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.

The lives of famous musicians have always inspired intense curiosity from fans and the press alike, sometimes to an unhealthy degree. A peek inside—learning where these artists sleep and what they eat, what music carries them through long nights, what their biggest fears are—can feel like finally glimpsing the unknowable. It makes them, and their art, feel just a little more human. Today’s newsletter explores the inner lives of well-known artists.

On Musicians’ Lives

What the Band Eats

By Reya Hart

Memories of the meals I ate growing up with the Grateful Dead

Read the article.

How the Beatles Wrote ‘A Day in the Life’

By Nicholas Dawidoff

Fifty years after its release, the sprawling closing track on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band remains a testament to the group’s ambitious songwriting.

Read the article.

The Improbable, Unstoppable Rise of Goose

By Charlie Warzel

Meet the jam band that just might persuade you to love a jam band.

Read the article.

Still Curious?

How a band falls apart, according to Stereophonic: The Tony-winning play explores the heartbreak and turmoil that sometimes accompany great music, Elise Hannum writes. “The songs that shaped my life”: Last year, Jeff Tweedy reflected on Joni Mitchell’s wisdom, Otis Redding’s invitation, and the Beatles’ schematic of love.

Other Diversions

Amazon Haul is an omen. The secret to thinking your way out of anxiety What the internet age is taking away from writers

P.S.

Courtesy of Phil Kunkel

I recently asked readers to share a photo of something that sparks their sense of awe in the world. Phil Kunkel, 72, from St. Cloud, Minnesota, writes, “I looked out of our hotel room window” In Arizona’s Monument Valley “just in time to catch the early morning magic of daylight beginning to appear behind the amazing rock formations for which the Valley is known.”

I’ll continue to feature your responses in the coming weeks.

— Isabel

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.

If you tell five people you have trouble sleeping, you’re likely to get suggestions for five items that you can purchase. “Sleep is going the way of other types of buyable ‘wellness,’” my colleague Megan Garber wrote last year.

As anyone who has tried sleep hacks or sleep gadgets knows, what works for you is a very personal thing. Sleep is a universal human need, but there’s no universal solution to struggling with it. And sometimes the problems behind bad sleep can’t be solved by a mask or an app at all. Today’s newsletter explores sleep hacks, old and new, and how they got so tied up in America’s consumer culture.

On Sleep Tools

Your Pillows Might Be Killing Your Neck

By Olga Khazan

After waking up with a searing pain that radiates down to my shoulders, I hunt for the culprit.

Read the article.

Why Everyone Should Sleep Alone

By Mallika Rao

On the virtues of splitting up for the night

Read the article.

The Protestant Sleep Ethic

By Megan Garber

A recent memoir considers how much we concede when we regard rest as a call to judgment.

Read the article.

Still Curious?

How smartphones hurt sleep: Blue light makes the brain think it’s time to wake up, just as you’re getting ready for bed, Olga Khazan wrote in 2015. “I found the key to sleep”: “It’s my foot,” Amanda Mull wrote in 2019.

Other Diversions

The invention that changed school forever America has an onion problem. “Dear James”: I love to drive fast, and I cannot stop.

P.S.

Courtesy of BD

I recently asked readers to share a photo of something that sparks their sense of awe in the world. BD, 73, in Nederland, Colorado, sent this photo of “watching beautiful crows on a cold winter day.”

I’ll continue to feature your responses in the coming weeks.

— Isabel

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.

You know America’s most controversial appliance when you hear it: The leaf blower is loud, it’s messy, and it’s a hazard to the environment. But Ian Bogost recently argued that we’re thinking about leaf blowers all wrong: “Excessive use of blowers, not the tools themselves, should be taken as the villain here,” he wrote. A full ban on the appliance is impossible as long as yards are part of American life, so limiting its use would be the best path forward.

Today’s newsletter explores the appliances we’ve relied on for decades, and those that claim to usher in new ways of living—with varied success.

On Our Appliances

A Defense of the Leaf Blower

By Ian Bogost

Reassessing America’s most hated appliance

Read the article.

A $700 Kitchen Tool That’s Meant to Be Seen, Not Used

By Ellen Cushing

KitchenAid’s newest stand mixer seems like a great appliance—for people who don’t actually bake.

Read the article.

The Microwave Makes No Sense

By Jacob Sweet

Every kitchen appliance is getting smart—except one.

Read the article.

Still Curious?

Your TV is too good for you: 4K resolution is a sham, Ian Bogost argues. KitchenAid did it right 87 years ago: Modern appliances are rarely built to last. They could learn something from the KitchenAid stand mixer, Anna Kramer argues.

Other Diversions

The silliest, sexiest show of the year Why you might need an adventure Why are baseball players always eating?

P.S.

Courtesy of John Ambrose

I recently asked readers to share a photo of something that sparks their sense of awe in the world. John Ambrose, 72, wrote that he took this photo “looking due west from my front door in Glastonbury, CT. The sky kept changing and went from an orange to a deep pink.”

I’ll continue to feature your responses in the coming weeks.

— Isabel