Table of contents for September 18, 2017 in TIME Magazine

MORE THAN A YEAR AGO, KIRA POLLACK, TIME’S immensely creative director of photography and visual enterprise, proposed a project exploring the experiences of women who were pioneers in their field: the first woman to command a space shuttle, or chair the Federal Reserve, or coach an NFL team, or design a memorial for the National Mall. Her idea began as a series of portraits but quickly evolved into a multimedia project that now includes dozens of videos, interviews, a book and this special issue. While our focus was on the journeys that were traveled by extraordinary women, there is plenty here to inspire people of all ages, in all areas of endeavor. Some striking themes emerged—the importance of joy, the fierce motivational force of failure, the satisfaction of successes both…

THE LEADER OF NEW ZEALAND’S OPPOSITION center-left Labour Party, Jacinda Ardern, has come from far behind to rival Prime Minister Bill English in polls ahead of the Sept. 23 general election. Since becoming leader on Aug. 1, Ardern has helped pull the party’s projected share of the vote from 26% to a 10-year high of 43%. Here’s more: RURAL ROOTS The police officer’s daughter, 37, says her working-class background has informed her politics: she grew up in a rural community on the country’s North Island and worked in a fish-and-chips shop to save for college. But her rise has been swift; before being elected to parliament in 2008, she advised Helen Clark, New Zealand’s first elected female Prime Minister. YOUTH APPEAL Ardern galvanized female voters days after becoming the Labour…

Fans of uncomfortably charged confrontations over social niceties: the wait is over. After a six-year hiatus, Curb Your Enthusiasm will return to HBO on Oct. 1. Creator and star Larry David, 70, spent the break starring in his play Fish in the Dark on Broadway and, during the last election cycle, appearing on Saturday Night Live as Bernie Sanders. The plot of Curb’s ninth season is closely guarded, but David’s delight in causing chaos among his Angeleno neighbors will surely remain unchanged. Why is the plot of the new season under such lock and key? When I go see something, I don’t want to know anything about it. So I’m just pretending I’m the audience, and I would prefer that they just come in completely fresh and not know anything.…

THE BOOK shop.time.com Find extended interviews and more portraits of the women who shattered glass ceilings in the Firsts book, available for preorder in the TIME Shop. THE PERFORMANCE time.com/firsts Along with her interview, Aretha Franklin granted TIME an exclusive performance of “Rock of Ages” at her father’s church in Detroit. Watch the video, directed by Gillian Laub, on the website. THE VIDEOS time.com/firsts For more about the women who were the first in their field, watch video interviews with our subjects at the online home of Firsts. THE HASHTAG #SheIsTheFirst To see more about women who shaped the world—and to share stories of the groundbreaking women in your life— check out the hashtag #SheIsTheFirst. Back Issues Contact us at help.single@customersvc.com or call 1-800-274-6800. Reprints and Permissions Information is available…

Hurricane Irma touches down Hurricane Irma made landfall on the tiny Caribbean island of Barbuda as a Category 5 storm on Sept. 6, the most powerful one in the region in over a decade. The storm was heading toward Puerto Rico and Florida as TIME went to press. White Christians decline in U.S. White Christians are no longer a majority in the U.S., according to a new study by the Public Religion Research Institute. The PRRI found that only 43% of Americans identify as white and Christian, down from 81% in 1976. White evangelical Protestants led the decline. Mag fined over topless royal pics Photographers and executives from French magazine Closer were fined over topless photos of Kate Middleton that were printed in 2012. Prince William and the Duchess of…

SINCE AUGUST 2016, LIEUT. GENERAL Stephen Townsend had commanded Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led military coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. It was a key year in the operation to “degrade and destroy” ISIS, at the center of which was the liberation by the Iraqi military of Mosul, Iraq’s second city, from the militant group. Townsend, a 35- year veteran of conflicts around the world, rotated out on Sept. 5. Here he reflects on his 12 months at the helm of the coalition: What can you say about the intensity of the battle for Mosul? First of all, it was the longest battle I personally have been a participant in or borne witness to in my entire military career. It was the most constant heavy combat that…

DIED Eminent American poet John Ashbery, who in 1976 won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award for his collection Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, at 90. Walter Becker, co-founder and guitarist of the influential rock duo Steely Dan, best known for singles “Do It Again” and “Deacon Blues,” at 67. Actor Richard Anderson, who co-starred simultaneously in 1970s television shows The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman, at 91. BORN A baby girl, to the 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams and her partner Alexis Ohanian. Williams revealed she was having a baby over social media in April, months after winning the Australian Open title while pregnant. RESIGNED Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke, known for his provocative rhetoric…

IN RECENT YEARS, FRATERNITIES AND sororities have become synonymous with partying, often to extremes: reports of binge drinking and sexual assault have led some schools, including Harvard and Penn State, to discuss banning Greek life altogether. Yet in their early days, fraternities and sororities served a more practical purpose. At issue was a housing crunch. In the 19th century, as universities expanded their offerings, there wasn’t enough living space for the influx of new students, says Nicholas L. Syrett, author of The Company He Keeps: A History of White College Fraternities. The first frat houses, like the one built in 1876 at the University of California, Berkeley, offered a fix. By allowing students to live in those spaces, colleges could enroll more students without investing in housing. Syrett found that…

HYDROGEN WATER So-called hydrogen water— water into which hydrogen gas is dissolved—has become increasingly popular in recent years, with a handful of companies (including one created by physician personality Dr. Nicholas Perricone) selling bottles, tablets you can dissolve into water and even machines to boost water’s hydrogen content. Some claim that adding more hydrogen increases energy, improves workout recovery and reduces inflammation. But the science behind those claims is weak, backed only by a few encouraging studies in rats and mice and even fewer—and smaller— trials in people. “We don’t know anything about dosing or the frequency you need to drink hydrogen water to get health benefits,” says Robin Foroutan, a spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Moreover, the amount of hydrogen in water products varies widely, and…

In 2012, TIME published a cover story about the so-called Dreamers. In recent weeks, with the fate of DACA hanging in the balance, we interviewed 15 of the people on that cover about the program. Here’s what some said: “November was the first time in maybe six years that I felt like it didn’t matter how hard I worked. At the end of the day, it could all be taken away from me at any moment.” VICTOR CUICAHUA “Even though we won DACA and DACA is in peril now, that’s never changed for me. Yeah, it made a lot of things in my life easier, but having fear has never gone away.” JUAN PABLO ORJUELA “I have big goals. I don’t know if I can take putting those dreams on…

On Sept. 12 at noon E.T., a corner of Facebook will flicker to life, and over the next 77 live-streamed hours, Esperanza Spalding will write and record her next album, Exposure. Guest musicians are likely to drop in, and viewers will be able to chat with the record’s creator during an event that will be the first of its kind. You might call it a stunt—if Spalding weren’t at the helm. The 32-year-old Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and jazz bassist has come to be known as a prodigy’s prodigy for good reason. How did you come up with this concept? Two months ago, I felt a strong urge to make and disseminate whatever the hell I actually am. In some ways, this is filled with the hope that this will be cathartic…

Pixar has always understood that kids’ movies aren’t just for kids—as any adult who’s ever tried to keep it together through the beginning of Up or the ending of Inside Out can attest. The storied animation studio’s next film, Coco (Nov. 22), tells the story of a 12-year-old aspiring musician who travels to— and must escape—the Land of the Dead during Día de Muertos, the traditional Mexican holiday. Naturally, the studio cast an unknown 12-year-old aspiring musician to play the character. How did you first get involved with this movie? I auditioned, and it was a long process—about a year. Eventually, I went to the Pixar headquarters in Emeryville, Calif., to do scratch [or preliminary test] voices. Then last Christmas, they said they had a present for me and brought…

WE’VE ALL BEEN THINKING ABOUT HOW TO HELP TEXAS after the unfathomable devastation of Hurricane Harvey. But after watching the way the people of that state have responded to this vast tragedy, I think that Texas might save the rest of us too. There’s been so much ugliness, division and fear on our screens and in our hearts over the past two years that it was getting hard to imagine how we’d ever stitch the country together again. Then a once-in-a-thousand-year storm hit. Harvey was unprecedented. Even those of us who live far from Houston have been jolted out of our silos. We’re so hungry for goodness, for common cause, for reasons to like each other that it’s no surprise that we keep watching the video footage from Texas—the scenes…

2,600Number of career assists Seattle Storm guard Sue Bird made as of Sept. 1 to set a WNBA record 2.8Width, in miles, of the asteroid nicknamed Florence that flew past Earth on Sept. 1 at a distance of about 4.4 million miles, the largest asteroid to pass so close to our planet since NASA started recording such occurrences in 1890 ‘At the end of the day ... we’re two people who are really happy and in love.’ MEGHAN MARKLE, actor, dismissing the online trolls and tabloid reports that have attacked her relationship with Prince Harry 54.72Height, in feet, of the record holder for world’s tallest sand castle, built from 3,500 tons of sand by a travel agent in Duisburg, Germany, and completed on Sept. 1 GOOD WEEK Duchess of Cambridge…

THE WAR GAMES Moscow claims Zapad will be much smaller: only about 13,000 personnel in total, including 7,200 from ally Belarus as well as roughly 70 aircraft, 250 tanks, 200 artillery systems and 10 naval ships. Yet European defense officials anticipate many more troops to be involved. Among other drills, Zapad typically includes a simulated nuclear strike against a European nation. In 2009 the hypothetical target was Poland; in ’13 it was Sweden. THE NEIGHBORS This is the first Zapad since Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014, and Eastern Europe is on edge. Poland warned that the drills could be used as cover for an invasion, and Lithuania is building a fence. NATO drills in July involved about 25,000 troops, but the alliance said it did not increase…

Trial of U.S. Senator begins Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey went on trial in federal court on 12 corruption-related counts concerning his links to a wealthy benefactor. If the Democrat is convicted, the state’s Republican governor, Chris Christie, will choose a replacement. Graft charges for Brazil’s ex-leaders Brazil’s ex-Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff were charged with forming a criminal organization to divert funds from entities including state oil company Petrobras. These are the first corruption charges leveled at Rousseff, who was impeached in 2016. Both deny the allegations. Utah hospital tells police to back off The University of Utah Hospital placed new restrictions on police officers, barring them from entering patientcare areas, after a nurse was manhandled and arrested when she refused to let an…

WHEN IT COMES TO INVENTIONS THAT changed the world, most history books cite the usual suspects—including clocks, paper and the lightbulb. But TimHarford’s Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy shines a spotlight on objects of less renown. Take barbed wire, which allowed settlers to delineate (and therefore cultivate) property on the American prairie in a way that would have been costprohibitive with wooden fencing. Or the replaceable razor blade, which introduced the two-part pricing model—pay now for the razor and later for more blades—that was eventually used with printers and ink cartridges, espresso machines and coffee pods, and more. Or Ikea’s Billy bookcase, which helped bridge the gap between “cheap to produce” and “aesthetically acceptable.” The Billy, Harford explains, “is a symbol of how innovation in the modern economy…

1 STIFLING THE URGE TO YAWN MIGHT MAKE IT WORSE A study in Current Biology found that after watching people yawn, participants who were instructed to resist doing the same had a greater urge to yawn than those who were allowed to yawn freely—and the two groups ended up yawning the same amount anyway. 2 COFFEE CAN HELP YOU LIVE LONGER A study presented at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Spain found that adults who drank four or more cups of coffee per day had a 64% lower risk of dying during the 10-year follow-up, compared with those who rarely or never drank coffee. 3 MEDITATING MIGHT HELP HEAVY DRINKERS CUT BACK A study in the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology showed that heavy drinkers had an average of…

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT / MARY BARRA / PATRICIA BATH / ELIZABETH BLACKBURN / URSULA BURNS / CANDIS CAYNE / HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON / EILEEN COLLINS / KELLYANNE CONWAY / MO’NE DAVIS / ELLEN DEGENERES GABBY DOUGLAS / RITA DOVE / ANN DUNWOODY / AVA DUVERNAY / SYLVIA EARLE / ARETHA FRANKLIN / MELINDA GATES / SELENA GOMEZ / NIKKI HALEY / CARLA HAYDEN / MAZIE HIRONO / KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI MAE JEMISON / MAYA LIN / LORETTA LYNCH / RACHEL MADDOW / RITA MORENO / JENNIFER YUH NELSON ILHAN OMAR / DANICA PATRICK / NANCY PELOSI / MICHELLE PHAN / ISSA RAE / SHONDA RHIMES / LORI ROBINSON / SHERYL SANDBERG / CINDY SHERMAN / KATHRYN SMITH / KATHRYN SULLIVAN / BARBARA WALTERS / ALICE WATERS / GEISHA WILLIAMS / SERENA…

Pfeiffer, 59, returns to the big screen alongside Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem and Ed Harris in writer-director Darren Aronofsky’s new film mother! (Sept. 15). She plays a boundarychallenged visitor whose sudden appearance throws a young woman’s tranquil rural life into disarray. Like Aronofsky’s previous work (Pi, Black Swan), mother! is dark and challenging and riveting. This time, he has created a puzzle within a Hieronymus Bosch–style fever dream. No spoilers, but what was your reaction to reading the mother! script for the first time? It was very disturbing, very provocative. It was unlike anything I had ever read. Most of the film takes place in one house. It’s very intimate, almost like watching a play. What was it like to make? It was a very different experience—even the rehearsal process.…

She’s been a mob matriarch (The Sopranos) and a pill pusher (Nurse Jackie). Falco, 54, is no stranger to playing morally complex characters. On NBC’s Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders (Sept. 26), she portrays Leslie Abramson, the controversial defense attorney who represented Lyle and Erik Menendez in the mid-’90s before they were convicted of murdering their parents. Law & Order, which made drama out of thinly veiled tabloid crime, is now embracing true crime without filter. You played a recurring character on Law & Order from 1993 to 1998. How does the new version differ from the original flavor? Certainly every actor who works in New York has done a Law & Order, so it’s a very big club that I’m a member of. This one’s a…

On your new TV series One Mississippi, you’ve dealt with complex issues surrounding death and mortality. How do you see the relationship between personal tragedy and humor? They go hand in hand. It’s hard for me to imagine digesting everything without a comedic release. That’s what I use to cope. It’s crucial for my peace of mind. You were a class clown who dropped out of school. Is becoming an acclaimed comedian a way of getting the last laugh? Yes, I failed three grades and then I dropped out, but my time in school was me preparing for my future career as a comedian, so it wasn’t time wasted. What does the current stand-up boom mean for comedy? It mixes things up. Some people are getting paid millions of dollars…