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Parenthood Cannot Be Optimized

Amanda Hess’s new book examines a surplus of experts and gadgets that promise to perfect the experience of raising children.

The SNL Sketch That Captured Millennial Anxiety

The guest host Quinta Brunson was the perfect fit to introduce “Forever 31.”

We’re Back to the Actually Internet

Fact-checking is out, “Community Notes” are in.

Read The Atlantic’s Interview With Donald Trump

A conversation with the president about executive power, Signalgate, and 24-karat gold

The U.S. Threat Looming Over Canada

The consequences if Trump followed through on his belligerent rhetoric about a “51st state” would be catastrophic.

The Pro-Family Policy This Nation Actually Needs

If the Trump administration wants more babies, it needs to embrace a different kind of parent.

The Destruction of the Department of Justice

When people at the department embrace Trump’s scorn for the law, the law, as a practical limitation on government action, ceases to exist.

Something Alarming Is Happening to the Job Market

A new sign that AI is competing with college grads

How to Define Old Age

Why would the World Health Organization want to call “old age” a disease?

The Comic Who’s His Own Worst Enemy

The Rehearsal takes the prankster’s quest for self-betterment to new extremes.

Why Are Young People Everywhere So Unhappy?

Here’s the answer to that—and what we can do about it.

‘The Worst Internet-Research Ethics Violation I Have Ever Seen’

The most persuasive “people” on a popular subreddit turned out to be a front for a secret AI experiment.

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 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.

What Parents of Boys Should Know

Daughters tend to receive higher levels of affection and patience at home than sons. But the sons might need it more.

We’ve Been Thinking About Love All Wrong

What illness taught me about true friendship

The Plight of the Eldest Daughter

Women are expected to be nurturers. Firstborns are expected to be exemplars. Being both is exhausting.

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.

A Trip Into Alaska’s Copper River Valley in 1902

At the end of the 19th century, an estimated 100,000 people joined the Klondike Gold Rush, seeking their fortunes in the interior of Alaska and Canada’s Yukon territory. Many gold seekers who chose the arduous path inland from Alaska’s port of Valdez also discovered rich copper deposits along the way. The U.S. Army soon started work on the Valdez Trail, which would become the main route between the mining fields and Valdez. Several competing businesses rushed to build a railroad along the route. In 1902, one of those groups sent a team of photographers, the Miles Brothers, to document the town, the growing trail, the landscape, its newly arrived residents, and Alaska Natives. Prints of these photographs were collected into an album I was able to digitize recently at the U.S. National Archives, giving us a remarkable glimpse into daily life along a rough trail into the Alaskan interior, nearly 125 years ago.

The Dark Ages Are Back

Americans must insist on academic freedom, or risk losing what makes our nation great.