Welcome back to The Daily's Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer or editor reveals what's keeping them entertained. Today's special guest is Isaac Stanley-Becker, a staff writer who has reported on Steve Witkoff's role as President Donald Trump's 'shadow secretary of state,' the early tenure of Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, and the dire situation at the Federal Aviation Administration. Isaac has crowned 'Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands' as the greatest song of all time, enjoys rereading old email exchanges with friends, and is transfixed by the ambiguous nature of Mark Rothko's paintings. A good recommendation I recently received: A German politician recently recommended Michael Young's satirical 1958 novel The Rise of the Meritocracy to me. The book popularized the term meritocracy, but Young, a sociologist who helped develop Britain's postwar welfare state, meant it as a pejorative. His story envisions a dystopian future society stratified by...
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