First Run News

The shift from “Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County” to “The Hills” was the most portentous of the reality-show era. What began in 2004 as a sun-kissed, sometimes-bumbling lark finished in 2010 as a neo-romantic, industrial-smooth juggernaut. Teenagers who predated the constant self-broadcasting of the social-media era rapidly became television stars, doing their best to play the roles of teenagers who did not know they were being filmed. The genre had gone sentient.

On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Chris McCarthy, the newish president of Viacom’s Manhattan headquarters. “When you came into Times Square, you would say, ‘Let’s go to MTV,’” he said, recalling a better time when MTV was, well, relevant. Mr.

KABUL, Afghanistan — These are some of the terms Afghan men use to refer to their wives in public instead of their names, the sharing of which they see as a grave dishonor worthy of violence: Mother of Children, My Household, My Weak One or sometimes, in far corners, My Goat or My Chicken. Women also may be called Milk-sharer or Black-headed. The go-to word for Afghans to call a woman in public, no matter her status, is Aunt. But a social media campaign to change this custom has been percolating in recent weeks, initiated by young women.

SAN FRANCISCO — Some members of Uber’s eight-person board were excited about the idea of Meg Whitman becoming the ride-hailing company’s next chief executive. Ms.

SAN ANTONIO — In one truck, the migrants crouched in the dark in a three-foot crevice between the trailer’s ceiling and the top of medical-supply boxes.

We conventionally think of college as a place where you can discover new ideas, indulge curiosities and learn for the sake of learning. As tuition skyrockets and becomes less accessible for everyone, however, students have been compelled to think of college from a business perspective instead.

Welcome to the Smarter Living newsletter. Editor Tim Herrera emails readers once a week with tips and advice for living a better, more fulfilling life. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Monday morning. I barely graduated from high school. Whenever I tell someone my life’s “elevator pitch” — you know, your personal narrative in five minutes or less — I always like to talk about how I would regularly ditch my high school precalculus class only to play tennis with the teacher of that class after school.