Hello again, my Slate Plus friends,
I’m sad that Gawker is gone, not just for abstract press-freedom reasons but because it was a great magazine. If you weren’t a Gawker reader and didn’t quite understand why people cared about it, here’s Slate’s Gawker reading list.
From Slate
- Paul Manafort could wrangle Angolan guerrillas, Lebanese arms dealers, and Ukrainian strongmen, but Donald Trump finally broke him.
- Why did animal-rights activists start focusing on chickens? Because of a new, pragmatic approach to altruism that “seems reasonable and rational up until the moment when it sounds totally insane.”
- June Thomas got a thoughtful greeting card in the mail. Does it matter that it was sent via a web startup?
- I really liked this Lexicon Valley post about the phrase “hot as balls,” although be warned that it contains words like balls.
Not from Slate
Read of the week, overall: Michelle Dean’s creepy true-crime medical thriller on a mother, a daughter, and a murder.
Read of the week, Trump division, from the right: Ross Douthat on Trump as the legacy of the sexual revolution.
Read of the week, Trump division, from the left: Corey Robin on Trump as the legacy of the conservative movement. Pick whichever most challenges your priors!
Read of the week, U.K. politics division: Tom Crewe’s clear-eyed, sympathetic look at Jeremy Corbyn and the movement that made him.
Change-of-service announcement: I will be on vacation next week, and this digest will be compiled and sent to you by associate editor L. V. Anderson. On behalf of Slate Plus, please extend to her every courtesy. Thank you for your membership, which makes our journalism possible, and enjoy the rest of your August. See you in two weeks!
Gabriel Roth
Editorial director, Slate Plus
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P.S. We’re hiring an editor for our culture blog, Brow Beat. I just thought you might like to know that.
