THIS WEEK: RELATIONSHIPS • FUTURISTIC FOOD • YOUR MONEY

THURSDAY • JUNE 25 • 2026

Good morning,

Last weekend, we kicked off summer with our first formal dinner party of the season: a beautiful table, hydrangeas from my garden, and the part that mattered most—the people.

Three generations. Two babies in high chairs. Millennials, parents, grandparents. The buzz across that table moved from raising children to geopolitics, AI, and the color of a certain reflecting pool. We agreed passionately and disagreed with respect. Not once did the conversation get weird or favor who was oldest or youngest in the room. It was defined by interest and curiosity, not age.

It's what I keep coming back to, a year and a half into building PROVOKED. Journalism isn't just about telling stories. It's about who tells them. And this summer, the who is a team I'm proud of.

Our Dear Reader writers deliver stories that touch a nerve and keep the conversation going. Our Managing Editor, Abby, is cooking up another humor piece and a food story I can't wait for. Female chefs, anyone?

Heading into July, we've got a travel piece from Giannella that takes us back to the 1970s and a couple of health stories shaped by our Wellness Editor, the other Susan. Jennifer is working on a Thelma & Louise retrospective. Margie's going deep on Social Security and what it really means for women like us. And of course, Judy drops another Book Club Drama next week.

If there's a thread running through all of it this summer, it's this: tending to both the outside and the inside. What we show the world and what we're actually carrying.

So keep sharing your stories. Ask questions. Stay curious. Don't get bored, and whatever you do, don't be boring. I'm grateful for my team. I'm grateful for you. I see you in the comments, and I'm so glad you're here.

CULTURE

​The Opposite of Dangerous Isn’t Nice​

BY DUFFLYN LAMMERS

Her partner was on probation for carjacking when they met. It's also the healthiest relationship she's ever had. A Harvard expert named it a trauma bond and suddenly she could see it in every relationship she'd had before. What it takes to finally want something safe.

WELLNESS

​​Confused About Your Food? That’s by Design. ​

BY LARISSA ZIMBEROFF

We were the test market for Doritos, Oreos, and Trix. Forty years later, we're standing in the supermarket aisle googling guar gum and wondering if protein belongs in popcorn. The confusion isn't ours. It was built deliberately, and at scale. The good news: There are a few simple rules that cut through it. READ MORE​

What I'm Actually Packing for My Summer Getaway

Here's the truth about my resort wardrobe: I want to look like I tried without packing like I did. One carry-on. Prints that do the work so I don't have to. Nothing that needs ironing. Everything has to do triple duty whether I'm on the beach, poolside, or at dinner.

Which is how I fell down a Farm Rio rabbit hole.

If you don't know them: Farm Rio is a Brazilian label out of Rio de Janeiro, making clothes since 1997—bananas, parrots, palm trees, and prints loud enough to be heard across a beach. They describe themselves as "creating enlightened cultural movements" and "coloring the world one print at a time." The point is: These clothes aren't quiet. Neither are we.

I turn 66 in a couple of weeks and I'm packing parrots and bananas. Aging quietly was never the plan.

Some links are affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no cost to you. Every pick is mine.

Floral tapestry drawstring midi dress with embroidery. SHOP

Tropical embroidered tote. Self-explanatory. In the cart. SHOP

A matching set that looks like effort and feels like pajamas. SHOP

Collared buttoned maxi with the whole map of Rio printed on a dress. SHOP

Green to go with all the outfits—of course you need them. SHOP

Pair with shorts or jeans when you still want the parrots. SHOP

MONEY

​​Your Money, Your Values, Your Advisor—In That Order​

BY KRISTIN HULL, Ph.D.

There's a specific word that determines whether your financial advisor is legally required to act in your best interest, or just legally allowed to sell you something. Most people never ask it. Part three of our series, and exactly what to say before you hand anyone your money. READ MORE​

TAKE NOTE

Timely and worth your attention.

📺 Don't miss A Woman of Substance streaming on BritBox in the U.S. The new adaptation of Barbara Taylor Bradford's 1979 bestseller stars Jessica Reynolds as young Emma and Brenda Blethyn, 80—yes, Vera—as the woman who built it all and never once retired from ambition. Set in 1910s Yorkshire, Emma Harte is a maid with big dreams and a ruinous forbidden romance. Six decades later she's a New York tycoon, still running her empire and settling old scores.

⚽ At the men's World Cup on U.S. soil, a record six female officials are working the tournament, and on June 18, Tori Penso, Brooke Mayo, and Kathryn Nesbitt became the first all-American, all-female crew to run a men's World Cup match. Four years ago in Qatar, women officiated a men's World Cup game for the first time ever. The men have been playing in this tournament for 96 years. Women are finally allowed on the field.

🕯️ Jill Smokler, who founded Scary Mommy in 2008, has died at 48 after a two-year fight with glioblastoma. Back when "mommy blog" was a punchline, she said the unsayable things about motherhood out loud: that it could be wonderful and impossible in the same breath. She gave a generation of women permission to stop pretending. A lot of us mothered before her in a vacuum, and after her, we were less alone.

READER SPOTLIGHT

Want to be featured next? Comment on your favorite piece—we read them all.

DEAR READER | LIFE

​The Relationship I Was Missing Was My Own​

BY AMANDA ZUCKERMAN

The charmer. The one who smelled like mothballs. The one who couldn't commit. The one who couldn't say no. Four men, roughly 100,000 swipes, and one slow-dawning realization: She'd been dating herself the whole time. READ MORE​

OUR SHORT LIST

📚 What if misogyny and climate change aren't separate crises, but deeply connected ones? Feminism for a World on Fire makes the case.

📺 The age gap is only the beginning. Alice and Steve is a comedy worth the argument.​

💉 A new flu shot built on mRNA technology just cleared a major hurdle. It could become the first of its kind.

⚖️ A very cool single chart maps who's suing whom in AI—over 100 copyright cases, from Disney to The New York Times, all tangled around the same handful of tech giants.

📱 One simple question could completely change your relationship with your phone.

MORE

Take a Seat at the Table

​The Truth About Fancy Salt​

BY WENDEE NICOLE

​Julia Child Used All the Butter. She Meant All of It.​

BY ABBY HEUGEL

​I’m A Dietitian Who Ate Nuts Every Day for a Month. Here’s What Really Happened.​

BY LAUREN MANAKER

You're Not Finished

Some mornings the fear is time. Some mornings it's that you've gone invisible. Some mornings you're just tired.

PROVOKEDplus is the room where that lifts—women nothing like you and exactly like you, still reading, still arguing, still nowhere near done. Every Sunday, a Big Idea and a Shift that make the whole table lean in.

Not content. Company.

The opposite of old isn't young. It's curious.

Pull up a chair.