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 AtlanticThe Strange, Lonely Childhood of Neko Case
In a new memoir, the singer-songwriter Neko Case recounts a childhood of poverty and neglect: a mother who left her and a father who was barely there. But…
Radio AtlanticPurge Now, Pay Later
Parts of the federal government are being dismantled. But although the decisions from President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are unusual—perhaps even…
Radio AtlanticThe War for Your Attention
Our attention is finite and valuable. And it’s nearing its breaking point. In a new book, MSNBC host Chris Hayes explains how everything—from politics to media…
Radio AtlanticThe Chaos of Blanket Pardons
In a matter of hours after being sworn into office, President Donald Trump delivered on a promise in a way that even high-level Republicans didn’t see coming…
Radio AtlanticJanuary 6 and the Case for Oblivion
As Donald Trump prepares to take office again, the country is still coming to terms with what happened on January 6, 2021. But perhaps the best way to move…
Radio AtlanticTrump’s Anti-Immigrant Coalition Starts to Fracture
The MAGA alliance that helped elect Donald Trump is starting to show signs of fracturing. It recently came to a head after an important argument broke out over…
Radio AtlanticMe, My Future, and I
Hanna talks to the creators of an AI project called Future You. She also has a conversation with a future version of herself. But the person she meets is not…
Radio AtlanticThe Books We Read in High School (Part 2)
Why should a teenager bother to read a book, when there are so many other demands on their time? We hear from Atlantic staffers about the books they read in…
Radio AtlanticThe Books We Read in High School (Part 1)
Recently, professors at elite colleges told Atlantic writer Rose Horowitch that their students don’t read whole books anymore. They blamed cell phones…
Radio Atlantic“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
As Donald Trump returns to the White House, his desire to recast January 6 as a day of “love and peace,” as he called it during his campaign, seems as strong…
Radio AtlanticHow Fragile Is Our Vaccine Infrastructure?
Anti-vaccine sentiment is, more or less, as old as vaccines. When Cotton Mather promoted inoculations against smallpox in the 1720s, someone threw a firebomb…
Radio AtlanticWhy Are You Still Cooking With That?
We warned you last month to “Throw Out Your Black Plastic Spatula.” In a recent study conducted about consumer products, researchers concluded kitchen utensils…
Radio AtlanticTrump's Vision to Remake the Military
With all the noise around Donald Trump’s nominees, it’s easy to lose sight of his administration’s bigger plan: placing people who are unfailingly loyal to…
Radio AtlanticDemocrats’ Immigration Problem
We hash out the “Democrats are too woke” theory with New York Rep. Ritchie Torres, who tweeted the day after the election: “The far left is a gift to Donald…
Radio AtlanticAre We Living in a Different America?
In the last few months of his campaign, Trump was free and open with his dictatorial impulses, as he talked about punishing “enemies from within.” Now that…
Radio AtlanticDoes America Want Chaos?
One thing tomorrow’s election will test is Americans’ appetite for chaos, particularly the kind that Donald Trump has been exhibiting in the last few months of…
Radio AtlanticIs Journalism Ready for a Second Trump Administration?
On the campaign trail, Donald Trump has mused, a few times, about throwing reporters in jail if they refuse to leak their sources and taking away broadcast…
Radio AtlanticTrump and the January 6 Memory Hole
The way Donald Trump talks about January 6 has evolved over time. Directly after the insurrection, he condemned the rioters, although he added that they were…
Radio AtlanticAutocracy Is in the Details
Autocrats often dare their followers to believe absurd claims, as a kind of loyalty test, because “humor and fear can be quite close together sometimes,” says…
Radio AtlanticIt Could All Come Down to North Carolina
North Carolina has voted for a Democratic president only once since the 1970s. But the party’s dream to flip the state never dies—and in fact, could be…
Radio AtlanticThe Fight to Be the Most “Pro-family”
The American family continuously evolves. People are marrying later, and having fewer children. Gay people get married. People can publicly swear off marriage…
Radio AtlanticThe Modern Political Assassin
One prevailing stereotype of a political assassin is someone with strong convictions. Another stereotype conjures up James Bond, a professional with a silencer…
Radio AtlanticA Campaign-Song Nightmare
Rachel had a hit song. Then it became inextricably linked with a failed presidential campaign. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe…
Radio AtlanticTrump, Triggered
Kamala Harris expertly manipulated Trump. It won her the debate. Can it win her the White House? Staff writers Elaine Godfrey and Mark Leibovich to explore the…
Radio AtlanticThe Neck Fans Are Coming
After successive heat waves across the country this summer, people finally found an unexpected source of relief: the neck fan. Consumer-product geniuses made…
Radio AtlanticLaughing at Trump
Democrats are lately employing a strategy against Donald Trump that he has been using effectively against his opponents for years: mockery. Where did this…
Radio AtlanticScripts | 3. A Special Drug
The patients had tried everything. Except ketamine. This is the third and final part of Scripts, a new three-part miniseries from Radio Atlantic about the…
Radio AtlanticScripts | 2. The Mandala Effect
Cooper thought he understood how his psych meds were affecting him. There was a lot he didn’t know. This is part two of a new three-part miniseries from Radio…
Radio AtlanticScripts | 1. A Hard Pill to Swallow
One medication could help end the opioid crisis. Why are so few people taking it? This episode is the first in a new three-part miniseries from Radio…
Radio AtlanticOne Israeli Hostage’s Unusual Experience in Gaza
Liat Beinin Atzili was kidnapped on October 7 and spent more than 50 days in a Gazan home, We spoke with her in Washington, where she traveled to talk with…
Radio AtlanticThe Devil’s Bargain of Sports Betting
After a 2018 Supreme Court decision kicked off a wave of legalization across America, sports gambling has become an integral part of how fans consume sports…
Radio AtlanticBiden Steps Aside. How Might Harris Step Up?
Joe Biden has announced he’ll no longer seek reelection. With a little over 100 days left until the vote, he’s endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his…
Radio AtlanticTrump’s Wholesale Renovation of the Republican Party
The Republican Party is gathered in Wisconsin to renominate Donald Trump for president. The convention follows a near-miss assassination attempt on Trump and…
Radio AtlanticThe Long Simmer of Political Violence in America
America is not new to political violence, but the near-assassination of Donald Trump is an attack without comparison in 21st-century politics. How do process…
Radio AtlanticA Crisis for Democrats
After his disastrous debate performance in June, President Biden faced calls from Democratic lawmakers and power brokers to step aside. But with the president…
Radio AtlanticWho Really Benefits From Remote Work?
The prevailing narrative of remote work has often been boiled down to: Workers love it, and bosses hate it. But according to Natalia Emanuel, a labor economist…
Radio AtlanticBritain’s Conservatives Are About to Lose Big
Parliamentary elections on July 4th look bleak for Britain’s ruling Conservative Party. The Tories will almost certainly lose power for the first time in 14…
Radio AtlanticThe Airport Lounge Arms Race
For years now, the fanciest places in air travel keep getting fancier. Airport lounges have become bigger, nicer, and far more ubiquitous than only a few years…
Radio AtlanticWhat Cities Can Teach Us About Life Online
Humanity’s transition to life online is disorienting, but perhaps not without comparison. According to the researcher danah boyd, people faced similar…
Radio AtlanticHow Do You Solve a Problem Like Homelessness?
Later this summer, the Supreme Court will rule on City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, one of the most important cases on homelessness to come up in a long time…
Radio AtlanticIs Sasha Velour in Danger?
Sasha Velour won RuPaul's Drag Race with her spectacular rose-petal lip sync. She wrote and illustrated The Big Reveal: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag, drew…
Radio AtlanticRussia’s Psychological Warfare Against Ukraine
After months of struggle with little movement, the war in Ukraine may be nearing a crucial point. With American aid stalled for months, the fight has not been…
Radio AtlanticFinally, Male Contraceptives
Researchers have been hard at work on a number of male contraceptives that could hit the market in the next couple of decades. Options include a hormone-free…
Radio AtlanticThe Chaos of AI Voice Cloning
What happens when voices can be copied so well they can fool friends, family… and voters? Staff writer Charlie Warzel has followed the explosion of AI…
Radio AtlanticIf Plants Could Talk
Staff writer Zoë Schlanger is the proud owner of a petunia that glows in the dark. But she doesn’t just appreciate the novelty houseplant as work of science…
Radio AtlanticIn Search of America on the Biggest Cruise Ship Ever
Writer Gary Shteyngart set sail on the inaugural voyage of the biggest cruise ship ever built—the Icon of the Seas—in search of the "real" America. (And maybe…
Radio AtlanticTrump’s Courtroom Campaign
The Stormy Daniels case may have a less serious fact pattern. But it might turn out to be the one chance to hold Donald Trump accountable for election…
Radio AtlanticMoney Can Buy You Everything, Except Maybe a Birkin Bag
Is having a Birkin bag ... a right? Earlier this year, two California residents filed a class-action lawsuit against the French luxury design company Hermès…
Radio AtlanticDuring the Eclipse, Don't Just Look Up
Where were you for the 2017 total eclipse? Where will you be this year? And where will you be for the next one in 2045? Hanna talks to Atlantic staff writer…
Radio AtlanticDo Trump Supporters Mind When He Mocks Biden’s Stutter?
Atlantic political reporter John Hendrickson has had a stutter since he was a kid. Recently he heard Donald Trump make fun of Joe Biden’s stutter, and he…
Radio AtlanticThe Smartphone Kids Are Not All Right
Hanna talks to her child Jacob about the thing they've argued the most about: being on their phone. Then, Hanna sits down with social psychologist Jonathan…
Radio AtlanticInside a Hospital’s Abortion Committee
Sarah Osmundson knows how to talk about abortion. She’s learned over the course of her career as a maternal-fetal medicine doctor that some patients are…
Radio AtlanticThe Sound of Cruelty
We talk to Oscar-nominated sound designer Johnnie Burn about how he created the soundscape of horrors for The Zone of Interest. Burn explains how he collected…
Radio AtlanticThe Lost Boys of Big Tech
The original “Burn Book” from Mean Girls was used to spread rumors and gossip about other girls (and some boys) at North Shore High School. Kara Swisher’s new…
Radio AtlanticMaybe You Should Quit Therapy
Dr. Richard Friedman has been teaching and seeing patients for more than 35 years. Recently, he wrote about the idea that, if therapy has become less of a…
Radio AtlanticWhat If Your Best Friend Is Your Soulmate?
How would life be different if we centered it on our friends? In her new book, The Other Significant Others, Rhaina Cohen visits the extremes of friendship…
Radio AtlanticThe Rise of Techno-Authoritarianism
In this week’s episode of Radio Atlantic, Adrienne LaFrance, the executive editor of The Atlantic, names and explains the political ideology of the unelected…
Radio AtlanticThe ‘Coward of Broward’ Re-Examined
After the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history, in 2018, a video circulated showing the school resource officer taking cover behind the wall. He…
Radio AtlanticFatigue Can Wreck You (Redux)
This episode originally aired August 2023. Many people, especially those dealing with long COVID, suffer from fatigue. But not common, everyday tiredness—it’s…
Radio AtlanticThe Last Days of the Barcode
Editor Saahil Desai walks us through the surprising history of the barcode, from its origins in the grocery business to its role in remaking our consumer…