Indice dei contenuti per December 30, 2024 in TIME Magazine

We are nearing a century of Person of the Year, the franchise TIME’s editors launched as a make-good at the end of 1927, after realizing they had failed to mark Charles Lindbergh’s history-making transatlantic flight on the cover. It is our privilege to work on a project that has, across those years, become a milestone and, yes, a lightning rod. Like much of what we do at TIME, this issue is an opportunity to be in conversation with history while embracing the future with arms wide open. It takes hundreds of people to make Person of the Year possible, from those of us in the newsroom to our colleagues across TIME’s business, including our CEO Jessica Sibley. For the second year in a row, Person of the Year was…

Moo Deng. It’s a name millions around the world have come to know. She’s the most obsessed-over, least controversial celebrity. Her dewy skin, enviable lifestyle of frolicking and feasting, and eminently meme-able face have made her an icon of the internet. She’s also… a hippopotamus. Cute creatures going viral is nothing new. Seven years ago, the Cincinnati Zoo wanted TIME to name Fiona the hippo Person—er, Animal?—of the Year. But 2024 seems to be on a different level. The plump pygmy hippo from Thailand—who was born in July and whose name translates to “bouncy pork”—rose to fame perhaps when she was needed most. “Observing animals, whether online or in person, can be therapeutic in many ways,” University of Washington psychology professor emeritus David Barash tells TIME. Beasts can provide…

Progress in addressing mental health is notoriously slow and mostly incremental. Breakthrough treatments tend to be rare, and trained professionals too few to meet the demand for services, which is increasing. But 2024 was a pivotal year—thanks to the culmination of decades of research and post-pandemic attention to mental-health issues. In March, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Rejoyn, the first digital therapeutic to treat major depressive disorder. The app opens the door to a new class of therapies that could dramatically increase access to treatment. Six months later, the FDA approved the first new drug for schizophrenia in 30 years, Cobenfy. It targets a different brain chemical system than previous treatments. And psychedelics notched a first when the FDA reviewed a request to approve MDMA for…

1. HYSTERICAL The most engrossing podcast Dan Taberski has produced since Missing Richard Simmons, Hysterical investigates a mysterious illness that spread among high school girls in Le Roy, N.Y., beginning in 2011, in what is believed to be the largest case of mass hysteria since the Salem witch trials. The scandal occurred near Taberski’s hometown, and he’s able to bring a local charm to his color commentary and interviews, keeping what could be a dour show relatively light. 2. THE LONELY ISLAND & SETH MEYERS PODCAST Celebrities’ recaps of their own shows tend to be self-indulgent and not especially analytical. This is an exception. Seth Meyers teases insightful and hilarious stories out of his former Saturday Night Live co-workers Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer, about the process…

The night before the 2024 Person of the Year was announced, TIME hosted a star-studded dinner in New York City, coinciding with the rollout of this issue. The Dec. 11 event featured conversations with 2024 CEO of the Year Lisa Su (right), moderated by editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs, and with Athlete of the Year Caitlin Clark (left), moderated by NBC sportscaster Maria Taylor. To close out the night, Icon of the Year—Emmy-, Grammy-, Oscar-, and Tony-winning musical legend Elton John (top)—performed “Your Song.” Ringing the bell On the morning his selection as Person of the Year was announced, President-elect Donald Trump rang the bell to open the New York Stock Exchange, alongside TIME CEO Jessica Sibley (second from left). He was joined onstage by his wife Melania Trump and other…

In 2024, both cutting-edge technology and the companies controlling it grew increasingly powerful, provoking euphoric wonderment and existential dread. Companies like Nvidia and Alphabet soared in value, fueled by expectations that artificial intelligence (AI) will become a cornerstone of modern life. While those grand visions are still far into the future, tech undeniably shaped markets, warfare, elections, climate, and daily life this year. Perhaps technology’s biggest impact this year was on the global economy. The so-called Magnificent Seven—the stocks of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla—thrived in large part because of the AI boom, propelling the S&P 500 to new highs. Nvidia, which designs the computer chips powering many AI systems, led the way, with its stock nearly tripling in price. These profits spurred an arms race…

1. BABYGIRL If you read only the synopsis of Babygirl before seeing it, you might imagine it’s an erotic age-gap thriller about the workplace power dynamic between men and women. That’s part of it, sure. But Halina Reijn’s exuberant third feature goes deeper than that, exploring the ways in which human beings—especially women—often want things they don’t know how to ask for. Nicole Kidman gives a live-wire performance as Romy, a buttoned-up executive who falls under the spell of a seductive intern (Harris Dickinson, a bedroom murmur in human form). There’s so much we don’t know about desire, particularly in perimenopausal and menopausal women, and almost nobody wants to talk about it—except Reijn. The movie’s centerpiece, built around George Michael’s “Father Figure,” is one of the most rapturous sequences…

More than 630 days after Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour kicked off on March 17, 2023, in Glendale, Ariz., the global concert phenomenon came to an end with three final shows in Vancouver on Dec. 6–8. In the nearly two years since Eras began, Swift’s accomplishments have been numerous, from dropping three albums to being named TIME’s 2023 Person of the Year to releasing the most successful concert film ever. The tour also helped turn her into the first musician to become a billionaire solely from songwriting and performing. It’s safe to say there’s never been a concert tour quite like this one. To mark the anniversary of her Person of the Year title, here’s a numerical look back at Swift’s blockbuster shows. Number of Eras shows and cities In…

Framed magazines with him on the cover hung by the front door. On a table near the fireplace sat a cast-bronze eagle awarded him by the singer Lee Greenwood. In the men’s lavatory, a picture of him with Arnold Palmer hung near the urinals. Adorning a wall in the library bar, a painting titled The Visionary depicted Trump in a tennis sweater, trim and youthful. The empty rooms felt less like a millionaire members’ club than a museum. By midafternoon, the President-elect’s imminent arrival had stirred signs of life. Discreetly placed speakers offered up selections from Trump’s personally curated 2,000-song playlist. A handful of transition honchos and soon-to-be Administration officials arrived, perching on overstuffed sofas and huddling in corners. Incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles conferred with Trump’s designated…

1. LIVES OUTGROWN, BETH GIBBONS Singer Beth Gibbons hasn’t released much music in the 30 years since her iconic band Portishead stormed out of the gate with seminal trip-hop record Dummy. Nor has she spoken to the press much, gaining a reputation for intense privacy. But she’s not necessarily the hermit these habits suggest. Her second solo album, a collection of baroque chamber folk, explores mortality with striking verve. It’s a deeply interior record, abuzz with images and thoughts that feel born of rumination and experience. The bustling arrangements—which frequently feature layers of strings, percussion, and woodwinds—surge and swell as Gibbons sings of her aging body and home life. Where the languid rhythms of trip-hop soundtrack the feeling of eternal night, that blissful postclub chill, this record inhabits the…