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June 2025

[Symposium]

Twain Dreams

The enigma of Samuel Clemens

by ,
[Essay]

The Reenchanted World

On finding mystery in the digital age

by ,Translated by , ,
[Symposium]

For Those Who Would Be Real

James Baldwin’s testimony in images

by ,

Harper’s Magazine welcomes reader response.

Email us about articles in the magazine.

[Harper’s Index]

Year in which the Harper’s Index was first published : 1984

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Number of Index lines that have ever been published : 19,787

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Portion of the earth’s continents on which Harper’s Magazine subscribers live : 7/7

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Number of Harper’s subscriptions registered in Antarctica : 1

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Percentage by which tourism to the United States is projected to decrease this year : 9

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Percentage by which Democrats are more likely than Republicans to display political signs outside their homes : 10

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

By which men are more likely than women to do so : 16

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Portion of Republicans who say that Americans should have the right to protest : 3/4

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Who say that Americans should have the right to protest Israel’s war on Gaza : 2/5

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Number of bills that would restrict the right to peaceful assembly currently pending in Congress : 5

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

In state legislatures : 40

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Percentage increase this year in seizures of eggs being smuggled into the United States : 48

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Percentage increase last year in the number of U.S. households that owned chickens : 28

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of American men who are interested in trying lab-grown meat : 59

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Of American women : 38

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Percentage increase last year in U.S. hospitalizations from food poisoning : 112

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Percentage by which female physicians are more likely to commit suicide than nonphysician women : 53

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

By which male physicians are less likely to commit suicide than nonphysician men : 16

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Chance that an American aged 18–64 who has been prescribed a stimulant will misuse it : 1 in 4

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of Americans who feel comfortable discussing their health with family members or close friends : 81

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Who feel comfortable discussing their bank-account balances : 38

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Chance that an American will work for one of their parents’ employers before turning 30 : 1 in 3

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Estimated percentage by which those who do so earn higher salaries there : 24

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Number of companies that accounted for half of global carbon-dioxide emissions in 2023 : 36

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Estimated cost to insurers caused by natural disasters worldwide last year : $146,000,000,000

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Percentage by which this cost exceeded this century’s annual average : 51

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of millennial and Gen Z investors who viewed environmentally motivated investing as extremely important in 2022 : 44

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

In 2024 : 11

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of corporate executives who say they feel comfortable letting AI make decisions on their behal : 38

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Who say they would defer to AI’s reasoning over their own : 44

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of corporate executives using AI who say they trust its business advice over that of their colleagues : 74

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Factor by which the word “notable” appears more frequently in AI-generated sentences than in those written by human : 13

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

By which the word “esteemed” does : 120

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Portion of Americans aged 13–17 who say they have been the subject of deepfake pornograph : 1/17

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Who say they know another minor who has : 1/9

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of U.S. tenth graders who say they love school : 26

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of parents of U.S. tenth graders who say their child loves school : 65

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

Average amount that an American child received from the tooth fairy, per tooth, in 2024 : $5.84

June 2025
[Harper’s Index]

This year : $5.01

June 2025

Readings

[Essay]

Liberal Bias
by ,
[Vocabulary]

Foredone and Dusted
by ,
[Travelogue]

Art of Living
by ,
[Story]

John
by ,
[Prose]

The Extremophile
by ,
[Fiction]

Le Drugstore
by ,
[Valediction]

Zen There, Done That
by ,
[Poem]

Psalm 3
by ,
[Last Words]

Beyond The Grave
by ,

“Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, China,” a photograph by Zed Nelson, from his monograph The Anthropocene Illusion, which was published last month by Guest Editions. Courtesy the artist and Guest Editions

“Bureau of Land Management Arrows, II” and “Found Clay Pigeons,” photographic collages by Jaclyn Wright, whose work is on view this month as part of the Foam Talent 2024–2025 exhibition, at Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, in Eschborn, Germany. Her book High Visibility (Blaze Orange) was published by GOST. Courtesy the artist and GOST

Zoomorph II, a mixed-media artwork (gouache and ink on paper) by Rithika Merchant, whose work was on view last month at TARQ, in Mumbai. Courtesy the artist and TARQ, Mumbai

A photograph by Mark Steinmetz from his book Chicago, which was published in March by Nazraeli Press. The series was on view in April at Stephen Daiter Gallery, in Chicago. Courtesy the artist and Setanta Books

pan de queijo, a painting by Guglielmo Castelli, whose work is on view this month at Mendes Wood DM, in São Paulo. Courtesy the artist and Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Brussels, Paris, New York City

Forever and a Day, a painting by Deborah Poynton, whose work was on view last month at Stevenson, in Cape Town, South Africa. © The artist. Courtesy of Stevenson, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Amsterdam
[Letters]

Letters
by , ,
[Easy Chair]

Near-Death Experiences
by ,
[Harper’s Index]

Harper’s Index
[Letter from Louisville]

Sons of Good Fathers

On some killings in Kentucky

by ,
[Essay]

The Reenchanted World

On finding mystery in the digital age

by ,Translated by , ,
[Symposium]

Distant Mirrors

One hundred seventy-five years of rupture and revolution

by ,
[Symposium]

The Mild Revolutionary

On Henry Jarvis Raymond

by ,
[Symposium]

Twain Dreams

The enigma of Samuel Clemens

by ,
[Symposium]

For Those Who Would Be Real

James Baldwin’s testimony in images

by ,
[From the Archive]

From the Archive: 1850-2025
by , , , , , , ,
[Report]

Wishful Thinking

The aspirations and failures of the United Nations

by ,
[Story]

Tom Robinson
by ,
[Reviews]

New Books
by ,
[Reviews]

Walking On Two Legs

Mathias Énard’s interrupted history

by ,
[Puzzle]

Foursomes

See the solution to last month’s puzzle.

by ,
[Findings]

Findings
by ,
[Findings]

Monuments from the Holocene Humid Period in the Dhofar were built in a single episode by groups requiring as many as seven strong men, whereas the subsequent aridification of the climate and resulting dispersion of the population encouraged the creation of accretive monuments.

[Findings]

The world’s largest known clifftop boulder, the 1,300-ton Maka Lahi (“Big Rock”) in Tonga, whose placement is traditionally attributed to deposition by the demigod Maui while he was chasing chickens, was theorized to have been carried inland by a landslide-generated tsunami approximately seven thousand years ago.

[Findings]

Fumigation with psychoactive Syrian rue was practiced in Iron Age Arabia, and the elites of the Chavín Phenomenon tightly controlled access to hallucinogen-mediated mystical experiences.

[Findings]

The Large Hadron Collider turned lead into gold.

[Findings]

the universe will decay 101,022 times faster than previously expected.

[Findings]

Hot water circulating in the pants improves older adults’ cardiovascular health.

[Findings]

Among Israeli irritable bowel syndrome sufferers, Jews have more diarrhea, whereas Arabs have more constipation.

[Findings]

Life expectancy in Gaza fell by 34.9 years between October 2023 and September 2024, and the probability of death in childhood increased sixfold from 2022 to 2023.

[Findings]

Macaque mothers who lose an infant exhibit a period of protest but, unlike human mothers, do not subsequently exhibit despair.

[Findings]

The Antarctic midge, the continent’s sole native insect, was found to be the only organism to undergo both quiescence and obligate diapause.

[Findings]

A helicopter crash in South Africa was determined to have been caused by an unsecured penguin from Bird Island falling onto the cyclic-­pitch controller.

[Findings]

An Egyptologist who examined depictions of the sky goddess Nut bending over her brother and father, drawn from 555 ancient coffins, theorized that the version on the outer coffin of Nesitaudjatakhet, a chantress to Amun­-Re, represents the Great Rift that runs through the Milky Way as a dark line running through Nut’s starry body.

[Findings]

The universe may rotate at a rate of two turns every trillion years.

[Findings]

Danish scientists suggested that adults abstaining from all other meat can eat nine tenths of two chicken breasts a week without exceeding planetary boundaries.

[Findings]

Robot elephants are becoming increasingly popular at Indian temples.

[Findings]

Early Bronze Age burials in the Upper Tigris may have accorded special favor to dead adolescents, whereas after the emergence of social hierarchy burial privilege shifted to dead elites.

[Findings]

The dismembered skeletons in a pit at Bayanbulak, possibly the site Emperor Wu of Han’s chief historian termed the Fortification for Receiving Surrender, were likely farmers from northern China conscripted during the Han–Xiongnu Wars.

[Findings]

The first antique instance of cinnabar-stained teeth was documented in a Subeshi woman in Grave M11 at Shengjindian Cemetery.

[Findings]

Greco-Roman sculpture was perfumed.

[Findings]

Dogs act more jealous when their owners interact with robots than when they read magazines.

[Findings]

The foreheads of teddy bears grew significantly taller between 1900 and 1980, though the bears did not become appreciably cuter over the same period.

[Findings]

Across racial categories women’s eyelash length is perceived as increasingly healthy up to one third of the width of the eye, past which further elongation becomes perceived as less healthy but increasingly indicative of sexual receptivity.

[Findings]

Male fruit flies seek out alcohol because it makes them more attractive to female flies and more successful at mating, not, as was previously theorized, because they are depressed about not yet having mated.

[Findings]

Male bluelined octopuses inject poison into the aortas of their female partners at the start of copulation, likely to avoid being eaten afterward.

[Findings]

Chemists grew gold in total darkness.

[Findings]

Five zebra fish per liter of tank water can be collectively euthanized by electric shock.

[Findings]

Rats can distinguish between Riesling and sauvignon blanc.

[Findings]

A literature review enumerated cases of envenomation by dead snakes, including those of a Chinese chef killed by the severed head of a spitting cobra, a child in Minnesota injured by a freeze-dried prairie-rattlesnake head worn as a tie tack, and two drunk Indians hospitalized after they chewed on the head of a dead krait.

[Findings]

Americans with open personalities are less likely to express end-of-life regret about how much they spent on food, whereas agreeable people are disposed to regret spending money on food, clothing, leisure, and financial help to others.

[Findings]

Polish doctors urged further investigation into compulsive frotteurs.

[Findings]

Scottish hen parties were deemed to contain ritualistic profanation.

[Findings]

The mummy of the Mysterious Lady was not pregnant.

[Findings]

A skull previously thought to belong to Cleopatra’s sister was found to be that of an Italian boy with a deformed jaw.

[Findings]

Fifty-two experts were consulted to produce a six-criteria test for predicting vasectomy regret.

[Findings]

French archaeologists discovered a Gaulish curse tablet tucked between a skeleton’s legs.

[Findings]

A Viking grave in Norway appeared to contain a vulva stone.

[Findings]

Chinese scientists successfully raised to adulthood, then dissected, mice born of two fathers.

[Findings]

Rabbits are capable of digesting their teeth as they wear down and reusing the calcium to grow new ones.

[Findings]

It is possible that songbirds who migrate at night socialize with one another in flight and speak to other species.

[Findings]

A survey of 1,328 urinary events found that, unlike contagious yawning, the contagious urination of chimpanzees appears to be correlated to social rank rather than social closeness.

[Findings]

Coyotes in dense areas of Chicago die younger if the average human income is high.

[Findings]

Physicists detected negative time.

[Findings]

Excessive tearfulness in the right eye of a fifty-five-year-old Japanese woman was traced to a supernumerary punctum.

[Findings]

Six dead dolphins who washed up in Texas were found to have fentanyl in their blubber.

[Findings]

Archaeologists speculated that, in the largest known Bronze Age massacre in Britain, attackers killed, butchered, and ate men, women, and children as a political statement.

[Findings]

Scientists urged the abandonment of attempts to create mirror life, against which existing life-forms may possess no defenses.

[Findings]

Monkeys are faster at spotting a snake among salamanders than a salamander among snakes.

[Findings]

Medication may treat those who suffer from disorders that make them smooth-brained.

[Findings]

Brain scans corroborated the unpleasant psychoacoustic effects of Aztec death whistles.

[Findings]

Assamese tribesmen were found to identify with elephants through a sense of mutual loss, poverty, and uncertainty.

[Findings]

Scientists suggested that human culture is superior to that of other animals because it can integrate limitless sequences of subgoals.

[Findings]

In Europe, conservatives are outbreeding progressives.

[Findings]

Researchers noted the positive effects of ecstatic epilepsy and synthesized fifty-three theoretical models of delusion.

[Findings]

Witnessing cringeworthy moments improves the observer’s self-perception.

[Findings]

In Japan, erectile function among young men was determined to be low by the first nationwide survey employing the internationally validated Erection Hardness Score.

[Findings]

Pentoxifylline can mitigate the damage caused by subjecting stallions to scrotal heat stress.

[Findings]

Bay Area researchers debuted a Narcissism Interview Scale for Employment.

[Findings]

More than half of U.S. civilians tasked with evaluating a bombing target endorsed killing unidentified bystanders.

[Findings]

Solitary chicks emit fewer anxious peeps if given a mirror for company.

[Findings]

Marine biologists described the Red Sea’s grumpy dwarfgoby.

[Findings]

Bottlenose dolphins, who were found to inhale and exhale microplastics, respond to a smile with a smile one third of the time.

[Findings]

Archaeologists identified the skeleton recovered from the Sverresborg Castle’s well in 1938 as the man described in the Sverris Saga as having been thrown into the well in 1197.

[Findings]

A primatologist, a mammalogist, and a linguist concluded that the jerky, rhythmic dance of sexually mature female black crested gibbons is innate rather than culturally transmitted.

[Findings]

Parmesan researchers found that “benevolently sexist” adults are less likely to own “clit-oriented” sex toys.

[Findings]

Germans under thirty experience more climate distress and have more rough sex.

[Findings]

Mars gained and then lost a second moon in the autumn.

[Findings]

Scientists determined why some aging gray horses turn white faster than others.

[Findings]

The stranger churches of sixteenth-century London extensively spied on their congregants, noting when women accused other women of being “pocked whores.”

[Findings]

Evidence supporting the hypothesis that the Proto­-Indo­-European language was spread by humans on horseback may have overlooked how humans who ride cows, donkeys, and wild asses exhibit the same hip­ -socket deformations, as previously observed in twentieth­-century nuns.

[Findings]

Scientists allowed a king oyster mushroom mycelial culture to control the movements of a soft five-limbed robot and a four-wheel vehicle.

[Findings]

Juvenile Japanese eels can escape from the stomachs of dark sleepers by pushing their tails back through the fish’s esophagus and out its gills.

[Findings]

EEG experts disagreed on whether, in the future, brain waves could be used to read dreams and long-­term memories.

[Findings]

Turkish doctors reported a case of penile autoamputation with religious delusion.

[Findings]

AI researchers determined that large language models pose no existential threat to humanity and created an AI algorithm that can detect scientific articles written by other AI algorithms.

[Findings]

Mammoths may have been killed with planted pikes rather than with thrown spears.

[Findings]

The birth of a white buffalo fulfilled a Lakota prophecy portending better times.

[Findings]

Wildfires near Canadian mines were found to have released unprecedented levels of arsenic, and wildfires in Maui were making residents unhappy.

[Findings]

Living near oil and gas development sites depresses people who are trying to get pregnant.

[Findings]

The Journal of Pediatric Genetics retracted a study on Islamic beliefs concerning the possible supernatural causes of birth defects on the grounds that the research lacked a scientific basis.

[Findings]

A researcher noticed that a Tartessian slate tablet depicting battle scenes also contains a previously unknown alphabet.

[Findings]

The royal swan marker reported that the depression of the Thames population, previously noted during the late queen’s reign, continues under the king.

[Findings]

Researchers claimed that researchers have been underreporting same-­sex sexual activity among animals.

[Findings]

Cocaine trafficking was found to threaten the golden­-cheeked warbler.

[Findings]

A survey of 7 million parliamentary speeches across eight countries and several decades found that politicians use less complex language as it gets hotter.

[Findings]

The diet of Japanese youth is growing more confectionary, and Americans are poisoning themselves more severely.

[Findings]

Unaffiliated voters are growing more spiteful toward both Democrats and Republicans.

[Findings]

Researchers debuted an 88 percent accurate hate­-speech detector and a superior sarcasm detector and may be able to send messages back in time.

[Findings]

Increased border­-wall height was tentatively linked to a thirtyfold increase in the rate of migrant drowning deaths off San Diego.

[Findings]

Women bond more closely with therapy bulls than men do.

[Findings]

The perceived onset of old age increases by approximately one year for every four to five years a person ages.

[Findings]

A study of brain­-injured but not brain­-dead patients found that many would have survived had their families not chosen to withdraw life support.

[Findings]

Sets of both fraternal and identical twins exhibit internally similar metacognitive abilities, suggesting that metacognition is environmental rather than heritable.

[Findings]

Southern California beach erosion is expected to increase by 50 percent by 2050.

[Findings]

Archaeologists translated cuneiform tablets recording shareholder agreements for the first company in Anatolia.

[Findings]

The melting of the poles is making Earth’s days longer.

[Findings]

The hatching season of a male spear squid (Heterololigo bleekeri) determines whether he will pursue bold or sneaky mating tactics.

[Findings]

A bionic eye deciphered a scroll carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that reveals the burial place of Plato, who was found to have complained about the musical abilities of the enslaved Thracian girl who played the flute for him as he lay dying.

[Findings]

Humans are losing their ability to digest cellulose.

[Findings]

Toxicity has remained a consistent feature of online interactions since 1989.

[Findings]

Microplastics were found in sixty-two of sixty-two human placentas from a biobank in Texas.

Illustration by Armando Veve, based on the June 1850 cover of Harper’s Magazine, which was engraved by Benson J. Lossing Microfiche

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