
Inside America’s Death Chambers
What years of witnessing executions taught me about sin, mercy, and the possibility of redemption
Witness: Inside America's death chambers. Plus J. D. Vance, the business of animal cloning, Tracy Anderson's luxury-fitness empire, Paul Gauguin, the Rolling Stones play zydeco, James Joyce, our feudal future, the great teen movies, the world's hardest bluffing game, and more.
What years of witnessing executions taught me about sin, mercy, and the possibility of redemption
How Tracy Anderson built an exercise empire
J. D. Vance could have brought the country’s conflicting strands together. Instead, he took a divisive path to the peak of power.
“Really and truly, a horse can be alive forever. Forever and ever.”
A short story
What the next Dark Ages could look like
Why are some Iraqis so good at figuring out when a person is lying?
What we see when we stare at the night sky
How the legendary rock band discovered the music of Clifton Chenier
He was misunderstood, then adored, then vilified. Who was he really?
What the great teen movies tell us about American adolescence
How Richard Ellmann made James Joyce a hero to generations of readers and scholars
On capital punishment, and The Atlantic’s July 2025 cover story
Readers respond to our May 2025 cover story and more.
A devilish crossword puzzle