• 2024 MLB Preseason Predictions: World Series, MVP, Biggest Flop, More

    The smell of fresh-cut grass. The pop of the mitt. The roar of the crowd. With the start of the 2024 MLB season, the familiar sights and sounds of baseball are once again upon us. To celebrate, our staff gathered to register their preseason picks for the World Series, individual awards like MVP and Cy Young, this season’s biggest flop, and more. Ben Lindbergh: I’ve never had a harder time making playoff picks. Some of my forecasts came down to a single signing or injury; you could swap out a...

  • ‘The Three-Body Problem’ Is Brilliant. ‘3 Body Problem’ Is Better.

    My favorite quote about science fiction comes from longtime editor Frederik Pohl, who paraphrased Isaac Asimov when he wrote, “Somebody once said that a good science-fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam.” In other words, it’s not the piece of technology or scientific advance itself that matters in spinning a sci-fi yarn, but rather the advance’s ramifications for humanity. Anyone can predict that humanity might one day, say, make first contact with...

  • Breaking Down the 2024 NCAA Men’s Tournament Bracket

    The men’s March Madness bracket has dropped, and if you need any help filling yours out before the first full day of action tips off on Thursday, we’ve got you covered. We’re taking you through each region, breaking down the top seed, the biggest threats to the favorites, the teams most likely to bust your bracket by the end of the first weekend, and all the key names you’ll be hearing throughout the month. The top seed: Connecticut The Huskies aren’t just the heavy favorites to win the East...

  • ‘Manhunt’ Knows You Know What Happens to John Wilkes Booth

    The thing about the story of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination by John Wilkes Booth is that you know how it ends. The night out at Ford’s Theatre, the gunshot, the leap from the balcony, sic semper tyrannis, the bleeding out in a too-small bed, the hunt for Booth, the fiery barn demise, the whistle-stop tour en route to an Illinois tomb, Mary Todd generally having a time that can be called extremely not good. There isn’t a whole lot of mystery, then, in Manhunt, Apple TV+’s new series about the...