Rafaela Jinich

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A great movie soundtrack can be just as memorable as the film itself. A few notes might bring an entire scene rushing back, and an old song can find new life in the right movie. Below, six Atlantic staffers share their favorite film soundtracks of the 21st century.

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
There’s a lot to love about fall: the changing leaves, the crisp air, the return of cozy sweaters, and, of course, pumpkin-spice everything. As the days grow shorter and the weather cools, the season offers plenty of reasons to slow down and indulge in life’s little comforts.

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
“Forgive the bad texters,” Julie Beck wrote in a recent Atlantic essay. Beck is one of them: She routinely leaves messages unanswered for days or even weeks, not because she doesn’t care but because she gets distracted, is burned-out, or simply forgets.

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In December 1987, The Atlantic had some reassuring news for readers: The next oil crisis didn’t have to happen.
The United States had already endured the oil shocks of the 1970s, and Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins, a pair of then-married environmentalists, argued in this magazine that the country had learned from the experience. The U.S.

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
Some coincidences feel a little too perfect to be random. You think about someone you haven’t spoken with in years, and they text you that afternoon. You run into an old friend while traveling in a city neither of you lives in.

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September has arrived, bringing the first hints of fall: cooler days, changing leaves, and the urge to revisit comfort watches. Below, The Atlantic’s writers and editors recommend six films that put them in an autumn spirit.

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
A strange thing happens when you see something every day: Eventually, you stop seeing it. A building you once admired becomes part of your commute. The trees on your block become background. Your favorite coffee mug becomes something you reach for without thinking.

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Think about something that you loved doing when you were younger. Maybe you drew, played an instrument, wrote stories, or spent hours learning about something just because it fascinated you.

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Conversation has become optimized—but not always for the better. We send a quick text instead of making a call, react with an emoji instead of a laugh, and turn catching up into a series of efficient updates.

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
We often associate wonder with the faraway and the exceptional. But some of the planet’s most extraordinary spectacles unfold every day, largely unnoticed.
For a recent Atlantic story, the senior editor Vann R.

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Travel has a way of making us curious. We wander unfamiliar streets, strike up conversations with strangers, linger in museums, and notice details that we’d otherwise rush past. But that mindset doesn’t need to be reserved for vacations.

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
For something that sounds so simple, leisure can be surprisingly difficult. Give people an hour with nothing scheduled, and many fill it with thoughts of to-dos: the unanswered email, the errand that’s been put off, the project due next week.

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
The word adventure tends to conjure images of people climbing mountains, kayaking through rapids, or traveling to remote corners of the world. It sounds expensive, athletic, and slightly exhausting.

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Eight years ago, when FIFA selected the United States, Mexico, and Canada to host the 2026 World Cup, the organization imagined a sprawling tournament that would reflect a strong partnership and solidarity among the countries.

This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic’s archives to contextualize the present. Sign up here.
In April 1948, after the assassination of the populist leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, crowds poured into the streets of Bogotá. Buildings burned. Churches were looted. Armed mobs seized parts of the capital.

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
With summer around the corner, now’s the time when many families begin imagining the version of themselves they want to be for just a few months. Some people book elaborate international trips.

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
Growing up has become associated with outgrowing certain pleasures: picture books, fairy tales, stories that speak openly about wonder and fear, villains and heroes. But adulthood does not actually require abandoning the things that first shaped how we experience the world.

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
As I grew older, I began wondering about the version of my mother that existed before I did. Not just the parent who raised me, but the younger person she once was: the life she’d imagined for herself, the experiences that shaped her, the parts of her history that I will never fully know.

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
A familiar dilemma: You open Netflix, determined to watch something new. Twenty minutes of scrolling later, after having rejected dozens of perfectly fine options, you land on a movie you’ve seen many times before.

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Somewhere between a Red Lobster and a three-Michelin-star dining room lies the best free restaurant bread in America. For The Atlantic’s May cover story, our staff writer Caity Weaver set out to find it, surveying more than 500 people and traveling 13,000 miles along the way.

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
The more popular something gets, the less appealing it can start to feel. Take The Pitt: Suddenly, everyone’s watching it and everyone’s talking about it. At a certain point, the excitement starts to make you feel like you should be into it—and just like that, you don’t want to watch it anymore.

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
For as long as people have been looking for love, many have been convinced that they know exactly what it looks like. We might talk about having a “type”: someone with certain traits, habits, beliefs, or quirks that we assume will add up to a successful match.

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Some people spend a lot of energy trying not to feel out of place. You learn the rules, blend in, and aim to belong. But what if resisting that uncomfortable feeling is a mistake?
In 2022, Arthur C.

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
At one point or another, we’ve all probably been that friend—the one who calls, texts, or sends a five-minute voice note with a long list of grievances.

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It’s January 1, and the self-help corners of the internet tell me I’m supposed to wake up as a matcha-drinking, Pilates-doing goddess of discipline. Except I don’t like matcha, my gym leggings are in hibernation, and my discipline is nowhere to be found. Outside, winter has the nerve to continue.

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
When did dinner stop being an occasion and become just another transaction? The convenience of delivery apps has quietly hollowed out one of America’s most beloved rituals, Ellen Cushing writes.

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Read about the sneaky tactics behind bad customer service, a bizarre PTSD therapy that “seemed too good to be true,” why the dictionary might be obsolete, and more.
Why Can’t Americans Sleep?
Insomnia has become a public-health emergency.

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Read about the surprising cells you carry from your relatives, why getting up early might be the best life hack, what happens when your kid’s best friend is a problem, and more.

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
For Melani Sanders, a mother and wife, it started after a grocery run. She got in her car, pulled out her phone, and declared that she didn’t care—about shaving her legs, about wearing a “real bra,” or about keeping her house tidy.

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This Labor Day, spend time with seven back-to-school stories about how parents took over dorm life, why middle-school friendships still shape who we are, why we can’t quite escape dreams of being back at school, and more.