Today's Liberal News

A 2025 Ranking You Won’t Read Anywhere Else

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.
How to describe this year … Slop? Rage-baiting? Pantone white? Yes, and: The Katie Miller Podcast.

How About a Little Less Screen Time for the Grown-Ups

Subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
Are your parents addicted to their phone? In this episode of Galaxy Brain, Charlie Warzel explores how technology is affecting an older generation of adults. Instead of a phone-based childhood, Warzel suggests, we may be witnessing the emergence of a phone-based retirement—one shaped by isolation, algorithmic feeds, and platforms never designed with aging users in mind.

Remembering Bill Moyers: PBS Icon on Corruption of Corporate Media and Power of Public Broadcasting

The legendary journalist Bill Moyers died in June at the age of 91. Moyers, whose long career included helping found the Peace Corps and serving as press secretary for President Lyndon Johnson, was an award-winning champion of public television and independent media. We feature one of his numerous interviews on Democracy Now!, where we discussed the history of public broadcasting in the United States and the powerful role of money in corporate media.

The Best Poetry for Dark Winter Days

For those of us north of the equator, winter officially arrived last week. The early darkness and the chill in the air demand a change in our habits. For many, the season provokes an unmistakable turn inward—toward our warm homes, or the loved ones we see on holidays, or meditative thoughts that, in other times of year, might be crowded out by the light and noise of the world.
Perhaps saying so is sentimental, but these feel like the perfect days and nights for poetry.

The Most Memorable Advice of 2025

The approach of a new year is an opportunity to reflect on time spent with friends, family, and partners who have played a role in your life—and how you can improve these relationships.
For parents, 2025 might have been a year that felt fraught with questions about what it means to raise a child today.

The World Has Laws About Land and Sea, but Not About Ice

When the Chinese cargo freighter Istanbul Bridge set sail for Europe in late September, it took an unusual route. Instead of heading south for the 40-day voyage through the Suez Canal, it tacked north. The freighter arrived in the United Kingdom at the port of Felixstowe just 20 days later—successfully launching the first-ever Arctic commercial-container route from Asia to Europe.
For most of human history, the surface of the world’s northernmost ocean has been largely frozen.

“Heartbreaking”: Journalist Vicky Ward on New Epstein Files & Survivors’ Fight for Accountability

As the DOJ releases the largest batch of files yet on the federal investigation into Epstein, we look at some of the most significant revelations with investigative journalist Vicky Ward, who has spent decades reporting on the deceased sexual predator, his powerful associates and the impact of his crimes. Survivors have condemned the Department of Justice for not complying with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required all files to be released last Friday.

Where Stranger Things Lost Itself

This article contains spoilers through the penultimate episode of Stranger Things Season 5.
In the third season of Stranger Things, Eleven (played by Millie Bobby Brown) learned a pivotal lesson as she stood inside Starcourt Mall, the then-new watering hole for the then-still-pubescent kids of Netflix’s supernatural drama. Eleven, the show’s telekinetic heroine, who grew up in a lab, became dazed by the number of clothing options at the Gap.