Billionaire Budgets & the Fake Poor Bride: Inside the Luxury Wedding Industry | Amanpour & Company

 

2,274 views Jul 11, 2023 #amanpourpbs

Weddings are milestone events that leave couples with their hearts full but their wallets light. The average American wedding runs up $30,000 in costs. In her recent article "The Fake Poor Bride," award-winning author Xochitl Gonzalez reveals the world behind the lucrative wedding industry. Originally aired on June 11, 2023 __________________________________________________________________________

Xochitl Gonzalez is a cultural critic, producer, screenwriter, and the New York Times bestselling author of Olga Dies Dreaming. Named a Best of 2022 by The New York Times, TIME, Kirkus, Washington Post, and NPR, Olga Dies Dreaming was the winner of the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize in Fiction and the New York City Book Awards. Gonzalez is a 2021 M.F.A. graduate from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her non-fiction work has been published in Elle Decor, Allure, Vogue, Real Simple, and The Cut. Her writing at The Atlantic was recognized as a 2023 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Commentary.
Prior to writing, Gonzalez was an entrepreneur, fundraiser, and all-around hustler for nearly 20 years. She is a board member of the Lower East Side Girls Club and the Brooklyn Public Library, and a trustee of the corporation of Brown University, where she received her B.A. in Visual Art. A native Brooklynite and proud public school graduate, she lives in her hometown of Brooklyn with her dog, Hectah Lavoe.

> Interviews:

Inside the luxury wedding arms race with a former planner - Press Play with Madeline Brand via KCRW

Novelist Xochitl Gonzalez Always Has Capers on Hand - The Grub Street Diet

Why a writer doesn’t want a quiet Brooklyn - All Things Considered via NPR

Silence and Gentrification - All of It via WNYC

Contemporary Authors on Their Favorite New York City Novels - T: The New York Times Style Magazine

Four Questions for Xochitl Gonzalez Regarding Her Debut Novel - Los Angeles Review of Books

Xochitl Gonzalez and the Art of Traversing Worlds - LatinoUSA Podcast

The Radical Way Author Xochitl Gonzalez Overcame Imposter Syndrome - Bustle

Why Novelist Xochitl Gonzalez Isn't Done Being Ambitious - Latina to Latina Podcast

Xochitl Gonzalez on her second act - Bevelations via Radio Andy

Xochitl Gonzalez’s Favorite Spots in Clinton Hill - Curbed

Inside the Best-Seller List: Want to Be a Writer? Get Your Training as a Wedding Planner - The New York Times

The Liberation of Olga - The Cut

On Olga Dies Dreaming - Poured Over Podcast via Barnes & Noble Reads

Xochitl Gonzalez Celebrates the Resilient Human Spirit - Refinery29

XOCHITL - Subway Book Review

On the Emotional Toll of Success - The Maris Review Podcast via Literary Hub

Xochitl Gonzalez on Hulu Pilot, Release of Her Debut Novel - Iowa Magazine

Episode 249 - Fully Booked Podcast via Kirkus Reviews

Xochitl Gonzalez’s Debut Novel is a Pivotal Examination of Puerto Ricanness - Jezebel

An Overnight Success Years in the Making - Los Angeles Times

“The Essential Xochitl Gonzalez Reading Guide” by The Atlantic Editors

Lists and Reviews:

The Book Report: Ron Charles’ favorite novels of 2022 - CBS News Sunday Morning

Organizaba bodas en Brooklyn y se inspiró en ello para escribir uno de los best sellers más destacados del año - La Nación

Opinión: La madre kamikaze - El Nuevo Día

‘Olga Dies Dreaming’ by Xochitl Gonzalez is this week’s ‘GMA’ Buzz Pick - Good Morning America

The Book Report: Recommendations from Washington Post critic Ron Charles - CBS News Sunday Morning

Hot Topics with Ana Navarro - The View

22 Books the Read With Jenna Community Can’t Wait to Read in 2022 - Today

11 New Books We Recommend This Week - The New York Times

The Approval Matrix: Cocktails To-Go And Blood-Sucking Celeb Weirdos - Vulture

Review: A Unique and Beautiful Force - ABCNews

Review: The Daughter of a Revolutionary Becomes a Wedding Planner. Drama Ensues. - The New York Times

Review: Nuanced Novel of Family, Race and Politics - The Guardian

This Week’s Best New Fiction - Daily Mail

The Best Buzziest New Books of 2022 - Harper’s Bazaar

Review: Say ‘I Do’ To Xochitl' Gonzalez’s Olga Dies Dreaming - Washington Post

Starred Review - Kirkus Reviews

Finalist: Xochitl Gonzalez of The Atlantic

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For thoughtful, versatile and entertaining columns that explore how gentrification and the predominant white culture in the U.S. stifle the physical and emotional expression of racial minorities. (Moved by the jury from Criticism, where it originally was entered.)

NOMINATED WORK

August 1, 2022

Let Brooklyn Be Loud

September 15, 2022

Selena Didn’t Know Spanish Either

August 16, 2022

Salman Rushdie, Offense, and Artistic Expression

July 12, 2022

Democrats Still Have a Latinx Blind Spot

September 27, 2022

America, the Sucio

March 22, 2022

I Refuse to Gentrify My Cleaning Products

October 11, 2022

Enough With Latino Anti-Blackness

BIOGRAPHY

Xochitl Gonzalez is a staff writer at The Atlantic. She is the New York Times best-selling author of Olga Dies Dreaming, and is writing and co–executive producing a television adaptation of the book. Her work has been published by Allure, Bustle, Vogue, and The Cut. Prior to writing, Gonzalez had an extensive career as a wedding planner, an entrepreneur, and a consultant. She sits on the board of the Lower Eastside Girls Club.

WINNERS

Prize Winner in Commentary in 2023:

Kyle Whitmire of AL.com, Birmingham

For measured and persuasive columns that document how Alabama's Confederate heritage still colors the present with racism and exclusion, told through tours of its first capital, its mansions and monuments–and through the history that has been omitted.

FINALISTS

Also nominated as a finalist in Commentary in 2023:

Monica Hesse of The Washington Post

For columns that convey the anger and dread that many Americans felt about losing their right to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

THE JURY

Mark Trahant (Chair)

Editor at Large, ICT, Phoenix, Ariz.

Lisa Falkenberg*

Vice President/Editor of Opinion, Houston Chronicle

Robert Gehrke

News Columnist, The Salt Lake Tribune

Helen Jung

Opinion Editor, The Oregonian/OregonLive

Aki Soga

Editor, Burlington Free Press

Wendi C. Thomas

Editor/Publisher, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, Memphis, Tenn.

* Past Pulitzer
Prize winner

WINNERS IN COMMENTARY

2023

Kyle Whitmire of AL.com, Birmingham

For measured and persuasive columns that document how Alabama's Confederate heritage still colors the present with racism and exclusion, told through tours of its first capital, its mansions and monuments–and through the history that has been omitted.

2022

Melinda Henneberger of The Kansas City Star

For persuasive columns demanding justice for alleged victims of a retired police detective accused of being a sexual predator.

2021

Michael Paul Williams of the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch

For penetrating and historically insightful columns that guided Richmond, a former capital of the Confederacy, through the painful and complicated process of dismantling the city's monuments to white supremacy.

2020

Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times

For a sweeping, provocative and personal essay for the ground-breaking 1619 Project, which seeks to place the enslavement of Africans at the center of America’s story, prompting public conversation about the nation’s founding and evolution.

See All Commentary

2023 PRIZE WINNERS

Memoir or Autobiography

Stay True, by Hua Hsu (Doubleday)

An elegant and poignant coming of age account that considers intense, youthful friendships but also random violence that can suddenly and permanently alter the presumed logic of our personal narratives.

Fiction

Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper)

A masterful recasting of “David Copperfield,” narrated by an Appalachian boy whose wise, unwavering voice relates his encounters with poverty, addiction, institutional failures and moral collapse–and his efforts to conquer them.

Music

Omar, by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels

Premiered on May 27, 2022 at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, S.C., an innovative and compelling opera about enslaved people brought to North America from Muslim countries, a musical work that respectfully represents African as well as African American traditions, expanding the language of the operatic form while conveying the humanity of those condemned to bondage.

General Nonfiction

His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice, by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa (Viking)

An intimate, riveting portrait of an ordinary man whose fatal encounter with police officers in 2020 sparked an international movement for social change, but whose humanity and complicated personal story were unknown. (Moved by the Board from the Biography category.)

See All 2023 Winners

China urges NATO to stop its groundless accusations, provocative remarks | CGTN News

 China urges NATO to stop its groundless accusations, provocative remarks 

CGTN 18:49, 12-Jul-2023

China urges the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to stop its groundless accusations and provocative remarks against the country, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Wednesday.

Wang made the remarks in response to a question on issues related to China and Russia in the NATO summit communique, at a daily press briefing.

Featuring non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-targeting of any third party, China-Russia relations surpassed the kind of military-political alliance seen during the Cold War, and transcended such a model of state-to-state relations, which is fundamentally different from NATO countries engaging in small circles and camp-based confrontation, he said.

China urges the NATO to abandon ​​the Cold War mentality, give up the wrong approach of seeking absolute security, and stop disturbing the Asia-Pacific region and the world, Wang said.

Read more:

Chinese mission to EU voices strong opposition to NATO smear

• When asked to comment on the communique saying China is rapidly expanding and diversifying its nuclear arsenal and lacks nuclear transparency, Wang said NATO's irresponsible exaggeration of China as a nuclear threat is "extremely hypocritical."

As a military alliance with the most and most powerful nuclear weapons, NATO has engaged in "microphone diplomacy" in recent years, hyping up China as a nuclear threat, which China firmly opposes, he said.

China has always adopted a prudent and responsible attitude on the issue of nuclear weapons, he said, adding that China always adheres to the nuclear strategy of self-defense, maintains its nuclear forces at the lowest level required for national security, and has no intention of engaging in a nuclear arms race.

Wang added China also maintains the policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons at any time and under any circumstances, and unconditionally commits itself to not using or threatening to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states or nuclear-weapon-free zones.

• The international community has more reasons to be concerned about NATO's "nuclear sharing" arrangement, Wang pointed out.

"Through such an arrangement, NATO has the world's largest nuclear arsenal, and some member states are stepping up efforts to modernize their nuclear forces and strengthen the so-called 'extended deterrence,' increasing the risk of nuclear proliferation and nuclear conflict," said Wang.

If NATO members are truly interested in reducing strategic risks and maintaining strategic stability, they should take practical actions to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in national and collective security policies, promote strategic stability, and maintain international and regional peace and security, he said.

Read more:

China warns NATO to keep their hands off Asia after Shangri-La Dialogue

(Cover: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin. /Chinese Foreign Ministry)

CGTN News

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WHOA!! Researchers discover safe, easy, and affordable way to store and retrieve hydrogen

The new storage method has several uses. In the short-term, the researchers have developed a safe method for storing ammonia, which already has multiple uses in society, from fertilizer to pharmaceuticals to textiles. "In the long-term," says to co-author Yoshihiro Ito of RIKEN CEMS, "we hope that this simple and efficient method can be a part of the solution for achieving a decarbonized society through the use of ammonia as carbon-free hydrogen carrier." 

• This research will help achieve the 2016 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set forth by the United Nations, especially Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy and Goal 13: Climate action.

Researchers discover safe, easy, and affordable way to store and retrieve hydrogen

by RIKEN

Reversible changes in color and crystal structures during storage and extraction of ammonia through chemical conversion. Credit: RIKEN

Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS) in Japan have discovered a compound that uses a chemical reaction to store ammonia, potentially offering a safer and easier way to store this important chemical.
This discovery, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on July 10, makes it possible not only to safely and conveniently store ammonia, but also the important hydrogen is carries. This finding should help lead the way to a decarbonized society with a practical hydrogen economy.
For society to make the switch from carbon-based to hydrogen-based energy, we need a safe way to store and transport hydrogen, which by itself is highly combustible. One way to do this is to store it as part of another molecule and extract it as needed. Ammonia, chemically written as NH3, makes a good hydrogen carrier because three hydrogen atoms are packed into each molecule, with almost 20% of ammonia being hydrogen by weight. . ."

Continue reading for more details > Phys.org