We’re Old. In a Good Way: Slate is turning 20 this year, and we’re marking the occasion with an interactive that tracks the many topics we’ve written about over the years. We’re also thinking about some of the most influential events and ideas of the past two decades.
Today: The invention of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (a highly useful myth, Dan Engber writes); the case of Wen Ho Lee and the lessons Chinese Americans learned from it (uneasy ones, per Lowen Liu); and the growing power of fandom (Harry Potter did the trick, Laura Miller argues).
To read former Slate writer Nathan Heller’s reflection on Slate’s archive, you must get behind the Slate Plus paywall. Lucky! For a limited time, we’re offering a celebratory 30 percent off deal on annual Slate Plus memberships, which unlock bonus segments for podcasts, extra content, and more. Here’s the link.
Open Secret of the Day: Half of Donald Trump’s supporters do belong in a “basket of deplorables,” Jamelle Bouie writes, and Hillary Clinton should not feel uncomfortable saying so. (That’s not one-quarter of the American public, by the way; it’s “only” about 13 percent of people of voting age. Small mercies.)
We’re Rooting for You, Scientists: A Zika vaccine is in the works, and this is a good thing for more than the obvious reasons, pediatrician Phoebe Day Danziger writes. A Zika immunization initiative could break through the frustrating impasse in our conversation about vaccination, giving us a new chance to think about its advantages.
For fun: How Hillary got that basket in the first place.
The broccoli horrible,
Rebecca
