Table of contents for December 27, 2021 in TIME Magazine

Down but Not Out ON MAY 23, A CONTROL TOWER RADIOED a Ryanair jetliner that it had a bomb on board. A fighter jet appeared off its wing, and Flight FR4978, en route from Greece to Lithuania, was compelled to make a sharp turn and land in Belarus. But there was no bomb: only Roman Protasevich, an ashen-faced journalist who informed his fellow passengers that he was the reason the plane was diverted. After disembarking, the 26-year-old was led away for the crime of reporting on political opposition—exactly the sort of activity essential to the functioning of a democracy, should one ever occur in his benighted homeland. When a state openly hijacks a commercial flight to abduct a journalist, the message to the rest of the world is that the…

1. The Underground Railroad In adapting Colson Whitehead’s novel about a young enslaved woman’s (Thuso Mbedu) slightly fantastical journey north, Barry Jenkins improved upon a masterpiece, expanding minimal prose into an immersive audiovisual and moral landscape. While his insightful direction yielded indelible performances, bespoke music and production design made each episode a discrete allegorical world. Although it would’ve been a breathtaking achievement at any time, in a year when racists revolted at the Capitol and in the classroom, it felt as essential as any work of art could be. 2. The White Lotus Asked to pitch a series that could be shot in a single location, for COVID-19 reasons, creator Mike White cannily picked a Hawaiian resort. Well, he earned both the trip and a surprise second season, with this…

CRITICAL RACE THEORY Noun (1) An intellectual movement contextualizing the effects of structural racism; (2) A buzzword in the debate over how students should be learning about race NFT Initialism Nonfungible token: a digital file that cannot be copied, thus allowing certified ownership of a virtual asset cheugy Adjective A catchall descriptor for someone or something that is basic, trying too hard or not trendy; originating on TikTok, it’s often used by Gen Z to deride millennial trends REGENCYCORE Noun, adjective A fashion and culture trend inspired by the look of the British Regency period—or by Netflix’s hit Bridgerton and the series’ celebration of early 19th century aristocrats and their glamorous foibles deplatform Verb To ban, boycott or otherwise limit the influence of someone on a platform—usually a social media…

THE AIR IS MUSTY, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER IS playing on an ancient TV by the door, and Olivia Rodrigo is flipping through racks of slip dresses and flared pants. “What’s your style?” she asks. I tell her, unhelpfully, that I’m looking for something I might actually wear. She nods and says, “Vibes.” We’re at a vintage shop in East Los Angeles, one the 18-year-old singer-songwriter frequented while working on her debut album, Sour. She was out late last night at the American Music Awards, but she’s moving so quickly this morning you’d never guess. She’s using one hand to browse, the other to grip a matcha latte, and somehow, without my noticing, has managed to collect at least five pieces under her elbow. She suggests, for me, a T-shirt…

1. 9/12 The best work yet from prolific podcaster Dan Taberski (Missing Richard Simmons) focuses not on Sept. 11 itself but how that day changed America. He unspools the tale of how the CIA recruited Hollywood creators to dream up the attacks that U.S. enemies might attempt next, examines the persecution of Muslim Americans and traces the rise of conspiracy theories. A genial but shrewd interviewer, Taberski paints a portrait of a society redefining its identity in the wake of tragedy. 2. S***hole Country The pseudonymous narrator of S***hole Country is one of podcasting’s most promising storytellers. The series turns on her difficult decision to either stay in the U.S., where she’s lost her job and health care, or move into the free apartment her parents are offering in their homeland…

‘Rude and racist are not the same.’ MEGHAN MARKLE, on the difference between the way the British media covers white members of the royal family and the coverage she received prior to leaving the U.K., to Oprah Winfrey in an interview that aired on March 7 ‘FELLAS, I NEED 11,000 VOTES. GIVE ME A BREAK.’ DONALD TRUMP, in a Jan. 2 phone call with Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, during which he repeatedly pressured Raffensperger to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the state ‘Today, we are able to breathe again.’ PHILONISE FLOYD, brother of George Floyd, after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder on April 20 ‘THE WORD VICTIM IS A LOADED, LOADED WORD.’ JUDGE BRUCE SCHROEDER, ruling Oct. 25 that attorneys could…

A Time for Innovation AFTER A RARE PANDEMIC-RELATED dip in 2020, global carbon emissions bounced back with a vengeance. Climate disasters seemed relentless over the summer, from flooding in Western Europe and China to wildfires in Siberia and the American West. And although world leaders made some headway at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, their new emission-reduction commitments aren’t nearly enough to get the world back on track. Even so, it was also a year in which individuals, organizations and governments started to come together to respond to the climate emergency. It’s unclear whether that momentum will lead to the sweeping systemic changes the world needs to rapidly zero out greenhouse-gas emissions, but from international agreements to technological advances, some progress is being made. Here, some of the most…

NO ONE KNOWS FOR SURE WHERE THE VIRUS came from. It could have been the murky depths of one of the hundreds of bat caves scattered across China. Carried inside a bat on a nightly sojourn, the virus may have jumped to another wild animal, perhaps one of those sold in the wet markets in the region. It’s also possible SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, slipped out of a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, unbeknownst to the researchers studying bat-borne coronaviruses, who were perhaps unintentionally infected by the very thing they were trying to learn how to defend against. In either case, it had to ride in something. A virus, being just a bundle of genetic material wrapped in a bundle of proteins, needs the machinery…

1. A Little Devil in America A finalist for the National Book Award, Hanif Abdurraqib’s work of cultural criticism is an astonishing accounting of Black performance. In lyrical essays, Abdurraqib analyzes everything from the rise of Whitney Houston to a schoolyard fistfight. The author, also a poet, seamlessly blends pop culture references with U.S. history and stories from his own upbringing. He covers broad ground with ease and wit, an impressive balance for a book that is as bold as it is essential. 2. Crying in H Mart When Michelle Zauner, founder of the band Japanese Breakfast, was 25 years old, her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. That illness and her mother’s eventual death shattered Zauner’s sense of self—and forced her to re-evaluate her relationship with her Korean culture.…