Innehållsförteckning för May 5, 2023 från The Week Magazine

Does gender have a biological basis? Or are “male” and “female” merely socially conditioned “performances”? Or is gender purely a subjective experience of identity that has nothing to do with chromosomes, genitalia, and internal plumbing? Gender has become such a radioactive issue that even asking such questions can be taboo, and trigger condemnation, professional cancellation, and threats of physical harm. As Conor Friedersdorf says this week in The Atlantic, many Americans have become “reluctant and even terrified” to publicly voice opinions on this issue, which trans activists and right-wing culture warriors have turned into a battle of dogmatic extremes. (See Best U.S. columns, p.12.) On one extreme, academics and some progressives now insist that everyday language be policed to avoid offending trans people. “Women” is out. Instead, say “pregnant people”…

Good week for: Kyles, who have been invited by city officials in Kyle, Texas, to attend a potentially record-breaking “Gathering of Kyles” on May 21 in Lake Kyle Park. The current world record for same-name assembly was set when 2,300 Ivans gathered in Bosnia in 2017. Ambition, after a Montana fifth-grader, Ruth Rossmiller, applied for the vacant principal position at her own school. “The impossible is possible if you just try for it,” said Rossmiller, who was given a full interview before the school hired a veteran educator. Reality, after an arbitration panel ordered Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow, to pay $5 million to software expert Robert Zeidman after he proved that Lindell’s “evidence” that China had interfered in the 2020 election was “unequivocally” bogus. Bad week for: Newtonian physics,…

Stephen A. Smith offers his animated opinions on more than 3,300 sports controversies every year on ESPN, said David Marchese in The New York Times Magazine. The co-host of First Take has mastered the art of turning even the most mundane sports story into a high-stakes argument, vacillating from sotto voce to shouting “preposterous!” and other multisyllabic exclamations. Smith, 55, insists he never takes a side just to be provocative, and argues from conviction. “I don’t view myself as somebody who’s ever lost a debate,” he says. “Either I’m right, which I usually believe I am, or my counterpart said something that makes me more knowledgeable, which means I never lose.” A fan of soap operas, he does admits to being deliberately theatrical. “When you see facial expressions that…

Conor Friedersdorf The Atlantic “How ought we to understand sex, gender, and gender identity?” asked Conor Friedersdorf. That and related questions, including whether trans women should be allowed to compete against biological women in sports, have become so intensely polarized that many Americans “are reluctant or even terrified” to voice even “tentative opinions,” lest they violate “ever-changing taboos.” If you even ask the wrong question, such as “What is a woman?” or “Is gender a social construct?” you risk being labeled by thought police on the doctrinaire left as a “transphobic” bigot or by the panicked right as “a groomer.” When NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines recently gave a speech in which she argued that women’s sports should be limited to biological females, angry protesters drowned her out, and then…

“For a subset of conservatives, Ron DeSantis is a symbol of the Republican party they wish existed—a policy-oriented, culture-warring governing coalition, not a populist, conspiracy-theorizing cult of personality. A DeSantis flop would suggest one of the worst things they can imagine: the possibility that people they don’t like maybe kind of had a point. What if the Republican base really likes Trump? Not tolerates him as a vehicle for conservative policies, but likes him for the reasons elites don’t? What if GOP voters aren’t just going along with lies and nonsense about the 2020 election, but actually believe it and therefore don’t think they need a new champion?” Nicholas Grossman in The Bulwark…

SPAIN Editorial El Periódico It’s good to be the king—or even the former king, said El Periódico. Juan Carlos I is jetting around Europe again, apparently oblivious that “a significant sector of society disapproves of his conduct.” Our former monarch abdicated in disgrace in 2014 after a series of scandals, including a notorious safari in which he killed an elephant while his subjects were suffering through the Great Recession. Then he left the country for good in 2020 after it emerged that he had a secret offshore fund with ties to Saudi Arabia. Since then, his son, King Felipe VI, has been trying to rebrand the monarchy as ethical and transparent, but that’s hard when his father won’t stay out of the headlines. Last week, the king emeritus, who’s been…

AUSTRALIA Dom Knight The Sydney Morning Herald I’m “wearing black,” said Dom Knight, “as I mourn the loss of Sydney’s beloved ‘biggest city’ status.” According to just-released census results, Melbourne now reigns as Australia’s most populous metropolis. While both cities have nearly 5 million people each, Melbourne has inched ahead with about 18,000 more. There are grounds to quibble with the data, though, since the Australian Bureau of Statistics cooked the books by suddenly deciding to recategorize the suburban town of Melton as part of Melbourne. “Surely I’m not the only Sydneysider who looked up Melton on Google Maps and observed a suspicious number of green fields” between the real urban boundary of Melbourne and this new add-on. But while we adjust to “the ignominy of being No. 2,” perhaps…

“The world is not driven by greed. It’s driven by envy.” Investor Charlie Munger, quoted in Wealth Morning “The truth may sometimes hurt, but the lies are in bed with collective death.” Jonathan Lethem, quoted in Bookmarks “In my older face, I see my life. My face carries all my memories. Why should I erase them?” Diane von Fürstenberg, quoted in NPR.org “Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the Northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic.” Flannery O’Connor, quoted in Stereogum.com “Another word for creativity is courage.” Henri Matisse, quoted in SurfaceMag “I went to a fight the other night, and a hockey game broke out.” Rodney Dangerfield, quoted in BroBible “The underlying…

Silicon Valley goes nuclear Tech billionaires’ next big bet is on nuclear fusion, said Jennifer Hiller in The Wall Street Journal. Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, Bill Gates, and Marc Benioff are all investing in startups using technology “to harness the process that powers the sun and stars to deliver almost limitless energy”—without the radioactive waste. “Developers have been riding a wave of momentum” since December, when scientists for the first time achieved more energy in a fusion reaction than was put in with lasers, “a goal known as net gain.” The breakthrough buried some of the doubts that have surrounded fusion technology for three decades, since a so-called cold fusion discovery was debunked. Commercial application of “hot” fusion remains likely years, if not decades, away. Profs, too, are taking…

A new type of mRNA vaccine can reduce the risk of recurrence of the skin cancer melanoma, a new study suggests. In a small trial, 100 people who had already had surgery to remove skin cancers were given a personalized vaccine in conjunction with immunotherapy treatment. After two years, only 22.4 percent had had a recurrence of the disease, compared with 40 percent of a control group of 50 patients who were given only the immunotherapy. That equates to an almost 50 percent decrease in risk of relapse, the first time a cancer vaccine has shown that level of benefit, reports NBCNews.com. “It tells us these vaccines actually work,” says Antoni Ribas from the University of California, Los Angeles, who wasn’t involved in the study, “and can turn on…

Jena Friedman is a comedian and writer whose recent work includes the series True Crime Story: Indefensible and the standup special Ladykiller. Her new book, Not Funny, addresses cultural flashpoints, including sexism and dead baby jokes. Amphigorey by Edward Gorey (1972). I’ve been a fan of Edward Gorey ever since I could read. His macabre illustrations and morbid stories have influenced a lot of my work. I don’t think I would have had the confidence to write a 9,000-word essay on dead baby jokes without Gorey as my longtime muse. Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino (2019). Hilarious, insightful, and the gold standard in contemporary cultural criticism. Tolentino’s perspective on society is evocative of that cool, smarter-than-you friend whose mere presence in your life helps justify spending half your paycheck…

Breezy takes on cosmic questions… Good Omens How did you miss this 2019 show? A playful, big-idea series from Neil Gaiman, the British import cast Michael Sheen and David Tennant as an angel and a demon who team up to head off Armageddon. That first run also has Jon Hamm and Benedict Cumberbatch, plus Frances McDormand as the voice of God. A follow-up arrives this summer. Prime The Good Place It’s still hard to believe that this comedy aired on network TV. Creator Michael Schur brilliantly packed the heaviest philosophical and religious questions into one of the funniest shows you’ll find, with Kristen Bell starring as a jerk who lands in a heavenly afterlife owing to a clerical error. Netflix Miracle Workers Steve Buscemi and Daniel Radcliffe co-starred in…

Gardeners.com deserves to be bookmarked. Vermont-based Gardener’s Supply Co. is one of America’s top gardening retailers and “excels in customer service.” Ace Hardware has 5,000 stores nationwide, most independently owned, and it may already be your stop-in source for supplies. But don’t forget the Ace app and website, which offer a larger inventory and allow easy returns to your local retailer. BotanicalInterests.com is known for its beautiful seed packets. The Colorado company sells seeds, tools, and raised beds. FerryMorse.com sells live plants and seeds, including many heirloom varieties. The 167-year-old Massachusetts company is one of America’s oldest seed retailers. Gemplers.com caters to farmers and nursery workers, but the Wisconsin-based company’s commercial-grade tools and apparel are also available to home gardeners. Source: BobVila.com…

Two Anheuser-Busch executives were put on leave this week after a Bud Light promotion featuring transgender advocate Dylan Mulvaney caused an uproar, said Jennifer Maloney and Lauren Weber in The Wall Street Journal. Bud Light’s marketing chief, Alissa Heinerscheid, as well as her boss, Daniel Blake, were both placed on leave. Right-wing celebrities called for a boycott of the brand, and U.S. sales last week fell 17 percent from the same week last year. Inside the company, some employees were dismayed that Anheuser-Busch “stayed silent as Heinerscheid was personally attacked in social media and conservative news outlets.” NBCUniversal: CEO fired after alleged harassment Comcast fired NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell this week after an investigation revealed “inappropriate conduct” with a CNBC news anchor, said Benjamin Mullin in The New York Times.…

Getting a better college aid offer More families are haggling over financial aid with colleges before the commitment deadline, said Douglas Belkin in The Wall Street Journal. “For decades, schools made an offer” on need- or merit-based financial aid, “and families either accepted or rejected it.” Colleges had the leverage in these negotiations because they “long held most of the information” on pricing. But new websites like TuitionFit let students check their grade-point average, ACT or SAT score, and family’s financial status “to see merit-based offers given to comparable students.” A growing number of consultants have also begun offering “advice on how best to negotiate for more merit aid.” And a growing number of families are listening: Last year, 40 percent of students appealed their aid package. The rise…

Alex Kirshner Slate Twitter owner Elon Musk has made it humiliating to pay for a Twitter blue check mark, said Alex Kirshner. Last week, Twitter began purging verification badges for users who have not subscribed to its Twitter Blue service, costing $8 a month. Naturally, this process was totally chaotic. Several celebrities, including LeBron James, Lil Nas X, and Stephen King, discovered that their blue check marks had been retained and went out of their way “to tell the world they did not pay” or request to keep their badges. “It’s an astonishing business story” when famous people actively deny paying for your product. Many right-wing folks are now “angry that the former blue-check brigade, whom they saw as an entitled elite, no longer want the check mark.” But it’s…

Richard Riordan set the mold for the businessman-turned-politician. A wealthy investor who contributed $6 million of his own money to his campaign, the moderate Republican was a political novice when he became mayor of Los Angeles in 1993. With the city reeling from riots over the police beating of unarmed Black motorist Rodney King, he ran on the slogan “Tough enough to turn L.A. around.” During his two terms, crime dropped and the local economy rebounded, but Riordan struggled to navigate the city’s bureaucracy and clashed with local Black leaders. Still, his can-do approach paid off after the 1994 Northridge earthquake damaged the vital Santa Monica Freeway. Riordan promised contractors a $200,000 bonus for each day they finished ahead of schedule, and the work was done 74 days early.…

This week’s question: An Indian farmer has spent the past 13 years building a three-story, ship-shaped house modeled after the Titanic. What would you call a cinematic epic about his quest to make a live-in version of the doomed vessel? Last week’s contest: A 50-year-old Spanish adventurer spent 500 days alone in a cave and emerged claiming she loved the experience and “didn’t want to come out.” Come up with a name for a travel package for fellow solitude-seeking spelunkers. THE WINNER: “Bear B&B” John Haley, Salamanca, N.Y. SECOND PLACE: “Destination Hibernation” Laurel Rose, Pittsburgh THIRD PLACE: “Bed Bats & Beyond” Janine Witte, Doylestown, Pa. For runners-up and complete contest rules, please go to theweek.com/contest. How to enter: Submissions should be emailed to contest@theweek.com. Please include your name, address,…

What happened The use of the abortion pill mifepristone will remain legal through 10 weeks of pregnancy in most states, after the Supreme Court issued a stay blocking lower-court decisions that would have limited access to the medication. Used in over half of abortions in the U.S., as well as in the treatment of miscarriages, mifepristone has been taken safely by millions of Americans. But earlier this month, Trump-appointed judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk ruled that the process by which the Food and Drug Administration initially approved the drug in 2000 was flawed and that the drug should be recalled. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked that ruling but imposed some restrictions on the drug’s use. If the Supreme Court hadn’t ruled to allow access during the…

The Texas Senate has approved a bill requiring “conspicuous” display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. Civil libertarians say the bill is unconstitutional because it privileges Christianity and Judaism, but Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said the display would ensure “that all Texans have the right to freely express their sincerely held religious beliefs” and “will enable our students to become better Texans.” Half of current U.S. college students say their coursework is “overly difficult,” according to the latest annual survey by Inside Higher Ed. The survey also found that 1 in 4 students consider it a “barrier to success” if their classes have “strict attendance or participation requirements,” while 57 percent believe that deadlines for assignments should be made “flexible.” In other news Justices stand by current…

Mick “Woody” Woodmansey wasn’t impressed by his early interactions with bandmate David Bowie, said Ed Potton in The Times (U.K.). “To be honest,” says Woodmansey, 73, “I thought he was an idiot.” Woodmansey is the last surviving member of Spiders From Mars, a band that produced four era-defining albums. His collaboration with the late Bowie began in 1970, when Woodmansey was invited to work and live at Haddon Hall, Bowie’s Victorian mansion in London. A no-nonsense Brit, Woodmansey was baffled by Bowie’s seat-of-the-pants style of making music. When their producer cued Bowie to record his vocals, Woodmansey says Bowie replied, “Just give me 20 minutes, I haven’t written the lyrics yet.” Woodmansey was skeptical of how his rock ’n’ roll drumming would mesh with a “prissy folk guitarist,” and…

CNN fired anchor Don Lemon this week, following a series of on-air and behind-the-scenes clashes with female colleagues. Lemon, 57, said he was “stunned” to learn from his agent that he’d been fired after 17 years at the cable network, adding, “I would have thought that someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly.” CNN said Lemon had declined an invitation to meet with management. His combative hosting style has been an awkward fit on CNN’s new morning show, which has seen dismal ratings. CNN admonished Lemon for saying that GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley “isn’t in her prime” at age 51; when co-hosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlin Collins objected, he told them to “Google it.” The New York Times reported that some guests specified…

Kevin D. Williamson The Dispatch The endless “talk about how poorly the U.S. economy is doing” is ridiculous, said Kevin D. Williamson. In reality, our economy is a “remarkable, stupendous, world-beating success story.” Remember 1995, when the economy was booming, “the internet was starting to take off,” and “the market returns were just bananas”? That year, the U.S. accounted for 24 percent of the global GDP. Then came China’s economic rise, the 2008 financial crisis, the Great Recession, and our GDP now accounts for…“the same 24 percent.” Today, the typical U.S. worker produces five times the economic value of a Chinese worker—and far more than those in Japan, Canada, or Britain. As The Economist recently noted, “American dominance remains striking” on a host of economic measures. The U.S. accounts…

CANADA Jen Gerson The Globe and Mail “There is no more perfect monument to the state of our country than 24 Sussex Drive,” the official residence of the prime minister that is now closing for good, said Jen Gerson in The Globe and Mail. The stone home looks solid from the outside and it’s in an “unparalleled location.” But inside, it has fallen into “a state of disrepair so horrid” that Justin Trudeau, first elected back in 2015, never even moved into it. For decades, successive governments deferred the desperately needed repairs and upgrades, and the house now has unsafe wiring, broken windows, broken pipes, mold, and asbestos. And since it has been empty so long, it’s also infested with rats, the walls and attic piled high with feces. The…

Climate change isn’t just altering our weather patterns and our ecosystems. It’s also making it easier to hit a home run. The more the temperature rises, the lower the density of air, offering less resistance as a ball sails over the field. After examining 114,417 Major League Baseball games over 60 years, researchers found that a temperature rise of just 1 degree Celsius increases the number of homers in a game by 1.9 percent. They calculated that over the past 10 years, about 50 of the home runs recorded each season wouldn’t have happened without global warming—and that if current climate trends continue, that number will rise to 192 a year by 2050 and 467 by 2100. Most affected will be stadiums in colder regions, such as Chicago’s Wrigley…

(Riverhead, $28) Rachel Heng’s second novel is “epic for the reasons life itself is epic,” said Jenny Tinghui Zhang in The New York Times. In 1941 Singapore, Ah Boon, a boy from a seaside village, discovers rich fishing grounds among a mysterious string of islands that appear and disappear with the moon. Over the next two decades, Ah Boon will adapt as Singapore twice changes hands and efforts to expand the country’s coastline begin. As his coming of age unfolds and vivid secondary characters come and go, The Great Reclamation “asks the reader to confront the big things, like love and identity and loss, but it allows us to revel in the little things, too.” What makes the novel “so original and moving” is that Ah Boon doesn’t play…

Greek Lessons by Han Kang (Hogarth, $26) “In Greek Lessons, Han Kang reaches beyond the usual senses to translate the unspeakable,” said Michele Filgate in the Los Angeles Times. Her fourth novel translated from Korean tells the story of two people—one a student going mute, the other a teacher going blind—who find comfort in studying ancient Greek. By exploring how a dead language strengthens these characters, the author of The Vegetarian “turns the well-worn idea of the mind-body disconnect into something fresh and substantial.” This Is Not Miami by Fernanda Melchor (New Directions, $16) Veracruz, Mexico’s largest port city, “swelters in vigilantism and narco-terrorism,” said William T. Vollmann in The New York Times. Before Fernanda Melchor wrote the two novels that won her fame, she produced this collection of…

Netflix accounts for between 7 percent and 8 percent of TV viewing every month, according to Nielsen. No other service, besides YouTube, tops 4 percent. People spend more time watching Netflix every month than Hulu, Disney+, and HBO Max combined. Bloomberg Troubled First Republic Bank said it lost $102 billion in customer deposits—well over half the $176 billion it held at the end of 2022—as customers fearing a collapse fled the bank. Other banks have deposited $30 billion to keep First Republic afloat. The New York Times The average resale price for concert tickets on SeatGeek has more than doubled since 2019, from $125 to $252 so far in 2023. For sold-out acts such as Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and Bruce Springsteen, that number jumps to $1,311, $480, and $469, respectively.…

New conflicts in Sudan threaten to explode into a new full-blown civil war, bringing with it the certainty of a humanitarian crisis. GlobalGiving (globalgiving.org) has launched a Sudan Emergency Fund, designed to help local partners on the ground deliver food, clean water, shelter, and health care. All donations to the fund will go to Sudan, including aid to Sudanese displaced by the growing conflict, which could engulf the capital, Khartoum, as well as the war-plagued Darfur region. Since fighting between military and paramilitary groups first erupted in Khartoum earlier this month, at least 420 people have been killed and more than 3,700 injured. Global Giving also has an East Africa hunger-relief fund, supporting projects to alleviate hunger and poverty in the broader region. Each charity we feature has earned…

Aaron Tilley The Wall Street Journal Apple’s answer to potential rivals is stealing their ideas, said Aaron Tilley. More than two dozen executives, inventors, investors, and lawyers described a familiar pattern in their encounters with the world’s biggest tech company. “First came discussions about potential partnerships or integration of their technology into Apple’s products. Then talks stopped and Apple launched its own similar features.” That’s what happened to Masimo, a company that makes blood-oxygen measurement devices. After Apple reached out to discuss incorporating Masimo’s technology into the Apple Watch, it began poaching employees, doubling their salaries, and publishing patents for similar sensors—before making the technology an Apple Watch 6 feature. “When Apple takes an interest in a company, it’s the kiss of death,” Masimo’s founder, Joe Kiani, said. When companies…

A team from the Chadian government and the Wildlife Conservation Society spotted the first lion in Chad’s Sena Oura National Park since 2004. Lions were believed extinct in the protected area, and only between 23,000 and 39,000 of them are left in their natural habitat globally. In West and Central Africa, they are critically endangered. The big cat, a lioness, was captured on camera in February. Most lions, especially females, live in prides, so it’s likely this one is not alone. “Our team,” the WCS said, “believes there are more lions out there.” Nanuq, a 1-year-old Australian shepherd, got lost on a family trip to Savoogna on Alaska’s St. Lawrence Island. A month later, citizens of Wales, a tiny village located 150 miles northeast, started posting photos of what they…

Helena, Mont. Montana’s GOP-controlled House voted this week to ban transgender state Rep. Zooey Zephyr from the legislature’s chamber for the rest of the term. The Democrat, the legislature’s first transgender member, had vehemently criticized a proposal to ban hormone therapy and surgery for trans minors. Elected last year, Zephyr, 34, recently told her GOP colleagues, “I hope the next time there’s an invocation, when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands.” Republicans accused Zephyr of using “hateful rhetoric” and demanded that she apologize before being recognized to speak again. Heated protests in the House gallery followed, resulting in seven arrests, and some conservative lawmakers deliberately called Zephyr “he.’’ Montana is expected to join 11 states that this year have outlawed what trans…

Ali Esmahilzada left his treasured violin behind in Afghanistan when he fled to the U.S., said Sydney Page in The Washington Post. A famed Afghan violinist, Esmahilzada, 27, had been playing since age 13 and, with a youth orchestra, once performed at Carnegie Hall. After the Taliban seized control, the government outlawed playing music and made it a crime to even own an instrument. “I was so scared,” he says. He knew that if his violin were discovered, Taliban soldiers would “hurt me or something else.” A special visa enabled him to leave the country, but he had to leave his violin behind. He settled in Los Angeles and found a job in the stockroom of a clothing store. “I had no bank account, no money, no clothes,” he…

Christina Cauterucci Slate The Right is “coming for birth control,” said Christina Cauterucci. It might seem to most Americans that “restrictions on birth control might be too unpopular for even far-right Republicans to attempt.” Today, about two-thirds of young women use some form of it, and 90 percent of all Americans favor legalized birth control. But the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling that overturned Roe expressly rejected the principle that Americans have a right to reproductive privacy, and Justice Clarence Thomas said the court “should reconsider” its landmark ruling that no state can ban contraception. The emboldened anti-abortion movement has a new strategy: “Conflate contraception with abortion, claim that birth control is dangerous to women’s health, and let right-wing judges do their thing.” Anti-abortion groups are making unscientific claims that…

GERMANY Doris Akrap Taz Germany is supposed to be “the land of inventors and engineers,” said Doris Akrap, where everything runs smoothly and there’s never a hint of corruption. But that reputation was forged decades ago. These days, we’re in the midst of a shocking corruption scandal surrounding a so-called climate foundation set up by the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state government to help Russia evade U.S. sanctions on the Nord Stream pipeline. As investigators began to uncover the shenanigans last year, a panicked bureaucrat actually “burned the foundation’s tax documents in a relative’s fireplace.” Meanwhile, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is involved in his own corruption inquiry related to the “Cum-Ex” affair, the massive tax fraud scheme in which European banks and stock traders defrauded the government of some $36 billion. Scholz is suspected…

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis went to Washington, D.C., last week hoping to put “a fresh shine on his flagging campaign,” said Alex Shephard at The New Republic. The result was “an epic disaster.” Aiming to “regain momentum” by notching Capitol Hill endorsements, he instead “walked into an ambush.” While he was there, several Florida House members endorsed Trump; by week’s end, the tally of representatives from DeSantis’ home state backing Trump stood at 11, with just one endorsing DeSantis. Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas agreed to meet DeSantis—and right afterward “gleefully” announced he was endorsing Trump. For “the charisma-free” DeSantis, who just months ago seemed ascendant as a “saner and more reliable” alternative to Trump, the Capitol Hill humiliation was “the culmination of weeks of stagnation and decline.” Even…

Polestar’s newest SUV doesn’t have a rear window, said Jason Barlow in Wired. The Swedish electric-vehicle maker’s Polestar 4, an all-electric SUV coupe, will feature a high-definition screen instead of a rearview mirror, because there’s no rear window at all. Instead, the screen “displays a real-time feed from a roof-mounted rear camera, and delivers a much broader field of view,” the automaker says. The removal of the rear glass allows for a longer silhouette, improving the Polestar 4’s aerodynamic properties, which boosts its EV range. To eliminate claustrophobia for those seated in the back, the car, which has a 2024 North American release date, will have a “smart glass” roof that “stretches back and beyond the rear occupants’ heads” and can switch from transparent to opaque.…

(Doubleday, $30) David Grann “has a rare gift for applying the rigors of narrative nonfiction to the stuff of legend,” said Chris Vognar in The Boston Globe. His new book, a “propulsive, finely detailed seafaring saga,” details the ill-fated 1740 journey of HMS Wager, a British man-of-war that was part of a squadron dispatched to strike at Spain’s overseas empire by seizing a treasure-filled Spanish galleon in South American waters. The Wager instead shipwrecked on an island off Patagonia, and its crew descended into violence, cannibalism, and madness. Grann, the author of “thinking person’s adventures” such as The Lost City of Z and Killers of the Flower Moon, has this time built a ripping yarn that simultaneously serves as an exposé of the follies of imperialism and “an acute…

It’s no great surprise that Molly Ringwald feels lucky in life, said Nora Krug in The Washington Post. But why she does is unexpected. At 55, the onetime teen star of Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club remains active not just as an actress but also as a writer and translator. Just to have lasted so long as a performer requires luck, because acting and being judged for it, she says, “can be so psychologically damaging.” That she’s also had the chance in recent years to translate two books and write a novel is evidence that she’s making the life she always hoped for. “I’ve always considered myself a student of life,” she says. “Everything that I’ve ever done has really been based on what I can learn…

Holy Week: The Story of a Revolution Undone (The Atlantic) Vann Newkirk’s recent eight-part podcast provides “a vivid portrait of a time that we tend to know through grainy photographs,” said Andrew Beaujon in Washingtonian. Riots broke out in cities across the U.S. during the week following the April 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and a team led by The Atlantic’s Newkirk poured through oral histories and conducted new interviews to re-create the moment and explore why the unprecedented unrest is so rarely revisited. Newkirk deftly moves from the street drama to larger political movements to the response of Lyndon B. Johnson’s White House. “At almost every turn, the podcast offers threads that lead to our present moment,” said Nicholas Quah in NYMag.com. In the archival clips,…

Nitro beers, after a decade of growth, are “more mainstream than ever before,” said Garin Pirnia in Wine Enthusiast. Nitrogen gives beer a creamier texture than carbon dioxide does and neutralizes beer’s natural bitterness. It can, as a result, “make a stout more roasty or make sours more fruit forward.” Here are three silky renditions to try. Greater Good Nitro Moon This milk porter is “a smooth, boozy, black licorice–inspired ale.” The initial “prick of clove” gives way to cream soda and a “pleasing roast bitterness.” Carton of Milk Session Nitro Milk Stout The nitro treatment gives this stout that “classic cascading effect in a glass.” Notes of chocolate, vanilla, and coffee mingle with a “slight spicy tang.” Samuel Adams Nitro Coffee Stout This stout comes on “like a…

Get naked. Make a habit of taking a shower within hours of being outdoors. That’ll give you a chance to do a full-body scan, and the water may wash away ticks that haven’t yet attached to the skin. Ticks that carry Lyme disease can be as small as a poppy seed. Grab your tweezers. “If you do find a tick on your body, don’t panic.” Experts believe a tick doesn’t transmit the Lyme bacteria until it’s been attached to the skin for 24 to 36 hours. Use fine-point tweezers, not your fingers, to pull it out. Squeezing the tick’s abdomen pushes pathogens into your skin, whereas tweezers let you grab the tick close to the skin. Wash the bite afterward with antibiotic soap or rubbing alcohol. Don’t experiment. “Definitely do…

Barry Humphries inhabited numerous characters over his seven-decade career. There was the lecherous boozer Sir Les Patterson, the melancholic suburbanite Sandy Stone, the randy Australian expat Barry McKenzie. But all were eclipsed by Dame Edna, the lilac-coiffed diva who became an international icon. With her rhinestone glasses and garish ensembles, Edna—who greeted audiences with “Hello, possums”—was a catty Australian housewife turned self-described “gigastar” who aimed her caustic wit at both audience members and the celebrities she interviewed on her late-’80s TV show The Dame Edna Experience. “Do you laugh at yourself?” she asked British pol-turned-novelist Jeffrey Archer. “Because if not, you’re missing the joke of the century.” The erudite Humphries spoke of Edna in the third person, saying he felt as if he were standing “in the wings” as…

Len Goodman relished the unexpected second act of his career in ballroom dance. In 2004, when he was 60, the little-known retired dancer received a tryout invitation from the BBC to be a judge on a reality show that would pair celebrities with professional dancers. The show, Strictly Come Dancing, became a surprise hit and inspired an American version, ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, the following year. Goodman appeared on both, gaining fans with his Cockney-accented charm and witty jabs. To two standout contestants on the U.K. show, he rhapsodized that they “floated across that floor like butter on a crumpet.” To an enthusiastic but less adept couple on the U.S. version, he said, “It’s such a joyful thing to watch—other than your feet.” Raised in London, Goodman “spent…