What Was The Hottest Take This Year?
Rating the spiciness and truthiness of the hottest takes we heard in 2025.
Today's Liberal News
Money Talks: Saving Lives Without USAID
Mary Childs learned about how places like ALIMA and Givewell are moving forward now that USAID is done.
Nuclear Fusion Powered by Memestock
Trump Media & Technology Group has merged with a nuclear fusion company TAE Technologies.
Can Disney Save Mickey from GenAI?
Disney invests $1 billion in OpenAI so you can’t use Sora to make Darth Vader porn among other concerns.
States step into the breach as Obamacare subsidies lapse
Even state governments that want to help can’t completely cover rising insurance premiums.
Trump admin doles out billions for rural health
Montana and California will receive near equal amounts in 2026, despite their massive size disparity.
The miracle cure for sickle cell is now 2 years old. Most are still waiting.
Despite a Trump administration push, there are few facilities offering the complex treatment in the rural areas where many patients live.
The ultraprocessed food makers have an answer for RFK Jr.
The companies behind Doritos, Oscar Mayer wieners, and Kraft Mac & Cheese are warning state regulation promoted by the health secretary is driving up your food bill.
Why RFK Jr.’s plan to follow Europe on vaccines is getting panned
In some cases, Europe has better contained disease, in others it’s let them spread to keep costs down.
When Church Was a Queer Space
Outward’s hosts sit down with the host and co-creator of When We All Get to Heaven.
Remembering, with the People of MCC San Francisco, AIDS Still Isn’t Over.
The neighborhood changes, the church moves, people forget and remember “the AIDS years,” but AIDS isn’t over.
What Happens When You Organize Church Around AIDS – and AIDS Changes?
The AIDS cocktail opens new possibilities. And MCC San Francisco tries to use the experience of AIDS to make bigger social change.
The Church’s Pastor Gets Diagnosed with AIDS. And the Church Wonders How Much They Might Lose.
The church’s minister gets sick and everyone knows it.
A Church Romance Between a Hula Dancer and a Lumbersexual Blossoms in a Dangerous Time.
The church’s “it couple” faces AIDS, caregiving, and loss as part of a pair, part of families, and part of a community.
Vance tries to thread affordability needle in Rust Belt
The vice president fine-tunes Trump’s economic message, but he’s only got so much wiggle room.
Ex-Trump voters swung hard to Democrats over costs in NJ & VA, new research shows
Voters who backed Donald Trump in 2024 and swung to Democrats in this year’s Virginia and New Jersey elections did so over economic concerns, according to focus groups conducted by a Democratic pollster and obtained by POLITICO.
Democrats think they’ve found their 2026 message — and Miami just backed it up
In races across the country, Democrats focused on promises to make life more affordable — even as they offered contrasting approaches.
Voters sour on Trump’s handling of the economy in new poll
The White House plans to make affordability a key selling point for Republicans across the board as the 2026 midterm elections come into focus.
Trump will again test ‘blame Democrats’ message on the economy — this time at a casino
President Donald Trump will give a speech in Northeastern Pennsylvania on Tuesday, the first stop in a ‘tour’ where he will talk about affordability concerns, among others.
31 Atlantic Stories You Might Have Missed
In case you’re settling into winter and lamenting not having read everything The Atlantic has published this year, you’re in luck. I’ve created a list of stories you may have missed that are very much worth your time. The assortment ranges widely: eating an organ feast in Mark Twain’s Paris, experiencing a comedy-show adventure in Riyadh, drifting after a shipwreck in the Pacific, and diving into the secrets of the Inca empire.
Britain Should Have Read the Tweets First
How much effort should a country expend to rescue someone who appears to hate its values? That is the question posed by the case of Alaa Abd el-Fattah.
Abd el-Fattah is an Egyptian pro-democracy campaigner who has been in and out of prison since 2006 for opposing the regimes of Hosni Mubarak and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and for drawing attention to torture and other abuses.
The Show Won’t Go On
In the opening scene of the black comedy The Death of Stalin, a violinist in Moscow is told her orchestra is giving a command performance for Joseph Stalin, and refuses to play on political grounds. A frantic radio director, fearing he will be arrested or shot if he fails to produce the concert in time, begs her to reconsider, finally prevailing with an offer of 20,000 rubles.
Recently, the Trump administration faced a similar situation.
Over 20M Americans Set to Lose Healthcare Coverage Jan. 1 After Congress Goes on Recess
Tens of millions of Americans are set to see their health insurance costs soar when subsidies under the Affordable Care Act expire at the end of this year. Health insurance premiums are expected to more than double or even triple for some 20 million people, pricing many out of healthcare coverage entirely.
Trump Set to Garnish Wages for Student Loan Defaults; The Debt Collective Lays Out Other Options
Starting in January, the Trump administration says it will garnish the wages of student loan borrowers who haven’t been able to make their payments for at least nine months. “It’s cruel and hostile to working people to turn the system on before we’re sure that we can run it in a compliant manner,” says Julia Barnard, higher education team lead at the Debt Collective and former student loan ombudsman at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“Israel Crushed Mohammad Bakri”: Gideon Levy & Rami Khouri on Death of Iconic Palestinian Filmmaker
Journalists Gideon Levy and Rami Khouri discuss the work of acclaimed Palestinian actor and filmmaker Mohammad Bakri, who died at the age of 72 on Christmas Eve. He appeared in more than 40 films and directed documentaries highlighting the experiences of Palestinians living under occupation. “On a personal level, I can’t tell you how much I loved him,” says Levy. On one hand, Levy describes him as a “brave Palestinian patriot.
“Whatever Israel Wants”: Trump Backs Netanyahu’s “Colonial” Wars in Gaza, Iran & Beyond
We speak to journalists Gideon Levy and Rami Khouri about President Trump’s meeting Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago, where Trump supported Israel’s threats to launch new attacks on Iran and warned Hamas to disarm during the second stage of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement.
The Trump Administration’s Most Paralyzing Blow to Science
For all of the political chaos that American science endured in 2025, aspects of this country’s research enterprise made it through somewhat … okay. The Trump administration terminated billions of dollars in research grants; judges intervened to help reinstate thousands of those contracts. The administration threatened to cut funding to a number of universities; several have struck deals that preserved that money.
A Better Way to Think About New Year’s Resolutions
Nowadays, having a New Year’s resolution can seem almost quaint. Social-media influencers push self-improvement trends year-round: The spring has “glow up” challenges, as does the summer. Soon after, the high-discipline “Great Lock-In Challenge” and “Winter Arc” videos begin, many of them urging people to get ahead of the “new year, new me” crowd. Or you can attempt a slew of other self-betterment regimens, whenever the spirit calls.
What Was The Hottest Take This Year?
Rating the spiciness and truthiness of the hottest takes we heard in 2025.