Slate Plus, yo!
I am writing you from Slate’s new office in Brooklyn, New York. It’s great here—we have a lot more room, and I can look out the window and see the Empire State Building from my desk, at least until they put up a few more condo high-rises in DUMBO.
New Yorkers who are participating in A Year of Great Books—and any other Brontë fans and former English majors—will want to discuss Jane Eyre with books and culture columnist Laura Miller and Slate chief Jacob Weisberg next Wednesday. (If you’re not nearby, their conversation will be in your Slate Plus podcast feed soon.)
Until then, here’s what to read.
From Slate
The week’s best rant: Dahlia Lithwick has no patience for Senate Judiciary Committee chair Chuck Grassley and his hypocritical attack on the Roberts court.
The piece from this week that most changed my thinking: Is addiction really a disease—or is it a learning disorder?
The piece most relevant to my own current obsessions: Aisha Harris on Sterling K. Brown’s remarkable performance in American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson.
And the award for nuanced evaluation of a complex and important artist while on a tight deadline goes to: Alan Scherstuhl for his Merle Haggard obituary.
Not From Slate
“A Thin Line Between Love and Hate” by Joshua Clover, the Nation
These days we treat the long-form essay as an ideal for critical thought, but there’s much to be said for a short, sharp shock of original insight. That’s what poet and critic Clover offers here, with an observation we all kind of know but no one has said: television generally loves the police while pop songs mostly despise them. The question is, Why? Even The Wire doesn’t get off easy here. —Carl Wilson, music critic
Hundreds of Coal Plants Are Still Being Planned Worldwide—Enough to Cook the Planet” by Brad Plumer, Vox
I trust Plumer (and his Vox colleague David Roberts) to weed through the monstrous complexity that is our global energy system and sift out what’s most important. Here, Plumer makes a convincing case that stopping the construction of new coal-fired power plants remains one of the fights most worth fighting as we enter an era of rapid climate change. —Eric Holthaus, weather and climate writer
“After Party” by Mathew Rodriguez, Poz
The use of meth as a sex aid among gay men—often called “party and play” or PnP—is widely viewed as a destructive practice, as it often correlates with unsafe sex, addiction, and the other downsides of such a powerful drug. Rodriguez takes the problems of meth seriously, while striving to understand and explain, with compassion, why so many gay men find themselves attracted to it. —J. Bryan Lowder, associate editor
Also: Megan Wiegand loved this story about Bill May, who the piece calls “the greatest male synchronized swimmer who ever lived.” Jessica Winter is excited to read Rachel Aviv’s New Yorker story about Filipina caregivers. And Jordan Weissmann thinks “we should all be so honest” after reading these 12 actors get real about which roles they did for the money.
Very Short Q-and-A
This week’s Very Short Q-and-A is with one of our favorite Slatesters, editorial assistant Laura Bradley, who will be leaving Slate next week to write about Hollywood for Vanity Fair.
Slate Plus: Laura! What will you miss about Slate?
Laura Bradley: One of my favorite things working at Slate has been the office environment, and how willing everyone is to embrace even the quirkiest ideas. Last summer, all of the teams had a competition to see who could throw the best “Beer Friday.” Our team was one of the last to go, and after several bizarre ideas were proposed and discarded, the one that somehow stuck was a dog wedding. In the office. With a ceremony and separate reception afterward, with a cake, champagne, cocktails, etc.
Two staffers brought in their dogs. We walked them down the aisle, read a homily from Go, Dog, Go, and pronounced them married. The recessional was “Who Let the Dogs Out?” Needless to say, we won. The prize turned out to be some really cool Star Wars appliques.
Thanks, Laura—we’ll miss you, too.
And thank you for your Slate Plus membership, which makes our journalism possible. See you next week!
Gabriel Roth
Editorial director, Slate Plus
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P.S. Are you a web-savvy strategic thinker who loves Slate? We’re looking for a director of strategy and audience development. Come work with Slate’s editors to help us expand our coverage and our audience.
