The Cosmopolitics Edit: Summer fun edition
Your global guide to summer reads, shows, podcasts and other summer fun
Hello, Cosmopolitans! I hope you all had a wonderful July 4th weekend. In case you missed it - on Thursday I offered some thoughts on the emotions surrounding America’s birthday this year (along with a patriotic (and yummy) mojito recipe courtesy of our resident cocktail mixtress
.On Monday at 12p ET I will be having a Substack live Monday with
who writes the Substack about a shrinking sense of patriotism about Gen Z. And later in the week, Dany and I will be back for Hot Takes Happy Hour.We will also have a piece that looks at the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House, where he will face pressure from President Trump to sign on to a ceasefire with Hamas that will see the return of some hostages in exchange for a halt to strikes in Gaza and freed Palestinian prisoners.
But for now, let summer vacation commence!
The Cosmopolitics Edit is a weekly post for paid subscribers with my takes on the biggest stories, and a curated list of other stories around the world that you should know about. This week I’m sending all subscribers the Summer Fun Edit. For those taking some downtime, I’ve curated a collection of internationally-themed books, films, shows, and podcasts to enrich your summer. Whether you’re lounging on the beach, finding yourself some downtime in transit during a flight or road trip, or simply seeking refuge from the heat indoors, there’s something here for everyone.
Enjoy and let us know in the comments when you sample some of these offerings. And if you have any other suggestions for your fellow Cosmopolitans summer fun - share those in the comments as well!
And don’t forget we are offering a 25 percent discount to anyone who upgrades their subscription before Monday. That’s less than $5 a month, about the cost of a cup of coffee! I hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to become more deeply involved in our Cosmopolitics community, receive exclusive content and support my work, so I can increase both the frequency and depth of our coverage in the coming months.
📚READ
Fiction
A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre The story of an intense friendship between “the Narrator” and his close childhood friend, a woman with mental illness.
Under the Eye of the Big Bird, by Hiromi Kawakami In humanity’s twilight, children emerge from factories, crafted from rabbit and dolphin cells; others sustain themselves through photosynthesis like living plants. The species' salvation lies in interbreeding with these hybrid beings and alien entities.
On the Calculation of Volume, by Barbara J. Haveland In this first book of a septology, an antique book dealer finds herself trapped within a single repeating day and she slowly figures out what she can take from each repeating day and what she cannot.
Small Boat, by Vincent Delecroix Based on a real-life tragedy that unfolded in the English Channel, written from the perspective of a rescue boat dispatcher who fails to dispatch a rescue team for a group of migrants who subsequently sink to their deaths.
Heart Lamp, by Banu Mushtaq The 2025 winner of the International Booker Prize is a collection of twelve short stories capturing the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India.
Nonfiction
Waste Land: A World in Permanent Crisis by Robert Kaplan Kaplan, a veteran geopolitical analyst, sees our moment with chilling clarity: we've entered an age where crisis has become the permanent condition. He argues that today's cascading disasters—pandemics, climate change, great power rivalry, technological disruption—mirror the systemic instability that destroyed Weimar Germany. He connects the breakdown to social phenomena like urbanization and digital media, creating what he calls "intimate bonds" that ensure every local crisis threatens to go global. Like Weimar's fragile democracy, our interconnected world breeds the very tensions that could tear it apart.
Breaking the Engagement: How China Won & Lost America by David Shambaugh Examines the complexities of the US-China relationship and China's evolving role in the world. David Shambaugh, a veteran China scholar, cuts through the noise about U.S.-China rivalry to identify the real culprit: America's decades-long delusion that it could remake China in its own image. He argues how both sides misread each other's intentions, turning what could have been managed competition into the defining rivalry of our time.
Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning, by Peter Beinart Journalist Peter Beinart asks an uncomfortable question for American Jews: what happens when the stories we tell ourselves about Jewish identity no longer match the reality we see unfolding in Gaza? He argues that Israel's conduct in Gaza demands more than policy criticism—it requires a fundamental reexamination of what Jewish values actually mean in practice.
Erased: A History of International Thought Without Men, by Patricia Owens International relations professor Patricia Owens demolishes one of the field's most persistent myths: that it was built by and for white men. She tells a different story—one where women thinkers fundamentally shaped the discipline from its early 20th-century origins, only to be systematically erased from the record by academic gatekeepers who ignored their contributions and rewrote history to exclude them.
Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson The twenty-first century's defining story isn't technological triumph—it's the crisis of not building enough. America has a housing shortage because we stopped building housing. We lack workers because we limited immigration. We're unprepared for climate change because we never built the clean energy infrastructure we knew we needed. The result: we've become experts at identifying problems while losing the ability to solve them. "Abundance" charts a path beyond this paralysis, offering a politics of building—not just protecting what we have, but creating what we need.
Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare by Edward Fishman American policy mavericks discovered they could weaponize America's dominance over global finance and technology, building an arsenal more powerful than traditional military force. They learned to strangle adversaries through banking networks, semiconductor supply chains, and energy markets—turning Wall Street and Silicon Valley into extensions of American power. Fishman, a former top State Department sanctions official, warns the weapons we created to defeat our enemies might ultimately fragment the global system that gave us such power in the first place.
🎙️LISTEN
The Rachman Review Gideon Rachman transforms the Financial Times' global reach into essential listening, landing interviews with the people actually making foreign policy rather than just commenting on it. His insider access and sharp questioning make this the podcast for understanding how decisions get made in capitals from Washington to Beijing and beyond.
Amateur Traveler Chris Christensen has turned wanderlust into an art form, delivering weekly deep dives into destinations that go far beyond the typical tourist traps. His focus on cultural immersion over Instagram moments makes this essential for travelers who want to understand places, not just visit them.
Sinocism Podcast Bill Bishop leverages his legendary newsletter to bring China's top experts into conversation, cutting through both the hype and hysteria around the world's second superpower. Essential listening for anyone trying to separate China reality from China mythology. Bill teams up with Andrew Sharp for Smart China that examines how China impacts the world.
The Economist Radio The Economist's podcasts transform their signature analytical depth into audio form, delivering the kind of global perspective that makes you sound smarter at dinner parties—assuming you can keep up with their rapid-fire insights.
Interlinks Patrick Daly makes globalization personal, using individual stories to illuminate how supply chains and technology reshape lives across continents. It's economics with a human face, perfect for understanding how the global really becomes local.
Culture Matters Chris Smit and Peter van der Lende tackle cultural blind spots that torpedo international business deals. Through interviews with seasoned international executives, they decode issues like why the French find lunch so important, Germans obsess over punctuality, and Indians struggle with direct refusal, offering practical management tools for navigating cultural complexity in global business.
📺 WATCH
Heads of State (Prime Video) Idris Elba and John Cena turn geopolitical rivalry into buddy comedy gold as feuding leaders forced to save the world together. Think "The Odd Couple" meets international espionage, with Priyanka Chopra Jonas as the MI6 agent keeping them alive long enough to stop a global conspiracy.
The Diplomat (Netflix) A tense cross-border thriller following an Indian diplomat's desperate mission to rescue a girl trapped in Pakistan through forced marriage. Real geopolitical tensions drive this human drama about the limits of diplomatic power.
Renaissance: The Blood and the Beauty (PBS) This documentary series explores how Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael created humanity's greatest art while navigating Renaissance Italy's brutal politics and personal vendettas. Genius forged in chaos, premiering July 8-22.
Eva Longoria: Searching For Spain (CNN) Longoria trades Desperate Housewives for Spanish kitchens, exploring the country's rich culinary and cultural landscape. Food tourism with Hollywood glamour, premiering July 23.
Squid Game (Netflix) Six months after that devastating cliffhanger, the deadly games return with new contestants and familiar brutality. Childhood nostalgia meets survival horror in capitalism's cruelest metaphor.
Real Men (Netflix) The Spanish hit "Alpha Males" gets international treatment, skewering middle-aged masculinity in crisis as privilege meets progress. Comedy that cuts both ways—mocking toxic masculinity while side-eyeing woke culture.
There’s something about a good book list that thoroughly stimulates the hedonistic part of my brain. I’m listening to Waste Land while doing chores. I’m only a couple of hours in, but it seems like one of those books where it would be worthwhile to write down some of the main arguments to revisit throughout the next few years. Looking at the fiction selection, I realized that I have completely ignored prize season this year and the Booker longlist is three weeks out! I have Under the Eye of the Big Bird, and I have been meaning to get to On the Calculation of Volume for some time. Anyway, this was a blast. Thanks for the fun Sunday activity. This is a treasure trove I’ll keep dipping into throughout the summer.