Plus: Introducing The Atlantic’s time machine
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Right this moment, we’ll introduce you to The Atlantic’s time machine. Plus, our editors chosen seven nice reads so that you can dive into this weekend.
Time-Journey Thursdays, our newest e-newsletter, is “for wanderers and wonderers,” our government editor, Adrienne LaFrance, writes in a welcome be aware for brand spanking new readers; it’s “for many who can’t cross a used bookstore with out strolling in; for readers of historical past and of science fiction; for the takers of scenic routes and makers of impulsive journey plans.” If that sounds such as you, be part of us as we journey by The Atlantic’s historical past. Our archive, which dates again to 1857, tells the story of the American concept. It’s stuffed with pleasant treasures, poems value memorizing, arguments value contemplating, and episodes of historical past value revisiting (and typically reviling).
To start your journey again in time, learn LaFrance’s exploration of how Atlantic writers have thought of the long run—each these predictions that got here to cross and those who very a lot didn’t—and Ellen Cushing on an index of phrases that’s additionally an index of people’ evolving considering. Join the e-newsletter right here.
A Weekend Studying Record
Most of the beneath tales have narrated variations, if you happen to choose to take heed to them; simply click on the hyperlink and scroll to the audio participant beneath the headline.
Self-Checkout Is a Failed Experiment
By Amanda Mull
In concept, self-checkout kiosks save prospects time. In apply, Mull writes, the know-how is a large number—and when a machine breaks, human workers are those who choose up the slack.
The Decolonization Narrative Is Harmful and False
By Simon Sebag Montefiore
Utilizing the framework of “decolonization” to know the Israel-Palestine battle is a “leap of ahistorical delusion,” Montefiore argues—one which disregards each Israel’s basis and the Palestinians’ tragedy.
You Can Be taught to Be Photogenic
By Michael Waters
Within the selfie period, trying good on digital camera has turn out to be a social (and typically literal) foreign money. However opposite to well-liked perception, it is likely to be a talent we will study to enhance.
The Secretive Business Devouring the U.S. Economic system
By Rogé Karma
Non-public fairness has created a personal economic system, one the place info as primary as who owns an organization and the way it makes cash is inaccessible. This gained’t finish nicely, Karma warns.
What Matthew Perry Knew About Comedy
By Megan Garber
The actor gave his character on Buddies a high quality that’s all too uncommon in sitcoms: vulnerability.
What Actually Took Down Airbnb
By Annie Lowrey
It wasn’t the federal government; it was the housing market.
The Sociopaths Amongst Us—And Keep away from Them
By Arthur C. Brooks
We’re all prone to meet somebody whose attraction hides their narcissism. For the sake of our happiness, we have to perceive what makes these people tick.
Tradition Break
Learn. Strive one in every of these eight books that designate how the applied sciences we take with no consideration—skyscrapers, airplanes, sewage techniques—truly work.
Watch. The Marvels, now in theaters, is fizzy and light-weight, a refreshing change of tempo for a bogged-down superhero franchise.
And on the small display, Nathan Fielder’s new present, The Curse, skewers actuality TV whereas questioning morality’s function in leisure. The result’s an uncomfortable however worthwhile watch.
P.S.
For the carnivorous American, it goes with out saying: Thanksgiving means turkey. However the chook we prepare dinner (and, let’s be sincere, typically overcook) has been recognized by different names—hindi in Turkey, tarki in Hindi, “guinea-fowl-rooster-peacock” in (translated) scientific nomenclature. In 2014, the author Zach Goldhammer traced the worldwide origins of the all-American entrée; it’s the proper article to pore over as you dig into your leftover mashed potatoes, stuffing, and guinea-fowl-rooster-peacock.
— Nicole
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