A list of good reads
- Radha Khan in Scroll writes a telling piece on how anxieties around caste and religion persist, despite the changing food landscape in India—be it in homegrown cafes, or continental restaurants.
- BBC News explores why it is so difficult to walk in Indian cities like Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore.
- Wired reports on why ‘I'm Going to Bluesky’ is the new ‘I’m Moving to Canada’, as a response to Donald Trump’s re-election and Elon Musk’s closeness with him.
- NPR reports on how France uncovered the mystery of a photographer who took 377 forbidden photos within Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II.
- Aeon has an excellent essay on why we need “raw awe” in a digital age, where screens are preventing us from experiencing the transformative wonders of life.
- Wall Street Journal (splainer gift link) asks: When did the Notes app on Apple phones become an extension of brains, used to store passwords, grocery lists, and more?
- Also in Wall Street Journal: an insightful piece about how saunas are becoming the new way to socialise and raise money for Silicon Valley techies.
- Emma Jacobs in Financial Times (splainer gift link) argues why rudeness has no place in the work environment, and can demoralise colleagues.
- Smithsonian Magazine has a detailed read on the nine evolutionary shifts that led to the making of mammals as we know them today.
- New York Times (splainer gift link) has a fascinating piece about Gila monster venom—nature’s ‘Swiss Army Knife’—which helped create the weight loss drug revolution.
- Boston Magazine takes you inside the new world of luxury kids’ parties, where parents are the plus ones.
- Washington Post (splainer gift link) examines why location sharing is making us miserable in our friendships and relationships, and why it’s time to stop.
- CNN has a report on why hoarding too many digital items on your phone could be a sign of a mental disorder.
- Also in CNN: Why Italy’s tastiest export, Parma ham, is getting increasingly hard to find on international dinner plates.
- Pudding has a cool interactive read which asks: is the love song dying? Or has it just evolved from its original form?
- Alison Willmore in Vulture reviews ‘Gladiator II’ and makes the case for why men deserve better than this treatment of masculinity.
