Welcome to the weekend and an official Succession-free zone. Though if you’re spoiler-proof or even a spoilerphile, we have the finale and its fallout well covered here. Or you can come with me for a fossick through this week’s other Guardian gems.
1. Why fan culture is out of control
Two things that have never been played in my household: episodes of Succession and Taylor Swift songs. So normally my interest in all things Tay is minimal. But toxic fandom? Hand me some popcorn.
Swift stans are up in arms about her rumoured relationship with Matty Healy, the shall-we-say “problematic” frontman of the 1975. They want her to call it off; Shaad D’Souza reckons she deserves a life of her own.
Notable quote: “Policing musicians’ relationships is the natural next step for young fans who have grown up with the expectation that stars have to have good politics, and whose para-social relationships with artists were stoked during pandemic years, when artist engagement on platforms such as TikTok went into overdrive.”
How long will it take to read: Three minutes.
2. Inside a Covid-era confidence crisis
Over the Covid pandemic may be, according to the WHO, but some of the lifestyle changes we adopted in that period can prove more difficult to shake. As Viv Groskop puts it: “Even as the pandemic recedes from view, like a defeated zombie, I wonder if it’s dead and buried or merely dormant.”
The journalist and author suffered her own Covid-era confidence crisis so she turned to the experts for advice on how to regain your pre-pandemic sense of self – or at least an approximation of it.
Time heals all wounds? One expert Groskop talked to estimated populations begin to recover from major disasters around the 30-year point.
How long will it take to read: Five minutes.
3. Can humans ever understand how animals think?
My cat has learned a thing or two in her 16 years. Rattling teaspoons in the top drawer: feeding time. “Up!”: get off my chest, it’s time to roll over and sleep. What’s going on in her head the other eight hours or so she’s awake? A source of constant fascination.
New research, however, suggests giraffes can do statistical reasoning. Parrots can do more than just talk – they understand the concept of the future. And these findings are changing how we think about our own species.
Fun (mind-blowing) fact: An octopus has 500m neurons, about as many as a dog – but most of these neurons are located not in the brain but in its eight arms, each of which can move, smell and perhaps even remember on its own.
How long will it take to read: Eight minutes.
Further reading: Secret signals all cat owners need to know – from a quivering tail to aeroplane ears.
4. The weird, frightening world of ‘trad wives’
In which Sian Norris introduces us to another subculture of a subculture. Norris writes that the “trad wives” movement is determined to reduce women to reproductive vessels to aid white male supremacy.
And an ideology which started in a far-right, anti-feminist corner of the internet in 2013 is now muscling its way into mainstream politics.
Catchphrases spouted by its proponents: “Great replacement”, “white genocide”, “Make White Babies Great Again!” – you get the picture.
How long will it take to read: Two minutes.
5. Time to abandon our Anzac myths
Australia’s defamation trial of the century is over and Ben Roberts-Smith wasn’t the only loser. Also taking a battering was the Anzac myth – “Australia’s secular religion”, as Paul Daley describes it. Daley writes that the judge’s finding in the case “brings into stark relief the perils of tying national celebration – and adulation – to the battlefield”.
What happens next? “A national awakening”, Daley hopes. And Roberts-Smith’s position inside the Australian War Memorial is already the subject of heated debate.
How long will it take to read: Three minutes.
Further listening: Our Ben Roberts-Smith v the media podcast covers the trial and its aftermath.
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