AUGUST 7, 2017

THE ANTI ANTIDEPRESSANT Depression afflicts 16 million Americans. One-third don’t respond to treatment. A surprising new drug may change that BY MANDY OAKLANDER

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VOL. 190, NO. 6 | 2017

5 | Conversation Time Off 6 | For the Record What to watch, read, The Brief see and do News from the U.S. and 51 | Television: around the world Jessica Biel is The Sinner; 7 | A White House Kylie Jenner’s new gone haywire reality show 10 | A cold war takes 53 | What makes hold with Qatar Rick and Morty so fun 14 | A free medical clinic in Appalachia 56 | Studying the draws thousands racism in classic children’s books 16 | Ian Bremmer on the erosion of 59 | Kristin liberal democracy van Ogtrop on in Europe parenting in an age of anxiety 18 | Protests in Jerusalem’s Old City 60 | 7 Questions for nonverbal autistic writer Naoki Higashida

The View Ideas, opinion, innovations 21 | A cancer survivor on society’s unrealistic expectations for coping with the diagnosis ◁ Laurie Holt at 25 | How climate a rally on July 7 change became in Riverton, political Utah, to raise The Features awareness for her son Joshua, who 26 | Mon dieu! New Hope The Anti Blonde Ambition is imprisoned in Notre Dame’s cash  Venezuela crisis pits the church for American Antidepressant As an undercover spy in against the state Photograph by Captives A controversial new Atomic Blonde, Charlize Michael Friberg for TIME 28 | James Stavridis Inside the effort to drug could help treat the Theron is pushing the offers six ways to bring home Americans millions of Americans boundaries of female-led ease Europe’s fears imprisoned abroad afflicted by depression action films about the Trump- By Mandy Oaklander38 By Eliana Dockterman46 Putin relationship By Elizabeth Dias30

ON THE COVER: Photo-illustration by Michael Marcelle

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What you said about ... STRONG WOMEN In preparation for the new spy thriller THE SECRET HISTORY OF ELECTION 2016 Atomic Blonde—starring Charlize Theron, profiled on page 46, Massimo Calabresi’s July 31 cover story on as an MI6 agent—TIME traced how the female action hero has President Obama’s secret plan to safeguard evolved over the past 40 years. The rundown covers Carrie Fisher the 2016 presidential election from Russian as Princess Leia in Star Wars (above, center), Sigourney Weaver hackers was “fascinating,” said Univision as Ellen Ripley in Alien (above, second from right) and many more. See the full list at time.com/female-heroes anchor Enrique Acevedo. “I read every word,” said ‘This should NEW PODCAST Linda V. Bartles of be required In Countdown, TIME Fort Worth. The editor at large Jeffrey reading for Kluger—who co-wrote feature convinced everyone.’ the book that inspired Marilyn Leviton of the movie Apollo 13 WILLIAM DOOLAN, Northridge, Calif., Evergreen, Colo. and whose new and Danny Wilson book Apollo 8 tells of San Diego that the story of the first mission to the moon— it’s not safe to store voting results and recounts the 10 most voter information online. Any resulting harrowing space inconvenience, Wilson wrote, “would missions. Download be a small price to pay for the increased the first episode, peace of mind.” And Justin Hendrix of about Apollo 10, at time.com/countdown Brooklyn, who tweeted that the article was “terrifying,” explained why he believes it’s so important to address any doubts about election security: “Confidence in our elections is confidence in democracy.” BONUS TIME MOTTO Back in TIME THE UNITED PATIENTS OF AMERICA The Prisoners Return, TIME’s July 24 feature on how parents of sick or Feb. 19, 1973 disabled kids are bridging political divides to protest Subscribe to TIME’s This week TIME looks at Americans held proposed cuts to Medicaid, written by Charlotte free newsletter captive overseas (page 30), a subject Alter and Haley Sweetland Edwards, elicited strong Motto and get explored in this story about POWs return- responses from Americans who work with such weekly advice from ing from Vietnam. Each family “made its families on a daily basis. prominent thinkers own accommodations,” the story noted, James Czadek, a Medicaid and provocative as “women learned to live with the experi- eligibility worker in Long storytellers. ‘This is what ence of being neither wives nor widows.” Beach, Calif., thanked For more, visit Read the full article at time.com/vault should TIME for telling the story of time.com/email unite the people who represent us—our a “good portion of my TALK TO US caseload,” and expressed ▽ ▽ children.’ his respect for patients SEND AN EMAIL: FOLLOW US: facebook.com/time MEGAN COLLINS, like those in the article [email protected] @time Norwell, Mass. “because of the love they Please do not send attachments (Twitter and Instagram) have for their child and the strength they demon- Letters should include the writer’s full name, address and home strate.” Laura Barnett, telephone and may be edited for purposes of clarity and space a speech-language pathologist from Sandy, Utah, delivered a “high five from all my little patients” for Back Issues Contact us at [email protected] or cutting through “the political posturing.” But Adam P. call 1-800-274-6800. Reprints and Permissions Information Newman of Decatur, Ga., who studies portrayals of is available at time.com/reprints. To request custom reprints, Advertising disabilities in literature, tweeted that he wished the visit timereprints.com. For advertising rates and Please recycle this article also featured the voices of the many activists our editorial calendar, visit timemediakit.com. Syndication magazine and remove For international licensing and syndication requests, visit inserts or samples

THE AVENGERS: MARVEL; ATOMIC BLONDE: FOCUS FEATURES; CHARLIE’S ANGELS, G.I. JANE, STAR WARS, ALIEN, KILL BILL: GETTY IMAGES (5) working on this issue who are themselves disabled. timeinc.com/syndication. before recycling 5 For the Record

7,500,000,000 C:(+$9( Approximate number of minutes Americans spent watching Netflix on their '(&,'(' phones in June 2017, up 73% from the same time in 2014, per ComScore 72/(7285 621*2 CONNIE YATES, mother of Charlie Gard, announcing her family’s decision to end a three-month legal battle to stop a London hospital from taking their terminally ill infant son off life support; the case received international attention as the family sought permission to bring Charlie to the U.S. for an experimental therapy ‘I will hound 20 you to the million Number of sterile ‘LET’S male mosquitoes that very gates California scientists Bang CBS show are releasing in Fresno MEET FACE County to reduce The Big Bang Theory inspired of hell.’ the number of Aedes researchers to aegypti that can carry TO FACE discover a new RODRIGO DUTERTE, President of the diseases like Zika and chemical Philippines, reiterating his commitment to dengue; the plan is compound his controversial policy of rounding up and for them to mate with AND YOU killing alleged drug dealers in his second females, whose eggs state of the nation address, held on July 24 TELL ME won’t hatch GOOD WEEK I’M NOT BAD WEEK ‘Rematch? WORTHY.’ Next time ... 20 Number of times hotter KRISTIN BECK, a veteran of the warmer Tabasco’s Scorpion elite SEAL Team 6 unit, who came Flash Sauce is compared out publicly as transgender two Adobe announced water.’ with the brand’s years after retiring from the Navy that it would kill in 2011, addressing President the once common original red sauce; the MICHAEL PHELPS, Olympic gold medalist, limited-edition product Trump after he tweeted on July 26 software by the end reacting to losing a race off the coast that transgender people will of 2020 of South Africa to a computer-simulated sold out within hours of be barred from serving in the fish programmed to swim as fast as its July 19 launch military, reversing a 2016 change a great white shark; the race, held in policy; Beck was a SEAL for to publicize Discovery Channel’s 20 years and received both a Shark Week, disappointed fans who Bronze Star and a Purple Heart expected a real shark ILLUSTRATIONS BY BROWN BIRD DESIGN FOR TIME FOR DESIGN BIRD BROWN BY ILLUSTRATIONS ‘I basically have spent a conflict-free life.’ O.J. SIMPSON, former football star, successfully arguing for his release before a Nevada parole board on July 20, after serving nine years of a 33-year prison sentence for his role in an armed robbery in Las Vegas; the 70-year-old was famously acquitted in a 1995 trial of the murders of his ex-wife and her friend

6 TIME August 7, 2017 SOURCES: CNN; RECODE; SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN ‘THESE POLITICIANS NEED TO COME HERE AND SEE WHAT WE SEE.’ —PAGE 14

Trump broke custom by delivering a political speech to the Boy Scouts’ national jamboree in Glen Jean, W.Va.

POLITICS IT WAS A PERFORMANCE REVIEW NO challenges by picking political brawls. employee wants to hear, delivered In the span of a few days, he turned the Trump’s by an angry boss in a setting Boy Scouts’ National Scout Jamboree attacks sow that broadcast the humiliation. into a partisan rally, sharpened his Standing in the Rose Garden on attack on the integrity of special counsel chaos in July 25, President Donald Trump Robert Mueller and his investigators excoriated U.S. Attorney General Jeff and hired former hedge-fund executive Washington Sessions for recusing himself from Anthony Scaramucci to head the White By Zeke J. Miller and the Russia investigation buffeting House communications shop. Senior Alex Altman Trump’s Administration. “I’m very White House advisers objected, citing disappointed with the Attorney Scaramucci’s inexperience; press General,” the President fumed. Asked secretary Sean Spicer quit in protest. if he would fire Sessions, Trump said But the man known as the Mooch simply, “Time will tell.” had a virtue that Trump prizes above Trump’s latest bid to expel one of all others: boundless devotion to the his earliest allies and his call for an boss. As Trump sidelines Washington investigation into vanquished rival veterans, Scaramucci is remaking the Hillary Clinton may be a defining West Wing by promising to root out and moment in his young presidency. fire leakers. Beset by multiple, expanding Russia The question gripping Washington probes, Trump is responding to his legal is how far Trump’s norm breaking AFP/GETTY IMAGES AFP/GETTY PHOTOGRAPH BY SAUL LOEB 7 TheBrief

will trickle down. All over town, other again.” It was a remarkable speech, traditions of good behavior seem delivered with grace and studded with to be crumbling. In the Senate, humor. But it was a sign of the times TICKER Republican leader Mitch McConnell that five minutes earlier, he had voted to broke precedent by forcing a vote advance the health bill that had broken on a health care bill whose contents multiple Senate traditions of procedure. Sweltering truck were a mystery even to his colleagues. The President did not heed McCain’s leads to 10 deaths Instead of drafting legislation through message. Although aides have urged him Ten undocumented the traditional committee process, to stop lashing out on Twitter, Trump immigrants died and Republicans are trying to write and stepped up his attacks on the country’s dozens were severely amend the bill on the Senate floor. The leading law-enforcement figures—not injured after being final vote tally to begin debate just Sessions and Mueller smuggled into the U.S. on the unread bill was 50 to but also the acting director and put inside the TRUMP’S STAFF back of a tractor-trailer, 50, forcing Vice President SHAKE-UP of the FBI, Andrew McCabe. which was discovered Mike Pence to cast the tie- (Trump’s distrust of McCabe stopped by a Texas breaking vote. It SEAN SPICER comes through marriage: his Walmart. The driver The beleaguered was arrested and was the fourth time White House press wife, a candidate for the Vir- in six months that ginia state senate in 2015, re- charged with human secretary resigned trafficking. Pence has stepped July 21 in protest ceived nearly $500,000 from in to break a Senate of communications the political action commit- Sri Lanka faces deadlock—something director Anthony tee controlled by the state’s dengue crisis Scaramucci’s hiring his predecessor, Joe Democratic governor, Terry The unprecedented Biden, never did in eight MICHAEL SHORT McAuliffe, a close Clinton outbreak has resulted years. The senior assistant ally.) Inside the White House, in more than 100,000 One of the GOP holdouts press secretary, a Trump aides express frustra- cases and claimed former Republican nearly 300 lives this was Maine Senator Susan National Committee tion with the President’s lack Collins. Her resistance of discipline. But their boss year so far. Aid groups staffer close to say the epidemic is incensed fellow Republican Spicer and chief of has tuned them out. “He’s his overwhelming the Blake Farenthold, a House staff Reince Priebus, own counsel,” says a senior island’s health system. member who had grown was forced to resign White House official. July 25—the first weary of waiting for the Which is risky. Trump’s Men’s sperm counts victim of Scaramucci’s dropping in West Senate to act on a health care West Wing purge taunting of Mueller could bill. In a radio interview, the make the Russia Sperm counts among Texan criticized the Senate MARK CORALLO investigations worse men in Western The veteran countries, including for lacking courage and spokesman for for him. On July 25, singled out “some female the House passed a North America, Trump’s outside legal Australia and Europe, Senators from the Northeast.” team called it quits measure that curbs have declined more “If it was a guy from South on July 20 amid the the Administration’s than 50% in less than President’s escalating Texas,” Farenthold added, “I power to roll 40 years, according IMAGES NUKARI/AFP/GETTY JUSSI ABE: TIMES/REDUX; YORK NEW THE CORALLO: AP; SPICER: might ask him to step outside criticism of Mueller back sanctions on Russia. to a recent study. The and settle this Aaron Burr– And his penchant for factors driving the style.” Collins was caught on a hot mike picking political fights may isolate decline are unclear. four days later firing shots of her own. him further. Trump turned to Twitter China bars Bieber “I don’t mean to be unkind, but he’s so again on July 26 to announce a ban on performances unattractive,” she told a colleague. (Both transgender people in the military. The apologized.) decree surprised his allies in Congress The Beijing municipal bureau of culture cited Some pushed back against the and at the Pentagon and even caught Justin Bieber’s past breakdown in decorum. A week after some White House staffers off-guard. instances of “bad being diagnosed with an aggressive form After the announcement, the White behavior,” describing of brain cancer, John McCain jetted House struggled to explain its impact on him as “talented but back to Washington just in time to cast thousands of trans service members. also ... controversial.” Separately, on July 24, a critical vote. He took the floor to extol The price Trump may pay for all the Canadian singer the Senate’s virtues, from its arcane this decorum busting is unknown: his announced he was can- customs to its legacy of bipartisanship. supporters seem to love it, and weary celing the remaining “I hope we can again rely on humility,” Republicans are sticking with him for dates of his world tour the six-term Senator said, “on our need now. What’s clear is that Trump has no because of “unfore- seen circumstances.” to cooperate, on our dependence on intention of toning it down. If anything, each other, to learn how to trust each he’s only getting started. □

8 TIME August 7, 2017 DATA

WALKING AROUND THE WORLD

Indonesians are the world’s least active people, according to a Stanford study that used smartphones to track the daily steps of about 700,000 people in 46 countries. A sample of the results, ranked from the most to the fewest aver- age daily steps:

EVERYBODY IN! Swimmers with inner tubes and arm floats cram into a saltwater pool known as the Daying Dead Sea at 1. Hong Kong a resort in Suining City, in southwestern China, on July 22. More than 8,000 people gathered at the indoor water complex 6,880 steps to escape the summer temperatures of more than 96°F. The resort is positioned on the same latitude as the Dead Sea in (most active) the Middle East. Photograph by Lola Levan—EPA

JAPAN AILING POLICIES His “Abenomics” program of ag- gressive fiscal and monetary stimulus and structural What’s behind Shinzo Abe’s 5. Russia plummeting popularity reforms has failed to reignite the economy. Japan is 5,969 still dogged by deflation while real wages have only inched up. Abe’s hawkish nationalism has added to JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER SHINZO ABE WAS the disquiet: he intends to revise the nation’s paci- grilled by the country’s legislature on July 24 and fist constitution, has changed rules to allow Japa- 25 over new allegations of cronyism. It’s the latest nese troops to fight abroad and pushed through a in a series of blows that has prompted the center- contentious antiterrorism law. 13. Italy right leader’s approval ratings to sink to a new 5,296 low of 26% before general elections next year: FADING STAR Winning a third term in 2018 would make Abe Japan’s longest-serving post- SCHOOL TIES Abe and his aides are accused of war Prime Minister. However, his party’s pressuring his Education Ministry to give his stunning defeats in recent local elections friend Kotaro Kake permission to open a in Tokyo and Sendai mean many now new veterinary school, despite wide- see him as an electoral liability. 30. U.S. spread consensus it was not needed. It Conservative newspaper Yomiuri 4,774 would be the first such school approved recently accused his government of in Japan in over five decades. In March, being “arrogant.” For conservative Abe and his wife were named in a sepa- Japanese voters, however, there are rate scandal involving patronage of few viable alternatives. an ultranationalist private school that —CHARLIE CAMPBELL allegedly purchased public land at a 46. Indonesia nearly 90% discount. He denies any ◁ Abe has been tarnished by a 3,513 steps impropriety in both cases. string of controversies (least active) 9 The Brief Dispatch

Qatar settles in for a long standoff By Jared Malsin Al-Khor, Qatar

IN A SPRAWLING FARM COMPLEX IN the desert north of Doha, more than 300 cows occupy a warehouse, munching on piles of grass. In one pen sits a group of newborn calves, gangly legs folded, ears twitching. The cows make no sound at all, apart from a gentle rustling. These Holsteins are here because of a geopolitical crisis in the Middle East. After Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt imposed heavy sanctions on Qatar on June 5, a Qatari company launched an airlift of hundreds of cows to safeguard milk supplies, since an embargo cut into Life in Doha is relatively unchanged after weeks under a blockade dairy imports. “My instructions were we needed cows yesterday,” says John Joseph Dore, a 57-year-old Irishman were restocked within days. for a way out of this. They’ll need to and the CEO of Baladna, the farm The Qataris are far from totally negotiate a deal that ends the crisis where the cows now reside. Wearing isolated; the peninsula has received without embarrassing themselves.” a straw hat and a sky blue shirt, Dore support from Europe, regional powers However, the Saudi, Emirati, says plans are in place to import 14,000 like Turkey and the top U.S. diplomat, Bahraini and Egyptian governments are more dairy cows from as far away as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. showing few signs that they will drop Wisconsin and California by 2018. On July 21, Tillerson said he was the sanctions anytime soon. On July 25, “Lots of people said we couldn’t do it, “satisfied” with Qatar’s Egypt’s Foreign Minister but we did do it,” he says. efforts to combat the This Sameh Shoukry rejected More than seven weeks in, the crisis financing of terrorist diplomatic “any form of negotiations” between Qatar and its neighbors has set- networks. President with Qatar. The UAE’s tled into a stalemate. The “gang of four” Trump, who has rebuilt standoff has Foreign Finister Anwar nations led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE U.S. relations with the been a long al-Gargash predicted “a long has accused Qatar of supporting extrem- Saudis, created confusion time coming. estrangement.” Mohammed ist groups across the region, a charge the when he tweeted support It’s the Gulf’s Alyahya, a Saudi political Qataris vehemently deny. On June 23, for the campaign against version of the analyst with the Atlantic the blockading states issued a list of 13 Qatar on June 6, but he Cold War Council in Washington, says, demands, urging Qatar to sever ties with has since fallen silent on “The Qataris do not properly Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood and the issue. appreciate the gravity of the shut down its controversial but popular The Saudi and UAE–led bloc has situation and the depth of the quartet’s news network al-Jazeera. now reshaped its demands into six grievances, especially Saudi Arabia’s.” Qatar stood firm. One of the world’s broad principles, including a vague This crisis has deep roots among the largest exporters of natural gas, the call for Qatar to combat extremism and Saudis in long-simmering differences nation is both tiny and rich, with fewer terrorism. Qatari officials insist they over Qatar’s sympathy and aid for citizens than the city of Tulsa, Okla. It are already doing just that and show Islamist groups in the region, Qatar’s is also home to the largest U.S. military no sign of conceding. The Saudis and perceived support for the 2011 Arab base in the Middle East, a key location their allies “overestimated the level of Spring uprisings and Qatar’s “open for launching air assaults on ISIS and international support they’d get, and door” policy of warm relations with al-Qaeda. The country’s government we’re confident that the world sees countries like Iran, the archrival of

and businesses quickly found ways to that this blockade is an unreasonable Saudi Arabia. This diplomatic standoff AFP/GETTY IMAGES circumvent the blockade, establishing violation of our sovereignty,” says has been a long time coming, and will alternative shipping routes and flying Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed al Thani, a not be resolved quickly. It’s the Gulf’s in livestock. Supermarket shelves emp- Qatari government spokesman. “The version of the Cold War—and it has tied in the wake of the initial embargo blockading countries are looking only just begun. □

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As Congress fights, thousands camp out for free health care By Susanna Schrobsdorff

IN THE WEE HOURS OF JULY 21, THE PARKING LOT of a county fairground in Wise, Va., was packed with families sleeping in their cars or in makeshift beds tucked between vehicles. They were camping out not for coveted tickets to a concert but for entry to a massive free medical and dental clinic. Volunteers began handing out numbers for admission at 3 a.m. The best chance for getting in when the doors opened a few hours later was to be there in the middle of the night. The annual event is run by Remote Area Medical (RAM), a global nonprofit that conducts what it calls expeditions in areas around the world that are in desperate need of basic care, including more than a dozen locations in the U.S. A legion of volunteer doctors, nurses, dentists, optometrists and helpers converged on the little Appalachian town of Wise for three ‘These days to treat about 2,000 are your people. neighbors, Some patients have your favorite been in excruciating pain from infected teeth for waitresses, months, waiting for RAM your kids’ to arrive. Others are in teachers.’ urgent need of diagnostic JEFF EASTMAN, CEO of tests. Most of the patients Remote Area Medical are among the nation’s more than 29 million uninsured. “These are your neighbors, your favorite waitresses, your kids’ teachers,” says Jeff Eastman, RAM’s CEO. In many areas, people on Medicaid have a hard time finding providers who will take the low reimbursements for treatments like root canals—without which minor health problems can turn into major risks. It’s a slow-boiling catastrophe that may yet get worse as the full Senate considers various health care measures that could push millions more people off insurance. “It’s life or death for them,” says Teresa Gardner Tyson, executive director of the Health Wagon, a local nonprofit that works with RAM. “These politicians need to come here and see what we see.” Tyson says she has had diabetic patients who have lost their vision for lack of a few hundred dollars to pay for insulin––a situation that ends up costing more in the long run. “The system will pay for it either way,” she says, “so why not do the right thing and get them treatment in the first place?” □

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN MOORE PORTRAITS OF CARE Many of the patients at Remote Area Medical’s annual free clinic in Wise, Va., come for much-needed dental and vision care. Volunteer dentists extracted more than 3,000 teeth during the three-day event this year, and 706 people were fitted for glasses. The clinic also provides crucial medical screenings for cancer and other serious illnesses that could go untreated otherwise, as well as orthopedic surgery procedures like the one at left. Health providers are often few and far between in this rural area, and the annual clinic is the only chance some residents have to see specialists.

GETTY IMAGES 15 TheBrief

THE RISK REPORT cally. Euroskeptic Andrej Babis is expected to Liberal democracy is win victory in the Czech Republic in October. TICKER In Hungary, meanwhile, Prime Minister eroding right in Viktor Orban has proudly labeled himself an Europe’s backyard “illiberal” democrat and reportedly spent Study strengthens nearly $13 million on a campaign to discredit link between By Ian Bremmer financier George Soros, the Hungarian-born football and brain founder of Open Society Foundations, an damage POLAND’S PRESIDENT ANDRZEJ DUDA NGO that champions human rights and rule Of 111 deceased NFL vetoed a bid on July 24 by the ruling Law of law. Orban is also pushing to shut down Bu- players studied, 110 and Justice Party that would have crippled dapest’s Central European University, which had chronic traumatic rule of law in that country by stripping its Soros founded. encephalopathy (CTE), highest court of its independence. He may None of these countries has yet descended a degenerative brain disorder associated well have been motivated by the huge protests to the depths reached by Turkey, just on the with repeated head across Poland on this attack on judicial other side of the trauma. Researchers independence. But the ruling party and its Even inside Black Sea from East- found that the severity chairman, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, will surely ern Europe. Since a of the CTE symptoms try to find new ways to ensure that judges do the West’s failed coup last July, appeared to progress most the more a person what the government wants them to do. more than 50,000 played the sport. These events are part of a broader trend powerful people have been ar- against liberal democracy that is playing out in clubs, liberal rested, many of them Pakistan suicide all four of the so-called Visegrad countries— simply for being bomber kills at democracy is least 26 Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and under threat critics of President Slovakia. For example, governments in these Recep Tayyip Erdo- The blast in Lahore, in countries have publicly pledged to ignore an gan. Prosecutors are eastern Pakistan, also E.U. quota system on acceptance of refugees. seeking up to 43 years in jail for 17 journal- wounded 54 people, Slovakia was the first to close the door, and ists and managers at a secularist newspaper including many police officers. The outlawed Hungary followed suit. Duda, hero of the that has been critical of Erdogan. Turkey’s militant group Tehrik- moment for wielding his veto, says he favors government announced in June that the the- e-Taliban Pakistan a referendum on the refugee question. He ory of evolution would no longer be part of claimed responsibility. knows that Poles will vote to keep them out. the school curriculum. Evolution is “above Macron’s Under the E.U. quotas, the Visegrad group the students’ level and not directly relevant,” popularity drops was expected to accept 11,069 refugees. So far, the country’s Education Minister said. This in France Slovakia has admitted 16, the Czech Republic from a country that remains a NATO member, has taken in 12, and Poland and Hungary have though E.U. accession is looking less likely. The French President’s accepted zero. The European Commission Even inside the West’s most powerful clubs, approval rating fell by 10% in July, just three has threatened penalties, including a reduced liberal democracy is under threat. Be skepti- months after he swept share of the E.U. budget, but the approach of cal that E.U. leaders can—or that the Trump into power on a tide of those countries has proved popular domesti- Administration will—do much about it. □ antipathy toward main- stream parties. An IFOP poll found that 54% of people in France were MYSTERIES satisfied with Macron in July, compared with Weird things from the blue 64% in June. A homeowner is trying to figure out how 15 lb. of frozen pork landed on Microsoft Paint the roof of his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on July 15, seemingly out survives brush with of thin air. Here, other unexplained sky falls. —Kate Samuelson death MONEY APPLES WORMS A bizarre video of Rush-hour motorists In 2007, a woman Microsoft reassured drivers abandoning were alarmed when it in Louisiana was customers that it will their cars in Kuwait began raining apples crossing the street continue to offer Paint, City in order to over a main road in when large, tangled which has been part of grab paper money Coventry, England, clumps of worms its operating system falling from the sky in 2011. The freak began dropping from since 1985, after plans went viral in 2015. downpour was above. The worms to drop support for the Officials had no thought to be caused may have been program in a software explanation for the by a wind vortex over propelled into the air update triggered a windfall. a nearby orchard. by a waterspout. backlash. Milestones WON Jordan Spieth The British Open

MELTDOWNS IN MAJOR TOURNA- ments have a way of wrecking golfers. Jordan Spieth was hailed as the game’s next great after win- ning the 2015 Masters and U.S. Open at the age of 21. Spieth was poised to add a second straight green jacket the next year until he lost it on the 12th hole at Augusta, hitting a quadruple bogey that cost him the win. Spieth was headed for a similar fate in the final round of the British Open on July 23, after he sliced a catastrophic tee shot on 13. Fellow American Matt Kuchar, with whom he had been dueling all day, Bennington on tour with Linkin Park in Amsterdam on June 20 seemed sure to capitalize. But then Spieth found a resolve that DIED his voice surging in an instant from had eluded him at the Masters, Chester Bennington plaintive incantation to growling somehow saving bogey and Music pioneer surrender. He was open about his then reeling off an onslaught of struggles with childhood sexual birdies—plus an eagle—to win the MUSIC CAN BE AN ESCAPE FROM abuse, addiction and depression, title by three strokes. the pain of living or a means of not only in his lyrics but also in With the triumph, the baby- lassoing it, drawing it near and staring interviews, as when he described faced Spieth joins Jack Nicklaus it down. For Chester Bennington his mind as a “bad neighborhood” as the only golfers to win three and the fans who cherish his band where one shouldn’t walk alone. different majors before the age Linkin Park, it was the latter. The “He had a way of making anyone he of 24. If he can take home the singer-songwriter, who died by spoke to feel heard, understood and PGA Championship, which tees suicide on July 20 at 41, helped usher significant,” recalled Bennington’s off Aug. 10 in Charlotte, N.C., in an entirely new genre that fused friend and Limp Bizkit front man he’ll become just the sixth to win rock, metal, rap and grunge at the Fred Durst in the wake of his death. all four. —SEAN GREGORY turn of the millennium. Channeling “He was always the one projecting his own suffering into music, he light on the shadows.” offered listeners a catharsis for theirs, —ELIZA BERMAN

DIED championships, WON particles of John Heard, at 101. The Tour de France, moon dust, by a Emmy-nominated ▷ Barbara Sinatra, by Chris Froome, for mystery buyer, for actor known for his philanthropist the fourth time. The $1.8 million at a memorable roles and former model Kenyan-born British Sotheby’s auction. in Home Alone who was married rider finished just and The Sopranos, to singer Frank 54 seconds ahead SOLD at 71. Sinatra for 22 of Colombia’s Luxury British ▷ John Kundla, years, at 90. Rigoberto Urán shoe company Basketball Hall ▷ Stubbs the cat, overall. Jimmy Choo, of Famer and honorary feline to U.S. fashion Minneapolis Lakers mayor of the tiny BOUGHT brand Michael coach who led the town of Talkeetna, A small white Kors, for roughly team to five NBA Ala., at 20. bag containing $1.2 billion. MYSTERIES: ILLUSTRATION BY BROWN BIRD DESIGN FOR TIME; BENNINGTON: BEN HOUDIJK; SPIETH: AP

17

LightBox New anger in the Old City Israeli forces disperse Palestinian demonstrators with tear gas outside Jerusalem’s Old City on July 21. The protests began after Israeli authorities placed metal detectors at the gates of the Aqsa Mosque compound after two Israeli guards were fatally shot there by Arab gunmen on July 14. Three Palestinians were killed in subsequent clashes with police, and three Israelis were stabbed to death in an apparent revenge attack. Israeli authorities dismantled the metal detectors at the holy site—known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary—on July 25.

Photograph by Ammar Awad—Reuters

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The tales of heroism we tell may not inspire the sick as much as we hope

HEALTH SINCE JOHN MCCAIN’S BRAIN CANCER In the fall of 2005, weeks after diagnosis became public, I’ve watched selling a pitch to turn the Terminator It’s O.K. to a lot of well-meaning people tell a movie franchise into a scary-robot be a coward brave man to be brave. “Cancer doesn’t TV show, I ate a bad farmers’-market know what it’s up against,” tweeted burrito and ended up learning I had about cancer President Obama, encouraging his kidney cancer. It’s not an uncommon former opponent to “give it hell.” Many diagnostic journey for the disease. You By Josh Friedman others encouraged McCain to “fight.” go to the hospital expecting something This tough-guy narrative is familiar—in my case, I did have food seductive. It suggests that we have poisoning—but a couple of CT scans control over our fate, that we can will later, you also find yourself needing a cancer away. These are also the lies we partial lower left nephrectomy. tell ourselves—in the books we read Before the surgery I spent most of and in the TV and movies we watch, my time crying. Well, crying, pulling and to the sick people we know. And myself together, rocking my son to for some patients, they’re helpful. sleep, crying more and then taking But courageousness is a standard Ativan so my wife could rock me that no sick person should feel like to sleep. When I woke up after the they have to meet. I should know, as operation, the tumor was gone. But the a screenwriter, a cancer survivor and feeling of cancer was still inside me. My something of a coward. body was now a sinister stranger. It had

PHOTOGRAPH BY MARTIN GEE 21 The View

betrayed me; it had snuck up and tried to kill me. I BOOK IN BRIEF & would never trust it again. $/ The first ‘mission- ,) 2 I banned my friends from visiting and spent my 51 driven’ companies recovery staring out a hospital window wondering ,$ if I’d see my boy grow up. In my more optimistic THESE DAYS, IT’S COMMON FOR MAJOR moments, I decided I should quit writing the scary- public companies to market themselves robot show before I’d actually started. It all seemed using words like sustainability and ridiculous and disconnected from my life. Besides, SURVEY mission-driven. But University of no one would be mad at me if I just stopped. What Baltimore history professor Joshua Not exactly a profile in courage. Not even in the does your Clark Davis argues this kind of branding most favorable lighting. state derives from big corporations’ antithesis: I’ve heard nothing about bravery from other small businesses, especially those born cancer survivors over the past few days. We know the hate? during the social- dirty secret: You don’t battle cancer. You don’t fight justice movements Dating app Hater— it. If cancer wants you, it walks into your room at known for matching of the 1960s. In his night and just takes you. It doesn’t give a damn how people based on new book, From tough you are. The only way you survive is through a mutual dislikes— Head Shops to Whole mix of science, early detection, health insurance and recently released a Foods, Davis profiles luck. Courage has nothing to do with it. map highlighting which several of these of its “topics” users In fact, one small 2014 study found that people hate most in each entrepreneurial who read words like “hostile” and “fight” in a state. Here, a sampling ventures, such as passage about cancer were actually less likely to of the results: the black-owned say they’d engage in preventive measures—like Drum and Spear CALIFORNIA limiting their intake of red meat, or drinking less Fidget spinners Bookstore and the alcohol—than those who read passages with more feminist Diana Press, and explains how neutral language. Words have power. HAWAII they pioneered what he calls “activist Our culture likes its heroes undaunted, Taking videos at entrepreneurship” by selling progressive especially in the stories we tell. When I did end concerts products, using storefronts as political up writing the scary-robot show, I found myself IDAHO spaces, sharing ownership, limiting clashing with executives. I argued that bravery in Asking for directions growth and de-prioritizing profit. the face of death shouldn’t be the protagonists’ Although many of these businesses have default setting. Because when we glorify strength IOWA since closed, their language legacy lives Long hair on guys without showing empathy for weakness, we end on, albeit in ways that would likely make up with a toxic version of heroism, one that links ILLINOIS their founders cringe. —SARAH BEGLEY bravery to goodness and cowardice to getting what Biting into string you deserve. cheese And when we do that, we can no longer tell MISSOURI CHARTOON stories of grace, or forgiveness, or connectedness. People who believe We can no longer tell stories about real people— in aliens Disappointing moments the ones who fail, the ones who are afraid and the in evolution NEW MEXICO ones who let themselves and others down. These Polo shirts are the stories we need more than ever, especially those of us walking on life’s edge. NEW YORK The hard truth is, there’s a Terminator out Times Square there for each one of us. But when it finds you PENNSYLVANIA has nothing to do with how tough you are or how People who use good a person you’ve been. After I recovered from money clips my surgery, I turned that reality into the opening TEXAS narration of the scary-robot show, played over a Sleeping with the dark onrushing road: “I will die. I will die, and so window open will you. Death gives no man a pass.” You won’t find those words in the final version, VIRGINIA though. The network made me take them out. Dabbing pizza grease with a napkin Too scary. WASHINGTON Friedman is a screenwriter and producer for film Keurig K-Cups and TV, including Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and the forthcoming Avatar 4 JOHN ATKINSON, WRONG HANDS

22 TIME August 7, 2017 ▶ For more on these stories, visit time.com/ideas

SNAPSHOT A triumph over censorship Can an ancient building make a modern political statement? Absolutely, according to Argentine DATA artist Marta Minujín. She crafted a replica of the Parthenon, the Greek temple for goddess of wis- THIS dom Athena, as a protest against censorship. The Parthenon of Books is the centerpiece of the JUST IN contemporary art show “Documenta” and includes thousands of banned books, such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1984 and the Harry Potter series. Fittingly, it stands in Kassel, Germany, where Nazis A roundup of new and helped burn 2,000 books by Marxist or Jewish authors in 1933. The plastic-covered books, which noteworthy insights the public donated, will re-enter circulation after the show’s Sept. 17 close. —Julia Zorthian from the week’s most talked-about studies:

1 HAPPINESS DEFINITELY IMPROVES HEALTH A review in Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being that analyzed more than 150 studies found that high subjective well- being—a rating people give their own lives— can positively affect everything from the cardiovascular system to immunity.

2 ONE IN THREE CASES OF DEMENTIA COULD BE PREVENTED A report in The Lancet found that practicing healthier habits in nine ways, such as avoiding smoking and keeping blood pressure reasonable, could prevent brain decline in one-third of all HISTORY How climate change became a political issue dementia patients. 3 CLIMATE CHANGE CAN SEEM LIKE AN research was used to lobby lawmakers— BELIEVING YOU’RE intractably divisive issue in U.S. politics. specifically pro-business Republicans— NOT ACTIVE COULD DIMINISH EXERCISE But that polarization is a surprisingly recent against measures to cut emissions. President BENEFITS phenomenon, and it didn’t develop all at once. George W. Bush angered environmentalists A study in Health As new evidence emerged in the 1980s by sidestepping climate change in his early Psychology analyzing that humans were heating the planet, those days in office, but even so his Administration data from over 60,000 on both sides of the aisle expressed concern. set an emissions-reduction target in 2008 and adults controlled for activity level and In 1988, Republican presidential candidate increased fuel-efficiency standards. found that people who George H.W. Bush even called for integrating The election of President Barack Obama believed they were “environmental considerations into all policy and the rise of the Tea Party changed the less active than others decisions.” As President, he pushed to launch mood. A wave of opposition made anything were 71% more likely to the U.N. body that would lead to global deals the White House touched—including curbing die during the study’s follow-up period of up on climate, including the Paris Agreement. global warming—toxic for Republicans. A to 21 years than those At the same time, those whose bottom glimmer of bipartisanship on climate change who thought they were lines would be affected by emissions limits has since re-emerged. But today it appears more active. mobilized to try to discredit the science. that the spirit of 1988 remains out of reach. —J.Z. (Perhaps the best-known example was Exxon —JUSTIN WORLAND Mobil’s funding of think tanks that boosted

SURVEY: ILLUSTRATION BY MARTIN GEE FOR TIME; SNAPSHOT: UWE ZUCCHI—PICTURE-ALLIANCE/DPA/AP contrarian views on climate change.) That ▶ For more on these stories, visit time.com/history The View

Notre Dame cathedral is crumbling. Who will help save it? By Vivienne Walt/Paris

ON AN AVERAGE SUMMER DAY IN PARIS, ABOUT 50,000 1163 tourists pass through Notre Dame cathedral, one of the Year that finest buildings of the medieval era still standing. Visitors construction from dozens of countries gaze up at the spectacular stained- began on the glass windows, tiptoe through its vast choir and nave and cathedral whisper in awe at the centuries-old sculptures and paintings that line the walls. Notre Dame, which looms over the capital from an island in the center of the city, is a constant reminder of Paris’ history. 5,000 It has seen more than its share of epic dramas, including the oak trees French Revolution and two world wars. But now there is another challenge. Some 854 years after construction began, Source for the wood-timber one of Europe’s most visited sites, with about 12 million roof, built tourists a year, is in dire need of repairs. Centuries of weather by medieval have worn away at the stone. The fumes from decades of craftsmen gridlock have only worsened the damage. “Pollution is the biggest culprit,” says Philippe Villeneuve, architect in chief of historic monuments in France. “We need to replace the ruined stones. We need to replace the joints with traditional materials. $6.84 This is going to be extensive.” million It will be expensive too, and it’s not at all clear who is pre- Cost to restore pared to foot the bill. Under France’s strict secular laws, the the spire, government owns the cathe- which has been dral, and the Catholic arch- deemed the ‘We need to diocese of Paris uses it per- most urgent task replace the ruined manently for free. The priests stones. We need to for years believed the govern- replace the joints ment should pay for repairs, with traditional since it owned the building. $114 materials. This But under the terms of the million is going to be government’s agreement, the Amount the extensive.’ archdiocese is responsible for archdiocese Notre Dame’s upkeep, with hopes to raise PHILIPPE VILLENEUVE, the Ministry of Culture giving in the next five architect in chief of historic years monuments in France it about €2 million ($2.28 mil- lion) a year for that purpose. with crowds destroying 28 statues of Staff say that money covers monarchs from the building’s Gallery only basic repairs, far short of what is needed. Without a seri- of Kings. After that, Notre Dame ous injection of cash, some believe, the building will not be safe 12 languished in neglect. for visitors in the future. Now the archdiocese is seeking help to million Then in 1831 came Victor Hugo’s save Notre Dame from yielding to the ravages of time. Number of book The Hunchback of Notre Dame, tourists who whose hero was the disfigured bell ringer THE ARCHITECTS OF NOTRE DAME knew all too well about visit Notre Dame Quasimodo. In it, France’s beloved lengthy building work; it took more than a century to build the each year writer raised alarm about the building’s cathedral, beginning in 1163. It was periodically vandalized decay, describing “mutilations, over the turbulent centuries that followed. Rioting Huguenots amputations, dislocations of the joints.” damaged parts of the building they believed to be idolatrous “Beside each wrinkle on the face of this in the mid–16th century. During the French Revolution, mobs old queen of our cathedrals,” he wrote, of people carted off or smashed some of its paintings and “you will find a scar.” statues. The hated royalty suffered the brunt of the carnage, But for Notre Dame, Hugo’s book

26 TIME August 7, 2017 old door off the choir and led TIME up kind. To the government, the cathedral a stone spiral staircase and out onto the is just one of many old buildings in roof, high above the crowds. Here, the need of care. “France has thousands site seemed not spiritually uplifting but of monuments,” says the official, who distressing. Chunks of limestone lay was not authorized to speak to the on the ground, having fallen from the media. Among them, Notre Dame is not upper part of the chevet, or the eastern necessarily the most pressing case. “It end of the Gothic church. One small will not fall down,” she says. piece had a clean slice down one side, showing how recently it had fallen. Two STILL, THERE IS PLENTY of alarm in sections of a wall were missing, propped the church. Finally accepting that the up with wood. And the features of government would not pay to restore Notre Dame’s famous gargoyles looked the cathedral, the archdiocese launched as worn away as the face of Voldemort. Friends of Notre Dame in October to ap- “They are like ice cream in the sun, peal for help. It hopes to raise €100 mil- melting,” says Michel Picaud, head of lion ($114 million) in the next five to the nonprofit Friends of Notre Dame de 10 years. “There is no part of the build- Paris, looking up at them. ing untouched by the irreparable loss What is more, some fear the problem of sculptural and decorative elements, is getting worse. “The damage can let alone the alarming deterioration of only accelerate,” says Andrew Tallon, structural elements,” the organization an associate professor of art at Vassar says on its website. The cathedral, it College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and an says, “is in desperate need of attention.” expert on Gothic architecture. Having Picaud, a retired software executive carefully studied the damage, he says who heads the fundraising effort, says the restoration work is urgent. If the he is planning a marketing drive in Paris cathedral is left alone, its structural in November. But he believes the bulk integrity could be at risk. “The flying of the money will come not from the buttresses, if they are not in place, the French but from Americans, millions choir could come down,” he says. “The of whom know Notre Dame and who more you wait, the more you need to take are less hesitant than the French about down and replace.” giving money to the church. “People The church was not fully aware of don’t want to give money because of the extent of the problem, say those laïcité,” says Finot, referring to the at Notre Dame. Until a few years ago, strict secularism that infuses French the government effectively made the law. “So our message is, This is not private areas off-limits. “There used to about religion. It is about our heritage. be about 200 old keys, so it was very, Notre Dame is open to Muslims, and very difficult,” says André Finot, a everyone.” Finot and Picaud expect spokesman for Notre Dame. Eventually, to raise most of the funds through the government standardized the keys large donations and are discussing and allowed its tenants to climb the with government officials whether to hidden stone staircases and access the acknowledge that generosity with a Many of Notre Dame’s gargoyles, which upper levels. “We were shocked when plaque at Notre Dame. act as rain spouts, have corroded and been we got up there,” Finot says. In April, the U.S. Internal Revenue replaced with PVC tubes The government hasn’t completely Service granted Friends of Notre Dame ignored the cathedral’s plight. In 2012, tax-free status, and the organization is sparked fresh problems. The best seller its bells were replaced to mark its planning to hold a five-city American inspired a restoration in 1844, which 850th birthday. This year, authorities road show in spring 2018 in an all-out used low-quality stone and even budgeted an extra €6 million push to raise the money. By the time cement, since France at the time could ($6.84 million) to restore the spire. serious renovation work begins— not produce the quantities of high- Water damage to the spire’s covering perhaps sometime before the end of this grade material that the job required. is threatening the wood-timber roof, decade—the damage could be worse Nearly 200 years on, that which the medieval craftsmen built than it is today. But at Notre Dame, 19th century work is crumbling (though using 5,000 oak trees. The restoration history is counted not in years but in the medieval construction is mostly in will begin in the fall. But a Ministry centuries. “We hope it will last forever,” better shape). One blazing hot day in of Culture official says Notre Dame Picaud says. “But it cannot last forever early July, a staff member unlocked an should not expect regular help of this without this renovation.” □

VINCENT FOURNIER FOR TIME The View Viewpoint

How to ease Europe’s creating deterrence by demonstrating offensive capability. Since Russia’s fears about the new elections are effectively nonexistent, U.S.-Russia relationship our responses should be asymmetric. Perhaps we could reveal the finances By Admiral James Stavridis of Russian political actors, thus undermining Kremlin propaganda. We VLADIMIR PUTIN IS A MALEVOLENT FORCE IN INTER- should also offer to help our European national relations. He constantly scans the horizon for partners defend their elections. opportunities to inflict damage on his biggest strategic target: U.S. 4. Strengthen NATO. Keep the the transatlantic alliance. He calculates that anything he does PRESIDENTS pressure on our European allies to in- to damage it increases Russian influence and opportunity in ON PUTIN crease defense spending to 2% of GDP the region. It’s working. (something the Trump Administration As both Congress and the White House wrestle with has done well, with real results). We the U.S.-Russia relationship, we should spare a moment should also confront Russia on the Eu- to consider how it all looks from overseas, where our ropean continent with more exercises, credibility as a global force for good is deteriorating by the training events, maritime patrols in moment. Despite President Trump’s recent feel-good visit “[He] could the Black and Baltic seas, intelligence- to Paris, the level of angst in European capitals over the get squishy on gathering and asset-pooling. Doing so U.S. Administration is shockingly high. The recent G-20 democracy.” would show resolve and thus reduce the summit further exacerbated concerns—especially Trump’s —Bill Clinton chance of Putin’s miscalculating and two-hour meeting there with Putin, made at the expense clashing with a NATO state, like one of of time with allies, partners and friends. Fortunately, the the small Baltic republics. House has passed a stronger set of sanctions on Russia, and it 5. Invest in the European leaders appears the White House—after some hesitation—will accept who matter—German Chancellor them, if they pass the Senate. This would be the right move, Angela Merkel and French President “No, Vladimir, but only a first step. you’re Emmanuel Macron above all. Better The recent revelations that tie Trump’s son and son-in-law cold-blooded.” relations with those countries, which to a sleazy meeting with a Russian lawyer will only increase —George W. will be at the center of the post-Brexit the worries in Europe of a U.S. Administration tied in knots Bush E.U., are critical. Trump’s visit to France for years by investigations. An even worse scenario, from its was good. Regular trips by Mattis and perspective, would be any capitulation to Putin by the U.S. Tillerson would be even better. paired with a lack of sufficient cyberdefense. The open war 6. Counterintuitively, keep between Trump and most of the media intensifies all of this. communications with Russia open. And so the palpable sense of unease in European capitals Seek whatever windows of cooperation grows. What should we do? These six things: “Vladimir we can create, potentially including Putin is not on our team.” counterterrorism and the fight against 1. Leverage our remaining credibility. While —Barack ISIS; counternarcotics (we both have an the reputations of Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Obama opioid problem); Afghanistan (despite Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Russia’s double game, it wants a stable Adviser H.R. McMaster are ebbing, given missteps in the government); Syria (an international White House, all three are still respected internationally. commission could lead to a quasi- Send them on stand-alone missions to reassure allies. partition, like in the Balkans); and 2. Keep strong sanctions. Removing them is Putin’s North Korea. Confront where we must, greatest short-term desire. Nothing would upset the “We look but cooperate where we can. Europeans more than being left “holding the bag.” Trump’s forward to Despite Trump’s ill-considered a lot of very musing about easing the sanctions was a mistake, and his positive things words at the G-20 summit, there is no decision to support them would be welcome. We should happening “honor” in meeting with this Russian continue to monitor their implementation with an eye toward for Russia, President. As our allies across the further increases, if warranted. for the United Atlantic drift away, we need to respond 3. Defend our 2016 and ’18 elections. Putin will try States and to the darkening view from abroad or AP TRUMP: OBAMA, BUSH, CLINTON, for everybody again to manipulate them in ways that, even if they don’t concerned.” else risk significant setbacks in Europe affect outcomes, divide us and weaken us internationally. —Donald and beyond. Our ability to prevent further damage rests on two pillars. Trump The first is defense—in the cybersphere and in responding to Stavridis is dean of the Fletcher obvious fake news. We need to move away from an electoral School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts process dominated by an anger industry that’s pulling us University and a former Supreme Allied apart and creating these vulnerabilities. The second is Commander at NATO

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©2017 Time Inc. Books. COOKING LIGHT is a trademark of Time Inc. Lifestyle Group, registered in the U.S. and other countries. Laurie Holt’s son Joshua has been imprisoned without due process in Venezuela for more than a year Politics THE ART OF THE HOSTAGE DEAL Inside President Trump’s efforts to free Americans held captive abroad By Elizabeth Dias/Riverton, Utah

PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL FRIBERG FOR TIME Holt, 25, sent this account of his cap- Armed ture in a letter last August to his parents, who live south of Salt Lake City in his Venezuelan childhood home. It was only the begin- ning of an ordeal his family could never police have fathomed when the young couple met online through their church that stormed year. Holt was accused of arms posses- A sion, though witnesses told his family and lawyers that they watched agents plant Thamara firearms in the apartment after the arrest. He and Candelo have been held without Candelo’s trial. Five preliminary hearings have been canceled, with no explanation other than apartment complex at dawn judges or courts were unavailable. According to his family, Holt has lost on June 30, 2016. It was two more than 50 lb. subsisting on the prison’s diet of uncooked chicken and raw pasta, meals former Helicoide inmates have weeks after her wedding claimed are mixed with feces. He was denied medical care for bronchitis, a day, and Candelo’s American kidney stone and pneumonia. When an infection spread from his jaw to his eye, husband, Joshua Holt, was authorities pulled a tooth and filled the hole with cement, right atop his exposed lying in their bed in Caracas. nerve. Holt became suicidal. On July 3, the 368th day of his imprisonment, he fell from his bunk when guards woke One officer demanded to see him, sustaining what his family fears was a concussion and a back fracture. his visa. Others ransacked “Demons stroll the hallways,” Holt wrote of the prison. “I have been told by 10 or the rooms, took Holt’s phone 20 people, prisoners and guards, that I am here because I am American.” and finally ordered him to get At any given moment, a handful of innocent Americans are detained in grisly into a pickup truck. For the conditions by hostile governments. Others are held by terrorist groups. At least four U.S. citizens are currently imprisoned in next five hours, his gun-toting Iran. A North Carolina pastor is jailed in Turkey, accused without public evidence captors mocked and hit him. of membership in a group the government considers to be terrorists. Last year, North Then they took him to the Korea seized Otto Warmbier, an Ohio college student visiting Pyongyang on Helicoide, a prison home to a tour program, and sentenced him to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly trying to steal a propaganda poster. Warmbier the Venezuelan intelligence fell into a coma in captivity after “tortuous mistreatment,” according to his family, police. He has not been and died days after he was finally released in June. Three other Americans remain in allowed out since. prison in North Korea. Many of the families of these captives are united by a faith that President Trump will do what it takes to win their loved ones’ release. As a candidate, Trump promised that his dealmaking

32 TIME August 7, 2017 skills would free innocent Americans to Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Helen, the woman whose face launched held abroad. “This doesn’t happen if Utah. At one point, Trump Jr. offered to a thousand ships. In America’s earliest I’m president!” Trump tweeted a few go to Venezuela, Hatch says. A lawyer days, President George Washington weeks before Election Day, when Iran for Trump Jr. did not return multiple paid ransoms for shipping crews taken sentenced two Americans for allegedly requests for comment, and the Trump by Algerian pirates. Less than a decade spying. As President, Trump has indeed Organization declined to comment. later, Thomas Jefferson refused to do pushed forcefully, and personally. In U.S. Presidents have often struggled the same, starting the First Barbary War. April, his Administration negotiated the with the challenge of when to trade favor or Jimmy Carter’s presidency buckled under release of aid worker Aya Hijazi, who had treasure for Americans captured abroad. the humiliation of Iranian revolutionaries been held for three years in an Egyptian Trump says he will deal forcefully with holding 52 Americans for 444 days. When prison. Trump sent a plane to pick her up foreign adversaries. “We are aggressively George W. Bush was in the White House, and tweeted a photo montage of him and pursuing the release of our people. We Colombia’s Revolutionary Armed Forces Hijazi with Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless will leave no lawful tool, partnership or held three American defense contractors the USA” playing in the background. He recovery option off the table,” Trump tells captive for five years until they were has boasted about the deal in interviews, TIME. “I am always tough on countries rescued in a military helicopter operation. saying it took him just 10 minutes in or terrorist groups that hold our people Barack Obama’s presidency changed the Oval Office with Egyptian President hostage or detain them on fake charges in the summer of 2014, when the Is- Abdul Fattah al-Sisi to secure Hijazi’s and keep them captive in hellish locations lamic State beheaded an American hos- release. “President Obama tried and failed far from their family and loved ones.” tage, freelance journalist James Foley, many times over three years, but we were Trump may find that the issues are and posted the macabre footage online. able to get this done in a very short period not as black and white as he and the Two other Americans met a similar end. and that is an amazing victory for Aya and families that have placed their hope in In the aftermath, several of their fami- her family,” Trump tells TIME, adding him initially thought. In the past, hostile lies spoke out against what they saw as that “there have been other releases, some foreign governments have demanded the Obama Administration’s inaction and that we can’t talk about.” a high price for the release of captives, refusal to pay the ransoms the terrorists Senior White House officials have held from the release of criminals in the case demanded. (By contrast, many European dozens of meetings with captives’ families of Iran to diplomatic concessions in the governments do pay ransoms.) in the first months of the Administra- case of North Korea. “Securing the release Partly in response, Obama created the first-ever special presidential envoy for hostage affairs as well as a new inter- agency Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell to coordinate intelligence, diplomatic, legal ‘I have been told by 10 or 20 people, and military efforts to bring Americans prisoners and guards, that I am home safely and to better communicate with victims’ families. By most accounts, here because I am American.’ the new efforts were an improvement. JOSHUA HOLT, imprisoned in Venezuela Many families finally felt like the Admin- istration was giving them the voice and tion. Deputy National Security Adviser of American hostages is really hard,” says information they desired amid the big- Dina Powell speaks every two weeks with longtime U.S. diplomat James Dobbins, ger geopolitical policy priorities. “Our Babak Namazi, whose father and brother now a senior fellow at the Rand Corp. citizens are held as hostages because they are imprisoned in Tehran and were the “Normally, the only options are to rescue are Americans, so getting them released subject of Trump’s pre-election tweet. or ransom them. Rescue requires first means understanding what kidnappers Lawyers for Andrew Brunson, the pas- locating them and is not even an option want from America,” says James O’Brien, tor detained in Turkey since October, say when they are being held by another state. Obama’s hostage envoy. Trump aides have been involved in their Paying ransom is against U.S. policy as it Despite the political rancor over case since the presidential transition. only encourages more hostage taking. Trump’s election, aides to both Admin- All this outreach from the highest This leaves U.S. officials with a very istrations have largely cooperated on hos- levels of government is why Josh Holt’s narrow range of alternatives.” tage and detainee cases. “Obama deserves family believes Trump will be his savior. some credit,” Homeland Security Adviser “Right after Trump’s Inauguration, I WHEN FOREIGN ADVERSARIES take cap- Thomas Bossert said at an Aspen Institute thought, He’s going to get him home,” tives, the course of history can change. It’s event in mid-July. But the new Adminis- Josh’s mother Laurie Holt tells TIME from a tribal tale woven through mythology. tration has also gone its own way. her living room, where FAITH - FAMILY - When Hades kidnapped Persephone, Trump’s first hostage crisis came FRIENDS is stenciled above the window. despair killed all the fruits of the earth until early in his presidency. Two months Laurie was invited to the White House in the Greek gods reached a compromise. after Trump negotiated Hijazi’s release April. Even Donald Trump Jr. has weighed The Trojan War of Homer’s Iliad was from Egypt, he got on the phone with in on behalf of the Holts, according fought to bring home Menelaus’ wife Warmbier’s parents, who were in disbelief 33 OBJECTS FROM A LIFE INTERRUPTED Holt’s bedroom at his parents’ home in Utah remains almost untouched since he left for Venezuela in 2016. His possessions include his watch collection, a high school football, a reel of his sports highlights, scriptures of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an Incredible Hulk piggy bank and his neon green sneakers—his favorite color. MICHAEL FRIBERG FOR TIME (8) TIME FOR FRIBERG MICHAEL

34 TIME August 7, 2017 about their son’s incurable comatose state. of staging a coup against President Recep TRUMP’S APPROACH raises questions of “It was, ‘Are you taking care of yourself?’ Tayyip Erdogan last year. its own. Obama never invited al-Sisi to the and, ‘We worked hard, and I’m sorry this is Brunson’s attorney Jordan Sekulow, White House: his rise to power included the outcome,’” Otto’s father Fred recalled, the son of Trump’s personal lawyer Jay a coup, and the State Department and days before his son died. Trump sent Sekulow, says it took a petition with hun- outside observers have criticized the Powell to the funeral in Ohio to represent dreds of thousands of signatures to get regime’s repeated human-rights abuses. the White House. “Otto’s fate,” Trump the Obama White House to focus on the Even though Trump’s Oval Office sit-down said, “deepens my Administration’s fate of a former client, pastor Saeed Abe- with al-Sisi resulted in Hijazi’s release, determination to prevent such tragedies dini, who was held in Iran before being critics feared the invitation signaled the from befalling innocent people.” freed after the implementation of the nu- Administration’s blessing of the regime. Trump directed the National Security clear deal with Iran. In contrast, Sekulow Broader policy discussions, Obama’s Council to create strategies for each de- began working with Vice President Mike envoy O’Brien says, are necessarily part of tainee, a senior Administration official Pence’s staff on the Brunson case shortly getting hostages released. Iran and Cuba says. Take the case of the Namazi family. after Election Day. Secretary of State Rex released U.S. prisoners after extensive Siamak Namazi, a 45-year-old business- Tillerson met with Brunson’s wife Norine diplomatic and security negotiations man and dual citizen of the U.S. and Iran, when he visited Turkey in March. When with Obama Administration officials. was visiting his family in Tehran in 2015 Trump hosted Erdogan in the Oval Office “Seeking the release of a hostage without when authorities intercepted him at the in May, he asked for Brunson’s release and encouraging more such incidents requires airport and locked him in solitary con- insisted that the request be included in more patience, subtlety and dedication to finement. For months, his father Baquer, the meeting’s readout. the task than most American leaders can 80, who is also a dual citizen, went to the “They are different than the Obama bring to bear, or risk,” says Christopher prison every day to beg the guards to let Administration, which was strategy be- Hill, a four-time ambassador under three him see his son. Then he, too, was seized. fore action, heavier on strategy, lighter on Presidents. In a petition filed to the U.N., their lawyer action,” says David Bradley, chairman of Families too are beginning to worry Jared Genser notes that Iranian authori- Atlantic Media, who has worked closely that geopolitical realities may make it ties have presented no evidence to sup- with the families of Americans captured hard for Trump to deliver on his prom- port their accusation that the Namazis by the Islamic State. “The Trump Admin- ises. On July 26, the Trump Administra- tion announced the latest round of sanc- tions on current and former Venezuelan officials. “I am concerned that the govern- ment does not take into consideration the ‘This White House has placed a possible negative consequences that these higher priority on securing the sanctions could have on Josh Holt,” says Holt family lawyer Carlos Trujillo. release of Americans unfairly jailed There’s also a concern that Trump’s or detained overseas ...’ impulsive comments could complicate other strategic U.S. efforts to get captives MARCO RUBIO, Republican Senator from Florida released. The same day that Chinese Nobel laureate and human-rights activist were spying. Since Trump’s Inaugura- istration is more focused on action, pedal Liu Xiaobo died after nearly a decade as a tion, Babak Namazi, Siamak’s brother to the metal, one to take much greater political prisoner, Trump called Chinese and Baquer’s son, has been invited to the risk, politically.” President Xi Jinping “a terrific guy” White House four times, an opportunity Trump’s moves have drawn plaudits for whom he has “great respect.” The never granted under Obama. Trump Ad- from supporters across the U.S. as well as White House later stated that Trump ministration officials raised the Namazi Republicans on Capitol Hill. Evangelist was “deeply saddened” by Liu’s death, case with Iranian counterparts in Vienna Franklin Graham asked his nearly but some activists feared that Trump this spring during a compliance review of 6 million Facebook followers to thank had effectively removed any incentive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. On July 21, the Trump for pushing for Brunson’s release. for Xi’s government to free Liu’s wife, Trump Administration threatened Iran Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros- who remains under house arrest, and with “new and serious consequences” Lehtinen of Florida is among those to potentially undercut his Secretary of unless all unjustly imprisoned Americans praise Trump for issuing three rounds of State’s call for the government to set her were returned. sanctions against Venezuelan officials. free, made the same day. Lawyers for Brunson, the North “It’s absolutely true,” says Senator Marco Then there are practical matters. Carolina pastor detained in Turkey, also Rubio of Florida, “that this White House Trump has not appointed a new special praise Trump’s support. Brunson, who had has placed a higher priority on securing presidential envoy for hostage affairs, lived in Turkey for 23 years, was accused the release of Americans unfairly jailed the position Obama created to streamline of being tied to a cleric, now in the U.S., or detained overseas than the previous solving such cases and to centralize whom the Turkish government accused Administration did.” assistance for hostages’ families. The 35 Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell continues Holt’s case. Since his father took office, tinued, and in May, Venezuela launched its work, but largely devotes its resources Trump Jr. has remained involved, Hatch Operation Knock-Knock to round up not to cases of Americans like Warmbier or says. At one point, Hatch says Trump Jr. alleged antigovernment conspirators. Holt, who were detained by governments, brought in friends from New York who Washington and Caracas have not had am- but to criminal and terrorist hostage cases, did business in the region. “They indi- bassadors since 2010, and in December where Americans have been kidnapped by cated they might be able to do something,” the State Department issued a warning nonstate actors. Financial assistance for Hatch says. “I was willing to stretch real to U.S. citizens against visiting Venezuela. victims is similarly split, leaving those hard to help them if they would help get Venezuela’s national oil company detained by foreign governments in the this young man out.” But the idea was ul- gave $500,000 to Trump’s Inauguration lurch. “As a country, we should be helping timately discarded, according to Hatch. through Citgo Petroleum, the subsidiary the few people unfortunate enough to On a Friday evening in early July, it owns in the U.S. and which the Holts become political causes,” O’Brien says. the Holt family held a press conference are boycotting. But after Trump’s second “It is important that the U.S. government near their Utah home. In a landscaped round of sanctions against its officials do more to support the families and the park featuring splash playgrounds and in May, Maduro soured on the Trump prisoners once they come home.” basketball courts, Holt’s parents pleaded Administration. “Get your dirty hands with Trump and U.N. ambassador Nikki out of here,”he said in a televised speech NONE OF THIS has dimmed the Holt Haley to intervene on Josh’s behalf. to Trump, who has called the Venezuelan family’s faith in Trump. Soon after Josh’s Hatch spoke, and friends came from humanitarian crisis “a disgrace to parents got word last summer that he and their Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- humanity.” Meanwhile, Russian President Thamara had been taken, they reached day Saints congregation and from Holt’s Vladimir Putin started sending several out to their elected officials and learned high school football team. But the rally thousand tons of wheat each month to to use WhatsApp to communicate with was small compared with the scene on Venezuela, which leveraged nearly half their South American legal team. Within the other side of the park, where kids of Citgo for a loan from a Russian state- a week, they launched a #JusticeForJosh cartwheeled and families picnicked, owned oil company. (The Venezuelan social-media campaign and asked people enjoying the end of a summer workweek. embassy in D.C. did not comment on to tweet at then candidate Trump. “We It was a reminder of just how lonely Holt’s case, after multiple requests.) have gotten word he could help us,” the their struggle remains. When Laurie and The Holts refuse to give up. Every so family posted on Facebook in July 2016. Jason leave for work each morning, they often, Laurie goes downstairs to dust her At first, Laurie says, she had a hard see an American flag across the street atop son’s bedroom. It remains almost exactly time getting Washington’s attention, though Secretary of State John Kerry brought up Josh’s case when he spoke with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Behind the scenes, Donald Trump Jr. September 2016. When Laurie first vis- ited D.C. last fall, she had meetings with has been working with Utah Senator State Department officials and her local Orrin Hatch to get Holt released representatives. Soon after, she says, U.S. officials recommended that the family their church flagpole, which Josh built as it was the day he left. A painting of Jesus keep Josh’s case quiet during a pending for his Eagle Scout project. When they hangs above the foot of his bed, where he U.S. Administration change. But as the return home, they spend their evenings wanted it to be so that he could see it first months went on, she and her husband be- calling their lawyers, researching new thing each morning. Josh’s wristwatch col- came convinced that that was a mistake. strategies and trying to be good parents lection sits in a box on his dresser, save When she returned to Washington in to their three other children, who have at the favorites he took to Venezuela for his April, Laurie was surprised and relieved times felt placed on the back burner. They wedding, lost now to prison guards. Lau- to be invited to the White House. For shelled out more that $30,000 for their rie has filled his closet with gifts for her an hour, the 49-year-old accountant sat first legal team before they found new son’s new family, ready for whenever Josh down with Trump’s then Deputy National representation. Even in captivity, Josh’s and Thamara are freed. There are winter Security Adviser, K.T. McFarland, who as- car payments and other bills are still due. snow bibs from when she hoped they’d be sured her that the President was already Venezuela’s political crisis has accel- home for Christmas, and now, in summer, aware of her son’s case. Laurie has not erated as its economic situation deteri- Hello Kitty dresses for her new grand- heard from the White House since then, orates. Maduro plans to hold a vote on daughters. The tags are still on. and McFarland has left the White House. July 30 that senior Administration offi- “All our family wants is to have him Behind the scenes, Trump Jr. has been cials say will move his rule toward dicta- and his family home with us, so that we working with Hatch to get Holt released, torship. In 2016, three-quarters of Vene- can start to be whole again,” Laurie says. the Senator says. During the 2016 pres- zuelans lost an average of 19 lb. each amid “His only mistake was falling in love idential race, Trump Jr. and Hatch had food shortages, according to a survey on with somebody that was so far away.” campaigned together in heavily Mormon living conditions there. Violent police —With reporting byMASSIMOCALABRESI/ districts out west, and Hatch brought up raids on apartment complexes have con- WASHINGTON □

36 TIME August 7, 2017 ANDREW BRUNSON KIM HAK-SONG AYA HIJAZI The North Carolina pastor was detained Kim, a U.S. citizen, was working on The aid worker from Virginia had last October in Turkey, where he has agriculture development with the spent three years imprisoned in Egypt lived for more than two decades. Pyongyang University of Science and when Trump won her release in April. Turkish authorities accused Brunson Technology when he was detained in The U.S. President had personally of belonging to a group the government May and accused of “hostile acts” asked his Egyptian counterpart considers to be a terrorist organization. against the North Korean regime. Two for her freedom. He hailed Hijazi’s In May, Trump personally asked Turkish other Americans are also currently homecoming as a sign of his strength President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to free imprisoned in the Hermit Kingdom, and negotiating ability. Brunson. He is still being held. including one of Kim’s colleagues.

AMERICANS HELD CAPTIVE ABROAD The death of college student Otto Warmbier in June, just days after he was released ROBERT LEVINSON from a North Korean prison SIAMAK AND BAQUER NAMAZI The former FBI agent disappeared after with devastating brain Siamak, an Iranian-American traveling to the Iranian island of Kish injuries, grabbed headlines businessman, was arrested in 2015 in 2007. Since then, his whereabouts when he arrived in Tehran to visit family. have been largely unknown. In July, the in the U.S. But a handful of His father Baquer, a former UNICEF Trump Administration demanded his American citizens remain in humanitarian, was detained months release, along with the return of other custody overseas. Here are later. Both were accused of espionage Americans imprisoned in Iran. some of their stories. and sentenced to 10 years in prison. In response, Trump tweeted, “This doesn’t happen if I’m president!”

AUSTIN TICE XIYUE WANG OTTO WARMBIER A freelance journalist, Tice was The Princeton University graduate The college student from Ohio was kidnapped in 2012 while reporting in student, a Chinese-born U.S. citizen, visiting Pyongyang on a tour in 2016 Syria. The Trump Administration set up was arrested by Iranian authorities when North Korean authorities alleged a secret CIA back channel with Syrian last summer while researching 19th that he tried to steal a political poster. officials earlier this year in hopes of and 20th century Qajar Dynasty for his Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years freeing him, but the idea fell apart doctoral dissertation. Wang, 37, was of hard labor. In June, North Korea after the Syrian government attacked a sentenced to 10 years in prison in April released him in a comatose state; rebel-held area with chemical weapons, after being accused of espionage. he died days later. His family alleges according to the New York Times. “torturous mistreatment.” BRUNSON: COURTESY OF THE AMERICAN CENTER FOR LAW AND JUSTICE; KIM: ZUMA PRESS; HIJAZI: REUTERS; LEVINSON: AP; NAMAZIS: COURTESY THE NAMAZI FAMILY; TICE: GETTY IMAGES; WANG: EPA; WARMBIER: REUTERS

37 Mental Health

Antidepressants were heralded as miracle cures when they were introduced over half a century ago. HOPE FROM A STRANGE SOURCE

But they never worked for everyone. Now, some doctors and patients are putting their faith in a club drug

BY MANDY OAKLANDER

PHOTOGRAPH BY NICHOLAS ALAN COPE AND DUSTIN EDWARD ARNOLD

EVERY WEEK, WHEN IAN HANLEY SITS DOWN WITH his therapist, he goes through a list of depression treatments he’s been researching online. The best- known treatments at the top of the list—half a dozen antidepressants and known combinations of those drugs—are all crossed out. “My therapist says he’s never had this much dif- ficulty with somebody,” says Hanley, “which is sort of a dubious honor.” Hanley is only 21 years old, but he’s already six years into his search for something, anything, that can help him feel better for more than a few weeks at a time. “I’ve heard people describe it as sadness, and that’s not specific enough,” he says. Numbness is closer, but it’s not like depression inures you to suffering. “It’s like not quite being alive,” he says, “but still having to go through all the crappy parts of being alive.” first antidepressants were introduced 60 years ago, When he was in the 10th grade, Hanley basically doctors have had patients like Hanley—people who lost all desire to get out of bed in the morning. He don’t seem to get better even after they’ve worked started seeing a psychiatrist and a therapist—the their way through the lengthy list of available drugs. same one he sees today—and went on Zoloft. “I About 30% of all people with depression don’t re- wasn’t catatonic anymore,” he says. But the positive △ spond adequately to the available treatments. That’s effects soon disappeared, like they would with every Barbara Reiger a dismal failure rate for a class of drugs designed to medication he’s tried since. after getting improve a person’s basic ability to function. an injection This year, Hanley quit college and put on ice his Not that it has hurt the market. At last count, of ketamine; ambitions to become a screenwriter. Now he spends a trip, for her, about 12% of Americans took antidepressants. Global most of his time waiting to start a new treatment, try- lasts about revenue for antidepressants was about $14.5 billion ing that new treatment or waiting to see if he feels 45 minutes in 2014 and is projected to grow to nearly $17 billion better. over the next three years. Clinical depression affects Most diagnoses do not come with 20-plus medi- 6.7% of U.S. adults, or about 16 million people, and cines approved by the Food and Drug Administration a growing number of children and teenagers too. to treat it—and yet with depression, more options It’s the leading cause of disability in the world, don’t always mean better outcomes. Ever since the costing the U.S. economy alone $210 billion a year in lost productivity, missed days of work and care

40 TIME August 7, 2017 ‘AT THIS POINT, ANY NEW TREATMENT THAT MAKES ITTOTHE FINISH LINE IS A HUGE WIN.’

DR. GEORGE PAPAKOSTAS, Massachusetts General Hospital

of a promising, yet fraught, drug called ketamine. It’s best known as a psychedelic club drug that makes people hallucinate, but it may also have the ability to ease depression—and fast. In a race to shape the next generation of antidepressants, Johnson & Johnson and Allergan are fast-tracking new medicines inspired by ketamine. The FDA could be reviewing new drug submissions by as early as next year. Researchers, too, are exploring how to harness big data and even genetic testing to come up with new ways of treating depression for the 30% of people who don’t respond to the current standard-of-care treatment options. All of this has psychiatrists, long frustrated with their menu of available treatments, hopeful for the first time in years. Finally, they say, their field is on the cusp of a much-needed breakthrough. “At this point, any new depression treatment that makes it to the finish line is a huge win,” says Dr. George Pa- pakostas, director for treatment-resistant depres- sion studies at Massachusetts General Hospital. “It’s going to have a major impact.” The question is, which method will prove to help the most people in the saf- est way possible?

DOCTORS HAVE always seen depression as some- thing that’s distinct from ordinary sadness, but what causes it and how best to treat it has changed wildly over the years. In the 5th century B.C., Hippocrates for the many physical and mental illnesses related NEW believed the body was made up of four humors and FRONTIERS to depression, like anxiety, posttraumatic stress that too much “black bile,” the humor secreted by disorder, migraines and sleep disorders. Ketamine the spleen, resulted in melancholia. Melancholia as There hasn’t been a major depression-drug break- There is evidence the described by the Greeks looked a lot like depression through in nearly three decades, but a number of club drug can work today: persistent dark moods with a deep, lasting fear factors are conspiring to change that. Scientists are fast on depression or sadness that isn’t based on reason. The Greeks pre- gaining a more nuanced picture of what depression Novel medications scribed lifestyle treatments like diet, exercise, sleep, is—not a monolithic disease, but probably dozens Inspired by ketamine, bathing and massage as well as rougher approaches of distinct maladies—and they’re getting closer to pharma is developing like vomiting and bloodletting. In later ancient times, learning what works for which kind of ailment. With other medicines that sex was also considered a helpful remedy. suicides in the U.S. at their highest number in 30 act like it By the Middle Ages, depressive-like behavior was years, experts agree that patients need faster ways to Genetics believed to be a disease of the spirit—the result of feel better, without waiting the typical four to eight Scientists have demonic possession. Many depressed women were weeks it takes for antidepressants to kick in. And as found 15 parts of thought to be witches, and the cure for them was to old drugs have gone off patent—making them less the genome that may be burned alive. lucrative for drugmakers—companies are eager to be targeted in future The idea that depression is rooted in the brain— find new revenue streams. treatment and not a bodily fluid or possessed spirit—didn’t

SPENCER LOWELL FOR TIME The biggest development has been the rediscovery take hold until the 17th century, when a neurologist 41 named Thomas Willis decreed that melancholia was of people taking them experience full remission. “a complicated Distemper of the Brain and Heart.” “We have no idea, after many decades of studying Although he had little else to offer patients besides these drugs, why some people get better and some the lifestyle remedies of the Greeks, melancholia people don’t,” says Dr. Roy Perlis, director of the was finally thought to be at least partly biological. Center for Experimental Drugs and Diagnostics at In subsequent years, everything from herbal rem- Massachusetts General Hospital. “We desperately edies to opium to music therapy to spinning stools need truly new interventions.” designed to make people too dizzy to feel pain fell The largest, longest study conducted on depres- in and out of vogue. sion treatments, called the STAR*D trial, found Beginning in 1938, electroconvulsive therapy was that after people tried four antidepressants over the thought to be the only effective modern treatment course of five years, about 70% of them were free of for depression, but the procedure sometimes caused depressive symptoms. That’s a lot of trial and error memory loss, among other side effects. to end at a place where 30% of patients don’t expe- It wasn’t until the 1950s that doctors hit upon rience remission at all. the idea that certain chemical cocktails could The STAR*D trial ended in 2006, and despite be used to treat depression. The first, called DEPRESSION a clear hole in the market—and a clear patient iproniazid, was found by accident when it was AT A GLANCE need—a golden age of new depression treatments being tested as a treatment for tuberculosis. still hasn’t arrived. Drug companies do not want Doctors noticed that the TB patients taking the to spend their money developing yet another drug transformed from miserable and near death 6.7% SSRI—there are already a dozen approved by the to euphoric, energetic and social. Newspaper Percentage of people FDA. “The drug companies basically shut down in the U.S. who have articles of people “dancing in the halls tho’ there depression a lot of their brain research when it comes to were holes in their lungs” captured the popular psychiatry,” says Dr. Richard Friedman, director imagination, and in 1957 scientists decided to try of the psychopharmacology clinic at Weill Cornell it on a small group of psychiatric patients. 30% Medical College. According to that study, 70% of them became Percentage of people “In my opinion, it wasn’t necessarily a lack happier and more social. By the end of the decade, with depression of interest—it was just that people had felt that about 400,000 people with depression were on who don’t get better they’d gone as far as they could with things like after two or more the drug. The high was short-lived, however: treatments Prozac, and they weren’t sure what the next scientists soon discovered that the pills caused targets were going to be,” says Husseini Manji, liver damage, and it was pulled from the market global head for neuroscience at Janssen, the in 1961. 1to 2 pharmaceutical arm of Johnson & Johnson. Another experimental drug, imipramine, was Number of months it Now, many experts—and drug companies— supposedly an antipsychotic, but scientists dis- takes for most anti- believe that target is ketamine hydrochloride, the covered in 1957 that it worked much better on depressants to work only legally available psychedelic drug in the U.S. people with depression. It became the first in a class of what’s called a tricyclic antidepressant, IN LARGE DOSES, anesthesiologists use ketamine so named for its three-ringed chemical structure. to put people under before surgery. In smaller By studying how those early drugs worked, doses, clubgoers use “Special K” to trip and hal- scientists were able to hit on a new idea about lucinate; it’s one of the top drugs of abuse in what caused depression in the first place: Asia. However, its newest application, discovered depleted levels of the brain’s neurotransmitters, serendipitously in the late 1990s, opened ketamine namely serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine. up to a whole new audience: those looking for a fast- Those early drugs may have come with nasty side acting drug for stubborn depression. effects, but they ultimately gave rise to selective There are two drugs, one from Allergan and serotonin reuptake inhibitors, the drugs most one from Johnson & Johnson, that work similarly widely prescribed today. to ketamine and are in late-stage clinical trials. Eli Lilly released the first one, Prozac, in 1987. It As of now, ketamine is not FDA-approved for was an immediate hit; in just three years, 2 million depression. So far, clinical trials on ketamine for people around the world were taking it, and pharma- depression have been small, and there aren’t many ceutical companies began churning out their own of them. Only about 400 people have participated only slightly different versions of the drug soon in such studies, and many had fewer than 100 after. SSRIs are still the field’s proudest and most people. (By comparison, the STAR*D trial had profitable achievement, but they’re far from perfect. almost 3,000 participants.) Still, the results are They can make people feel worse before they start promising enough to excite a number of prominent feeling better several weeks after treatment begins. researchers in the field. When the drugs work, they’re life-changing. But “In the past 20 years, I’ve not seen anything they don’t work for everyone. On SSRIs, about 35% like this,” says Dr. Cristina Cusin, a clinician

42 TIME August 7, 2017 and researcher who runs the ketamine clinic at who abuse it recreationally. And although ketamine Massachusetts General Hospital. Studies have shown has been shown to be safe as an anesthetic, “you that 60% to 70% of people with treatment-resistant get anesthesia once,” Cusin says. “You don’t get depression respond to ketamine. anesthesia for months or a year. We have no idea Ketamine has also shown promise in putting an what it does.” end to suicidal thoughts. “We have patients saying, Ketamine’s effects are temporary; depression ‘I’m exactly as depressed as I was before, I just don’t reliably creeps back, so people need infusions every want to kill myself anymore,’” says Cusin. “This was few weeks or more to keep their symptoms at bay. very surprising. We can’t explain it.” It’s also costly. The treatments are rarely covered by Barbara Reiger, who’s 59 and lives in San Diego, insurance and run from $400 to $800 per infusion. says she tried nearly everything to lift her out of the On a biweekly schedule at the high end of going depression that had plagued her since childhood and rates, that adds up to more than $15,000 out of sometimes rendered her suicidal. When she learned pocket per year. about ketamine in 2015, she decided to try it at a When Reiger first started taking ketamine, ketamine clinic in her hometown. Since ketamine she quickly drained the funds she had set aside is FDA-approved as an anesthetic, physicians can KETAMINE BY for treatments. She was on an every-six-weeks legally prescribe it off-label for any condition THE NUMBERS schedule, not including doctor’s visits, but at they believe it may help, including depression. $500 a pop it was adding up fast. “It was cutting Since then, every six weeks or so, she shows 368 too much into our budget,” she says. up at a private ketamine clinic, where she’ll People who She thought she’d have to stop treatment, but put on an eye mask in a dim room, sit back in have participated she got lucky: another of her doctor’s ketamine a recliner and have a needle full of ketamine in U.S. studies patients heard about her plight and volunteered plunged into her deltoid. It doesn’t make her feel of ketamine for to pay for her treatments. “I’m grateful,” Reiger high, exactly, but she remembers that the first depression says. “But a donor can only be so generous, and time she tried it, a grin and happy tears spread I know someday I’ll probably have to face these across her face. “I felt I was putting things in $600 demons again.” order, moving pieces of a puzzle around to make Average cost As many as 5 million people in the U.S. have it all make sense,” she says. of a single treatment-resistant depression, and to capture Ketamine trips are known to help people dis- infusion such a huge potential market, private ketamine connect from their bodies and their thoughts, clinics run by psychiatrists or anesthesiologists and it worked that way for Reiger. After her first have popped up across the country in recent trip, she remembers feeling better than she had 7to 14 years. These clinics have pitched themselves to for years. “I immediately felt relief ... a lightness Number of days doctors as get-rich-quick side businesses and the antidepressant of the depression kind of lifting,” says Reiger. And effect typically lasts to patients as a ray of light in the darkness. But it all happened in less than an hour. there are no rules governing how these clinics “It’s been a paradigm shift, that now we administer ketamine or whether they monitor can achieve rapid antidepressant effects,” says blood pressure, heart rate, psychological changes Dr. Carlos Zarate, chief of the experimental or substance-abuse risk in patients who are therapeutics and pathophysiology branch at the taking it. “There is pretty large variability in National Institute of Mental Health and one of what one clinic is doing compared to another,” the foremost researchers of ketamine. “Now we says Dr. Gerard Sanacora, director of the Yale know there’s something radically different.” Depression Research Program at Yale School of Experts aren’t sure exactly how ketamine works, Medicine and a longtime ketamine researcher, who although they agree it doesn’t target the standard surveyed 57 of these clinics in a July paper. antidepressant route of serotonin, norepinephrine This year, a task force from the American Psy- and dopamine. Instead, they think it stimulates chiatric Association (APA) concluded in an issue of a series of receptors in the brain, kick-starting the medical journal JAMA Psychiatry that ketamine something called synaptic plasticity—the ability wasn’t ready to be widely used as a medication for of parts of the brain to grow and change. While treatment-resistant depression. antidepressants have been shown to also increase “I still think it’s the most exciting treatment to plasticity, ketamine seems to do it much more come in mood disorders, probably of the last 50 quickly—and much more powerfully. years,” says Sanacora, who worked on the APA state- How it works is one of the drug’s many unknowns. ment. “But the reality is, there’s still a lot we don’t Doctors also don’t know the consequences and know about the treatment.” potential side effects of taking tiny doses of ketamine Other scientists are skeptical that ketamine is a over and over again. People can become dependent good long-term solution to depression. “I think a lot on it, and long-term use of the drug has been linked of the hope on ketamine may prove to be misplaced,” to bladder toxicity and cognitive problems in those says Friedman, of Weill Cornell Medical College. 43 “People may be disappointed.” One problem, he also received breakthrough status by the FDA and is says, is that in addition to enhancing neuroplasticity, in the final phase of clinical trials, which are expected it may also stimulate an opioid receptor in the brain. to finish in 2019. Once those trials are done, Allergan “If you stimulate that receptor—which is what will petition the FDA for approval to market the drug Percocet and oxycodone and morphine and heroin for major depression. They’re also working on an oral do—you’ll relieve pain and make people feel high version of rapastinel. and euphoric,” says Friedman. Other new approaches to treating depression are But that can also come with risk of habituation on the horizon. For instance, researchers are testing and abuse. Scientists already know that ketamine drugs that target altogether different potential can be addictive. Now a clinical trial is under way biological roots of depression—including chronic at Stanford to test if ketamine acts like an opioid. inflammation. Results are expected by the end of 2018. And at Perlis’ lab at Massachusetts General Hos- pital, a team of scientists is trying to use big data to UNTIL RECENTLY, ketamine proved to be a tough uncover whether any other existing FDA-approved drug to imitate. Because it has widespread effects in medications—including drugs for completely differ- the brain and doesn’t act neatly in just one spot, many ent issues, like high cholesterol, pain and even acne— of the drugs developed in its likeness—including could have any mood-lifting side effects. Finding a those from pharma giants like AstraZeneca and medication that can be repurposed for depression Roche—were simply not as effective as the original. would have huge advantages over traditional drug But now a few new drugs are showing promise. development: they are already proven to be safe, they don’t cost a fortune to create from scratch and they’re available for people to use now. A revolution in genetics also offers promise for ‘ITHINK IT’STHE MOST EXCITING treating depression. “After lots of years of really not going anywhere, suddenly there’s a lot to be excited TREATMENT OFTHE LAST 50YEARS, BUT about,” says Perlis. In a landmark 2016 study, he col- laborated with the genetics company 23andMe and THERE’SA LOTWE DON’T KNOWABOUT IT.’ Pfizer Pharmaceuticals to analyze the genetic profiles

DR. GERARD SANACORA, Yale Depression Research Program of nearly 460,000 people. For the first time, they dis- covered 15 different regions of the human genome as- sociated with the development of depression. Last year, Zarate at the National Institute of Understanding what these depression genes do Mental Health and his colleagues keyed in on a part in the body makes it easier for scientists to find new of ketamine’s chemical structure that they think is drugs and interventions that have the opposite ef- responsible for the drug’s antidepressant effects. fect, which will make the search for treatments ever Now they’re working on developing it as a treatment more precise. “It essentially gives us a target to aim for depression. Early research in mice suggests that, at,” Perlis says. unlike ketamine, the compound they’ve identified does not appear to be addictive. FOR THOSE who are suffering without hope, these Janssen, part of Johnson & Johnson, has devel- new innovations, whether they stem from ketamine oped and patented a version of ketamine called or whatever compound scientists will stumble upon esketamine that doctors would be able to give their next, can’t come soon enough. patients through the nose like a nasal deconges- For his part, Ian Hanley is waiting to see if ket- tant, making it a more convenient alternative to an amine, which he recently crossed off the list of IV. The FDA has designated esketamine a “break- treatments he has tried, will be a success or just an- through therapy,” which means it can speed through other failure. His first IV infusion left him dazed the typically lengthy drug development process and and, after a long nap, uncharacteristically energetic. get to market more quickly. If the ongoing efficacy The night of his first trip, he shocked his parents by trials prove successful, Janssen could file esket- cleaning his room and going for a walk for the first amine for FDA approval in 2018. time in ages. But about half of his subsequent treat- Rapastinel, an intravenous depression drug ments sent him on bad trips. He was consumed under development by Allergan that acts on the with worries that he’ll stay depressed, that ket- same receptor as ketamine, can be given in just 30 amine won’t work for him and that, if it doesn’t, he seconds and doesn’t seem to cause the hallucinogenic won’t know what to do next. effects ketamine is known for. “So far in our clinical Hanley says ketamine has given him a bit of trials, the incidence of anything like hallucinations hope, but that hope is tempered by the skepticism or psychosis has been incredibly low,” says David of a patient who’s been excited—then crushed— Nicholson, chief R&D officer at Allergan. That drug many times before. □

44 TIME August 7, 2017 Drug-free treatments backed by science MINDFULNESS TRAINING “Thoughts and images are often the source of MANY PEOPLE WITH DEPRESSION FIND RELIEF WITHOUT PRESCRIPTION sadness and fear, and if you have no drugs. These methods have all been scientifically proven to help ease symptoms training in getting your attention of depression. Here’s what the research recommends: away from them, you’re helpless,” says Weil. One such program, an eight-week small-group treatment EXERCISE One of the most-studied BEHAVIORAL-ACTIVATION THERAPY called mindfulness-based cognitive natural approaches to treating People with depression often therapy, trains people to be aware depression, regular physical activity withdraw from the world, and this of the present moment through may lift mood in part by increasing therapy seeks to bring them back in. mindfulness practices like gentle yoga certain neurotransmitters. Of course, Treatment involves helping people and daily meditation. It was shown embracing an exercise habit isn’t easy identify activities that add meaning in a 2016 study in JAMA Psychiatry to for most people—especially those to their life, like reading, volunteering help people with recurrent depression with depression. “In my experience, or hanging out with friends, and avoid relapses even better than the last thing depressed people want encourages them to do these things antidepressants. to do is move,” says Dr. Andrew Weil, without waiting for their mood to lift founder of the University of Arizona first. In a recent study published in the TRANSCRANIAL MAGNETIC Center for Integrative Medicine. “But Lancet, this kind of therapy was shown STIMULATION In TMS, a large magnetic it has a striking effect.” to be as effective as CBT. And it costs coil is held against the scalp near much less, because practitioners don’t a part of the brain believed to be Plus,fit’ss free. need as much training. im f gponeticrtan pulsest for mood. Mag painlesslyhe skull to pass through thh COGNNITY IVE-BEHAVIORAL THERAPY stimulate d though nervehow cells, andd CBT,,yaft ype of talk yfthernappy, focuses on it works is still a myystery, it’s thought changing, negative thought patterns, to ircuits help normalize brain cii and thtnen learniing hhow tto home iin on iinTMSvollv ised dnotin ddepressiion. T specifiific problems andfi find new ways invasiveive it when, and people receii to approachyys them. It typically lasts they’reynesthesia. awake, without an for 10 sto 20 sessions. Some studies It yy typically ons several requires sessioo have s hown it to be as effeffsctive as timesf fu ai xwe weeksek for four to sii medication. and d seems to f r hiousave side few ser eff ffec tts. IIn 20088, thhe FDA approved it as f a treatment with major for people depressionp who hadn’tsponded re to atnt.least one antidepressann JULIANA SOHN JULIANA

45 LETHALLY BLOEONDE

CHARLIZE THERON GOES NUCLEAR IN THE SUMMER’S MOST VIOLENT, STYLISH ACTION FLICK BY ELIANA DOCKTERMAN

EARLY IN ATOMIC BLONDE, CHARLIZE not a grieving widow, she’s not a protec- Theron slowly stands up from an ice tive mother, and she definitely doesn’t bath. Her back emerges, sinewy and have daddy issues. “Writers are always covered in myriad dark purple bruises. giving women dead husbands or kids When she looks in the mirror, a badly to make you emotionally invest,” says blackened eye stares back. This is nota Theron over tea at the Chateau Marmont woman to be crossed. in Los Angeles this June. The 41-year-old Theron plays Lorraine Broughton, actor is still wearing athletic gear froma an MI6 agent sent on a treacherous mis- workout with her trainer for the movie, sion to Berlin in 1989, five days before though filming has long wrapped. “Men the Wall falls. The movie is a neon spree go on a fun journey. Women get a long though underground parties and glitter- backstory so you’re already forgiving ing speakeasies backed by thumping ’80s them for what they’re about to do.” Not pop music. Lorraine, based on a charac- Lorraine. She does everything the men ter from the graphic novel The Coldest always have—exchanging blows and City, isn’t like most female heroes: she’s bullets—except backward and in heels.

PHOTOGRAPH BY AMANDA DEMME FOR TIME Theron, 41, produced and stars in Atomic Blonde, the adaptation of a graphic novel set during the Cold War △ Until she slips off one of those heels and Theron underwent grueling training Woman, cast her in Monster as a prosti- wields it as a weapon. to depict the movie’s bloody—and tute who avenges her rape by murdering This isn’t Theron’s first time playing plentiful—fight sequences her clients. Theron won an Oscar for the an unapologetic brawler. The Oscar role, the character’s toughness mirroring winner has been a prostitute turned strives to always do what’s morally right. her own. “She’s a real-life badass,” says serial killer, a failing and bitter author, Theron’s Lorraine is anything but. Jenkins. “And she can do whatever she Snow White’s black-hearted tormentor wants on film.” Adds Keanu Reeves, who and a one-armed road warrior. “I play THERON GREW UP on a farm in South co-starred with her in The Devil’s Advo- effed-up, vulnerable women who have Africa. Her father struggled with alcohol cate (1997) and was her sparring partner to be strong in order to survive,” says and was abusive. When Theron was 15, as she prepared for Atomic Blonde, “She Theron. her mother, Gerta, shot and killed him in brings brutal grace to her characters.” EVERETT FLUX: AEON ROAD, FURY MAX: MAD FEATURES; FOCUS BLONDE: ATOMIC Atomic Blonde, out July 28, comes at self-defense. But Theron’s mother taught Still, her first major foray into the ac- a turning point for women-led action her not to wallow in self-pity. “I’m not the tion genre, 2005’s Aeon Flux, was a flop. films. In June, Wonder Woman shattered first person and won’t be the last person Hollywood took that film’s failure—along outdated notions that audiences don’t to go through something traumatic,” she with Catwoman and Elektra, which also want to watch women kick butt. It’s explained on her friend Aisha Tyler’s pod- bombed around the same time—as a sign currently the highest-grossing movie of cast Girl on Guy last year. women couldn’t headline a profitable ac- the summer, bringing in $389 million in By the time she was 17, Theron had tion flick. “We get screwed because one the U.S. moved to America to study at the Joffrey movie doesn’t work,” says Theron, “I ex- People want to see female action he- Ballet School in New York. When a se- perienced that with Aeon Flux.” She ad- roes. The question that matters now is ries of injuries left her unable to dance, mits the film was flawed, but then, “It was how quickly Hollywood will allow them she began to pursue acting. Casting di- like, ‘Your chance is up.’” to go dark. After all, male action heroes rectors pegged her for the ingenue: her A decade later Theron starred in Mad have run the gamut from basically good character in Woody Allen’s 1998 Celeb- Max: Fury Road, part of a wave of films— (Indiana Jones) to explicitly bad (Dirty rity was actually named “Supermodel.” including the Hunger Games series and Harry) for decades. Wonder Woman is Theron’s big break came in 2003 after Star Wars: The Force Awakens—that the former, a near perfect goddess who Patty Jenkins, who also directed Wonder definitively proved the opposite. That

48 TIME August 7, 2017 movie was marketed as a testosterone- “There’s a lot of roundhouse, low leg kicks fueled car chase across a postapocalyptic and throat chops and elbow strikes,” the wasteland. But anyone who saw it A HISTORY director says. “Elbows and knees are re- quickly realized the story actually be- ally big for generating power and leverage longs to Furiosa, the one-armed rebel OF VIOLENCE for a smaller attacker.” Theron played to stoic perfection. Sure She’s a dancer, actor, producer That’s not to say Atomic Blonde Max (Tom Hardy) was in the car, but it and Oscar winner. Now Theron doesn’t indulge in some fantasy. Lor- was Furiosa’s mission to smuggle a group is laying claim to the title of raine’s garter belts, tight sweaters and of sex slaves to an all-female paradise action star too: white pleather coat that the actor lik- that captured audiences and turned the ens to “a shiny condom” were inspired film into a $378 million box-office smash. by the work of German photographer “It took me years to find the skin that I Helmut Newton. The film’s vision of a would be comfortable in to play this crumbling East Berlin still manages to woman,” she says. “I had such a sense of be glamorous, with its cast of sexy, un- relief when we realized she needed to be hinged spies, including James McAvoy as in a T-shirt, not a Barbarella outfit, and I another British agent who has “gone na- needed to shave my head.” tive.” He struts around Berlin, to the tune of “99 Luftballons” and “Blue Monday,” ATOMIC BLONDE IS BRUTAL. Lorraine in a fur coat and stunner shades. (See re- is lethal, crafting weapons out of, well, view, page 54.) everything. A corkscrew becomes a shiv. And then there’s the scene in which A backpack becomes a cudgel. A hot plate Lorraine seduces a fellow female spy becomes a hammer. And, in a nod to AEON FLUX (Sofia Boutella), originally a man in the Theron says the 2005 sci-fi a classic technique taught in women’s flop helped deter studios from graphic novel. It’s Bond-like: there’s self-defense classes, keys become brass making female-led action films no falling in love, just falling into bed. knuckles. “Some reviewers said, ‘The sex scene is Her foes are just as savage. The film’s too aggressive.’ I don’t want to be crass, violence will make some viewers uncom- but it’s not a lovemaking scene. It’s fortable. In one sequence that only lasts two people getting it on,” says Theron. about 20 minutes but feels like an hour, “When we say we need to own our Lorraine is thrown down a flight of stairs, sexuality that means everything about shot at, stabbed and repeatedly punched. our sexuality. It made me realize we Much of it is shot in a single, excruciating have to push even harder to overturn old take that leaves Theron’s character and ideas of what women should act like in one of her assailants gasping for breath these movies.” and struggling to stand upright. It’s a technical marvel. It’s also a marvel if you WE USED TO GET about one female ac- can watch it without cringing. tion hero per year. If we were lucky, we Director David Leitch got the job by MAD MAX: got one icon per decade: Ellen Ripley in championing this blunt approach. It had FURY ROAD Alien, Sarah Connor in Terminator, the worked for him on 2014’s John Wick, Furiosa became an instant Bride in Kill Bill. Sigourney Weaver, who starring Reeves as a vengeful assassin. icon in 2015: teenage girls arguably brought the first female action Leitch’s wife Kelly McCormick (one shaved their heads to hero to life in Ripley—a part, by the way, look like her of Atomic Blonde’s producers) encour- originally written for a man—says that aged him to do the same with Theron, roles for women have improved greatly. whose production company optioned “There isn’t that thing that used to drive the Cold War story some seven years me crazy whenever I read the part: those ago. Most directors are reluctant to show women. Part of it is male filmmakers not scenes where the woman stops being women with black eyes, let alone being being comfortable with putting a woman effective and has a little breakdown to hit. So they pit female heroes against fe- in that position,” she says. “If a female spy show you she’s still a female entity,” she male villains, or pretend petite women is sent into the field, why wouldn’t she ex- says. “Now, they just get on with it.” can flip 200-lb. men, or simply cut away perience the same sh-t as a male spy?” After all, there’s no one way to be a during fight scenes. Leitch argued there Before filming began, Theron spent hero. Because Lorraine isn’t Wonder was no reason to “make allowances four hours a day training at the gym Woman, who isn’t Sarah Connor, who for the fact that she’s a woman.” Adds Leitch founded with his John Wick co- isn’t Ripley. “I’m trying to break these Leitch, “For me it’s more compelling to director, Chad Stahelski. They concen- forms of how women ought to behave be with her while she’s suffering.” trated on realistic moves a woman could in movies,” Theron says. “Maybe they Theron agreed. “It’s a disservice to actually use against a 6 ft. 4 in. opponent. shouldn’t behave at all.” □ 49 The Science of Mindfulness: A TIME ED O Research-Based Path T FF I E IM R to Well-Being L 80% Taught by Professor Ronald D. Siegel HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL CAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE O off 8 1 R T LECTURE TITLES D S ER U BY AUG 1. Why Mindfulness Matters 2. Our Troublesome Brains 3. Informal, Formal, and Intensive Practices 4. Who Am I? The Perils of Self 5. Mindfulness or Psychotherapy? 6. Attention and Empathy in Relationships 7. The Science of Compassion and Self-Compassion 8. Tailoring Practices to Fit Changing Needs 9. Modifying Our Brain Function and Structure 10. Solitude—An Antidote to Loneliness 11. Connecting with Children and Adolescents 12. Seeing Sadness and Depression in a New Light 13. 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No Off er expires 08/18/17 exams. No homework. Just a world of knowledge available anytime, anywhere. Download or stream THEGREATCOURSES.COM/6TME to your laptop or PC, or use our free apps for iPad, iPhone, Android, Kindle Fire, or Roku. Over 600 1-800-832-2412 courses available at www.TheGreatCourses.com. ‘A BOOK CAN BE REALLY PLEASURABLE AND ALSO REALLY RACIST.’ —PAGE 56

On USA Network, Biel finds meatier fare than what she has been offered on the big screen

TELEVISION FOR MANY YEARS, USA NETWORK The Sinner plunges USA deeper was known for its “blue skies” into madness. This new show may Darkness programming strategy. Particularly not be as ambitious as the operatic under the during the summer months, USA’s Mr. Robot, but it is a pleasure to airtime was especially airy, studded watch. Jessica Biel stars as Cora sun on USA’s with low-stakes procedural dramas Tannetti, an upstate New York woman and relatably quirky characters. whose attempt to enjoy a sunny gripping Royal Pains, White Collar and Burn summer day ends in disaster. While Notice collectively formed a reliable peeling a pear for her young son at drama programming block that was admirable the beach, Cora becomes increasingly The Sinner for its rigorous consistency, if not agitated by the sound of a nearby much more. Then came Mr. Robot, the couple’s boom box. She suddenly By Daniel D’Addario computer-hacking sensation, in the leaps into action and uses her knife summer of 2015. That Emmy-winning to bring the tunes, and every nearby drama was as carefully marketed and beachcomber’s blue-sky vibes, to a consistent to its aesthetic vision as conclusive end. Having committed a Royal Pains, but its story was far a very public murder, Cora seems more morally convoluted. Summer content to face incarceration, so long on USA went from being a breezy as she isn’t asked any questions about mental vacation to a sweltering, reality- why, exactly, she killed. bending season in hell. As Detective Harry Ambrose, USA NETWORKUSA 51 Time Off Reviews

Bill Pullman gets one too many notes of quirk to play. But his engagement with Jenner was 10 Cora’s case mirrors the viewer’s. He’s an when her appealing, chummy surrogate to lead us family’s first through a case whose darkness escalates E! reality show by the moment. began airing Biel, whose more glamorous roles on the big screen haven’t always given her much to work with, is raw and compelling as a woman who is unable to decode her own instincts. We see, in flashback, an early childhood in which her oppressive, devoutly religious mother blamed her for family misfortune—it’s Stephen King’s Carrie, if the abused child’s power of telekinesis were substituted for a more earthbound power of self-erasure. In the present day, Cora is disconnected from her own life, filled with an unintellectualized loathing. “I never thought I would have a normal life,” she tells her husband Mason (Christopher Abbott) after TELEVISION she’s been arrested. “And E!’s teen queen of screens I did, I really did, and it’s because of you.” That may KYLIE JENNER, STAR OF E!’S NEW REALITY SHOW LIFE OF KYLIE, have been true early on, is in a curious position. She’s the next-generation emissary of the but what we see of Cora △ Kardashian family, a high-flying group that strives to showcase its ABBOTT REDUX even before her crime As Cora’s loving but fidelity to a homey sort of reality. Subtract the couture and heavy- is an obsessive, jittery mystified husband handed raunch, and Keeping Up With the Kardashians isn’t that figure. Her brokenness is Mason, Christopher different from The Brady Bunch. And yet, because she was so young obvious, even if she’s adept Abbott makes a when fame first arrived a decade ago, she has next to no memory at covering some of her return to television. of a home life off-camera. He was a standout mind’s particular fissures. as Charlie on Jenner, a makeup entrepreneur at age 19, documents her It all adds up to a HBO’s Girls. radically evolving visage on Instagram (with new hair colors and lips drama that’s strikingly plumped beyond reason) “in order to stay relevant for the public,” filmed, gratifyingly smarter than she explains. Notionally, Life of Kylie is meant to show us the person it needs to be and—better still in behind the pout. Yet Jenner combines the self-obsession of a teenager an era of bloated episode counts— with the reflexive crouch of someone who has learned to quash snappily paced. The Sinner has the confessional impulses. Her attempt to fly to an Internet stranger’s zip of a good detective yarn. (The prom night, a canny stunt, is a logistical disaster. She doesn’t mind eight-episode miniseries is based commercial jets in theory—“all planes are pretty”—but to be at the on a novel by German crime writer airport places her in a situation where she can’t control her image. Petra Hammesfahr.) We’re watching a very young PR expert at work, and also The show’s ambitions, though darker someone who understands the simulacrum she’s living through than past summer fare from USA, are as normal life. A prom filmed for TV is, for someone who was as simple: to tell a satisfying crime home-schooled to focus on her family’s TV show, a prom. And how story well. And Cora’s tearful answer different is it, really? Once she arrives, all the attendees pull out E! KYLIE: OF LIFE IMAGES; GETTY ABBOTT: to why she killed—“because they were their phones to create their own reality shows. Jenner is popular playing that music, and they kept less because her life is impossibly unattainable than because it’s so turning it up”—will have you doubly quotidian in an age of relentless self-documentation. Jenner tells compelled. The real answer must be her therapist a big, obvious secret: the image she projects on social something fascinating if the lie is this media “isn’t fully me.” The therapist agrees, but we don’t see her unconvincing. face. She’s refused to appear on air—the better to make the session THE SINNER airs on USA Network on seem credible for television. —DANIEL D’ADDARIO Wednesdays at 10 p.m. E.T. LIFE OF KYLIE airs on E! on Sundays at 9 p.m. E.T. 52 TIME August 7, 2017 Time Off Television Why is Rick and Morty so fun? It’s all about the references By Lisa Eadicicco

Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland’s Adult Swim comedy follows the adventures of hapless teen Morty and his evil-genius grandfather Rick. The show, which returns for a third season July 30, is jammed with nods to everything from bad ’80s movies to classic literature. THE OBVIOUS A lot of episode Inception titles provide a rough story Space Invaders Animal Farm framework, even if Jurassic Park they end up being Mystery Science The Lawnmower A Nightmare M. Night loose homage Theater 3000 Back to the Future Man on Elm Street Fantastic Voyage Inception Shyamalan

EPISODE 1: EPISODE 2: EPISODE 3: EPISODE 4: “PILOT” “THE LAWNMOWER “ANATOMY PARK” “M. NIGHT DOG” SHAYM-ALIENS!” THE FREQUENT Stephen King’s work is probably Garfield the most often referenced, cutting 60 Minutes Footloose Raising Hope across horror, sci-fi Weekend Love Potion Metallica, Jack and the and fantasy The A-Team at Bernie’s Raising Arizona Zardoz Jaws No. 9 “Seek & Destroy” Beanstalk

EPISODE 8: EPISODE 7: EPISODE 6: EPISODE 5: “RIXTY “RAISING “RICK POTION #9” “MEESEEKS AND SEASON 1 Steve Jobs MINUTES” GAZORPAZORP” DESTROY”

PLE OF DOOM: EVERETT Pet Sematary “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” Jerry Maguire Gravity Falls Needful Things Cape Fear Something Wicked Close Encounters Buck Rogers in “The Monkey’s Paw” This Way Comes of the Third Kind Risky Business the 25th Century

EPISODE 9: EPISODE 10: EPISODE 11: “SOMETHING RICKED “CLOSE RICK-COUNTERS “RICKSY THIS WAY COMES” OF THE RICK KIND” BUSINESS”

The Langoliers Invasion of the The Music Scene Alien Community Body Snatchers Midnight Run by Blockhead Schrodinger’s cat A Wrinkle in Time

EPISODE 3: EPISODE 2: EPISODE 1: “AUTO EROTIC “MORTYNIGHT “A RICKLE IN SEASON 2 ASSIMILATION” RUN” TIME”

The Gods Must Big Trouble Be Crazy in Little China

The Thing Total Recall American Idol Avatar Inspector Gadget Nosferatu Alien

EPISODE 4: EPISODE 5: EPISODE 6: EPISODE 7: THE RANDOM “TOTAL RICKALL” “GET SCHWIFTY” “THE RICKS “BIG TROUBLE MUST BE CRAZY” IN LITTLE SANCHEZ” The show’s creators look far and wide for laughs, like this Wedding Crashers episode title that Man vs. Wild partially plays off Indiana Jones and the Look Who’s

GARFIELD: PAWS INC.; JURASSIC PARK, SHYAMALAN, JAWS, KING, VINCENT: GETTY IMAGES; RICK AND MORTY,THE BACK NIGHTMARE TO THE FUTURE, ON ELM STREET, FOOTLOOSE, BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY, ALIEN, TOTAL RECALL, INDIANA AVATAR, JONES AND THE TEM the goofy rom com Temple of Doom The Purge Talking Now How It’s Made Jan Michael Vincent

EPISODE 10: EPISODE 9: EPISODE 8: “THE WEDDING “LOOK WHO’S “INTERDIMENSIONAL SQUANCHERS” PURGING NOW” CABLE 2, TEMPTING FATE” Time Off Reviews

MOVIES Atomic Blonde kicks you where it hurts

IF YOU’VE WATCHED A LOT OF VIOLENT Director David Leitch (John Wick), a action movies, you may have seen the longtime stunt man, may not be the most old knife-in-forehead trick or its subtler meticulous storyteller, but he knows cousin, the cheek key-jab. But you’ve how to direct a bold and brutal action never seen those moves in a picture that sequence. The picture’s showpiece is a stars Charlize Theron, the tall drink of wild hand-to-hand combat sequence that gunpowder that gives Atomic Blonde its goes on for minutes in one unbroken take, mighty kick. She plays slinky MI6 agent a savage ballet in which Broughton fends Lorraine Broughton, who is sent to Berlin off baddies with feral grace but also takes MOVIES to retrieve sensitive information just as the more than a few roundhouse kicks and Dude Wall is about to come down. body slams herself. NIGHT MOVES nostalgia There she links up with Theron produced That’s the key to Theron’s fellow operative Percival Atomic Blonde performance: as tough and done right (James McAvoy), a loose through Denver & cool as her Broughton is, she’s cannon with a thug’s bristly Delilah, the company not soulless. It hurts to see SOME DAYS IT SEEMS THAT haircut and a side business she founded in her take a punch. But oh, how half the universe’s popula- the 2000s. selling black-market Jack good it feels to see her throw tion is made up of young Daniel’s. Their mission: to spirit a Stasi one! Theron is all limbs, standing tall in a men clinging to their child- turncoat to safety. (He’s played by Eddie wicked assortment of stilettos and narrow, hood. But Brigsby Bear, Dave Marsan, whose eyes radiate the innocence svelte trousers. When she moves, every McCary’s debut feature, puts of a baby dormouse.) muscle is in tune with the picture’s robust, an unexpected and touching

Something goes wrong. We know new-wavey soundtrack (which makes fine spin on guy nostalgia. Satur- GETT CREATOR: THE TYLER, NETFLIX; SUMMER: AMERICAN HOT WET CLASSICS; PICTURES SONY BEAR: BRIGSBY FEATURES; FOCUS BLONDE: ATOMIC that from the start because the story’s use of, among other songs, David Bowie’s day Night Live’s Kyle Mooney framing device shows Broughton— ominously seductive “Cat People”). When stars as James, a drifty, sin- bruised and scratched from some as- she takes a smooth drag on a cigarette, cere naïf who discovers, in his yet-unseen battles—being grilled by two that sound you hear rustling across the mid-20s, that the survival- humorless interrogators, played with earth’s surface is the collective swoon of ist loonies who raised him in deadpan pomposity by John Goodman 50 million ex-smokers. Glowering from seclusion (Mark Hamill and and Toby Jones. Adapted from Antony beneath the bangs of her moonbeam- Jane Adams) aren’t his real Johnston’s graphic novel The Coldest City, platinum bob, Theron’s Broughton is parents. Worse yet, he learns this film is basically a tour of crushed equal parts air, light and iron. We’re just that the space-adventure ribs, cracked skulls and busted femurs. the moths clustering around her flame. TV series he’s been obsessed Its plot is tangled and mildly nonsensical. —STEPHANIE ZACHAREK with since childhood—with a Teddy Ruxpin–style hero named Brigsby Bear—isn’t even a real show but a hoax created by his captor dad. Written by Mooney and Kevin Costello, Brigsby Bear is a sweet-natured pic- ture with an undercurrent of prickly energy. As James, Mooney is wide-eyed enough without ever being too pre- cious, and his performance keeps the movie grounded. James’s disillusionment, in- Theron seduces Sofia stead of making him a victim, Boutella, who plays pushes him to create some- one of the gaggle of thing of his own. That’s just spies running and the first step toward becom- gunning around ing a grownup. But there’s no Y IMAGES East Berlin getting anywhere unless you take it.—S.Z. TIME PICKS MUSIC Tyler, the On his new album, Tyler flips ▽ Creator MUSIC opens up between Arcade Fire’s first confessional album in four years, and Everything Now romance (July 28), is a self-aware TYLER, THE CREATOR’S return that straddles career has been defined by the line between disco immaturity. The Odd Future and new wave, blending ringleader’s many talents— their sing-along sound with sparser tracks. his ear for production, his gravel-studded growl, his cross-disciplinary aesthetic—have often been overshadowed by his penchant for lurid imagery and homophobic slurs. He’s not a malicious figure but a whip-smart provocateur, one who’s leaned on shock BOOKS value and a network of In The Bettencourt devoted fans to become one Affair (Aug. 8), TIME’s of hip-hop’s most prominent former Paris bureau polymaths. And while peers chief Tom Sancton like Frank Ocean, Earl tells the true story of a sprawling scandal Sweatshirt and Syd have surrounding Liliane released assured solo albums Bettencourt, the in recent years, Tyler has 94-year-old heiress to stagnated in the studio. His the L’Oreal fortune. music was marred by stale MOVIES transgressiveness and a lack A tender story about of discipline. faith and fatherhood Flower Boy, his fourth stu- in a Hasidic Brooklyn dio album, is a welcome sur- community, the Yiddish- language drama prise: a focused, sentimental attraction to men. He plays ing “Garden Shed,” he steps Menashe (July 28) statement of purpose. Vul- the hopeless romantic on the out of the closet with an ex- follows a widower nerability has always been a goopy “See You Again” and tended verse that’s confes- fighting for custody of fundamental part of Tyler’s brags about “kissing white sional, nervous and hopeful his son. music, but it’s typically been boys since 2004” on “I Ain’t all at once. ▽ couched in anger and disil- Got Time!” On the astound- Skeptics have tried to TELEVISION lusionment. On Flower Boy, equate Tyler’s writing on In Netflix’s Wet Hot American Summer: Ten he sings and raps about his Flower Boy with the litany Years Later (Aug. 4), anxiety and fear with dis- of alter egos and charac- Paul Rudd, Janeane arming sincerity. He leans ters that peppered his ear- Garofalo and the gang into the melodic instincts lier LPs, but his struggle reunite for a mission and jazzy textures that have with isolation and self- to save their beloved Camp Firewood. characterized his best work. acceptance feels deeply re- And the album relies on a alized. The album makes rich, distinctly Californian plain what many of Tyler’s palette: reds, pinks, sprays △ ardent defenders have been FLOWER POWER of seafoam. Tyler founded Odd Future saying for years: the bomb- Tyler’s new- Records, an independent throwing, slur-wielding found restraint is record label, in 2011 and agent of chaos is really just remarkable, but it’s has released albums for a lonely kid who knows how overshadowed by other acts including the to deflect. Transparency the fact that many of Flower Internet and Trash Talk. suits him. Boy’s tracks acknowledge his —JAMIESON COX 55 Time Off Books

CHILDREN’S BOOKS The hidden (andnd not-so-hidden) racism in kids’ tlit By Sarah Begley

REVISITING A FAVORITE CHILDSOOREN’S BOOK packs a powerful emotional punchy . For many THE CAT IN THE HAT mothers and fathers, sharing ther books their Dr. Seuss was a complicated parents read to them with their ow, n kids, figure—many of his books decades later, is one of the highlfights of the early promoted tolerance, like Horton years. But oftentimes stories ands illustrations Hears a Who! Others descended to racial stereotyping, like characters that seemed benign in one era become problematic who “wear their eyes at a slant” in as social mores change. If I Ran the Zoo. His famous Cat in In his new book, Was the Cat in the Hat Black? the Hat took partial inspiration The Hidden Racism of Children’s Literature, and the from minstrelsy. (Take a closer Need for Diverse Books, Philip Nel studies the paradox look at the white gloves and the extravagant top hat.) of stories that are meant to nurture but can also do harm. An English professor at Kansas State University, Nel has probed racism in kids’ books in his classes and in previous books, and he uses this volume to highlight how dozens of beloved picture and chapter books leave negative messages in children’s minds. “No one wants to admit to enjoying something or liking something that perpetuates racial stereotypes. But we do, because a book can be beautiful and racist, a book can be a classic and racist, a book can be really pleasurable and also really racist.” For instance, one of Nel’s personal favorites, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, has a big problem in the Oompa Loompas. The characters, which were depicted in early editions as African pygmies, are portrayed as happy slaves, content to leave their native land behind and toil in a factory. Especially for children who are descendants of slaves, such messages can have a pernicious effect on how they interpret their value in the world. So should parents abstain from reading offensive classics to their children? “I would respect the parent who made that choice,” Nel says. But on the other hand, “There’s also a reason to read them with LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE “The Little House books are children, because racism exists in the world. Children super racist in the way they are going to encounter it, and a safer way to learn how present Native Americans,” to encounter it is via fiction. If you’re reading a racist Nel says. “They are to be children’s book with a child, you can help them read it removed from the land, and are critically, you can help them learn that it’s okay to be dehumanized when they are mentioned. The line ‘The only angry at a book.”  good Indian is a dead Indian’ shows up in there.” PHOTOGRAPH BY DILYS NG FOR TIME Reading lessons Tips for talking to your children about problematic books

ADD THE HISTORY “If you’re reading racist children’s books with children, they have to be read in context,” says Nel. If it’s a book about slavery, explain the history in an age-appropriate way.

ASK CRITICAL QUESTIONS For instance, “Would it be fun to be shipped to England in a packing crate? What would it be like to live in a factory and work all the time?”

POINT OUT THE MISSING PERSPECTIVES “You can ask, ‘Whose point of view is thisthis s storytory ffavorinavoring?g?W Who is it notg’ favoring?’” PIPPI LONGSTOCKING Books can have both virtues and sins. Pippi is a spunky role model for young girls, but her father travels to the South Seas and becomes “King of the Negros” (or, in American editions since the ’50s, “King of the Cannibals”).

THE STORY OF BABAR E Babar presents “colonialism as benign,” Nel says. “Babar becomes this civilized elephant, and because of that is able to go back to his people and be more e respected because he’s become more European.” SPECIAL Time Off PopChart COMIC-CON EDITION

‘You bet your ass.’ HARRISON FORD, responding to a fan who asked at the Blade Runner 2049 panel whether the actor plans to reboot every franchise he’s ever starred in. Ford Not to be outdone resurrected Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, stars in this fall’s Blade Runner sequel by her male co-stars and will reprise his role as Indiana Jones. Of watching Star Wars for the first time, taking shots at actor Will Smith said: “There was nothing the Kingsman: that I had experienced in my life that matched The Golden Circle that point of ecstasy. I had sex a few years panel, Halle Berry later. It was close, but no Star Wars.” chugged an entire glass of whiskey. Director Taika Waititi and star Chris The new Black Hemsworth Panther trailer presented a got a standing delightfully ovation. Lupita deranged take Nyong’o stood on the God out as a spy of Thunder dispensing in new, justice to a unexpectedly Kendrick Lamar psychedelic soundtrack. Thor: Ragnarok footage. REALLY LOVE IT TIME’S WEEKLY TAKE ON WHAT POPPED IN CULTURE LOVE IT

Onscreen Alfie Allen has menaced direwolves (Game of Thrones) and killed IMAGES GETTY ALLEN: SPIELBERG, FORD, WHISKEY, SMITH, WARS, STAR MARVEL; THOR: BLACK PANTHER, a puppy (John Wick). But the actor proved NETFLIX; THINGS: STRANGER BROS.; WARNER WOMAN: WONDER EVERETT; LIFE: MODERN ROCKO’S himself a gentle soul when he brought his dog Abby onstage. Comic-Con began as a small comic-book convention. Now it attracts legendary Cult favorites Psy ch, Du ckTales anandd Rocko’Rocko’s directors like Steven Modern Life are all getting revivals. Spielberg, who came to promote his film Wonder Woman Ready Player One. took a victory lap. Star Gal Gadot featured heavily A preview of the new in the new Justice Stranger Things League trailer and season doubles down shared an emotional on nostalgia with a moment with a Reagan-Bush ’84 young female fan campaign sign and a dressed as the soundtrack featuring superhero. the Vincent Price introduction to Michael Jackon’s “Thriller.”

58 TIME August 7, 2017 By Eliana Dockterman Essay The Amateur

How this family of worrywarts copes in an age of anxiety By Kristin van Ogtrop

MY YOUNGEST SON, WHO IS 10, HAS LONG HAD AN OBSESSION that crops up whenever we get in the car. As he climbs into the back seat he will peer over my shoulder at the dashboard and, depending on his mood, may ask the question we both know he is thinking: “Are we going to run out of gas?” My youngest sister—his aunt—is a therapist and the wise woman who taught me the possible-probable trick. And so I say to my son: “Is it possible for our Subaru to run out of gas when it has half a tank and we are only driving two miles to Costco and When we sit as a family at that table, the older boys are back? Perhaps. But it is definitely not probable.” protective of their young brother and his innocence: Possible vs. probable. When applied in the right circum- they know not to curse, not to listen to songs with stance, it almost always gives you the right answer. Even better, vulgar lyrics, not to talk about friends who drink too it gives you the feeling that you are in control. much or smoke weed or skip class. Still, things hap- pen in the lives of 19- and 22-year-olds that demand FOR THE RECORD, we have never run out of gas. And I would dinner-table discussion. And so, as the little guy lis- rather not take this particular, seemingly nonsensical gas- tens, wide-eyed and silent, scary stories unfold: from tank worry seriously. But given our gene pool, I know I should. the inconvenient (a minor car accident) to the truly My son hails from a long line of people who used to be called heartbreaking (a roommate whose life ended before worrywarts—ask me sometime about my childhood fear of he could graduate from college). Is this why, when I re- vomiting—until the 21st century arrived and we woke up one cently took his eldest brother to the emergency room day to learn that we actually suffer from anxiety, in varying de- for what turned out to be a stomach virus, my young- grees. (If you were to meet my child, you would find a happy, est asked, “Is he going to die?” charming, intellectually curious fellow. But you’re not driving to Costco with him.) Anxiety has impacted the lives of several POSSIBLE VS. PROBABLE is not foolproof. My two of my family members in serious ways that I am not permitted, older sons have reached an age when it doesn’t work per unspoken family law, to discuss in this column. And we are on them. They are old enough to have learned that far from alone. More than 6 million American teens have had tragically improbable things do happen, that parents an anxiety disorder, according to National Institute of Mental can’t control much and that helpful constructs from Health data; at my son’s most recent checkup, his pediatrician Aunt Claire won’t erase a biological inheritance gener- remarked matter-of-factly that treatment solutions haven’t ations in the making. As they have grown into young kept pace with the number of anxious kids. men, I have become less a boundary setter. Less a Which brings me to the strong control-freak current also guide. More a ... presence. A loving, nonjudgmental running through our gene pool. Supposedly, controlling par- (well, I try) and constant presence. ents are more likely to produce anxious children. But there is a And with my sweet, wide-eyed 10-year-old who al- fine line between setting boundaries and controlling, between ternately seems to understand nothing at all and far too guiding choices and telling your kids what to do because Mom much, I will cling to possible vs. probable for as long as actually does know best a good deal of the time. At age 10, my it works. Perhaps the very things I do to try to protect son has reached a childhood inflection point, approaching the him just make him more vulnerable to anxiety. Smarter end of elementary school, crossing over from the years when I minds than I will have to figure that one out. But I know had control over much of his existence to the years when it be- one thing for certain, which is that my wonderful little comes increasingly clear how little control I really have. boy has all the time in the world to learn how sad and When your son is 10, his worries seem quaint: little kids, uncertain life can be. And once he does, there will be little problems. But his two older brothers, who are 19 and 22, only so much I can do. are big kids now, with their big-kid problems stretching into their youngest sibling’s understanding of the world the way Van Ogtrop is the author of Just Let Me Lie Down:

ILLUSTRATION BY LUCI GUTIÉRREZ FOR TIME their long legs stretch clear under the kitchen table at dinner. Necessary Terms for the Half-Insane Working Mom 59 7 Questions

Naoki Higashida The Japanese author of The Reason I Jump and Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8 describes what it’s like to be a person with nonverbal autism

You mostly cannot express your You’ve said that maturity is “a matter ‘Expressing thoughts through speaking, but you’ve of progressing ever closer to your ideal what’s inside published more than 20 books. How self.” What is your ideal self? To travel this the heart and does your writing process work? My world without being tied to others. Not in mind of my basic methods of communication are my the sense of crossing the sky like a bird. My autistic self letter board and computer. The letter- meaning stems from the fact that people will always be board method involves a card with the constantly compare themselves to others. alphabet arranged in the QWERTY They find it difficult to decide the best way problematic, format. I point to individual letters and to live, I guess, and comparisons help them I think.’ “voice” the letters as I touch them. I can evaluate their own situation. A person can also type on a computer keyboard, but attain pure freedom only by being set free I get stuck on or obsessed about certain from being a person. letters. Or sometimes I’ll type a word over and over. I can’t converse well, but What do neurotypical people agonize this doesn’t mean I don’t think. It’s just over too much? Human relations. Not that when I try to speak, the words that wanting to be left out of the group, or come to mind disappear. I wonder if wanting to be better than others—this this isn’t similar to the sensation we all kind of mentality makes relations between have of forgetting something? Even if people way more fraught than necessary. a person with severe autism learns to Sometimes I wonder if the human intellect use a computer, it doesn’t mean he or can nudge us backward. she will be able to express in writing all the emotions they have been unable to What’s your favorite number? I’ve verbalize. Expressing what’s inside the never really thought about my favorite, heart and mind of my autistic self will but if pushed, my answer would be 3. always be problematic, I think. The number 1 is the most important. It feels like proof that something What first made you aware that you is there. Then again, 0 is the most had autism? There wasn’t one trigger, amazing discovery. The concept but growing up, I listened to the people of nothingness is proof of human around me talking, and this alerted me. I civilization. After 1 comes 2 in order worried about not being able to do what of importance. The number 2 lets others did so easily, but at that stage us divide things and put numbers I didn’t feel compelled to understand in order. These three numbers (0, 1 what this thing was that made my life so and 2) would have been sufficient. difficult. When people told me, “You have As a number, 3 is enchanting. It was this disability,” it somehow never really created even though it wasn’t needed. struck home that their words applied to Perhaps it was born out of creativity? me. Maybe this was because I was still just a child. If you judge me by appearances, What would you tell parents who I haven’t changed all that much. But I are sad that their child has been feel pride in saying that I’ve grown into a diagnosed with autism? I don’t think happy-enough adult. of my autism as a misfortune. You may be stuck, your suffering may be ongoing, You write of “thorns in the heart”— but time flows on. What your child needs realizations of things you will not be right now is to see your smile. Create lots able to do. Which thorn aches most? of happy memories together. When we People who have disabilities are told know we are loved, the courage we need to what they ought to do much more often. resist depression and sadness wells up from

Those giving the advice may have good inside us.—NATE HOPPER MIKI HIGASHIDA intentions, but sometimes the advice is more geared to minimize the hassle and Translated from email by inconvenience caused to others. Hamish Macaskill and David Mitchell

60 TIME August 7, 2017 PRESENTS

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