Welcome to Up for Debate. Each week, Conor Friedersdorf rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.

Updated at 3:50 p.m. ET on July 23, 2023This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.The FIFA Women’s World Cup is about more than just soccer. Here’s a guide to getting into the game.First, here are three Sunday reads from The Atlantic:
Colson Whitehead loses the plot.

i hadn’t failed until i watched your back
trembling in the dark window.
turning away to pick up
the fallen comforter,
i wanted to say, don’t look at me
like this—
backfiring with want
as the dark turned you sharp.
those days, light a commodity to save,
i kept looking into the windows
of dark rooms to watch
you next to me.
you, tidying your hair
in the reflection,
bright against the jumble
of construction—
i held on to you
out of the corner of my eye.
some sanctuary.

This story was originally published by Hakai Magazine.During Japan’s sweltering summers, nothing hits the spot quite like a frozen orange. The popular treat tastes great when made at home. But it tastes even better when made 850 meters below the ocean’s surface. “A bit salty, but super delicious,” says Shinsuke Kawagucci, a deep-sea geochemist at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.

The new media technology was going to make us stupid, to reduce all human interaction to a sales pitch. It was going to corrode our minds, degrade communication, and waste our time. Its sudden rise and rapid spread through business, government, and education augured nothing less than “the end of reason,” as one famous artist put it, for better or for worse. In the end, it would even get blamed for the live-broadcast deaths of seven Americans on national television.

In recent days, Tony Bennett—who died Friday at the age of 96—reportedly sang one last song while sitting at his piano. It was “Because of You,” his first hit, released in 1951, and the single that propelled him to more than seven decades of fame, fortune, and legend. But it was always more than a stepping stone. Where many artists downplay their early work, Bennett kept “Because of You” close to his heart.

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.Among the many negative stereotypes that exist about older adults is the idea that they’re not capable of change, my colleague Faith Hill noted recently. In fact, many psychologists used to believe that after young adulthood, people tend to settle into their personality.

If you’ve watched a Netflix original in the past few years, you might recognize the comedian Michelle Buteau as the platform’s punchiest voice of reason. At the beginning of the 2019 breakup comedy Someone Great, Buteau’s character delivers a brisk self-esteem boost to the film’s protagonist, whom she encounters as a crying stranger on a subway platform: “Why he won’t try? Look at you with your pretty teeth and shit.

Dr. Dre on the radio, The Matrix on the big screen, The Sopranos on TV: The year 1999 was wonderful for many reasons, including economic ones.That year, the median household income rose to a record level, a watermark that held for nearly two decades. (The average American family was poorer when Donald Trump was running for office than when Bill Clinton left office.) Wages were growing across the board—all kinds of workers were getting consistent raises. Productivity growth was strong.