Putin’s Weakness Unmasked

Plus: the case against travel; when dying patients want unproven drugs; and Shams Charania, the N.B.A.’s scoop merchant. View in browser | Update your preferences Saturday, June 24, 2023 In today’s newsletter, The Weekend Essay, and then: • Putin’s weakness unmasked • When dying patients want unproven drugs • Shams Charania, the N.B.A.’s scoop merchant The Case Against Travel It turns us into the worst version of ourselves while convincing us that we’re at our best. By Agnes Callard Illustration by María Medem What is the most uninformative statement that people are inclined to make? My nominee would be “I love to travel.” This tells you very little about a person, because nearly everyone likes to travel; and yet people say it, because, for some reason, they pride themselves both on having travelled and on the fact that they look forward to doing so. The opposition team is small but articulate. G. K. Chesterton wrote that “travel narrows the mind.” Ralph Waldo Emerson called travel “a fool’s paradise.” Socrates and Immanuel Kant—arguably the two greatest philosophers of all time—voted with their feet, rarely leaving their respective home towns of Athens and Königsberg. If you are inclined to dismiss this as contrarian posturing, try shifting the object of your thought from your own travel to that of others. At home or abroad, one tends to avoid “touristy” activities. “Tourism” is what we call travelling when other people are doing it. And, although people like to talk about their travels, few of us like to listen to them. Keep reading From the News Desk Daily Comment Putin’s Weakness Unmasked How Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion exposed the Russian President. By David Remnick Our Columnists Can Anybody Stop Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican Primary? Even as the former President has a commanding poll lead in a splintered field, one veteran G.O.P. consultant argues that it’s too early to coronate him. By John Cassidy The New Yorker Radio Hour North Dakota’s Only Abortion Clinic Leaves the State Emily Witt looks at how the Dobbs decision forced a clinic to move across state lines. With David Remnick Editor’s Pick Annals of Inquiry When Dying Patients Want Unproven Drugs Patient-advocacy groups mobilized to demand access to a controversial new drug called Relyvrio. But hasty approval comes at a cost. By Gideon Lewis-Kraus Books We Recommend This Week Reviews of notable new fiction and nonfiction. Fire Weather, by John Vaillant (Knopf). In 2016, a wildfire ripped through the oil town of Fort McMurray, in Alberta. It was the most expensive disaster in Canada’s history. This alarming account tracks the destruction, the role of fire in industry in the past hundred and fifty years, and the disregarded alarms about the environment raised by scientists. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. A Stranger in Your Own City, by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad (Knopf). The author, an Iraqi journalist, narrates the American invasion of his country and its aftermath by recounting the lives of a cross-section of Iraqi society. His kaleidoscopic view emphasizes aspects of ordinary Iraqi lives which are lost in the simplistic interpretations of outsiders. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. The Late Americans, by Brandon Taylor (Riverhead). This novel follows a group of people in Iowa City, many of them M.F.A. students, and explores the ways that dissonant conditions of class, race, and social circumstances can compromise our freedom to pursue art and our ability to fully understand those we love. Amid financial concerns, artistic frustrations, and the judgments, jealousies, and posturing of their classmates, the characters find solace in moments of shared tenderness that transcend the ever-present threat of alienation. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. Instructions for the Drowning, by Steven Heighton (Biblioasis). These stories, by a Canadian novelist, poet, and musician who died last year, peer keenly into the penumbra surrounding death. Heighton’s stories wrestle with life’s uncontrollable endings and beginnings: birth, tragedy, failed resurrection. His characters grasp at time, even as it slips away—violent, sacred, apocalyptic, mundane. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. The best books of 2023 so far What are you reading this week? Reply to let us know. Culture Dept. Psst Dept. Sources: Shams Charania Leaves Hotel Room The N.B.A. scoop merchant prepared for the rookie draft by hunkering down in Times Square and spending eighteen hours a day on his phone. By Dan Greene Fiction “Status in Flux” “We don’t all have to match, I used to tell him. We’re not a suit of cards.” By Weike Wang This Week in Fiction Weike Wang on Citizenship and Belonging The author discusses “Status in Flux,” her story from the latest issue of the magazine. By Deborah Treisman Fun & Games Dept. Name Drop Play the Quiz Can you guess the notable person in six clues or fewer? By Liz Maynes-Aminzade Shouts & Murmurs Reading Body Language Like the Experts One raised eyebrow means that you’re intrigued; two raised eyebrows means that you’re surprised; and no eyebrows means that you’re in Blue Man Group. By Colin Nissan Daily Shouts Overcoming Impostor Syndrome Regulate your emotions and model your behavior on someone more stable and less driven by megalomania than you, like Elon Musk. By Ivan Ehlers Thanks for reading. Let us know your thoughts about today’s edition. Plus, browse more newsletters and invite a friend to sign up for The Daily. 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