A Reboot That Stands on Its Own
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Welcome back to The Daily’s Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer or editor reveals what’s keeping them entertained. Today’s special guest is Amina Kilpatrick, an assistant editor on the audience team who manages social-media platforms, produces some of The Atlantic’s TikTok videos, and wrote for The Daily about six essential reads to understand Juneteenth.
Amina is a longtime fan of musical theater and Ariana Grande, so she’s looking forward to seeing these two interests converge in the film Wicked, which premieres this fall. She’s also a fiber artist and a habitual binge-watcher who likes to catch up on episodes of Bel-Air and Murder, She Wrote while she knits.
The Culture Survey: Amina Kilpatrick
What my friends are talking about most right now: Bel-Air. I only just finished Season 1; I’ve got to catch up.
I’m usually not a fan of reboots, but Bel-Air is an exception. The dramatic retelling pays homage to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but it also stands on its own. The characters feel fresh and modernized, and I enjoy the chemistry between Jabari Banks and Olly Sholotan.
The upcoming events I’m most looking forward to: As a theater nerd and an Ariana Grande fan since Victorious, I’m excited for the film adaptation of Wicked, which comes out this fall. I’ve been a Wicked fan for a long time—we sang “For Good” at my fourth-grade graduation. I’m also looking forward to attending my first New York State Sheep and Wool Festival next month. I recently got into spinning yarn after becoming a knitter, and I’m searching for a spinning wheel.
The television show I’m most enjoying right now: I love Industry! I’ve been keeping up with the drama series since the first season. I never know what’s going on, yet I’m hooked each episode. The show follows a group of investment bankers navigating the finance industry. My favorite episode so far of the current season is “White Mischief,” a stunning portrayal of class, race, and misogyny set against the backdrop of the high-pressure world of banking. [Related: How greed got good again]
An author I will read anything by: Toni Morrison. I first read Beloved in high school, and I took a class on Morrison’s books during my freshman year at Cornell, her alma mater. [Related: Toni Morrison fought the white gaze.]
A quiet song that I love, and a loud song that I love: Quiet song: “Wildflower,” by Billie Eilish. Loud song: “For Every Mountain,” by Kurt Carr & the Kurt Carr Singers.
A musical artist who means a lot to me: Solange. I love her music and her life. When I Get Home is a lovely homage to her upbringing in Houston. I listened to A Seat at the Table at the right moment, and it continues to bring new meaning with each stage of my life. And she keeps taking on cool projects, whether it’s composing a ballet score, launching a furniture collection, or directing music videos. I want to be authentically me like that.
A cultural product I loved as a teenager and still love, and something I loved but now dislike: As a teen, I loved binge-watching TV shows, and I still do. There is something so satisfying about not having to make a choice about what to watch next, and following characters over 22-episode seasons. The rise of prestige TV, which favors short seasons, long episodes, and multiyear breaks between seasons, has complicated this a bit. But there are many classic shows perfect for bingeing. After the actor Angela Lansbury died, I discovered Murder, She Wrote, and it has been the perfect comfort show to put on while I knit. [Related: Angela Lansbury could make the silliest movie a work of art.]
As for something I now dislike: I’ve become bored by smartphones. Bring back interesting phones. Remember the LG Chocolate? The Motorola Razr? And my personal favorite: the LG enV3. [Related: “I went back to a dumbphone.”]
Something I recently revisited: I rewatched Insecure with my best friend, who had never seen it before. Revisiting the show now, in my mid-20s, I found myself relating to the characters even more. I definitely saw part of myself in Issa Dee during the first season, when she felt disconnected from her friends, her relationship, and her career, and had to go through the messy process of figuring it all out as the series progressed. [Related: How Issa Rae built the world of Insecure]
A favorite story I’ve read in The Atlantic: Caitlin Dickerson is a masterful journalist in many ways. Please read her latest article, on the Darién Gap: She walked with migrants trying to make it to the United States, and sensitively told their stories while analyzing the policies and conditions that contribute to the broken immigration system. The story is aided by Lynsey Addario’s beautiful and heartbreaking photographs.
My favorite thing to do on my phone: Turn it off. I’m on it too much already.
Online creators that I’m a fan of: I love social-media comedians. Michele (@its.michele.ok) on TikTok has great skits poking fun at different friend groups and what it means to be “too woke.” Mel Mitchell (@thebaddestmitch) is another hilarious account to follow—she plays so many different characters, my favorite being Quan’Deitrick, a satirical version of a misogynistic podcast host.
The last thing that made me cry: The 2023 musical film The Color Purple, when Celie, played by Fantasia Barrino, sings “I’m Here.” [Related: The new The Color Purple finds its own rhythm.]
The last gallery show that I loved: I saw “Bisa Butler: The World Is Yours” more than a year ago at Jeffrey Deitch’s gallery in New York City, and it still resonates with me. Butler is an artist who makes quilt portraits. My mom is also a quilter, so we went to the show together. Butler’s work is breathtaking; she uses color, texture, and space in such imaginative ways. Many of the scenes she made were of famous people or photographs. As a fiber artist and a painter, I love seeing people combine the two in such a unique way.
A poem that I return to: “Still I Rise,” by Maya Angelou.
Here are three Sunday reads from The Atlantic:
- How abortion bans force doctors to ignore their training
- Mark Leibovich: Hypocrisy, spinelessness, and the triumph of Donald Trump
- Tim Alberta: Why Mike Lee folded
The Week Ahead
- Transformers One, an animated action film about how the friendship between Optimus Prime and Megatron soured into a world-changing feud (in theaters Friday)
- The Penguin, a limited series that explores the Penguin’s ascent in Gotham City’s criminal underbelly (premieres Thursday on Max)
- We Solve Murders, a novel by Richard Osman about two investigators who get roped into a mystery involving a dead body and a best-selling author on a remote island (out Tuesday)
Essay
How Joe Rogan Remade Austin
By Helen Lewis
It’s a Tuesday night in downtown Austin, and Joe Rogan is pretending to jerk off right in front of my face. The strangest thing about this situation is that millions of straight American men would kill to switch places with me …
Early in the coronavirus pandemic, the Texas capital saw the biggest net gain of remote employees of any major city in America; its downtown is now filled with cranes and new skyscrapers. It is also the center of the Roganverse, an intellectual firmament of manosphere influencers, productivity optimizers, stand-ups, and male-wellness gurus. Austin is at the nexus of a Venn diagram of “has culture,” “has gun ranges,” “has low taxes,” and “has kombucha.”
More in Culture
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- The Sauron Problem
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- Men on trips eating food
- Nicole Kidman’s perpetual trick
- A film that could fix our relationship with the internet
Catch Up on The Atlantic
- Peter Wehner: Kamala Harris broke Donald Trump.
- The Supreme Court’s effort to save Trump is already working.
- Anne Applebaum: The Americans who yearn for anti-American propaganda
Photo Album
Take a look at these photos of the week from around the world, showing a hobby-horse competition, a flooded Venetian square, wildfires in California, and more.
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