The first time I met Suleika Jaouad, I fell in love with her a little. This, I would soon learn, is a fairly common reaction to Suleika: Everyone who meets her falls in love with her a little. It was 2015, and Suleika was just 26 years old-buoyant, finally off maintenance chemo, and radiant on account of it, her thick brown hair arranged in a boop-a-doop pixie cut. We were attending the same conference, and her boyfriend, a young New Orleans musician named Jon Batiste, was there too. The couple had an irresistible backstory: They first met at band camp as teenagers (she in Birkenstocks, he with a mouthful of train-track orthodonture), and then reconnected romantically as adults. They made for a captivating pair, though the weather systems surrounding them couldn't have been more different: She was enveloping and collected people; he was shy and abstracted, as if involved in a long, vigorous conversation with himself.
At some point, I was told that Jon was going to be the new bandleader on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. I remember thinking, Cool, but not much more, having no idea what kind of genius he was. Yet one knew from just looking at them that Jon and Suleika were destined for an unusual life. They were sophisticated and great-looking, ambitious and disciplined, adoring and mutually invested in each other's success. Suleika had written a column for The New York Times called "Life, Interrupted" about the brutal challenges of living with acute myeloid leukemia, had beaten the disease, and was now doing advocacy work and writing a memoir. Jon would soon be appearing nightly on our television sets and continuing to make music of his own.
They are married now. He's the more famous of the two, with an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and five Grammys; he's also the focus of the documentary American Symphony, which earned him a 2024 Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. (Additionally, Jon is The Atlantic's first music director.)
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Denne historien er fra June 2024-utgaven av The Atlantic.
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'Lord, Help Us Make America Great Again' - A close reading of Trump-rally prayers
A week before Christmas, an evangelical minister named Paul Terry stood before thousands of Christians, their heads bowed, in Durham, New Hampshire, and pleaded with God for deliverance. Th e nation was in crisis, he told the Lord— racked with death and addiction, led by wicked men who “rule with imperial disdain.”
Seventy Miles in the Darién Gap - The Impossible Pad to America - I went to the Darién Gap in December with the photographer Lynsey Addario because I wanted to see for myself what people were willing to risk to get to the United States.
I went to the Darién Gap in December with the photographer Lynsey Addario because I wanted to see for myself what people were willing to risk to get to the United States. Before making the journey, I spoke with a handful of journalists who had done so before. They had dealt with typhoid, rashes, emergency evacuations, and mysterious illnesses that lingered for months. One was tied up in the forest and robbed at gunpoint. They said that we could take measures to make the journey safer but that ultimately, survival required luck.
An Intoxicating 500-Yearold Mystery - The Voynich Manuscript has long baffled scholars-and attracted cranks and conspiracy theorists.
The Voynich Manuscript has long baffled scholars-and attracted cranks and conspiracy theorists. Now a prominent medievalist is taking a new approach to unlocking its secrets.
Pity the Bad Man
A bold new novel invites the reader to consider the plight of the bullies and the boors.
The Wild Adventures of Fanny Stevenson
Her surprising marriage to Robert Louis Stevenson changed literary history.
Does the World Need a Great American Biracial Novel?
The hero of Danzy Senna’ new satire is trying, and failing, to write one.
How Greed Got Good Again
In HBO's Industry, Gen Z reveals itself to be just as moneyobsessed as the corporate raiders of Wall Street.
My Mother the Revolutionary
She cared about saving the world more than she cared about me.
HOW M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD
The filmmaker weathered some of the wildest hype and harshest backlash that Hollywood has to offer. Then he found a different path.
AMERICAN FURY
For years, experts have warned of a wave of political violence. We should prepare for things to get worse before they get better.
