The soundtrack of our kids’ childhoods

Also: Tina Turner gave me hope [Donate ❤️]( [View in Browser](  May 28, 2023 Dear Cog reader, I was not at Gillette Stadium last weekend for Taylor Swift’s epic three-night-stand – but it wasn’t for lack of trying. I desperately wanted Taylor to be my kids’ first big stadium concert. She’s our go-to in the car, the artist who most often provides the soundtrack for our kitchen dance parties. But alas, I couldn’t get into the presale, Ticketmaster was impossible and I wasn’t up for spending God-knows-how-much to land tickets on the secondary market. So, I did the next best thing: I worked on a story about the concert instead. Lucky for all of us, long-time Cog contributor Joanna Weiss did get into the presale. She and her 18-year old daughter, her daughter’s five high school besties and their moms were among the thousands of singing, screaming, shimmying concert-goers last weekend. They took two cars – one for the girls, another for the moms. They had a tailgate, complete with lots of carbs and Taylor Swift cupcakes. Once inside the stadium, moms and daughters parted ways: the girls got the better seats, while moms huddled together in the nosebleed section (three rows from the top of the stadium, behind the stage). I think it’s fair to say the quality of the seats were only a minor factor in the overall experience: they had a blast. “It’s a memory for life,” Joanna [wrote for Cog this week]( “and for a parent, able to join a kid in her happy place, the joy is doubly deep.” The phenomenon that is Taylor Swift must seem odd for the uninitiated. Like, is it really worth all the hype? The money? The traffic? The time? I think what people are missing is context about the role of Swift’s music for a generation of young people. Her discography spans nearly two decades, so for parents at the concert, it was, as Joanna writes, like “[attending the soundtrack of their kids’ childhoods]( We publish our share of heavy essays at Cog; sometimes it's nice to lean into happy — and that’s what we did here. Joanna’s piece made me excited for when I eventually do get to take my kids to a concert, and I won’t lie: I’m desperate for a road trip with my best girlfriends, when we can roll down the windows and sing along as loud as we like. Who’s with me? Thank you for reading, Cloe Axelson Senior Editor, Cognoscenti [Follow]( Support the news   Must Reads [This one goes out to all the Taylor Swift parents]( For the parents of Taylor Swift fans, this concert was more than an event, writes Joanna Weiss. We heard the soundtrack of our kids’ childhoods, a discography that spans nearly two decades, so long and broad and varied that it serves as a marker of time. [Read more.]( [This one goes out to all the Taylor Swift parents]( For the parents of Taylor Swift fans, this concert was more than an event, writes Joanna Weiss. We heard the soundtrack of our kids’ childhoods, a discography that spans nearly two decades, so long and broad and varied that it serves as a marker of time. [Read more.]( [Tina Turner gave me hope]( Somewhere along the journey of my life, Tina Turner showed up and helped me continue on with the belief that one’s life is worth living and possibilities exist, if you can find a path forward, writes Michelle Bowdler. [Read more.]( [Tina Turner gave me hope]( Somewhere along the journey of my life, Tina Turner showed up and helped me continue on with the belief that one’s life is worth living and possibilities exist, if you can find a path forward, writes Michelle Bowdler. 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If the state fails to make the program permanent, 400,000 students in the commonwealth could lose access to school meals writes Addario Miranda, a high school sophomore. [Read more.]( [Ron DeSantis laughed like a maniac with Iowa voters. It matters more than you think]( One scream sunk Howard Dean's presidential aspirations, writes Kaivan Shroff. But President Trump desensitized us to bizarre behavior, and we miss something when it fails to register on our collective radar. [Read more.]( [Ron DeSantis laughed like a maniac with Iowa voters. It matters more than you think]( One scream sunk Howard Dean's presidential aspirations, writes Kaivan Shroff. But President Trump desensitized us to bizarre behavior, and we miss something when it fails to register on our collective radar. [Read more.]( What We're Reading "Her singular ability to look ferocious while being a relentless transmitter of hope and empathy set her up equally well to become both an author of best-selling self-help books and the villain in two campy cult classics: 'The Who’s Tommy' and 'Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.' " "[Tina Turner: A Life in Photos]( The New York Times. "One of a ghostwriter’s main jobs is having a big mouth. You win some, you lose most, but you have to keep pushing, not unlike a demanding parent or a tyrannical coach. Otherwise, you’re nothing but a glorified stenographer, and that’s disloyalty to the author, to the book—to books. Opposition is true Friendship, William Blake wrote, and if I had to choose a ghostwriting credo, that would be it." "[Notes from Prince Harry's Ghostwriter]( The New Yorker. "We asked young New Yorkers about their dream futures. Then we calculated exactly how much each would cost." "[Can I Afford to Live Like This?]( New York Magazine. "I watched the public part of her life unfold and received it as a gift, a life lesson of what is possible." — Michelle Bowdler, "[Tina Turner gave me hope]( ICYMI [I made my smartphone dumb. I like it — and me — better this way]( I realize now that I missed me — the me that always lived inside my head, writes Jonathan D. Fitzgerald. For years, I was good company for myself until I fell into the trap of endless distraction. [Read more.]( [I made my smartphone dumb. I like it — and me — better this way]( I realize now that I missed me — the me that always lived inside my head, writes Jonathan D. Fitzgerald. For years, I was good company for myself until I fell into the trap of endless distraction. [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. 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