Why have many Republican politicians who spoke out against Donald Trump during the primary season now changed their tune? “Nearly all are making their decisions on the basis of self-interest, rather than principle,” Jacob Weisberg writes. “Those who would break with their party face daunting consequences, including the denial of campaign funds from their national party, the risk of losing votes from Trump’s supporters, and the expectation of frontal attacks by the likely nominee himself.”
What is “grit,” the omnipresent buzzword describing a personal quality that’s supposed to solve all of our problems? Daniel Engber casts a skeptical eye on a new book by Angela Duckworth, the psychologist whose work kicked off the present-day grit boom. “You can expect to hear Duckworth’s message many times in the weeks and months ahead, as it comes to dominate the culture of self-help: ‘Grit is good,’ ” Engber writes. “This maxim hides shortcomings in the work, however, and it overlooks a crucial fact: The single-minded pursuit of single-mindedness may carry dangers of its own.”
The Great Barrier Reef is in trouble, writes Hannah Waters; warming waters have led to bleaching, which has generated a spate of upsetting media coverage. But bleached reefs can recover. “Bleached coral does not equal dead coral; it means very stressed out coral,” Waters writes. Slowing down climate change is the most important step for humans to take to assist in the Reef’s recovery, but curbing overfishing and pollution could help, too.
Leon Neyfakh used to be a collector of music—demos, alternate tracks, deep cuts—but the befuddlement wrought by iTunes, Apple Music, and the unholy overlap between the two has made him into a timid owner of a very shallow rights-managed catalog. A determined (gritty?) Neyfakh made a last-ditch effort to figure out how Apple Music works, and he’s got the hives to prove it.
Willa Paskin found the series finale of The Good Wife to be deeply satisfying. “All of [the show’s good] qualities—the intricacy of the case, the depth of the cast, the confounding morality—were on display in the final episode, one chock-a-block with action, performances, and ethical conundrums,” Paskin writes.
For fun: Kate McKinnon’s latest SNL weirdo.
She’s No. 1,
Rebecca
