We’ll hear no more about ski season or shoulder season or whatever it is you prefer to call this particular time of year. It’s allergy season, baby! When we can see through our watery, itchy eyeballs, this is what we’re enjoying.
What We Read
ThisNew York Timespiece aboutis a laugh a minute. “Kind bars are treated as a kind of bumper crop, and the most sought-after luxury is bread, prized for its role as a base for different toppings,” writes Jamie Lauren Keiles. With a lighthearted approach, she considers lunchtime hacks and the ethics of snacking among white-collar workers. Enjoy it over your “little office mezze platter.”
—Ali Van Houten, editorial fellow
I thoroughly enjoyed byNew York Timestravel columnistStephanie Rosenbloom. The book is broken up into four parts—one for each season and cityRosenbloom visited as part of her experiment in spending time alone—spring: Paris, summer: Istanbul, fall: Florence, and winter: New York. Each part is then further broken down into sections like food, nerve, silence, and home, which house stories about her own experiences, with solid reporting on the science and psychology of solitude expertly tied in. I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves travel (andEat, Pray, Love) or anyone who has forgotten the art of savoring, and the magic that can happen when we put down our devices and simply walk outside.
—Jenny Earnest, audience development director
Heather Hansman’s new bookshowed up in my mailbox yesterday, and I’m already three chapters in. She explores, celebrates, and profiles water use in the American West, andherinspiring prose about floating the Green River solo is sure to make you weepy.If you care at all about the history or future of water in the western states, this is the book to read.
—Katie Cruickshank, digital marketing manager
Call me basic, but I’ve been loving , an annual installment of The New York TimesMagazine devoted to great travel stories. The cover story this yearis of travel guru Rick Steves, which you should absolutely read, but there’s also Caity Weaver , Jon Mooalem, andother great stories. The pieces are all presented beautifully online, but it’s worth it to snag this issue in print. If you missed your chance this year, make a note for the next time around.
—Molly Mirhashem, senior editor
What We Listened To
At midnight on March 1, literally whenBlack History Month endedand Women’s History Month began, Solange dropped her follow-up album to the seminal,and I’ve had it on repeat since then. is like a projection of a dream the singer is having about her hometown ofHouston. Houston is home to lively jazz scene, and it’s wherethat became a mainstay of southern hip-hopwas invented, and Solange incorporates elements from both. There are lazy bass lines meant to rattle your trunk, synth melodies that change mood and tempo with a jazzy swing, and lyrics that are trancelike and repetitive. It’s what thewould sound like if the show had beenset in a hot, humid, and international southern cityinstead of a mostly white, rural, and mountainous Washington logging town.
—Ruben Kimmelman, editorial fellow
The new podcast,from ABC News,does a deep dive into the scandal ofElizabeth Holmes and her company, Theranos. I literally couldn’t stop listening.
—K..
Public Enemy’s Chuck D is a surprising choice to narrate the Spotify podcast. However, the New York hip-hop star draws some illuminating parallels between his own musical scene and that of the seminal punk band, translating itsorigin, success, and ultimate disintegration for an American audience. It’s full of interesting tidbits, like reggae’s influence on the band’s politics and the backstory of itsgroundbreaking female contemporaries, the Slits.
—A...
Investigative seriesgoes long onmultilevel marketing. (Think ofall those women you went to high school with who are now slinging makeup and leggings on their Facebook walls.)Host Jane Marie traces the history of direct marketing all the way back to its Mary Kay roots and examines the very fuzzy line between MLMs and illegal pyramid schemes. At one point, the podcast staff joins one of these companies to see how challenging it really is to make a living off one. (Spoiler: nearly impossible.)I recently binged this on a road trip and was so engrossed that I missed an exit and added 30 miles to my trip. Luckily, I still had plenty of episodes to go.
—Abigail Wise, online managing editor
What We Watched and Otherwise Experienced
If you are a space nerd, I don’t even need to sell you on . The documentary shows the 1969 moon landing mostly using remastered footage from almost every single moment of the six-day round-trip. It was fascinating (and a little weird) to see the launch spectators, astronauts, and mission-control center in high definition, especially since I was nowhere near alive when it happened. I guess if the wonder of humans in space doesn’t make you teary-eyed, you’ll still enjoy seeing questionable sixtiesfashion choices in full color.
—Erin Berger, senior editor
Netflix’s new docuseries, profiling the people, events, and drama that is singular to Formula One, has turned me into an auto-racing fan. So much so that I even watched the first race of the season last weekend, at 7 A.M. on a Sunday morning before going skiing.
—K..
This month I saw, a 15-minute film by Charles Post, Max Lowe, and Forest Woodward.The captivating cinematography and exciting storytelling create this one-of-a-kind piece. The film walks you through the journey of migrating raptors as they take flight on their annual pilgrimage down south; volunteers and scientists capture, study, and collect data from the birds to protect themand better understand what’s going on in our climate and ecosystem.Sky Migrationswas an eye-opening piece of the outdoors I didn’tthoroughly understand or know about before and something that happens right in my backyard of New Mexico.
—Petra Zeiler, art director
I’ve been on a documentary kick lately, and I loved on Netflix. The seven-part docuseries from CNN breaks down different elements of the early aughts, from the rise of social media to the financial crisis. Having been 6 to 16 years oldduring this time, I wasn’t fully aware of what I was living through or how monumental it was. Being able to watch all of it happen again as an adult really made me appreciate the era I grew up in and have a better understanding of where we are now. Plus, the goofy throwbacks throughout—the Mac-versus-PC commercials! Napster! Survivor!—make for a fond trip down memory lane.
—Abbey Gingras, social media editorial assistant
Still socked in enduring winter weather?Staying home for spring break to save money but dreaming of traveling anyway? It’s the perfect time to watch the Oscar-nominated films recently available to stream. My favorite has been, a Polish love story and tragedy shot in black in white. It’s a beautiful story, with a beautiful woman and her beautiful voice at its center, but the film’s nuances and thoughtful construction were what I thought about well after the end.
—Tasha Zemke, copy editor