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Articles by Emily Buder
Why So Many COVID Predictions Were Wrong - The Atlantic
A s many prominent policy makers reckon uncomfortably with persistent inflation after months of forecasting that the phenomenon would be transitory, I’ve started making a list of other pandemic predictions about the economy that never materialized. There was the eviction tsunami and the “she-cession” and the housing-market crash, and you can’t forget the state- and local-government deficit explosion.
Elsewhere is a New Kind of Travel Company
Over the pandemic, entrepreneurs Alexis Bowen and Craig Zapatka co-founded Elsewhere, a new travel company that puts destination welfare and authentic experiences first. When the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Japan in February 2020, passengers and crew had no idea of the storm that was brewing. Soon, 1 in 10 employees of the global tourism industry would lose their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic: a whopping 62 million in total.
Box Tops for Education Struggles After Switch to an App
Updated at 2:12 p.m. ET on April 16, 2021. For many young adults and their parents, the words box tops evoke fond memories of cutting out cardboard rectangles and stuffing them into Ziploc bags to carry to school. The Box Tops for Education program, founded in 1996, is a General Mills initiative that allows families to redeem labels from eligible food and household products for 10-cent contributions to their schools.
The Double Meaning of the American Dream
Having moved from the teeming cityscape of Taipei to the rural American South in the 1970s as a preteen, I know something of the shock, at once awe-inspiring and estranging, of that first sight of the great American landscape—just sheer land—that seems to stretch on forever. Watching Minari, the new semi-autobiographical film from Lee Isaac Chung about a Korean-American family newly arrived in the heartlands of 1980s Arkansas, I remember again that uncanny sense of feeling at once free and lost.
Coastal Darkening Is a Hidden Environmental Nuisance
Around the world, coastal waters are steadily growing darker. This darkening—a change in the water’s color and clarity—has the potential to cause huge problems for oceans and their inhabitants. “It’s affecting the quality of the sea we know,” says Oliver Zielinski, who runs the Coastal Ocean Darkening project at the University of Oldenburg in Germany. These “changes in the physics will lead to biological changes,” he adds.
What Is Hyperpop? - The Atlantic
This article was published online on February 14, 2021. In music and on roller coasters, speediness makes for the fun kind of scariness. When young punk rockers raised on the Ramones began to play their own music in the early 1980s, the rat-a-tat rumble of “Blitzkrieg Bop” accelerated into something called the blast beat: an all-out rhythmic carpet-bombing over which vocalists would groan about Satan, Ronald Reagan, and the resemblance between the two.
Meet One of NASA’s Pioneering Women
We care about your data, and we'd like to use cookies to give you a smooth browsing experience. Please agree and read more about our privacy policy. Christine Darden describes what it was like working at NASA in the 1960s and how she became an authority on minimizing sonic booms. Read related article Popular videos How Did Life Begin on Earth? Where Did the Universe Come From? Liz MacDonald on the strangest auroras in the world.
Two New Films Honor August Wilson's Rebellion
It’s a glorious moment for devotees of the late, great playwright August Wilson, even with many theaters closed. Netflix has two new Wilson films on offer: a swift, sumptuous version of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and the heartening documentary Giving Voice, about high-school students who discover the thrill and resonance of Wilson’s characters while preparing for a national monologue competition.
Review: ‘The Power of Adrienne Rich’ by Hilary Holladay Original
The Power of Adrienne Rich: A Biography by Hilary Holladay Nan A. Talese Illustration by Celina Pereira; photographs by Bettmann; Richard Lautens / Toronto Star / Getty In 1952, in her native Baltimore, Adrienne Rich delivered her first public lecture, “Some Influences of Poetry Upon the Course of History.” She was 23. Over the next 59 years, Rich (1929–2012) would herself alter both poetry and history. As an author, a teacher, and an editor, she helped define American feminism.
How Do You Find a Home for a Foster Child at a Time Like This?
When Jessica started to experience intense chest pain in March, she was terrified that she might have the coronavirus. Then her foster son started to experience symptoms too. The high school in western New York State where she taught had just closed. She couldn’t get a test to confirm that her respiratory illness was indeed COVID-19, and she was confused about whether she should go to the emergency room or just stay home. She is single, and was her foster son’s only guardian.
Why Trump’s Rapid-Testing Plan Worries Scientists
The sun was beaming, the air was clear, and it seemed as if President Donald Trump was finally taking coronavirus testing seriously. Standing in the White House Rose Garden early last week, Trump announced to buoyant officials that a “massive and groundbreaking expansion” in testing was under way: The federal government had purchased 150 million new coronavirus tests from the company Abbott Laboratories. These new rapid tests were “from a different planet,” Trump boasted. He was right.
Remote Learning Is a Bad Joke
One exciting thing about being alive at this pivotal moment in history is that I’m constantly learning about strong opinions I didn’t previously know I had. Before mid-March 2020, if you’d asked me how I felt about videoconferencing, I’d have shrugged. It’s fine? Now I would have to amend that opinion slightly. It’s not fine. It’s horrible, a form of psychic torture, and I hate it so deeply that my hatred feels physical, like an allergic reaction.
How To Rewrite Economic History
"THE one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it," Oscar Wilde said. In line with that aphorism, the Advisory Commission to Study the Consumer Price Index, chaired , has rewritten the economic history of the past twenty-five years. The Boskin Commission was formed at the behest of the Senate Finance Committee. Last December it released its long-awaited report on the CPI.
Christopher Buckley on Satire in the Age of Trump
In 1999, when Donald Trump was first toying with the idea of giving his countrymen the honor of voting for him for president, the notion was so absurd that Christopher Buckley took to The Wall Street Journal to publish his rendition of a Trump inaugural address. “My fellow Americans,” Buckley’s Trump began, “this is a great day for me personally.” Twenty years later, Buckley remains the master satirist of Washington life.
The Malignant Cruelty of Donald Trump
“I’m asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong to him—the memory of my dead wife—and perverted it for perceived political gain.” There may be a more damning thing that’s been said about an American president, but none immediately comes to mind.
What It’s Like to Survive Being Shot by the Police
Video by Jackson Tisi In November 2012, Leon Ford was pulled over by two Pittsburgh police officers. It was a routine traffic stop—at least, it was supposed to be, until one of the officers, who is white, mistook Ford, who is black, for a wanted gang member. Ford was able to confirm his identity with a license, insurance, and registration papers. Nonetheless, one of the officers jumped into Ford’s car and attempted to forcibly remove him from it. Ford was unarmed and terrified. He resisted.
The 'Just Stay Home' Message Will Backfire
For about two months now, Americans have been told the same thing over and over again by public-health officials and influencers everywhere: Stay home to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The message is true. If we all stay hermetically sealed in our homes for long enough, the virus will die out; if we don’t, it will linger. But framing the message in such a stark way may inadvertently encourage people to make worse choices.
‘COVID-19 Is a Delirium Factory’
In a new documentary from The Atlantic, coronavirus survivors describe frightening experiences in the intensive-care unit. Emily BuderAnnalise PasztorVishakha Darbha May 8, 2020 The 35-year-old COVID-19 survivor Leah Blomberg doesn’t remember being rushed to the intensive-care unit, where she would spend 18 days fighting for her life on a ventilator. What she does remember is far more traumatic. “I woke up to something that I would never have imagined,” Blomberg told me.
Epidemiologist Tara Smith Answers Coronavirus Questions
Highlights from Tara C. Smith’s live YouTube event on May 1, 2020, in which she answered reader questions about the COVID-19 pandemic. Read related article Popular videos How Does Symmetry Shape Nature’s Laws? How Did Life Begin on Earth? What Is Universality? What Happens if You Fall Into a Black Hole? Where Did the Universe Come From? Edward O.
Filmmakers Are Allowed to Grieve: A Meditation on the Cancellation of SXSW
Last year, Rebecca Stern got her big break. Her feature debut, Well Groomed, was selected to premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. It was the moment that Stern, a documentary filmmaker, had been building up to for five years—and it paid off big time. At the festival, Stern’s film, about an eccentric cohort of dog groomers, garnered attention from press and buyers, including HBO, which bought the film for its streaming platform HBO Sports.
The Story of Christopher Thomas Knight, the Last True Hermit
For decades, the residents of Maine’s Kennebec Valley believed that the North Pond hermit was a myth. According to local lore, a hermit had been living undetected in the woods since the 1980s; every so often, he would break into seasonal cabins to steal food and other resources. But no one could prove the hermit’s existence—if he was out there, he had taken great pains to guarantee his isolation. Then, in April 2013, a man was arrested in the deep woods of Maine.
‘My Boyfriend Died of COVID-19’
The Atlantic Selects Apr 20, 2020 | 831 videos Video by Olmo Parenti As 2019 drew to a close, a young woman, Niuniu, and her fiancé, Tongsheng, looked forward to a bright future. In the spring, as the cherry blossoms fell in Wuhan, the couple would get married. They had started saving up to buy a house. Just a month later, however, their dreams came to a grinding halt.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister May Be the Most Effective Leader on the Planet
The coronavirus pandemic may be the largest test of political leadership the world has ever witnessed. Every leader on the planet is facing the same potential threat. Every leader is reacting differently, in his or her own style. And every leader will be judged by the results. German Chancellor Angela Merkel embraces science. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro rejects it.
How Humanity Unites in Social Distance
The Atlantic Selects Apr 15, 2020 | 828 videos Video by Ivan Cash and Jacob Jonas Amid what can feel like a constant deluge of depressing news, A Social Distance is a glimmer of hope and a welcome reprieve. The short documentary—co-directed by Jacob Jonas and Ivan Cash, scored by Steve Hackman, and premiering on The Atlantic today—offers a window into the ordinary quarantine experiences of people from more than 30 countries.
America's Fail-Safe Systems Are Holding-For Now
Beyoncé had left the stadium in triumph. Her sultry renditions of “Crazy in Love” and other hits had culminated in the surprise onstage reunion of Destiny’s Child. But just a few minutes later, during the third quarter of Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans in 2013, half the lights went out in the Superdome. For 34 minutes, the stadium plunged into semidarkness, complete mayhem headed off only by backup systems that kicked in to keep the stadium and 71,000 spectators in half light.
Inside Italy’s Hospitals: A Disturbing Look at the Coronavirus Up Close
On March 24, filmmaker Olmo Parenti went inside Milan’s Polyclinic, one of the major hospitals fighting the coronavirus pandemic in the country. All 900 beds were occupied with patients suffering from complications of the virus. There were older patients struggling to breathe on ventilators, Parenti told me.
6 Culturally-Engaging International Films
If you’re anything like me, you had a trip planned for the spring or summer. I spent most of the cold New York winter saving up to travel to Crete for my friend’s wedding in June. I was hoping to bookend the weekend with jaunts to Athens, Santorini, and other Greek destinations that had lived in my imagination since childhood. Now, of course, the wedding’s off—and like most of the world, I’m likely to spend my summer socially-distancing in hot, sweaty parks within walking distance of my apartment.
The Great Toilet-Paper Shortage Scare
It started with an unsubstantiated rumor. “You can laugh now,” Johnny Carson said on The Tonight Show on December 19, 1973, “but there is an acute shortage of toilet paper.” There wasn’t—but it didn’t matter. The broadcast sent America into a mass panic. Millions of shoppers swarmed into grocery stores and began hoarding toilet paper. Ex nihilo, a shortage was born. The Scott Paper Company urged people to stop panic-buying the product.
Messages From Italians Quarantined in the Coronavirus Pandemic
When the Italian media began reporting on the increased community spread of the novel coronavirus across the country, Olmo Parenti, like many Italian citizens, didn’t take the threat of the pandemic too seriously. “My friends and I were almost mocking the few people who believed the issue was serious from the get-go,” Parenti, a young filmmaker, told me. Just days later, Parenti felt like he was living in a different version of reality—a dystopian one.
How the Director of 'The Nowhere Inn' Promoted Himself from PA to 'Portlandia' to Sundance
Carrie Brownstein and Annie Clark co-wrote and star in The Nowhere Inn, an insane journey down the rabbit hole of fame. Carrie Brownstein is making a music documentary about her friend Annie Clark (known to most people as St. Vincent). Unlike her rock star persona, though, the real Clark is... exceedingly normal. How Brownstein will manage to make her movie interesting is the premise of Bill Benz's Sundance premiere The Nowhere Inn.
Voicemails for the U.K.'s Minister of Loneliness
In January 2018, Theresa May, then the prime minister of the United Kingdom, made an unusual appointment: Tracey Crouch would serve as the world’s first minister for loneliness. The position, May said, would address the fact that, for an estimated 9 million U.K. citizens, “loneliness is the sad reality of modern life.” At the time, Alice Aedy, a British filmmaker in her 20s, was disconcerted by the news. “The idea of a minister for loneliness sounded very dystopian—almost Orwellian,” Aedy told me.
How Benh Zeitlin Made an ‘Impossible’ Film (and Why the Industry Is ‘Disturbing’)
After the breakout success of Beasts of the Southern Wild, Benh Zeitlin had Hollywood in his pocket. But he refused to play its game. When it comes to Sundance success stories, nothing quite rivals 2012's Beasts of the Southern Wild. The micro-budget film was produced by a small, scrappy New Orleans filmmaking collective and helmed by a first-time director. It starred non-professional actors and was made guerilla-style, with the crew often working out of an abandoned gas station in the Bayou.
Bessie Coleman: The First African American Pilot and Daredevil Aviatrix That History Forgot
Bessie Coleman wanted more out of life. Her parents were sharecroppers in rural Texas, and she had spent her childhood picking cotton and doing laundry for white people. It was 1915. Opportunities were scarce for African Americans—let alone women of color. If Coleman wanted more, she realized, she had to go north. She moved to Chicago as part of the Great Migration and took a job at a barbershop. In her free time, Coleman began to read about flying.
What Kids Lost in California’s Wildfires
The Atlantic Selects Mar 02, 2020 | 822 videos Video by Whitney Legge The first thing Whitney Legge noticed at the Red Cross shelter was that, in the midst of so much chaos, the children were building houses. These kids and their families had just been evacuated from the path of a California wildfire that was raging in their hometown of Santa Rosa. They didn’t yet know it, but many were already homeless.
The Ghosts of the Roma
The Atlantic Selects Feb 28, 2020 | 821 videos Video by Astra Zoldnere For 500 years, the Latvian Roma people have been collecting berries in the Kurzeme forest. As one woman puts it, “a Roma without forest isn’t a Roma.” The woman is part of a Roma family that Astra Zoldnere follows in her short documentary Blueberry Spirits. “It wasn’t easy to earn their trust,” she told me. “I had to live with them in the forest for a while.” Zoldnere traded in their currency—stories—by sharing some of her own.
Cronenberg's Psycho-Horror 'Possessor' Is a Masterclass in Inventing Practical Effects and Playing with Vintage Lenses
Brandon Cronenberg and DP Karim Hussain spent 7 years developing Possessor, during which they invented a full library of practical effects and a groundbreaking approach to cinematography. When it comes to the Cronenbergs, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree—especially if that apple is a prosthetic head, and if it smashes into bloody pieces when it hits the ground. Brandon Cronenberg, David Cronenberg's son, has continued in his father's tradition of pioneering sci-fi body-horror.
The First Days of the Trump Regime
There are two kinds of Republican senators who voted to acquit Donald Trump in his impeachment trial two weeks ago: those who acknowledged he was guilty and voted to acquit anyway, and those who pretended the president had done nothing wrong.
Rather Than Divorce, Two Couples Tried a Group Marriage. It Didn’t Work.
It was 1969, and eight-year-old Amy Grappell thought her house was haunted. She’d seen shadows pass her bedroom door in the dark of the night. Once, she was sure she heard a ghost; the stairs creaked as if the specter were walking in the hallway. Amy mustered some courage and got out of bed. A strange man was coming out of her mother’s bedroom. Was he real? They met eyes. “Are you sleeping with my mother?” the child asked.
Sean Durkin, the Indie Master of Tension, on 'The Nest' and the Worst Advice He Got in Film School
9 years after 'Martha Marcy May Marlene,' Sean Durkin is back at Sundance with a haunting psycho-thriller. Nine years, ago, Sean Durkin barrelled into Sundance with his first feature, Martha Marcy May Marlene. It was a movie about a cult that turned into a cult movie, and with good reason—Durkin's command of tension and atmosphere, anchored by a star-turn performance by Elizabeth Olsen, made the haunting psychological thriller impossible to look away from.
Sean Durkin, the Indie Master of Tension, on 'The Nest' and Worst Advice He Got in Film School
9 years after 'Martha Marcy May Marlene,' Sean Durkin is back at Sundance with a haunting psycho-thriller. Nine years, ago, Sean Durkin barrelled into Sundance with his first feature, Martha Marcy May Marlene. It was a movie about a cult that turned into a cult movie, and with good reason—Durkin's command of tension and atmosphere, anchored by a star-turn performance by Elizabeth Olsen, made the haunting psychological thriller impossible to look away from.
'I Signed the Petition': The Meaning of Palestinian Identity in Today's World
In 2017, the Danish Palestinian filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel was asked to sign a petition. As part of an international tour, Radiohead was scheduled to play in Tel Aviv, and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement was urging Palestinians across the world to protest the concert. “As a filmmaker, I’ve never seen myself as an activist, so I hesitated,” Fleifel told me. “Should I or should I not sign this petition?” And if he did, Fleifel wondered, “what difference does it really make?” He signed.
The Thrills, Chills, Nightmares, and Dreams Come True of Having a Feature at Sundance
Lance Oppenheim and Daniel Garber tell us about the 'exhausting' experience of premiering a film at Sundance and trying to make the most of the festival. The Sundance Diaries is a series of three articles in which Lance Oppenheim, director of Some Kind of Heaven, and Daniel Garber, the film's editor, take us with them on their first experience at Sundance with a premiere.
Inside the Oscars Live-Action Shorts: 'Don't Let the Buzz Kill Your Independence'
Three Oscar-nominated shorts directors reveal the challenges they faced in production and more. Last year, the Oscar-nominated live-action shorts had a clear thematic throughline: coming-of-age stories. When I spoke to the directors, they told me that the nominations had opened the door to Hollywood. This year, I spoke to three Oscar-nominated shorts directors: Marshall Curry (The Neighbor's Window), Bryan Buckley (Saria), and Meryam Joobeur (Brotherhood).
65 Super Bowl Commercials, 2 Oscar-Nominated Shorts, and Some Tough-Love Filmmaking Advice
Bryan Buckley, who's called 'the King of the Super Bowl,' gives some real-world advice about breaking into commercial directing. Bryan Buckley is the King of the Super Bowl. At least, that's what the New York Times dubbed him, along with "the 30-second auteur." They're fitting monikers—Buckley has helmed more than 65 Super Bowl commercials. His spot this year, starring John Krasinski and Chris Evans, was for Hyundai.
The Haunting Unspoken Drama of Sundance-Winning 'Never Rarely Sometimes Always'
Eliza Hittman's abortion drama features understated performances and mesmerizing cinematography. Eliza Hittman knows something that many filmmakers don't: words can kill drama. In her Sundance Special Jury Award-winning premiere, she wields this knowledge to remarkable effect. Never Rarely Sometimes Always is the story of 17-year-old Autumn (Sidney Flanigan), who, due to abortion restrictions in her state, travels from small-town Pennsylvania to New York City to end her unplanned pregnancy.
Emerging From ‘The Cave': A Short Documentary on Dr. Amani Ballour
The Atlantic Selects Feb 04, 2020 | 818 videos Video by Feras Fayyad In August 2013, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad launched a massive chemical attack on the rebel stronghold of Al Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus. More than 1,400 civilians were killed that day.
Why Men Think Plant-Based Meat Will Turn Them Into Women
Burger King’s inaugural commercial for the Impossible Whopper, the plant-based burger it launched internationally in November, is dominated by burly men biting down and experiencing aggressive disbelief. In a hidden-camera scenario, loyal consumers of the Whopper are deceived, receiving an otherwise-identical burger whose patty has been forged from soy by the company Impossible Foods. True to the brand name, the men appear incredulous. Two are only able to process their emotions by swearing.
These Design Prototypes Underscore the Border Wall's Absurdity
The Atlantic Selects Jan 31, 2020 | 816 videos Video by Luis Gutiérrez Arias and John Henry Theisen In November 2017, eight imposing edifices were built in Otay Mesa, near Tijuana. Some were topped with slick steel and spiky barbed wire; others featured bollard-style columns affixed to 30-foot-high slabs of metal and concrete. These were the winning prototypes of President Donald Trump’s border-wall design contest.
Sundance's Record-Breaking Deals Are a Cease-Fire in the Streaming Wars
An emerging hybrid deal structure means that filmmakers don't have to choose between selling to a streaming platform and a theatrical distributor. The biggest breakout success of last year's Sundance was Lulu Wang's The Farewell, which premiered to unanimous critical acclaim and quickly became the crown jewel of the festival's hype cycle. Inevitably, the bidding wars ensued.
In Duterte’s War on Drugs, Where Do All the Bodies Go?
Editor’s Note: This film contains some graphic imagery. During his campaign for the Philippine presidency in 2016, Rodrigo Duterte ran on a platform of a “relentless” war on drugs that promised to purge the country of narcotics-related violence. Once in office, Duterte encouraged vigilante death squads and police task forces to commit extrajudicial murders of suspected drug users and dealers. In his first month, nearly 600 people were killed with impunity.
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