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Unless you inhabit a hermit cave with no internet access, you’ll know that we live in the Age of Offense. With high levels of polarization and innumerable ways to broadcast one’s every thought to strangers far and wide, it is easier than ever to lob insults and to denigrate ideological foes.
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The guest on this episode of Radio Atlantic would not describe herself as “fun at parties,” but at least she knows it. “I’ve never really liked my personality,” wrote Olga Khazan in 2022, “and other people don’t like it either.” A few years ago, Khazan set out to change her personality, a task many people think is impossible.
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.
Five years ago, as the streets ran hot and the body of George Floyd lay cold, optimistic commentators believed that America was on the verge of a breakthrough in its eternal deliberation over the humanity of Black people.
Until last week, the future of vaccination for human papillomavirus, or HPV, in the United States seemed clear.
For several years, a growing body of evidence has suggested that just a single dose of the vaccine may be as effective as two are, offering decades of protection against the virus, which is estimated to cause roughly 700,000 cases of cancer each year.
“Another Wasted Life.” That’s the name of a remarkable new song by the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Grammy-winning artist Rhiannon Giddens. She released a video of the song on October 2 to mark International Wrongful Conviction Day. The song was inspired by Kalief Browder, a Bronx resident who died by suicide in 2015 at the age of 22 after being detained at Rikers Island jail for nearly three years, after being falsely accused at the age of 16 of stealing a backpack.
As part of our Juneteenth special broadcast, we feature our interview with pioneering musical artist Rhiannon Giddens, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her opera Omar, about Omar ibn Said, a Muslim scholar in Africa who was sold into slavery in the 1800s.
We feature a special broadcast marking the Juneteenth federal holiday that commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned of their freedom more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. We begin with our 2021 interview with historian Clint Smith, originally aired a day after President Biden signed legislation to make Juneteenth the first new federal holiday since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
In Jena, Louisiana, the people knew everything and nothing about what’s happening there.
Waymo and Tesla offer competing—and potentially bleak—futures for self-driving cars in society.
This is no Depp/Heard trial—but it might be something stranger.
Barry Lam joins Felix Salmon to nerd out on philosophy and the deficit.
Republicans want to curtail taxes states have imposed to increase payments to hospitals.
The health secretary wants regulators to question long-settled science and public health guidance.
Around half of those employees are in the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention.
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
What we say matters, especially depending on whom we say it to.
The Waves also discusses the case against Jeffrey Epstein and Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Fleishman Is in Trouble.
The president’s approval rating had been ticking upward since its biggest drop in April.
The General Services Administration, which oversees government contracting, is leading a review of more than 20,000 consulting agreements for what is “non-essential.
The crowded contest in the Garden State shows how hard it is to address pocketbook issues.
Earlier, Buffett warned Saturday about the dire global consequences of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Trump has blamed shaky economic numbers on his predecessor.
The Trevor Project, a leading LGBTQ+ advocacy group that works with the government to help administer the “Press 3” option, said the decision could have grave consequences.
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.
Back in March, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard delivered a view of Iran to the House Intelligence Committee that was in line with Trump-administration policy: hostile toward Tehran, but also skeptical of the need for American intervention.
A car that accelerates instead of braking every once in a while is not ready for the road. A faucet that occasionally spits out boiling water instead of cold does not belong in your home. Working properly most of the time simply isn’t good enough for technologies that people are heavily reliant upon. And two and a half years after the launch of ChatGPT, generative AI is becoming such a technology.
Donald Trump returned to office as president in January with both democratic legitimacy and a mandate to accomplish what he’d promised during his campaign. One of his promises was clear, consistent, and unmistakable: to put “America First” by ending our involvement in risky and expensive overseas conflicts.
