We’ve nearly reached the end of 2024, which means it’s time for our annual look at New York Magazine’s most-read stories of the year. For the editors, these lists are always a fascinating snapshot of our readers’ interests and a reminder of the types of conversations we want to keep going into the New Year. In 2024 — a year marked by upheavals in politics, culture, and technology — our readers were more likely to turn toward the personal, flocking to accounts of chronic illness, an adult autism diagnosis, unconventional relationships, elaborate digital scams, and many stories about divorce. You were also captivated by richly rendered pieces of investigative reporting about podcast superstar Andrew Huberman, disgraced parenting influencer Ruby Franke, a group of particularly bold squatters in Beverly Hills, and the very bitter battle tearing apart the paleontology world.
Below, you’ll find our 20 most-read articles, defined by total minutes of audience engagement. It’s just a small selection of the work we’re proud to publish in New York’s print magazine and on all its digital sites: Vulture, the Cut, Intelligencer, Curbed, Grub Street, and the Strategist. If you missed any of these, we hope you’ll use this as a guide to catch up before the New Year arrives. And to stay current with us in 2025, be sure to sign up for One Great Story, our daily recommendation newsletter, and to subscribe.
20. The Conspiracy of Silence to Protect Joe Biden
By Olivia Nuzzi
The president’s mental decline was like a dark family secret for many elite supporters. Read the story …
19. Miriam Adelson’s Unfinished Business
By Elizabeth Weil
What does the eighth-richest woman in the world want? Read the story …
18. What Is Usha Vance Thinking?
By Irin Carmon
The veep-elect’s wife is the child of immigrants, a former Democrat, a highly skilled lawyer — and a total mystery. Read the story …
17. Inventing the Perfect College Applicant
By Caitlin Moscatello
For $120,000 a year, Christopher Rim promises to turn any student into Ivy bait. Read the story …
16. The Empathy Punishment
By Reeves Wiedeman
A woman hurled a burrito bowl at a Chipotle employee. Then a judge made her walk in the victim’s shoes. Read the story …
15. Four Friends, Two Marriages, One Affair — and a Shelf of Books Dissecting It
By Chris Heath
A tale of literature and treachery. Read the story …
14. A Hidden Sexual-Assault Scandal at the New York Philharmonic
By Sammy Sussman
Two players were fired for sexual misconduct. Why were they allowed back into the orchestra? Read the story …
13. What My Adult Autism Diagnosis Finally Explained
By Mary H.K. Choi
I’d long suspected something was “off.” Then, at 43, an unexpected answer arrived. Read the story …
12. The Parasites of Malibu
By Justine Harman
Anthony Flores and Anna Moore met Dr. Mark Sawusch getting ice cream. Soon, he was dead and they were living in his house. Read the story …
11. The Asteroid-in-Spring Hypothesis
By Kerry Howley
Two paleontologists have turned on each other, each claiming to have found new evidence about the worst day on earth. Read the story …
10. The Truths and Distortions of Ruby Franke
By Caitlin Moscatello
She broadcast her family’s wholesome life on YouTube. How did she end up abusing her children? Read the story …
9. The Women Who Walked Away
By Elizabeth Weil
What drove a Colorado mother to flee into the Rocky Mountains with her teenage son and her sister? Read the story …
8. The Squatters of Beverly Hills
By Bridget Read
After a fugitive doctor abandoned his mansion, an enterprising group of party throwers slid in the front door. Read the story …
7. The Case for Marrying an Older Man
By Grazie Sophia Christie
A woman’s life is all work and little rest. An age-gap relationship can help. Read the story …
6. Sixteen Kids and a Hit Man
By James D. Walsh
Christopher Pence kept adding to his family. Then he decided to remove two people from the mix. Read the story …
5. The Lure of Divorce
By Emily Gould
Seven years into my marriage, I hit a breaking point — and had to decide whether life would be better without my husband in it. Read the story …
4. The Divorce Tapes
By Beth Raymer
My family knew that my father had been tapping the phone lines. Only later would I discover the secrets the recordings contained. Read the story …
3. My Unraveling
By Tom Scocca
I had my health. I had a job. And then, abruptly, I didn’t. Read the story …
2. The Day I Put $50,000 in a Shoe Box and Handed It to a Stranger
By Charlotte Cowles
I never thought I was the kind of person to fall for a scam. Read the story …
1. Andrew Huberman’s Mechanisms of Control
By Kerry Howley
The private and public seductions of the world’s biggest pop neuroscientist. Read the story …
