this week on how to touch grass: turns out AI is basically an anxiety machine www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/202...
How AI Could Make People More Anxious
Researchers warn that the design of chatbots is a “perfect storm” for anxiety.
theatlantic.com
Julie Beck
@julieebeck.bsky.social
staff writer covering relationships @theatlantic.com / writing book on friendship in the age of hyperindividualism / creator of The Friendship Files / newsletter: https://julieebeck.beehiiv.com
@theatlantic.com writer @julieebeck.bsky.social asks... "when is middle age?" We talk about that question, and whether it matters. Listen: wnyc.org/browse/shows...
Defining "Middle Aged" | WNYC
Julie Beck talks about the difficulty of determining when being "middle aged" actually starts.
wnyc.org
how to touch grass: the podcast
The Atlantic@theatlantic.com · last wk.Most Americans wish they could go back to a time before “everyone was plugged in.” In this episode, Natalie Brennan and @julieebeck.bsky.social explore what’s behind analog nostalgia—and what it means for our relationship with technology in the future.
spent my last days of being 35 trying to figure out if I’m middle aged, and what middle age even MEANS anyway www.theatlantic.com/family/2026/...
When Middle Age Actually Starts
Trying to attach some numbers to a fuzzy phase of life
theatlantic.com
everybody's thinking about attention these days, and this, by Xochitl Gonzalez is so key www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
sprained my back something fierce and now I’m rediscovering the lost art of Laptop In Bed anthropologists date this practice to the late 2000s and early 2010s, particularly popular in the cinderblock dwellings of collegiate sectors, until the market saturation of smartphones began to endanger it
I hurt my back at the gym :C but the good news is I’m lying around watching the wire, so everyone on god’s green earth can finally stop hounding me about it
once again I have been passed over for the times' list of "most stylish people" despite my sartorial commitment to elevating Costco brand elastic waist cotton pants
I'm casting a pod about logging the heck off!!!!! www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/202...
Introducing How to Touch Grass
It may be time to rethink our relationships with our devices.
theatlantic.com
my dentist scheduled my next 6 month cleaning without asking me, just put it on my calendar and started sending me texts about it...the absolute gall you are not the boss of my january 12 at 10 am! I am the boss!!!
a once in a generation genius of language, I'm always saying this www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Patricia Lockwood · Diary: A Tradcath Wedding
Recently I had an opportunity to check in on the state of American Catholicism. The occasion was a tradcath wedding...
lrb.co.uk
we are all just rats, pushing a button, hoping for treats… www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...
The Wedding-Conspiracy Mill That Taylor Swift Built
Her fans are wildly speculating. It’s what she’s trained them to do.
theatlantic.com
just checking in to say several months later, hearing the opening notes of "I'll Believe in Anything" still activates something in me
cease everything you're doing this instant! @elcush.bsky.social wrote about RANCH www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...
America’s Greatest Food Export
Ranch dressing has become, deservedly or not, a face of the nation during the World Cup.
theatlantic.com
If you’re looking for something to read all summer that contains hundreds of pages of interesting material to keep you enthralled, @julieebeck.bsky.social recommends “The Transit of Venus.” See the full list of 25 books that suit any mood or fancy: theatln.tc/Hyog4S28
let us all now lower the stakes of socializing and then lower them some more
The Atlantic@theatlantic.com · 2mo agoAmericans are spending more and more time in isolation. But the key to creating a blooming social life may be a lot easier than you might think, Julie Beck argues:
I recommended 2 for this! A new love, Shirley Hazzard's The Transit of Venus & the love of my middle school heart, the first in Mercedes Lackey's Last Herald-Mage trilogy. (Valdemar-heads, hmu) +other great recs from my colleagues for your summer reading pleasure www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...
25 Sensational Books to Read This Summer
The Atlantic’s writers and editors have chosen fiction and nonfiction to match all sorts of moods.
theatlantic.com
for my money, there's no more important tension in American culture than the one between individualism and community. and there's never been a show that explores that better than Survivor www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...
The Secret of 'Survivor'
For 50 seasons, the show has gamified the tension at the heart of American life: Are we individuals or a community?
theatlantic.com
making someone vote for themselves…this is the worst twist in survivor history, it undermines the whole spirit of what survivor is!! give me fire tokens before this. what have they done to my pants-pooping king
would it be insane for me to ask for a cover for my nonfiction book about friendship in the style of 1990s fantasy mass market paperbacks? probably, right?
I used to be intimidated by negotiating for equipment at the gym w bros, being perceived by them, etc, but one thing that really recommends at least the gym bros of DC, is they are very receptive to a brief bit. a lil small talk quip as you grab a barbell clip, we chuckle, and then we both move on!
I know we're a nation of delivery now, but doordash can never replicate one of life's greatest pleasures: eavesdropping on an insane conversation at the restaurant table next to you
no greater camaraderie exists than the line for the women’s bathroom at a public event when everyone is just a liiittle tipsy
solidarity to propublica's union! ✊
ProPublica Guild@propublicaguild.org · 4mo agoWe’re on strike today! Support our fight for a fair contract by NOT visiting the @propublica.org website or engaging with ProPublica stories today. Tell ProPublica’s management you won’t cross the picket line: actionnetwork.org/petitions/te...
I wrote about my beloved J.D. and Turk and their sneakily radical friendship www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...
The Return of TV’s Best Bromance
On Scrubs, Turk and J.D. present a vision of male friendship that is sneakily radical.
theatlantic.com
it’s time I stopped hiding. I have a chronic case of Cat Ass. its only symptom: every time I lay on my stomach, I sprout a cat on my ass. there is no cure
