Today, Spencer Klavan remembers Dolly Parton, and the nation-sized hole she left in our hearts.
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she → remember → hearts
Peter Richmond takes us inside his life as a celebrity profiler.
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Richmond → take → profiler
Suzy Weiss discusses the summer escapades of the ultra-wealthy.
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Weiss → discuss → wealthy
Earlier this week, I couldn’t help but notice a cover story in New York magazine.
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I → help → magazine
It was called “The Pay-to-Play Model Has Broken Youth Sports,” and it was about the consequences of a youth sports ecosystem where children are encouraged to specialize in one sport from very early ages.
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children → call → ages
The “literature,” the piece said, proves this path can cause excessive stress and burnout for children, and needless anxiety for parents.
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path → say → parents
The story caught my eye for a simple reason: I’m a parent with a kid who specializes in one sport—tennis—and he and his parents wouldn’t have it any other way.
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he → catch → it
My son Macklin is 16, and he has dedicated his teenage years to becoming good enough at tennis to play in college at a high level.
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he → dedicate → level
My wife and I have become equally dedicated to doing whatever we can to help him achieve his dream—and for that, we make no apologies.
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we → become → apologies
That is the story I tell today.
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I → tell → ?
I don’t doubt that there is some truth to the downside of children focusing on one sport.
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children → doubt → sport
But what the “literature” leaves out is that if you have a kid who loves a sport, is dedicated to it, and has some talent, you’d be crazy as a parent to keep him from specializing in it.
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you → leave → it
Does spending tens of thousands of dollars on tennis, traveling with my son to dozens of tournaments, and watching him devote 4–5 hours a day to one sport come with moments of stress and anxiety?
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him → spend → stress
But it has created a beautiful dynamic between a kid pursuing excellence, and his parents who wouldn’t dare be the barrier to it—one that will last long after he has stopped playing competitive tennis.
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he → create → tennis
The rich have never been richer, and they’ve never been easier to gawk at.
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they → gawk → ?
Open any social media app, and you’ll be bombarded with the escapades of the ultra-wealthy: endless vacations, big-ticket purchases, and high-end wellness trends.
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you → open → wealthy
We live, after all, in a time with over 3,000 billionaires—and for a short time, a trillionaire.
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We → live → time
But what’s it really like inside their world?
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it → like → world
Carson Griffith, journalist and author of the newsletter Rich People Shit, knows the answer better than most.
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Griffith → know → most
Today on Second Thought, she joins Suzy and Dan to break down how society’s wealthiest spent this past summer: where they’re traveling, the petty feuds they’re involved in, and whether they’re any happier than the rest of us.
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they → join → us
Plus, Carson shares the inside scoop on Nantucket’s war on influencers, Ray Dalio’s birthday party in Ibiza, and how immortality became the ultimate status symbol.
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immortality → share → Ibiza
Click below to watch the episode, or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
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you → click → podcasts
We’ve published lots of other pieces worth catching up on this week, including Caitlin Flanagan’s tribute to Dolly Parton, Kara Kennedy on the moms of TikTok’s manosphere moment, Arthur Brooks on the horrors of parents’ Facebook groups, the bookstore reviving middle America, and more:
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We → publish → America
Meet Michele McAloon, Your Free Press Book Club Moderator
For as long as she can remember, Michele McAloon has had her head in a book.
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McAloon → meet → book
She has also gone through life collecting stories of her own, as a U.S. Army pilot, a canon lawyer specializing in the laws of the Catholic Church, and the host of Cross Word Books, a podcast about nonfiction.
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She → go → nonfiction
And now, she will be moderating The Free Press Forum Book Club, which is kicking things off on August 30 with East of Eden!
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which → moderate → Eden
Michele’s goal is not simply to discuss what happens in the book, but to help us understand its characters, one another, and perhaps our own lives a little better.
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us → discuss → characters
For her, bringing thousands of readers (3,000+ are already signed up!) together to discuss these questions is an extroverted bookworm’s dream.
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3,000 → bring → questions
Her spirit is quintessentially Free Press, and we are so thrilled that she will be moderating the conversation on The Free Press Forum.
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she → thrill → Forum
How should you spend the rest of your weekend?
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you → spend → weekend
We asked our head of product Rachel Price for her recommendations:
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We → ask → recommendations
📚Read. . . every wedding piece Vogue’s ever published.
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Vogue → read → piece
I’m newly engaged (hi, Bryan!) so I’ve fully fallen down the rabbit hole, and what I love most isn’t the dresses or the flowers; it’s the thought process behind every decision a couple makes.
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couple → ’m → decision
By the end of each story, you feel like you really know the couple.
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you → feel → couple
That’s exactly what I want for my own wedding—for people to leave and say, “Wow, that was so them.”
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that → ’ → wedding
Consider this your permission slip to fall down the same rabbit hole, engaged or not.
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this → consider → hole
🍅Eat. . . the last of summer’s peaches and tomatoes before they disappear on us.
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they → eat → us
There’s a short window left to get a really good one of each, and honestly a simple plate of both, maybe with some flaky salt and olive oil, is one of the best things you can eat all year.
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you → ’ → things
I’ve spent this summer basically living on planes, and this is the soundtrack that’s made every single one of them better.
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one → spend → them
That’s all, folks!
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That → ’ → ?
The Aporia
