of how to past models like Christy Turlington, who was Rae might look in the same mirror and need a talk about these issues than, say, fashion. They made of diff erent stuff , untouchable. What’s jolt of confi dence the same way the consumer might not have the ultimate solution, but it’s more, we never had to put photographs of our- does, may be part of that. ‘‘Relatability is the better than not addressing it at all.’’ selves out there for public consumption. There’s No. 1 thing that makes people click ‘check out,’ ’’ Yet it was hard to shake the feeling that the a tremendous amount of anxiety generated by Sarah Brown told me. industry seems to be counting on everyone’s the fact that we do all this now in proximity with It was hard to tell whether Rae was truly agreeing that beauty culture is solely empow- people who do it much better and whose lives insecure or simply using a marketing tactic to ering, obscuring a dialectic of confi dence-build- seem, albeit artifi cially, within reach. gain fans. ‘‘Everybody is insecure about their ing and -destroying, kept afl oat by hyperreal This is not news to those who are prominent bodies, and the more our culture gets visual, the images on our phones. This was Rae’s true inno- in beauty culture. After all, they’re often famous more insecure we’ll all get, and it doesn’t matter vation: Rather than making a lipstick with the because of social media, and when they choose how you look objectively one bit,’’ Widdows, the perfect gloss, she was making clear that she had to make a beauty line, it’s not just about cash- philosopher, told me. ‘‘So it’s not implausible to problems with beauty culture, but you might as ing in — most of the time they feel insecure, think even the most beautiful celebrities might well join her and experience it all alongside her, and they use cosmetics to help themselves feel also be insecure. In fact, it’s very plausible to the highs of achieving a beautiful look, the lows better and want to share those to make others think they are. But to say that they suddenly of feeling that you never measure up. feel better too. But this becomes a vicious cycle, stopped being insecure because they put their The degree to which social media and its and it’s hard to step back. own lipstick on, I fi nd much less plausible.’’ eff ect on Rae and others was the source of this Michelle Phan, an early infl uencer and Ipsy Still, the psychological fl ytrap in this kind insecurity was hard to ascertain, but it seemed co-founder, confused the beauty communi- of rhetoric — ‘‘I want you to know your body is very likely that Rae had become famous by ty when she stopped posting online in 2015. perfect even though you’re buying this product being relatable and somewhat insecure, and Two years later, she restarted her makeup line, to look like me, and I am insecure about my then that the fame itself had opened her up to Em Cosmetics, which she bought back from looks’’ — was powerful, and stars other than criticism, which made her even more insecure L’Oréal, and sold her stake in Ipsy. ‘‘Once, I was Rae were gesturing to it as well. When I asked but also even more monetizable. I imagined a girl with dreams, who eventually became a Camberos, the beauty executive, where he saw a similar chain reaction was happening with product, smiling, selling and selling,’’ she said beauty culture today and where it was going, her fans: The more they relied on her prod- in a 2017 video explaining her departure. ‘‘Who he said it was connected to the issue of mental ucts to make them beautiful, the more they felt I was on camera and who I was in real life began health. Rae told British Glamour that she felt she they needed these products to feel good. They to feel like strangers.’’ She added: ‘‘My insecuri- was in a good place regarding her appearance were stuck in that compact’s mirror, telling ties got the worse of me. I became imprisoned lately and quoted the saying ‘‘Comparison is one another to feel better about themselves, by my own vanity and was never satisfi ed with the thief of joy.’’ When asked about what she but never quite reaching their goal.

The New York Times Magazine 43 Puzzles SPELLING BEE HALF HITCHES TRIANGULUM By Frank Longo By Patrick Berry By Wei-Hwa Huang

How many common words of 5 or more letters can Pair each four-letter word on the left with a four-letter Enter the digits from 1 to 5 in the circles so that no digit you spell using the letters in the hive? Every answer word on the right to complete an eight-letter word. is repeated along any line, and so that the bold numbers must use the center letter at least once. Letters may A single letter in one of the two four-letter words must inside the grid equal the sum of the digits in the three be reused in a word. At least one word will use all 7 be changed. For example, SAGA and BOND could adjacent circles. Some figures have been placed for you. letters. Proper names and hyphenated words are not combine to form VAGABOND (SAGA > VAGA), and TAPE

allowed. Score 1 point for each answer, and 3 points andTAY S could combine to form TAPESTRY (STAY > Ex. 1 1 for a word that uses all 7 letters. STRY). Clues appear in mixed order at the bottom. 2 5 2 Each four-letter word will be used exactly once.

2 2 3 4 Rating: 8 = good; 17 = excellent; 26 = genius 1. ARMY ______BARD 8 > 8 3 4 1 5 8 8 2. BILL ______CITY 4 1 4 1 5 2 3 3. DOME ______HAIR A 4. ENVY ______LACE 5. FIRS ______LOPE 6. INFO ______ODOR M C 7. MAST ______RAIN 8. POPE ______REAL L 9. QUIT ______STIR

10. SHOD ______THAW I E 11. SIGH ______TRIP 10 7 12. ZERO ______UNIT 10 9

H Clues Casual • Comfortable piece of furniture • Four-line stanza • Large, extinct beast • Letter holder • Mystery • Pertaining to the home • Runway for a plane • Sum total of inhabitants • Unrestrained violence • Our list of words, worth 29 points, appears with last week’s answers. Visited some tourist spots • Word before ball or table

1 F 2 H 3 S 4 V 5 E 6 W 7 O 8 L 9 M 10 D 11 A 12 B 13 X 14 G 15 I 16 N 17 P 18 F 19 Q 20 V 21 T 22 K 23 E

ACROSTIC 24 H 25 L 26 C 27 R 28 A 29 B 30 W 31 F 32 M 33 O 34 G 35 N 36 Q 37 H 38 U 39 J 40 D 41 R 42 X 43 L 44 F By Emily Cox & Henry Rathvon 45 V 46 A 47 W 48 P 49 I 50 E 51 Q 52 M 53 S 54 O 55 T 56 L 57 G 58 K 59 C 60 U 61 H 62 B 63 V 64 Q 65 W 66 M

Guess the words defined below and 67 J 68 F 69 E 70 X 71 D 72 C 73 U 74 I 75 H 76 K 77 S 78 A 79 T 80 B 81 P 82 W 83 E 84 J 85 O 86 D 87 G write them over their numbered dashes. Then transfer each letter to 88 V 89 M 90 L 91 X 92 N 93 K 94 C 95 S 96 P 97 F 98 R 99 T 100 U 101 H 102 J 103 L 104 Q 105 V 106 B 107 G 108 K 109 E the correspondingly numbered square in the pattern. Black squares indicate 110 I 111 A 112 D 113 N 114 C 115 F 116 R 117 X 118 Q 119 U 120 T 121 H 122 S 123 O 124 V 125 G 126 M 127 B 128 E 129 A 130 R 131 I word endings. The filled pattern will contain a quotation reading from left 132 C 133 W 134 X 135 H 136 L 137 U 138 J 139 D 140 O 141 V 142 M 143 Q 144 G 145 N 146 A 147 T 148 C 149 K 150 L 151 R to right. The first letters of the guessed words will form an acrostic giving the 152 D 153 U 154 E 155 P 156 B 157 F 158 I 159 S 160 M 161 W 162 G 163 A 164 R 165 L 166 H 167 O 168 D 169 J 170 U 171 Q 172 K 173 E 174 I author’s name and the title of the work.

A. Quaint way of saying “IMHO” G. “Come on, that’s ridiculous!” (2 wds.) M. Upbraid, dress down, chew out S. Shape-shifting computer game ______11 146 28 78 129 163 46 111 144 57 87 14 34 162 107 125 32 142 52 9 89 160 126 66 77 3 122 95 53 159 B. Laugh out loud with glee H. Denizen of the Great Barrier Reef N. Singer of “OMG,” “Yeah!” and T. High valuation ______“Scream” ______127 29 12 106 80 156 62 61 166 75 135 37 101 24 121 2 ______99 120 147 55 79 21 C. What a hug or blowing a kiss might I. The Beatles’ first release on the 16 35 92 113 145 U. Sci-fi Britcom with a computer offer Apple record label (1968) (2 wds.) O. Showing no feelings named Holly (2 wds.) ______49 131 15 74 110 174 158 153 119 38 100 170 60 137 73 94 148 114 59 72 26 132 85 7 123 167 33 140 54 J. Cheerfully indifferent V. Digital platforms like YouTube and D. Failing to see what’s so funny P. Communal character ______Twitter (2 wds.) ______84 138 102 67 39 169 ______86 168 40 10 152 71 112 139 155 48 81 96 17 K. The slash represents a raised one in 141 105 63 4 20 124 45 88 E. Star of “The Fall Guy” and “The Six this: /:) Q. Skip James blues song covered by W. Express strong interest or approval Million Dollar Man” (2 wds.) Cream (3 wds.) ______58 76 93 149 172 22 108 ______47 161 65 133 82 6 30 173 50 109 83 69 23 5 128 154 L. Publisher of Vogue, GQ and Wired 64 143 51 171 104 118 36 19 X. App whose content is swiped left F. Exchange of <3 symbols, maybe (2 wds.) R. Visage-altering work (2 wds.) and right ______44 115 157 18 31 68 97 1 8 136 103 90 150 165 25 43 56 41 164 98 27 116 151 130 91 117 13 42 134 70

44 Baseball and the oral tradition fl ows freely through him. Answers to puzzles of 3.21.21 (Continued from Page 27) Players fl ashed and fl ickered in his voice — Moses Fleetwood Walker, Josh Gibson, Ernie MORES denote non-Negro-leagues professional baseball Banks, Roy Campanella, Jackie Robinson, Larry ESSAY SCOT BIBLE GRAB — that awaited Grant. By this time it was 1884, he Doby, Buck O’Neil, Cool Papa Bell, Monte Irvin, P I PPA AUTO AFF I X OHME was 19 and still in Williamstown, pitching for an Satchel Paige — but when I brought up Aaron, a S L E E P I NTHEBUF F ET DEUS OVER OK I E RB I RASSLE integrated amateur team, the Greylocks, on the melancholy took hold of his voice before he let MA D C OW TRA I L E R P ARQUE T town’s south side. If an apartheid form of baseball go and began to refl ect joyously. UAE LEERAT MU S T was the will of the N.A.B.B.P., the message had yet ‘‘For me, the statistical aspect of this is almost NBA TYPEAB SALSA COLDHARDCACHE T ADDL ED to either register with or deter Grant, who grew secondary. It’s the recognition and the atone- IDLES OI L ROS ANNE I VY up playing baseball with white kids in town. ment that comes along with the acknowledgment S E EM AFT ABA I CANS E E One contemporary newspaper article on of the Negro Leagues as just what it was: a major YOUV EHADYOUR F I L E T Grant in his prime remarked that ‘‘wherever he league,’’ Kendrick told me. S PONGE S BRO ETA WI NK OHO L E S B I AN WI I EMC E E had played, he has quickly become a favorite.’’ ‘‘I, for one, don’t ever want the lore and legend PIPPIN L E T SMAK E AD E L A Y But the story of Grant’s prime years is also the to go away,’’ he continued. ‘‘These stories about ENOK I OS I R I S ELS story of the color line catching up to him. ‘‘Were Josh Gibson should be viewed as larger than life. MO R E ONB A S E REF BACKS TAGE PAS S E B LARED it not for the fact that he is a colored man,’’ the Babe Ruth was in many eyes Paul Bunyan. Well, LAT I SH CPR WA Z E MO J O article continued, ‘‘he would without a doubt be for Black folks, Josh Gibson was John Henry. And ALOE UNSOLICITEDBIDET at the top notch of the records among the fi nest I don’t want to lose that.’’ MO P S GR IME ONE S ON I C E teams in the country.’’ His favorite photograph in the Negro Leagues EXI T SATES BENT GENTS Given that the article headlines Grant’s conten- Baseball Museum collection is one of Henry tious move from the no-longer-integrated Buff alo Aaron in 1952, when Aaron was 18. He stands on KENKEN Bisons to the all-Black Cuban Giants — the fi rst the tracks of the L&N Railroad station in Mobile, all-Black professional baseball club and a team posing uncomfortably. The sun is in his eyes, and stacked with late-19th-century heavyweights like he doesn’t know what to do with his hands, so he George Stovey and Clarence Williams — it was hides them behind his back. On the ground right clear that Grant actually was on one of ‘‘the fi n- beside him is a duff el bag — maybe it holds two est teams in the country.’’ The Sporting News, changes of clothes, a glove, a baseball. Maybe far from an ally of Black ballplayers in that era, he has $2.50 tucked away in his pocket. Aaron is said of that vintage of the Cuban Giants, ‘‘This waiting for a train to take him to Winston-Salem, club, with its strongest players on the fi eld, would N.C., where he will meet up with his fi rst pro- play a favorable game against such clubs as the fessional team: the Indianapolis Clowns of the PUNS AND ANAGRAMS

New Yorks or Chicagos,’’ referring to teams of Negro American League. He would play only 26 C L AMB A R I MPAS S E the nonintegrated leagues. games for the Clowns — hitting for a .366 aver- A AM I L N E T I E D OWN Bob Kendrick is the president of the Negro age, with fi ve home runs and nine stolen bases TR I DENT UN T AME D Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. On while playing shortstop. Compared with the FAD DURANT E EEL I MAC L ANE S COT E a recent Friday afternoon, he told me that the statistical legacy he would leave Major League S I LOS CDS BONE S museum was busy preparing for its conversion Baseball, these may seem a trifl e, a small sample HEART I ER G I VENS to a Covid-vaccination center for the community size. Until you ask yourself, as Aaron asked us to, NOT SOS UR E RAT I OS MI STREAT come Monday. Kendrick is a gifted storyteller, How did it come about? ERRED BEN HUNCH SEAR CADE T PURR HAL H A S A C OW REO I MAWA R E UTOP I AN KENKEN PALATES R E V ENGE Fill the grid with digits so as not to repeat a digit in any row or column, and so that the digits within each heavily outlined SPAREST EME RGE S box will produce the target number shown, by using addition, subtraction, multiplication or division, as indicated in the box. A 5x5 grid will use the digits 1–5. A 7x7 grid will use 1–7. DOUBLE OR NOTHING TRIANGULUM

AR ES 3 6 DE CA DE 1 2

VA PE 2 5 4 12 11 CA ST RO 5 4 3 1 AT OM IC 8 4 3 1 2 5 NE ED ED

Answers to puzzle on Page 44

to include them in your score. your in them include to

other legitimate dictionary words in the beehive, feel free free feel beehive, the in words dictionary legitimate other

lemma, lilac, llama, malice, mammal, melee. If you found found you If melee. mammal, malice, llama, lilac, lemma,

cliché, clime, email, halal, helical, icicle, leach, leech, leech, leach, icicle, helical, halal, email, clime, cliché,

celiac, chalice, challah, chicle, chili, chill, cilia, claim, claim, cilia, chill, chili, chicle, challah, chalice, celiac,

Chemical (3 points). Also: Acclaim, allele, camel, camellia, camellia, camel, allele, Acclaim, Also: points). (3 Chemical SPELLING BEE SPELLING

KenKen® is a registered trademark of Nextoy, LLC. © 2021 www.KENKEN.com. All rights reserved. 45 Puzzles Edited by Will Shortz

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

OVER THE MOON 18 19 20 By Olivia Mitra Framke 21 22 23

Olivia Mitra Framke, of Jersey City, N.J., is an academic 24 25 26 adviser at the New School’s College of Performing Arts in Manhattan. She started solving crosswords during college 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 — but not at college. Her dad would hoard New York Times 35 36 37 38 39 Magazines, and the two of them would solve together when she returned home. This is Olivia’s ninth crossword for The 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Times, and her fourth Sunday. — W.S. 47 48 49 50 51

ACROSS 85 Fleet runner: Abbr. 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59

1 Pest-control product 86 One feature of a perfect 60 61 62 63 64 65 5 Luggage label nanny, in a ‘‘Mary Poppins’’ song 66 67 68 69 70 10 Color eff ect in graphic 91 Mars design 71 72 73 18 Video-game princess of 92 Hesitate in speaking the Kingdom of Hyrule 93 More inquisitive 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 19 Writer Zora ____ Hurston 98 Jaded sort 81 82 83 84 85 20 Take part in a D.&D. 99 Solo fl ier? campaign, e.g. 105 Prefi x meaning ‘‘both’’ 86 87 88 89 90 21 Brand of fruity hard candy 106 Welled (up) 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 23 Personae non gratae 108 Like people who are much 24 Uranus looked up to 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 25 ‘‘Arrivederci!’’ 109 Insurance-fraud ploy 106 107 108 109 26 Jerks 110 Determiner of cannabis 27 ‘‘____ to diff er!’’ legality, e.g. 110 111 112 113 114 115 28 One taking the long view? 113 Classic carnival ride 116 117 118 31 Tarot-deck character 116 Cherished family member 35 Some surgical tools 117 Neptune 119 120 121

38 ‘‘Unit’’ of fun 118 Golding of ‘‘Crazy Rich 3/28/21 39 All-star duo? Asians’’ 119 Sporty car 22 Juggling or magic, in a 58 Quaker 89 S e n t o ff 40 Comfort in not knowing, talent show say 120 Deliver a speech 59 Community of followers 90 Lose a layer 26 Nobel laureate Morrison 47 Request 121 World of Warcraft 61 Thesaurus listing: Abbr. 94 Bit of luau wear 29 Poker variety 50 Jupiter spellcaster 63 Melber of MSNBC 95 ‘‘No question!’’ 30 ‘‘This Will Be’’ singer 51 Ships passing in the night? 64 Candy featured in a classic 96 Magazine whose 60th Natalie ‘‘MythBusters’’ episode 52 Sch. on the Rio Grande DOWN anniversary issue had the 32 Sommelier’s métier 65 cover line ‘‘Denzel, Halle & 54 Hollers 1 Leans (on) Confucian’s spiritual path 33 ‘‘Monsters, ____’’ Jamie’’ 55 2 Claim 67 In ____ (peeved) Like some parties and 97 What’s hard about a fl o w e r s 34 Be on the level? 68 Nintendo dinosaur who 3 Pastoral poem melon? 56 ‘‘Back to the Future’’ 36 ‘‘Notorious’’ Supreme eats fruit and throws eggs 4 ____ es Salaam 99 Origami shape called antagonist Court initials 69 Bring to court 5 Navel type ‘‘orizuru’’ 60 Hit movie released as 37 Knocked ’em dead 70 6 Sticker on the back of a 2003 best seller whose title ‘‘Vaselina’’ in Mexico 100 Tree surgeon, at times laptop, say 39 Not spoiled is one letter diff erent from 62 Husk-wrapped dish a fantasy creature 101 Interior chambers 7 Home to the Sugar Bowl 41 Suffi x with serpent 102 Gem weight 65 Colorful tropical fi sh and Heavenly ski resorts 42 One of fi ve in 75 Pleasures 103 Bonnie’s partner in crime 66 Song standard on ‘‘Barbra 8 Draft pick? ‘‘pronunciation’’: Abbr. 77 Grammy winner DiFranco Streisand’s Greatest Hits’’ 104 9 Neighbor of Belg. 43 Choice of sizes, briefl y 78 Rendezvoused Quadratic formula subj. n 71 Satur 10 Word after focus or 44 Celebratory, quaintly 79 ____ gow (Chinese domino 107 Oodles 72 With 11-Down, hit 2001 Facebook 45 Deception game) 109 Measurement in plane fi lm with an ‘‘!’’ in its title 11 See 72-Across 46 Cowboy or Patriot, for 81 Money earned from an geometry 73 Stirred up event, say 12 Mountain map fi gs. short 110 Camera type, briefl y 74 Cold shower? 82 Gush 13 Ones getting the message 47 Zeros 111 As well 75 Muralist ____ Clemente 48 Distinct melodic segment 83 Archaeologist’s fi nd 112 DuVernay who directed Orozco 14 Rio beach of song 49 Not waver from 84 Brian once of glam rock ‘‘Selma’’ 76 2021 Super Bowl champs 15 Hollow center? 53 Fruit also called a custard 86 U.S. health org. 113 Queue before P 80 Boy, in Barcelona 16 Turner who led an 1831 slave rebellion apple or prairie banana 87 ‘‘Hands off , that’s mine!’’ 114 Canal locale 81 Animated character who wears a red shirt and no 17 Grateful sentiments, in 55 Baby’s cry 88 Austrian article 115 Piece de resistance? online shorthand pants 56 Cue at an audition Puzzles Online Today’s puzzle and more than 9,000 past puzzles: 82 Time before computers, 18 ‘‘The Greek’’ of fi lm 57 Land jutting into il nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year). For the daily puzzle facetiously 21 Corner space in Monopoly Mediterraneo commentary: nytimes.com/wordplay.

46