“I work on morality and public life, which is kind of douchey,” says journalist Elizabeth Bruenig, who in June moved from the New York Times Opinion pages to a staff gig at the Atlantic. A Texan Christian socialist, Bruenig is known for many things: her reporting, obviously, as well as her podcast (The Bruenigs, which she co-hosts with her husband, Matt), her robust Twitter presence, and, lately, her constant baking projects; for the past year, she has been on a (well-documented) tear of macarons. “You can do all kinds of ridiculous crap with them!” she raves, explaining the meticulous multi-step process and all the things that can go wrong.