My 93-year-old grandma has the best advice for throwing a great party
I really, really love hanging out. I love friendship. I love plans, especially casual and spontaneous ones. So of course I was totally delighted by Allie Volpe’s “humble gathering solution: the come-as-you-are party,” something she learned from her very wise (and fun) grandparents. Let’s stop feeling pressure to get everything right when it comes to our social life and just enjoy each other’s company!
An eerie prophecy of Trump’s second term — from 1998
I’m a sucker for pieces that help clarify our present by taking a look at specific moments or texts from the past. How to even begin to wrap our heads around the scary and confounding cultural moment we have found ourselves in? Zack Beauchamp offers up one philosopher’s take from 25 years ago.
🎧 Tater bot
Is nothing sacred? My beloved French fries might be the victim of a price-fixing scheme! A slew of lawsuits alleges that some really annoying, possibly predatory software is enabling collusion among Big Fry. My favorite daily podcast and yours, Today, Explained, explains.
A major book publisher announced a change. The industry freaked out.
My reading habits go through ebbs and flows, but never have I picked up, bought, or read a book because of its blurbs. Recommendations from friends and experts — like Vox book critic Constance Grady, who publishes an excellent book recommendation newsletter — are clearly superior for the average reader. This week, Constance dug into what purpose blurbs actually serve, where they fall short, and how the publishing industry is suddenly, maybe, grappling with it all.
📹 Is it time to worry about bird flu?
This is a question our newsroom has been asking for many, many months (years, even!). I really appreciated this in-depth look from our video team in light of what happened just last month: the first human death from avian flu in the US. As producer Kim Mas says up top, you don’t actually have to panic — but you should watch to feel more informed about a scary-sounding threat that keeps popping up in the news.
