Episode notes
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 of Reading Is Here,” explains what might be lost in a “postliterate” age—and it’s a lot more than books. - - - Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to…
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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 an
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E202 · 6 Aug 2026 · 30 min
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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 people saying that they want to find love. So why aren’t they getting it? The Atlantic’s staff writer Faith Hill explains what’s driving the romance decline and reports on life inside the slump. --- Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to…
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E201 · 3 Aug 2026 · 25 min
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 global-health infrastructure, including the Trump administration’s cuts to USAID. --- Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple…
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E200 · 30 Jul 2026 · 39 min
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 data-center-construction moratorium. Maine was supposed to have been the first. For this week’s episode of Radio Atlantic, the reporter Ethan Brooks traveled to Maine to understand why one tiny town killed what would have been America’s first data-center moratorium. - - - Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning…
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E199 · 27 Jul 2026 · 25 min
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 Senate runs straight through this purple state, and that has Democrats battling over whether the progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed or the more centrist U.S. Representative Haley Stevens is the right candidate to put forward. Host Adam Harris talks to Atlantic writer Russell Berman about why Michigan matters and what the outcome of this race could mean for the future of the…
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E197 · 20 Jul 2026 · 23 min
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 discuss the recent killings and what role traffic stops played in them. --- Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts.…
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E196 · 16 Jul 2026 · 50 min
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 laying the groundwork for the argument that if Republicans lose the midterms, it can be only because someone cheated. The place to truly advance the idea that elections can’t be trusted, however, is in the states, where officials have authority over the building blocks of elections. We travel to Georgia, a once-red state quickly turning purple, where election skeptics are not…
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E195 · 13 Jul 2026 · 24 min
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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 is joined by Tom Nichols and Nancy Youssef, who cover the military and diplomacy for The Atlantic, to discuss the conflict that is beginning to feel more like a permanent condition. --- Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating…
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E194 · 9 Jul 2026 · 35 min
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 government hasn’t properly investigated either one. And it has stood in the way of state agents trying to find out what happened—failing, for example, to give state investigators access to Good’s car. The face of this federal response is Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general who is facing a Senate confirmation hearing next week. For a system that assumes the federal government…
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E193 · 6 Jul 2026 · 28 min
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 Clint Smith, who wrote in the July issue of the magazine about what it means that the gradual, visible racial progress in the military is being degraded as Black officers are pushed out. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating…
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