Time Int 12.27.2021

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: COURTESY MAYE MUSK; PAUL SAKUMA—AP; ELON MUSK/TWITTER (2); COURTESY MAYE MUSK (3) 51

2021 PERSON OF THE YEAR

Musk has been accused of overstating and mis- best-selling vehicle in Europe in September, and
representing the system’s abilities, starting with the company is swamped by new orders. With
the name: despite the promises of an imminent demand soaring, Musk is expanding production,
driverless future, Tesla drivers still have to keep preparing to double its output with new factories
their hands on the wheel. “We still obviously in Germany and Texas.
have a lot of work to do,” Musk says of truly au-
tonomous vehicles, though he insists the current Tesla’s gains have inspired investors to pour
software is safe. Tesla’s newest autonomous beta billions of dollars into EV startups like Rivian and
software has already been blamed for at least one Fisker. One rival, Lucid Motors, is run by a former
crash since its broad release in September, and Tesla engineer who helped create the Model S.
videos showing the cars making dangerous er- The Lucid Air sedan was recently named the
rors have circulated online. A former high-level MotorTrend Car of the Year. Ford and GM have
employee in Tesla’s autonomous-development pumped money into thwarting Tesla’s expansion
program tells TIME that the new system’s name, into pickup trucks, the most profitable segment
“Full Self-Driving,” is irresponsible. of the domestic market. But Musk says he isn’t
worried about being outcompeted. “If somebody
In 2018, the Chinese government repealed a makes better cars than we do, and they then sell
law against foreign ownership to allow Musk to more cars than we do, I think that’s totally fine,”
build a factory in Shanghai. Now Tesla appears he says. “Our intent with Tesla was always that
to make about half of its cars in China, but it risks we would serve as an example to the car indus-
losing its hold on the world’s largest car market try and hope that they also make electric cars, so
as the one-party state turns to favor homegrown that we can accelerate the transition to sustain-
able technology.”

‘I saw plenty of Musk’s Mother was a model and his father
examples of people that was a monster. Born in Pretoria in 1971, Elon
had enormous wealth, was prone to long silences and speed-reading
and were entirely the encyclopedia. When he was 12, he wrote the
cautious. In Elon, code for a video game called Blastar, which he
there was this complete sold to a computer magazine for $500. “He was
opposite mindset.’ always different. He was my little genius boy,” his
mother, Maye Musk, tells TIME. “From the time
—J.B. STRAUBEL, TESLA CO-FOUNDER he was 3, we used to call him that—Genius Boy.”

rivals like NIO and BYD. Musk has faced criti- His parents divorced when Musk was 9. After
cism for pandering to America’s increasingly as- the divorce, Elon and brother Kimbal went to live
sertive authoritarian rival. “Overall, Tesla has a with their father. Errol Musk was a brilliant en-
good relationship with China,” Musk told a busi- gineer and entrepreneur; he was also, in Elon’s
ness conference on Dec. 6. “I don’t mean to en- telling, an “evil” man who tormented the boy psy-
dorse everything China does.” chologically in ways Musk still finds painful to
discuss. Errol Musk told Rolling Stone he once
Despite supply-chain shortages, Tesla deliv- shot and killed three armed robbers who broke
ered 241,300 vehicles in the most recent quar- into his home. In 2017, Errol later acknowledged,
ter, a record for the carmaker. Ford and GM’s he fathered a child with his ex-stepdaughter, 42
combined market cap is less than a fifth of Tes- years his junior. Musk has said he no longer has
la’s, even though they together sold 3½ times as contact with his father.
many vehicles. The Tesla Model 3 became the
School was nearly as bad as home for the pre-
cocious child. Vicious gangs of bullies targeted
Musk relentlessly, at one point beating him so
badly he was hospitalized, until he hit a growth
spurt in high school and started punching back.
Musk’s maternal grandfather had moved from
Canada to South Africa in 1950, arriving dur-
ing the early years of apartheid. When Musk
was 17, he made the opposite journey, in part to
avoid the regime’s military draft. He took off for

52 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

CONTENT FROM THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR

Serbia

BUILDING BACK BETTER

NOVKOL – From foundations to the skies

The speed and efficiency with which the geotechnical contractor of choice in Serbia. were acutely aware that we were the new kids on
Serbia has rebuilt itself over the past two The company is known not just for its technical the block and that we didn’t dare fail,” he says. “So
decades has been impressive. Enormous expertise but for its flexibility, innovative company we went and bought the best pumps from Holland,
undertakings like the $3 billion Belgrade Waterfront culture and its systematic deployment of new because they know a thing or two about water
project on the banks of the river Sava have totally technologies. Novkol also conforms to best control.” Also, Novkol adopted Italian geotechnical
transformed the city’s landscape, while Belgrade’s business practices current in the U.S. and methods for drilling, injection, grouting and all kinds
Nikola Tesla International Airport has been upgraded Western Europe. What sets Novkol apart from of specific geotechnical tasks.
beyond recognition. Across the rest of the country, the competition is its practice of setting up design
thousands of miles of roads have undergone major teams dedicated to identifying new ideas and Since then, the company has systematically
improvements, many new bridges were built adapting them to local conditions. Thanks to this invested in the very latest state-of-the-art plants
across its rivers and, less visibly, water supply and innovative spirit, the company has been involved and machinery, and this command of the latest
sewerage systems were systematically overhauled. in almost every complex Serbian infrastructure technology has won it contracts to participate in
project commissioned in the past 15 years. some of the most technically challenging projects
Novkol, a Belgrade-based building design, ever seen in Serbia.
construction and civil engineering company, has The French concessions and construction
been instrumental in the successful execution of company VINCI was so impressed that it purchased Novkol is now set to start work on another
many of these projects. Established in 1997 by a majority stake in the company. Although equally demanding project, the construction of the
three civil engineers using their own savings -- Hranisavljevic and his colleagues have since bought Serbian capital’s new metro system. Planned to run
just as Yugoslavia was entering its final chapter – their shares back, the relationship remains strong. It alongside the river Sava and to Belgrade city center,
Novkol’s demonstrated technical competence and was VINCI that appointed Novkol to participate in this promises to be the largest capital investment in
willingness to innovate mirror the attributes helping the Nikola Tesla Airport project, an experience has the country for the next decade at least.
Serbia reclaim its regional prominence. given Novkol a taste for more partnerships.
As keen to innovate as ever, the company’s three
On top of that was the sheer physical courage Making it to the top spot is one thing, but staying founders recognize that in addition to new kinds
to keep on building as NATO bombs fell on the there is another matter altogether, as any champion of projects to work on, they need an injection of
Serbian capital in 1999. “It was a bit surreal,” will attest. Along with Novkol’s dedication to new blood to pursue the goal of extending the
recalls co-founder and now Novkol president Milos customer satisfaction and its flair for coordinating company’s reach across Serbia’s borders. Novkol
Hranisavljevic, “but we just carried on working.” The vertically integrated operations, Hranisavljevic has already made inroads into Montenegro but
experience only made them stronger and is reflected attributes Novkol’s longevity to its openness to new is eager to broaden its horizons even further in
in the company’s “we will survive” mindset. ideas and its ability to think outside the box. It is the region.
an attitude that dates back to those early days, as
“Back then we often found ourselves operating he explains. “When we won our first contract, we The founders’ inclusive and open attitude to new
in some very challenging conditions,” says business and partnerships means that the Novkol
Hranisavljevic. “The trenches were very deep and company is set to expand and evolve even further, a
close to the buildings, which was problematic.” reflection of the transformative effect the company
Instead of discouraging them, it convinced them is having on the physical landscape of Belgrade and
to specialize in the provision of the geotechnical Serbia as a whole.
services required in complex infrastructure
projects like foundations, foundation pits and slope
stabilization. “When you work in urban areas, you
have to take into consideration the streets and
buildings around the site.”

The decision to specialize was an inspired
move, with the result that Novkol is currently

2021 PERSON OF THE YEAR

Canada, enrolling at Queen’s University in Ontario. whiskey, and Mike says, ‘What do you think the
Musk later transferred to the University of idiot savant’s doing up there?’ loud enough for
everyone to hear,” Cantrell recalls. “Elon’s sitting
Pennsylvania, from which he graduated with a in the row ahead of us. And he turns around and
double major in physics and economics. Accepted says, ‘Hey guys, I think we can build this rocket
to Stanford University’s Ph.D. program, he moved ourselves. I’ve got a spreadsheet.’ We start look-
to California but dropped out after two days. In- ing at the spreadsheet, like, ‘Elon, where did you
stead, Elon and Kimbal decided to get in on the get this?’ I still use something similar to model a
nascent Internet boom. They rented a tiny office rocket today. He’d just gone and figured it out.”
in Palo Alto, slept on the floor, showered at the
YMCA, pirated an Internet line from a neighbor Around the same time, Musk met a Stanford-
and lived on Jack in the Box. While Kimbal tried trained engineer named J.B. Straubel, who was
to drum up business, Elon wrote code nonstop. trying to turn old Porsches into electric cars. En-
ergy storage had always been the biggest stum-
Their first company, Zip2, was the first Inter- bling block—a conventional battery would have
net mapping service, using GPS data to help con- to be so big and heavy that the car would expend
sumers find businesses in their neighborhood—a most of its power hauling its own weight around.
precursor to MapQuest. In 1999, Compaq bought Straubel believed recent advances in lithium-ion
the company and Musk netted $22 million for his batteries would enable much denser, lighter power
share. For his next act, Musk decided to reimagine cells, if only someone would give him the money to
the global banking system. His company, X.com, prove it. Most investors he met dismissed him as
eventually became part of PayPal, which was pur- a crazy gadfly. Musk did the math and concluded
chased by eBay in 2002. Musk came away with on the spot that Straubel was right. A few months
about $180 million. But instead of gloating over later, Musk pledged $6.5 million to a lithium-ion
his payday, Musk still seems irked that these early car startup called Tesla, becoming its largest inves-
companies never fulfilled their potential as he saw tor and eventually taking it over. “I saw plenty of
it. If PayPal had “just executed the product plan examples of people that had enormous wealth, and
I wrote in July 2000,” he told a podcast last year, were entirely cautious,” Straubel says. “In Elon,
it could have put the entire banking industry out there was this complete opposite mindset.”
of business.
Musk had made the incredibly risky decision
At 30, Musk was fabulously rich, but whiling to plow his fortune into simultaneous startups in
away his days on a yacht didn’t appeal to him. After industries with high costs, long development time-
a severe bout of malaria nearly killed him in 2001, lines and massive barriers to entry. The last suc-
those close to him say, he seemed to feel an urgency cessful startup in the American automotive indus-
to make more of his time on Earth. Around then, he try, Chrysler, was founded in 1925. “I said, ‘Just
was shocked to discover that NASA had no plans choose one: solar or cars or rockets,’” Maye Musk
to go to Mars. Zubrin, of the Mars Society, intro- recalls. “Obviously, he didn’t listen.”
duced Musk to the community of serious space
people, even though he was skeptical of the latest By 2008, the scale of the challenge became
in a parade of rich man-boys with astro fetishes. clear. Tesla had taken deposits of up to $60,000
A globetrotting engineer named Jim Cantrell lent from over 1,000 EV enthusiasts but had yet to de-
Musk his college rocketry textbooks, which Musk liver more than a few sample vehicles. An auto-
devoured, and agreed to take him to Russia, where motive blog was running a regular “Tesla Death
Musk hoped to buy an old Soviet intercontinental Watch” feature. SpaceX had attempted to launch
ballistic missile and turn it into a rocket launcher.
“He did not come across as credible,” Cantrell re- ‘Hey guys, I think
calls. “It was, ‘Who is this charlatan? This guy’s we can build this
crazy; he’s not going to make a rocket.’” rocket ourselves.’

After a couple of trips, Musk concluded that —ELON MUSK, TO JIM CANTRELL
the Russians were trying to rip him off—and that AND MIKE GRIFFIN
their rockets weren’t even very good. He packed
up and flew home from Moscow with Cantrell and
Mike Griffin, who would go on to serve as NASA
administrator under President George W. Bush and
Under Secretary of Defense under President Don-
ald Trump. “Griffin and I are back in coach drinking

54 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

three single-engine Falcon rockets from A DIE-CASTING Musk has been known to discuss his

a remote atoll in the Pacific, and all had TOOL FOR THE emotions as frankly and analytically as
exploded. Then the financial crisis hit. MODEL Y AT A he does thrust-to-payload ratios, but he
TESLA FACTORY can be remarkably vulnerable in public.
“The world imploded. GM and Chrys- IN GERMANY

ler went bankrupt. We did not want Tesla “If I’m not in love, if I’m not with a long-

to go bankrupt,” Kimbal Musk recalls. “I term companion, I cannot be happy,” he

remember him calling me in October and asking once confessed. He has cried in several interviews,

me if I had any money. I had no money—everything and announced on Saturday Night Live that he has

was gone, except for about $1 million I was saving Asperger’s, an autism-spectrum disorder. Musk ut-

to survive the recession. I wired it to him to put tered this intimate disclosure so awkwardly that

into Tesla. I told him, If everything goes to hell, at many viewers took it as a joke.

least we’ll be in hell together.” Musk scraped to- His first marriage was to his college sweetheart,

gether $8 million of his own money to cover pay- Justine Miller, a writer. “I’m the alpha in this re-

roll one week. lationship,” he told her as the newlyweds danced

Then, finally, the fourth rocket made a success- at their wedding, according to a 2010 essay she

ful launch. And two days before Christmas, NASA wrote in Marie Claire. Tragedy struck two years

made the shocking decision to award SpaceX later, when their 10-week-old son Nevada stopped

$1.6 billion for 12 flights to the ISS. “I do some- breathing in his crib. Distraught, the couple began

times wonder if other people have easier times in vitro fertilization treatments, and Justine gave

building businesses, because all our businesses birth to twins and triplets, all of whom are boys.

have been really freaking hard,” Kimbal Musk says. As Justine later told it, Elon abandoned her to tend

“Something about our upbringing makes us con- to his companies as she spiraled into depression

stantly want to be on the edge.” inside an L.A. mansion that became a gilded cage.

PATRICK PLEUL— GETTY IMAGES 55

2021 PERSON OF THE YEAR

AMERICA’S ULTRA-RICH GOT EVEN RICHER THIS YEAR—AND MUSK MOST OF ALL

$68B $55B $98B $113B

2021 $105B $118B $139B $198B $266B

Elon filed for divorce in the spring of 2008, and and considers his primary home a rental near the
six weeks later announced his engagement to the Starbase site in Boca Chica, Texas.
British actor Talulah Riley. He and Riley were
married, then divorced, then remarried, then di- X is with his daddy today in Texas, and a nanny
vorced again in 2016. brings the child to Musk between appointments.
The toddler has his father’s porcelain skin and
In 2018, Musk began dating the musician a mane of straw blond hair, shaved on the sides
Claire Boucher, whose stage name is Grimes. into the same fauxhawk Musk recently adopted.
Their son, X, was born in May 2020. This Sep- Musk takes him over to a patch of AstroTurf in
tember, the couple announced their relationship front of the Starbase employee restaurant (“Astro-
had ended. Grimes recently released a new song, pub”), which has an awning made of rocket flaps.
“Player of Games”: “Sail away to the cold expanse X toddles for a few minutes while Musk watches,
of space,” she sings. “Even love couldn’t keep you arms crossed. Then it’s time to leave, and Marvin
in your place/ But can’t you love me like that?” departs with Musk while X goes with his nanny.

Musk explains the split as a matter of logis- In the future Musk envisions, no one tells
tics. “Grimes and I are, I’d say, probably semi- you what to do. Robots perform all the labor, and
separated,” Musk tells TIME in Texas. “We weren’t goods and services are abundant, so people only
seeing each other that much, and I think this is work because they want to. “There’s, like, plenty
to some degree a long-term thing, because what for everyone, essentially,” he says. “There’s not
she needs to do is mostly in L.A. or touring, and necessarily anyone who’s the boss of you. I don’t
my work is mostly in remote locations like this.” mean to suggest chaos, but rather that you’re not
He says they are still good friends and he does under anyone’s thumb. So you have the freedom
not have a new girlfriend. “This place is basically to do whatever you’d like to do, provided it does
like a technology monastery, you know. There are not cause harm to others.”
some women here, but not many. And it’s remote.”
Musk has disavowed terrestrial political af-
“He would be happier with a partner,” says filiations and maintained good relations with
Kimbal. “But he’s also a very hard person to be politicians of both parties, including Presidents
partnered with.” Family and friends say Musk Obama and Trump, though he quit the latter’s
is sensitive and can take slights personally— business council after only a few months over the
particularly attacks on his wealth and media decision to pull out of the Paris climate accords.
reports he views as unfair. Having pledged on Of President Joe Biden, he says, “I don’t think he’s
Twitter this year that he would no longer own doing an amazing job, but I don’t know—it’s hard
a residence, Musk has sold off his seven houses

56 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

GET UNLIMITED ACCESS

TO OUR TRUSTED CONTENT ON

TIME.COM

VISIT TIME.COM TO LINK YOUR ACCOUNT TODAY
OR FOR SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY OFFERS VISIT

TIME.COM/EMEAOFFER TO SUBSCRIBE

2021 PERSON OF THE YEAR

to tell.” He has an ardent following in some of the MUSK AT AN EVENT
nastier precincts of the far right, but Musk claims FOR THE BORING
that when he tweeted “Take the red pill” last year,
he had no idea that “red-pilling” was a right-wing CO., HIS HIGH-SPEED
dog whistle: “I was just referring to The Matrix,” TUNNELING VENTURE
the movie from which the meme derives.
James Pethokoukis, an economic analyst with
Unlike some techno-libertarians, Musk doesn’t
anticipate a grim future of competition for re- the conservative-leaning American Enterprise In-
sources in which only the naturally gifted prevail.
But he rejects the idea that the size of his fortune stitute, thinks Musk does have a coherent politics,
constitutes a policy problem in and of itself, or
that he is morally obligated to pay some share of whether or not he articulates it. “The reason it’s
it in taxes. A recent ProPublica investigation found
that Musk and many others in his tax bracket paid confusing is it’s not on the traditional left-right
no individual federal taxes as recently as 2018 be-
cause they had no income, only assets. In October, spectrum,” he says. “It is a politics of progress.”
Senate Democrats considered imposing a “billion-
aires’ tax” on wealth. When Democratic Senator At a time when segments of the right and left alike
Ron Wyden of Oregon tweeted in support of it,
Musk responded with a vulgar insult of Wyden’s champion protectionist populism—from Repub-
appearance in his profile photo.
lican Senator Josh Hawley’s hostility to free trade
When the topic of government comes up in
TIME’s interview, Musk briefly amuses himself to Bernie Sanders’ redistributionism—this puts
by humming rapper Warren G’s ’90s hip-hop hit
“Regulate.” “They’re basically saying they want Musk at odds with both. “It is a view that says the
control of the assets,” he says. “This does not re-
sult in, actually, the good of the people. You want solution to man’s problems is growth and techno-
those who are managing capital to be good stew-
ards of capital. And I think the government is in- logical progress and maximizing human potential,”
herently not a good steward of capital.”
Pethokoukis says. “It’s not a view fully represented
In an interview, Wyden agreed with Musk’s in-
terpretation of his position, at least in part: the by either side in this country.”
purpose of such a tax is to take assets out of pri-
vate hands for public use. Government, he argues, Musk’s belief in progress is not absolute. He has
is inherently a more public-spirited and account-
able steward of resources than any individual, and been outspoken about confronting what he sees
is empowered to ensure all of society benefits from
the profits a dynamic economy generates. “In this as the dangers of out-of-control artificial intelli-
country, I think there is a consensus that we ought
to pay for the priorities we really care about, and gence, and cofounded the AI companies Neuralink
everyone ought to pay their fair share,” Wyden says.
and Open AI to advance that goal. He finds crypto-
‘He is a savant when
it comes to business, currency interesting and can talk endlessly about
but his gift is not
empathy with people.’ the conception of money as “an information system

—KIMBAL MUSK, ELON’S BROTHER for resource allocation.” But he doubts that crypto

will replace fiat currency, and disavows responsi-

bility for the way his tweets have sent markets into

a tizzy. “Markets move themselves all the time,”

he says, “based on nothing as far as I can tell. So

the statements that I make, are they materially dif-

ferent from random movements of the stock that

might happen anyway? I don’t think so.”

Zubrin, of the Mars Society, believes three qual-

ities could fell Musk: his workaholism, his reck-

lessness or a sort of earned hubris. “Great leaders

become incapable of hearing criticism,” he says.

“Why did Napoleon fail in Russia? Because every

time before, he had succeeded. Plenty of French

generals were saying, ‘Why don’t we just take

Poland and be good?’ But every time in the past,

the people who urged caution had been wrong.”

Nevertheless, Zubrin would not bet against his

old friend. “Genius is a word that is frequently as-

sociated with Musk; wisdom is not,” he says wryly.

“But there is one sense in which Musk, in my view,

is very wise, which is that he understands that he

doesn’t have forever.”

In other words: Get in, loser. We’re going

to Mars. —With reporting by mariah espada,

nik popli and julia zorThian 

58 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022 JOSHUA LOTT—GETTY IMAGES

59

CONTENT FROM THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR

Moldova

BEFORE AND AFTER
TRANS-OIL GROUP

Although the Moldovan economy’s dependence on agriculture is decreasing, that sector still accounts for
approximately 40% of GDP and employs over 30% of the working-age population. After maize and wheat,
sunflower seeds are the country’s third-largest crop by volume, making it a key economic component.

One day in the summer of 1995, Georgian- Vaja Jhashi, Ukrainian grains and oil seeds they were then
born businessman Vaja Jhashi landed at President of Trans-Oil Group of Companies trading in. Then a single phone call turned what
the Italian port of Civitavecchia hoping to was a moderately successful trading partnership
sell a cargo of Russian sunflower seeds that he Management, major private equity specialists into a spectacularly profitable corporation. “We
hadn’t yet paid for, to a man he hadn’t previously based in the U.S., is a minor shareholder. Trans-Oil were in Ukraine and Jim was on the phone to
met. What could possibly go wrong? remains the only company with headquarters in the son of a friend of his who had been posted
Moldova to have earned corporate credit ratings to the U.S. Embassy in Chișinău [the capital of
Jhashi can smile about it now. His contact from the agency triumvirate of Moody’s, Standard Moldova],” says Jhashi. “He got off the call, turned
honored the deal, the Russian farmers got their & Poor’s and Fitch. to me and said, ‘where’s Moldova?’ I told him it
money and Jhashi had taken his first steps on was only a few hundred kilometers away and so
a journey that would lead to the creation of the Jhashi’s entrepreneurial flair, eye for an off we went.”
Trans-Oil Group, one of the leading agro-industrial opportunity and sheer guts have never been in
businesses in Central and Eastern Europe. Trans- question since that first trip to Italy. That venture’s Jhashi soon discovered that sunflower seeds
Oil is a vertically integrated business with a client successful conclusion led to a meeting with Jim in Moldova were selling for as little as one-third
base that stretches from Europe to the Middle East Kelley, a well-known local businessman in the what they were elsewhere in the former Soviet
and North Africa (MENA) region and with a supply Indiana town where Jhashi was living (Jhashi has Republics. There was, however, one major
of berths and silos running from the Black Sea an MBA degree from Indiana University). Kelley problem: it was almost impossible to get the
ports of Constanța and Rani to northern Europe. agreed to finance Jhashi’s next business trip and harvest out of the country.
The company has grown into a $1.5 billion was so impressed by its success (not to mention
enterprise that continues to expand at a compound the speed with which Jhashi paid back the loan) “There was hardly any infrastructure to speak
annual growth rate of 44%. that he went into long-term business with him. of,” Jhashi recalls. “The roads were a disaster, and
there was no loading port. People were having to
On the face of it, Jhashi’s story looks like Over the next several years, the duo developed transit their goods through Ukraine.”
a classic rags-to-riches tale of a man taking what was to become an extensive international
advantage of the collapse of the Soviet empire network of customers for the Russian and The two men quickly calculated that they could
to sell some of its natural resources on the open invest in the infrastructure themselves and still do
market. But there is much more to the story. good business. They were right. The acquisition
For one thing, Jhashi can take credit for helping of a state-owned grain elevator was the first step
transform the logistics infrastructure -- and on a program of infrastructure and operational
by extension the entire economy -- of then- investments that continues to this day. Trans-Oil
impoverished Moldova. is now the largest buyer and exporter of cereals
and oilseeds in the country, operating 18 storage
For another, Jhashi’s policy of continual facilities with a combined capacity of 850,000
reinvestment in both company and country tons and two vegetable oil-extraction factories with
have won Trans-Oil worldwide respect. This a combined daily processing capacity of 1,600
regard persuaded both the European Bank for tons.
Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the
International Finance Corp. to give the company “People often ask how we managed to establish
financial backing during its development stage, such a dominant position,” says Jhashi. “The
the years 2008 to 2019. Today Oaktree Capital answer is that we took a big risk coming here and
spending all the money we did on the plant and

time.com/specialsections

trucks. The black soil almost guaranteed superb The global sunflower oil market is projected Group’s edible oil subsidiary. This past July, it
crops, but there was nothing else here.” to grow to $29.6 billion in 2028, from $19.53 increased its presence in Serbia when it acquired
billion in 2021, so the confidence of Trans-Oil 34 grain storage sites and two port terminals on
Since those early days, the company has also is understandable. It is a ferociously competitive the Danube River. Trans-Oil’s total processing
invested heavily in the Giurgiulesti International market nonetheless and, in this context, Trans-Oil’s capacity is 4,000 metric tons of oil seeds per
Free Port. Situated on the banks of the Danube track record has set a benchmark for others to day, or 1.2 million tons per year. The next stop is
River, it is Moldova’s sole water point of access aspire to. Romania. “Constanța is definitely in our sights,”
to the Black Sea and Southern Europe. By says Jhashi.
2020, Trans-Oil had built three terminals there, The figures speak for themselves, with profits
each fitted out with state-of-the-art processing (EBITDA) rising almost as fast as revenues. That is Environmental concerns have recently prompted
equipment. That November, the International quite an achievement for a company as vertically Trans-Oil to explore ways of reducing its carbon
Investment Bank announced that it was granting integrated as Trans-Oil, which must coordinate emissions. As part of that effort, work will soon be
Trans-Oil a loan to finance the acquisition of the the operational capacities of the origination and completed on an eco-friendly processing plant that
Romanian vegetable oil producer Ultex. The storage, processing, delivery and marketing runs partially on the steam produced by the husks
acquisition increased the company’s production elements of its supply chain. “ and other waste from the sunflower seeds. “All we
capacity at the port by an additional 700 tons. need to run it are the raw materials,” says Jhashi.
NOTHING WE DO HAPPENS
Trans-Oil has enjoyed a long-standing partnership IN ISOLATION BUT IS PART Like most successful companies, Trans-Oil
with the EBRD. In 2019, the bank contributed OF OUR BROADER BUSINESS ultimately relies on one other very important
$30 million to a $150 million loan facility VISION,” SAYS JHASHI. resource, its people. “Corporate governance” is not
arranged and managed by ING Bank to help Trans- “THE GROUP IS LIKE A a phrase that sits naturally with Jhashi, but the
Oil with its working capital. Later that year, Oaktree WATCH. IT IS A COMPLEX care the company takes with the wellbeing of its
Capital Management bought shares in Trans-Oil’s MECHANISM AND FOR IT staff and their families is second to none. On top of
parent company, Aragvi Holding International, TO FUNCTION PROPERLY, which, Trans-Oil is a generous sponsor of several
thereby becoming the first U.S. global asset EVERYTHING NEEDS TO WORK kindergartens and one-off educational events.
management company to invest in a Moldovan FLAWLESSLY.”
company. Then this past April, investors from What Jhashi is really good at is motivation,
MENA and Asia, along with others from Europe Thanks to its success in sticking to this as anybody who has attended one of his staff
and the U.S., queued up to subscribe to the strategy, Trans-Oil has managed to extend its meetings, often held on weekends to prove a point,
company’s latest five-year $500 million Eurobond footprint outward from Moldova without either will testify. “If you want, you can stop work at 6
issue. over-stretching its supply lines or ending up with o’clock and go and have a beer with your friends,
an over-capacity at the silo end. As it moves but nothing exciting is going to happen. My slogan
Their enthusiasm left Jhashi feeling vindicated towards globalization, the company has gradually is that good things happen outside the comfort
for his steadfast commitment to Trans-Oil’s strategy diversified away from sunflower seeds into other zone,” he says.
of continual investment. “We have taken a lot crops, particularly soybeans, where Latin America
of calculated risks and sometimes we’ve made is becoming an increasingly significant source It may be over 25 years since Jhashi
mistakes, but somehow that makes us even of raw material. It has also invested heavily in disembarked in Civitavecchia, but time has not
prouder of what we have achieved,” he says. several modern crushing plants, including one at blunted his sense of adventure. His ability to
Giurgiulesti, which is to start operation this year. nurture the best in his people, his opportunities
“EVERY SUCCESS TAKES A LOT and his environment
OF PREPARATION, AND YOU In the meantime, Trans-Oil remains committed mean Trans-Oil’s
NEVER KNOW WHAT’S GOING to developing a pan-Danube hub. In October of harvests are destined
TO HAPPEN NEXT, BUT IT ALL 2020, it took possession of the largest modern to grow.
SEEMS WORTHWHILE WHEN crushing plant in Serbia when it acquired Victoria
EVERYBODY WANTS TO SPEAK
TO YOU.”

Trans-Oil and Jhashi’s investments and efforts in
Moldova have been some of the most significant
private sector contributions to the development
of infrastructure and modernization of the
all-important grain and oilseed segments of the
Moldovan agricultural sector. Jhashi takes pride
in the fact that he is giving back to Moldova. In
fact, Trans-Oil’s business activity – either directly or
indirectly over the last 25 years – has contributed
close to 7% of Moldova’s overall GDP.

time.com/specialsections

The Miracle
Workers



2021 HEROES OF THE YEAR

Two weeks later, designs were already being platform, based on mRNA, that will impact our
keyed into machines to create a vaccine that would health and well-being far beyond this pandemic.
unlock a world that had not even locked down yet.
Progress flows from the gradual accretion of
Given that speed, it was easy to imagine that knowledge. In the case of the COVID-19 vaccines,
a solution to the problem of SARS-CoV-2 was in- it started with the initially painstaking process of
evitable. After all, things we took to be miracles decoding the genomes of all living things; then
not long ago have become the stuff of everyday folded in the development of sequencing machines
life—routine, apparently effortless. A miracle is as that reduced that genetic reading time to hours;
close at hand as your average smartphone, which and finally weaved in the insights—“Put it in a fat
has 100,000 times the computational power as the bubble!”—that seemed to come in brilliant flashes
computer that took humankind to the moon. In but were actually the result of wisdom developed
2020, if scientists in China were able to map the over decades working on how to manipulate
genetic structure of a novel virus in a few days, a finicky genetic material called mRNA. What
that sounded, well, about right. Later, as coun- drives it all might, in less divisive times, seem too
tries went into lockdown, we continued to assume obvious to mention: fealty to facts. It’s the basis
progress, to regard vaccines as our due. of the scientific method and the structure of our
world. Without trust in objective reality, the lights
Except there was nothing inevitable about don’t turn on, the computer doesn’t boot up, the
them. The vaccines that first arrested the spread streets stay empty.
of COVID-19—and that will almost surely be ad-
justed to thwart the Omicron variant and future “We have turned a disease that has been a once-
mutations—were never a foregone conclusion. Far in-a-generation fatal pandemic, that has claimed
from it. They were, after all, produced by human more than 780,000 lives in America, into what is
beings, subject to the vagaries of systems and for the most part a vaccine-preventable disease,”
doubt. There were times in their careers when, says Dr. Leana Wen, professor of health policy and
deep in the work that would ultimately rescue hu- management at George Washington University.
manity, Kizzmekia Corbett, Barney Graham, Kata- “That is the difference that the vaccine has made.”
lin Kariko and Drew Weissman felt as though the
problems they faced were ones they alone cared For those of us lucky enough to live in wealthy
about solving. But exposing the inner workings of countries with access to these top-shelf vaccines,
how viruses survive and thrive is what made the it has made all the difference. The miracle
COVID-19 vaccines possible. workers behind the COVID-19 vaccines are the
TIME Heroes of the Year not only because they
The four were hardly alone in those efforts: sci- gave the world a defense against a pathogen,
entists around the world have produced COVID- but also because the manner of that astonishing
19 vaccines using a variety of platforms and achievement guards more than our health: they
technologies. Many—like the shots from Oxford- channeled their ambitions to the common good,
AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson–Janssen— talked to one another and trusted in facts.
came from more established methods, modified
with impressive speed to fight a new virus. Still, Katalin KariKo grew up the daughter of a
Corbett, Graham, Kariko and Weissman achieved butcher in a small town in Hungary, living under
a breakthrough of singular importance, introduc- Communist rule in the 1950s and ’60s. The family
ing an innovative and highly effective vaccine had electricity, but not running water or a refrig-
erator. Watching her father at his job, the young
‘We have turned Kariko became fascinated with figuring out how
a fatal pandemic living things work. That took her to undergradu-
into a vaccine- ate studies in biology at the University of Szeged,
preventable disease.’ where she first learned about RNA. It would be-
come her obsession through her biochemistry Ph.D.
—DR. LEANA WEN, studies, postgraduate work and, really, the rest of
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY her life. If DNA makes up the letters of life, RNA
creates the words, and ultimately the sentences.
Indeed, RNA, and specifically messenger RNA, or
mRNA, instructs the body how to make all the pro-
teins, enzymes, receptors and other molecules that
enable living things to function. As a Ph.D. student,

64 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

Kariko grew convinced that mRNA, WEISSMAN’S $50 with them when they left the country.

modified in the right way, could be INSIGHTS Kariko and her husband sold their car for
used to turn the body into its own drug- HELPED MAKE $1,200 and sewed the cash inside their
making factory, and churn out tailored, IT FEASIBLE TO 2-year-old daughter Susan’s teddy bear.
CREATE MRNA-

precision compounds to treat any dis- BASED VACCINES Kariko moved to the University of

ease caused by a lack of a certain protein, Pennsylvania in 1989. Few others at Penn

which could be an enzyme or a hormone. or elsewhere were pursuing mRNA at the

The challenge with mRNA is that it’s notori- time, because its payoff seemed uncertain. But

ously unstable: inject it into the human body, and Kariko persevered, envisioning a bonanza of new

it gets chewed up before it can serve its purpose. treatments for heart disease, stroke and other con-

It is also difficult to work with, since it needs to be ditions. She worked late nights and early mornings

stored at extremely low temperatures to remain in- at her Penn lab and wrote at least one new grant

tact. After a few years of frustrating work at the Bi- application every month—only to get turned down

ological Research Centre at Szeged with no success again and again. “I think I was rejected at least 24

in corralling mRNA, Kariko lost funding to her lab. times,” she says, “but I kept pushing, because every

To continue her work, in 1985 she found a posi- time, I wanted to understand why they rejected it

tion at Temple University in Philadelphia but faced and how could I improve.”

a new obstacle: to discourage defection, the Hun- After six years, her supervisors at Penn grew

garian government limited citizens to taking only weary of a lack of results and demoted her, cutting

PREVIOUS PAGES: PHOTO COMPOSITE BY MATTIA BALSAMINI 65

66 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

2021 HEROES OF THE YEAR

off her research funding and control of a lab. In 2005, Kariko and Weissman reported
Undeterred, she moved to the neurosurgery their findings in what they thought would be a
department for a salary and lab space to continue landmark paper in the journal Immunity, then
her research. waited for the accolades to flood in. “I told
Kati the night before the paper was published,
Things finally changed for Kariko in 1997, Tomorrow our phones are going to ring off the
thanks to a casual office conversation by the hook,” says Weissman. No one called.
copy machine. An immunologist and physician
named Drew Weissman had just joined Penn It would take another 15 years—and the emer-
to start a lab focused on developing a vaccine gence of the devastating SARS-CoV-2 virus—
against HIV and other diseases. He and Kariko before the global science community would fi-
shared a habit of photocopying articles out of nally grasp the importance of their discoveries.
recent scientific journals from the research li- In the meantime, some scientists were gradu-
brary. By the machine, they discussed their re- ally starting to build the case for the promise
spective approaches to vaccine development. of mRNA, including Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tu-
Kariko tried to convince Weissman of the still reci, co-founders of a German company called
unappreciated merits of the synthetic RNA BioNTech. In 2013, Kariko joined the company
she was making. “I’m open to anything,” says to head its mRNA program, focused at the time
Weissman, and so he decided to give it a shot. on cancer vaccines. In January 2020, Chinese re-
searchers published the genetic sequence of the
Kariko’s problem was that she hadn’t found
a way to tamp down RNA’s tendency to trigger ‘I think I was
the immune system’s inflammatory response, rejected 24 times,
which destroyed the RNA. Over nearly the next but I kept pushing.’
decade, Kariko and Weissman combined efforts,
and eventually made a breakthrough: changing a —KATALIN KARIKO, BIONTECH
specific mRNA building block helped the mole-
cule evade the immune system. Building on that, new coronavirus causing COVID-19. BioNTech
Weissman figured out that encasing the mRNA quickly pivoted toward working on a vaccine
in a fat bubble protected the precious genetic for the novel coronavirus, eventually partnering
code when it was introduced to the body of a with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. By then, the
living thing, while at the same time triggering groundbreaking nature of the technology Kariko
the immune system to target it—which is what and Weissman had pioneered finally had the at-
a vaccine needs to do. tention of scientists worldwide, who realized
that the plug-and-play model meant potentially
After that, their research sped up rapidly. For lifesaving shots could be developed—and, more
disease after disease—more than 20 in all, in- important, delivered—in record time.
cluding norovirus, influenza, HIV, hepatitis and
Zika—the mRNA-based vaccines the duo devel- The duo had created the perfect vehicle for
oped during the 2000s were nearly 100% effec- targeting any virus or pathogen. But making a
tive in protecting lab animals from getting in- truly effective vaccine—one that could also effi-
fected and sick. ciently stir a powerful immune response inside
the body—would require another step.
The beauty of the platform lay in its flexibility.
Influenza vaccines, for example, take months to The fainT drawl and easygoing nature of Kan-
develop because most require growing the virus sas native Dr. Barney Graham can hide an inten-
in chicken eggs. An mRNA vaccine requires only sity of devotion and singularity of purpose, quali-
a readout of a virus’s genetic sequence. Scientists ties that Dr. Anthony Fauci back in 1997 felt made
can take that code, pick out the relevant parts Graham the perfect deputy director of the newly
of the genome, build the corresponding mRNA
with chemical compounds, pop it into the fat
bubble and—presto!—a new vaccine is born.

IT TOOK A PANDEMIC
FOR THE WORLD TO
SEE THE VALUE OF
KARIKO’S WORK

67

created Vaccine Research Center (VRC) GRAHAM’S WORK reconfigures itself constantly to evade

of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy ON STRUCTURE- the most potent antibodies. But a more
and Infectious Diseases. Vaccines ap- BASED VACCINE effective vaccine would target the virus
pealed to Graham’s MacGyver tenden- before it attached. By 2012, Graham
DESIGN
WOULD PROVE

cies; as a child, he loved to troubleshoot FOUNDATIONAL and a postdoctoral fellow had figured

broken-down equipment on the family out a way to stabilize that ephemeral

farm. In the intervening years, those formation long enough to attract the

problem-solving interests migrated to HIV and right immune cells. That revelation would turn

respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Graham was out to be foundational because other viruses

working on a vaccine for RSV, a coldlike conta- also adopt a similar pre-fusion form. “They’re

gion, when a new target, SARS-CoV-2, emerged. on many of the envelope proteins that we study,

Over the decades leading to the pandemic, one like HIV, influenza paramyxoviruses and Ebola,”

approach in particular had captured his scientific he says. “And they’re also on coronaviruses.”

curiosity: “structure-based design”—essentially, In 2014, to put the discoveries of Graham’s

constructing a vaccine based on the shape of the team to the test, the VRC began collaborating

virus’s proteins. It sounds intuitive enough, but with Moderna, a small biotech company based

at the time wasn’t technologically feasible. in Massachusetts. (Like BioNTech, Moderna was

It would take Graham 25 years to solve that working on making mRNA vaccines a reality,

problem. It turns out the configuration that a key though focused on infectious diseases instead

RSV protein takes on just before it fuses with of cancer.) In July 2019, Graham and his team

a healthy cell looks drastically different from published early results showing that a vaccine

the form it takes after infection. The latter was built on Moderna’s mRNA platform and contain-

where most vaccine efforts had been focused ing their modified RSV protein boosted the im-

up to that point, in part because it’s only in mune response in people by more than tenfold

that pre-fusion shape for a very short time, as it over previous RSV vaccines.

68 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

CONTENT FROM THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR

SAILING THROUGH ICE AND FIRE:

The Daring Journey of Yalla, Internet Unicorn of the Middle East

“2021has been a year of many achievements, on all fronts. We underwent comprehensive examination and scrutiny of
despite the challenges,” says Saifi Ismail, our business, legal and financial compliance by various agents, including
president and director of Yalla Group. brokers, lawyers and auditors. The accusation that we are a fake company
As the leading voice-centric social networking, entertainment and gaming lacks all sense and logic,” Saifi asserts.
platform in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA), Yalla rang the
bell at the New York Stock Exchange on September 30, 2020, and was From universal applause to mixed reviews, Yalla is learning to deal with
praised on social media by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al misapprehensions stemming from differing opinions of its business model,
Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates while also adapting to a changing environment. The company is doing this
and ruler of Dubai. and at the same time remaining true to itself and its mission. Along with its
In the year after its September 2020 listing, Yalla’s monthly active users two main products, Yalla and Yalla Ludo, which are widely popular among
(MAUs) grew by 81.9%, and its third-quarter 2021 non-GAAP net income users in the Middle East, the company entered the casual games market
more than doubled. Yalla attracted considerable attention and exceeded many segment with products such as 101 Okey Yalla and Yalla Parchis.
expectations, though Yalla’s journey in 2021 has not been all smooth sailing.
“In May 2021, a short-selling report appeared on social media filled In the social networking market, Yalla is in the midst of developing the
with baseless accusations against us,” says Saifi. “It called Yalla a fake Middle East’s first metaverse product. In addition, the company recently
company with fake users and suggested that Yalla did not provide true and released a new version of its instant messaging product, YallaChat. The
accurate public disclosures regarding its financial performance. Since day company has been keeping a low profile while taking a step-by-step
one, we have explained to the public that the Yalla community is a pure approach to executing its strategy and fulfilling its mission.
UGC [user-generated content] platform and that we have never hired any
KOLs [key opinion leaders] nor inflated our MAUs by engaging robots in chat “Our business was not affected,” says Saifi. “We have maintained steady
rooms.” Saifi goes on to say, “some users have created alternative accounts growth in our performance and an ample cash flow, which demonstrates
in the system for their own reasons, including collecting rewards. Yalla that we have chosen the right market. We made products our users enjoy
implemented many measures to restrict such user behavior. Similar issues and can develop even further in this industry. To this end, our 595-member
exist on many other online platforms. The short sellers did not explain how global team is poised to do what we really want to do – serve MENA’s users,
a so-called fake company could deliver revenue, profit and cash and achieve develop more excellent products, and contribute to the growth of the digital
normal development and growth. Instead it merely claimed that ‘Yalla is too economy in the region.”
good to be true.’”
Saifi stresses that the company has always strictly abided by the
information disclosure requirements of the New York Stock Exchange and
fully guarantees the truthfulness of the disclosed information. Yalla, he notes,
follows the same approach as the majority of internet companies when
preparing its disclosures.
As the first internet company in the UAE listed in the U.S., Yalla was
bound to encounter doubts and skepticism. Before Yalla, no other internet
company had ever put down roots in the Arabian world. Guided by its
mission of meeting the entertainment and socializing needs of the Arab
people, Yalla has taken pains to develop a deep understanding of the local
market and tailor its social entertainment products for Middle Eastern users.
Yalla, says Saifi, is committed to this responsibility and vision.
Meanwhile, Yalla also hopes to gain recognition outside the Arab world.
Five years ago, the company set its sights on voice-centric social networking.
With its products operating in the Middle East market, Yalla has built
a mature business model and a large and loyal user base. To neutral
observers, the company’s authenticity is indisputable.
Saifi makes the point that compliance is crucial to the company. “We
care more than anyone else about the company’s reputation and its path to
sustainable development. In February 2018, only one and a half years after
the company’s establishment, and when our team had just grown from the
three founding members to 37 people, an investor in our company hired
KPMG to conduct a financial due diligence process on the company. We also
chose to list Yalla on the NYSE, which was a tremendous test of compliance

2021 HEROES OF THE YEAR
WHERE COVID-19 VACCINATION
RATES WERE HIGH, LIFE REGAINED
A SEMBLANCE OF NORMALCY

70 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: JOSE SARMENTO MATOS—BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES; SACHA LECCA; LINDSEY WASSON—REUTERS; 71
HECTOR RE TAMAL— AF P/GE T T Y IMAGES; MENAHEM K AHANA — AF P VIA GE T T Y IMAGES; KE VIN L AMARQUE— REUTERS

2021 HEROES OF THE YEAR

In the meantime, Kizzmekia Corbett, a Ph.D. the mutations in the spike protein [to stabilize it]
graduate in microbiology and immunology from and we knew the type of platform we would like
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to make the vaccine with, which was the mRNA
joined Graham’s team, and had begun work ap- platform with Moderna. So we really had a plan.”
plying what the group had learned about RSV to
coronaviruses. By 2019, she and her colleagues Graham’s insight—to target the pre-fusion spike
had figured out how to design what’s known protein—became the basis for several of the major
as the spike protein, the part of the virus that vaccines being tested or used around the world
attaches to the healthy cell, in such a way that now, including the ones from Pfizer-BioNTech,
the immune system could mount a maximal re- Moderna, Johnson & Johnson–Janssen, Sanofi
sponse. It was, essentially, advance work for the and Novavax. Corbett predicts that it will also
coming pandemic. help humanity defend against other viruses that
may emerge in coming years. “If we as scientists
When the first reports of the new coronavirus learn how to make a vaccine for a cousin in a viral
emerged from China, Graham and Corbett were family, and one of those cousins decides to make
confident the technique would work on it, says a pandemic,” she says, “then we’ll be ready, be-
Corbett: “All of that knowledge culminated to cause we can apply the knowledge from one virus
the point where we said, ‘O.K., we know how to and vaccine to another in a plug-and-play way.”
design a really good vaccine, because we’ve been
doing this for six years.’” All they needed was the After decAdes of largely unsung research,
genetic code for SARS-CoV-2. Corbett, Graham, Kariko and Weissman didn’t
have to wait long to see the results of their work
‘Once the sequence on COVID-19 vaccines. On Nov. 8, 2020, Fauci
came out, we knew received a call from Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.
exactly what [to] do.’ “Are you sitting down?” he asked Fauci. “Be-
cause you’re not going to believe the results.
—KIZZMEKIA CORBETT, HARVARD UNIVERSITY They’re unbelievable, over 90% efficacy.”

Based on his success with freeze-framing the Graham’s son and grandchildren were visiting
right viral structure of other viruses, Graham when the news reached him. “We pretty much
figured that stabilizing the SARS-CoV-2 spike had a group hug and then I went back to work,”
protein at its similar state just before infecting a he says. “After those 10 months of working all the
cell would have the same immune-activating effect time ... and trying to get to an end point, just the
in a vaccine. “We had done it with a dozen other relief to know that we had something that might
coronaviruses and it worked every time,” he says. “I make a difference was the thing that was most
was anxious to get the sequence for SARS-CoV-2.” meaningful to me.”
On Jan. 9, 2020, he emailed the director of the
Chinese Centers for Disease Control, requesting Kariko was celebrating her daughter’s
the genomic data, then went to see Fauci. “He came birthday with her husband when she got the
into the room on the seventh floor,” says Fauci, “and call from Sahin, BioNTech’s CEO. He asked if
in his typical Southern drawl said, ‘I just need the she was alone, so she walked to another room,
sequence. I’m telling you I think we can do this.’” then celebrated in the same understated way that
characterized her entire scientific career—with
On Jan. 10, Chinese scientists published the her favorite treat, a box of Goobers.
sequence of the new virus, and the team got to
work. “Dr. Graham and I had discussed exactly Weissman and Kariko got their first doses
how we would maneuver in that moment, so once of the vaccine they helped develop on Dec. 18,
the sequence came out, we knew exactly what we 2020, and just before Christmas, Graham and
would do,” says Corbett. “We knew where to make Corbett got their first shots. “Most scientists
never get to see their product actually used,” says
Graham. “To watch the evening news and see
the relief from health care providers who were
getting immunized, to see people in the clinic
at NIH being vaccinated and being so relieved
and so grateful—those were special moments.”

The fastest any earlier vaccine had been devel-
oped was four years (for mumps, in the 1960s).
The shots developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and

72 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

At The Ocean Race we race with purpose, because the seas are not just
important to the sport we love, we cannot live without a healthy ocean.

From capturing data about the state of the seas through our onboard science
initiative, to helping children understand what makes the ocean amazing

through our learning programme and hosting summits to drive new policies,
we are accelerating change to restore the health of our ocean.

We’ve teamed up with TIME to bring the spirit of ocean racing,
and the mentality of winning, to the race to save our planet.

Find out more at www.theoceanrace.com/TIME

2021 HEROES OF THE YEAR

Moderna took less than 12 months. That made CORBETT’S FOCUS AT
some skeptical: Could one trust a brand-new THE VACCINE RESEARCH
technology, engineered in record time to fight CENTER WAS TO FIGURE
a brand-new virus?
OUT THE BEST WAYS TO
That question, however, overlooks the years of TARGET CORONAVIRUSES,
work scientists had put into perfecting an mRNA
platform. “Without [decades of] basic research, LIKE SARS-COV-2
those vaccines would not have been possible,”
says Dr. Stanley Plotkin, a veteran vaccinologist logistical challenges to get them from airport tar-
who invented the rubella vaccine. “When the epi-
demic broke out, the technology was available.” mac to people in hard-to-reach places, and doubts

Corbett admits that scientists themselves about vaccine safety and efficacy have proved a
could have better communicated that fact. “Some-
times I regret the way that we announced that we global phenomenon. That mix of challenges
could have a vaccine,” she says. “Because it came
without the understanding of all the work that we has created severe vaccine inequality, such that
had done before. While we did design a vaccine
basically overnight, and move quickly into clinical only 30% of India is completely protected, and
trials, there was so much confidence in the way we
did that because we’d been preparing for years.” not even 10% of people in Africa have been fully

It was hardly the first miracle of science vaccinated. As long as that’s the case, the virus
to defy belief. A year after the Apollo 11 lunar
landing, 30% of Americans surveyed said they will continue to mutate, giving rise to new vari-
did not believe humans had actually walked on
the moon. And that was long before social media, ants as it spreads almost unchecked.
the rise of the antivax movement and the many
other recent crises of truth that have created That doesn’t mean the virus wins. The plug-
barriers to the successful rollout of the vaccines.
In the U.S., tens of millions of people refuse to get and-play feature of the mRNA vaccines makes it
the shots that are available almost everywhere.
possible to update them within months to target
Globally, vaccine hesitancy has combined with
inequality and lack of access to create a disas- new variants, be it Omicron or whatever form
trous state of affairs in poorer parts of the world.
COVAX, the multinational program designed to the virus takes next. The virus moves fast, but
distribute vaccines to low-income countries, is
only about a quarter of the way to its original scientists have created weapons just as nimble.
goal of distributing 2 billion doses by the end of
2021. Some of that can be chalked up to wealth- Even the historically fast development of
ier countries hoarding doses, but there are other
problems. In some parts of the world, when doses COVID-19 vaccines may seem slow in the future,
arrive, health workers must overcome significant
now that mRNA platforms have been pressure-
‘Without [decades of ]
basic research, these tested and fine-tuned.
vaccines would not
have been possible.’ “A renaissance in vaccinology” is what Uni-

—DR. STANLEY PLOTKIN, versity of Pittsburgh Center for Vaccine Research
INVENTOR OF THE RUBELLA VACCINE
director Paul Duprex calls the tools crafted by

Kariko, Weissman, Graham, Corbett and the

many scientists who collaborated with them over

the years. They represent a novel path out of this

pandemic, but also a new approach to quelling

future ones. Already, vaccine makers are testing

mRNA-based vaccines against influenza, poten-

tially making them more effective, safer and eas-

ier to produce.

Thanks to the scientists leading the ground-

breaking development and elegant construction

of these COVID-19 vaccines, we now have a list

of near-infinite possibilities. The vaccines work

with a magnificence that only highlights how

far science has come—and how far behind soci-

ety remains in recognizing and accepting what

is now possible. Our communications, our pol-

itics, our splintered cultures are still snarled in

confusion and skepticism, keeping people from

getting the shots. Through the harrowing first

winter of COVID-19, scientists gifted human-

ity with the ultimate prize: a weapon to fight

the pandemic. It’s now up to humanity to return

the favor.—With reporting by LesLie DicksTein

and JuLia ZorThian □

74 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

75





ATHLETE
OF THE YEAR

Simone
Biles

WITH THE EYES OF THE WORLD UPON HER, THE GREATEST GYMNAST
OF ALL TIME FORCED A GLOBAL CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH

BY ALICE PARK AND SEAN GREGORY

Around 9 p.m. on July 27, As simone Biles BILES AT WORLD
soared high above the vault at the Tokyo Olym- CHAMPIONS CENTRE,
pics, she lost herself. You could see the confusion in
her eyes, which darted sideways instead of locking HER GYM IN SPRING,
onto the ground as she made her way back to earth. TEXAS, ON AUG. 29
She would later reveal that she was suffering from a
frightening mental hiccup, known as “the twisties,” unravel. Or at least started to, until she responded
that left her unsure of her whereabouts in midair. in a way that stunned millions of viewers around
the world. In the middle of the Olympics for which
As the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) in a sport she had trained for five years, and which was sup-
that captivates the globe every four years, Biles is posed to be the triumphant capstone on a historic
all about control. Her life is dedicated to micro- career, Biles slipped on her warm-up suit, packed
managing every possible element—her diet, her her competition bag and told her teammates she
training, her sleep—that goes into performing, so wouldn’t be competing with them, but rather
when the lights are brightest, and the stakes high- cheering them on in the team event. Her mind
est, little is left to chance. But for Biles, control and body weren’t in sync, she said, which put her
isn’t just about winning; it can be the difference at serious risk. She also withdrew from her next
between life and death. She now has four skills four events, returning only to participate in the
named after her, each a breathtaking combina- final one. At an Olympics in which five gold med-
tion of daring flips and twists. Avoiding disaster als for Biles seemed preordained, she won a team
requires a constant, firm grip on mental acuity. silver and a balance-beam bronze.

On that night, however, the careful tapestry For her teammates, her withdrawal from events
of control that Biles, 24, had stitched began to was a decision they didn’t have time to process as
they scrambled to fill her position in the lineups.
PHOTOGRAPH BY “We all knew we had to continue not without her,
DJENEBA ADUAYOM but for her,” says Sunisa Lee, who stepped up to
FOR TIME win the all-around gold in Tokyo. “What Simone

78 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022



2021 ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

did changed the way we view our well-being, what they owe themselves vs. what others de-
100%. It showed us that we are more than the mand of them, Biles made clear the importance
sport, that we are human beings who also can have of prioritizing oneself and refusing to succumb to
days that are hard. It really humanized us.” external expectations. With the eyes of the world
upon her, she took the extraordinary step of say-
An athlete’s clout is increasingly measured in ing, That’s enough. I’m enough.
much more than wins and losses. If 2020 show-
cased the power of athletes as activists after the Biles thought she was, as she puts it, “good to
murder of George Floyd, this year demonstrated go” before the Games. In retrospect, she acknowl-
how athletes are uniquely positioned to propel edges that she was shouldering a heavy load as she
mental health to the forefront of a broader cultural trained. She was the face of Team USA, and fans
conversation. While a few sports stars have opened around the globe were anticipating watching her
up about mental health—Michael Phelps, for in- gravity-defying skills. Gradually, she began to feel
stance, has been candid about his post-Olympic the Olympics were less about her fulfillment and
depression—in 2021, the discussion became more more about theirs.
wide-reaching and sustained. After withdrawing
from the French Open in May to prioritize her ‘It showed us that we
well-being, citing anxiety, Naomi Osaka wrote in are more than the sport.’
a TIME cover essay, “It’s O.K. not to be O.K.” Biles,
by dint of her status at one of the world’s most —SUNISA LEE, OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST
watched events, raised the volume. “I do believe
everything happens for a reason, and there was a
purpose,” she tells TIME in an interview nearly
four months later. “Not only did I get to use my
voice, but it was validated as well.”

While supporters lauded Biles, critics lam-
basted her for “quitting.” But what Biles did tran-
scended the chatter: she fought the stigma that
has long silenced athletes, and shrugged off the
naysayers who belittled her decision. “If I were
going to quit, I had other opportunities to quit,”
she says. “There is so much I’ve gone through in
this sport, and I should have quit over all that—not
at the Olympics. It makes no sense.”

A month after the Games, Biles put her vulnera-
bility on display once again. Along with three other
of the hundreds of other athletes who had been
sexually abused by former team doctor Larry Nas-
sar, Biles gave emotional testimony before the Sen-
ate about the failures of institutions like the FBI,
USA Gymnastics (USAG) and the U.S. Olympic
and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) to stop him.

Colin Kaepernick, no stranger to criticism for
taking a stand, praises Biles’ “grace, eloquence and
courage.” “Simone Biles has used her remarkable
position as the world’s greatest gymnast ever to in-
spire a long overdue global conversation on mental
health,” he tells TIME. “Her influence extends far
beyond the realm of sports and shows us that an-
other world—a better world—is possible when we
speak our truths with integrity and authenticity.”

At a time when anxiety and depression rates
are skyrocketing—the CDC reports a 50% rise
in suicide attempts by teenage girls during the
pandemic—and many people are struggling with

80 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

BILES AT A SENATE HEARING
ON THE FBI’S HANDLING
OF THE LARRY NASSAR
INVESTIGATION ON SEPT. 15

In the past, when she left the gym, she didn’t It took Biles about a year after the first Nassar
allow issues with certain skills to spill over into the survivors came forward to reveal publicly that she
rest of her day. But as Tokyo loomed, “my mind is one of them; her mother Nellie remembers Biles
was racing and I wasn’t going to sleep as easily,” calling her in tears in 2017, saying she needed to
she says. The pandemic, which had delayed the talk to her. Training every day only served as a re-
Games from 2020, played a huge role in that, she minder of what she had been through and the lack
thinks, since safety protocols meant she was lim- of accountability by USAG. Biles didn’t feel she
ited to going to the gym and staying home. For the could even drive herself to and from her therapy
gregarious Biles, that meant more time alone with sessions, so Nellie did, waiting outside in the car
her thoughts. Things only got worse in Japan. “We in case her daughter needed her.
couldn’t hang out because of COVID-19 proto-
cols,” she says, “so things you normally don’t think That work, Biles felt, mentally prepared her for
about because you don’t have time, now you have her second Olympics, which she attended without
hours on end to think about—those doubts, those family because of COVID-19 restrictions. She had
worries and those problems.” stopped going to therapy for about six months be-
fore the Games, Nellie says, insisting, “I’m fine,
Biles is the only survivor of the Nassar sex- Mom.” But after her scare on the vault, she called
ual abuse scandal still competing, and pushing Nellie crying. “The only thing Simone kept saying
for USAG and USOPC to be held responsible is was, ‘Mom, I can’t do it. I can’t do it,’” says Nellie.
part of what’s driven her over the past few years. In the days that followed, Biles says she got sup-
“I definitely do think it had an effect,” she says port from Team USA’s mental-health experts, who
of that burden. “It’s a lot to put on one person. I were on-site for the first time at an Olympics. That
feel like the guilt should be on them and should helped her make another courageous choice: com-
not be held over us. They should be feeling this peting in the balance-beam final. “At that point, it
[pain], not me.” was no longer about medaling, but about getting
back out there,” she says. “I wanted to compete at
the Olympics again and have that experience that
I came for. I didn’t really care about the outcome.
On that beam, it was for me.”

BILES’ aSSurEdnESS In SpEakIng her truth
and taking ownership of her fate offered per-
mission for athletes and nonathletes alike to talk
more openly about challenges they’d once kept to
themselves. “Sacrifice gives back way more than it
costs,” says Kevin Love, a five-time NBA All-Star
whose 2018 discussion of his in-game panic at-
tacks helped start to destigmatize mental struggles
in his sport. “I do believe that it often takes one
person to change the trajectory of a whole system.”

Olympian Allyson Felix, who gave birth to her
daughter Camryn in 2018, knows how athletes are
expected to make winning their everything. She
says Biles will have more influence for stepping
back and taking stock of what really mattered than
she would have by snapping up more medals. “To
see her choose herself, we’re going to see the ef-
fects of that for the next generation,” says Felix,

SAUL LOEB—POOL/GETTY IMAGES 81

2021 ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

who became the most decorated female track- have always been under scrutiny,” says Plummer.
and-field athlete of all time in Tokyo. “When
thinking about role models for Cammy, wow, “Oftentimes, Black women are not given the free-
here is someone showing you can choose your
mental health over what the world says is the dom to be able to just be authentic. Oftentimes,
most important thing.”
they have to be what somebody asked them or
The message is already being put into prac-
tice. As head coach for women’s gymnastics at designed for them to be.”
the University of Arkansas, Olympian Jordyn
Wieber, another Nassar survivor, sees Biles’ deci- So when a Black female athlete like Biles takes
sion as an opportunity for her team to “take those
lessons she’s displaying on a worldwide level and visible steps to safeguard her own mental and
apply them to their daily lives as student ath-
letes.” During the Olympics, Ty-La Morris, 14, an physical health, to indicate that it’s worth pro-
aspiring gymnast from the Bronx, stayed up past
her bedtime to watch coverage of the gymnas- tecting, that action carries a special power. Plum-
tics events. When she heard people questioning
Biles’ fortitude, she defended her. “Everybody mer has noticed that since Tokyo, more personal

‘It often takes one and professional contacts have initiated conver-
person to change
the trajectory of sations about their mental health. This is sig-
a whole system.’
nificant, as research has found that many Black
—KEVIN LOVE, FIVE-TIME NBA ALL-STAR
women feel they must project an image of invul-
kept coming after her, and nobody was in her
shoes,” she says. Witnessing a Black woman nerability and the stigma around mental health
thrive in a traditionally white sport gives Morris
the confidence that she too can make the Olym- deters them from seeking help. And although
pics, but in addition, she’s now more likely to
tell her coach if she’s having difculty, which she Black adults are more likely than white ones to
wouldn’t have been comfortable doing before.
report symptoms of emotional distress, only
Experts agree that especially for young Black
women, Biles’ actions were a signal that it’s ac- 1 in 3 Black adults who needs mental-health care
ceptable to claim agency over both their minds
and their bodies. Since the days of slavery, says receives it. “It is a privilege of people who have
LaNail Plummer, a therapist who specializes in
providing mental-health services to Black and money to see a therapist,” says Reuben Buford
LGBTQ communities in the D.C. area, the bodies
of Black women have been subject to fetishiza- May, a professor of sociology at the University of
tion: for purposes of labor, reproduction or ath-
letic entertainment. Throughout their careers, for Illinois Urbana-Champaign who studies race and
example, tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams
have been the targets of racist and sexist com- culture. “Intertwined with that is that African
ments because of their appearances. “Our bodies
Americans have disproportionately been among

the poor and have not been able to have health

care to pay for mental-health services.”

Biles alone won’t change mental-health in-

equities or force a society that has long paid lip

service to the importance of mental health to

do more. But she made it that much harder to

look away. And, according to school psychologist

Shawna Kelly, a member of the National Associa-

tion of School Psychologists’ board of directors,

Biles’ actions will help accelerate a trend that was

already under way. Recently, Kelly has seen more

kids asking for help, as well as expressing concern

for their friends. “Often that’s before a real crisis,

which is where I feel there is more opportunity

to work with kids preventively and proactively.”

In June, before she had any idea of the ex-

periences to come, Biles had Maya Angelou’s

And sTill i rise tattooed on her collarbone.

“It’s a reminder and a tribute to everything

I had been through, and that I always come out

on top,” she says. The Olympics did not go the

way she or anyone else expected, but she’s not

wallowing in what-ifs. She’s back in therapy,

just finished headlining a U.S. tour and is feel-

ing confident about the decision she made in

Tokyo. “I was torn because things weren’t going

the way I wanted,” she says. “But looking back,

I wouldn’t change it for anything.”—With report-

ing by nik PoPli and simmone shAh 

82 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

You have been It has been Some days your
held against your months since spirit sinks,
will in a foreign you were free all hope is lost,
country with to feel sunlight, you think the end
no access to the a warm embrace, will never come.
outside world, routine comforts,
no contact with hot food. At night you
your family and dream of your
loved ones, no You have been family, of living
word from your denied counsel. again only to
government. You have been wake to the same
beaten, tortured, solitary confines.
interrogated,
humiliated.

You feel
forgotten, alone,
abandoned by
your country.

You have one ask of
the reader of this ad:

Bring me home.

Donate to aid their return:
jamesfoleyfoundation.org/give

ENTERTAINER
OF THE YEAR

Olivia Rodrigo



2021 ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR

solo artist ever to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard a vlogger on Disney’s Bizaardvark, for which she
Hot 100, where her song stayed for eight weeks. learned to play the guitar and took the family to
Soon after, Rodrigo was performing on Saturday L.A. In 2019, Rodrigo made the jump to another
Night Live, which had already aired a sketch about Disney show that would change everything for
bros in a bar weeping along with the lyrics (“I got her: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series,
my driver’s license 55 years ago—why is this hit- a reboot of the hit movies.
ting me so hard?”). Halsey sent Rodrigo a cake,
Cardi B shouted her out on Twitter, and Taylor As Nini, a theater kid cast as the lead in her
Swift offered her props on Instagram. school’s production of High School Musical while
going through a breakup with her co-star (an in-
Any questions about whether Rodrigo could re- stance of art imitating life, if you believe the gossip
peat the success of “Drivers License” were put to about “Drivers License”), Rodrigo deftly stepped
rest when she released Sour on May 21. The album, into the role of an ingenue balancing ambition and
scruffier than the symmetrical, beat-driven music heartache. She was also able to showcase her song-
that tends to dominate pop culture, announced her writing skills: when they needed a refective song
as a serious artist. With moody, confessional lyrics for Nini, showrunner Tim Federle, who had seen
that added chapters to the story told in “Drivers videos of Rodrigo playing songs she wrote on Insta-
License,” Sour offered something we needed after gram, invited her to give it a shot. He sent her an
more than a year of unending distress: an outlet email, with her mom copied, but noted that school-
for anger and permission to cry. Hailed by crit- work and SAT prep should come first. Just a few
ics, it also continued Rodrigo’s streak of smashing days later, Rodrigo played him a draft. “She plugs
records: with approximately 385 million streams, into something that is so well observed and so raw,”
Sour became Spotify’s most popular release by Federle says. Her song “All I Want” took off on
a female artist in its first week.
‘This happened
After dropping her music in pandemic-era isola- 10 months ago.
tion, Rodrigo sang at multiple awards shows, earned You don’t have to have
seven Grammy nominations—including Best New it all figured out yet.’
Artist, and Song, Record and Album of the Year—
and was revealed to have the most-streamed album
and song of the year around the world on Spotify.
Somewhere along the way, she even appeared at
the White House with President Joe Biden to en-
courage young people to get vaccinated. And on
Dec. 6, she announced a 41-city tour for 2022.

For now, Rodrigo’s taking things one step at a
time. She moved into her own place this year, but
her parents are still a big part of her routine (she
hasn’t quite figured out the whole grocery shop-
ping and laundry thing yet). She knew the shape
of her world was forever changed right after she
released “Drivers License”—she shelved her fan-
tasy of attending Columbia University—but she
isn’t forcing anything. “I’d be lying if I said there
wasn’t any pressure,” she says. “But I sometimes re-
member: This happened 10 months ago. You don’t
have to have it all figured out yet.”

RodRigo has been woRking toward her mete-
oric rise for more than a decade. A Filipino Ameri-
can, she grew up the only child of a therapist and
a teacher in Temecula, Calif., and started writing
songs, taking voice lessons and auditioning for
acting jobs in grade school. Her first big role was
in Grace Stirs Up Success, a 2015 American Girl
movie about a spunky baker. By 12, she was playing

86 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

TikTok in late 2019, the hit of the season. RODRIGO ONSTAGE experience when making Sour, she held

Instead of signing with Disney’s AT THE VMAS ON firm in her belief that people want to
Hollywood Records, once home to SEPT. 12; VISITING hear something honest. The songs had
Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez, Ro- THE WHITE HOUSE to come from her. “I literally wrote them

TO ENCOURAGE

drigo went with Geffen Records, which YOUNG PEOPLE TO in my bedroom,” she says. “And I think
had emphasized her skill as a song- GET VACCINATED, you can tell.”
writer. The deal was announced in
ON JULY 14

January 2021, and she chose to make RodRigo has a sense of humor about

her album with Dan Nigro, a producer who has what she’s laid bare to the world. Recently, her

worked with alt-pop darlings like Conan Gray therapist listened to “Brutal,” the teen tantrum an-

and Caroline Polachek. Together, Nigro and them, for the first time. “She was like, ‘That song is

Rodrigo had already made “Drivers License.” like everything we talk about today,’” Rodrigo says.

Nigro and Rodrigo bonded over shared refer- “And I’m like, ‘Oh, no! Have I not grown at all?’”

ences: he and her mother are just a few years apart, She embraces a key quality of her generation:

which meant that his nostalgic favorites were the messy, uninhibited vulnerability. It shows up in her

songs Rodrigo heard at home. “She knows the songs and in the way she shares her life. She talks

whole Rage Against the Machine catalog the same about her mental health, she watches Twilight,

way I do,” Nigro says. And he respected her im- she gets angry, she posts pictures of her parking

pulse to continue innovating as they crafted the tickets—she does in the open all these things that

songs that became Sour, even with the overwhelm- 18-year-olds used to do in secret, making me ask my-

ing success of “Drivers License.” “It made her feel self why I was so ashamed to derive pleasure from

empowered to do other things, which felt so ma- cheesy movies, to have needs, to make mistakes.

ture,” he says. When Rodrigo released the swoony Like other young stars before her, she’s form-

midtempo “Deja Vu” as her second single, she ing her identity and figuring out how to run her

became the first artist ever to debut both of their career in real time. “You definitely have to be a

first official singles in the top 10 of the Hot 100. businesswoman to be a musician,” she says. She

“Songwriting is the thing I take most seri- has a partnership with Geffen to be able to own

ously in my life,” Rodrigo says. “It’s the most per- her masters, the copyright to the recordings of

sonally gratifying too.” She’ll return for Season 3 her songs. Masters are typically held by labels—

of the High School Musical series, which starts a practice that has prompted Swift to remake her

filming in January, and maybe she’ll act more in albums so she can own the recordings. “There’s

the future. But music is her priority. While she a path for me to have a stake in the music and

was surrounded by adults with more power and art I create, which is only fair,” Rodrigo says.

VMAS: MIKE COPPOL A — GE T T Y IMAGES FOR MT V/VIACOMCBS; 87
WHITE HOUSE: DEMETRIUS FREEMAN—GETTY IMAGES/THE WASHINGTON POST

2021 ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR

She’s also found herself in the center of revealing lyrics also means inviting questions

an industry debate that’s growing louder. As about the people she addresses in her songs.

music-copyright claims have skyrocketed, artists When I ask her what, if anything, she feels she

and labels have sought to avoid bad publicity and owes those people, she laughs, her tone shifting.

costly lawsuits. Rodrigo, who took inspiration “At the core of it, all my songs are about me and my

from Swift for a Sour track and credited her when experiences and my feelings,” she says. She un-

it was released, faced Internet accusations that derstands the alchemy at work for the listener—

there were similarities between more of her how anyone could take her words and apply them

songs and others’. She later added credits on to their own life. Naming names would only ruin

two additional tracks. For her, it was a lesson the effect. “It’s an important lesson in control-

in business, but also something deeper. “It ling your own narrative too,” she says. People

was really frustrating to see write stories about her that she

people discredit and deny my can’t control. Songwriting is a

creativity,” she says. (Nigro is way of reclaiming her power.

more coy: “It seems like people And listening to Rodrigo’s

get funny about things when music can be a way for her au-

songs become really popular.”) dience to reclaim theirs. She

The conversation about tilts the frame away from the

ownership often collides with people who’ve let you down

questions about artistic influ- and the disappointments

ence. Music critics have iden- you’ve faced and back toward

tified echoes of Swift, Carly the person who matters: you.

Simon and Alanis Moris- Her songs offer validation—

sette in Rodrigo’s visceral lyr- a kinship in knowing that your

ics, and tones reminiscent of heartbreak, rage or self-doubt

Avril Lavigne, Lorde and Par- is universal. Young people feel

amore in the punky inflections seen, and adults get a potent

of Sour’s melodies. She’s been reminder of how we all feel like

put in prestigious company— that insecure deflated kid ver-

but this also means she’s talked sion of ourselves sometimes.

about as if she doesn’t stand on For an artist, it’s an impres-

her own. Rodrigo knows the sive trick—time travel for the

latter is impossible to avoid, listener. In the vintage store,

but wishes it weren’t. “Young RODRIGO IN A 2020 TIKTOK she moves through the de-
women are constantly com- VIDEO SET TO “ALL I WANT” cades herself, skimming con-

pared to each other. I’m the fidently through things of the

‘new this’ or ‘this woman meets that woman,’ past. Now there’s a pile of clothes on the counter:

and that can be reductive,” she says. “I’m just the spy-plane shirt and another top for me; a slip

Olivia. I’m doing my own thing. It’s meaningful dress, feathery tank, leather skirt and graphic tee

when people recognize that.” for her. Everything in Rodrigo’s haul has Winona

Her idols do. She named Gwen Stefani as the Ryder vibes—as a kid, she was more into the Au-

person she’d most like to write a song with. “I’d drey Hepburn look, but now she’s fascinated by

be honored,” Stefani says. Morissette sees a “so- the ’90s and Y2K. “It was the last time people

lidity” in her. “She has a steadfast care about self- could exist without being hypersaturated on so-

expression. She’s not precious about it, nor does cial media,” she says. “People seemed cooler be-

she seem overwhelmed by it all.” And songwriting cause they weren’t sharing every aspect of their

legend Carole King, whose music Rodrigo discov- lives.” She wraps the waist of the skirt around her

ered through her mother, says she has “a gift of neck to see if it will fit—a trick she saw on TikTok.

knowing how to tell a story in a song.” She’ll give it to a friend if it doesn’t work out. As

we walk to the back door, we stop to take a selfie.

There’s an undeniable saTisfacTion in Rodrigo purses her lips, lifting her bag of clothes

watching someone spin a heartbreak into a hit— into the frame. At 18, she already knows: every-

and Rodrigo is open about how incredible that thing old becomes new again. —With reporting

feels. At the same time, she’s aware that writing by mariah espada and simmone shah 

88 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022 @LIVBEDUMB/TIKTOK

BEST OF
CULTURE

The books, music, films,
TV shows and podcasts that
delighted, provoked and
propelled us through the year

RUTH NEGGA
GIVES AN

OTHERWORLDLY
PERFORMANCE
IN PASSING

PHOTOGRAPH BY DIANA MARKOSIAN

BEST NONFICTION illness and her mother’s
BOOKS eventual death shattered
Zauner’s sense of self—and
BY ANNABEL GUTTERMAN forced her to re-evaluate her
relationship with her Korean
1 A Little Devil in America covers broad ground with ease and wit, culture. In her memoir, the
an impressive balance for a book that artist searches for answers
A finalist for the National Book Award, is as bold as it is essential. about her identity and creates
Hanif Abdurraqib’s work of cultural a devastating portrait of a
criticism is an astonishing accounting 2 Crying in H Mart mother and daughter and the
of Black performance. In lyrical essays, life they shared.
Abdurraqib analyzes everything from When Michelle Zauner,
the rise of Whitney Houston to a founder of the band Japanese 3 Invisible Child
schoolyard fistfight. The author, also a Breakfast, was 25 years old,
poet, seamlessly blends pop culture her mother was diagnosed For almost a decade, reporter Andrea
references with U.S. history and with terminal cancer. That Elliott observed the coming-of-age of
stories from his own upbringing. He a girl named Dasani, who has lived in
and out of the New York City shelter

90 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

2021 BEST OF CULTURE

system for most of her life. Dasani’s of slavery and how it has shaped the so much heart into the practice that
existence is full of contradictions—her country. The result is an insightful instead it is simply fun.
Brooklyn shelter is just blocks away dissection of the relationship between
from some of the borough’s most memory, history and America’s 8 The Copenhagen Trilogy
expensive real estate—and Elliott is ongoing reckoning with its past.
relentless in her efforts to capture Originally published as three separate
them all. In exact and searing detail, 5 Aftershocks books in Danish between 1967 and
she places Dasani’s story alongside 1971, The Copenhagen Trilogy, now
the larger issues of inequality, Born in Tanzania and raised all over the presented in a single translated
homelessness and racism in the city world, from England to Italy to Ethiopia, volume, is a heartbreaking portrait of
and more broadly the U.S. Nadia Owusu never felt she belonged an artist. In precise and brutally self-
anywhere. In her aching memoir, she aware terms, Tove Ditlevsen reflects on
4 How the Word Is Passed embarks on a tour de force examination her life, from her turbulent youth during
of her childhood, marked first by her Hitler’s rise to power to her discovery
Amid a discussion of what students mother’s abandoning her when she of poetry and later to the dissolution
should be learning about history, was a toddler and later by the death of of her multiple marriages. Though
Clint Smith, a poet and journalist, her beloved father. Through assessing the story was written decades ago,
takes readers across the U.S.—from the people and places that shaped her, the complexities of womanhood that
the Monticello plantation in Virginia Owusu picks up the pieces of her life Ditlevsen captures are timeless.
to a maximum-security prison in to make sense of it all. In lyrical and
Louisiana—to underline the legacy lush prose, she crafts an intimate and 9 Finding the Mother Tree
piercing exploration of identity, family
and home. In her first book, pioneering forest
ecologist Suzanne Simard blends her
6 Empire of Pain personal history with that of the trees
she has researched for decades. Find-
From the author of the 2019 ing the Mother Tree is as comprehensive
best seller Say Nothing, which dived as it is deeply personal, especially as
into Northern Ireland during the Simard writes of her curiosity about
Troubles, Empire of Pain is a stirring trees and what it has been like to work
investigation into three generations as a woman in a field dominated by
of the Sackler family. Patrick Radden men. Her passion for the subject at
Keefe explores the Sacklers and the the book’s center is palpable on every
source of their infamous fortune, page, coalescing into an urgent call to
earned by producing and marketing embrace our connection with the earth
a painkiller that became the driving and do whatever we can to protect it.
factor behind the opioid crisis. It’s
a sweeping account of a family’s 10 The Kissing Bug
outsize impact on the world—and
a dogged work of reporting that When Daisy Hernández was a child, her
showcases the horrific implications aunt traveled from Colombia to the U.S.
of greed. in search of a cure for the mysterious
disease that caused her stomach to
7 A Swim in the become so distended that people
Pond in the Rain thought she was pregnant. Growing
up, Hernández believed her aunt had
George Saunders is deeply familiar become sick from eating an apple; it
with the 19th century Russian short wasn’t until decades later that she
story—he’s been teaching a class learned more about Chagas disease.
on the subject to M.F.A. students for As Hernández describes in her deftly
two decades. Here, he opens up his reported book, Chagas—transmitted by
syllabus, analyzing seven iconic works “kissing bugs” that carry the parasite
by authors including Chekhov and that causes it—is an infectious disease
Tolstoy to highlight the importance of that sickens hundreds of thousands of
fiction in our lives. In a world bursting people in the U.S., many of whom are
with distractions, A Swim in the Pond poor immigrants from Latin America.
in the Rain demands the reader’s She traces the history of Chagas and
attention; Saunders begins by breaking the lives most impacted by it, offering a
down a story line by line. In less nuanced and empathetic look into the
thoughtful hands, this exercise would intersections of poverty, racism and the
be draining, but Saunders infuses U.S. health care system.

PHOTOGR APH BY TONJE THILESEN 91

2021 BEST OF CULTURE

BEST FICTION by an ancient Greek story. Cloud
BOOKS Cuckoo Land, a National Book
Award finalist, moves from
BY ANNABEL GUTTERMAN 15th century Constantinople to an
interstellar ship to a dusty Idaho
1 Great Circle just learned his new lover library as the characters interact
is pregnant with his baby. with the tale. Doerr’s immersive
The beginning of Maggie Shipstead’s Ames presents Reese with the world-building and dazzling prose
astounding novel, a Booker finalist, opportunity she’s been waiting tie together seemingly disparate
includes a series of endings: two plane for: perhaps the three of them threads as he underlines the
crashes, a sunken ship and several can raise the baby together. value of storytelling and the power
people dead. The bad luck continues In her delectable debut novel, of imagination.
when one of the ship’s young survivors, Torrey Peters follows these
Marian, grows up to become a pilot— characters as they wrestle with 8 Afterparties
only to disappear on the job. Shipstead a life-altering decision.
unravels her protagonist’s life in glorious The nine stories that constitute
detail through a narrative made to be 5 The Love Songs of Anthony Veasna So’s stirring debut
devoured, one that is both timeless and W.E.B. Du Bois collection, published after his
fulfilling. death at 28, reveal a portrait of a
The debut novel from poet Honorée Cambodian American community in
2 The Prophets Fanonne Jeffers is a piercing epic California. From a story about two
spanning 200 years. At its core is the sisters reflecting on their father
At a plantation in the antebellum South, mission of Ailey Pearl Garfield, a Black to another about a high school
enslaved teenagers Isaiah and Samuel woman coming of age in the 1980s and badminton coach stuck in the past,
work in a barn and seek refuge in ’90s, determined to learn more about her So’s narratives offer a thoughtful view
each other until one of their own, after family history. What Ailey discovers leads into the community that shaped him.
adopting their master’s religious beliefs, her to grapple with her identity, particularly While he describes the tensions his
betrays their trust. In The Prophets, a as she discovers secrets about her characters navigate with humor and
National Book Award finalist, Robert ancestors. In 800 rewarding pages, care, So also reflects on immigration,
Jones Jr. traces the teens’ relationship Jeffers offers a comprehensive account queerness and identity.
within the complex hierarchy of the of class, colorism and intergenerational
plantation. The result is a crushing trauma. It’s an aching tale told with nuance 9 Open Water
exploration of the legacy of slavery and and compassion—one that illuminates
a delicate story of Black queer love. the cost of survival. In his incisive debut novel, Caleb
Azumah Nelson tells a bruising love
3 My Monticello 6 The Life of the Mind story about young Black artists
in London. His protagonist is a
Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s searing short- Dorothy is an adjunct English professor photographer who has fallen for a
story collection is one to read in order. enduring the sixth day of her miscarriage. dancer, and Nelson proves masterly
Its narratives dissect an American In Christine Smallwood’s taut debut, at writing young love, clocking the
present that doesn’t feel at all removed Dorothy relays amusing observations small and seemingly meaningless
from the country’s violent past, and on her ever collapsing universe. moments that encompass longing.
build to a brutal finish. The unnerving Languishing in academia, Dorothy He celebrates the art that has
standout story—the titular novella— wonders how her once attainable goals shaped his characters’ lives while
follows a group of neighbors on the came to feel impossible. Her endlessly interrogating the unjust world that
run from white supremacists. It’s as entertaining catalog of thoughts gives surrounds them.
apocalyptic as it is realistic, a haunting way to a gratifying examination of
portrait of a community trying to survive ambition and freedom. 10 Klara and the Sun
in a nation that constantly undermines
its very existence. 7 Cloud Cuckoo Land The eighth novel from Nobel Prize–
winning author Kazuo Ishiguro follows
4 Detransition, Baby The five protagonists of Anthony a robot-like “Artificial Friend” named
Doerr’s kaleidoscopic and remarkably Klara, who sits in a store and waits to
Reese is a 30-something trans constructed third novel, all living on the be purchased. When she becomes
woman who desperately margins of society, are connected the companion of an ailing 14-year-old
wants a child. Her ex Ames, girl, Klara puts her observations of
who recently detransitioned, the world to the test. In exploring the
dynamic between the AI and the teen,
Ishiguro crafts a narrative that asks
unsettling questions about humanity,
technology and purpose.

92 TIME December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

PETERS’ NOVEL
DETRANSITION,
BABY IS SET TO
BE ADAPTED FOR
TELEVISION BY
GREY’S ANATOMY

PRODUCERS

PHOTOGRAPH BY CAMILA FALQUEZ



2021 BEST OF CULTURE

BEST ALBUMS 7 Donda

BY ANDREW R. CHOW AND CADY LANG It would be easy to let the polarizing
controversies of Kanye West
AUGUST 1 Promises silky, angelic vocals. The 10 songs clock overshadow the exhilarating thrills of his
in at just under 19 minutes, but this 10th studio album, but to do so would
Listening to Promises by Pharoah brevity highlights her dextrous ability to be to miss out on a glorious, if slightly
Sanders and Floating Points is like deliver a vibe in two minutes or less. messy, opus. The album, which rolled
driving through an ever changing coastal out after a series of highly publicized
landscape, as sheer cliffs, flowing 4 Blue Weekend listening parties, finds Ye pondering his
rivers and rolling fields of purples and faith and mother (for whom the album is
reds emerge out of the haze. Organized Elegant, petulant, abrasive, foreboding: named), his impending divorce and his
around one recurring ethereal riff, the the third album from the English family over a sprawling and ambitious
unlikely collaborative duo of Sanders rock band Wolf Alice covers a lot of 27 tracks. Though haters derided its
(an 81-year-old Arkansan free-jazz emotional and musical ground, and length and contentious release, its joy
saxophonist) and Floating Points (a it does so fluidly and flawlessly. Lead lies within its huge roster of guest talent,
35-year-old British electronic producer) singer Ellie Rowsell sounds tremendous from the Weeknd to Jay Electronica,
build a topography of reverie and chaos, throughout, whether she’s sweetly and West’s impressive ability to
with some help from the magisterial harmonizing with herself in tributes to commandeer this wealth into a sonic
London Symphony Orchestra. It’s a California (on the standout “Delicious experience both spiritual and sublime.
stunning nexus of jazz, classical and Things”) or screaming with the feral
ambient influences that transcends energy of Courtney Love. 8 The Hands of Time
genre to create something wholly new.
5 Still Over It The percussionist Weedie Braimah
2 Vince Staples draws a link between West African
Like any true diva of the R&B genre, drumming traditions and newer strains
On his eponymous fourth Summer Walker’s music is fueled by of Black American music-—including
studio album, Long Beach, romantic melodrama. Her excellent hip-hop, funk, jazz and fusion-—on this
Calif., rapper Vince Staples second studio album is no exception. astonishingly diverse yet cohesive
fully leans into the elements Inspired by the rumored infidelity of a album. While more famous luminaries
that have garnered him a cult former partner, London on da Track, like Trombone Shorty and Christian
following in the indie rap not only the father of her daughter but Scott aTunde Adjuah show up for solos,
scene: downtempo beats; a producer on several of the album’s Braimah’s powerful djembe work
moody melodies; and dark, songs, Walker uses Still Over It as both remains at the forefront throughout.
deadpan wit about the grim dialogue and catharsis. The result is
realities of the street. Produced a soulful, intoxicating breakup album 9 Navy’s Reprise
entirely by his friend and hip- destined to become a contemporary
hop producer of the moment R&B classic. With smooth-as-hell The Brooklyn rapper and skateboarder
Kenny Beats, this tightly vocals and deliciously wry misandry, Sage Elsesser, who goes by Navy Blue,
curated 10-track LP offers the heartbreak never sounded so good. raps with a cool patience, his lyrics
most intimate look yet at who spilling out not so much in couplets as
the inscrutable Staples is— 6 The Marfa Tapes amorphous word clouds. Over dusty
as both a man and an artist. soul samples, deft piano voicings
While most country music coming and whining saxophones, Elsesser
3 to hell with it out of Nashville these days wears raps of family, strife and salvation,
a glossy sheen, this record from employing a flurry of homonyms and
If you’re searching for the sound Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram and internal rhymes that will keep listeners
of the future, look no further than Jon Randall was recorded in the desert of finding new sleights of tongue upon
PinkPantheress’s exhilarating debut Marfa, Texas, where you can hear every play.
mixtape for the digital age. The 20-year- beer cans crack open and planes fly
old artist pulls from old-school house overhead. But what the album lacks in 10 Heaux Tales
and garage samples, fortified with doses production value it more than makes
of breakbeat, to construct her dreamy, up for in breathtaking triple harmonies, Jazmine Sullivan fully commits to her
emotive dance tracks, bolstered by her tender fingerpicked guitar work and pleasure—and ours—with Heaux Tales,
an ineffable sense of communal her fourth studio album, a paean to the
joy. Together, the trio finds ecstasy triumphs and tribulations of sex and
in small things—like homegrown love. Interspersed with spoken-word
tomatoes—and deliverance after interludes by a chorus of different
brutal heartbreak. women, the album is an ode to female
desire, driven by Sullivan’s sultry,
powerhouse vocals.

PHOTOGR APH BY RYAN PFLUGER 95

2021 BEST OF CULTURE

BEST MOVIES

BY STEPHANIE ZACHAREK

1 The Power simply neglected. Like jewels hidden in THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX
of the Dog plain sight, the film showcases glorious
performances from Mahalia Jackson,
In 1920s Montana, a Stevie Wonder and Nina Simone. At last,
misanthropic rancher the world is ready to take notice.
(Benedict Cumberbatch)
meets a reedy, dreamy 4 The Souvenir Part II
teenager (Kodi Smit-
McPhee) who arouses his In English filmmaker Joanna Hogg’s
contempt—and more. piercingly wistful semiautobiographical
Jane Campion’s gorgeous, film, a young student in 1980s London
sinewy western, based (Honor Swinton Byrne, in a subtle,
on Thomas Savage’s 1967 captivating performance) tries to make
novel, is a movie as big sense of a heartbreaking personal
as the open sky—but tragedy as she completes her graduate
also one where human film. With that seemingly simple story,
emotions are distinctly Hogg captures a thousand facets of
visible, as fine and sharp what it’s like to be a young person eager
as a blade of grass. to make a mark on the world—while
also needing desperately to make
2 The Worst Person sense of it all.
in the World
5 Parallel Mothers
Danish-Norwegian director Joachim
Trier’s staggeringly tender comedy- Penélope Cruz gives a smashing
drama feels like a gift from the performance as a Madrid woman who
gods. On the road to figuring out who becomes a mother in middle age—even
she is, Julie (Renate Reinsve, in a as she’s striving to win justice for her
performance of marvelous, sturdy great-grandfather, murdered during
delicacy) falls in love first with one the Spanish Civil War, his body tossed
man and then another, only to realize into a mass grave. Director Pedro
she’s more lost than ever. Trier guides Almodóvar uses melodrama to reckon
this story to a joyous, bittersweet with the painful history of his country,
landing—a reminder that we’re all but also to reaffirm an essential truth
works in progress, unfinished beings about motherhood: history is the work
whose only imperative is to turn of mothers—civilization can’t move on
toward the light. without them.

3 Summer of Soul 6 Passing

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s radiant In this beautifully rendered adaptation
documentary chronicles a star-studded of Nella Larsen’s compact, potent 1929
free concert series that took place novel, two girlhood friends (played,
in a Harlem park during the summer superbly, by Tessa Thompson and
of Woodstock but received far less Ruth Negga) reconnect as adults, their
attention. The Harlem Cultural Festival lives not just intersecting but colliding:
drew huge crowds, but in the years both women are Black, but one has
since, this civil rights–era celebration chosen to live as white. First-time
of pride and music had been largely director Rebecca Hall gives us a deeply
forgotten—or, perhaps more accurately, thoughtful spin on what we commonly
call the American Dream, the ability
to make something of ourselves,
or to remake ourselves as we wish—
a so-called freedom that comes,
sometimes, at perilous cost.

96 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

7 The Disciple

A singer with great drive and discipline
(played, with searching openness,
by Aditya Modak) strives to make a
life for himself in the rarefied and
decidedly unlucrative world of Indian
classical music—only to be forced to
recognize he’s missing the essential
spark of genius. Director Chaitanya
Tamhane’s luminous, quietly affecting
film examines what it means to pursue
a dream of art so feverishly that living in
the real world takes a backseat.

8 C’mon C’mon

Joaquin Phoenix gives a funny, finely
wrought performance as a childless
New York City radio journalist who takes
charge of his precocious 9-year-old Los
Angeles nephew (Woody Norman)
for a few weeks. How does that even
sound like a whole movie? But in
the hands of writer-director Mike
Mills, it’s everything. No one is better
at chronicling late 20th and early
21st century family affection, in all its
thorny, shimmery beauty.

9 The Tragedy of Macbeth

You may have seen this material a
hundred times before. But Joel Coen’s
shivery black-and-white rendering—
starring Frances McDormand and
Denzel Washington as the treacherous,
scheming Scots, compelling as a
demon’s spell—pulls off that rare feat:
it puts you in the shoes of the play’s
first audience, as if this 400-year-old
play were unfolding anew. Now, as then,
it chills to the bone.

10 Drive My Car

In Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s swimmingly
gorgeous three-hour drama—adapted
from a Haruki Murakami short story—a
widowed actor and theater director from
Tokyo (Hidetoshi Nishijima) accepts a gig
in Hiroshima, mounting a production of
Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. A young woman
from the country (Toko Miura) has been
hired to drive him; their slow-building
friendship helps illuminate how lost he
really is. Hamaguchi weaves a lustrous
story of loss and forgiveness—a gentle
nudge of encouragement suggesting
that no matter how tired you feel, you
can move on in the world.

PHOTOGR APH BY ROBBIE LAWRENCE 97

2021 BEST OF CULTURE

BEST TV
SHOWS

BY JUDY BERMAN

1 The Underground dyke” battling suicidal ideation. In a broadest possible perspective,
Railroad second season that improved upon tracing capitalism, colonialism, white
an excellent debut, our hero stared supremacy and genocide around the
In adapting Colson down demons that had tormented her world and through the centuries. He
Whitehead’s novel about since childhood. What might sound gets personal too, illustrating how
a young enslaved woman’s like a downer is buoyed by scenes global power dynamics can shape a
(Thuso Mbedu) slightly of tenderness, wonder and expertly life. Not every stylistic choice works,
fantastical journey north, deployed cringe comedy. but that’s to be expected when a
Barry Jenkins improved upon creator is experimenting this boldly.
a masterpiece, expanding 4 Exterminate
minimal prose into an All the Brutes 5 Reservation Dogs
immersive audiovisual and
moral landscape. While his In a big year for nonfiction TV, Raoul Creators Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi
insightful direction yielded Peck’s four-part essay raised the bar have given TV something it desperately
indelible performances, for serious art, and serious political needed: a great show by and about
bespoke music and production engagement, in the genre. Brutes Indigenous people. Set on an
design made each episode approaches inequality from the Oklahoma reservation, this dramedy
a discrete allegorical world. follows four teens mourning a friend as
Although it would’ve been a
breathtaking achievement at
any time, in a year when racists
revolted at the Capitol and in
the classroom, it felt as essential
as any work of art could be.

2 The White Lotus

Asked to pitch a series that could be

shot in a single location, for COVID-19

reasons, creator Mike White cannily

picked a Hawaiian resort. Well, he

earned both the trip and a surprise

second season, with this perfectly cast

pseudo-mystery that made rich people

on vacation avatars for a mess of social

ills. Yet White’s scripts left room for

empathy. Instead of diluting his critique,

that controversial choice reinforced it,

insisting that these overindulged clowns

were not so different from ourselves.

3 Work in Progress

This deeply underappreciated traumedy

is a portrait of co-creator and star Abby

McEnany as a self-described “fat, queer

98 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022

CONTOUR BY GETTY IMAGES they scam and save to honor his dream MBEDU that capitalized on America’s love-hate
of moving to California. Like many great CAPTIVATES ON obsession with our billionaire elite.
recent shows (Atlanta, Betty), it has a THE UNDERGROUND And it was just getting started. In the
hazy surreal-meets-DIY vibe, moving aftermath of patriarch Logan’s (Brian
fluidly between hijinks, gallows humor RAILROAD Cox) betrayal at the hands of his love-
and earnest emotion. Add stars who starved son Kendall (Jeremy Strong),
disappear into their roles and writers’ pleasure out of the eerie ’90s-set the Roy clan devolved into a civil war
refusal to dilute Indigenous culture—or tale as I—a child of that decade who conducted through elaborately uncivil
anger—for non-Native audiences, and grew up watching stars Christina Ricci, dialogue, for a third season that raised
the result is as uncompromising as it Juliette Lewis and Melanie Lynskey play the stakes without sacrificing what
is groundbreaking. disturbed teens—am. (Oh, well. My makes Succession such cathartic fun.
list, my rules.) Just know that amid a
6 Yellowjackets 25-year narrative that probes what really 8 We Are Lady Parts!
happened during the 19 months that the
It’s still anyone’s guess where this wild members of a high school girls’ soccer In this U.K. import, a timid microbiology
post-Lost survival drama is headed. team spent in the wilderness following a Ph.D. student (Anjana Vasan) strays
And it’s probably safe to assume plane crash, the show carves out some from the path to achievement, arranged
that not everyone is getting as much of the deepest, strangest and most marriage and perfect womanhood
distinctive characters in recent memory. when her killer guitar chops get her
recruited by an all-Muslim-girl punk
7 Succession band. A subversive, hilarious and—dare
I say it?—empowering comedy, Lady
HBO’s Murdochian Lear became a Parts shatters stereotypes just by
breakout hit in two scathing seasons authentically inhabiting its characters.
Each young woman is a whole person,
and one we’ve never seen on TV before.

9 I Think You Should Leave

A cable show called Coffin Flop. “Wet
steaks,” the disgusting meal of choice
for cretins out on the town. Dan
Flashes, a men’s store where shirts are
expensive “because the pattern’s so
complicated, you idiot.” The concepts
Tim Robinson cooks up for this sketch
comedy, which dropped its second
season in 2021, are so absurd that
they shoot straight into the meme-o-
sphere. But they linger because his
characters—dudes throwing tantrums
for nonsensical reasons—evoke the
incoherent anger that defines our era in
a way straight-faced shows never could.

10 You

It’s an enticing premise: a cute, bookish
romantic turns out to be a psycho
killer. But by the end of Season 1, this
insanely popular rom-com satire had
made its point about the genre’s hidden
creepiness. Happily, the show has
found new targets. This year’s third—
and best—season sent Penn Badgley’s
murderous Joe and his unhinged
bride to a ritzy California town to raise
their baby, taking on everything from
momfluencers to swingers in a searing
send-up of pop culture’s obsession
with suburbia.

PHOTOGR APH BY ELISABETH CAREN 99

2021 BEST OF CULTURE

PASHMAN 6 Poog
PURSUES THE
PERFECT PASTA Comedians Kate Berlant and Jacque-
IN THE SPORKFUL line Novak know the idea of achieving
one’s “best self” is a myth. Yet they're
so dedicated to obsessing over wellness
trends that it can be hard to tell whether
they’re joking when they swear alle-
giance to something called face yoga.
Amid laughs, listeners will reconsider
this multibillion-dollar industry.

BEST PODCASTS 7 Spectacle

BY ELIANA DOCKTERMAN Writer Mariah Smith compellingly
argues that reality TV, still dismissed
1 9/12 3 Sway as trash, is worthy of scholarship. One
episode focuses on an HIV-positive
The best work yet from prolific Kara Swisher—who made her name Real World star who reshaped the
podcaster Dan Taberski (Missing drawing out the Silicon Valley elite and AIDS conversation, another on Survivor
Richard Simmons) focuses not on here expands to media, business and predicting political divides in America.
Sept. 11 itself but how that day politics—takes a productively combat- By contextualizing these shows,
changed America. He unspools ive approach to interviews. She is one she proves how they reflected and
the tale of how the CIA recruited of the few journalists with the guts to galvanized cultural change.
Hollywood creators to dream up call out political hopefuls like Andrew
the attacks that U.S. enemies Yang and Matthew McConaughey for 8 StraightioLab
might attempt next, examines the vagueness and puffery and still line up
persecution of Muslim Americans and an all-star guest the next week. Each week, comedians George Civeris
traces the rise of conspiracy theories. and Sam Taggart invite a guest to
A genial but shrewd interviewer, 4 Fighting in the discuss some “crucial element” of
Taberski paints a portrait of a society War Room straight culture, like “tabletop role-
redefining its identity in the wake playing games” or “ketchup,” segueing
of tragedy. After 11 years on the air, friends into bits like which condiments are
and culture critics Katey Rich, straight, gay or bi. The premise is loose,
2 S***hole Country Matt Patches, David Ehrlich and the laugh-out-loud jokes pushed to the
Dave Gonzales have developed an brink of absurdity.
The pseudonymous narrator of irresistible chemistry as they gleefully
S***hole Country is one of podcast- argue over the latest superhero film 9 The Sporkful
ing’s most promising storytellers. The or Emmy snub. The show is a spiritual
series turns on her difficult decision heir to the enchanting squabbles of Disappointed by the array
to either stay in the U.S., where she’s Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. of available pasta shapes,
lost her job and health care, or move Dan Pashman embarked
into the free apartment her parents 5 The Just Enough Family on a mission to create a
are offering in their homeland of better one, documenting the
Ghana. Her beautiful rendering of Succession fans will find much to love surprisingly suspenseful,
a trip there undercuts how certain in this addictive series about the rise delightful adventure in a
Americans have characterized African and fall of a high-society New York miniseries dubbed “Mission
nations (hence the title). But at the family. New Yorker writer Ariel Levy ImPASTAble.”
heart of this series is her own struggle tells the story of corporate raider Saul
to feel at home in either place, told Steinberg and his relatives, replete 10 Criticism Is Dead
through moving and funny conversa- with eccentric characters and dastardly
tions with friends and family. schemes that illuminate how wealth So much pop-culture analysis of
erodes family connections. late veers into unabashed fandom
or reflexive cynicism. Hosts Pelin
Keskin-Liu and Jenny G. Zhang take a
more nuanced approach, connecting
seemingly unrelated songs, movies and
shows for thoughtful conversations on
the larger cultural landscape.

100 Time December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022 PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER APPOLDT