Weekend reads: How introverts and extroverts are thinking about post-pandemic life
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A (horrifying) new study finds heaps of disease-carrying ticks living everywhere from the woods to the beach, experts warn that Mount Everest is poised to become a super-spreader event, and more.
Ben Palmer s reads
New York Times in a video interviewed people from around the world and showed them how the American health system works, which evoked feelings of [a]stonishment, horror, anger, and disgust.
The Atlantic s Julie Beck interviewed two of her colleagues, Amanda Mull, who is an extrovert, and Katherine Wu, who is an introvert. Over the course of the interview, Beck learns about what Mull and Wu are looking forward to in post-Covid life, and how we can all be more understanding to friends who may not be as extroverted or introverted as us.
What It’s Like to Move In With a Co-worker During the Pandemic Julie Beck
’s Julie Beck and two or more friends, exploring the history and significance of their relationship.
This week she talks with Alyssa and Emily, who met at their first job out of college and then moved in together during the pandemic. They discuss the role friends play in transitioning from college to adult life, what it’s like to suddenly be trapped at home with your co-worker, and how a situation that could have been overwhelming instead made them inseparable.
The Friends: Alyssa Moore, 23, a contract writer and public-relations consultant, who lives in Philadelphia
Hiking Is an Ideal Structure for Friendship Julie Beck
’s Julie Beck and two or more friends, exploring the history and significance of their relationship.
This week she talks with a group of friends who have been going on monthly hikes for 25 years. They discuss why the hike organizer has absolute authority, how they’ve shown up for one another through tragedies, and why hiking together has bonded them more deeply than other ways of keeping in touch.
The Friends:
Rodney FOLLIn, 65, a retired local-government employee who lives in Fairfax Station, Virginia
Jim Gillespie, 63, a children’s behavioral-health services manager who lives in Fairfax, Virginia
The Friend COVID-19 Took From Me Julie Beck typically feature a conversation between The Atlantic
’s Julie Beck and two or more friends, exploring the history and significance of their relationship. But this week she speaks with just one person whose friend passed away from COVID-19 earlier this year.
In this interview, Mary-Ann Ortiz-Luis shares the history of her friendship with Baby Herrera, whom she’d known since they were girls growing up together in the Philippines. She discusses what made Baby special, how they stayed close even when Mary-Ann moved overseas, her memories and regrets from Baby’s final days, and how the void left by the loss of her friend will last long after the pandemic is over.