Premium summer big reads: How to raise wildly successful daughters

Anne Wojcicki (23andMe founder) Janet Wojcicki (paediatrics professor) and Susan Wojcicki (YouTube CEO) have risen to the top of their fields. Photo / Getty Images

The New Zealand Herald is bringing back some of the best stories of 2019 from our premium international syndicators, including The New York Times, Financial Times, The Times of London and Harvard Business Review.

This afternoon we look at how to raise high-flying children, 50 years of Sesame Street music, the young refugee taking on Elon Musk, DNA solving cold cases and the joy of pasta all'amatriciana.

Secret of success: Esther Wojcicki on how she raised three world-beating children

Esther Wojcicki is the mother of three wildly successful women: Susan, 50, her eldest, was employee No 16 at Google and since 2014 has been the chief executive of YouTube. Her younger sister Anne, 45, founded the in-home genetics testing company 23andMe. Janet, 48, the middle sister, is a professor of paediatrics at the renowned medical school of the University of California, San Francisco.

Esther Wojcicki tells Danny Fortson of The Times how to raise children as impressive as her three high-flyers.

Stan Wojcicki and Esther Wojcicki gave their three girls responsibility to teach them how to fail - and then learn from it. Photo / Getty Images

How Sesame Street started a musical revolution

Since its inception in 1969, Sesame Street has redefined what it means to teach children through TV, with music as its resounding voice.

Big-name stars lined up to make guest appearances that have become the stuff of legend.

The New York Times looks at how pop stars have been singing the Muppets' tunes (and vice versa) for 50 years.

Elmo, a very musical Muppet, has been a big part of the evolution of songs on Sesame Street. Photo / Vincent Tullo, The New York Times

Meet the Bosnian refugee taking on Elon Musk

Nine years ago, on the streets of Zagreb, there was a drag race. One of the participants was driving the new Tesla Roadster. The other car was a 26-year-old BMW, driven by a Bosnian-born former refugee, who only converted it to electricity because he could not afford to put in a new petrol engine.

We know what happened to Elon Musk. What about the man who beat him, Mate Rimac?

Tom Whipple of The Times goes for a (very speed) test drive with the man transforming the automotive industry.

Mate Rimac is redefining the limits of electric cars. Photo / Facebook

Sooner or later your cousin's DNA is going to solve a killing

In the year since the arrest of the man believed to be the notorious Golden State Killer, the world of criminal investigation has been radically transformed.

Using an unconventional technique that relies on DNA submitted to online genealogy sites, investigators have solved dozens of violent crimes, in many cases decades after they hit dead ends.

Heather Murphy of The New York Times looks at how the Golden State Killer case was just the start of things.

Using an unconventional technique that relies on DNA submitted to online genealogy sites, investigators have solved dozens of violent crimes. Photo / New York Times

Amatriciana: Where tomato first met pasta

I first encountered amatriciana in 1976, shortly after I had come to live in Rome. Ever since, I have been preparing the dish at home according to the recipe in Marcella Hazan's The Classic Italian Cook Book.

Stephen S. Hall of The New York Times had to travel all the way to Amatrice to find out he'd doing it wrong for 40 years.

When tomato met pasta: Ingredients for pasta all'amatriciana in the kitchen at Ristorante Roma in Amatrice. Photo / The New York Times