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Welcome back to The Daily’s Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer or editor reveals what’s keeping them entertained. Today’s special guest is Stephanie Bai, an associate editor whose byline you might recognize from past editions of The Daily. Stephanie recently joined The Atlantic’s newsletter team, where she edits and contributes to multiple Atlantic newsletters.
Stephanie is a chronic repeat-watcher of TV shows, a reformed Bermuda-shorts wearer, and a onetime aspiring pop star whose dream died quickly on the Kidz Bop website.
First, here are three Sunday reads from The Atlantic:
The Culture Survey: Stephanie Bai
Something I recently revisited: Dreams die on the Kidz Bop website. At least, mine did. During a conversation with a friend recently, I remembered when I once tangoed with delusions of pop-star success. Did it matter that I couldn’t hit a note or that I was frequently overcome by stage fright? I was confident these were all footnotes that could be overlooked. So when I heard in middle school that Kidz Bop, a children’s-music group that churns out family-friendly covers, had a site where people could upload videos of themselves singing, I figured my path to fame had to start somewhere. I prepared a rendition of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep”—light work—and posted it.
After reading a few three-star reviews, I gave up on my dream. Nobody was particularly cruel, but I knew even then that some hopes could be denied. It’s not a sad story to tell. I cycled through many dreams as a kid, and I’ll cycle through more in the years to come.
Something delightful that was introduced to me by a kid in my life: When I first read this prompt, I strained to find something touching to say about my little brother. That’s not to say he’s a boring kid—it’s just that most of our conversations, given our 11-year age gap, usually involve Roblox, his mild addiction to YouTube Shorts, a dated meme I thought he’d like (he didn’t), or him chanting viral sounds from YouTube Shorts at me until I give up. Come to think of it, he did introduce me to the “one, two, buckle my shoe” song that got stuck in my head for months. But that trend soon died, and I was out of touch all over again.
The television shows I’m most enjoying right now: I’m a chronic repeat-watcher. That means I have seen New Girl and Brooklyn Nine-Nine roughly 20 times each—no exaggeration. I’m also a chronic forgetter, which helps.
Many NBC comedies (special mention to Parks and Recreation and Superstore) are the background noise to my chores, and I have sat through countless Criminal Minds and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit marathons. Sometimes, when I want to reconnect to the cultural zeitgeist, I’ll pick up a dramatic and dimly lit HBO miniseries. Don’t get me wrong—I love those shows, but chances are that my old patterns will resurface, so I am destined to forget them and return to the reliable antics of various brunette men. [Related: Saying goodbye to Law & Order]
An online creator that I’m a fan of: I never used to care much about cooking—partly because I had little experience handling a knife but plenty of practice seasoning water with ramen packets, and I wasn’t moved enough to learn more. Then I came across Florence Pugh’s informal cooking series on her Instagram and swiped through it all in one sitting, entranced by her easy laughter and the dependable presence of a bevvy and a good song.
My nighttime cooking ritual now mirrors her setup: I put on a playlist, pour myself a drink, and pretend I’m on my own cooking show—that is, until one of my six roommates walks in. [Related: The absurd logic of internet recipe hacks]
Something I loved as a teenager and still love: Sometimes, when I look at the moon, I wonder if Bridgit Mendler is looking at it too. She hung it, after all. I am a fierce supporter of the Good Luck Charlie star turned space-start-up CEO, who has made some of the most underrated music to ever come out of the Disney Channel universe. She started us off with “Ready or Not” in 2012, a single that paid respect to her love for R&B with an homage to the Delfonics and the Fugees. The song may be a safe, well-polished pop debut—it premiered on Radio Disney, after all—but it’s also undeniably catchy, best listened to with the car windows down on a summer day.
In 2016, she released Nemesis, a four-track EP that experiments with dreamy synths and is at once regretful and self-possessed. This is Bridgit at her best—stripped down and hypnotic. The songs have recently experienced a mini-renaissance on social media, and in praise of her soulful voice, some users have taken to calling her “Miss Bridgit Badu.” Miss Bridgit, these flowers are for you.
Something I loved but now dislike: Bermuda shorts. It’s 2010; I have a blunt cut—a detail that isn’t important to anyone but me—and I’m convinced that Delia’s is God’s gift to the preteen girl. When selecting the clothes that will carry me to success in the fifth grade, I pick the Bermuda shorts.
This choice will allow me to appear casual, knees out and proud, and has the added bonus of saving my soul from the moral stain of wearing shorter shorts. (It’s a possibility that troubles my mom, who also warns me against the heresy of bikinis, thereby insisting on tankinis until I use my preternatural litigation skills to negotiate her down to a midkini.) One day, I will don the shorter shorts. I will buy my first crop top, dabble in miniskirts, and eventually break my mom’s heart. But in 2010, I have the awkward confidence that only a Bermuda-shorts-wearing child can have, and my mom is at peace.
The Week Ahead
- Wicked Little Letters, a comedy-mystery film starring Olivia Colman about residents in a British town who receive profane letters and accuse an Irish immigrant of the crime (in select theaters Friday)
- We Were the Lucky Ones, a drama miniseries about a Jewish family’s journey to reunite after being separated during World War II (premieres Thursday on Hulu)
- On Giving Up, a book by the psychoanalyst Adam Phillips that investigates what habits and behaviors we should give up or keep (out Tuesday)
Essay
A Glowing Petunia Could Radicalize Your View of Plants
By Zoë Schlanger
The gallon pot of white petunias I held on an otherwise ordinary subway train, on an otherwise ordinary Thursday in March, would have looked to anyone else like an ordinary houseplant. But I knew better. An hour before, Karen Sarkisyan, one of the plant scientists responsible for this petunia’s existence, had dropped it off at my office. He warned me that my petunia had spent a while in transit, and might not immediately put on a show. Still, I’d rushed the petunia into a windowless room. My eyes took a moment to adjust to the darkness. But then I saw it. The white blooms gave off a green luminescence. The glow was indeed faint. But it was a plant that was glowing. I gasped.
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