newyorker--2020-01-13--The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees

About forty-five hundred years ago , not long after the completion of the Great Pyramid at Giza , a seed of Pinus longaeva , the Great Basin bristlecone pine , landed on a steep slope in what are now known as the White Mountains , in eastern California .
The seed may have travelled there on a gust of wind , its flight aided by a winglike attachment to the nut .
Or it could have been planted by a bird known as the Clark ’ s nutcracker , which likes to hide pine seeds in caches ; nutcrackers have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of such caches .
This seed , however , lay undisturbed .
On a moist day in fall , or in the wake of melting snows in spring , a seedling appeared above ground—a stubby one-inch stem with a tuft of bright-green shoots .
Most seedlings die within a year ; the mortality rate is more than ninety-nine per cent .
The survivors are sometimes seen growing in the shadow of a fallen tree .
The landscape of the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest , as this area of the White Mountains is called @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trees—trunks , limbs , roots , and smaller chunks .
Pinus longaeva grows exclusively in subalpine regions of the Great Basin , which stretches from the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada to the Wasatch Range , in Utah .
Conditions are generally too arid for the dead wood to rot ; instead , it erodes , sanded down like rock .
The remnants may harbor nutrients and fungi that help new trees grow .
Bristlecones rise from the bones of their ancestors—a city within a cemetery .
Coast redwoods and giant sequoias @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , can grow fifty feet or more in their first twenty years .
Bristlecones rise agonizingly slowly .
After four or five years , the seedling on the steep slope would have been just a few inches higher , sprouting needles in place of the embryonic shoots .
The needles are a deep green , tough , resinous , and closely bunched , in groups of five .
On a mature tree , they live for fifty years or more .
Decades may have passed before the tree was human height , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pine .
Bristlecone saplings grow straight up , with relatively sparse foliage , looking like undernourished Christmas trees .
After a few hundred years—by which time the Old Kingdom of Egypt had fallen—it was probably forty or fifty feet in height .
Many tree species live for hundreds of years .
A smaller but not inconsiderable number , including the sequoias and certain yews , oaks , cypresses , and junipers , survive for thousands .
Once a bristlecone has established itself in the unforgiving conditions of the White Mountains , it can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to grow some distance from one another , so fires almost never destroy an entire stand .
Because only a few other plant species can handle the dry , cold climate , the bristlecones face little competition .
Unlike most plants , they tolerate dolomite soil , which is composed of a chalky type of limestone that is heavily alkaline and low in nutrients .
As for insect threats , bristlecone wood is so dense that mountain-pine beetles and other pests can rarely burrow their way into it .
Empires rose and fell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and freed ; and the tree from 2500 B.C .
continued its implacable slow-motion existence , adding about two-hundredths of an inch to the diameter of its trunk each year .
Minute changes in the tree-ring record make bristlecones an exceptionally useful source of data about changing conditions on earth .
When rains are heavier than normal , the rings widen .
When volcanic eruptions cause global cooling , frost rings make the anomaly visible .
The precision of these records means that bristlecones have periodically butted into other disciplines : geology , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and seventies , the trees contributed to the upending of the canonical theory that Bronze Age civilization had spread westward from Egypt and the Near East .
Bristlecones have also affected modern political discourse : the famous “ hockey stick graph , ” which two decades ago raised awareness of human-driven global warming , relied on bristlecone data .
As the millennia go by , bristlecones become contorted and wraithlike .
The main stem , or leader , dies back .
Entire branches , even the trunk itself , become fossils .
At @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dead .
Such is the case of the forty-five-hundred-year-old tree that clings to life near the tourist path that now runs through the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest .
Spears of dead wood jut into the air .
The trunk is a marbled hulk stripped of bark , like driftwood thrown from a vanished ocean .
A ribbon of live bark runs up one side , funnelling water and nutrients to clumps of green needles high above .
All told , the tree is an unprepossessing specimen ; most people march past it without @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I sat by the tree for an hour last July , the only visitor who took any notice of it was a dog named Dougie , who briefly sniffed the trunk and then darted away .
In 1957 , Edmund Schulman , a researcher from the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research , in Tucson , determined that this eccentric senior was older than any other tree on earth which had been dated .
He named it Methuselah .
The next year , when the United States Forest Service established the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The sign was soon removed , however , because tourists were extracting souvenirs .
The tree ’ s location is now known only to scientists , forest rangers , and a few enthusiasts .
This anonymity is just as well , since there are almost certainly Great Basin bristlecones that are yet older .
A nearby tree appears to have been born about three hundred years earlier .
Even more ancient trees are rumored to exist elsewhere in the Whites .
What is most astonishing about Pinus longaeva is not the age of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and otherness of its entire community .
No two super-elderly trees look alike , to the point where they have acquired the characteristics of individuals .
Trees are prone to anthropomorphism ; we project our dreams and our anxieties onto them .
Bristlecones have been called elders , sentinels , sages .
The possibility that climate change will cause their extinction has inspired a spate of alarmed news stories , although tree scientists tend to discount the idea that the bristlecones are in immediate danger .
They have survived any number of catastrophes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ humanity .
“ Hope you ’ ve read up on the curse of the bristlecone , ” Andy Bunn told me , with mock concern , over breakfast at a diner in Bishop , California .
We were joined by Matt Salzer , a veteran researcher from the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research .
Bunn , who teaches environmental science at Western Washington University , in Bellingham , has been working with bristlecones since 2006 .
“ People who get too close to these trees die young , ” he explained .
Edmund Schulman @ @ @ @ @ @ @ died , of a stroke , at the age of forty-nine .
Bunn went on , “ Matt here has a slab of the Currey Tree ” —another well-known specimen— “ in his office .
He handles it with abandon , as if it won ’ t kill him.
” Bristlecone pines thrive at high elevations and live for thousands of years .
Photograph by John Chiara for The New Yorker Salzer sighed .
“ Yeah , the curse , ” he said .
“ Always thought it was stupid .
Had second @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stent put in.
” They laughed and dug into their breakfast .
Both come from academic families on the East Coast : Bunn , who is forty-eight , is the son of a distinguished hematologist at Harvard Medical School ; Salzer , who is fifty-eight , grew up in Buffalo , the son of an education professor .
Bunn and Salzer now affect the outdoorsy aesthetic of eastern California : flannel shirts , vests , cargo pants .
It was mid-September , California fire season , and the diner was crowded with firefighters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ town in Owens Valley , which lies between the Sierra Nevada and the White Mountains .
The Sierras loom dramatically over the plain , their gray granite peaks etched in the sun .
The Whites present a less impressive appearance from afar .
Although they rise more than fourteen thousand feet , almost as high as the Sierras , they are smoother and more rounded , their slopes an unphotogenic beige .
The bristlecone zone lies at an elevation of between nine and eleven thousand feet .
Bunn and Salzer had come to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a study of very old bristlecone wood .
Bunn is keenly interested in tracking climate change through bristlecone data .
Salzer has long wanted to fill out a comprehensive chronology of bristlecone tree rings , carrying on work that began at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research in the mid-twentieth century .
After breakfast , we drove up a narrow , twisting road leading into the Whites .
Upon picking a camping spot , we headed to the chief attraction of the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest : the Schulman Grove .
It includes Methuselah @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Bunn , the more loquacious of the pair , said , “ What is the oldest tree ?
It ’ s trivia .
Matt and I don ’ t find it that interesting .
It ’ s unanswerable .
A lot of these trees have been dated ; a whole lot haven ’ t. ” He paused .
“ Of course , I get a chill from standing next to something that ’ s been living in the same place for five thousand years .
We can ’ t begin to comprehend @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that scale.
” Salzer grunted assent : “ Yeah , there ’ s a lot that ’ s unknown.
” Soft-spoken and laconic , he tends to wait several long seconds before answering questions , and then says something on the order of “ Possibly , ” “ Not necessarily , ” or “ Unclear.
” At the Schulman Grove , Bunn and Salzer met up with a group of European researchers .
Tom De Mil , of Ghent University , was experimenting with making CT scans of tree-ring samples .
He hoped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the wood would yield an even more precise record of moisture and temperature variations from year to year .
Jesper Björklund and Kristina Seftigen , who work in the Forest Dynamics department of the Swiss Federal Research Institute , had developed sophisticated new models for extracting historical climate data from tree-ring cells .
We all began walking the tourist path , and the slope rising to our left presented a typical bristlecone habitat : trees more or less evenly spaced , with the bright-tan hulks of dead trees intervening .
It looked less @ @ @ @ @ @ @ managed orchard .
But dark-green junior bristlecones , on all sides of us , confirmed the general health of the population .
Bunn stepped over an exposed root and said , “ You see the roots going all over the place—above ground , below ground .
They ’ ll often go uphill .
They find the cracks in the substrate , work their way into it.
” Salzer added , “ There ’ ll be a period of time in spring when snow will melt during the day , giving all the trees @ @ @ @ @ @ @ night and melt again the next day .
It ’ s like a watering system , until the snow is gone.
” De Mil picked up a remnant and pointed out a thin crack running through it .
“ Frost ring , ” he said .
“ Is this one of the major events ?
” When a significant volcanic eruption occurs , the volume of matter and dust ejected into the atmosphere can obscure the sun and cause a worldwide cooling ; at such times , freezing temperatures arrive unseasonably early , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wood are still forming .
The resulting damage to the cells causes a break in the usual succession of rings—a frost ring .
“ A few events are so severe that they show up in every tree , ” Salzer said .
“ 2036 B.C.
, 43 B.C.
, 627 A.D. ” He went on , “ 2036 B.C .
is maybe my favorite .
It ’ s also my bane , because there is hardly any wood left that has intact rings on either side of that date .
The wood fractures @ @ @ @ @ @ @ noted , “ These volcanic events have been linked to disruptions of early civilizations , like Akkad , the world ’ s first empire .
The poem ‘ The Curse of Akkad ’ tells of how the harvests failed and the population starved .
‘ People were flailing at themselves from hunger ’ —that kind of thing.
” “ And 43 B.C.
, after the assassination of Caesar , ” Salzer said .
“ People thought that the darkening of the skies was a message from the gods.
” Julius Caesar died in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the sun was obscured for an entire year— “ its orb rose pale and without radiance ” —and fruits withered .
Records of the Han dynasty , in China , indicate that in the same period the sun “ was bluish white and cast no shadows.
” The most commonly cited cause is a volcanic cloud emanating from Mt .
Etna , in Sicily , although other eruptions have been proposed .
We stood for a moment looking at the trees .
They did seem sentinel-like .
Bunn touched a neighboring branch , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ motion .
“ Look , if you want me to intuit and empathize with your feelings , just tell me what they are and how to react to them !
” “ Andy likes to feel the energy from the trees , ” Salzer said , gently snickering .
He was a bit of a bristlecone himself : deliberate , diffident , bemused .
We continued following the path , which traces a four-mile route through the forest .
Bunn , equipped with a G.P.S .
device , searched for a site , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ six-thousand-year-old remnants could be found .
Salzer was on the lookout for Methuselah .
After a brief search , he identified the tree , giving it a friendly pat .
Two husky , weathered Welshmen happened along—one dressed all in black , including a black leather cap , and the other wearing a red flannel shirt .
“ You lot look like experts , ” one of them said .
“ Do you know which is Methuselah ?
” The University of Arizona ’ s Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research , where secrets of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1937 .
For decades , it occupied a warren of rooms and corridors beneath a football stadium .
Since 2013 , the lab has been housed in a handsome building with an exterior of hanging metal columns , giving it the look of an abstract forest .
Inside , researchers have access to a kind of arboreal Library of Congress : a vast collection of tree fragments from around the world , including cross-sections of giant sequoias .
The lab is affixing each with a bar code , so that researchers can check @ @ @ @ @ @ @ brainchild of Andrew Ellicott Douglass , an astronomer who , in 1904 , began collecting tree samples in the West , convinced that variations in ring width could reveal cycles of solar activity .
His research remained inconclusive , but along the way he essentially founded dendrochronology , the science of tree-ring dating .
His greatest insight was to recognize patterns among the hundreds of samples he gathered in Arizona : rings on the trees were wider in 1884 and 1885 , narrower in 1851 , and so on .
Using a giant-sequoia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ built up a tree-ring chronology , reaching back to around 1300 B.C .
Stray fragments of wood could be matched to the master index .
Douglass employed this system to develop fairly exact dates for Aztec and Ancestral Puebloan ruins in the American Southwest .
At the turn of the twentieth century , the giant sequoias , which grow only on the western slopes of the Sierras , were widely assumed to be the world ’ s oldest trees .
They were certainly the biggest : the General Sherman Tree , in Sequoia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on earth .
( In the late nineteenth century , it was known as the Karl Marx Tree , because a leftist commune occupied the area . )
Bristlecones , by comparison , seemed to be mere oddities .
John Muir , the pioneering naturalist , described them as “ irrepressibly and extravagantly picturesque.
” Then , in the nineteen-forties , a Forest Service ranger named Al Noren counted the rings on bristlecones and began to suspect their true age .
Word reached Edmund Schulman , Douglass ’ s second-in-command .
Schulman first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Methuselah four years later .
He dated the trees with a time-tested method : using a coring device to bore in and extract a very thin sample .
The process causes mature trees no harm .
The naked eye can glean little from a core ; you need a microscope to see the rings clearly and pinpoint differences .
Schulman wrote an overview of his work for National Geographic , titling it “ Bristlecone Pine , Oldest Known Living Thing.
” He died just before the issue was published .
Chatter about a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tragic demise of the so-called Prometheus Tree , which Salzer prefers to call the Currey Tree .
In 1964 , a graduate student named Donald Currey was attempting to date a huge bristlecone on Wheeler Peak , in the Snake Range , in Nevada .
Currey first tried to take a core , but he had trouble getting a good sample .
With the permission of the Forest Service , he decided to cut down the entire tree .
A crew showed up with a chain saw , but when the foreman touched @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ m not cutting this tree.
” The next day , another crew did the deed .
Currey concluded that the tree was forty-nine hundred years old—slightly older than the bristlecones Schulman had studied in the Whites .
Currey had to live with the reputation of having , in the words of one writer-activist , “ casually killed ( yes , murdered ! )
” the world ’ s oldest tree .
A year after Prometheus was felled , a young Forest Service employee suffered a fatal heart attack while attempting to remove @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Los Angeles-based artist Jeff Weiss organized a memorial service for Prometheus , on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of its death .
Matt Salzer , despite his resistance to mythologizing bristlecones , recorded a speech for the gathering .
He spoke of how remnants of bristlecones , including the detritus of Prometheus , reveal how climate has changed in the past and how it might change in the future .
He said , “ It is almost as if the trees are speaking the words of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have heard many years of telling , / And many years should see some change.
’ ” Some of the bones of Prometheus are squirrelled away in Salzer ’ s office in Tucson .
When I stopped by , not long after our trip to the White Mountains , several slabs were resting next to a filing cabinet .
Salzer arranged them end to end , forming a six-foot radius .
He rummaged around for more bristlecone relics , and found a remnant with a ring marked “ 43 B.C.
” —the frost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We also looked at three cores from Methuselah and four from a tree that Salzer calls Harlan ’ s Secret Tree , for Tom Harlan , a dendrochronologist who began working at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research in 1957 .
Some years after Schulman ’ s death , Harlan examined his predecessor ’ s stock of cores and realized that one tree was even older than Methuselah .
Salzer provisionally estimates , based on Harlan ’ s core samples , that the tree is 4,817 years old .
He would like to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s not sure precisely where Harlan ’ s Secret Tree is .
Harlan died in 2013 , and did not record its location .
There is a clue , though , in the form of a page from Edmund Schulman ’ s original 1957 notes .
Salzer hopes to resolve the matter , if only to satisfy periodic calls from Guinness World Records .
But he is more excited by the possibility of filling in the remaining gaps in the master bristlecone chronology , which extends back ten thousand years .
In addition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ between bristlecone rings and radiocarbon dating .
His partner on the project is Charlotte Pearson , a forty-three-year-old British archeologist , who took up dendrochronology because she was fascinated by its potential implications for the history of ancient civilizations .
Pearson stopped by Salzer ’ s office to discuss their collaboration .
“ What we want to do is get the best possible calibration , ” she said .
“ Make it high-resolution .
Many people tend to think that a radiocarbon curve is set in stone—that once you get a date you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the curve has been revised many times , and the bristlecones have been crucial to that process.
” Radiocarbon is an isotope of carbon that is generated in the earth ’ s atmosphere by cosmic radiation .
All living things consume small quantities of the isotope as they take in carbon dioxide .
When they die , the radiocarbon in their remains steadily decays .
In 1949 , the chemist Willard Libby announced a remarkable discovery : the age of any organic remnant can be determined by measuring the level of radiocarbon against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In a stroke , radiocarbon allowed for a comprehensive dating of relics from human civilization and biological history .
A typical bristlecone habitat features trees that are more or less evenly spaced , with the hulks of dead trees intervening .
It looks less like a forest than like a poorly managed orchard .
Photograph by John Chiara for The New Yorker Libby , who won a Nobel Prize for his work , was aware that his model relied on an untested assumption—that the level of radiocarbon in the atmosphere remains constant .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hans Suess took radiocarbon data from some very old bristlecone samples , knowing that ring-counting had established their age precisely .
The radiocarbon-dating estimate was way off , giving the impression that the samples were many hundreds of years younger than they were .
Suess concluded that levels of radiocarbon had been considerably higher five or six thousand years ago , perhaps because of increased solar activity or shifts in the earth ’ s magnetic field .
As a result , archeological dates in the period between 4000 and 2000 B.C .
had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was especially dramatic in the case of Neolithic ruins in remote parts of Western Europe , for which no other historical documentation existed .
These sites were assumed to have postdated the Bronze Age architecture of Mesopotamia and Egypt ; instead , they came first .
The bristlecones weren ’ t done with their meddling .
In 2018 , Pearson , Salzer , and others published a paper in which they tried out a new approach .
Prior research had calibrated the curve on a decade-to-decade basis ; Pearson and Salzer broke it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time-consuming work , and they limited their study to the period from 1700 to 1500 B.C .
These dates were not chosen at random : Pearson had long been obsessed with the giant volcanic eruption that took place on the island of Thera , in the Santorini archipelago .
It was initially thought , on the basis of historical records , that the Thera event had contributed to the fall of the Minoan civilization , but radiocarbon dating of an olive branch placed the eruption several decades earlier , at a time when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Salzer believe that the date of the eruption should be moved forward .
A bristlecone frost ring from 1560 B.C .
is now considered to be a strong candidate for the temporal marker of the Thera cataclysm .
Pearson said of the Thera revision , “ This is from only two hundred years of our proposed ten-thousand-year annual chronology .
We expect more surprises .
For example , there ’ s the business of Miyake Events.
” In 2012 , a solar scientist named Fusa Miyake used tree rings to pinpoint an enormous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 775 A.D .
It appears to have been a huge solar event .
Salzer fingered one of the cores of Methuselah , which were still on his desk .
“ The event didn ’ t do any apparent harm to the trees or anything else , ” he said .
“ No frost rings or anything like that .
But people are very interested in the mechanics of such events today , because if one happened tomorrow— ” He made a “ Kablooey !
” gesture in the direction of his computer .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ disciplines had reacted to periodic disruptions from the bristlecone community .
“ Well , in the sixties one Old World archeologist said something like : ‘ Why should we be concerned with what ’ s happening with some shrub in California ?
’ But with our Thera paper the archeologists seemed pretty happy .
These new dates were a better fit with what they ’ d suspected all along.
” Like the Ents , in “ The Lord of the Rings , ” the bristlecones seem to be imparting information slowly , on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ began growing at the time of the Pyramids has a right to say stuff , ” Pearson said .
“ It gets to comment.
” The oldest bristlecones in the White Mountains live in a lower-altitude ravine on a north-facing slope .
At higher altitudes , the trees thin out as they get near an exposed ridge .
A few lone trees , usually younger , stand ahead of the pack , like scouts .
They make you wonder about the bristlecones ’ future .
Are they creeping up the slopes , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ matter of whether the trees record anthropogenic change was once the subject of furious debate .
In 1998 , the climatologist Michael E. Mann published the “ hockey stick graph , ” showing a steep rise in global mean temperature from about 1850 onward .
Mann ’ s paper was co-authored by Malcolm Hughes , a senior researcher at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research , and depended heavily on bristlecone chronologies .
Scientists , however , knew that bristlecones at lower altitudes were a less reliable index of temperature fluctuation : it was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the tree line that the trees were highly sensitive to a blast of cold , and more likely to develop frost rings and other markers of extremity .
Climate-change deniers claimed fraud and spoke darkly of a “ bristlecones addiction.
” Subsequent papers by Hughes , Salzer , and others refined the models , focussing on the upper-tree-line samples .
The new models , together with an avalanche of data from other sources , confirm the hockey-stick upswing .
Bristlecones have been through hot spells before .
Circa 4000 B.C.
, during the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one degree Celsius warmer than it is today .
But it is on track to get hotter than that .
What happens when the bristlecones move up so far that they run out of space ?
A 2007 paper by the geologist Christopher Van de Ven paints a bleak picture .
If the earth were to warm by two degrees , the Schulman Grove would die off .
At six degrees , bristlecones would be confined to the highest slopes of White Mountain Peak .
In such a scenario , that would be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ six-degree warming would be catastrophic in countless other ways .
On a midsummer trip to the Whites , I met up with Brian Smithers , a forty-three-year-old ecologist from Montana State University , in Bozeman .
He is a rising star of bristlecone studies , and not uncontroversial .
He grew up in a small town in the Sierras and turned to the natural sciences after abandoning plans of becoming an astronaut .
A trim athlete who competes in triathlons , he was accepted into the U.S. Air Force Academy , but decided @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he might have to kill people .
Instead , he served in the Peace Corps in Fiji .
When he returned home , he became an ornithologist ; in the past decade , he has shifted to tree science .
I met Smithers while he was organizing a summertime survey by an organization known as GLORIA Great Basin .
It is part of a worldwide network of GLORIA groups—Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments—which study how alpine species respond to climate change .
Several dozen volunteers—ecologists , botanists , amateur enthusiasts—scoured high-elevation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alpine plants in gridded-off areas .
I tagged along , though I could barely follow the conversation , which was conducted largely in Latin : “ Is this Trisetum spicatum ?
That Oxytropis is a real cutie.
” Smithers took part of a day off to show me a site where he had done a study comparing bristlecone populations with those of the limber pine , another hardy species that grows at high altitudes .
He and other researchers had noted that in this area the limber pines appeared to be outpacing the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leap-frogging ” over them .
His paper , published in 2017 , attracted media attention , resulting in headlines like : “ ANCIENT BRISTLECONE PINE FORESTS ARE BEING OVERWHELMED BY CLIMATE CHANGE ” ( the Los Angeles Times ) and “ CLIMATE CHANGE COULD KILL THE WORLD ’ S OLDEST TREES ” ( Live Science ) .
“ It got away from me a little bit , ” Smithers said , as we trudged across a rock-strewn meadow toward a distant ridge .
“ It ’ s hard to make a complex point @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about some local populations where bristlecones were in trouble .
The problem is that we can ’ t begin to observe change at the rate these trees are accustomed to .
At the moment , these limber pines appear to be charging up the slope .
But maybe they will all die in fifty years , and maybe that ’ s when bristlecones will move in.
” We reached a ridge where dead bristlecones were scattered about in large numbers—a “ relict grove.
” Trunks and branches protruded into the air , their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Small fragments with grayish , scoured wood lay in the low brush .
“ Something happened here , ” Smithers said .
“ These were really old trees that lived through a lot of really crappy conditions .
There ’ s no sign of a fire .
No sign of insects .
So what killed them ?
” On the other side of the ridge , bristlecones reappeared .
“ Check out this one , ” Smithers said , pointing to an apparently long-dead hunk of a tree .
It looked as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a storm , but tufts of green needles emerged from a branch on one side .
A vein of live bark snaked around the dead trunk and disappeared into the ground .
It was like a vine growing on a ruin , except that the ruin was itself .
We headed back to the Crooked Creek Station , a handsome , spartan pine-log facility where the GLORIA group was based for the week .
Part of the complex had once stood in downtown Los Angeles , housing the Starlight Bar and Grill .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of California at Davis dismantled the structures and hauled them up into the Whites .
Before Crooked Creek became a research station , in 1978 , it had been a U.S. Navy outpost , where research was conducted into the physiological effects of high-altitude exposure .
Reportedly , harbor seals were brought to a pond near the site—to what end one dare not imagine .
Dinner was served in the high-ceilinged common room at Crooked Creek .
In the group was Connie Millar , a revered ecologist who has long worked for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ launching GLORIA in North America .
She has been studying the effects of climate change for decades , with the Great Basin as her favorite site of observation .
She worked on bristlecones for years but has added other subjects of study , including the pika , an adorable rabbit-like mammal that thrives in mountain zones .
“ I ’ m actually not too worried about the bristlecones , ” Millar told me .
“ Schulman talked about ‘ longevity through adversity , ’ and there ’ s something to that .
You @ @ @ @ @ @ @ upper tree line .
Contrary to what the Van de Ven model suggests , trees are still growing at lower elevations , sometimes even below the current tree lines .
You have to be aware of all these microclimates where temperature and moisture can vary in unexpected ways .
All through the Great Basin you see this kind of endurance .
I see it in the pikas , too .
They make their habitats in the talus ” —the pile of rocky debris at the base of a slope or cliff— “ and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decoupled from the outside .
They hole up in their little air-conditioned homes.
” Yet Millar is hardly sanguine about environmental threats to the trees .
She told me that a colleague , Barbara Bentz , had recently found worrisome evidence of mountain-pine beetles killing bristlecones on Telescope Peak , in Death Valley .
Such an invasion was previously thought to be impossible , because of the toughness of the tree ’ s wood .
Whatever the fate of the bristlecones , she noted , the general global trends are catastrophic .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” she said .
“ Their longevity seems to be related in mysterious ways to the length of time dead wood stays in the environment .
It ’ s hard to generalize from that.
” Humans tend to make a cult of trees .
Many ancient traditions posit the existence of a primal tree that embodies eternal life .
Reverence surrounds the Bodhi Tree , in Bodh Gaya , India ; the Cypress of Abarkuh , in Iran ; the Hibakujumoku trees , in Hiroshima , which withstood the atomic blast .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ trees of death .
In Schubert ’ s song “ Der Lindenbaum , ” from the death-haunted cycle “ Winterreise , ” a linden tree calls to a disconsolate wanderer , “ Come to me , friend , / Here you will find rest.
” Thomas Mann makes much of that song in “ The Magic Mountain , ” finding it symbolic of a civilization hurtling toward its own destruction .
The bristlecone cult is varied and intense .
Artists tease ghostlike figures from their writhing shapes .
Creationists have tried to reconcile @ @ @ @ @ @ @ date of 4004 B.C .
( Methuselah fits their chronology , but the older remnants have to be discarded . )
The Long Now Foundation , a futuristic organization based in San Francisco , bought land in the area of Mount Washington , Nevada , in large part because it contained bristlecone pines .
Jeff Bezos , a member , is funding the construction of a clock , in a mountain in Texas , that will tick for ten thousand years .
Long Now hopes to erect a similar clock on Mt .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to political exploitation , especially when a national or ethnic group claims an immemorial attachment to a patch of land .
Jared Farmer , in his 2013 book , “ Trees in Paradise : A California History , ” notes that California ’ s sequoias and redwoods were long lauded as emblems of American greatness .
Madison Grant , one of the founders of the Save the Redwoods League , was a racist and a eugenicist , notorious for the best-selling 1916 tract “ The Passing of the Great Race.
” Grant extolled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ terms that he applied to sturdy specimens of Nordic supremacy .
The age of the trees allowed for a kind of backdating of Manifest Destiny , into the mists of prehistory .
Bristlecones can ’ t be monumentalized in the same way .
They have the look of survivors , not conquerors .
Fittingly , they found fame during the Cold War , when atomic tests were taking place not far off , in the Nevada desert .
Bristlecones are post-apocalyptic trees , sci-fi trees .
They can be seen as symbols of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cohen , in his 1998 book , “ A Garden of Bristlecones , ” deftly anatomizes this latter-day bristlecone mythology , writing that the trees “ always reveal the motives of their observers.
” My own bristlecone obsession is probably rooted in a fixation on extremely old people and things .
Some of my favorite music was written centuries ago .
When I was a teen-ager , I spent a summer wandering the Highlands and islands of Scotland , looking at Neolithic ruins as old as Methuselah .
Meeting people with long memories @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1990 , when I was in college , I spoke on the phone to the Russian-born musical polymath Nicolas Slonimsky , who recalled walking the streets of Petrograd on the first day of the Bolshevik Revolution .
“ I saw nothing , and went back to practicing the piano , ” he said .
In November , just before the first snows shut down access to the Whites , I made a final trip to the Schulman Grove .
The question of the oldest tree nagged at me .
Salzer had shown me @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Harlan ’ s Secret Tree is indicated—somewhat opaquely .
As on a treasure map , one is told to walk a certain distance and in a certain direction .
Salzer and Bunn had followed the instructions and texted me a picture of a likely candidate .
Next summer , Salzer plans to take a core sample and resolve the issue .
When I reached the site , I became convinced that a neighboring tree was a better match for Schulman ’ s vague description .
I basked for a while in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I found a metal I.D .
plate affixed to one of its roots .
Checking the number against documentation in my notes , I was disappointed to find that the tree was only three thousand years old .
I went back to Salzer ’ s tree , which had no visible tag .
It was a heftier , healthier-looking specimen than Methuselah .
The boughs were a vivid green and soft to the touch .
Red-purple pollen cores were forming at many of the tips .
Was this it ?
Did it matter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ d had with Tim Forsell , who manages the Crooked Creek Station in the summers .
He said , “ It ’ s so arrogant to think that we stumbled in there and happened to find the world ’ s oldest tree .
Harlan always said there were older ones .
I once asked him , ‘ If these trees can be five thousand years old , could there be six-thousand-year-old trees ?
’ And he answered , ‘ Absolutely.
’ ” By the time I headed back , night was falling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and I walked the last mile to the parking lot in near-darkness .
But then a full moon rose , and the dolomite on neighboring slopes began to glow eerily bright , like phantom drifts of snow .
The wind picked up and elicited a low , full whoosh from bristlecone branches , which swung to and fro without creaking or rustling .
When the wind stopped , the forest felt like a cavernous but soundproofed space—a silent concert hall , an empty cathedral .
The moon lit up the mountains as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ♦

About forty-five hundred years ago, not long after the completion of the Great Pyramid at Giza, a seed of Pinus longaeva, the Great Basin bristlecone pine, landed on a steep slope in what are now known as the White Mountains, in eastern California. The seed may have travelled there on a gust of wind, its flight aided by a winglike attachment to the nut. Or it could have been planted by a bird known as the Clark’s nutcracker, which likes to hide pine seeds in caches; nutcrackers have phenomenal spatial memory and can recall thousands of such caches. This seed, however, lay undisturbed. On a moist day in fall, or in the wake of melting snows in spring, a seedling appeared above ground—a stubby one-inch stem with a tuft of bright-green shoots.
Most seedlings die within a year; the mortality rate is more than ninety-nine per cent. The survivors are sometimes seen growing in the shadow of a fallen tree. The landscape of the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, as this area of the White Mountains is called, is littered with fragments of dead trees—trunks, limbs, roots, and smaller chunks. Pinus longaeva grows exclusively in subalpine regions of the Great Basin, which stretches from the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada to the Wasatch Range, in Utah. Conditions are generally too arid for the dead wood to rot; instead, it erodes, sanded down like rock. The remnants may harbor nutrients and fungi that help new trees grow. Bristlecones rise from the bones of their ancestors—a city within a cemetery.
Coast redwoods and giant sequoias, California’s gargantuan world-record-holding trees, can grow fifty feet or more in their first twenty years. Bristlecones rise agonizingly slowly. After four or five years, the seedling on the steep slope would have been just a few inches higher, sprouting needles in place of the embryonic shoots. The needles are a deep green, tough, resinous, and closely bunched, in groups of five. On a mature tree, they live for fifty years or more. Decades may have passed before the tree was human height, and decades more before it resembled a conventional pine. Bristlecone saplings grow straight up, with relatively sparse foliage, looking like undernourished Christmas trees. After a few hundred years—by which time the Old Kingdom of Egypt had fallen—it was probably forty or fifty feet in height.
Many tree species live for hundreds of years. A smaller but not inconsiderable number, including the sequoias and certain yews, oaks, cypresses, and junipers, survive for thousands. Once a bristlecone has established itself in the unforgiving conditions of the White Mountains, it can last almost indefinitely. The trees tend to grow some distance from one another, so fires almost never destroy an entire stand. Because only a few other plant species can handle the dry, cold climate, the bristlecones face little competition. Unlike most plants, they tolerate dolomite soil, which is composed of a chalky type of limestone that is heavily alkaline and low in nutrients. As for insect threats, bristlecone wood is so dense that mountain-pine beetles and other pests can rarely burrow their way into it.
Empires rose and fell; wars raged; people were enslaved and freed; and the tree from 2500 B.C. continued its implacable slow-motion existence, adding about two-hundredths of an inch to the diameter of its trunk each year. Minute changes in the tree-ring record make bristlecones an exceptionally useful source of data about changing conditions on earth. When rains are heavier than normal, the rings widen. When volcanic eruptions cause global cooling, frost rings make the anomaly visible. The precision of these records means that bristlecones have periodically butted into other disciplines: geology, archeology, climatology. In the nineteen-sixties and seventies, the trees contributed to the upending of the canonical theory that Bronze Age civilization had spread westward from Egypt and the Near East. Bristlecones have also affected modern political discourse: the famous “hockey stick graph,” which two decades ago raised awareness of human-driven global warming, relied on bristlecone data.
As the millennia go by, bristlecones become contorted and wraithlike. The main stem, or leader, dies back. Entire branches, even the trunk itself, become fossils. At first glance, the tree may look dead. Such is the case of the forty-five-hundred-year-old tree that clings to life near the tourist path that now runs through the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. Spears of dead wood jut into the air. The trunk is a marbled hulk stripped of bark, like driftwood thrown from a vanished ocean. A ribbon of live bark runs up one side, funnelling water and nutrients to clumps of green needles high above. All told, the tree is an unprepossessing specimen; most people march past it without giving it a second glance. When I sat by the tree for an hour last July, the only visitor who took any notice of it was a dog named Dougie, who briefly sniffed the trunk and then darted away.
In 1957, Edmund Schulman, a researcher from the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, in Tucson, determined that this eccentric senior was older than any other tree on earth which had been dated. He named it Methuselah. The next year, when the United States Forest Service established the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, Methuselah bore an identifying marker. The sign was soon removed, however, because tourists were extracting souvenirs. The tree’s location is now known only to scientists, forest rangers, and a few enthusiasts. This anonymity is just as well, since there are almost certainly Great Basin bristlecones that are yet older. A nearby tree appears to have been born about three hundred years earlier. Even more ancient trees are rumored to exist elsewhere in the Whites.
What is most astonishing about Pinus longaeva is not the age of any single organism but the collective oldness and otherness of its entire community. No two super-elderly trees look alike, to the point where they have acquired the characteristics of individuals. Trees are prone to anthropomorphism; we project our dreams and our anxieties onto them. Bristlecones have been called elders, sentinels, sages. The possibility that climate change will cause their extinction has inspired a spate of alarmed news stories, although tree scientists tend to discount the idea that the bristlecones are in immediate danger. They have survived any number of catastrophes in the past; they may survive humanity.
“Hope you’ve read up on the curse of the bristlecone,” Andy Bunn told me, with mock concern, over breakfast at a diner in Bishop, California. We were joined by Matt Salzer, a veteran researcher from the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. Bunn, who teaches environmental science at Western Washington University, in Bellingham, has been working with bristlecones since 2006. “People who get too close to these trees die young,” he explained. Edmund Schulman, the man who discovered Methuselah, died, of a stroke, at the age of forty-nine. Bunn went on, “Matt here has a slab of the Currey Tree”—another well-known specimen—“in his office. He handles it with abandon, as if it won’t kill him.”
Bristlecone pines thrive at high elevations and live for thousands of years. Photograph by John Chiara for The New Yorker
Salzer sighed. “Yeah, the curse,” he said. “Always thought it was stupid. Had second thoughts when I had to get that stent put in.”
They laughed and dug into their breakfast. Both come from academic families on the East Coast: Bunn, who is forty-eight, is the son of a distinguished hematologist at Harvard Medical School; Salzer, who is fifty-eight, grew up in Buffalo, the son of an education professor. Bunn and Salzer now affect the outdoorsy aesthetic of eastern California: flannel shirts, vests, cargo pants.
It was mid-September, California fire season, and the diner was crowded with firefighters on call. Bishop is the largest town in Owens Valley, which lies between the Sierra Nevada and the White Mountains. The Sierras loom dramatically over the plain, their gray granite peaks etched in the sun. The Whites present a less impressive appearance from afar. Although they rise more than fourteen thousand feet, almost as high as the Sierras, they are smoother and more rounded, their slopes an unphotogenic beige. The bristlecone zone lies at an elevation of between nine and eleven thousand feet.
Bunn and Salzer had come to the Whites to lay the groundwork for a study of very old bristlecone wood. Bunn is keenly interested in tracking climate change through bristlecone data. Salzer has long wanted to fill out a comprehensive chronology of bristlecone tree rings, carrying on work that began at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research in the mid-twentieth century. After breakfast, we drove up a narrow, twisting road leading into the Whites. Upon picking a camping spot, we headed to the chief attraction of the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest: the Schulman Grove. It includes Methuselah, and was named for Edmund Schulman.


newyorker--2020-01-13--Bryan Washington on Writing Stories That Don’t Make You Feel Worse

In “ Visitor , ” your story in this week ’ s issue , a young man gets a knock on his door a month after his father ’ s funeral .
The visitor claims to be an old friend of the father ’ s—a former lover , in fact , in Jamaica .
What was the genesis , in your mind , of this scenario , besides the fact that it could go in all sorts of directions ?
I was wrapping up edits on my first novel , “ Memorial , ” and there ’ s a relationship @ @ @ @ @ @ @ isn ’ t entirely dissimilar to this story ’ s .
But a recurring issue for me , while I was writing that book , was figuring out how to establish and ultimately contort the foundations of those characters ’ dynamics .
So a lot of the stories I wrote at that time , or at least the sketches of those stories , were just me experimenting and trying to figure out what would and wouldn ’ t make its way into that longer project .
Although the thing about that is , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gained their own autonomy , so to speak , with their own interests and histories and lives .
Which I became invested in .
So I wanted to follow through with them , just to see where they ’ d go .
Another parallel reason would be that , for the past few years , fiction-wise , I ’ ve been almost exclusively interested in writing narratives that wouldn ’ t make me feel worse .
You could probably say that the mode that I ’ ve settled on lately , or mostly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ traumedy ” blanket .
( A while back , Emily Nussbaum wrote about the genre ’ s malleability for y ’ all . )
It ’ s a tricky space to describe tonally , but you know it when you see it .
I feel like Helen Oyeyemi , Hiromi Kawakami , Daniel Zomparelli , Nicola Yoon , and Alejandro Zambra are so , so deft with it .
And a central component of navigating that space , on my end , has been : How can I paint fully realized lives on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in their lives , without centering trauma ?
And what does that look like when all of my characters are from communities that ’ ve been historically marginalized in this country ?
What possibilities do we find ourselves with then ?
What happens when you give all of your characters the benefit of the doubt , and the possibility of joy , even if it ’ s as fleeting as a meal , and proceed from there ?
I think there ’ s a way , in this country ’ s contemporary literature @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those traumas are decreed as “ less than ” or “ weightless ” or “ sentimental ” ; or those stories get tagged with the admonishment that “ nothing happens ” —which , if that ’ s the case , then so fucking what ?
Because these communities are deserving of light on the page , too .
But for an actual answer to your question : last year , I was listening to a lot of Alton Ellis , and also a lot of Colde .
One day , my Spotify account @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Do ” and “ Wa-R-R ” in relatively quick succession , and the story just sort of lodged itself in my head from then onward .
When you first wrote a full version of the story , the narrator ’ s sexual life happened offstage .
In the revision and editing process , you introduced the guy he ’ s sleeping with , Joel .
Why did this feel like an important addition ?
Joel was really fun to write !
That ’ s probably the biggest reason—I think he ’ d be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with .
But I also thought it made a better story for there to be real-time repercussions , and a contrast , from the narrator ’ s relationship to his visitor .
The narrator is privy to a warmth from his father ’ s ex , and the question becomes whether or not , and how , he ’ ll incorporate that in his own life , and toward the people he cares about .
I don ’ t know that I personally need to see the change a character may or may @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but I thought it ’ d be cool in this instance .
And , for what it ’ s worth , in the project that this story ’ s from , Joel ’ s got his own narrative thing going on .
In the larger scheme of things , it felt good and right to make sure he was included .
Like many of your stories , “ The Visitor ” is set in a very specific slice of Houston .
What distinguishes this part of the city from the neighborhoods you wrote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ previous story in the magazine ?
And what are some of the reasons that Houston is such fertile literary territory for you , besides the fact that you live there ?
Houston ’ s such a confluence of people , places , and ideas , in a relatively closed space , that it has all of the elements for narrative just by way of the geography .
The city ’ s like this enormous fucking bubble , comprised of interconnected , independent bubbles , and also there are too many cars .
Each @ @ @ @ @ @ @ despite Harris County ’ s expansiveness , that the geography itself is rife with possibility .
If comedy ’ s the combination of several things for an unexpected result , then what does it mean to have a church next to a strip mall next to a strip club next to a charter school next to a Thai takeout spot ?
What does it mean to live in a city that , in a lot of ways , is very much at the center of climate change ’ s repercussions in this country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a city that is at the outer ends of both religiosity and also decadence ?
What happens when that city ’ s the most diverse one in the States , with a rapidly growing population ?
What does it mean to live in a city that weathers all of those things and is , simultaneously , so low-key about it ?
And for its residents to , for the most part , find a way to live and break bread and make space for another ?
Also—Houstonians are just so fucking funny @ @ @ @ @ @ @ guy at this diner I live by , and the lady who hooks me up at the jerk-chicken spot , and the older women who drag me ( thoughtfully , lovingly ) at this spa I go to tell stories so much better than I do .
Nearly everyone here is a storyteller of some kind .
Before the visitor goes back to Jamaica , he and the narrator have a last meal .
According to the narrator , “ The thing on both of our minds hung above us , swaying in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
Eh .
It ’ s no fun if I tell you .

Photograph by Dailey Hubbard
In “Visitor,” your story in this week’s issue, a young man gets a knock on his door a month after his father’s funeral. The visitor claims to be an old friend of the father’s—a former lover, in fact, in Jamaica. What was the genesis, in your mind, of this scenario, besides the fact that it could go in all sorts of directions?
I was wrapping up edits on my first novel, “Memorial,” and there’s a relationship at the crux of that narrative that isn’t entirely dissimilar to this story’s. But a recurring issue for me, while I was writing that book, was figuring out how to establish and ultimately contort the foundations of those characters’ dynamics. So a lot of the stories I wrote at that time, or at least the sketches of those stories, were just me experimenting and trying to figure out what would and wouldn’t make its way into that longer project. Although the thing about that is, for every new narrative, each character gained their own autonomy, so to speak, with their own interests and histories and lives. Which I became invested in. So I wanted to follow through with them, just to see where they’d go.
Another parallel reason would be that, for the past few years, fiction-wise, I’ve been almost exclusively interested in writing narratives that wouldn’t make me feel worse. You could probably say that the mode that I’ve settled on lately, or mostly settled on, falls under the “traumedy” blanket. (A while back, Emily Nussbaum wrote about the genre’s malleability for y’all.) It’s a tricky space to describe tonally, but you know it when you see it. I feel like Helen Oyeyemi, Hiromi Kawakami, Daniel Zomparelli, Nicola Yoon, and Alejandro Zambra are so, so deft with it. And a central component of navigating that space, on my end, has been: How can I paint fully realized lives on the page, navigating a crucial point in their lives, without centering trauma? And what does that look like when all of my characters are from communities that’ve been historically marginalized in this country? What possibilities do we find ourselves with then? What happens when you give all of your characters the benefit of the doubt, and the possibility of joy, even if it’s as fleeting as a meal, and proceed from there? I think there’s a way, in this country’s contemporary literature, where the validity of narratives decentering those traumas are decreed as “less than” or “weightless” or “sentimental”; or those stories get tagged with the admonishment that “nothing happens”—which, if that’s the case, then so fucking what? Because these communities are deserving of light on the page, too.
But for an actual answer to your question: last year, I was listening to a lot of Alton Ellis, and also a lot of Colde. One day, my Spotify account shuffled “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” and “Wa-R-R” in relatively quick succession, and the story just sort of lodged itself in my head from then onward.
When you first wrote a full version of the story, the narrator’s sexual life happened offstage. In the revision and editing process, you introduced the guy he’s sleeping with, Joel. Why did this feel like an important addition?
Joel was really fun to write! That’s probably the biggest reason—I think he’d be a really chill guy to hang out with. But I also thought it made a better story for there to be real-time repercussions, and a contrast, from the narrator’s relationship to his visitor. The narrator is privy to a warmth from his father’s ex, and the question becomes whether or not, and how, he’ll incorporate that in his own life, and toward the people he cares about. I don’t know that I personally need to see the change a character may or may not undergo in a piece itself, but I thought it’d be cool in this instance.
And, for what it’s worth, in the project that this story’s from, Joel’s got his own narrative thing going on. In the larger scheme of things, it felt good and right to make sure he was included.
Like many of your stories, “The Visitor” is set in a very specific slice of Houston. What distinguishes this part of the city from the neighborhoods you wrote about in “Waugh,” your previous story in the magazine? And what are some of the reasons that Houston is such fertile literary territory for you, besides the fact that you live there?
Houston’s such a confluence of people, places, and ideas, in a relatively closed space, that it has all of the elements for narrative just by way of the geography. The city’s like this enormous fucking bubble, comprised of interconnected, independent bubbles, and also there are too many cars. Each neighborhood is so very much itself, despite Harris County’s expansiveness, that the geography itself is rife with possibility. If comedy’s the combination of several things for an unexpected result, then what does it mean to have a church next to a strip mall next to a strip club next to a charter school next to a Thai takeout spot? What does it mean to live in a city that, in a lot of ways, is very much at the center of climate change’s repercussions in this country? What does it mean to live in a city that is at the outer ends of both religiosity and also decadence? What happens when that city’s the most diverse one in the States, with a rapidly growing population? What does it mean to live in a city that weathers all of those things and is, simultaneously, so low-key about it? And for its residents to, for the most part, find a way to live and break bread and make space for another?
Also—Houstonians are just so fucking funny. Good lord. My bánh mì guy at this diner I live by, and the lady who hooks me up at the jerk-chicken spot, and the older women who drag me (thoughtfully, lovingly) at this spa I go to tell stories so much better than I do. Nearly everyone here is a storyteller of some kind.
Before the visitor goes back to Jamaica, he and the narrator have a last meal. According to the narrator, “The thing on both of our minds hung above us, swaying in the lights.” What is that thing?
Eh. It’s no fun if I tell you.


newyorker--2020-01-13--Ronan Farrow on What the Harvey Weinstein Trial Could Mean for the #MeToo Movement

The former film producer Harvey Weinstein is now on trial in the State Supreme Court in Manhattan for first-degree rape , third-degree rape , first-degree criminal sexual act , and predatory sexual assault .
Weinstein contends that the incidents were consensual .
The first day of the trial began with Weinstein entering the courthouse in lower Manhattan with a walker .
It ended with prosecutors in Los Angeles announcing that they had charged Weinstein with raping one woman and sexually assaulting another in 2013 .
Ronan Farrow has reported extensively for The New Yorker on allegations against Weinstein and , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ abuse .
His best-selling book “ Catch and Kill ” and a podcast of the same title document the efforts of Weinstein and his agents to silence his accusers .
In 2018 , Farrow ’ s reporting on Weinstein for the magazine won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service , an honor shared with the Times ’ Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey .
I caught up with Farrow in between recording sessions for his podcast to talk about the trial , where it ’ s going , and what it could mean for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ considering how many women have spoken out against Harvey Weinstein , describing their accusations of sexual harassment , abuse , and , rape , why is the case in New York as confined as it is ?
Dusting off my lawyer hat here : there ’ s a lot of obvious reasons you see a limited number of claims in any sex-crimes trial .
There ’ s jurisdiction , of course—New York is only going to try criminal conduct that took place in-state .
Another big limiting factor is the statute of limitations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of limitations on rape was only eliminated in 2006 , so prosecutors were exclusively looking at claims that either occurred after that date or weren ’ t time-barred at that point .
And then , from that limited pool , prosecutors are looking at which claims are going to have the makings of a winning case .
How strong a witness is this going to be ?
Do they have any compelling evidence ?
How consistent has their account of the allegation been over the years ?
And so on .
Weinstein could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He ’ s charged with forcing a woman named Mimi Haleyi to allow him to perform oral sex on her , in 2006 .
He is also charged with raping a woman at a hotel , in 2013 .
In court documents , that woman is unnamed , for reasons I hope you will explain .
It ’ s fairly unusual for somebody to remain anonymous this far into a case like this .
I don ’ t believe the judge has spoken to whether he ’ ll maintain that—whether they ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a pseudonym or a first name , as you sometimes see with child victims , for instance .
I imagine they ’ re keeping her anonymous for the time being not only due to the general sensitivity of sexual-assault claims but also because of the public nature of this particular trial .
Weinstein has , in the past and already in this case , made a habit of using the press to disparage his accusers , and I imagine that this accuser and her attorneys want to spare her that as long as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s team is aware of her identity .
They ’ d have to be , to mount a fair defense .
This sometimes happens in our reporting , too , where someone wants to be anonymous publicly but agrees to be identified to the subject of the reporting , in the interest of fairness .
How strong is the D.A.
’ s case ?
What kind of defense strategy do Weinstein and his attorneys have ?
Weinstein has previewed his strategy pretty extensively .
His legal team has circulated a fifty-seven-page PowerPoint @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New York magazine .
He ’ s going to work to discredit the accusers—both on the stand and in the press—and argue that they ’ re either fabricating or recasting events for personal gain or exposure .
Last week , the prosecution sought to have the judge issue a gag order on Weinstein ’ s attorneys , to stop them from advancing such arguments in the press .
The judge denied that request , but he did chastise Weinstein ’ s attorneys for publicly disparaging witnesses .
That seemed to be a response @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s lawyers , Donna Rotunno , made about Annabella Sciorra , saying that she ’ d worked all her life as an actress and implying that she ’ d be acting on the stand .
The prosecution plans to call as witnesses several women who have accused Weinstein of harassment , assault , or rape , though they are not accusers in this case , specifically .
What effect do you expect that will have on the trial ?
A lot will rest on the witnesses whose claims are time-barred but who will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In the Bill Cosby case , the first trial didn ’ t include much of that kind of testimony , and ended in a mistrial .
During the retrial , they allowed additional women to testify about his pattern of behavior , and the prosecution prevailed .
It ’ s a fine line—you ’ re not supposed to allow in propensity evidence ; jurors are not supposed to rely on a theory of “ he did other crimes before , so he must have done these ones.
” But you can introduce more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a specific approach that would tend to establish intent or awareness of the criminality of the conduct .
That ’ s what Sciorra and others with claims that are barred by the statute of limitations are expected to testify to , and I think it will play as essential a role here as it did in the Cosby case .
You can see how much of a priority it was for the prosecution—they actually re-impanelled a grand jury to add Sciorra ’ s testimony and the predatory-sexual-assault charge to the case .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
Where is the D.A .
vulnerable ?
As is so often true in cases like this , there ’ s going to be little , if any , forensic evidence .
These are crimes people are reluctant to talk about , so often you ’ re dealing with witnesses who didn ’ t disclose their claim immediately , and perhaps only disclosed part of it when they first began to describe it to people .
Weinstein is going to present evidence of ongoing , friendly contact with accusers after their alleged assaults @ @ @ @ @ @ @ facet of sexual assault , especially when someone occupies a professional position like Weinstein ’ s , where the women in question essentially had to deal with him afterward , to continue to pursue their livelihoods .
But some jurors may be sympathetic to his arguments .
He ’ s also going to suggest or outright argue that these women are doing this for personal gain , though I think that will be challenging , given the numerous ways in which this kind of exposure brings stigma and pain .
Prosecutors will have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to any arguments that witnesses had contact or coördinated their claims , which you can imagine might come up in a cultural climate in which survivors of sexual assault have been banding together and supporting one another .
Weinstein ’ s attorneys have tried to introduce questions about the fairness with which the N.Y.P.D .
handled the case , though it seems like the judge isn ’ t going to allow them to call to the stand a detective they ’ ve tried to discredit .
I know you ’ re neither an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do you think will happen ?
If only I had a crystal ball—I ’ d break so many more stories for you !
I will say that a number of attorneys well versed in New York sex-crimes cases have told me that they think the prosecution has significant advantages .
Obviously , one goal of jury selection has been to root out anyone with preconceptions about Weinstein .
Last week , we saw a number of jurors sent home because they said they ’ d read my book—ideally , you don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this to be familiar with any prior reporting , however fair .
But it ’ s going to be pretty unrealistic to find anyone with zero exposure to the idea that there have been many , many allegations of rape and harassment against Harvey Weinstein .
So you may wind up with a jury that ’ s receptive to the charge with the greatest maximum sentence—the predatory-sexual-assault charge , which rests on his behavior being part of a course of conduct or a pattern .
The authorities in New York considered charging Weinstein @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
What is your analysis of the way Cyrus Vance , Jr. , the D.A .
in Manhattan , has handled the Weinstein investigations ?
Cyrus Vance , Jr. , has taken a lot of heat in the past few years for having an extremely conservative posture when it comes to high-profile defendants with vigorous legal teams .
Lawyers who work criminal cases in New York have told me that they see a stark division between the D.A.
’ s charging of regular folks and celebrities .
You saw that , for instance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn .
And you saw it in the 2015 case of Ambra Battilana Gutierrez , when investigators had a tape of Weinstein admitting to groping and then Vance ’ s office decided , under heavy pressure from Weinstein , not to proceed .
There are cops on the force who call that kind of conservatism “ corrupt , ” and you can see what they mean .
Lawyers for Weinstein , for example , did a lot of smearing of his accuser in the Gutierrez case and a lot of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( Vance has since said he ’ ll no longer take money from attorneys with cases before him . )
What sources in the D.A.
’ s office tell you when you talk to them about this is that these are pragmatic decisions about the likelihood of winning , which makes sense .
When you know that someone has unlimited legal resources and the press is going to be scrutinizing the outcome , you can see how prosecutors would have incentives to be more careful than in a less public and contentious case @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or corruption or a mix of both , I ’ ll leave to readers .
We ’ re already seeing all the dynamics that I just mentioned play out in the current trial .
The D.A .
was understandably conservative in selecting which charges to bring .
And Weinstein has shown his characteristic aggression in chipping away at the case .
We reported on how one of the catalysts for the reopening of the Weinstein case was Lucia Evans , whose allegation we reported on in T*he New Yorker .
That was a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but Weinstein ’ s legal team deployed some very aggressive tactics to get it dropped , including getting a detective who ’ d worked the case removed for alleged bias and arguing that his behavior had “ tainted ” the entire prosecution .
Sources in the D.A.
’ s office still privately say that they found her credible , and essentially dropped her because they were being maximally conservative about safeguarding the charges associated with the other women in the case .
Just as the trial in New York was opening , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Los Angeles .
Can you describe that case , and is it stronger than the case in New York ?
The Los Angeles District Attorney ’ s office has been developing this case for a long time , and has put a lot of resources into it .
You ’ re looking at similar allegations of rape and assault there , though the sentencing exposure in L.A. is , as of now , less severe than it is in New York , because they aren ’ t advancing something similar to the New @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which could result in a life sentence .
That may change , however .
Prosecutors in L.A. have asked sources of mine , whose alleged assaults did not take place in Los Angeles , if they ’ d testify—it ’ s unclear under what legal theory .
And sources in the investigation have said that they ’ re actively seeking additional charging opportunities .
One interesting thing is how the two cases might intersect—if Weinstein is convicted of a crime in New York that took place prior to the alleged crimes at issue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could be an opportunity for either enhanced sentencing or an additional charge , where the prosecutors in Los Angeles use a New York conviction as a predicate to establish a pattern of behavior .
So it ’ s a serious case and will continue to develop for some time to come .
Ronan , we ’ ve talked about what the Weinstein trial is here in legal terms , in a sense .
But what does the trial mean ?
And how much will the outcome affect its meaning ?
Well , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ survivors and activists for whom the case carries profound meaning .
It ’ s a test of a lot of systems that have failed a lot of people for a long time .
My relationship with it is more reportorial .
Any outcome will be revealing about these kinds of cases and our ability to hold powerful people to account in the criminal-justice system .
And it ’ s only one piece of a larger puzzle involving multiple jurisdictions .
I know you stay in touch with many of the women who were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years ago for your groundbreaking pieces on Weinstein and what became the # MeToo movement .
How are they thinking about the trial ?
What does it mean to them ?
Everyone has a different experience of a moment like this .
For those involved in the trial , I think it ’ s nerve-shredding .
There ’ s a sense that the witnesses are putting themselves into the line of fire , given the tactics Weinstein has been known to use to discredit people who speak out against him .
For some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back memories that are traumatic .
There ’ s certainly also , in the wider community of women with allegations to whom I ’ ve spoken , a sense of vindication .
Some of the sources in our stories lived with their claims privately for years and feel this was a long time coming .

The former film producer Harvey Weinstein is now on trial in the State Supreme Court in Manhattan for first-degree rape, third-degree rape, first-degree criminal sexual act, and predatory sexual assault. Weinstein contends that the incidents were consensual. The first day of the trial began with Weinstein entering the courthouse in lower Manhattan with a walker. It ended with prosecutors in Los Angeles announcing that they had charged Weinstein with raping one woman and sexually assaulting another in 2013.
Ronan Farrow has reported extensively for The New Yorker on allegations against Weinstein and, more broadly, on sexual harassment and abuse. His best-selling book “Catch and Kill” and a podcast of the same title document the efforts of Weinstein and his agents to silence his accusers. In 2018, Farrow’s reporting on Weinstein for the magazine won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, an honor shared with the Times’ Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. I caught up with Farrow in between recording sessions for his podcast to talk about the trial, where it’s going, and what it could mean for the #MeToo movement.
Ronan, considering how many women have spoken out against Harvey Weinstein, describing their accusations of sexual harassment, abuse, and, rape, why is the case in New York as confined as it is?
Dusting off my lawyer hat here: there’s a lot of obvious reasons you see a limited number of claims in any sex-crimes trial. There’s jurisdiction, of course—New York is only going to try criminal conduct that took place in-state. Another big limiting factor is the statute of limitations. In New York, the statute of limitations on rape was only eliminated in 2006, so prosecutors were exclusively looking at claims that either occurred after that date or weren’t time-barred at that point. And then, from that limited pool, prosecutors are looking at which claims are going to have the makings of a winning case. How strong a witness is this going to be? Do they have any compelling evidence? How consistent has their account of the allegation been over the years? And so on.
Weinstein could face twenty-five years in prison—or even life. He’s charged with forcing a woman named Mimi Haleyi to allow him to perform oral sex on her, in 2006. He is also charged with raping a woman at a hotel, in 2013. In court documents, that woman is unnamed, for reasons I hope you will explain.
It’s fairly unusual for somebody to remain anonymous this far into a case like this. I don’t believe the judge has spoken to whether he’ll maintain that—whether they’ll have her take the stand using a pseudonym or a first name, as you sometimes see with child victims, for instance. I imagine they’re keeping her anonymous for the time being not only due to the general sensitivity of sexual-assault claims but also because of the public nature of this particular trial. Weinstein has, in the past and already in this case, made a habit of using the press to disparage his accusers, and I imagine that this accuser and her attorneys want to spare her that as long as possible. I would guess that Weinstein’s team is aware of her identity. They’d have to be, to mount a fair defense. This sometimes happens in our reporting, too, where someone wants to be anonymous publicly but agrees to be identified to the subject of the reporting, in the interest of fairness.
How strong is the D.A.’s case? What kind of defense strategy do Weinstein and his attorneys have?
Weinstein has previewed his strategy pretty extensively. His legal team has circulated a fifty-seven-page PowerPoint, which Irin Carmon reported on in New York magazine. He’s going to work to discredit the accusers—both on the stand and in the press—and argue that they’re either fabricating or recasting events for personal gain or exposure. Last week, the prosecution sought to have the judge issue a gag order on Weinstein’s attorneys, to stop them from advancing such arguments in the press. The judge denied that request, but he did chastise Weinstein’s attorneys for publicly disparaging witnesses. That seemed to be a response to a comment one of Weinstein’s lawyers, Donna Rotunno, made about Annabella Sciorra, saying that she’d worked all her life as an actress and implying that she’d be acting on the stand.
The prosecution plans to call as witnesses several women who have accused Weinstein of harassment, assault, or rape, though they are not accusers in this case, specifically. What effect do you expect that will have on the trial?
A lot will rest on the witnesses whose claims are time-barred but who will be testifying to establish a pattern. In the Bill Cosby case, the first trial didn’t include much of that kind of testimony, and ended in a mistrial. During the retrial, they allowed additional women to testify about his pattern of behavior, and the prosecution prevailed. It’s a fine line—you’re not supposed to allow in propensity evidence; jurors are not supposed to rely on a theory of “he did other crimes before, so he must have done these ones.” But you can introduce more targeted information that speaks to an M.O., a specific approach that would tend to establish intent or awareness of the criminality of the conduct. That’s what Sciorra and others with claims that are barred by the statute of limitations are expected to testify to, and I think it will play as essential a role here as it did in the Cosby case. You can see how much of a priority it was for the prosecution—they actually re-impanelled a grand jury to add Sciorra’s testimony and the predatory-sexual-assault charge to the case.
What are the risks for the prosecution? Where is the D.A. vulnerable?
As is so often true in cases like this, there’s going to be little, if any, forensic evidence. These are crimes people are reluctant to talk about, so often you’re dealing with witnesses who didn’t disclose their claim immediately, and perhaps only disclosed part of it when they first began to describe it to people. Weinstein is going to present evidence of ongoing, friendly contact with accusers after their alleged assaults. That’s a pretty common facet of sexual assault, especially when someone occupies a professional position like Weinstein’s, where the women in question essentially had to deal with him afterward, to continue to pursue their livelihoods. But some jurors may be sympathetic to his arguments. He’s also going to suggest or outright argue that these women are doing this for personal gain, though I think that will be challenging, given the numerous ways in which this kind of exposure brings stigma and pain. Prosecutors will have to be careful about opening themselves up to any arguments that witnesses had contact or coördinated their claims, which you can imagine might come up in a cultural climate in which survivors of sexual assault have been banding together and supporting one another. Weinstein’s attorneys have tried to introduce questions about the fairness with which the N.Y.P.D. handled the case, though it seems like the judge isn’t going to allow them to call to the stand a detective they’ve tried to discredit.