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Radio Atlantic
The Atlantic
300 episodes
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 their own mind about certain ideas. The national conversation right now can be chaotic, reckless, and stuck. Radio Atlantic aims to bring some order to our thinking—and encourage listeners to be purposeful about how they unstick their mind.
Episodes page 1 of 6
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How 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 week. “Radio Atlantic” host Adam Harris is joined by the…
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Maria 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 explains the relationship between her OCD and her comedy.…
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Why 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 had passed and he had signed. The executive order followed a…
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Have 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 political right in general, it’s “masculinism,” a movement…
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Musk, 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, Adam Harris talks with Atlantic staff writer Josh Tyrangiel…
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How 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 what agents and other sources are telling her about how the…
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The 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 balance of power in Washington. But if Democrats can pull off…
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Min 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 National Book Award finalist and was named one of The New York…
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Republicans 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 them. Is this what his lame-duck status will look like, or is…
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Egypt 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 Harris talks to the Atlantic staff writer Vivian Salama…
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What 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 warnings, for example, that there is a 10 to 20 percent chance…
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Trump 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 will hang over the proceedings, as both the United States and…
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The 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 thought she knew about the practice upside down. Read Olga…
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‘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 lately. And even though many of AI’s chief architects are…
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Sarah 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 percent, and even die-hard MAGA Republicans are frustrated by…
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How 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 people’s time and can keep eligible families from getting…
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Creating 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 her. We talk with the Atlantic staff writer Sophie Gilbert…
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Trump’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 week, my colleagues reported that the president—dogged by the…
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Bill 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 memo, headlined: “The Turbulent AI Era Is Here. The Choices…
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Where 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 ideological diversity, and AI, a debate is raging about what…
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Secrets 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, Rabbithole—shares his secrets on winning at Jeopardy and cultivating a…
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The 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 always believed she was—and years ago she wrote about her…
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Longing 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 phones. But could that nostalgia for a smartphone-free society…
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Never 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 Senator Jon Ossoff in the Georgia Senate race and why…
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The 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 experience in a committed relationship—all this despite…
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What ‘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 particularly deadly strain is spreading amid a weakened…
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The 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, New York passed the country’s first statewide…
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Can 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 Trump to Bernie Sanders so interested? The path to win the…
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Is 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 Rose Horowitch, who wrote the August cover story, “The End…
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What 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 Rosin is joined by Atlantic staff writer Nick Miroff to…
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The 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 idea that elections are rife with fraud. He seems to be…
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The 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 there a way out of the conflict with Iran? Host Adam Harris…
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Another 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 deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and the federal…
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The 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 country. Host Adam Harris speaks with the Atlantic staff writer…
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American 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 from ideological bias or indoctrination.” For its new…
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Trump’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 “beautify” Washington, D.C., and cement his legacy. Host Adam…
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How 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 its shift from tribalism to interdependence. More than two…
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What 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 persons born or naturalized in the United States”—save for…
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Live: 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, pushing through the Affordable Care Act as speaker of the…
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When 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 back against the advances of feminism and reassert the…
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Is 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 wound up out of office, so they largely toed the line.…
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Is 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 target: Cuba. Some administration officials seem…
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Higher 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 a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, to…
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The 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, who’s been covering the redistricting wars for the past…
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The 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 realities of actual pioneer life. The book is a No. 1 New York…
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The '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 president privately comparing himself to the three…
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Kash 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 drinking. Sources told staff writer Sarah Fitzpatrick that,…
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If 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 about affordability are real. True democracy can reassert…
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Trump 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 - JUST WATCH!” On Tuesday, he posted again: “A whole…
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The 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 cemented by podcast bros and Austin-area commentators is…
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