Author: Michelle Korhonen
Listen to this articleProduced by ElevenLabs and NOA, News Over Audio, using AI narration.For years, the panicked question around the Academy Awards has been the same as the one bedeviling every other pop-cultural awards show: Does anyone even care anymore? With the broadcasts recording some of their worst-ever ratings in recent years, film viewership growing more diffuse in the streaming era, and the monoculture supposedly slipping away, the ramp-up to the Oscars is typically preceded by months of industry agita over how to appeal to a broader audience. After all, we’re only a few years removed from the absurd suggestion…
The tired truism that journalism is history’s first draft does not quite apply to covering war—or not usually, in any case. In those battles that I’ve fought in and those that I’ve reported on, as soon as the gunfire ebbs and soldiers start passing out the post-firefight cigarette or candy bar—or whatever corporeal ritual they’re engaging in to remind themselves that they’re still alive—invariably, they begin to tell stories. They huddle in small groups urgently talking about what just happened, trying to bring order to the violence and chaos they’ve experienced. One guy will talk about entering a house on…
This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here.Before last month I knew next to nothing about Bill Ackman. I probably would have recognized his name. I guess I knew he was a hedge-fund billionaire, and his reputation as kind of a jerk. “He has been straddling that line of public recognition for some 20 years now,” a New York writer explained last week, with a “formula for notoriety” based on “making big controversial calls” as an investor “and picking messy, high-profile fights.”My interest was piqued when I learned that he was…
South Africa dropped a bombshell on the international community in December, claiming in the International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ highest judicial body, that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. No doubt Pretoria, a longtime supporter of Palestine and in a deteriorating diplomatic relationship with Israel, had political reasons to bring what most Israelis view as an outrageous claim. But to dismiss the case as political theater would be a mistake.Israel did not send a team of government attorneys to put up a defense in The Hague, or hire one of the leading members of the ICJ bar, merely…
The world can be a baffling place. That’s true in many important senses, but also in plenty of unimportant ones, and the urge to make order and meaning doesn’t necessarily select for relevance. That’s why, for the past two weeks, a huge chunk of the internet’s attention has been focused on one baffling phenomenon in particular: What, exactly, is a Stanley cup, and why are suburbanites willing to scuffle over it in their most sacred space (their local Target)?Let’s recap. As the new year began, Stanley, a century-old company that for much of its history made reinforced lunch boxes and…
Reissued art is worth turning to in a moment of relentless spin-offs and sequels.United Archives GmbH / AlamyJanuary 19, 2024, 5:54 PM ETThis is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.In a world of reheated versions of popular IP, I love turning to new releases of older gems.First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic:Resurrected TreasuresTo my embarrassment, I did not really know what the deal was with the Talking Heads until…
Plus: Malaise among AmericansMillennium Images / Gallery StockJanuary 19, 2024, 12:19 PM ETWelcome to Up for Debate. Each week, Conor Friedersdorf rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.Is pornography immoral?Last week, I wrote an article arguing that the University of Wisconsin should not have fired Joe Gow, the longtime chancellor of its La Crosse campus, for making pornography with his wife.I took no position on the morality of pornography.Rather, I pointed out that Americans are divided about porn––a 2023 Gallup poll found that…
Few people have derived more profit from a colleague’s superstition than Tim Hallam, a former communications director for the Chicago Bulls. In the spring of 1991, the Bulls were preparing for their first NBA Finals, against Magic Johnson’s aging Lakers, when Hallam approached Michael Jordan, the team’s superstar, to ask him for a kindness. If, as expected, the Bulls won, would Jordan give him a shoe from the clinching game? Jordan agreed, the Bulls won, and, in the confetti frenzy of tears and champagne that followed, he made good. Then, after the Bulls won their second championship 12 months later,…
This combination of photos provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Jan. 5, 2024, shows different views of a Busseto charcuterie sampler with prosciutto, sweet sopressata and dry coppa. Associated Press hide caption toggle caption Associated Press This combination of photos provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Jan. 5, 2024, shows different views of a Busseto charcuterie sampler with prosciutto, sweet sopressata and dry coppa. Associated Press The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expanding a warning about a salmonella outbreak linked to charcuterie meat trays sold at Costco and…
The collapse of Republican resolve in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election on January 6, 2021, and Trump’s continued designs on power have together ensured that conservatives find it necessary to downplay or dismiss those events as much less than what they were: an assault on American democracy.This much was predictable. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, my colleague David A. Graham anticipated that the events of January 6 would be “memory-holed,” and the Republican Party’s continued dependence on Trump made that inevitable. The task of justifying or minimizing January 6 became more urgent…