The Atlantic Out Loud

Tackling the Trump era, she brings us the American-family novel as Sunday talk show—all sound  bite, no depth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two men chronicle their rise into the meritocratic elite, exposing pernicious myths and brutal realities along the way. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rebecca Traister invokes fury to unify women in a battle against men, but being mad can prove divisive, too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Polarization. Conspiracy theories. Attacks on the free press. An obsession with loyalty. Recent events in the United States follow a pattern Europeans know all too well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Americans once learned self-governance by practicing it constantly—in lodge halls, neighborhood associations, and labor unions. As participation in these institutions has dwindled, so has public faith in democracy. To restore it, we must return democratic practices to everyday life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Constitution once united a diverse country under a banner of ideas. But partisanship has turned Americans against one another—and against the principles enshrined in our founding document. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln warned that America could not remain “half slave and half free.” Today, the country Remains divided by racism—and the threat is as existential as it was before the civil war. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Founders designed a government that would be insulated from the heat of popular sentiment, but they didn’t anticipate the unbridled passions of the digital age. Here’s how the constitutional order can survive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The U.S. Constitution is an American document. And American law should look exclusively to American precedents. right? Not so, a Supreme Court justice says. That approach sounds good in theory, but the laws of other countries have a bearing on our own—and the highest court in the land needs to take heed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I grew up in a gun-loving town in Alabama. My grandfather’s store sells firearms. But only after I was shot did I begin to understand America’s complicated relationship with guns. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Will American democracy survive Trump? And will the midterms matter? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Texas evangelical built an empire by teaching scripture to women—and being deferential to men. Now she’s risking it all to speak out against sexism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some animals are going nocturnal to avoid their main enemy— us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the 50th anniversary of his Olympic moment, the gold medalist Tommie Smith considers his legacy, and the resurgence of athlete activism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New places of respite in one of the world’s most overworked, underslept cities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Office workers murder each other more than you might think. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The logic of friendly #brands Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rick and Morty is a dialectic of masculinity unmoored. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

William T. Vollmann’s latest opus is one of the most honest—and fatalistic—books about global warming yet written. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The birds at the Tower of London lend themselves to symbolic reading, but their reality is more fascinating. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If philosophy can serve as therapy, it’s not by offering solace but by jolting the soul. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nicolai Houm’s third novel unspools the mystery of a writer who abandons fiction and winds up alone on the top of a mountain in Norway. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A long-running inferiority complex, vast statutory power, a chilling new directive from the top—inside America’s unfolding immigration tragedy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Princeton geologist has endured decades of ridicule for arguing that the fifth extinction was caused not by an asteroid but by a series of colossal volcanic eruptions. But she’s reopened that debate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Science suggests we’re hardwired to delude ourselves. Can we do anything about it? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices