The Cut

Lisa Miller profiles Brandon Stanton and explores the evolution of and the power imbalances inherent in “Humans of New York,” which Stanton has recently turned into a grant-giving operation, going beyond images and words on social media to offer financial assistance to those he profiles.

Stanton has raised nearly $8 million over the past 18 months for, among others, a retired burlesque dancer ($2.7 million), the immigrant owners of an organic bakery with a chronically ill child ($1.2 million), a man blinded by a screwdriver in a subway attack ($677,000), and a woman undergoing breast-cancer treatment who was behind on her rent ($498,000).

“Fourteen of Halem’s 18 embryos were deemed ‘complex abnormal’ — what IVF doctors sometimes call ‘chaotic,’ with more than one abnormal chromosome. But four of the abnormals were ‘good-looking’ to Braverman’s eye. Three of the embryos, all male, were ‘monosomies’ (missing one chromosome); the fourth embryo, a female, had an extra bit of chromosome 17, making it a partial trisomy. Otherwise, they looked healthy, so Braverman suggested transferring a couple of them. ‘Why don’t you try this?’ he urged Halem.”

“The hardest thing to convey to the children in my life about my childhood is the concept of unadulterated freedom. As people who have been scheduled and monitored down to the second for most of their lives, they truly cannot conceive of life outside of the panopticon of their own experience. When I was a child, a successful day was one where I saw my mother for two hours total, split evenly before and after she went to work.”

“In a newsletter, the reader is welcomed as a supporter, an ally — or perhaps even a friend.”

“Like Tinder, a therapy app serves up a tantalizing array of faces and names with the promise of choice and agency. But even if some users get lucky, a satisfying relationship is hardly guaranteed.”

“Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen grew up to make New York’s most desirable clothes. But can even perfection survive the pandemic?”

“I may scream into a pillow,  or stare out into the void, or get stoned out of my mind, or even weep a little. But I won’t complain.”

“She posted an ad for a roommate. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“A white woman calls the police on her Black neighbors. Six months later, they still share a property line.”

Emily Ratajkowski writes an essay on celebrity, objectification, and consent. “I’ve become more familiar with seeing myself through the paparazzi’s lenses than I am with looking at myself in the mirror. And I have learned that my image, my reflection, is not my own.”