‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (July 17, 2023) – Three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week: how populist Republicans plan to make Donald Trump’s second term count, NATO’s promises to Ukraine mark real progress, but there is still much more to do (10:12) and what matters about the human-dominated Anthropocene geological phase is not when it began, but how it might end (14:41).
Daily Archives: July 17, 2023
Culture/Politics: Harper’s Magazine — August 2023
Doctor’s Orders
COVID-19 and the new science wars
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was not unusual to enter common spaces across the United States—grocery stores, malls, office buildings—and experience a kind of perceptual whiplash. People wearing N-95 masks and latex gloves stood beside others wearing no mask at all—or else letting their mandatory face coverings slouch flaccidly beneath their chins.
Who Walks Always Beside You?
A disappearance in Arkansas
Twenty-two years ago, a six-year-old girl—my cousin—got lost in the Arkansas Ozarks, prompting what was at the time the largest search and rescue mission in the state’s history. Her disappearance would eventually connect my family to another story, a dark and bizarre one involving kidnapping, brainwashing, murder, and a cult that believed in the imminent end of the world, laced with the kind of eerie coincidences or near-coincidences that cause perfectly rational people to question what they think they know about reality.
Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – July 24, 2023
Country Music’s Culture Wars and the Remaking of Nashville
Tennessee’s government has turned hard red, but a new set of outlaw songwriters is challenging Music City’s conservative ways—and ruling bro-country sound.
On March 20th, at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, a block from the honky-tonks of Lower Broadway, Hayley Williams, the lead singer of the pop-punk band Paramore, strummed a country-music rhythm on her guitar. A drag queen in a ketchup-red wig and gold lamé boots bounded onstage. The two began singing in harmony, rehearsing a twangy, raucous cover of Deana Carter’s playful 1995 feminist anthem “Did I Shave My Legs for This?”—a twist on a Nashville classic, remade for the moment.
How Gretchen Whitmer Made Michigan a Democratic Stronghold
The Governor’s strategy for revitalizing her state has two parts: to grow, Michigan needs young people; to draw young people, it needs to have the social policies they want.
News: Violence In Sudan, Japan’s Kishida In Middle East, Crimea Bridge Attack
The Globalist Podcast, Monday, July 17, 2023: Reports from Khartoum as violence in Sudan escalates.
Plus: Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida tours the Middle East, the latest transport news and a new edition of ‘The Monocle Companion’, celebrating ideas for a better world.
The New York Times – Monday, July 17, 2023
Trump and Allies Forge Plans to Increase Presidential Power in 2025
The former president and his backers aim to strengthen the power of the White House and limit the independence of federal agencies.
A National Treasure, Tarnished: Can Britain Fix Its Health Service?
As it turns 75, the N.H.S., a proud symbol of Britain’s welfare state, is in the deepest crisis of its history.
Riots in France Highlight a Vicious Cycle Between Police and Minorities
Calls to overhaul the police go back decades. But violent episodes of police enforcement continue. So do violent outpourings on the street.
Labor Day Looms as Crisis Point in Hollywood Stalemate
Ongoing strikes could disrupt the entertainment industry in fundamental ways, putting the 2024 box office and the fall broadcast lineup in jeopardy.
Boomers Daily 