Headlines edition

Friday headlines: I should be happy, but I’m not.

President Trump cancels the summit with North Korea after the Vice President is called an idiot. The commemorative coin is still for sale from the White House gift shop.

Trump’s unpredictability is leading to narrowing options, producing “a mounting list of foreign-policy failures.”

Especially in the United States, data shows that centrists are the least supportive of democratic institutions.

Here's a comprehensive list of women running for national and state office in 2018.

A poll conducted in 144 countries shows a gender gap in bank account ownership that hasn't moved in seven years.

Anthropology textbooks have long used "exotic" and decolonized images on their covers. Now comes a reboot with white folks.

The "Great Man Fiction" style of book cover design started with Philip Roth novels and famed designer Paul Bacon.

A prodigious reader explains how he retains the best information from everything he reads.

Today it seems to me that the whole world is Naples and that Naples has the merit of having always presented itself without a mask. Elena Ferrante describes her writing process: where, how, and why.

A happiness skeptic finds a few things to admire in The Happiness Curvewhere successful people in their forties still feel unhappy.

For bankers to consider you "economy-class rich," you need to have at least $25 million.

We are living in subscription hell, but that’s mainly “a product of our own decision-making as consumers.”

Video: A quick profile of the former Buddhist monk who designed the ubiquitous soy sauce bottle.

“The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value,” once mused a colleague of radio pioneer David Sarnoff. “Who would pay for a message sent to no one in particular?” Examples from music history when the future didn’t turn out as planned.

Suppose the internet is on fire. Here’s what people would grab on their way out.

Bot.theater is an experimental play with randomly-generated characters and voices.