As Weekend Reader readers know, I frequently link to articles in The Atlantic. So I was delighted when a co-worker referred me to a recent piece in The New Republic, in which Timothy Noah laments how often The Atlantic runs a piece about “the end” of something – as, for example, in its recent story headlined “The End of Reading is Here,” which stretched out for more than a dozen pages in the magazine – a bold choice, considering that, according to the magazine, no one would read it. Noah calls out the magazine’s fixation on various apocalypses as “doom porn” – and, well, he has a point. 

So … maybe I should show a little restraint this week in handing out fresh slices of doom porn? That might be difficult on a week in which you can expect an avalanche of coverage about the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11. 

But let’s give it a shot.

And I’m going to fail right away: Here’s an impressive New York Times editorial board piece that offers clear evidence – as if we need it – that climate change is leading to hotter summers in the United States. The Times offers county-by-county analysis to determine, for example, that over the last decade, Benton County has averaged six days a year with a heat index about 90. In the 10 years between 1986 and 1995, the county averaged just two days a year. (The heat index blends temperature and humidity to get a sense of how hot it feels.) But, even so, Benton County is fortunate: The Times reports that 2026 is on track to be the hottest and most humid summer in the contiguous United States since records began in 1895.

Here’s another Times story that perhaps doesn’t qualify as doom porn but lives in a nearby neighborhood: In addition to its continued investigation into Dr. Anthony Fauci in an attempt to determine what researchers thought about the origins of the coronavirus and when they thought it, the government also is quietly probing other scientists, and has convicted at least one. The true agenda behind these investigations becomes apparent late in the story, in the words of an attorney:  “The right learned pretty early on in COVID that public health is a threat to power.” One could also argue that these investigations drain resources that might be better spent on preparing for the next pandemic – but that would require properly funding public health programs. 

OK, how about this, as we struggle to step away from doomscrolling: Although I hate to suggest that Weekly Reader readers skew older, here’s a story about how to improve your balance as you age. It starts by following a fellow from Eugene who helped invent slacklining in the 1980s. But you don’t have to take up slacklining yourself: Experts say you could just dance.

I turned to The Atlantic to see what was new in the world of doom porn, and here’s what I found instead: A tribute to the poet and writer Wendell Berry, who died Monday at age 92. The tribute’s writer, Joe Fassler, focuses on something unexpected about Berry: his notion that it’s a waste of time to worry about the future. Instead, Berry urged, work toward what is good today. But … if I do that, how will I find the time to doomscroll?

In the midst of the tributes to the life of Gloria Steinem, the pioneering feminist who died this week at 92, you might have missed the obituaries for the jazz singer Cassandra Wilson, who died Wednesday at age 70 and expertly straddled the various streams of American music as well as anybody – she covered jazz standards as well as “Wichita Lineman.” 

This week’s long read also comes from The Atlantic: It’s a piece by Olga Khazan about a mediation researcher who discovered unexpected side effects to the practice. There’s little doubt that meditation can be useful, but as the researcher learned more about the potential downsides, she got an increasingly cool reception from proponents. 

Efforts are underway to remove racially derogatory place names from Oregon landmarks – but the work is moving awfully slowly, Mackenzie Olivo reports for Underscore News.  

Speaking of renaming efforts, President Donald Trump’s decision to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America” appears to be meeting the same fate as his earlier effort to redub the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.” Which is to say, both efforts appear to be pretty much dead in the water, at least in media mentions, according to Joshua Benton at the Nieman Lab. 

Presumably because President Trump has nothing else to do now that America is great again, this week the White House unveiled a collection of five retro video games on its website aimed at promoting different parts of the administration’s agenda. The games include “Build the Wall,” in which players maneuver “Tetris”-style blocks into a wall to “protect the border from the coming horde.” The creators of “Tetris” were not pleased, noting that the entire point of “Tetris” is to prevent a wall from being built – a distinction that apparently was lost on the White House. 

At least three movies due this fall take deep dive into social media platforms – and the men behind them. Luca Guadagnino’s “Artificial” dramatizes the career of Sam Altman, the OpenAI founder. Alex Gibney has a four-hour documentary about Elon Musk. But the movie with perhaps the highest profile is Aaron Sorkin’s “The Social Reckoning,” a followup of sorts to “The Social Network,” the 2010 flick about the founding of Facebook that David Fincher directed from a Sorkin script. Sorkin wrote the script and directed “The Social Reckoning,” and talks about the movie with Jake Coyle of The Associated Press. 

Speaking of movies, I still haven’t seen “Coyote Vs. Acme,” but maybe this weekend. In the meantime, however, there is shocking news on the coyote vs. road runner front: Sometimes, the coyote wins. 

That’s it for this edition. Enjoy the Labor Day holiday, and let’s gather here again next weekend.