The Era of Flush State Budgets Is Over
What comes next?
The Perfect Escapist Sci-Fi Series
Entertainment musts from Emma Sarappo
The Novelist Who Truly Understood the South
A new collection of Charles Portis’s work makes the case for his place in the American canon.
How Parking Ruined Everything
America has paid a steep price for devoting too much space to storing cars.
Ron DeSantis’s Joyless Ride
The ultimate performative politician doesn’t seem to enjoy the in-person performance of politics.
Wild, Wondrous Food Findings
Atlantic writers have challenged conventional food wisdom time and time again.
Dark Extinctions Are Popping Up Everywhere
Scientists keep discovering species in museum collections long after they’ve died out. What else have we missed?
Movies Are Best Before Noon
In praise of starting the day with enjoyable things
The Invention of Objectivity
The view from nowhere came from somewhere.
A New Cold War Could Be Much Worse Than the One We Remember
China is a more formidable adversary than the Soviet Union ever was, and the world is less divisible.
What People Misunderstand About NIMBYs
Asking a neighborhood or municipality to bear the responsibility for a housing crisis is asking for failure.
A Spidey Sense We Haven’t Seen Before
In Across the Spider-Verse, even more thrilling than the dazzling visuals is the hero’s bold psychological journey.
AI Doomerism Is a Decoy
Big Tech’s warnings about an AI apocalypse are distracting us from years of actual harms their products have caused.
Will We Remember Succession or Ted Lasso More?
What to make of two strikingly different series finales—and worldviews
A Nobel Laureate Walks Into a Supermarket
Annie Ernaux on the malaise of the grocery store
The Labor-Shortage Myth
Things are finally looking up for the American worker. Why does the government see that as a crisis?
A Tragically American Approach to the Child-Care Crisis
The U.S. is returning to a tired old playbook: If at first you fail to make something a universal right, try making it an employee benefit.
Inside the Meltdown at CNN
CEO Chris Licht felt he was on a mission to restore the network’s reputation for serious journalism. How did it all go wrong?
America Is Headed Toward Collapse
History suggests how to stave it off.
The Key to America’s Victory in the Second World War
Ernie Pyle understood that the war would be won, or lost, in the realm of steel, dirt, and blood.