Nobody who writes thinks writing is easy. So why not have a computer spare us the agony? Soon that will be possible. After all, we already have the chirpy Smart Reply, which suggests responses (e.g., “Great!” “You bet!” “Sure thing!”) and the creepy Smart Compose, which autocompletes sentences. Why wouldn’t full essays be next?

They are next, according to John Seabrook, who in this outstanding article clearly explains the history and ethics of machine learning and how current technology will put Alexa and Siri to shame. Be prepared to be creeped out, for sure; our demise as a species is nigh. But also savor the parts that remind us of the power of language to express our humanity.

Like Kim Kardashian and Miranda Kerr and millions of wellness-seekers, you may love your healing crystals — your rose quartz and amethyst, your labradorite and carnelian. They’re beautiful, after all, plus you may believe, as 42 percent of Americans do, that crystals have the ability to rebalance energy, healing the body and mind.

More than half of the students attending community colleges in California have experienced food insecurity within the past month. Sixty percent report struggling with housing insecurity over the past year. Despite free tuition, financial aid, Pell grants, and work-study programs, thousands of young people seeking higher education can’t handle the exorbitant price of housing in the Bay Area. Many are living in their cars, couch surfing, and worrying about their next meal.

Impervious to chains like Krispy Kreme and Dunkin’ Donuts, the donut industry in Los Angeles has remained open and profitable to new immigrants from Vietnam and Cambodia and Japan and Laos and Mexico and Guatemala and El Salvador. “Donuts are the soul food of a place that is often accused of lacking a soul,” David Samuels writes. “They are the sticky, messy, waist-expanding ying to the yang of Southern California’s sun-kissed beaches and taut-and-tanned infatuation with wellness.”

If you’re a white progressive and you haven’t read White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo, consider yourself woefully behind the times. (No judgment.) Published last year, the book explores what happens when white people are made to consider the impact of their race. Some get angry, some clam up, some cry, some perform. No matter the behavior, the response is to return to the racist status quo.

Chrysanthius Lathan is a Black teacher and instructional coach at a middle school in Portland who is tired of supporting her white colleagues to maintain high behavioral expectations for their students. In particular, Ms. Lathan wants to know why her colleagues are sending so many Black and Brown students to her classroom for timeout. So she asks the students, and the answer is clear: The teachers are scared. They’re scared of the kids, and of being seen as racist, and of asking for help.

For the 50 million students attending public school in America, how they are taught about America’s history of slavery and its deprivations is as fundamental as how they are taught about the Declaration of Independence and its core assertion that “all men are created equal.” A deep understanding of one without a deep understanding of the other is to not know America at all.

In this tender narrative, Cyrus Grace Dunham tells their story of mostly giving up their given name, Grace, and mostly taking on their chosen name, Cyrus. For Mx. Dunham, who identifies as non-binary, the process is not a linear one. After realizing that Grace is dissolving, they spend time existing in and noticing their body, focusing on what they want, rather than taking on Cyrus too quickly.

1619, not 1776, should mark the beginning of our nation’s history. Slavery, rather than the Declaration of Independence, more accurately explains the foundation of the United States. Despite their centuries-long subjugation, Black Americans have shaped our country’s experience, Ms. Hannah-Jones emphasizes. She writes, “Black Americans have been, and continue to be, foundational to the idea of American freedom. More than any other group in this country’s history, we have served, generation after generation, in an overlooked but vital role: It is we who have been the perfecters of this democracy.”

Jia Tolentino explains how capitalism, patriarchy, and technology lead many women into a perpetual process of optimizing. Advancing in your career means scarfing down kale salads every day at Sweetgreen while checking work email. Exercising focuses less on health and more on looking taut. Barre, with its “rapid-fire series of positions and movements,” offers the most efficient path. Only once you’ve made it can you enjoy Lululemon, whose pants, according to the founder (a man), “just actually don’t work” on “some women’s bodies.”