Skip to content

Section archive

Sunday Essay

The weekend's flagship essays.

All desks Arts Audio Best Sellers Book Review Business Climate Columnists Cooking Dance Editorials Education Fashion Food Games Graphics Guest Essays Health Jobs Letters Lifestyle Love Most Read Movies Music New York Op-Docs Opinion Opinion Audio Opinion Video Politics Pop Culture Real Estate Science Sports Style Sunday Essay Technology Television The Athletic Theater Travel U.S Video Weather Well Wirecutter World

A theatre stage with empty red seats. — Live Presence: What recordings cannot fully replicate. | Source: Erik Mclean

Opinion

Sunday Essay: What Live Performance Still Does That Recordings Cannot

The categories of performance that depend on live presence have specific qualities that recorded forms cannot fully replicate.

A craftsperson working at a wooden bench with hand tools.

Opinion

Sunday Essay: The Quiet Persistence of Things Made by Hand

By Jamal Whitfield a month ago

An audio recording studio.

Opinion

Sunday Essay: How the Opinion Section Has Adapted Across Formats

By Imogen Hart a month ago

A solitary figure walking on a path through woodland in early morning fog.

Opinion

Sunday Essay: How We Lost the Long Arc of Public Attention

By Imogen Hart a month ago

A neighbourhood street at dusk with city lights.

Opinion

Sunday Essay: The Slow Renewal of Civic Practice in Mid-Sized Cities

By Jamal Whitfield a month ago

A quiet morning kitchen with sunlight through a window.

Opinion

Sunday Essay: In Praise of the Quiet Things That Hold Lives Together

By Imogen Hart a month ago

A stack of older books with worn spines on a wooden table.

Arts

Sunday Essay: What the Bestseller List Has Always Been For

By Imogen Hart a month ago

A book open on a wooden table beside a window with afternoon light.

Arts

Sunday Essay: What Sustained Reading Does to a Mind

By Imogen Hart a month ago

An old stone civic building seen across a square at dawn.

Opinion

Sunday Essay: The Quiet Work of Rebuilding Institutional Trust

By Jamal Whitfield a month ago

An old typewriter on a wooden desk with worn pages of writing.

Opinion

Sunday Essay: What We Lose When Public Language Loses Its Specificity

By Imogen Hart 2 months ago

10 stories