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Welcome back to The Daily’s Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer reveals what’s keeping them entertained.

Today’s special guest is Atlantic staff writer Elaina Plott Calabro. Elaina recently profiled the former 60 Minutes correspondent Lara Logan in an article titled “A Star Reporter’s Break From Reality,” and last winter, she explored the “alternate universe” of the Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Elaina has brought a reproduction of Edward Hopper’s Morning Sun with her to every apartment she’s lived in for the past decade, has been growing up alongside Taylor Swift since the eighth grade, and finds that ’90s songs are the best ones to yell “when slightly overserved.”

First, here are three Sunday reads from The Atlantic:

Zombie Twitter has arrived. The cult classic that captures the stress of social alienation Google isn’t grad school.

The Culture Survey: Elaina Plott Calabro

An actor I would watch in anything: Jeannie Berlin. I came across her for the first time only recently—seven years ago—when she played the prosecutor on HBO’s The Night Of, a phenomenal show. I thought she was a genius, and in a mad dash to consume all her work, I watched Margaret, the 2011 Kenneth Lonergan film, which confirmed for me that she is, without question, one of the greatest artists of our time. [Related: The Night Of reinvents the murder mystery, carefully.]

An author I will read anything by: Paul Bowles. His novel The Sheltering Sky was really formative for me as a writer. The first thing I ever read by him, though, was a short story called “The Frozen Fields.” There’s something so special, I think, about what I’ll call love at first read—encountering an artist for the first time and knowing that it’s not just the work in question that resonates with you, but the person who made it.

A quiet song that I love, and a loud song that I love: Quiet: “White Houses,” by Vanessa Carlton. Loud: “Slide,” by the Goo Goo Dolls; “That’s the Way It Is,” by Celine Dion; “Maybe It Was Memphis,” by Pam Tillis; “Strawberry Wine,” by Deana Carter; and “Mother We Just Can’t Get Enough,” by New Radicals.

My criteria for “loud” is what I feel most compelled to yell when slightly overserved. (It occurs to me as I type that this is almost exclusively ’90s music.)

A musical artist who means a lot to me: Who else but Taylor Swift? I was born in 1993, and she was the artist I grew up with, from eighth grade on. I love her for the obvious reasons—she’s a once-in-a-generation talent, and anyone who says otherwise is just in love with the feeling of being contrarian. But I also suspect that a great many women love her for one of the same reasons they might love Joan Didion (certainly one of the reasons I love Joan Didion): the writing, yes, but also the memory of the girl you were when you first discovered it. Any artist who reminds you of who you were when you were young is bound to stay with you forever. [Related: Taylor Swift knew everything when she was young.]

A painting, sculpture, or other piece of visual art that I cherish: Morning Sun, by Edward Hopper. I’ve toted a reproduction of this painting to every apartment I’ve lived in for the past decade. When I saw it in person for the first time, at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, in 2019, I cried.

A favorite story I’ve read in The Atlantic: “American Democracy Is Only 55 Years Old—And Hanging by a Thread,” by my colleague Vann Newkirk. Like many Americans, I would read Vann on anything. But this piece—part exposition on the Voting Rights Act, part love letter to his late mother—stands out perhaps more than any other magazine story I’ve read in recent years. He employs the second-person so beautifully in this feature; I had—still have—chills from the first line.

An online creator whom I’m a fan of: I’m an Instagram addict, and my favorite creator right now is Valeria Lipovetsky (@valerialipovetsky). She’s a fashion influencer based in Miami, and she’s always making me laugh; I follow any number of women on Instagram for outfit ideas, and I love how she takes fashion seriously but not herself.

A good recommendation I recently received: I think this counts, because wellness has in some sense become like entertainment, but my best friend, Carolina, recently persuaded me to get the Oura Ring, and I’ve got to say—it’s worth the hype.

A poem, or line of poetry, that I return to: “The Years,” by Alex Dimitrov. What a marvel of a piece. These lines, in particular:

You could / tell from their eyes they were / in some other place. 1999 / or 2008 or last June.

The Week Ahead

Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One, a worthy entry into Hollywood’s best action franchise, starring Tom Cruise (in theaters Wednesday) The second season of The Summer I Turned Pretty, based on the novel trilogy by Jenny Han (begins streaming on Prime Video this Thursday) The Centre, by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi, a debut novel about an elite, mysterious language program that guarantees rapid fluency in any language—with a hidden cost (on sale Tuesday)

Essay

Corey Hendrickson / Gallery Stock

The Gravitational Pull of Supervising Kids All the Time

By Stephanie H. Murray

Two Christmases ago, Anna Rollins, a writer based outside Huntington, West Virginia, went on a stroll with her then-5-year-old son. Always itching to do things himself, the boy announced that he wanted to walk alone. When Rollins refused, he countered with a compromise: He would walk on one side of the row of houses, she would walk on the other, and they’d meet at the far end. The trek was only four homes long, in a neighborhood with no through-traffic, so she relented and instructed him to stick to the grass. “This is a good start to independence,” Rollins thought to herself as she walked.

But when she arrived at the meeting spot, her son wasn’t there. She ran around to his side of the block and found it empty.

Read the full article.

More in Culture

The sincerity and absurdity of Hollywood’s best action franchise The greatest museum you’ve never heard of Anohni’s message: To save the world, we’ll have to forgive ourselves. Five books that’ll fit right into your busy schedule When domestic life is like a horror story The psychic toll of class mobility

Catch up on The Atlantic

A radical idea for fixing polarization The most baffling argument a Supreme Court justice has ever made Dystopian fiction becomes reality in France.

Photo Album

Leonel Costa cares for Bobi, his 31-year-old dog, who holds the Guinness World Record for the oldest living dog. He has never been chained or leashed and has always enjoyed roaming through the forest. (Luis Boza / Anadolu Agency / Getty)

A tightrope walker above Barcelona, a summer swim in Massachusetts, and more, in our editor’s selection of the week’s best photos.

Katherine Hu contributed to this newsletter.

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Nippon Ham starter Naoyuki Uwasawa (6-6) was charged with three runs in 6⅔ innings, while Lotte closer Naoya Masuda picked up his league-leading 21st save.