Radio Atlantic
The Atlantic has long been known as an ideas-driven magazine. Now we’re bringing that same ethos to audio. Like the magazine, the show will “road test” the big ideas that both drive the news and shape our culture. Through conversations—and sometimes sharp debates—with the most insightful thinkers and writers on topics of the day, Radio Atlantic will complicate overly simplistic views. It will cut through the noise with clarifying, personal narratives. It will, hopefully, help listeners make up their own mind about certain ideas.
The national conversation right now can be chaotic, reckless, and stuck. Radio Atlantic aims to bring some order to our thinking—and encourage listeners to be purposeful about how they unstick their mind.
Episodes (51)
Why Trump Wants to Control Universities
If the Trump administration’s actions and rhetoric against universities sound vaguely familiar, that may be because they’ve already happened elsewhere. Over the years, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor...
Classified, or Not Classified?
The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, and staff writer Shane Harris published more details from a Signal chat between President Donald Trump’s top advisers that included sensitive details...
The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Our Editor Their War Plans
The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, received a connection request on Signal from a “Michael Waltz,” which is the name of President Donald Trump’s national security adviser. Two days...
The Bird-Flu Tipping Point
It’s been five years since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. But there may be another potential pandemic on the horizon: bird flu. Against the backdrop of growing anti-vaccination sentiment,...
Water Is Not Political
How has the cease-fire changed water access in Gaza? And what does it mean when the people in charge of keeping the water flowing are displaced? Host Hanna Rosin talks with Claudine Ebeid, The...
The Mind Readers
How far would a parent go to understand their child? How much might a parent believe?
A popular new podcast claims that some nonspeaking kids with autism can read people’s minds. But is it real? Or...
What Does a Robot With a Soul Sound Like?
The sound designer Randy Thom was faced with a challenge: What does a robot sound like? And what if that robot learns to love?
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The Five Eyes Have Noticed
We talk with staff writer Anne Applebaum about what she calls the “end of the post–World War II order.” We also talk with staff writer Shane Harris, who covers national security, about how...
Americans Are Stuck. Who's to Blame?
Americans used to move all the time to better their lives. Then they stopped. Why?
Read Yoni Appelbaum’s cover story on The Atlantic here.
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The Strange, Lonely Childhood of Neko Case
In a new memoir, the singer-songwriter Neko Case recounts a childhood of poverty and neglect: a mother who left her and a father who was barely there. But there was also music. And when there was...
Purge Now, Pay Later
Parts of the federal government are being dismantled. But although the decisions from President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are unusual—perhaps even unprecedented—are they constitutional? The Atlantic...
The War for Your Attention
Our attention is finite and valuable. And it’s nearing its breaking point. In a new book, MSNBC host Chris Hayes explains how everything—from politics to media to technology—has come to revolve around...
The Chaos of Blanket Pardons
In a matter of hours after being sworn into office, President Donald Trump delivered on a promise in a way that even high-level Republicans didn’t see coming. Trump granted sweeping pardons for more...
January 6 and the Case for Oblivion
As Donald Trump prepares to take office again, the country is still coming to terms with what happened on January 6, 2021. But perhaps the best way to move forward is to neither forgive nor forget the...
Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Coalition Starts to Fracture
The MAGA alliance that helped elect Donald Trump is starting to show signs of fracturing. It recently came to a head after an important argument broke out over H-1B visas between Silicon Valley and...
Me, My Future, and I
Hanna talks to the creators of an AI project called Future You. She also has a conversation with a future version of herself. But the person she meets is not who she expected.
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The Books We Read in High School (Part 2)
Why should a teenager bother to read a book, when there are so many other demands on their time? We hear from Atlantic staffers about the books they read in high school that have stuck with them....
The Books We Read in High School (Part 1)
Recently, professors at elite colleges told Atlantic writer Rose Horowitch that their students don’t read whole books anymore. They blamed cell phones, standardized tests, and extracurriculars, and...
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
As Donald Trump returns to the White House, his desire to recast January 6 as a day of “love and peace,” as he called it during his campaign, seems as strong as ever. Earlier this week, he told the...
How Fragile Is Our Vaccine Infrastructure?
Anti-vaccine sentiment is, more or less, as old as vaccines. When Cotton Mather promoted inoculations against smallpox in the 1720s, someone threw a firebomb through his window with a message...
Why Are You Still Cooking With That?
We warned you last month to “Throw Out Your Black Plastic Spatula.” In a recent study conducted about consumer products, researchers concluded kitchen utensils had some of the highest levels of flame...
Trump's Vision to Remake the Military
With all the noise around Donald Trump’s nominees, it’s easy to lose sight of his administration’s bigger plan: placing people who are unfailingly loyal to Trump in key positions, so that the real...
Democrats’ Immigration Problem
We hash out the “Democrats are too woke” theory with New York Rep. Ritchie Torres, who tweeted the day after the election: “The far left is a gift to Donald Trump.” Torres, who represents a district...
Are We Living in a Different America?
In the last few months of his campaign, Trump was free and open with his dictatorial impulses, as he talked about punishing “enemies from within.” Now that he’s won, have we crossed the line into a...
Does America Want Chaos?
One thing tomorrow’s election will test is Americans’ appetite for chaos, particularly the kind that Donald Trump has been exhibiting in the last few months of his campaign. After weeks of running a...
Is Journalism Ready for a Second Trump Administration?
On the campaign trail, Donald Trump has mused, a few times, about throwing reporters in jail if they refuse to leak their sources and taking away broadcast licenses of networks he’s deemed...
Trump and the January 6 Memory Hole
The way Donald Trump talks about January 6 has evolved over time. Directly after the insurrection, he condemned the rioters, although he added that they were “very special.” For the next few years,...
Autocracy Is in the Details
Autocrats often dare their followers to believe absurd claims, as a kind of loyalty test, because “humor and fear can be quite close together sometimes,” says Peter Pomerantsev, a Soviet-born British...
It Could All Come Down to North Carolina
North Carolina has voted for a Democratic president only once since the 1970s. But the party’s dream to flip the state never dies—and in fact, could be realized this year. Polls show the presidential...
The Fight to Be the Most “Pro-family”
The American family continuously evolves. People are marrying later, and having fewer children. Gay people get married. People can publicly swear off marriage altogether without being ostracized. But...
The Modern Political Assassin
One prevailing stereotype of a political assassin is someone with strong convictions. Another stereotype conjures up James Bond, a professional with a silencer acting on higher orders.
But Thomas...
A Campaign-Song Nightmare
Rachel had a hit song. Then it became inextricably linked with a failed presidential campaign.
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Trump, Triggered
Kamala Harris expertly manipulated Trump. It won her the debate. Can it win her the White House? Staff writers Elaine Godfrey and Mark Leibovich to explore the potential long term effects of Tuesday's...
The Neck Fans Are Coming
After successive heat waves across the country this summer, people finally found an unexpected source of relief: the neck fan. Consumer-product geniuses made the latest model look like Beats...
Laughing at Trump
Democrats are lately employing a strategy against Donald Trump that he has been using effectively against his opponents for years: mockery. Where did this strategy come from? Will it remain effective?...
Scripts | 3. A Special Drug
The patients had tried everything. Except ketamine.
This is the third and final part of Scripts, a new three-part miniseries from Radio Atlantic about the pills we take for our brains and the...
Scripts | 2. The Mandala Effect
Cooper thought he understood how his psych meds were affecting him. There was a lot he didn’t know.
This is part two of a new three-part miniseries from Radio Atlantic—Scripts—about the pills we...
Scripts | 1. A Hard Pill to Swallow
One medication could help end the opioid crisis. Why are so few people taking it?
This episode is the first in a new three-part miniseries from Radio Atlantic—Scripts—about the pills we take for...
One Israeli Hostage’s Unusual Experience in Gaza
Liat Beinin Atzili was kidnapped on October 7 and spent more than 50 days in a Gazan home, We spoke with her in Washington, where she traveled to talk with President Joe Biden, about grief and about...
The Devil’s Bargain of Sports Betting
After a 2018 Supreme Court decision kicked off a wave of legalization across America, sports gambling has become an integral part of how fans consume sports and how leagues make money. But with...
Biden Steps Aside. How Might Harris Step Up?
Joe Biden has announced he’ll no longer seek reelection. With a little over 100 days left until the vote, he’s endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement.
Staff writer Franklin Foer...
Trump’s Wholesale Renovation of the Republican Party
The Republican Party is gathered in Wisconsin to renominate Donald Trump for president. The convention follows a near-miss assassination attempt on Trump and the announcement of Ohio Senator J.D....
The Long Simmer of Political Violence in America
America is not new to political violence, but the near-assassination of Donald Trump is an attack without comparison in 21st-century politics. How do process it? What happens next? And how true are...
A Crisis for Democrats
After his disastrous debate performance in June, President Biden faced calls from Democratic lawmakers and power brokers to step aside. But with the president firmly committed to staying in, what...
Who Really Benefits From Remote Work?
The prevailing narrative of remote work has often been boiled down to: Workers love it, and bosses hate it. But according to Natalia Emanuel, a labor economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,...
Britain’s Conservatives Are About to Lose Big
Parliamentary elections on July 4th look bleak for Britain’s ruling Conservative Party. The Tories will almost certainly lose power for the first time in 14 years. And lose big. Polls show they could...
The Airport Lounge Arms Race
For years now, the fanciest places in air travel keep getting fancier. Airport lounges have become bigger, nicer, and far more ubiquitous than only a few years ago. They’ve gone from a nice place to...
What Cities Can Teach Us About Life Online
Humanity’s transition to life online is disorienting, but perhaps not without comparison. According to the researcher danah boyd, people faced similar challenges in the transition to city life,...
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Homelessness?
Later this summer, the Supreme Court will rule on City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, one of the most important cases on homelessness to come up in a long time. The court will rule on whether someone can...
Is Sasha Velour in Danger?
Sasha Velour won RuPaul's Drag Race with her spectacular rose-petal lip sync. She wrote and illustrated The Big Reveal: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag, drew a New Yorker cover, and sells out almost...
Russia’s Psychological Warfare Against Ukraine
After months of struggle with little movement, the war in Ukraine may be nearing a crucial point. With American aid stalled for months, the fight has not been going well for Ukraine. Weapons and...
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Copyright © 2023 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All Rights Reserved.
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