Six Great Labor Day Reads

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Our editors compiled these six articles for your Labor Day reading. Spend some time with stories about the questions we should ask our families, Amazon’s big secret, the myth of the broke Millennial, and more.

The Reading List

The Questions We Don’t Ask Our Families but Should

Many people don’t know very much about their older relatives. But if we don’t ask, we risk never knowing our own history.

By Elizabeth Keating

Amazon’s Big Secret

Nearly 30 years after the company was founded, we still don’t really know where its profits come from. The answer will loom large in the antitrust case against it.

By Stacy Mitchell

What Bobby McIlvaine Left Behind

Grief, conspiracy theories, and one family’s search for meaning in the two decades since 9/11

By Jennifer Senior

This Is Exactly What the Trump Team Feared

A campaign that had been optimized to beat Joe Biden must now be reinvented.

By Tim Alberta

The Myth of the Broke Millennial

After a rough start, the generation is thriving. Why doesn’t it feel that way?

By Jean M. Twenge

The Real Reason People Aren’t Having Kids

It’s a need that government subsidies and better family policy can’t necessarily address.

By Christine Emba

Essay

When Labor Day Meant Something

By Chad Broughton

Somewhere along the line, Labor Day lost its meaning. Today the holiday stands for little more than the end of summer and the start of school, weekend-long sales, and maybe a barbecue or parade. It is no longer political …

Labor Day, though, was meant to honor not just the individual worker, but what workers accomplish together through activism and organizing.

Read the full article.

Culture Break

Watch. Blink Twice (out in theaters), a horror film about the dangers of befriending the rich and powerful .

Listen. Sabrina Carpenter’s new album , Short n’ Sweet (out now), tackles the exasperation of being young, female, straight, and single in 2024, Spencer Kornhaber writes.

Play our daily crossword.

Photo Album

Take a look at these finalists in the Ocean Photographer of the Year competition, featuring some of the best coastal, drone, and underwater photos.

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