Today's Liberal News

The Slow, Inevitable Death of the Bowl Game

It’s been a hard month for the once-prestigious college bowl. Just hours after Notre Dame learned that it would not be included in this season’s College Football Playoff—the mega-popular, multibillion-dollar, 12-team invitational that crowns an NCAA Division I champion—the team announced that it would not play in any bowl whatsoever this year. Nine other programs, including Florida State, Auburn, and Baylor, soon followed Notre Dame’s lead, declining bowl bids.

Some of Our Most-Read Stories of 2025

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.
The stories that resonated most with our readers this year include reporting that led the political conversation, analysis that unraveled deep mysteries, and meditations on our evolving culture. Spend time with some of our most popular stories of the year.

The Santa Presidency

President Donald Trump can hardly conceal his disgust for the word affordability, referring to its ascendance in America’s political lexicon as a “hoax,” a “con job,” and a “fake narrative” perpetuated by Democrats. But there’s one sign that he’s treating it like a very real political vulnerability: The former reality-television host is trying to give people cash.

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.

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.

A Tribute to Blacklisted Lyricist Yip Harburg: The Man Who Put the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz

His name might not be familiar to many, but his songs are sung by millions around the world. Today, we take a journey through the life and work of Yip Harburg, the Broadway lyricist who wrote such hits as “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” and who put the music into The Wizard of Oz, the movie that inspired the hit Broadway musical and now Hollywood blockbuster, Wicked.

Good Intentions Gone Bad

Attend a public event in Canada and you will likely hear it open with a land acknowledgment. In the city of Vancouver, for example, the script might read:
“This place is the unceded and ancestral territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, and has been stewarded by them since time immemorial.

55 Facts That Blew Our Minds in 2025

The Atlantic’s Science, Technology, and Health desk has had a busy 2025: Our writers have spent the year probing the limits of human consciousness and gene-editing technology, studying the ubiquity of microplastics, investigating the origins of a mysterious ALS outbreak, and even chasing down rubble from the White House’s demolished East Wing. Our reporting has led us to a number of strange and delightful facts.