Shows / Radio Atlantic
Radio Atlantic
The Atlantic has long been known as an ideas-driven magazine. Now we’re bringing that same ethos to audio. Like the magazine, the show will “road test” the big ideas that both drive the news and shape our culture. Through conversations—and sometimes sharp debates—with the most insightful thinkers and writers on topics of the day, Radio Atlantic will complicate overly simplistic views. It will cut through the noise with clarifying, personal narratives. It will, hopefully, help listeners make up…
Episodes
Radio AtlanticHow to Lose Texas
The Rio Grande Valley in Texas was a Democratic stronghold for decades before it went for Donald Trump in 2024. Now polls show it swinging to Democrats again…
Radio AtlanticHow the Campaign War Chests Are Being Spent
Gas prices, an unpopular Iran war, and a bizarre Alaska lawsuit about the two Dan Sullivans on the ballot collide as the midterm elections enter their final…
Radio AtlanticMaria Bamford Is Tough as Nails
Hanna Rosin interviews the comedian Maria Bamford, the subject of the new documentary “Paralyzed by Hope,” directed by Judd Apatow and Neil Berkeley. Bamford…
Radio AtlanticWhy Trump Is Making Deals With Putin
President Trump is striking deals again—this time with the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. On Friday, he exempted Russia from a sanctions bill that Congress…
Radio AtlanticHave We Reached Peak Testosterone?
Politics has seemed obsessed recently with performing masculinity. If there’s one factor that animated Donald Trump’s reelection and continues to animate the…
Radio AtlanticMusk, Bezos, and the New Space Race
Who really controls America’s next era in space: NASA or two billionaire rivals? It might be some combination of the three. On this episode of Radio Atlantic…
Radio AtlanticHow Far Is Kash Patel Willing to Go for Trump?
The Atlantic staff writer Sarah Fitzpatrick discusses her recent story, “Is There Anything Kash Patel Won’t Do for Trump Before the Midterms?” She explains…
Radio AtlanticThe 2026 Midterms Must-Watch List
During this nail-biting midterm season, tight Congressional races are popping up all over the map. Most immediate, what happens in November could shift the…
Radio AtlanticMin Jin Lee’s Underdog Morality
The world has waited almost a decade for a new novel by Min Jin Lee. In 2017, she published the best-selling historical epic “Pachinko,” which became a…
Radio AtlanticRepublicans Are Running From Trump. Will It Work?
As some Republicans back away from President Trump over Iran, diesel prices, and affordability, something unusual is happening: Trump is not getting mad at…
Radio AtlanticEgypt Warned Israel Before October 7
Less than two weeks before the October 7 attack, Egypt’s top spy flew to Israel with a warning about Gaza. In this special episode of Radio Atlantic, host Adam…
Radio AtlanticWhat the 'Godfather of AI' Thinks Humanity Should Do
Since he left Google in 2023, Geoffrey Hinton, a Nobel laureate commonly known as the “Godfather of AI,” pops up in the press now and again to issue dire…
Radio AtlanticTrump Battles Against an Economy of His Making
Chinese President Xi Jinping is coming to Washington this week amid a rapidly shifting global order. Entrenched wars, raging oil markets, and AI regulation…
Radio AtlanticThe Dark Side of Meditation
A psychologist wanted to conduct a study showing the benefits of meditation. But the results—and some of her own unsettling experiences—turned everything she…
Radio Atlantic‘The Canadians Have Had Enough of This Nonsense’
President Trump insisted last week that Canada is “dying to make a deal” on tariffs with the United States. But dealmaking hasn’t been working out well for him…
Radio AtlanticSarah Longwell's Playbook for Defeating MAGA
Despite his message at the first-ever Republican midterm convention this week, President Trump’s brand is weak. His approval rating is hanging at about 35…
Radio AtlanticHow the Government Wastes Our Time
Long DMV lines, endless tax forms, and paperwork-heavy safety-net programs aren’t just annoyances—they’re “time taxes,” the administrative burdens that waste…
Radio AtlanticCreating the Perfect Female Monster
The breakout crime drama “Furious,” which had its series finale this week, centers around a female serial killer who is exacting revenge on the men who abused…
Radio AtlanticTrump’s Economy Goes to the Polls
Midterm elections are almost always referendums on the policies of the party in power; President Trump is hoping that Republicans steer into the skid. Last…
Radio AtlanticBill Gates on the Dangers of AI
Bill Gates has generally been an AI optimist. Three years ago, he wrote that AI had downsides, but the risks were “manageable.” This week, Gates wrote a new…
Radio AtlanticWhere Do America’s Colleges Go From Here?
This back-to-school season, higher education finds itself at a crossroads. Amid rising costs, pressures from the Trump administration over admissions and…
Radio AtlanticSecrets of a Jeopardy Champion
What does it take to win Jeopardy? Drew Goins—an Atlantic staff writer, a Jeopardy champion, and the creator of The Atlantic’s new trivia game…
Radio AtlanticThe Trump Administration Wanted Her Expertise, Just Not Her
In 2013, Julia Curlee became the first CIA officer to transition openly and keep serving the agency.She felt more effective at her job living as the person she…
Radio AtlanticLonging for a Time Before Smartphones
Gen Z has romanticized the technology of the ’90s—or the era’s lack of it. Young long for a time when people were looking at each other instead of their…
Radio AtlanticNever Trump, Still a Republican
Radio Atlantic host Adam Harris speaks with former Republican U.S. Senator and former U.S. Ambassador Jeff Flake about his recent endorsement of Democratic…
Radio AtlanticThe Death of Romance
We’ve entered the era of the great romance slump. Fewer people are moving in together and getting married, and a shrinking number of young adults say they have…
Radio AtlanticWhat ‘America First’ Means for Global Health
Ebola is ravaging the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in what may soon become the worst outbreak of the disease ever recorded. This…
Radio AtlanticThe Town That Wants a Data Center Next Door
Opposition to data-center construction is the bipartisan issue of the moment—70 percent of Americans are against construction in their communities. Recently…
Radio AtlanticCan a Progressive Win a Purple State?
Nationwide attention and endorsements are flooding into Michigan as voters get ready to pick their Senate candidates Aug. 4. Why is everybody from President…
Radio AtlanticIs the Age of Reading Over?
People may be reading now more than ever (emails, texts, social-media posts). But fewer and fewer people are reading actual books. The Atlantic’s staff writer…
Radio AtlanticWhat We Know About the Recent ICE Killings
The fatal shootings of two men in Texas and Maine by immigration officers have put the Department of Homeland Security back under renewed scrutiny. Host Hanna…
Radio AtlanticThe Election Deniers Are in Charge Now
Today’s episode is a dispatch from Georgia, where election skeptics run elections. Lately, the president has gone into an election frenzy, trying to spread the…
Radio AtlanticThe War Trump Can't Control
Though President Trump has said he would not enter any “forever wars,” America seems to find itself headed toward one. With the latest cease-fire “over,” is…
Radio AtlanticAnother Fatal ICE Shooting
This week saw the first fatal ICE shooting since Minnesota. In Houston, an ICE officer shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. It’s been six months since the…
Radio AtlanticThe Black Patriots Pushing for a Better American Future
The military has historically been a powerful force for integration in America—even as its top ranks have been slow to reflect the racial makeup of the…
Radio AtlanticAmerican History as Rorschach Test
The Florida Department of Education recently announced an alternative to the Advanced Placement history course that it described in a press release as “free…
Radio AtlanticTrump’s Battle for Washington
The drama around the algal bloom in the Reflecting Pool may seem like a shallow issue. But it’s part of a much broader pattern as President Trump tries to…
Radio AtlanticHow the World Cup Explains the World
In his classic book How Soccer Explains the World, the Atlantic staff writer Franklin Foer theorized that the sport was a mirror of the world, particularly in…
Radio AtlanticWhat Will Happen to Birthright Citizenship?
The Supreme Court will soon decide whether the Trump administration’s executive order limiting who can be born an American is constitutional, and whether “all…
Radio AtlanticLive: Nancy Pelosi on the Midterms
Throughout her career, Nancy Pelosi has known how to get things done: whipping up votes, negotiating bills, and, in what is probably her crowning achievement…
Radio AtlanticWhen Both Parties Try to Out-Macho Each Other
The MAGA movement has fully embraced masculinism, which The Atlantic’s staff writer Helen Lewis defines in her cover story this month as “a movement to fight…
Radio AtlanticIs the GOP Starting to Defy Trump?
For most of his second term, Donald Trump has successfully conveyed the message that defiance is not an option. Republicans who ignored that message generally…
Radio AtlanticIs Cuba Next?
Not long after U.S. commandos swiftly extracted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and flew him to the United States, Donald Trump set his sights on the next…
Radio AtlanticHigher Education’s Identity Crisis
Universities tried to be all things to all people. That model may not be working anymore. Adam Harris is joined by Ian Bogost, Atlantic contributing writer and…
Radio AtlanticThe Gerrymandering Wars
There is an ongoing battle for House seats. And it’s playing out not so much in elections but in congressional maps. The Atlantic staff writers Russell Berman…
Radio AtlanticThe Tragedy of the Tradwife
The author Caro Claire Burke discusses her debut novel, Yesteryear, about a tradwife influencer suddenly transported back to 1855 and faced with the harsh…
Radio AtlanticThe 'Great Man' Presidency
Alexander the Great. Julius Caesar. Napoleon Bonaparte. Donald Trump The Atlantic staff writers Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer reported this week on the…
Radio AtlanticKash Patel's FBI
Last week, The Atlantic published a story about how FBI Director Kash Patel’s colleagues are alarmed by what they describe as erratic behavior and excessive…
Radio AtlanticIf Hungary Can Do It
Whatever happens next in Hungary, Viktor Orbán’s stunning downfall contains obvious warnings for MAGA and Donald Trump: Propaganda has its limits. Concerns…
Radio AtlanticTrump Is Wishcasting Victory in Iran
Last weekend, on Easter Sunday, President Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social: “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell -…
Radio AtlanticThe Manosphere Feels Betrayed
The manosphere helped Donald Trump win the 2024 election. Now that he’s started a war with Iran and failed to keep some core campaign promises, the coalition…
Radio AtlanticThe Department of Homeland Security Theater
ICE at airports. TSA lines out the door. And a new boss at DHS amid its funding shutdown. After the deaths on the streets of Minneapolis, after the theatrics…
Radio AtlanticTrump Is Kicking the Economy While It’s Down
Iran is blocking oil tankers from passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Consumers around the world are already seeing higher gas prices as a result, but the…
Radio AtlanticA Year as a Degenerate Sports Gambler
Gambling is ever-present in America these days. After the Supreme Court opened the floodgates to legalized sports gambling, Americans went from legally betting…
Radio AtlanticA War Begun on Instinct
The president is trusting his gut, not Congress. The Atlantic staff writer Missy Ryan covers national security and has spent years reporting on American wars…
Radio AtlanticAfter Khamenei, What Now?
President Trump claimed victory after American strikes killed Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran who had terrorized his own citizens and people all over…
Radio AtlanticWhat Can the Texas Primary Tell Us About Democrats?
This week, the Atlantic staff writer Elaine Godfrey was covering a campaign rally in Texas when she was ushered out. Elaine has been covering national politics…
Radio AtlanticWhy Pick a Fight With Iran Now?
President Trump has given plenty of signals recently that he is prepared to take military action against Iran. The exact reasoning, however, is less obvious…
Radio AtlanticBlack History Month Is Different This Year
The Trump administration is trying to sanitize U.S. history by removing mentions of slavery on historic monuments, scrubbing words such as “oppression” from…
Radio AtlanticIran Wants Him Arrested. He's Going Back Anyway.
The writer-director Jafar Panahi’s new film, It Was Just an Accident, is the second Iranian film ever nominated for multiple Oscars. Panahi is in the United…