| MATTHEW LYNCH,
EXECUTIVE EDITOR |
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Add Caitlin Clark, the second-year star guard of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, to the ever-growing list of small-scale subjects that can teach one a whole lot about the American cultural landscape circa 2025. (Previous entries include protein consumption and Morgan Wallen.) Today, Tom Kludt speaks to sportswriter Christine Brennan, Clark expert, evangelist, and now, biographer, to better understand the Clark discourse—and backlash.
Elsewhere, Molly Jong-Fast wonders what the MAGA base will do now that the Big, Beautiful Bill has passed; Kate Middleton brings out a favorite tiara; and we take a trip through the archives with Budd Schulberg and Marlon Brando. More tomorrow… |
For USA Today columnist Christine Brennan, Caitlin Clark’s ascendance is “unlike any” she’s seen in her 44-year career. For Brennan, Clark is singularly responsible for the WNBA’s newfound popularity. But that fanfare wasn’t shared by everyone. From tough fouls and taunts from fellow players to being ranked ninth among guards in the players’ All-Star voting—compared to topping the fans’ ballot—Brennan believes women’s basketball leaders and stakeholders are mishandling a watershed moment in the sport.
In her new book, On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women’s Sports, Brennan answers her critics and argues that league management could have prevented some of the backlash Clark has faced. |
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The attorney general once said she had Jeffrey Epstein’s client list on her desk, but now it turns out that she didn’t and there never was one. Epstein watchers are peeved. |
BY JUAN CLAUDIO MATOSSIAN |
Though she hasn’t been seen on the big screen since 2019, the Harry Potter star has remained busy. |
With nearly 12 million people at risk of losing health care coverage, the president wants voters to pay attention to his rhetoric and ignore the details. |
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Deeply seductive, exquisitely sensitive, and gloriously talented, Marlon Brando had everything but a belief in his work. From his 1947 stage appearance in A Streetcar Named Desire until his death in 2004, he fought his own fame, with a pathological hatred of praise, an identification with the dispossessed, and a retreat to Tahiti, where tragedy and the tabloids followed him. Talking to other Brando intimates, Budd Schulberg, who wrote the movie On the Waterfront, creates a private portrait of Hollywood’s tormented king. |
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