The New York Times Magazine: The Culture Caught Up With Spike Lee — Now What?

Barack Obama left office as one of the most popular in American history. He also left behind a party struggling to find an identity. View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Wednesday, November 22, 2017 [NYTimes.com »]( For a good part of his career, Spike Lee was the only black filmmaker around. His combination of gravity and rarity allowed him to navigate a singular course: telling artistically ambitious, unapologetically black stories while reaping significant financial and critical reward. In this week’s [cover story]( Thomas Chatterton Williams profiles the director as he releases a 10-episode Netflix reboot of ‘‘She’s Gotta Have It,’’ the very film that made Lee a star. While the film was considered provocative around its 1986 release, Lee acknowledges that he’s operating in a different environment this time around. ‘‘I don’t want to sound like a cliché,’’ he said, ‘‘but people are kind of woke.’’ What happens to a provocateur like Spike Lee when the culture catches up to him? Elsewhere in the magazine, Jason Zengerle [writes]( about Crooked Media, liberals’ answer to conservative talk radio. Seth Freed Wessler [writes]( about the U.S. Coast Guard’s ‘‘floating Guantánamos.’’ And Cliff Kuang [writes]( about machine learning’s increasing inscrutability. Can A.I. be taught to explain itself? Happy reading, Jake Silverstein Editor in Chief Mamadi Doumbouya for The New York Times [Feature]( [The Culture Caught Up With Spike Lee — Now What?]( By THOMAS CHATTERTON WILLIAMS After more than three decades as a provocateur, the filmmaker has returned to the movie that made him famous. Photo illustration by Derek Brahney. Source photo: J.R. Eyerman/The Life Picture Collection/Getty Images. Feature [Can A.I. Be Taught to Explain Itself?]( By CLIFF KUANG As machine learning becomes more powerful, the field’s researchers increasingly find themselves unable to account for what their algorithms know — or how they know it. [From left: Tommy Vietor, Jon Lovett and Jon Favreau backstage before a “Pod Tours America” event in November.]( Brian Finke for The New York Times Feature [The Voices in Blue America’s Head]( By JASON ZENGERLE For years, liberals have tried, and failed, to create their own version of conservative talk radio. Has Crooked Media finally figured it out? Letter of Recommendation [Letter of Recommendation: In-Flight Movies]( By MEHER AHMAD There’s more than one ritual that provides cover for public weeping. On Dessert [What Children — and Parents — Can Learn from Baking Together]( By DORIE GREENSPAN A bonding activity that builds joy and character. ADVERTISEMENT [The open waters between Ecuador and Colombia, from which Jhonny Arcentales departed.]( The open waters between Ecuador and Colombia, from which Jhonny Arcentales departed. Glenna Gordon for The New York Times [Feature]( [The Coast Guard’s ‘Floating Guantánamos’]( By SETH FREED WESSLER In an expansion of the war on drugs, the U.S. Coast Guard is targeting low-level smugglers in international waters — shackling them on ships for weeks or even months before arraignment in American courts. [Turkey à la King.]( Gentl and Hyers for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Amy Wilson. Eat [Thanksgiving Leftovers Fit for a King]( By SAM SIFTON Enjoy an elegant yet comforting meal after the festivities have died down. Illustration by Andrew Rae On Money [China’s Revealing Spin on the ‘Sharing Economy’]( By BROOK LARMER Beijing has fully embraced the concept — but in ways that show just how cynical it can become. The Ethicist [Can I Let My Friend Pay Off My Mortgages?]( By KWAME ANTHONY APPIAH The magazine’s Ethicist columnist on accepting a large monetary gift from a friend and voicing concerns about the medical treatment of a friend’s child. Talk [Preet Bharara Is Not Running for Office]( Interview by DAN AMIRA The former United States attorney on not being part of “the resistance” and what he’ll do if President Trump gets impeached. ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW NYTimes [Twitter] [@nytmag]( Get more [NYTimes.com newsletters »]( | Get unlimited access to NYTimes.com and our NYTimes apps. [Subscribe »]( ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this message because you signed up for NYTimes.com's The New York Times Magazine newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Manage Subscriptions]( | [Change Your Email]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Contact]( | [Advertise]( Copyright 2017 The New York Times Company 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018