Radio Atlantic

How would life be different if we centered it on our friends? In her new book, The Other Significant Others, Rhaina Cohen visits the extremes of friendship, where pairs describe each other as “soulmates” and make major life decisions in tandem with a friend. We talk to Cohen about the lost history of friendship and why she cringes when couples at the altar describe each other as their “best friend...

In this week’s episode of Radio Atlantic, Adrienne LaFrance, the executive editor of The Atlantic, names and explains the political ideology of the unelected leaders of Silicon Valley. They are “leading an antidemocratic, illiberal movement” she calls: techno-authoritarianism.  Want to share unlimited access to The Atlantic with your loved ones? Give a gift today at theatlantic.com/podgift. For a...

After the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history, in 2018, a video circulated showing the school resource officer taking cover behind the wall. He became known as the “Coward of Broward,” and was tried for child neglect. We talk to police reporter Jamie Thompson about what became of him. And what we are leaving out when we reduce school shootings to stories of courage or cowardice.  Get mo...

This episode originally aired August 2023. Many people, especially those dealing with long COVID, suffer from fatigue. But not common, everyday tiredness—it’s more like a total body crash that can be triggered by the smallest exertion, something as simple as taking a shower. It’s serious, and yet many doctors have a hard time taking it seriously. Ed Yong, a former staff writer at The Atlantic whos...

Editor Saahil Desai walks us through the surprising history of the barcode, from its origins in the grocery business to its role in remaking our consumer habits and appetites. The bar code allowed grocers to stock infinite varieties of everything, which led us to expect infinite varieties and made us the shoppers we are today. Both the grocery shelves, and our inner selves, would be unrecognizable...

Donald Trump has an “overwhelming lead” in the Iowa caucus but he is not the sure winner. There is still a narrow window to change the course of the election, although that window is only open for about a month more. I talk to political reporters Elaine Godfrey—who is headed to Iowa—and Mark Leibovich about the genuine possibility of something surprising happening in Iowa and in the Republican pri...

The illusion persists, despite all evidence. Americans are pessimistic about the economic future. They feel worse off than their parent’s generation. Poll after poll shows that at best, only twenty percent of Americans say the economy is doing better than it was a year ago.  More than twenty percent of Americans are doing better than they were a year ago, by many measures. Unemployment is lower, w...

For the holiday, Radio Atlantic is sharing the first episode of the Atlantic podcast How to Keep Time. Co-hosts Becca Rashid and the Atlantic contributing writer Ian Bogost examine our relationship with time and what we can do to reclaim it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re in the coldest season. We’re in the shopping season. We’re in the season of hygge. All the cues point to buying yourself a new cozy sweater. Don’t do it, until you hear what Atlantic staff writer Amanda Mull has to say about the cratering quality of knitwear. For years I’ve wondered why my sweaters pilled so quickly, or why they suffocated me, or smelled like tires. And then I read Mull’s re...

How easily could a reelected President Trump bend the military to his will? We talk to Tom Nichols, a staff writer at The Atlantic who taught military officers for 25 years, about this dangerous step in establishing a dictatorship. He explains how close Trump came to achieving these goals in his last term and how surprisingly few effective checks are in place. And Nichols talks about his personal...

How did evangelical Christians shift from being reluctant supporters of Trump to among his most passionate defenders? How did some evangelicals, historically suspicious of politicians, develop a “fanatical cult-like attachment” to Donald Trump? And what happened to the evangelical movement,  as some bought into Trump’s vision of America and others recoiled? A few weeks before the Iowa caucuses we...

The story of a real-life miracle.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thanksgiving is often a time of disagreements big and small. In this episode we talk to Amanda Ripley (author of High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out) and Utah Governor Spencer Cox. They explain that conflict shouldn’t be avoided—and that there’s a way to fight with partners and political opponents that’s actually good for us. Want to share unlimited access to The Atlantic with you...

Hollywood is getting back on its feet now that the Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America strikes are over. But they've revealed that, once again, Hollywood is going through an identity crisis. The streaming revolution is looking untenable. Many studios are losing money and viewers are overwhelmed. What were the hard truths revealed by the strike? And what will the next year of entertain...

Tech evangelist. Libertarian dreamer. Republican megadonor. Peter Thiel is many things. As Atlantic staff writer Barton Gellman puts it in his new profile of Thiel, he is “the purest distillation of Silicon Valley’s reigning ethos.” Across several interviews, Gellman learned what’s driven Thiel, even through what he sees as his many disappointments. There are no floating cities. Humans can’t live...

Marwan Bardawil’s job is to provide water in Gaza. This is difficult in normal times, nearly impossible now, and yet critical. Without enough clean water, people get dehydrated, hygiene deteriorates, sewage backs up, and deadly diseases can spike. In a series of phone calls over a critical week, we track how this water engineer tries to keep his community, and his family from tipping further into...

After Jordan Peele directed the movie Get Out in 2017, he unlocked the genre of Black horror, which mixed classic horror with the modern Black experience. In a conversation with Peele and best selling sci-fi writer N.K. Jemisin, we talk about the purpose of horror and what happens when Black writers and directors get to create the monster. Jemisin wrote the first story in Peele's new collection Ou...

Nearly two weeks after the Hamas attack on Israel, Atlantic staff writer Graeme Wood is on the ground in Jerusalem. We talk to Graeme about what he’s hearing from people— namely a combination of anger, fear, mourning, and a desire for revenge. And we talk to him about what happens when a nation makes wartime decisions in this state of mind, and where the conflict will go from here.  Learn more abo...

Israeli journalist Amir Tibon and his family live along the Israel-Gaza border. He told Radio Atlantic the dramatic story of how his family hid out from Hamas terrorists. And how they were unexpectedly rescued. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biden administration has had some monumental successes: a complicated vaccine rollout, a significant infrastructure investment, and the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years. But polls show that none of those wins are penetrating the public consciousness. Radio Atlantic host Hanna Rosin and staff writers Elaina Plott Calabro and Franklin Foer explore why we, the voters, just can’t seem to hear...

Ozempic and other drugs like it are being heralded as game changers for weight loss. Radio Atlantic host Hanna Rosin talks to Atlantic staff writer Olga Khazan about what it means that this medical intervention has arrived at a time when our society seems to be easing away from fat shaming and moving toward celebrating all body types.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 When Jenisha Watts, a senior editor at The Atlantic, went home to Kentucky to interview her family, she was “looking to get rid of the shame.” She had a son now, and she wanted to be able to tell him the truth about her upbringing—both the good and the bad. But she was not quite prepared for what Jenisha the journalist would dig up about Jenisha from Kentucky. This episode of Radio Atlantic was p...

Making small talk can be hard—especially when you’re not sure whether you’re doing it well. But conversations are a central part of relationship-building. Radio Atlantic is pleased to share this episode of How to Talk to People. The social scientist Ty Tashiro and the hairstylists Erin Derosa and Mimi Craft help describe what it means to integrate awkwardness into our pursuit of relationships. Thi...

All of a sudden it seems like everyone knows someone who has tested positive for COVID. Are we back in a wave? How bad could it get? How effective will the new vaccine be? What do we actually know about COVID now that we didn’t before, and will it protect us? We talk to Atlantic science writers Katie Wu and Sarah Zhang about all the questions you are trying to avoid about Covid this summer and fal...

This week Texas will join the 20 or so other states that have passed laws restricting access to medical therapies and procedures for transgender children. But there are thousands of young people in Texas who identify as transgender. We talk to one teenager who describes herself as just a “normal semi-popular girl,” about her and her family’s decision to leave Texas as a result of the government’s...