Choose Your Overlord
Musk vs. Bezos
November 2026
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The Babies Left Behind in America
The United States is deporting parents without their children, creating a whole new family-separation crisis.
The Baltic States Prepare for War
Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia are readying themselves to fend off a Russian attack—with the help of the United States, or without it.
Forgive the Bad Texters
We are truly sorry for our delayed response.
When Anesthesia Goes Wrong
A teenage boy went into surgery for a broken arm and emerged with brain damage. His mother was determined to figure out what had happened.
The Man Who Wanted to Understand Every Aspect of Jewish Life
In the Pale of Settlement, the writer S. An-Sky made an ecstatic, obsessive attempt to wrap his arms around an entire people just as it was disappearing.
What Were My Dreams Trying to Tell Me?
To make sense of my deepest experiences, I needed a new way of talking about the soul.
Dispatches
Illustration by Ben Hickey The Great Data-Center Rebellion
Could a new populist movement help save American democracy?
Illustration by Paul Spella The Children of Cheaters
I thought my father was unique. Then I started meeting other people just like me.
Liz Hart Requiem for a Condiment
When Durkee Famous Sauce disappeared from grocery-store shelves, I mourned a piece of my childhood.
Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Rana Faure / Getty. Bait and Switch
Fishermen have always exaggerated the size of their catches. But AI has taken the practice to a different level.
Culture & Critics
Illustration by Natalie Shields Those Books of Smut and Wonder
How Sarah J. Maas became the queen of romantasy
Illustration by Vivian Dehning. Sources: Bettmann / Getty; Erin Schaff / Getty; Fotosearch / Getty. Zombie Originalism
Samuel Alito’s efforts to revamp the conservative legal philosophy reveal that a new movement is ascendant.
Massimo Listri / Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Vanity of Kings
How the ancient pharaohs attempted to preserve their legacies for eternity
George Nikitin / AP The Journalist and the Manipulator
Janet Malcolm policed the literary ruses of others, but wasn’t afraid to deploy them herself.
Departments
The Atlantic The Commons: What Song Is America’s True National Anthem?
Readers respond to our July 2026 issue and more.
The Morgan Library & Museum. 2001.10. Purchased on the Sunny Crawford von Bülow Fund 1978. Look Closer: This Lizard Tells a Story
Maria Sibylla Merian’s pioneering nature painting captured animals as they were.
Poetry
Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Trevor Wilkinson / Getty Images. Puffins
A poem
