The Atlantic

A Portrait of an Obsolete Man

Culture and entertainment musts from Caleb Madison
Source: TCD / Prod.DB / Alamy

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.

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 Caleb Madison, The Atlantic’s very own crossword-puzzles editor and the author of the Good Word newsletter. He has written about why AI doesn’t get slang, the true meaning of meta, and the two most dismissive words on the internet.

Caleb recently ventured through the filmography of the director John Ford; his journey culminated in a screening of , starring John Wayne. His other cultural interests include probing the “neoliberal child-product” of —a movie he truly enjoys, for the record—and reading Emily Wilson’s “colloquial.

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Atlantic

The Atlantic4 min read
The Message in the Sky Over Los Angeles
For nearly as long as Los Angeles has been a city, the sky above it has changed colors, for short and long spells, at times portending doom. It happened again this week. Winds that would not be out of place in a hurricane roared down the western slop
The Atlantic5 min read
The Unfightable Fire
In an ember storm, every opening in a house is a portal to hell. A vent without a screen, a crack in the siding, a missing roof tile—each is an opportunity for a spark to smolder. A gutter full of dry leaves is a cradle for an inferno. Think of a ros
The Atlantic4 min read
Trump’s Sentencing Made No One Happy
Donald Trump, the first convicted felon to be elected president, was sentenced today in his New York hush-money case, pleasing virtually no one. Justice Juan Merchan sentenced the president-elect to an unconditional discharge, meaning Trump will face

Related Books & Audiobooks