‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (September 18, 2023) – Three essential articles read aloud from the The Economist. This week, the future of the Middle East, Wall Street’s race to wealth management (10:00), and how London’s bus drivers revolutionised health (17:40).
Category Archives: Society
Views: The New York Times Magazine – Sept 10, 2023
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (September 10, 2023): The Education Issue features Americans Are Losing Faith in the Value of College. Whose Fault Is That?; Affirmative Action Is Still in Effect. For Men, and more….
Americans Are Losing Faith in the Value of College. Whose Fault Is That?
For most people, the new economics of higher ed make going to college a risky bet.
By Paul Tough
A decade or so ago, Americans were feeling pretty positive about higher education. Public-opinion polls in the early 2010s all told the same story. In one survey, 86 percent of college graduates said that college had been a good investment; in another, 74 percent of young adults said a college education was “very important”; in a third, 60 percent of Americans said that colleges and universities were having a positive impact on the country. Ninety-six percent of parents who identified as Democrats said they expected their kids to attend college — only to be outdone by Republican parents, 99 percent of whom said they expected their kids to go to college.
Affirmative Action Is Still in Effect. For Men.
Declining male enrollment has led some colleges to adopt an unofficial policy that many find objectionable: “We need to admit men, and women are going to suffer.”
In the spring of 2021, about 2,000 students on the campus of Tulane University in New Orleans received an email they were expecting. They had filled out an elaborate survey provided by Marriage Pact, a matchmaking service popular on many campuses, and the day had come for each of them to be given the name of a fellow student who might be a long-term romantic partner. When the results came in, however, about 900 straight women who participated were surprised by what the email offered: a friend match instead of a love interest.
Politics: The Guardian Weekly – September 8, 2023
The Guardian Weekly (September 8, 2023) – The issue features Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s progressive vision for US politics, graduate jobs market pressured by artificial intelligence, migrants in North Africa Spanish enclave of Melilla, and more…
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s explosive entrance on to the US political scene at the age of 29, as the youngest woman ever to be elected to the House of Representatives, was a beacon of hope for the progressive left during the dark days of the Trump presidency.
Five years on, AOC is established as an influential figure in the Democratic party, known for her advocacy of green policies and efforts to engage marginalised groups. In a wide-ranging interview, she talks to Washington bureau chief David Smith about the climate crisis, misogyny in US politics and the potential – one day – for a presidential run of her own.
For those with an eye farther afield, on the graduate jobs market, Hibaq Farah and Tom Ambrose consider the future careers most likely to withstand the coming onslaught of artificial intelligence.
In Features, Matthew Bremner’s investigation into the massacre of migrants in the north African Spanish enclave of Melilla is a sobering but important read. Jay Owens changes the pace somewhat with an exploration of dust, and what it reveals about the world around us.
Opinion: AI Disrupting 2024 Elections, A Rise In Scare Tactics, Owning An Airline
‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (September 11, 2023) – Three essential articles read aloud from the The Economist. This week, how much will artificial intelligence affect the elections of 2024? Also, the ways cynical leaders are using scaremongering tactics both to win and to abuse power (9:35) and why everyone wants to own an airline these days (17:00).
Views: The New York Times Magazine – Sept 3, 2023
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (September 3, 2023) – The 9.3.23 Issue features Michael Steinberger on how the war in Ukraine turned tennis into a battlefield; Keri Blakinger on the Dungeons and Dragons players on death row; Jennifer Szalai on Naomi Klein’s new book about her doppelganger; and more.
How the War in Ukraine Turned Tennis Into a Battlefield
For Ukrainian players, as well as those from Russia and its allies, the unceasing conflict at home has bled into the game. Now they face off at the U.S. Open.
By Michael Steinberger
It was a few days before the start of Wimbledon this summer, and Elina Svitolina, just off a flight from Geneva, had come to the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club to check in for the tournament. She was returning after a year’s absence. “It feels like it has been 10 years,” she said as she got out of the car. A lot had happened since she last competed at Wimbledon, in 2021. She had given birth to a daughter named Skaï, the first child for her and her husband, the French player Gaël Monfils. Also, her country, Ukraine, had been invaded by Russia.
When Your ‘Doppelganger’ Becomes a Conspiracy Theorist
If you’re Naomi Klein, you write a book about it.
In June, the Canadian journalist and activist Naomi Klein was sitting in the dark gray booth of a recording studio in Lower Manhattan. Dressed simply for the New York City heat — white linen top, light cropped pants, white sneakers — she was reading from a script, and there was a line that was giving her a bit of trouble.
CULTURE: FRANCE-AMÉRIQUE MAGAZINE – September 2023
France-Amérique Magazine – September 2023 – The issue features ‘The Little Prince in America’ – Did you know the Little Prince was born in New York? Antoine de Saint-Exupéry had found refuge in the United States during World War II when he published his best-selling novella, 80 years ago. Also, an interview with fashion queen Diane von Fürstenberg, whose iconic take on the wrap dress is turning 50; and meet Jean-Christophe Bouvet, the French actor who plays the extravagant designer Pierre Cadault in Emily in Paris!
NEW YORK CITY – The Little Prince’s Other Planet
By Clément Thiery
The Little Prince is from Asteroid B 612, but it was in New York City that he sprang from the imagination of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the French author and aviator who lived in the U.S. during World War II. To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the tiny hero’s creation, a statue will be unveiled opposite Central Park in mid-September.
SWAINE – Hollywood’s Temple of Luxury Accessories
By Clément Thiery
What do Harrison Ford’s hat in the latest Indiana Jones and Gene Kelly’s umbrella in Singin’ in the Rain have in common? Swaine London! This brand has specialized in luxury goods for more than 270 years and was recently acquired by the French group Chargeurs.
Table of contents
FROM THE NEWSDESK
Anger at Plans to Relocate les Bouquinistes During the 2024 Paris Olympics. By Anthony Bulger
EDITORIAL
Tocqueville and Illiberalism. By Guy Sorman
INTERVIEW
Olivier Coste: Why There Is No French Google. By Guy Sorman
ICON
Jean-Christophe Bouvet: “There Is Something of Myself in Pierre Cadault.” By Jérôme Kagan
CAMPUS
Sciences Po, the Parisian School Teaching Future American Leaders. By Jean-Gabriel Fredet
ANNIVERSARY
New York City, the Little Prince’s Other Planet. By Clément Thiery
THE BRIEF
Diane von Fürstenberg: “The Wrap Dress Made Me an Independent Woman.” By Kyra Alessandrini
EDUCATION
Gladys Francis: Connecting the Caribbean and America. By Hélène Vissière
HISTORY
New York Fashion Week’s Transatlantic Heritage. By Diane de Vignemont
Politics: The Guardian Weekly – September 1, 2023
The Guardian Weekly (September 1, 2023) – The issue features Prigozhin’s downfall – What next for Putin, Russia and Wagner?; Zadie Smith returns to the streets of London; Protecting the Arctic Sea, and more…
Andrew Roth explores what the legacy of the Wagner warlord might be for Russia – which may well hinge on Putin himself and how the war in Ukraine turns out.
Pjotr Sauer looks at the array of methods used to dispose of Putin’s political enemies in the past, while Dino Mahtani asks what will happen to Wagner group’s clandestine operations in Africa now its enigmatic boss is no longer in the picture.
In Spotlight, a beautiful photo-essay by Ossie Michelin and Eldred Allen transports us to the Canadian Arctic where, amid alarming signs of warmer winters and receding ice, Inuit people are planning to turn 15,000 sq km of the Labrador Sea into a unique conservation zone.
Opinion: No Fix For China’s Economy, Firms Fighting Disrupters, Palestine Wine
‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (August 28, 2023) – Three essential articles read aloud from the The Economist. This week, why China’s economy won’t be fixed, America’s corporate giants are fighting back against disrupters (10:15) and the challenge of making wine in Palestine (21:50).
Views: The New York Times Magazine – August 27, 2023
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (August 27, 2023) – In this week’s cover story, Jen Percy reports on what people misunderstand about rape. Plus, the case that could unravel an art dynasty and a Harvard professor who is also an alien hunter.
What People Misunderstand About Rape
Sexual assault often goes unpunished when victims fail to fight back. But investigators, psychologists and biologists all describe freezing as an involuntary response to trauma.
By Jen Percy
There’s a lingua franca that women use, a repeated vocabulary to describe what they experience and think during a sexual assault. Variations of “freezing” are often part of that vocabulary. But the word has so many referents in its colloquial usage that it’s hard to know precisely what it means to each person saying it.
“I just absolutely froze,” Brooke Shields said in the documentary “Pretty Baby,” describing how she felt when being raped. “And I just thought, Stay alive and get out.”
The Inheritance Case That Could Unravel an Art Dynasty
How a widow’s legal fight against the Wildenstein family of France has threatened their storied collection — and revealed the underbelly of the global art market.
By Rachel Corbett
Twenty years ago, a glamorous platinum-blond widow arrived at the Paris law office of Claude Dumont Beghi in tears. Someone was trying to take her horses — her “babies” — away, and she needed a lawyer to stop them.
Culture: The American Scholar – Autumn 2023
THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR – AUTUMN 2023:
Will the Real Vergil Please Stand Up?
Making sense of the life of a poet about whom we know so little
by Sarah Ruden
Great works of literature are sly and powerful beasts that pounce on their readers, grabbing them by the neck and shaking them back and forth. The young Augustine looks like a typical victim of Vergil’s Aeneid. The schoolboy being brought up as a Christian in fourth-century CE North Africa found the first-century BCE epic poem of pagan Rome the most impressive thing in his cultural life to date. Tellingly, his reaction shows no interest in the poem’s theme of individual sacrifice in the name of imperial destiny; rather, into middle age, the great theologian and founder of institutional Catholic monasticism remembered weeping for Dido, who commits suicide after her lover, Aeneas, abandons her at the end of Book IV.
A Room for the Ages
Oglethorpe University’s time capsule was meant to last thousands of years, but will it?
by Colin Dickey
Boomers Daily 