My Weekly Recommendations
If "Everyone is Welcome" is Political, What Isn't?
Children of all races were welcome in Sarah Inama’s sixth-grade classroom. But as of February 2025, she wasn’t allowed to say so.
The War for Young Men's Minds
Andrew Tate sits poolside. Shirtless. Tattooed. “This is a political witch hunt. And what they are doing to me is the same thing they tried to do to Trump, and it is the same thing they’re going to do to every single one of you. Do not forget they tried to put a bullet in Trump’s head. And now they want me gone.”
Andrew Tate, prosecuted for human trafficking, rape, an assault in Romania and the UK, is part of the manopshere, which preys on the vulnerabilities of young men. The Democrats have a new plan to combat it – but it’s frankly cringey as hell.
First Harvard. Then 378,000 American Jobs.
Most Americans will never set foot on Harvard's campus. Seeing the name of the elite college splashed across the front page of every major newspaper at a time when so many people are struggling to afford even basic necessities doesn’t exactly invite sympathy. But the story of Harvard actually does directly affect you.
What’s Hidden in the Budget Bill?
President Trump’s signature package to cut taxes, increase defense and border security spending, and reduce the social safety net is officially titled the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Whether or not you think it’s beautiful, it certainly is big. The full package is 1,082 pages long, roughly the size of Don Quixote. That means there’s plenty of room for lawmakers to sneak in all sorts of pet priorities and under-the-radar provisions. We dove deep into the package to fill you in on the less attention-grabbing — but still crucially important — parts of the bill you haven’t heard about.
What I’m reading…
‘A Billion Streams and No Fans’: Inside a $10 Million AI Music Fraud Case
By Kate Knibbs for Wired
A chart-topping jazz album! Loads of Spotify and Apple Music plays! Just one problem: The success might not be real.
Elon Musk Didn’t Blow Up Washington, But He Left Plenty of Damage Behind
By Susan B. Glasser for The New Yorker
The reviews of Musk’s rampage through Washington have been, deservedly, vicious: Who, during the past few crazy months, could have possibly failed to take note of his toxic combination of entitlement and ignorance, his vastly overstated claims, and his move-fast-and-break-things ethos that has resulted in wreckage that will take years to fully assess? Musk, the largest individual donor in a single election cycle in American history, seemed to truly believe what his critics feared—that his hundreds of millions of dollars spent on behalf of Trump and Republican causes had purchased him an outsized share of the Presidency itself.
The Taliban Are Turning Boys’ Schools into Jihadist Training Grounds
By Soraya Amiri and Samia Madwar for The Walrus
When the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, Aman and Zaynab encouraged their children to keep going to school. At first, their two older boys, who are now 15 and 13, resisted. Their favorite subjects, including English and science, weren’t being taught anymore, and their new teachers were rough with them. Aman and Zaynab felt school was still worthwhile, even under the new circumstances. But late last year, the family fled the country. Their primary reason: school had simply become too dangerous for their kids.
This 14-Year-Old Built an App That Detects Heart Diseases in Seconds
By Ramsha Waseem for Smithsonian
Siddarth Nandyala wants to put his tool in the hands of medical professionals so that they can catch cardiovascular abnormalities in their early stages.
What I’m listening to…
How to lead a more creative life
Life Kit
Psychologist Zorana Ivcevic Pringle says creativity isn't a trait. It's a choice, something you can foster and prioritize. In this episode of Life Kit, in collaboration with NPR's science podcast, Short Wave, Ivcevic Pringle explains how to bring creativity into your everyday life, overcome creative blocks and stick with creative ideas and projects.
The Extraordinary Women Who Helped Win WWII with Lena Andrews
Here’s Where Things Get Interesting
This Memorial Day we take a moment to remember the 350,000+ American women who served in uniform during the war, in every service branch, in every combat theater, and in nearly two-thirds of the available military occupations at the time. Their service ranged from critical support roles flying planes across the country, drawing maps to help men get through Normandy, codebreaking, and building & maintaining the behind-the-scenes infrastructural work that made the heroics possible. I was joined by CIA military analyst, WWII expert, and debut author, Lena Andrews, to unveil the scale and scope of what women in uniform contributed during WWII.
The Stunning Search for the Remains of Fallen WWII Airmen
There’s More to That
In the fall of 1944, Japanese fighters opened fire on a wave of U.S. planes near Palau, including a bomber carrying pilot Jay Ross Manown Jr., gunner Anthony Di Petta and navigator Wilbur Mitts. Their aircraft crashed into the sea, and the three men were “presumed dead.” They were assigned by the Navy, like so many others, to a purgatorial category—not likely to be alive, but not declared dead, either. Decades later, a group known as Project Recover worked relentlessly to track down the wreckage and then exhume the bones whose DNA could be tested.
What I’m watching…
The delicious potential of rescuing wasted food
Ted Talks
What if solving hunger isn't about growing more food but wasting less of it? Social entrepreneur Jasmine Crowe-Houston has made that idea her mission with Goodr, a platform that reroutes surplus food to people in need. In conversation with journalist and TED Radio Hour host Manoush Zomorodi, she shares how a viral moment led to a nationwide effort to fix the food waste problem.
Hurricane Helene's Deadly Warning
PBS Frontline
How Hurricane Helene became an ominous warning about America’s lack of preparedness. Frontline and NPR draw on a decade of reporting on disasters and their aftermath to examine how and why the U.S. is more vulnerable than ever to climate change-related storms.
Conversations I had this week…
The Small and the Mighty with Sharon McMahon
The Remedial Herstory Podcast
I was honored to talk to Kelsie and Brooke about our unsung heroes discussed in The Small and the Mighty and The Preamble.
Thank you for being here! You’re always the best part of my week.