The world may never run out of oil—and the consequences could be dire. Plus: avoiding the worst parts of death, Henry Kissinger's statesmanship, reconsidering hair metal, and more.
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This Month in The Atlantic
Features
What If We Never Run Out of Oil?
New technology and a little-known energy source suggest that fossil fuels may not be finite. This would be a miracle--and a nightmare.
Charles C. Mann
Debate: Experts grapple with the possibility of infinite oil, and what it would mean for our climate.
Learning to Live With Fossil Fuels
We can't address climate change without carbon reduction, but we also can't afford to neglect a vital second option: carbon capture.
Daniel Sarewitz and Roger Pielke Jr.
How Not to Die
Angelo Volandes's low-tech, high-empathy plan to revolutionize end-of-life care
Jonathan Rauch
In Defense of Henry Kissinger
He was the 20th century's greatest 19th-century statesman.
Robert D. Kaplan
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The Critics
A short story
Thomas Pierce
Dispatches
Why Both the Dems and the GOP Now Think Voters Prefer Female Candidates
A woman's edge?
Molly Ball
Karen vs. Kevin: The Persistence of Pro-Male Gender Bias
A glance at five academic studies
Nicole Allan
How to Tell a Joke on the Internet
The new typography of irony
Megan Garber
What Americans Should Understand About Japan's 1990s Economic Bust
The slacker trap
Ethan Devine
What Makes Us Happy, Revisited
A new look at the famous Harvard study of what makes people thrive
Scott Stossel
Problem: My Neighbor Is Having Shockingly Loud Sex All the Time
Try blasting recordings of chimpanzees. Our advice columnist to the rescue.
Jeffrey Goldberg
How Do You Celebrate the Birthday of a Great Composer Who Inspired Hitler?
Germany grapples with the bicentennial of Richard Wagner's birth.
Heather Horn
How New York Is Reinventing the Phone Booth
An urban renaissance for public telephones
Emily Badger
The Atheist Who Strangled Me
In which Sam Harris teaches me Brazilian jiu-jitsu and explains why violence is like rebirth
Graeme Wood
Interview: Graeme Wood and Sam Harris talk about non-belief and knife fights.
A Thousand Years of Sex Talk in Arab Culture--in 1 Paragraph
Language doesn't necessarily get less prudish over time.
Shereen El Feki
Do We Change Our Minds on Abortion When It Affects Us Directly?
Three suggestive stats
Various Ways You Might Accidentally Get Drunk
We don't always know when we're standing over a large deposit of iron ore.
James Hamblin
The Hordes of Microbes Inside Your Body Are Your Friends
An interview with the synthetic biologist Christina Agapakis
Alexis C. Madrigal
The Millennial Stimulus Plan
How young people will supercharge the recovery
Derek Thompson
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Culture File
The Hair-Metal Diaries
In a new memoir, the lead singer of Ratt remembers what may be the most forgettable cultural phenomenon of the modern era.
James Parker
The Love Life and Cultural Influence of Martin Amis
On the new biography of a literary Lothario
Benjamin Schwarz
Bringing Back the Ancient Art of Spearfishing
An old extreme sport is new again.
Tristram Korten
Can a Tuning Fork Improve Your Cocktail?
The theory and practice of serving a drink vibrated, not stirred
Wayne Curtis
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5. Relationships Are More Important Than Ambition
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