Author: Michelle Korhonen
This is an edition of the Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for it here.The temptation for a writer to turn their memoir into a self-help book must be strong. The author has looked back at her life, her choices, her blunders, her triumphs. And through this process of retrospection, she might see lessons learned that apply not just to her, but really, to everyone. This is a big mistake, writes Lily Meyer, a contributing writer for The Atlantic, in her assessment of This American Ex-Wife, Lyz Lenz’s new book about her divorce.First,…
Unseen footage from inside the memorial service for the late King Constantine II of Greece has revealed the poignant moment his son and heir was forced to step in for Prince William at 45 minutes notice.Crown Prince Pavlos, 56, the current head of the former Greek royal family, gave a reading at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in William’s stead this week.The Prince of Wales, who met Holocaust survivors at a synagogue in London today, was due to read from Revelation 21:1-7, a popular verse of the Bible for funerals – but a moved Pavlos stood up instead to say: ‘God. He will wipe every…
Middle school can be tough. To help students cope, a Massachusetts school is trying to put its credo into daily action: “Let go and move on.” (Story originally aired on ATC on Dec. 5, 2023.)
For nearly the entirety of the past decade, a question has stalked, and sometimes consumed, American politics: Why do Donald Trump and his acolytes heap such reverent praise on Vladimir Putin? The question is born of disbelief. Adoration of the Russian leader, who murders his domestic opponents, kidnaps thousands of Ukrainian children, and interferes in American presidential elections, is so hard to comprehend that it seems only plausibly explained by venal motives—thus the search to find the supposed kompromat the Kremlin lords over Trump or compromising business deals that Trump has pursued in Moscow.But there’s a deeper, more nefarious truth…
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, degenerative disease of the brain, in which build-up of abnormal proteins causes nerve cells to die.This disrupts the transmitters that carry messages, and causes the brain to shrink. More than 5 million people suffer from the disease in the US, where it is the 6th leading cause of death, and more than 1 million Britons have it.WHAT HAPPENS?As brain cells die, the functions they provide are lost. That includes memory, orientation and the ability to think and reason. The progress of the disease is slow and gradual. On average, patients live five to seven years after diagnosis, but some…
Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is working toward regulation to remove medical bills from consumer credit reports. Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is working toward regulation to remove medical bills from consumer credit reports. Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images When President Barack Obama signed legislation in 2010 to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, he said the new agency had one priority: “looking out for people, not big banks, not lenders, not investment houses.” Since then, the CFPB has done its…
One scorching day this past September, I made the dangerous decision to try to circumnavigate some data centers. The ones I chose sit between a regional airport and some farm fields in Goodyear, Arizona, half an hour’s drive west of downtown Phoenix. When my Uber pulled up beside the unmarked buildings, the temperature was 97 degrees Fahrenheit. The air crackled with a latent energy, and some kind of pulsating sound was emanating from the electric wires above my head, or maybe from the buildings themselves. With no shelter from the blinding sunlight, I began to lose my sense of what…
Amy Dowden has shared her hopes at returning to Strictly Come Dancing after she found it ‘so cruel’ having watch from the sidelines last year while undergoing cancer treatment.The Welsh professional dancer, 33, was too ill to compete in the most recent series of the BBC competition after she was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer last May and underwent a mastectomy.After her latest health check revealed ‘no evidence of disease’, she has now set her sights on getting back to the dancefloor.While she will not get the all-clear for five years and will still need treatment, she is determined…
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama lawmakers rushed to protect in vitro fertilization services Thursday after fertility clinics shut down in the wake of a state court ruling that frozen embryos are children under the state wrongful death law. Facing public pressure to get IVF services resumed in the state, both chambers of the Alabama Legislature advanced legislation that would extend lawsuit protections to clinics. Legislators are hoping to get the measures approved by early next week while they weigh whether additional action is needed. Hundreds gather for a protest rally in support of in vitro fertilization legislation on Wednesday in Montgomery,…
This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic’s archives to contextualize the present and surface delightful treasures. Sign up here.In 1979, Penny Pinkham wrote an article for The Atlantic titled “Sportspeak,” a brief overview that provided readers—specifically those who might be novices to the landscape of professional sports in America—with the necessary context and lingo to fake their way through dinner-party conversations. Rather than writing would-be entries for Encyclopedia Britannica, however, Pinkham took a slightly more unorthodox approach.Excerpts include:Baseball players wear tight-fitting uniforms in stretch fabrics and they often display bulging paunches along with the bulging…