| In today’s newsletter, Joshua Yaffa on the multimillionaire entrusting strangers with spending her inheritance. And then:
• What Drake’s clip dump doesn’t share
• FX’s “English Teacher” has edge
• Zia Anger’s coming of age | | | |
| Joshua Yaffa
Contributing writer When the scion of a wealthy European family decided to assemble dozens of strangers to help her redistribute most of her twenty-five-million-euro inheritance, I was intrigued. I hadn’t been living in Berlin long, but I had observed enough of the local culture to understand that in Germany and Austria—the heiress in question, Marlene Engelhorn, is from Vienna—money, especially in large sums, is something kept out of view and out of polite conversation. The council of strangers that Engelhorn was gathering, known as the Guter Rat für Rückverteilung (Good Council for Redistribution), agreed to let me sit in on their meetings in Salzburg, for my piece in this week’s issue. It seemed like a tantalizing chance to observe people talking about what is often left unsaid—namely, where wealth is distributed in society, and what a more just distribution might look like. The members of the Guter Rat were delightful—earnest and motivated, sincere in wanting to carry out the rather imposing task before them. How to spend twenty-five million euros? They grappled with that question, bit by bit, in the course of six weekends. All the while, I sat in the back of the hotel conference room as an observer might watch, say, a jury arrive at a verdict. There was far more good will and bonhomie than conflict. By the end, there was collective amazement that a group of teachers, students, accountants, repairmen, and retirees (and many other professions) had parcelled out Engelhorn’s millions among nearly eighty organizations. Even more than Engelhorn cared about an exercise in grantmaking, she wanted to carry out a radical experiment in democratic participation—and that, above all, is what I feel I witnessed. Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today » | | | |
|  Illustration by Miguel Porlan The Critics at Large podcast is launching a new cultural helpline called “I Need a Critic!” Whether you’re seeking the perfect song to charm a crush or want to explore a new corner of the canon, the hosts Alexandra Schwartz, Naomi Fry, and Vinson Cunningham are ready to weigh in. Record a voice memo on your phone describing your dilemma and send it to themail@newyorker.com with the subject line “Critics.” Your submission—and their advice in response—could end up on the show. On this week’s episode, a new crop of influencers showcasing regressive gender roles has soared in popularity in recent months. Is this life style a harmless personal choice or an existential threat to feminism? Our critics discuss. Listen and follow » | | | |
| Today is the final day of our summer flash-fiction series, but you can always revisit the stories. | | | |
| P.S. It’s officially “Gilmore Girls” season. In her review of the 2016 revival, “A Year in the Life,” Betsy Morais—a bit of a Rory herself, having grown up in a Stars Hollow-esque village and become a journalist—boils it down: “The pleasure of watching doesn’t come as much from what the Gilmores do as what they say (and how fast they say it).” ☕ | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment