Today, risk is everywhere, from incipient AGI to climate tipping points to rising authoritarianism to mass antibiotic resistance. In certain fields, such as insurance, mathematics and healthcare, risk is quantifiable – something you can build markets around and base premiums on. Yet other forms of risk are less easy to define.
Please welcome the Risk issue, in which Tai Shani and Sophia Al-Maria discuss art after Gaza, Will Wiles extracts philosophical teachings from the game Project Zomboid, and political economist Ann Pettifor tells us how the economy is run like a casino. Ayesha A. Siddiqi considers how prediction markets represent the slow cancellation of the future, Bahar Noorizadeh, Ben Tarnoff and Quinn Slobodian muse on the meaning of Elon Musk, and Billie Muraben explores what links Novichok and cheap perfume. Emily Steer unveils the paranoid-schizoid position of far-right rioters, and we ask writers, artists and children: what’s the riskiest thing you’ve ever done?
Risk runs through the Spring/Summer 2026 collections, a season defined by outsized gambles and more creative director debuts than any in recent memory. Rosalind Jana considers collage and the archive in Jonathan Anderson’s debut womenswear collection for Dior, Guy Bolongaro keeps it in the Gucci family and Orien Cleis captures the mixed emotions of the big YES/NO question. Matei Octav goes high-wire with the newest Christian Louboutin collection, Moka Asada introduces us to the hostesses of Tokyo and designer Alessandra Facchinetti styles archive Giorgio Armani to outline the brand’s enduring style vocabulary.
Plus, we speak to George Saunders on the art of dying, Janice Wang on why size – in clothes and otherwise – matters, Kleber Mendonça Filho on hairy legs and Alicja Kwade on the resonance of rocks.
