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This week, ABC pulled the comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show off the air over remarks he made related to Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

“If you can’t laugh at yourself, you are so fucked”: During a conversation yesterday at The Atlantic Festival with Atlantic staff writer Sophie Gilbert, Monica Lewinsky said this was one of the most important things she’s learned. In 1998, as a 24-year-old White House intern, she was entangled in a sex scandal involving President Bill Clinton and quickly became a subject of international scorn.

An existential thriller set in the middle of the Moroccan desert, a whodunit doubling as a crisis of faith, a musical about the founder of the Shaker movement—this year’s Toronto International Film Festival not only screened some of this fall’s biggest movies, but it also offered attendees a rich array of stories to indulge in.

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.
Good news: If you’re worried you might be a phony, there’s a good chance you’re the real deal. “The true phony is convinced they’re not one,” Arthur C. Brooks explained earlier this summer.

Since at least the 11th century in Europe, when troubadour musicians crisscrossed the continent singing songs of love and chivalry, one thing has remained fairly consistent: The artist travels; the audience stays put. Of course, there have been exceptions, in which fans made pilgrimages to see their favorite musicians live.