Category: Synthesis & Report

$4,785. That’s How Much It Costs to Be a Sports Fan Now.

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Illustration by Andrew Rae | The New York Times

It’s no secret that affordability is a big concern in the United States. The prices of eggs, coffee, and even candy bars have been going up, up, up—and the same is true of seats and even hot dogs at a baseball game. According to Joon Lee, the price of being a sports fan now is—brace yourself—$4,785. Lee is a sports journalist whose work has appeared on ESPN, Bleacher Report, and YouTube, as well as in the Boston Globe and the New York Times, where this piece was first published in 2025. He says his goal is “to make sports media feel alive again.” Read on to see what he has to say about the price of being a sports fan; fair warning: it’s no longer as simple as “Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack.”

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A.I. Is Homogenizing Our Thoughts

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Illustration credit: Ariel Davis | The New Yorker

“A vacuous and dangerous echo chamber.” “Best creative booster ever!”  “An existential threat to humanity.” Whether you love it or hate it—or fall somewhere in between—it’s likely that you have used generative AI yourself. But is it a good idea to be doing so? And what will be the consequences of that use? In this June 2025 piece from The New Yorker, staff writer Kyle Chayka, who covers technology and internet culture, reports on recent studies that offer potential answers to these questions! 

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