A list of good reads

• Hollywood lost an icon in Val Kilmer last week—The Guardian has the most comprehensive obituary on his body of work, from box office hits like ‘Top Gun’ to hatke character work like ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’.  
• Also in The Guardian: how the social media-fuelled ‘skyrocketing’ demand for matcha has raised fears of shortage in Japan, the green tea’s country of origin. 
• Faith Hill pens an essay in The Atlantic (splainer gift link) on the new singlehood stigma—arguing why we shouldn’t want a partner, despite societal demands.  
• Wired (login required) chats with historian and author Yuval Noah Harari on the need for AI self-correcting mechanisms and whether superintelligence can safeguard democracy.
• Over at Glamour, Catharine Malzahn spent a week downing olive oil shots—and saw immediate results on her digestive system. 
• BBC News breaks down the microbiome that exists within your skin, and asks if taking probiotics actually gives them a boost.
• Financial Times (splainer gift link) traces how Minecraft conquered the world to become the best-selling video game ever and now spawning a movie. 
• Gina Rippon in Aeon searches for autism’s missing women—with new research suggesting that most autistic women initially receive an inappropriate diagnosis. 
• The Conversation makes a case for giving flies their long overdue credit as the true ‘masters of migration’.
• With some revealing images and video, Good Food Movement reports on the perilous future of Kashmir’s once-abundant trout.