North Carolina has the ninth-largest population of any state in the U.S., with about 10.5 million residents. From the shores of the Outer Banks through the farms and cities of the central Piedmont, to the western Appalachian Mountains, here are a few glimpses of the landscape of North Carolina and some of the wildlife and people calling it home.This photo story is part of Fifty, a collection of images from each of the United States.

In 1960, when he was still in his 30s and already a renowned novelist, Norman Mailer wrote about that year’s Democratic National Convention in an article for Esquire magazine. Mailer’s article was called “Superman Comes to the Supermarket,” and it was later hailed as one of the most important forebears of the “New Journalism” movement of the ’60s and ’70s.

Americans are five months deep in a historic economic crisis. From February to April, the country’s unemployment rate shot up from , “That extra $600 is what’s been keeping us alive.”But then the support stopped. The additional $600 of weekly assistance expired in late July, and the one-off stimulus payments are at this point “a relic of history” for many families, Mattingly told me.

Photo illustration by Miki LoweBeing called a “domestic poet”—a chronicler of home life, of small, private matters—never sat well with Mona Van Duyn. The first female poet laureate, Van Duyn did write about love and marriage, but she was quick to push back against reductive labels. “It is a limiting term,” she once said, for a poet who “uses domestic metaphor to describe ideas, bizarre scientific developments, the possibility of nuclear destruction.

When I moved to California five years ago, I planted a tree in my yard. It was a Red Baron peach, chosen for its showy, bright-pink blossoms and its ability to grow fruit with few cool nights. For the past nine centuries, Southern California has been perfect for this tree, with mild winters and mild summers.I planted the Red Baron for the climate we once had. That climate is no more.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.I asked nine people from around our newsroom, including members of our Atlantic podcasting team, to pick an episode worth streaming in this moment.  Be sure to also check out our Atlantic podcasts:
Floodlines is the story of an unnatural disaster.