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Welcome to Your Week. Let the Games begin.

Lindsay Deutsch   | Paste BN

Team USA is chasing gold. And Team Paste BN is there for it all.

Plus, you probably know someone quitting their job, vaccines aren't perfect and psychedelics are having their moment (yes, really).

Welcome to Your Week. I'm Lindsay, an editor dedicated to making your subscription worthwhile. We send this newsletter every Monday to spotlight some of the best Paste BN premium content and to say hey to our subscribers. (Alex is off this week.)

Paste BN has 36 staffers in Tokyo reporting on everything from Simone Biles' technique to COVID-19 news as it happens. The goal? To make you feel like you're right there with us at the Games.

Not into the year's biggest sports? Scroll down – I've included some greatest hits from across our sections, too. Let's dive in:

Your primer to the Games

If you were to ask me, a journalist, the best way to keep up with the Olympics, I'm sending you to these four articles: 

Can't-miss columns from our Olympics experts

Paste BN personalities Christine Brennan and Nancy Armour wrote some of the most-read columns by subscribers this week. They're essential reading:

  • A day-one shut-out: "For the first time since the Munich Olympics in 1972 – so long ago some of the current Olympians’ parents weren’t even born yet – the Americans were shut out of the medals on the opening day of competition. That’s right. No golds, silvers or bronzes." Here's Armour on how that happened, and how top members of Team USA reacted.
  • The COVID Olympics: Days before the opening ceremony, Olympic leaders' nightmare scenario became a reality in Tokyo when COVID-19 tests started turning up positive. Brennan has covered 19 Olympic Games. Here's her take on this year's legacy.

And just published this morning from Brennan: Ariarne Titmus thanks Katie Ledecky after beating her, saying, 'I wouldn't be here without her.'

Insider access? You've got it.

I wasn't kidding about taking you along. Stay connected:

  • Here's our number! It's my colleague Alex Ptachick's third time covering the Olympics for Paste BN, and she's your new texting friend. Alex is texting sights and sounds, breaking news and answering questions you send her way. Sign up here.
  • A day in the life of an athlete: What are athletes eating, where are they hanging out and what do COVID-19 precautions look like? Head to Paste BN's Instagram stories to find out. If you click over now and watch USA Today's story, women's canoe slalom athlete Evy Leibfarth takes you through her day. 
  • Day and night email updates? Convenient. I love a newsletter. Chasing Gold is an excellent daily read to prime yourself for the evening's events, and our Sports newsletter sets up the day.

This is just the beginning. Please explore the app and website for even more. Then text Alex about it!

Premium content spotlight

Everyone's quitting | (But, really.) The easing pandemic and reopening economy have set off an unprecedented reshuffling of the U.S. workforce. Americans are quitting jobs in record numbers, typically to take another position. They’re on the move chiefly to make the most of a historic burst of job openings, often at higher wages, according to a survey by Joblist for Paste BN. Here's the scoop, from Paul Davidson.

Psychedelics are having a moment | Actress Megan Fox and HGTV's Christina Haack are praising psychedelic drugs as a form of medicine. But don't drop everything and seek out some toad venom, please. Here's what medical experts want you to know.

The Surfside community, shattered | For 40 years, the concrete, steel and glass of Champlain Towers South served as a vertical neighborhood to a wide array of nationalities, religions and ages. It took only 10 seconds for it to become their tomb. Here's a floor-by-floor look at the lives lost and dreams shattered by Florida condo collapse.

More must-reads of the week:

Thanks for reading, and see you next week!

Lindsay

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