Six Stories for Your Weekend

Spend time with our reading list on an “impossible” disease outbreak in the Alps, why grandparents are reaching their limit, and more.

Apr 27, 2025 - 12:50
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Six Stories for Your Weekend

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.

Our editors compiled six stories to serve as your weekend reads. Spend time with articles about why grandparents are reaching their limit, an “impossible” disease outbreak in the Alps, the Trump administration’s many conflicts of interest, and more.


I Should Have Seen This Coming

When I joined the conservative movement in the 1980s, there were two types of people: those who cared earnestly about ideas, and those who wanted only to shock the left. The reactionary fringe has won.

By David Brooks

An ‘Impossible’ Disease Outbreak in the Alps

In one tiny town, more than a dozen people were diagnosed with the rare neurodegenerative disease ALS. Why?

By Shayla Love

Kleptocracy, Inc.

Under Trump, conflicts of interest are just part of the system.

By Anne Applebaum

The Retired J.P. Morgan Executive Tracking Trump’s Deportation Flights

A CFO turned activist has become a go-to source for understanding the administration’s immigration crackdown.

By Nick Miroff

A Defense Against Gaslighting Sociopaths

If you can recognize their signature move, then forewarned is forearmed.

By Arthur C. Brooks

Grandparents Are Reaching Their Limit

Older Americans might be doing more child care than ever.

By Faith Hill


The Week Ahead

  1. Thunderbolts*, a Marvel film about a ragtag group of antiheroes (in theaters Friday)
  2. The Four Seasons, a comedy-drama show starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey (premieres Thursday on Netflix)
  3. Girl on Girl, a book by the Atlantic staff writer Sophie Gilbert about how pop culture and hypersexualization transformed a generation of women (out Tuesday)

Essay

Columbia's library with a cartoonishly large and bright NOW HIRING sign hanging over it
Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Education Images / Getty; filo / Getty.

The Worst Job in America

By Rose Horowitch

It makes for a most tempting “Help Wanted” ad: Earn $5 million a year to lead one of the nation’s most powerful and prestigious institutions. Enjoy fancy dinners, almost unlimited travel, and a complimentary mansion in Upper Manhattan.

This is an incomplete list of the perks that the president of Columbia University receives. And yet no one seems to want the job.

Read the full article.


More in Culture


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Photo Album

Pope Francis waves to the people gathered in St. Peter’s Square in 2024.
Pope Francis waves to the people gathered in St. Peter’s Square in 2024. (Vatican Media / Getty)

Take a look at the life of Pope Francis, in photos.


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