A Reading List of Atlantic Profiles

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.

In 2023, Chris Heath noted in an Atlantic article that Tom Hanks is a curious person. “Hanks is at his most animated when the words coming out of his mouth are something along the lines of ‘I just learned recently why there’s so many covered bridges in America. You know why there’s so many covered bridges in America?’ And he’s off,” Heath writes.

These are the sorts of things you can learn only by spending time with someone. Access to our most well-known cultural figures is limited, so when they bring a profile writer into their world, it’s an act of trust—and it presents an opportunity to learn something truly new about what inspires their work. Today’s newsletter rounds up some memorable Atlantic profiles of actors, comedians, showrunners, and TV writers.

Atlantic Profiles

How Tom Hanks Became Tom Hanks

By Chris Heath

The actor—and now novelist—reflects on how he got here, and the other lives he might have lived instead.

Read the article.

The Godfather of American Comedy

By Adrienne LaFrance

The funniest people on the planet think there’s no funnier person than Albert Brooks.

Read the article.

How Daniel Radcliffe Outran Harry Potter

By Chris Heath

He was the world’s most famous child star.

Then he had to figure out what came next.

Read the article.

Still Curious?

• The most quietly radical writer on television : Alice Birch has brought her scabrously funny writing to shows such as Succession , Normal People , and Dead Ringers , Sophie Gilbert wrote in 2023.
• How Taylor Sheridan created America’s most popular TV show : Inside Paramount’s Yellowstone juggernaut

Other Diversions

• The one place in airports people actually want to be
• What to read to understand how people get tricked
• Americans have lost the plot on cooking oil.

P.S.

I recently asked readers to share a photo of something that sparks their sense of awe in the world. “This is the first time I viewed the sun perfectly placed in-between the buildings at sunset with its reflection so elegantly reaching towards me,” KV, 68, in Central Park, wrote. “This moment has stayed with me ever since.”

I’ll continue to share your responses in the coming weeks. If you’d like to share, reply to this email with a photo and a short description so we can share your wonder with fellow readers in a future edition of this newsletter or on our website. Please include your name (initials are okay), age, and location. By doing so, you agree that The Atlantic has permission to publish your photo and publicly attribute the response to you, including your first name and last initial, age, and/or location that you share with your submission.

— Isabel