Julie Beck
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Wenjia Tang The Endangered Art of Letter-Writing
“There’s nothing nicer than opening the mailbox and seeing something friendly, something that’s not a bill.”
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For subscribers: Keeping Busy and Keeping Sane
Family life in the new normal. This is The Atlantic’s weekly email to subscribers—a close look at the issues our writers are watching, just for you.
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Wenjia Tang What It’s Like to Live Next Door to Your Best Friend Right Now
“We don’t have this superficial friendship where I’m only best friends with you when things are funny and happy … I’m also here for all the transitions and all the rough patches.”
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Wenjia Tang If You and Your Friends Are Bored, PowerPoint Parties May Be the Answer
“It’s a distraction from all that’s going on … This is a way to come together, in a different way—teaching instead of just talking.”
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WENJIA TANG An Anthem for Everyone Who’s Ever Googled Their Name
“At first, I was indiscriminately adding other Paul O’Sullivans on Facebook. It was like a joke. Then I realized, ‘Hey, wait a minute, we’re all musicians.’”
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WENJIA TANG How Two Young Hippie Friends Grew Up to Live Very Different Lives
“I’ll complain to her about how I couldn’t find a parking spot at the Nordstrom sale, while she’s complaining to me about how her goats have hoof rot.”
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Inara Prusakova / Shutterstock / Katie Martin / ... Naming a Kid for a Fictional Character Is High Stakes
The Jolenes and Daeneryses of the world have some baggage to contend with.
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WENJIA TANG What Are RAs’ Social Lives Like?
“I was always in a fishbowl. I felt like I was not just Alex, but Alex the RA.”
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WENJIA TANG How Two Candidates Became Friends, and Ran a Joint Campaign
“Maybe there should’ve been some animosity, but we’re both naturally not drawn to unnecessary conflict.”
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Shutterstock / The Atlantic The Most Memorable Family and Education Interviews of the Year
Our reporters reflect on the words and ideas that resonated with them in 2019.
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WENJIA TANG A Harebrained Scheme to Sell Christmas Trees on the Streets of New York
“People were in the right place at the right time. That’s its own small Christmas miracle, I guess.”
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Robbie Goodall / Getty / The Atlantic Why People Pretend to Talk as Their Pets
And babies, and stuffed animals …
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WENJIA TANG The Case for Buying a House With Friends
“Looking around our culture, I think a lot of people are starting to experience the limits of individualism.”
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Wenjia Tang These Friends’ Collaborative Playlist Has Strict, Elaborate Rules
“Technology nowadays allows people to have music that’s personalized to them … but it also allows people to collaborate in ways that we weren’t able to before.”
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WENJIA TANG Navigating the ‘Old Boys’ Club’ of Science, With a Friend
“It allows me to do my science better when I feel like I have a community.”
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U.S. Forest Service / AP How Many People Have to Die Before We’re Done With Gender Reveals?
Sadly, this is not a hypothetical question.
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WENJIA TANG How Friendship Changes at the End of Life
“People become frightened at the end of life. Sometimes I see them moving away from friends as they get sicker.”
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WENJIA TANG On Being Happy for and Jealous of a Friend at the Same Time
“It can be hard to be really close to someone who’s trying to do the same thing that you do.”
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Wenjia Tang A Teen-Run Book Charity and the Friendship It Built
“To know that there were people in my school doing things that I had dreamed about doing was really crazy to me.”
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Carlina Teteris / Getty What Fan Fiction Teaches That the Classroom Doesn’t
Everyone leaves feedback and reviews for one another, leading to a sprawling, communal learning environment.
