'Forged in the fire of the food world's worst excesses'

'"The Bear" wants you to stop worshipping toxic chefs'

Aaron Timms at The New York Times

We have "started treating chefs as temperamental rock stars and restaurants as a barometer of cultural vitality," says Aaron Timms. But this came with "heightened scrutiny of the restaurant industry's failings: poor pay, punishing hours, a toxic culture of macho aggression and brutality." FX and Hulu's "The Bear" is a "televised fantasy of a better, more moral restaurant culture — with better, more moral chefs," and this is "what makes the show such intoxicating entertainment."

Read more

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

'Forget deepfake videos. Text and voice are this election's true AI threat.'

Jessica Alter and Jonathan Stray at The Hill

The "conversation on AI is far too focused on video deepfakes," says Jessica Alter and Jonathan Stray. A "subtler but more pervasive threat looms: AI-generated text and voice misinformation aimed at voter suppression." Despite the headlines, there are "only a handful of examples of video deepfakes in politics." But "short-form text messages are easy to produce convincingly at scale, and the hardest to detect as AI-generated." This "makes them the most concerning" ahead of the election. 

Read more

'If Trump claims he's master of the economic universe in the debate, he'll be lying'

Jackie Calmes at the Los Angeles Times

Under Joe Biden, the economy "grew last year more than in any year of Trump's term," so "consider this something of a pre-buttal of Trump's false, hyperbolic or questionable claims to be master of the economic universe," says Jackie Calmes. The bottom line is that "Biden beats Trump, with less debt and more deficit reduction." Trump "would actually spawn a recession before 2025 ended, thanks largely to his twin obsessions: tariffs and immigrants."

Read more

'What's really behind the push to end no-fault divorce'

Jill Filipovic at CNN

"Conservatives argue that marriage is a lifelong commitment and a good unto itself," but it is "strange to make the case that it's somehow pro-family to force someone to remain married to another," says Jill Filipovic. It is "worth asking what kind of person would want to legally compel a spouse to stay with them." The "push to end no-fault divorce is still fairly nascent," but has "scored several major victories, and seems to be expanding its agenda."

Read more