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.
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For most of his second term, Donald Trump has successfully conveyed the message that defiance is not an option. Republicans who ignored that message generally wound up out of office, so they largely toed the line. Lately, though, that seems to be changing. Republicans recently pushed back against the president’s proposed “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” and the administration ultimately scrapped it. Trump asked for nearly $1 billion in security funding for his ballroom, and Senate Republicans forced h...
Not long after U.S. commandos swiftly extracted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and flew him to the United States, Donald Trump set his sights on the next target: Cuba. Some administration officials seem interested in Cuba’s nickel and cobalt deposits. Secretary of State Marco Rubio shares the dream of many Cuban exiles for regime change on the island. Although, from the Cuban perspective, the prospect of the U.S. bringing regime change is fraught, coming after centuries of conflict and colo...
Universities tried to be all things to all people. That model may not be working anymore. Adam Harris is joined by Ian Bogost, Atlantic contributing writer and a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, to discuss the state of higher education. On campuses across the country, students are graduating into a job market with questions on their mind. What kind of career is stable in 2026? Will AI make it even harder to get an entry-level job? Was my education worth all the money it cost? For...
There is an ongoing battle for House seats. And it’s playing out not so much in elections but in congressional maps. The Atlantic staff writers Russell Berman, who’s been covering the redistricting wars for the past several months, and Vann R. Newkirk II, who’s long followed the Voting Rights Act (and now its demise), explain how this new era of tit-for-tat gerrymandering is different than ever before. --- Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited acc...
The author Caro Claire Burke discusses her debut novel, Yesteryear , about a tradwife influencer suddenly transported back to 1855 and faced with the harsh realities of actual pioneer life. The book is a No. 1 New York Times best seller, and its film rights have already been sold and Anne Hathaway is attached to star. Seen one way, the tradwife is just a social-media trend, sometimes soothing to watch, sometimes infuriating. But the fantasy that fuels the phenomenon—that women should be subservi...
Alexander the Great. Julius Caesar. Napoleon Bonaparte. Donald Trump The Atlantic staff writers Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer reported this week on the president privately comparing himself to the three norm-defying, world-historical figures highlighted in the work of the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. The president has also sought to make his mark across seemingly every manner of federal real estate, including national monuments and even currency and passports . If Trump’...
Last week, The Atlantic published a story about how FBI Director Kash Patel’s colleagues are alarmed by what they describe as erratic behavior and excessive drinking. Sources told staff writer Sarah Fitzpatrick that, on multiple occasions, members of his security detail had trouble waking Patel because he was seemingly intoxicated. Patel called the story a “lie” and earlier this week sued The Atlantic for defamation. Fitzpatrick joins Radio Atlantic to talk about her reporting inside the FBI, an...
Whatever happens next in Hungary, Viktor Orbán’s stunning downfall contains obvious warnings for MAGA and Donald Trump: Propaganda has its limits. Concerns about affordability are real. True democracy can reassert itself in a single election. Reality can bend only so far. The Hungarian journalist Veronika Munk of the news outlet Denník N shares her view from the streets of Budapest. And the Atlantic staff writer Anne Applebaum, who covers autocracy, democracy, and Europe, explains why the electi...
Last weekend, on Easter Sunday, President Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social: “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH!” On Tuesday, he posted again: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” Hours later—after ongoing talks, and condemnation by world leaders and American lawmakers from both parties—the United States agreed to a two-week cease-fire with Iran. The Atlantic ’s Adam Harris talks to the staff writers Tom ...
This episode explores how the influential manosphere, a coalition of non-ideological podcast bros, has shifted away from supporting Donald Trump due to his recent actions, including a war with Iran, increased spending, and broken promises like the Epstein files' release. This growing disillusionment, also fueled by concerns over indiscriminate deportations and federal agent killings, is predicted to lead to low voter turnout for Republicans in the midterms and an opening for new "America First" candidates. The episode also touches on the rise of antisemitic narratives among some who blame Israel for the war, highlighting a sinister dynamic within the betrayed manosphere.
ICE at airports. TSA lines out the door. And a new boss at DHS amid its funding shutdown. After the deaths on the streets of Minneapolis, after the theatrics of Greg Bovino, after the drama of Kristi Noem, ICE may be entering a new era. Markwayne Mullin was confirmed as the new DHS head, having struck a softer tone than his predecessor during hearings. He told senators that he would stop the practice of agents entering people’s houses without judicial warrants. But what will this new era look li...
Iran is blocking oil tankers from passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Consumers around the world are already seeing higher gas prices as a result, but the global oil supply affects so much more than just prices at the pump. Soon, shoppers could see higher prices on food, clothes, e-commerce, and everything in between. The Atlantic staff writer Rogé Karma explains that a healthy economy could probably weather an oil shock like this. A weaker economy, however, such as the one the United States h...
Gambling is ever-present in America these days. After the Supreme Court opened the floodgates to legalized sports gambling, Americans went from legally betting $4.9 billion on sports in 2017 to at least $160 billion last year. When the Atlantic staff writer McKay Coppins wanted to do a story about sports gambling, he and his editor thought, Why not try it himself ? He had never really gambled before. What could go wrong? The magazine staked him $10,000 (partly a religious workaround) and sent hi...
The president is trusting his gut, not Congress. The Atlantic staff writer Missy Ryan covers national security and has spent years reporting on American wars in the Middle East. She helps sift through the changing explanations for why the administration says it took America to war with Iran. And Senator Jeanne Shaheen, ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, shares how she thinks Democrats can responsibly act as a check on Donald Trump now that the war has started. Get more from your ...
President Trump claimed victory after American strikes killed Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran who had terrorized his own citizens and people all over the world for decades. But what the fall of Khamenei means for the people of Iran going forward is not yet clear. We talk to Arash Azizi, an Iranian writer and contributor to The Atlantic , about how Iranians view the strike and what the realistic options are for future leadership. And we talk to the staff writer Anne Applebaum about the b...
This week, the Atlantic staff writer Elaine Godfrey was covering a campaign rally in Texas when she was ushered out. Elaine has been covering national politics for years, and has been turned away before—but that usually happens only at Trump rallies.This time, she was turned away by the staff of a Democrat running in the Texas Senate primary. The Atlantic ’s Adam Harris talks with Godfrey about her experience and what to know about the Texas primaries. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices...
President Trump has given plenty of signals recently that he is prepared to take military action against Iran. The exact reasoning, however, is less obvious. The Atlantic staff writers Nancy Youssef and Tom Nichols explain what’s next for the United States and Iran, and how Pentagon officials might be planning for another conflict in the Middle East. --- Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed a...
The Trump administration is trying to sanitize U.S. history by removing mentions of slavery on historic monuments, scrubbing words such as “oppression” from government websites, and obscuring the legacy of Black American heroes. Last summer, the president personally criticized the Smithsonian for focusing too much on “how bad slavery was.” The Atlantic ’s Clint Smith and Adam Harris argue that if the federal government won’t reckon with the nation’s past, it might be time for a different approac...
Iranian director Jafar Panahi discusses his Oscar-nominated film "It Was Just an Accident," a veiled critique of the Iranian regime. He reflects on the recent violent crackdowns on protests in Iran, the internet blackout, and the arrest of his co-writer, Mehdi Mahmoodian. Panahi also shares his observations on global repression, including in the US, and explains his commitment to returning to Iran and continuing his work, driven by a vision of a "greater future." His film explores the cycle of violence and the humanity within a repressive system.
The Melania movie is pitched as a documentary following the first lady of the United States in the lead-up to her husband’s second inauguration. But it’s missing all the hallmarks of a journalistic, biographical film. What you get instead is a series of aphorisms that clang loudly against the reality being shaped by Donald Trump. And of course, shot after shot of $1,000 shoes, gold decorations, and private planes. The Atlantic staff writer Sophie Gilbert describes the film as a “two-hour perfume...
In a dismal morning Zoom call on Wednesday, The Washington Post ’s executive editor, Matt Murray, announced that they were laying off roughly a third of its already diminished staff. We talk to Joshua Benton, the founder of and a senior writer at the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University, about how the Post reached this point, the loss to journalism, and how Jeff Bezos is uniquely responsible. - - - Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited acce...
The Minnesota governor warns of a national unraveling and shares the view from his state. “ The way you win this is through nonviolence, that you cannot do violence,” Governor Tim Walz told the Atlantic staff writer Isaac Stanley-Becker in Minneapolis on Wednesday . “And I know my constituents are mad at me for saying that. They’re shooting us. They’re killing us. They’re beating us. They’re taking our children. But you see what’s happening now. For all that power and all that cruelty, they are ...
A second American was shot and killed by federal agents. The Atlantic staff writer Adam Serwer joins from Minneapolis to describe what he’s seen there in recent days, describing it as a form of activism America’s not seen since the 1960s—perhaps even earlier. Serwer spent last week in Minneapolis talking to protesters. “They know that ICE has the guns. They know that if ICE kills them, this federal government will call them a terrorist and not even bother to investigate. And they're still out th...
Last year, there was a mass exodus of federal workers: Some were pushed out, while others left on their own. All in all, more than 300,000 Americans left government jobs. The Atlantic staff writer Franklin Foer spent months talking to dozens of them, finding out who they were, what they did, and ultimately what, as a country, we may have lost. Read Foer’s full story: “The Purged.” --- Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winnin...
Tensions are high in Minneapolis this week. The Trump administration is sending more federal agents. Protesters are calling for justice for the killing of an unarmed citizen. But what could actually happen legally? Especially when the Department of Justice seems more interested in trying to open a criminal investigation into the victim’s wife than the ICE officer who pulled the trigger? We talk to the legal researcher Bryna Godar about the history of prosecutions against federal agents and why t...
President Donald Trump likely won’t listen to this podcast, but Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona has a warning for him: Any attempt to take Greenland using military force will probably go down as the biggest mistake made by a president in all of U.S. history. In this conversation with Kelly, we discuss the impact of the censure letter against him sent by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the legality of U.S. military strikes in the Caribbean, the future of the Democratic Party, and his family’s respo...
After the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife were captured by U.S. forces over the weekend, President Donald Trump announced that America would now “run” Venezuela. Staff writers Vivian Salama and Michael Scherer break down what might happen next —and what Trump told The Atlantic the day after the capture. --- Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking ne...
In July, we published a series of stories about San Francisco’s attempt to address a crisis unfolding on the city’s streets. We followed Evan, who had been homeless for years, as he sought an escape from the addiction that was threatening his life. Four months later, we check in on how he’s doing. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explor...
It was a great year for Warner Bros. Discovery: Two of its movies ( One Battle After Another and Sinners ) are front-runners for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and it had a string of critical hits and box-office successes with Superman , Weapons , and A Minecraft Movie . But despite those wins, the media conglomerate—which also owns HBO and CNN—found itself up for auction with two aggressive bidders: Paramount and Netflix. The Atlantic movie critic David Sims explains why this deal could be...
More than a decade after its peak, the Islamic State has changed, but it isn’t defeated. This past weekend, the jihadist group reemerged in connection with two disparate acts of violence thousands of miles apart. Two U.S. soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed in Syria by a man the Pentagon says is affiliated with ISIS. A day later, at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, two men opened fire at a Hanukkah celebration, killing 15 and wounding dozens. The men had homemade ISIS flags in their...
