‘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.
Donald Trump’s Cruel and Unusual Innovations
Deporting illegal immigrants is lawful. Imprisoning them in El Salvador makes a mockery of the Eighth Amendment.
A White House Briefing Straight From North Korea
How MAGA influencers have reshaped the press corps
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.
The Putinization of America
Trump’s deference to the Russian dictator has become full-blown imitation.
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.
We’ve Been Thinking About Love All Wrong
What illness taught me about true friendship
Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid
It’s not just a phase.
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?
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.
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.
Skin a Rabbit
A short story
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.
American Panopticon
The Trump administration is pooling data on Americans. Experts fear what comes next.
The Dark Ages Are Back
Americans must insist on academic freedom, or risk losing what makes our nation great.
What the Press Got Wrong About Hitler
Journalists accurately reported that the führer was a “Little Man” whom the whole world was laughing at. It didn’t matter.
A Defense Against Gaslighting Sociopaths
If you can recognize their signature move, then forewarned is forearmed.
The End of the ‘Generic’ Grocery-Store Brand
They’re no longer terrible—in fact, they’re often the draw.