The Most Infamous Narcissist in Literary History Gets a Smartphone
A new stage production of The Picture of Dorian Gray conveys the cost of posturing online.
How Scientists Can Be Good Citizens
We have a responsibility to ensure that our discoveries are used in the public interest. That isn’t always easy.
How to Stay in Touch With Your Friends
The Atlantic’s writers and editors share what they do when life gets in the way.
A Defense Against Gaslighting Sociopaths
If you can recognize their signature move, then forewarned is forearmed.
Is Anthony Weiner Ready to Go Another Round?
The ex-congressman whose name became a punch line is running for New York’s city council. In some ways, he hasn’t changed a bit.
The Writer Who Understood Aloneness
Mavis Gallant’s short stories are about people, especially women, who prefer to live on the social margins. I cherish one of them most of all.
We’ve Been Thinking About Love All Wrong
What illness taught me about true friendship
Turtleboy Will Not Be Stopped
A profane blogger believes an innocent woman is being framed for murder. He’ll do anything to prove he’s right—and terrorize anyone who says he’s wrong.
Russia Is in Demographic Free Fall. Putin Isn’t Helping.
The Russian president is enacting one of the world’s most extreme natalism programs—and one of the weirdest.
A Witch Hunt at the State Department
Trump’s commissars are looking for ideological enemies.
I Should Have Seen This Coming
When I joined the conservative movement in the 1980s, there were two types of people: those who cared earnestly about ideas, and those who wanted only to shock the left. The reactionary fringe has won.
A White House Briefing Straight From North Korea
How MAGA influencers have reshaped the press corps
A Journey Into the Animal Mind
What science can tell us about how other creatures experience the world
An ‘Impossible’ Disease Outbreak in the Alps
In one tiny town, more than a dozen people were diagnosed with the rare neurodegenerative disease ALS. Why?
Universities Deserve Special Standing
A good life and a good society require an ongoing search for understanding and knowledge.
How the Ivy League Broke America
The meritocracy isn’t working. We need something new.
The Key to Critical Self-Awareness
The ancient-Greek commandment Know thyself turns out to be a great modern way to become happier, more empathetic, and more successful.
Why Dad’s Side of the Family Tends to Miss Out
Many people have stronger bonds with their maternal relatives. Why?
Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber
A series of purposely brutalizing psychological experiments may have confirmed Theodore Kaczynski’s still-forming belief in the evil of science while he was in college.
Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid
It’s not just a phase.