The Atlantic

The author M. L. Rio recommends eight books for readers who crave intrinsic momentum and a lot of plot, be it a ticking time bomb or a freaky psychodrama. See the full list here: https://lnkd.in/eFpffDQk

One way to feel less anxious about your friendships? Perhaps, a new book on attachment theory suggests, you should be choosing friends more carefully, Faith Hill writes:

Strange online turns of phrase—“He’s so me for this,” “No because what do you mean,” “If you even care”—have seeped into daily life. One theory about the cause of brain-rot language is that people have gotten stupider. But the people Kaitlyn Tiffany knows who speak this way “are not dumb,” she writes. “They’re amusing, perceptive, have a broad range of reference, and think critically about the things they’re talking about in such a doofy way. They are also, like me, being a bit lazy and noncommittal when speaking casually. There are worse things to be.” Read the full story: https://lnkd.in/eeSWKYbM

“Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illnesses in America today,” Arthur C. Brooks wrote in 2025. The key to conquering feelings of dread may be seeing it as part of “the great opportunity and adventure of life.” https://lnkd.in/eqVyRygJ In the 19th century, the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard identified anxiety as “an adventure which every man has to affront.” To most people, anxiety seems like something to eliminate if at all possible. But for some, “within healthy boundaries and when properly managed, anxiety is an integral part of life that can afford learning, raise performance, and even make life an adventure.” Although anxiety can seem, at any level, like an “unmitigated evil,” Brooks writes, “anecdotal accounts also attest to some upside to feeling anxious: Even people who experience what is generally regarded as a debilitating level have noted that they derive some emotional benefits from their anxiety.” Some people have found that anxiety can raise one’s awareness of others, promote empathy, and bring one greater self-knowledge. As for a Kierkegaardian adventure, research suggests that when people are given a task, and feel some level of anxiety but are not overwhelmed by it, their “flow” states reach their highest levels. “Perhaps you can relate to feeling fully alive when you’re working within your abilities but are just on the edge of them,” Brooks explains. The idea of adventure can also be philosophical: Researchers have found that although people do not wish to relive stressful events, they later tend to report various benefits from their exposure to anxiety. “They felt freed from limitations imposed by their past life,” Brook writes, and “had a clearer understanding of life’s meaning.” A disorder such as anxiety that involves dysregulated and debilitating anxiety “should not be minimized,” Brooks writes. “But anxiety per se is not the enemy; it can even be a friend if understood and managed correctly.” The first step is to accept anxiety as a normal occurrence, not suppress it. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eqVyRygJ 🎨: Jan Buchczik

Credit scores are meant to be neutral measures of someone’s financial reliability—“but in practice, they’re an easy way for some better-off families to give their children an early financial advantage,” Michael Waters wrote in 2025. These days, your score doesn’t just determine your access to a credit card or a loan. It is your passkey to successful participation in society at large, influencing which job or apartment you can get and how much you might pay for car insurance or a security deposit. https://lnkd.in/ezxfWyMf On TikTok, “generational wealth” influencers tout the benefits of authorized usership, and many parents are taking advantage of these tools. In a 2019 poll commissioned by the consumer-financial-advice website CreditCards.com, 8 percent of the roughly 1,500 American parents surveyed said that at least one of their minor children had a credit card—presumably through authorized usership, because kids under 18 can’t get their own credit card. Trying to build credit for kids who haven’t graduated from high school isn’t necessarily new. But as wages stagnate and homeownership slips out of reach, financial well-being has become more complicated and more precarious for young adults. And not everyone is set up to receive a good score; although research on the topic is scant, some scholars told Waters that credit scores are closely tied to race and intergenerational wealth. Credit scores are another way for “a lot of economic inequality, disparity, generational-wealth gaps to just be further encoded and passed on,” Yeshimabeit Milner, the founder of the advocacy group Data for Black Lives, told Waters.

New Iran strikes won't solve Trump's problem—he still has to decide whether to end the war with an unsatisfying nuclear agreement or none at all, Thomas Wright argues:

The festooning of Donald Trump’s name and likeness across Washington, D.C., is consistent with authoritarian tendencies, Gal Beckerman argues: These are leaders who “like to have their face in your face.” Read more, and view a collection of images taken across the nation’s capital: https://lnkd.in/e4qWdqQ9 📸: Carolyn Van Houten

According to the Trump administration, hard-line political factions in Iran have been undercutting negotiations with the U.S.—but that’s a misunderstanding of Iran’s complex system, Arash Azizi argues:

“The clips are the content. That’s what people are consuming. That’s where they’re spending their time,” the writer and podcaster Ed Elson tells Charlie Warzel. Watch their full discussion on the “clip economy”: https://lnkd.in/ePbxzpTy

Six months ago, people arguing that AI was a bubble were pointing to real-world facts, Rogé Karma argues, but now “the burden of proof has shifted to the naysayers.”