Before Facebook, There Was BlackPlanet

An alternative history of the social web

After the Miracle

Cystic fibrosis once guaranteed an early deathbut a medical breakthrough has given many patients a chance to live decades longer than expected. What do they do now?

WILLIAM WHITWORTH 1937-2024

WILLIAM WHITWORTH, the editor of The Atlantic from 1980 to 1999, had a soft voice and an Arkansas accent that decades of living in New York and New England never much eroded.

Christine Blasey Ford Testifies Again

Her new memoir doubles as a modern-day horror story.

Is Theo Von the Next Joe Rogan?

Or is he something else entirely?

Orwell's Escape

Why the author repaired to the remote Isle of Jura to write his masterpiece, 1984

What's So Bad About Asking Where Humans Came From?

Human origin stories have often been used for nefarious purposes. That doesn't mean they are worthless.

Miranda's Last Gift

When our daughter died suddenly, she left us with grief, memories and Ringo.

CLASH OF THE PATRIARCHS

A hard-line Russian bishop backed by the political might of the Kremlin could split the Orthodox Church in two.

THE MAN WHO DIED FOR THE LIBERAL ARTS

Chugging through Pacific waters in February 1942, the USS Crescent City was ferrying construction equipment and Navy personnel to Pearl Harbor, dispatched there to assist in repairing the severely damaged naval base after the Japanese attack.

The Great Serengeti Land Grab

How Gulf princes, wealthy tourists, and conservation groups displacing the Maasai people

Saint Dismas

Carlito held one end of the rope, Omar the other.

Why Do Animals Play?

Scientists want an evolutionary explanation. But maybe the answer is simply: Its fun.

The Insider

Is Kara Swisher tearing down tech billionaires—or burnishing their legends?

A Bloody Retelling of Huckleberry Finn

Percival Everett transforms Mark Twain’ classic.

THE SECRET GOSPEL

A Columbia history professor claimed that he discovered a sacred text with shocking details about the life of Jesus. Was it real?

JODIE FOSTER'S LIFE ON-SCREEN

SINCE CHILDHOOD, SHE'S STRUGGLED WITH ONE QUESTION: HOW MUCH DOES SHE WANT THE PUBLIC TO KNOW HER?

THE END OF THE GOLDEN AGE

ANTI-SEMITISM ON THE RIGHT AND THE LEFT THREATENS TO END AN UNPRECEDENTED PERIOD OF SAFETY AND PROSPERITY FOR JEWISH AMERICANS-AND DEMOLISH THE LIBERAL ORDER THEY HELPED ESTABLISH.

The Radio Squirrels of Point Reyes

\"Calling all. This is our last cry before our eternal silence.\" With that, in January 1997, the French Coast Guard transmitted its final message in Morse code.

THE GRUMPY ECONOMY

Why Americans trust feelings more than facts when it comes to prosperity

American Cowardice

Scot Peterson, condemned as the "Coward of Broward," stood by as a slaughter unfolded at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Does the blame lie with him, his training or a society in denial about what it would take to stop mass shootings?

Raina Telgemeier Gets It

The wildly successful cartoonist turned the anxious kid into a hero.

How Marilynne Robinson Reads Scripture

In her hands, the Book of Genesis becomes a precursor to the novel.

The Disorienting Beauty of "Africa & Byzantium"

A landmark exhibition offers a new history of art.

Shelf Life

An incisive satirist of literary Brooklyn takes on the American big-box store.

The James Bond Trap

Ian Fleming created the superspy and then couldn't get rid of him.

Lost Photographs of Black America

Ernest Cole was born in 1940 to a Black family in the Eersterust township, near Pretoria, South Africa.

THE DESPOTS OF SILICON VALLEY

The tech world has its own ascendant political ideology, and it's past time we call it what it is.

The Curious Case of the Contested Basquiats

Twenty-five \"masterpieces,\" an FBI raid, and the maddening, sometimes impossible task of rooting out fakes and forgeries

IN DEFENSE OF WOODROW WILSON

Despised as a racist by today's left and a tyrant by today's right, the 28th president championed a set of values that our politics sorely lack.