Author: Michelle Korhonen
America is a riven society. Political divisions have been on the rise for years. The gap between the Republican and Democratic Parties has grown in Congress, and the share of Americans who interact with people from the opposing party has plummeted. Studies tell us, “Democrats and Republicans both say that the other party’s members are hypocritical, selfish, and closed-minded, and they are unwilling to socialize across party lines.”Many Americans read news or get information only from sources that align with their political beliefs, which exacerbates fundamental disagreements not just about policies but about basic facts.So-called affective polarization—in which citizens are…
Then, everything was garnish, two kids and a house, a wife who kept thebeds made, shirts ironed, secrets hidden like duston the canned goods. What can’t be washed with vinegar—scum of the coffee pot—or set out in the sun with fresh linenmy mother swears had to be ironed and I believe menmade work for women, invented tile,starch, matrimony, and ama de casa to chop the tomatoand lettuce sometimes in bowls, often on the side as adornment. What is the relationshipbetween mother and daughter, tree and limb?The moment I say my memory is not of her sadness but of her laughter…
SNL allowed the Euphoria star, who refuses to be pigeonholed, a chance to show her range.Rosalind O’Connor / NBC via Getty ImagesMarch 3, 2024, 12:10 PM ETSydney Sweeney seems to enjoy making jokes about how big her breasts are. She once announced that her grandparents declared that she had the “best tits in Hollywood.” And she alluded to her bra size in her Saturday Night Live monologue this weekend, in which she described how she presented her parents with a “backup plan” if her initial attempt to break into acting failed. A PowerPoint slide flashed on the screen that read:…
This 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.Welcome back to The Daily’s Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer or editor reveals what’s keeping them entertained. Today’s special guest is Gisela Salim-Peyer, an assistant editor who has written about the fantasy of heritage tourism, the Venezuelan government’s project to redeem a dead rapper, and Italy’s millennia-old ambition to build a bridge to Sicily.Gisela fell in love with Mexico City and Mexico’s…
This article was originally published by The Conversation.It’s been a warm day, maybe even a little humid, and the tall clouds in the distance remind you of cauliflower. You hear a sharp crack, like the sound of a batter hitting a home run, or a low rumble reminiscent of a truck driving down the highway. A distant thunderstorm, alive with lightning, is making itself known.Every second, lightning in thunderstorms flashes at least 60 times somewhere on the planet, sometimes even near the North Pole.Each giant spark of electricity travels through the atmosphere at about 200,000 miles per hour. It is…
(Clockwise from upper left): Light Oriye for NPR; Chiara Negrello for NPR; Rajaâ Khenoussi for NPR; Jjumba Martin for NPR; Debsuddha Banerjee for NPR; Debsuddha Banerjee for NPR; Maíra Erlich for NPR (Clockwise from upper left): Light Oriye for NPR; Chiara Negrello for NPR; Rajaâ Khenoussi for NPR; Jjumba Martin for NPR; Debsuddha Banerjee for NPR; Debsuddha Banerjee for NPR; Maíra Erlich for NPR The world’s population is facing a historic shift: By 2030, one in six people will be age 60 or over. So every nation will face the rising social, economic and health-care challenges that accompany an aging…
When then-President Donald Trump was briefed on the California wildfires in 2020, the scientific opinion he heard was that climate change was real and had contributed to the conflagrations that ended up consuming more than 4 million acres and killing 31 people. His response? “Science doesn’t know.”Millions of Americans trusted Trump, a fact he leveraged to attack the trustworthiness of science itself. Trump’s actions are part of a larger pattern of assault on expertise. People need to trust that the experts will tell the truth, and they need to trust the connections between themselves and the experts. A division of…
A plant-based diet is not just good for your health, it’s good for the planet. Alexander Spatari/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Alexander Spatari/Getty Images A plant-based diet is not just good for your health, it’s good for the planet. Alexander Spatari/Getty Images If you’re aiming to cut back on meat and you want to build muscle strength, you’re not alone. Following our story on foods that help maintain strength, lots of you responded to our call-out, telling us you’re trying to boost protein consumption with a plant-based diet. Now, a new study published in Nature Food, finds that if…
This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here.If you ask Americans with a desk job what they want, many say flexibility. Specifically, they want control over where that desk is located and when they work at it. Luckily for them, the American workplace is by some measures more flexible than ever before. About half of U.S. workers have “remote-capable” jobs. And Gallup data suggest that a majority of those jobs are now hybrid, meaning that employees can split time between home and the office. Despite this greater flexibility, however, surveys from…
Listen to this articleProduced by ElevenLabs and NOA, News Over Audio, using AI narration.In 2016, the alt-comic cable talk show The Chris Gethard Show engineered a strange form of call-in game show. A Dumpster was placed in the middle of the stage, and Gethard dared his viewing audience to guess what was inside, permitting them one question each. All kinds of anarchic guessing ensued, especially once Gethard’s guests on the show got a peek inside the Dumpster, but it took about 35 minutes to reach the answer: the actor Paul Giamatti, who had been cheerfully squatting inside. “People have never…