‘I Run the Country and the World’
Donald Trump believes he’s invincible. But the cracks are beginning to show.
June 2025
In This Issue
Donald Trump is enjoying this, the decline of popular culture, human consciousness, and a shipwreck story. Plus Carl Hiaasen, Mark Twain, mail by mule, Alison Bechdel’s secret, stagflation, fried-chicken sandwiches, the return of the shaman, and more.
Cover Story
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We’re All Living in a Carl Hiaasen Novel
In the mangroves with Florida’s poet of excess and grift
The Mother Who Never Stopped Believing Her Son Was Still There
For decades, Eve Baer remained convinced that her son, unresponsive after a severe brain injury, was still conscious. Science eventually proved her right.
My Shipwreck Story
On my first time out as a commercial fisherman, my boat sank, my captain died, and I was left adrift and alone in the Pacific.
Is This the Worst-Ever Era of American Pop Culture?
An emerging critical consensus argues that we’ve entered a cultural dark age. I’m not so sure.
When William F. Buckley Jr. Met James Baldwin
In 1965, the two intellectual giants squared off in a debate at Cambridge. It didn’t go quite as Buckley hoped.
Dispatches
Illustration by Ben Hickey The Coming Economic Nightmare
Trump’s tariffs could cause stagflation for the first time in decades. It may go on for a long, long time.
Photo-illustration by Elizabeth Renstrom The Golden Age of the Fried-Chicken Sandwich
The sun is setting on burger dominance.
Elliot Ross for The Atlantic How the Most Remote Community in America Gets Its Mail
Transporting letters and packages to the village of Supai requires a feat of logistics, horsemanship, and carefully placed hooves.
Culture & Critics
Illustration by Colin Hunter. Sources: Daniil Dubov / Getty; Lpettet / Getty; Valerie Loiseleux / Getty. Return of the Shaman
How visionary healers became a fixture of contemporary American culture and politics
Courtesy of Mariner Books* What Is Alison Bechdel’s Secret?
The cartoonist has spent a lifetime worrying. In a new graphic novel, she finds something like solace.
Illustration by Paul Spella. Source: Bettmann / Getty. The Not-at-All-Funny Life of Mark Twain
Ron Chernow’s biography dwells more on the wreck of a man than on his sublimely comic work.
Photograph by Julia Sellmann for The Atlantic Why Do Collaborators Do It?
In a new novel, Daniel Kehlmann considers why the director G. W. Pabst worked with the Nazis.
Departments
Shutterstock Editor's Note: Signalgate, Trump, and The Atlantic
Denial and attack have worked exceedingly well for the president. But there are limits.
The Atlantic The Commons: The Power of a Good Suit
Readers respond to our March issue and more.
The Atlantic Caleb's Inferno: June 2025
A devilish crossword puzzle
Poetry
Illustration by Liz Hart
