For the July 1–July 14 issue of New York, features writer Reeves Wiedeman explores how nondisclosure agreements have become a definitive document of our time and one of the most commonly signed contracts in the world. “One study says a third of American workers have one; another puts the number at more than half. NDAs are being given out to roommates, to parents, to boyfriends and ex-girlfriends,” Wiedeman writes.
“I had already started to clock the encroachment of NDAs in my own life, but I got interested in NDAs earlier this year when I heard about a first date that was blown up by an NDA that someone had signed in a divorce,” said Wiedeman. “That was the moment of realization that a document intended for boring corporate uses was suddenly infiltrating our lives in new kinds of ways. The lesson from Harvey Weinstein and Me Too was supposed to be that NDAs were a tool for covering up terrible things, and there have been efforts to restrict their use since then. But the surprising reality I discovered from talking to lawyers is that the lesson many people learned was just how effective the NDA can be as a tool of power.”
The cover was designed by New York’s design director, Thomas Alberty. It is modeled after a classic romance-novel cover, with a photo-illustration by Joe Darrow based on artwork by Victor Gadino and lettering by McCandliss and Campbell.
Elsewhere in the issue, Mary H.K. Choi writes an essay on the experience of being diagnosed with autism in her 40s, and Sean Flynn explores the story of Boeing whistleblower Mitch Barnett, and how earning the wrath of one of the world’s largest aircraft manufacturers may have cost him his life.