New Yorker staff writer, Vogue contributing editor, semi-pro eavesdropper, overcaffeinated earth child. Now writing THE PRIVATE ORDER for Penguin Press.
California and New York
Joined July 2009
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Just a reminder that my courteous, well-dressed, low-volume newsletter—announcing new pieces of my writing, my occasional public appearances, and nothing else—has been compelled to change platforms. It is now on Substack, and you can sign up here. nathanheller.substack.com/ab…
In this week's Talk of the Town, I go to the South Bronx with Dan Hoyle, a pioneer of "journalistic theatre." newyorker.com/magazine/2026/…
Me on the baffling California gubernatorial primary, @NewYorker: newyorker.com/news/the-lede/…
I spent some time with George Lucas and Mellody Hobson; here's the first look at the huge and unusual museum they are opening in Los Angeles, after about a billion dollars of their own money and years of lost access to their dining-room table. vogue.com/article/lucas-muse…
Here's Fabio Bertoni, The New Yorker's own general counsel, on Kash Patel's lawsuit against The Atlantic and defamation lawsuits more generally. newyorker.com/news/the-lede/…
RIP MTT. His arrival at the S.F. Symphony, in 1995, brought the most excitement for a conductor I've seen directly. He made it one of the most vaunted, proudly daring orchestras in the world. Thrilling, for a kid, to see someone remake his creative world. nytimes.com/2026/04/23/arts/…
It's interesting that production volume—"600 stories," etc.— is seen to be the value hill to climb in journalism right now. I know of few people who feel they're running out of news to read.
Nathan Heller retweeted
Enjoyed reading this dispatch by @nathanheller from a Delhi roadside tea stall feeling the squeeze of war.
“The locals are facing surging prices. But the rest is normal.”
Restrictions and attacks in the Strait of Hormuz have made fuel prices rocket. Just ask the roadside tea venders in New Delhi. newyorker.com/magazine/2026/…
A great many value-eroding errors have already been made by collapsing authority, quality, power, and audience to a thin web of data points. It's a fallacy. Let's get real.
NEW Jeff Bezos statement:
“The Post has an essential journalistic mission and an extraordinary opportunity. Each and every day our readers give us a roadmap to success. The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus. Jeff [D’Onofrio], along with Matt [Murray] and Adam [O’Neal], are positioned to lead The Post into an exciting and thriving next chapter.”
At what point did we decide that anyone who put pistachios in a Hershey bar was allowed to charge twenty bucks for it? This is in many ways the most successful retail scam I've ever seen.
Nathan Heller retweeted
When Gavin Newsom first entered public office, at the age of 28, there was a feeling that he would flourish without ascending to the top—too slick, too swank, too smug. Three decades later, the criticisms are the same, but his prospects have transformed. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/KV…
Holding room for books coverage—fiction and nonfiction; bad, good, maybe great—clears ground for a culture that values ideas and ambitious art. It announces we're a real society in which it's worth trying to think and create new things; it's the basis of a fun, interesting world.
Nathan Heller retweeted
"The Governor, who has not changed his cellphone number since becoming mayor of San Francisco, in 2004, has nine thousand twenty-two personal contacts on his phone" newyorker.com/magazine/2026/…
I profiled Gavin Newsom, on whom hopes are being pinned, at length in this week's @NewYorker. I report closely on the way he thinks, operates, builds coalitions, and on. And, yes, the hair. newyorker.com/magazine/2026/…
Thinking today of a Christmas Eve, years ago, when I got to the register at @CityLightsBooks just ahead of Tom Stoppard. He wore a tweed suit and a big silk scarf and carried a stack of books with the merry air of someone who found just the thing, just in time. Sic perpetuum sit.
I always say the MOST special thing about The New Yorker is that you can read something from fifteen, thirty, seventy years ago, and find it to be as fresh and engrossing and funny and worth your time as a piece from Monday. This is the best periodical archive in the world.
This is big and a very long time coming! Your TBR pile just got 100 years longer. newyorker.com/news/press-roo…
There ought to be a word for the great American tradition of generating an idea you know is ridiculous during the final countdown to a meeting, just to hold space and to show that you are, perhaps, doing something. Feignstorming?
From this week's @newyorker anniversary issue: me on the paragraph-level genius of E. B. White. newyorker.com/magazine/takes…
