Float on

Also: Beware the media distortion field ahead [❤️ Donate]( [View in Browser]( August 18, 2024  Dear Cog reader, Summer in New England has a frantic quality to it. We of the land where it is too often miserably gray and cold for seven months of the year feel pressure to take advantage of the sun and heat while we can. And, if you're a parent, you know there are approximately 77 days between the last day of school and the first day of the new school year. That means we have roughly 11 weeks to eat ice cream, sell lemonade, roast marshmallows, go on vacation, catch a baseball game, attend an outdoor concert, collect seashells, see the grandparents.  Doing all the things and making all the memories are well-intentioned impulses; they also can be kind of a lot . By mid-August, as the school year looms, there is suddenly something appealing about not having to slather kids in sunscreen and sort camp pickups. And this mere whiff of relief, with its promise of a return to normal schedules and more appropriate bedtimes, carries with it some remorse of not wanting to wish a moment of this warmest season away, no matter how frantic. August, apparently, contains multitudes.   Enter into the equation Cog's informal mid-August mini-retreat. This is only the second year we've "retreated" in August, but it's become something we look forward to. It's a few hours for us to reconnect, talk about work and life, and dream about the year ahead, with the enthusiasm that comes from being between one season and the next. (The Cog team has a hybrid work schedule - we talk every day, but rarely have an opportunity to collaborate in person. As it happens, Cog editor Kate Neale Cooper was on her own retreat this week: vacation.) This week we sat knee to knee on a sailboat, sandwiches on our laps, a bag of salt and vinegar chips between us, Pepperidge Farm cookies beckoning. Bluetooth speaker playing a slow mix; backpack cooler stuffed with cold cans of Diet Coke and fizzy rose.  On the agenda? Floating.  In this newfound tradition, we jump off the boat into Buzzards Bay, where the strength of the current seems to change by the minute. We buoy ourselves on a pool noodle or tread water, keeping our hearts and legs pumping as we avoid drifting too far from the boat. The water temperature at this time of year is cool but not cold, a perfect compliment to the mid-day sun. And it's there, in the water, with no phones or news or kids to distract us, where we float. It's where the ideas come, and where we set an intention for the year ahead.  In the immortal words of Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."  It wouldn't work to do this exercise in the middle of summer, when our minds are whirring with all the busyness of the season. Especially this summer. Between an [election-altering debate]( in late June, an assassination attempt, President Biden's decision to step aside (setting up a [historic race]( the White House), a [joyous Olympics]( and devastating wars abroad, it's been a challenge to keep pace.  But by mid-August, nature beckons us to slow down: the crickets' chirps grow in intensity; the hydrangeas have lost their colors; the mornings are cool; the sun feels less sharp than it did even a few weeks ago. Fall is coming.  Katherine May's book "[Wintering]( is about the rhythm of living seasonally, and her latest, "Enchanted," is about finding wonder in our everyday lives. "You have to keep pursuing it until you get that tingle that tells you that you've found something that's magical to you," May said [in a New York Times]( interview.  Whether it's Ferris Bueller, or Katherine May, or just your Cog editors out for a float, here's to what we find when we make space to slow down, even just for a day. To help you savor summer's last gasps, [we made a playlist]( of some of the songs we listened to on the water - songs that are getting us through. We hope you enjoy it.  Until soon, Cloe Axelson Senior Editor, Cognoscenti Sara Shukla Editor, Cognoscenti Must Reads [Republican attacks on Tim Walz's military service are baseless]( JD Vance is trying to "swift boat" Tim Walz. But in style and substance Vance, Trump and their Republican colleagues have shown nothing but contempt and disregard for our men and women in uniform, writes Andrew Carleen, a U.S. Navy veteran. [Read more.]( [Republican attacks on Tim Walz's military service are baseless]( JD Vance is trying to "swift boat" Tim Walz. But in style and substance Vance, Trump and their Republican colleagues have shown nothing but contempt and disregard for our men and women in uniform, writes Andrew Carleen, a U.S. Navy veteran. [Read more.]( [Beware the media distortion field ahead]( Donald Trump has yet to find an effective line of attack against Kamala Harris, writes Steve Almond. But once he does, he's likely to find a willing accomplice in the corporate media, because it's better for their bottom line to amplify controversy than articulate and explain policy. [Read more.]( [Beware the media distortion field ahead]( Donald Trump has yet to find an effective line of attack against Kamala Harris, writes Steve Almond. But once he does, he's likely to find a willing accomplice in the corporate media, because it's better for their bottom line to amplify controversy than articulate and explain policy. [Read more.]( [Shall we dance? How the cha-cha helped my marriage]( No matter how old we are, the discomfort of learning to do basic dance steps with strangers is one way to become a kinder person. Especially to your spouse, writes Molly M. Schpero. [Read more.]( [Shall we dance? How the cha-cha helped my marriage]( No matter how old we are, the discomfort of learning to do basic dance steps with strangers is one way to become a kinder person. Especially to your spouse, writes Molly M. Schpero. [Read more.]( [AI teaching assistants are no match for human beings]( Morehouse College will introduce AI teaching assistants in some classes this fall. Replacing human TAs with AI that uses the same technology many schools and teachers prohibit seems hypocritical at best and irresponsible at worst, writes Joelle Renstrom. [Read more.]( [AI teaching assistants are no match for human beings]( Morehouse College will introduce AI teaching assistants in some classes this fall. Replacing human TAs with AI that uses the same technology many schools and teachers prohibit seems hypocritical at best and irresponsible at worst, writes Joelle Renstrom. [Read more.]( What We're Reading "They gathered in the predawn dark. Bleary-eyed children squirmed. Adults lugging babies and backpacks stood at attention as someone working under the command of Colombia's most powerful drug cartel, the Gulf Clan, shouted instructions into a megaphone, temporarily drowning out the cacophony of the jungle's birds and insects." "[Seventy Miles in Hell]( The Atlantic. "Raygun, real name Rachael Gunn, instantly became a viral sensation - notoriety that only skyrocketed when the public learned that Gunn, who won none of her Olympics battles, actually has a PhD in breakdancing. Yes, really." "[How Raygun earned her spot - fair and square - as an Olympics breaker]( Vox. "I didn't understand what had happened to me. How I, a person who had been drinking and using for well over two decades with no major problems, had arrived at a point where substance use threatened to ruin my life." "[Covid gave me 2 options: Give in to alcohol addiction, or choose life]( The Washington Post.   "It's Friday night and my husband Jeff and I are in a suburban Connecticut dance studio, learning the cha-cha with 12 other adults. " - Molly M. Schpero, "[Shall we dance? How the cha-cha helped my marriage](   ICYMI [Call the vice president by her (last) name]( There's certainly a place for the familiarity the vice president has invited into her campaign that reaches voters across generations, writes Laura Hertzfeld. But we can and should move to the formal when we're talking about Kamala Harris and her campaign in our workplaces, in our newsrooms and even at the dinner table. [Read more.]( [Call the vice president by her (last) name]( There's certainly a place for the familiarity the vice president has invited into her campaign that reaches voters across generations, writes Laura Hertzfeld. But we can and should move to the formal when we're talking about Kamala Harris and her campaign in our workplaces, in our newsrooms and even at the dinner table. [Read more.]( If you'd like to write for Cognoscenti, send your submission, pasted into your email and not as an attachment, to opinion@wbur.org. Please tell us in one line what the piece is about, and please tell us in one line who you are. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 🔎 Explore [WBUR's Field Guide]( stories, events and more. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📧 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. [Check out all of our newsletter offerings.](   [Donate](   # # Want to change how you receive these emails? Stop getting this newsletter by [updating your preferences](.   I don't want to hear from WBUR anymore. Unsubscribe from all WBUR editorial newsletters [here](.   Interested in learning more about corporate sponsorship? [Click here](. 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