<em>The Atlantic Daily</em>:<em> </em>Superstar Cities Are in Trouble

One question, answered: Have we turned a corner in the pandemic?

Alexis Madrigal, one of the COVID Tracking Project’s co-founder, offers his analysis on the latest episode of our Social Distance podcast:

I feel remarkably optimistic right now, at least for the next month or two. The numbers are really dropping. We’re seeing the lowest case numbers that we’ve seen since November and December. We’re seeing hospitalizations way off their peak and dropping really rapidly. We think deaths are going to have a different path, [given] the lag time between when somebody dies and when it’s reported. I think it could be some weeks before we really start to see deaths really come down.

For more, listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts.

Tonight’s Atlantic-approved isolation activity:

Catch up on late-night: Saturday Night Live returned from hiatus with “a big shrug,” our critic David Sims writes.

Today’s break from the news:

Here’s a whale of a tale: A group of orca outcasts is now dominating an entire sea.

For the first half of 2021, Lori Gottlieb’s column will be on hiatus while she writes her next book. During that time, Rebecca J. Rosen, the column’s editor, will revisit some of Lori’s best work.

This month, reread Lori’s advice to four readers struggling with sex, heartbreak, and more.

Sign up for The Atlantic Daily here.

Caroline Mimbs Nyce is a senior associate editor at The Atlantic.