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Life on the Papal Beat (Published 2015)

Rachel Donadio @racheldonadio.bsky.social · Apr 21

End of an era. RIP Pope Francis, always full of surprises — including his ascent to the papacy. In another lifetime, I led @nytimes.com coverage of the conclave in which he was elected.

www.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/m...

A journalist reflects on covering the Vatican over the years, and how Pope Francis has, and has not, changed the institution.

J. D. Vance, Marco Rubio, Mike Waltz et Pete Hegseth échangeaient des informations opérationnelles et politiques lors de la préparation des frappes américaines au Yémen sous les yeux de Jeffrey Goldberg. Une « débâcle » pour le sénateur démocrate Chuck Summer.

Reposted by Rachel Donadio

Le Monde @lemonde.fr · Mar 25

Un journaliste de « The Atlantic » accède à des informations ultraconfidentielles de l’administration Trump après avoir été invité par erreur dans une conversation Signal

www.lemonde.fr

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Reposted by Rachel Donadio

Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · Mar 24

The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans

U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.

www.theatlantic.com

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Rachel Donadio @racheldonadio.bsky.social · Mar 24

America in 2025 is... interesting...

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/s...

The Conservative Women’s Magazine With Big Ambitions, and Sex Tips for Wives

The Evie reader can work. She can be a mom. It’s her choice. It’s just not feminism.

Every Planet in Our Solar System Will Be Visible at Night This Week

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Reposted by Rachel Donadio

The New York Times @nytimes.com · Feb 25

Earth’s celestial neighbors will be present at dusk this week. Here’s how to spot all seven planets.

With Mercury joining the show, all seven of Earth’s celestial neighbors will be present at dusk this week.

The Dream of the Raised Arm | Zadie Smith

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Rachel Donadio @racheldonadio.bsky.social · Feb 23

This Zadie Smith essay is so incredibly good

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

It’s no wonder those who lived under the Third Reich suffered ceaseless nightmares. What of our dreams today, under the totalitarianism of the online algorithm?

The Man Behind Project 2025’s Most Radical Plans

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Rachel Donadio @racheldonadio.bsky.social · Feb 9

Flagging @alecmac.bsky.social 's excellent August 2024 @propublica.org piece on Project 2025 and Paul Dans, who assembled a database of 10,000+ names — "candidates vetted for loyalty to Trump’s cause ... ready to deploy into federal agencies should he win..."

www.propublica.org/article/proj...

As Donald Trump tried to disavow the politically toxic project, its director, Paul Dans, stepped down. But the plans and massive staffing database that he prepared — to replace thousands of members of...

www.propublica.org

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Rachel Donadio @racheldonadio.bsky.social · Feb 3

"It’s a fable about the end of an ideal of 🇺🇸 unity and optimism. About the failure of goodness... less in the history of biopics about genius than in a tradition of stories abt communities that turn bad"

-Timothy Hampton, author of BOB DYLAN: HOW THE SONGS WORK

press.princeton.edu/ideas/once-u...

Once upon a time: Hollywood meets Bob Dylan

“A Complete Unknown” has attracted outsized media attention. As someone who has written a bit about Dylan here and there, I can attest that not a single day has gone by in the past month without me re...

press.princeton.edu

Maylis de Kerangal on Canoes and Eastbound

Rachel Donadio @racheldonadio.bsky.social · Jan 28

Wed. Jan. 29 at 19h30 we are delighted to have the marvelous writer Maylis de Kerangal in conversation with Donatien Grau of the Louvre. Sign up live or on Zoom!

Beautiful new translations of EASTBOUND & CANOES are out from Archipelago Books in the U.S.

americanlibraryinparis.org/event/dekera...

Award-winning French author Maylis de Kerangal discusses her latest works, Canoes and Eastbound. In conversation with Donatien Grau, Head of Contemporary Programs at the Musée du Louvre

americanlibraryinparis.org

Reposted by Rachel Donadio

Rabih Alameddine @rabihalameddine.bsky.social · Jan 28

Bad humor is eternal. From the year 70 CE:
“I have come from the city. I bring you a welcome gift with a sharp point that you may remember me. I ask, if fortune allowed, that I might be able [to give] as generously as the way is long [and] as my purse is empty,”
digventures.com/2019/07/roma...

Roman pen – inscribed with joke – found at London building site | DigVentures

“I went to Rome and all I got you was this lousy pen” says message on 2,000 year old stylus

digventures.com

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Rachel Donadio @racheldonadio.bsky.social · Jan 28

🇫🇷📚 Paris is an exquisite city full of exquisite complainers, forever beset by a pervasive sense that things are terrible or dirtier or somehow worse than they used to be, when things are not, in fact, terrible or dirtier or worse.

My latest for @nybooks.com

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

Unsinkable Paris | Rachel Donadio

One evening during the Summer Olympics last August, I wandered through central Paris at dusk with a friend. We watched on a café TV as the American

Venice in Winter, With a Poet as Our Guide

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Rachel Donadio @racheldonadio.bsky.social · Jan 27

It was a bit jarring to see a rather similar piece in today's @nytimestravel.bsky.social ! But I'm always glad for more shout-outs to Brodsky and his indelible WATERMARK.

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/27/t...

A writer and his daughter wander the ancient city at night, inspired by Joseph Brodsky, the Russian writer who loved the city in its cold, quiet season.

Venice in Winter (Published 2010)

Rachel Donadio @racheldonadio.bsky.social · Jan 27

is my 2010 essay VENICE IN WINTER, inspired by Joseph Brodsky's "Watermark" @nytimestravel.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/t...

In summer, Venice is torrid, stuffed to the gills with the 18 million tourists that overwhelm it each year. But in winter, it is a city of church bells, haze and a slow pace that reveals its soul.

Preserving the Ghastly Inventory of Auschwitz (Published 2015)

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Rachel Donadio @racheldonadio.bsky.social · Jan 27

Today is the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

In 2015, I visited Auschwitz and wrote about the moral and practical challenges of conserving the death camp. @nytimesarts.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/a...

The aim of the foundation maintaining the site of the concentration camp is “to preserve authenticity.” It is a moral stance with specific curatorial challenges.

Rachel Kushner on Creation Lake

Rachel Donadio @racheldonadio.bsky.social · Jan 21

🇫🇷📚 Loved talking to Rachel Kushner at the American Library in Paris about her latest novel, CREATION LAKE, about Neanderthals, eco-anarchists, undercover agents, French politics, leftist idealism, how the ancient past insinuates itself into the present.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBHR...

YouTube video by AmericanLibraryParis

www.youtube.com

Rachel Donadio @racheldonadio.bsky.social · Jan 6

🇫🇷 Ten years ago this week, terrorists attacked Charlie Hebdo and France began an annus horribilus. Today those scars have become part of Paris' cityscape.

My latest for @nybooks.com

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

Unsinkable Paris | Rachel Donadio

One evening during the Summer Olympics last August, I wandered through central Paris at dusk with a friend. We watched on a café TV as the American

Unsinkable Paris | Rachel Donadio

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Rachel Donadio @racheldonadio.bsky.social · Dec 30

🇫🇷 Paris is an exquisite city full of exquisite complainers, forever beset by a pervasive sense that things are terrible or dirtier or somehow worse than they used to be, when things are not, in fact, terrible or dirtier or worse. 🇫🇷

My latest for @nybooks

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

One evening during the Summer Olympics last August, I wandered through central Paris at dusk with a friend. We watched on a café TV as the American

Why Is France So Afraid of God?

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Rachel Donadio @racheldonadio.bsky.social · Dec 29

🇫🇷 Closing out the year with one more for @nybooks.com — on Paris, city of revolutions past and perhaps future, city of rich and poor, city of attacks and survivors.

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

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Rachel Donadio @racheldonadio.bsky.social · Dec 8

🇫🇷 The first Mass in a gorgeously restored Notre Dame is underway this morning. For more on church and state in France, here's my Laïcité deep dive for @theatlantic.com

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

How the country came to view religion as a threat to national identity

www.theatlantic.com

The Singer Whose Work Feels Like Prayer

Rachel Donadio @racheldonadio.bsky.social · Nov 20

🌻 Inaugurating this platform with a lovely piece on Ganavya, who I met last year at Civitella Ranieri and who has become a friend. She is one of the world's great musicians and one of the most humble — defying genres, and entirely herself. 🌻

www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/a...

On her new LP, “Daughter of a Temple,” Ganavya is the central vocalist, composer and community builder for 30 artists who constitute a who’s who in jazz and experimental music.