Naoya Azuma / The Yomiuri Shimbun / Reuters
Weeping cherry blossoms are in full bloom at a sightseeing spot in Higashi-yoshino Village, Nara Prefecture, Japan, on April 11, 2026.Mark Schiefelbein / AP
Cherry blossoms near peak bloom in front of the Washington Monument along the Tidal Basin, on March 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C.Martin Meissner / AP
Thousands of people gather for the start of cherry-blossom season in the old town of Bonn, Germany, on April, 6, 2026.

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Somewhere between a Red Lobster and a three-Michelin-star dining room lies the best free restaurant bread in America. For The Atlantic’s May cover story, our staff writer Caity Weaver set out to find it, surveying more than 500 people and traveling 13,000 miles along the way.

Last week, Pod Save America, the popular podcast founded by former Obama-administration staffers, hosted the influencer and leftist provocateur Hasan Piker. A charismatic and pugnacious socialist streamer, Piker has become a flash point in a broader debate among Democrats over how far their party’s big tent ought to extend. Unsurprisingly, Piker’s hourlong interview generated controversy. Critics on the right and left highlighted his refusal to condemn Hamas.

On a chilly Saturday late last month, I met Eric Swalwell at a Little League diamond near Capitol Hill, where the Bay Area congressman and his wife, Brittany, would be watching their 8-year-old son. Swalwell, who was running to succeed Gavin Newsom as the next governor of California, had been gradually rising above a Lilliputian cast of candidates and had acquired a strong scent of momentum in the race.
“Impeccable timing for you,” he’d texted me on my drive over.

It was Nell’s turn to visit Coral, who was spending the holidays in the hospital, recovering from a breakdown. (“Better here than with my family,” Coral said. “At least here, people admit they’re not normal.”) It was her second hospitalization in three years. She had had one other breakdown—her worst, in fact—the summer following her high-school graduation. By then her mother was on her third marriage; her father, twice her mother’s age, was on his fifth.

Editor’s Note: Panelists on Washington Week With The Atlantic joined to discuss growing opposition to President Trump’s attacks on Iran and what winning a war with unclear objectives could like.
Donald Trump attacked Pope Leo XIV earlier this week for his comments about the war in Iran. Panelists on Washington Week With The Atlantic joined to discuss the president’s remarks, and what they may signal about Trump’s messaging on the conflict.

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.
As the weather gets nicer, many of us feel the allure of just hanging out. We want to sit outside with friends and have a drink, go on long morning walks and catch up, enjoy the breezy night air.

Mother Mary begins with a straightforward problem: The titular character, a pop star played by Anne Hathaway, is looking for a showstopper of a dress. But the complications quickly stack up. Mary needs it made over the weekend; she needs it to serve as the centerpiece of her career relaunch after a long and mysterious absence from the public eye; most crucially, she needs it designed by her former collaborator Sam Anselm (played by Michaela Coel), from whom she’s been estranged for years.