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On this week’s episode of The David Frum Show, The Atlantic’s David Frum opens with his thoughts on the upcoming 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He examines the many actions President Donald Trump has taken that run counter to the ideals articulated in 1776, and considers how the Founders’ constitutional genius may ultimately be what frustrates Trump’s attempt to consolidate power.

There are nights when the dance floor beckons but the bones refuse. When the urge to party arrives, it may be too late to book a babysitter. Perhaps you’re already in sweatpants, or closing time is before midnight where you live. Possibly, the prospect of going out has been raised but vetoed by a cohabitant, and you don’t want to tango alone.

Every year in late December, my childhood home transformed into a vision of American bliss. We’d gather to ornament a tree, drape string lights around the house, and sit down to an elaborate feast. Not long after dawn the next day, while our little sister still slept, my brother and I would impatiently sneak downstairs to see our gifts, which we understood to have been delivered by a kindly old man. It could have been a scene out of A Christmas Story. Except we weren’t celebrating Christmas.

On a chilly December morning, I descended a flight of stairs and entered the New York Transit Museum. Housed in a decommissioned subway station in downtown Brooklyn, the museum was packed with elementary-school children on a field trip. All around me, tour guides shepherded groups of them through the various exhibits. Later on, I heard one guide ask if any of the students knew how to pay for the subway. “You tap a phone,” a child volunteered.

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.

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.