The Believer: Issue 140, Winter 2023

Sound the bugles! The Believer is back with McSweeney's! This massive 144-page resurrection issue is packed with highlights. We have essays from Rafia Zakaria, Sarah Marshall, and Ryan Walsh, and new guest columns from Claire Vaye Watkins and Hanif Abdurraqib. There is an interview with Alan Alda, in which he extensively discusses fruit cake. There are conversations with musicians Angel Olsen and Rickie Lee Jones, and between Aubrey Plaza and Miguel Arteta . There is a new crossword, which is very difficult but also, in our opinion, very enjoyable. There is commentary, from Oscar Villalon, on San Francisco's 24th Street McDonald's, and a tribute to Greg Tate from Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah. There is an exegesis of thirteenth century children's art. There is a surprise guest advice columnist (you'll just have to pick it up to find out who it is). There are other new ingredients too, like our first-ever worldwide best sellers list. Not to mention all of the other regular things you have come to expect from The Believer, like Nick Hornby's column on what he's been reading, and schemas that exhaustively analyse the demon babies of medieval art. This one is not to be missed. Revel in the relaunch of this unkillable arts and culture magazine.