This weekend, listen to a collection of articles from around the New York Times, read by the reporters who wrote them.
Written and narrated by Jeanna Smialek And Jordyn Holman
Beyoncé told us girls rule the world. This summer, she and Taylor Swift seemed to prove it.
Both Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” and Ms. Swift’s “Eras” tours have become cultural phenomena that have spread across social media and are poised to break real-world records. “Eras” could gross over $1 billion, making it the first concert in history to surpass that mark. Some estimates suggest that Beyoncé’s world tour could still bring in more by the time it wraps up in October.
It’s the latest — and some economists say the definitive — iteration of the revenge spending trend that took hold after the pandemic, with people shifting spending away from goods and toward experiences. Taylor Swift and Beyoncé fans spend big bucks, whether it’s on used tickets that cost more than a flight to Europe, or fancy fingernails to match the singers’ wardrobes.
While overall event spending is only just recovering to pre-pandemic levels, the marquee concerts this summer are giving a strong boost to consumption.
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Written and narrated by Ben Sisario
Nothing comes easy when it comes to Jon Batiste, the pianist, television personality, New Orleans musical scion and jazz R&B classic.
He spent seven years as the smiling, melodica-carrying TV bandleader on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, but his greatest recognition came for celebratory protest performances in Brooklyn following the assassination of George Floyd.
He beat out Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish for album of the year at the 2022 Grammys, though his album We Are only garnered a fraction of their sales — and then presented American Symphony, a Whitmanesque canvas of funk and Dixieland jazz, operatic singing and Native American drumming at Carnegie Hall.
Now comes Batiste’s most commercial project to date: World Music Radio, an album featuring guest appearances by Lana Del Rey, Lil Wayne and K-pop girl group NewJeans, created with a team of producers who are behind hits for the likes of Justin Bieber and Drake , with tight-knit hooks designed to fit any Top 40-style streaming playlist.
Cheryl Hensley, a librarian in Houston, was excited to start school. A four-decade veteran of the city’s public school system, she had stocked her library at Lockhart Elementary, a predominantly black school, with $40,000 in new books and won a statewide award for her work.
Then, late last month, Ms Hensley, 62, was told she was no longer needed: the school’s library would be one of dozens to be converted into multi-purpose computer labs, partly used for disciplinary purposes.
The decision to lay off librarians and virtually shut down libraries in some of the city’s poorest schools was the most controversial decision yet by a new group of Houston public school leaders imposed by the government this year on the district and its 187,000 mostly black and Hispanic students was administration by Governor Greg Abbott.
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Written and narrated by Emily Anthes
When Michelle Reininger went to bed on June 15, she wasn’t worried about the weather. The last time she checked, the weather forecast announced scattered showers. But in the middle of the night, an emergency alert rang on her cell phone: a severe thunderstorm warning. Wind speeds of 80 miles per hour were expected. People should take shelter in their homes.
By 5 a.m. the worst was over. Frau Reininger dressed quickly in the dark. She had to check on her charges: the more than 300 residents of Chimp Haven, the nearby chimpanzee sanctuary where she served as colony director.
Chimp Haven is a research chimpanzee retirement home that is currently conducting extreme weather drills to teach the chimpanzees to quickly seek shelter inside when staff members sound the alarm. The ability to recall the chimpanzees on command will help the sanctuary secure the chimpanzees inside before a storm hits, protecting them — and preventing them from fleeing when new opportunities suddenly arise.
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Written by Justin Check And Thomas Gibbons-Neff | Narrated by Justin Check
In the first weeks of the war in Ukraine, as the invading Russian army advanced on Kiev, the Ukrainian government needed arms, and they needed them fast. So the Department of Defense made a desperate and unlikely call.
On the other end of the line was Serhiy Pashinsky, a chain-smoking former lawmaker who had overseen military spending for years. He had spent much of it investigating suspected corruption or rejecting allegations of proprietary trading. Now living in virtual political exile at his country estate, sidelined by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his promises to root out corruption.
“Go out on the street and ask if Pashinsky is a criminal,” Mr. Zelenskyy said on national television in 2019. “I guarantee you that out of 100 people, 100 will say he’s a criminal.”
But Mr. Pashinsky had connections in the gun business and, perhaps just as important, he knew how to operate in a crowd without being intimidated by bureaucracy. In government, that had made him the source of the scandal. This made it invaluable during the war.
He took the call.
Our Reporter Reads are produced by Tally Abecassis, Parin Behrooz, Sarah Diamond, Jack D’Isidoro, Adrienne Hurst and Kate Winslett.
Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Ryan Wegner, Julia Simon and Isabella Anderson.
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