Congratulations to @elcush, winner of the James Beard Foundation's 2026 Craig Claiborne Distinguished Criticism Award and to @yeahyeahyasmin for winning the James Beard Health and Wellness writing award. Read their excellent work at @TheAtlantic.

a fun fact about "whole milk" is that it's not actually whole milk, but skim milk that has fat added back to a standardized 3.25% meanwhile, the actual fat content of milk coming from cows has quietly been going up and up, because of breakthroughs in genetics and nutrition theatlantic.com/science/2026…

Imagine walking from here into Prospect Park without crossing a mini-highway.

Quite something to see this all laid out in such stark detail. Excellent reporting from @hanamkiros. Gift link here because everyone should read this: theatlantic.com/health/archi…

The nine-person board was already down to three members. Then, on Monday, the White House sent them an ultimatum: Fire the CEO, or be fired. Wild reporting from @AlexCKaufman theatlantic.com/science/arch…

SCOOP: Yesterday, Trump issued an ultimatum to the three remaining board members he hasn't yet fired at the Tennessee Valley Authority: Fire the CEO or prepare to be fired. The board balked, aruging the CEO is following Trump's energy agenda. But insiders suspect the president is angling to install an ally who could help revive privatization plans.

The Trump administration will pay to incinerate enough food to feed 1.5 million children for a week. When the packets burn, their labels will read: THIS PRODUCT IS A GIFT FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 500 tons, from us, to no one.

This is quite something. Excellent reporting from @isaacstanbecker: theatlantic.com/politics/arc…

My little brother’s friend—a 10th grader—lost it sports betting on Robinhood, of all places. Gambling has never been this easy or accepted! And the government allocates exactly zero dollars to help people being consumed by it. gift link theatlantic.com/health/archi…

The great @MariahCBlake has written a powerful new book about the campaign to hide the dangers of forever chemicals. The Washington Post called it “riveting,” a “deft chronicle of one of the greatest moral scandals of our time,” and “a book that none of us can afford to miss.”

HHS can make ineffective resources available to states but… no one has to take them (great reporting here by @NicholasFlorko) theatlantic.com/health/archi…

Who needs a good medical mystery for Friday morning? by @shayla__love theatlantic.com/health/archi…

Lots of people have been speculating about Elon Musk’s ketamine use, and so I wrote about what we do know about prolonged, heavy ketamine use in samples of recreational users. Many of these risks are well-known already in psychedelic circles. theatlantic.com/health/archi…

Here's a thread for my fellow night owls. The five most-popular stories from The Atlantic right now, all free to read with the following links:

A White House official tells @JonLemire that Trump remains enamored of Musk in part because Trump relishes the idea of the richest man alive working for *him*

This is not just an ideological fight over which words to use, @KatherineJWu reports, but a purge of data with substanital implications for scientific understanding.

Data on CDC's website is being removed to comply with the Trump administration’s ongoing attempt to scrub federal agencies of any mention of gender, DEI, and accessibility, @katherinejwu reports: theatlantic.com/health/archi…