By : Jake Meador Source : The Atlantic Nearly everyone I grew up with in my childhood church in Lincoln, Nebraska, is no longer Christian. That’s not unusual. Forty million Americans have stopped attending church in the past 25 years. That’s something like 12 percent of the population, and it represents the largest concentrated change in church attendance in American history. As a Christian, I feel this shift acutely. My wife and I wonder whether the institutions and communities that have helped preserve us in our own faith...
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By : Emily Burack Source : Town & Country It felt like I had won the lottery. I couldn't stop talking about it. After hours of waiting in a virtual queue, anxiously watching the numbers tick down and ignoring my work for this very magazine, I managed to snag six tickets to Taylor Swift's Eras Tour on her third night at MetLife Stadium. The odds of even getting to this part of the purchasing process were slim: Just around 40% the people who registered for the presale were granted the privilege of trying to buy tickets. The whole...
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By : Ray Schultz Source : MediaPost Marketers wondering what motivates consumers to buy certain mobile phones, especially for children, are being offered some answers by HMD Global, seller of Nokia phones. While cost is a leading factor, 70% of users say they would choose a smartphone over a cheaper non-smart phone. But 83% of parents say parental controls are extremely important. In addition, child restrictions are a key feature for 64% of parents, followed by durability (57%) and location tracking (55%). read more... 
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By : Ben Berkley Source : The Hustle Hot dogs are having a moment. So much so that The Wall Street Journal declared franks “the ‘it’ restaurant order” of the summer. America’s favorite meat tubes require no introduction — US consumers already buy 900m+ pounds of them annually, per the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council. Perhaps an etiquette brush-up is required? The NHDSC has a guide for that. (Apparently standard hot dogs should need no more than five bites?)  read more...
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By : Xochitl Gonzalez Source : The Atlantic In the summer of 1998, the line to get into Mecca on a Sunday night might stretch from the entrance to the Tunnel nightclub on Manhattan’s 12th Avenue all the way to the end of the block; hundreds of bodies, clothed and barely clothed in Versace and DKNY and Polo Sport, vibrating with anticipation. Passing cars with their booming stereos, either scoping out the scene or hunting for parking, offered a preview of what was inside: the sounds of Jay-Z and Busta Rhymes and Lil’ Kim....
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By : Marcela Valdes Source : The New York Times The sanctuary of Northside church in Charlotte, N.C., is built for joyous adoration. Enormous speakers hang from its domed ceiling, along with an elaborate system of colored lights. Its semicircular stage has wide, carpeted steps that lead down on all sides to rows and rows of wine red pews, which hold about 2,700 people. The evening I visited last February, they filled to capacity with Latino families who had come to see the evangelical superstar Marcos Witt.  read more...
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By : Curtis M. Wong Source : HuffPost More than two years after “Drivers License” catapulted her to pop superstardom, Olivia Rodrigo is back with new music on the way. The three-time Grammy winner announced on social media Monday that “Guts,” her hotly anticipated second album, will be released Sept. 8. The album will feature the new single “Vampire,” due out this Friday. “I made the bulk of this album during my 19th year on this earth,” Rodrigo, who turned 20 in February, wrote in a note...
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