Megan Garber
The Dark Side of the Houseplant Boom
American culture is becoming more and more preoccupied with nature. What if all the celebrations of the wild world are actually manifestations of grief?
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Michael Nagle / Getty Portrait of a Leader Humblebragging
In October, Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a book-length ode to his leadership style. It has not aged well.
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Tyler Varsell American Cynicism Has Reached a Breaking Point
The nation’s politics is in dire need of earnestness. Can its culture meet the moment?
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Getty / Shutterstock / The Atlantic The ‘Pussy’ Presidency
Donald Trump ended his term in office the way he began it: by invoking a perverse vision of manliness.
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SAUL LOEB / AFP / Getty When the Mob Reached the Chamber
Watching the insurrectionists, I felt outrage and horror and heartbreak. What some of them seemed to feel was boredom.
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Soomin Jung 2020 Changed What TV Is For
Viewers didn’t care about “good” or “bad” television this year. Maybe the distinction never mattered.
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KFC / Lifetime I’m Really Sorry, but Let’s Talk About That Chicken Movie
In a time of rampant lies, a KFC-Lifetime rom-com is about as refreshingly blunt as you can get.
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The 15 Best TV Shows of 2020
The year’s most distinct and worthwhile series
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Apple TV+ / Stephanie Branchu / Netflix The New Comedy of American Decline
Even works of escapism are reckoning with waning national myths.
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The Atlantic Fox News Hits a Dangerous New Low
The most-watched news network in America is choosing to mislead its viewers about the state of the election.
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Shutterstock / The Atlantic Beware False Endings
At a time when uncertainty may be the election’s only immediate result, Americans have an opportunity to rethink the way stories are told.
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Chris Haston / NBCU Photo Bank / The … Dwight Schrute Was a Warning
When The Office originally aired, its resident fool made for easy comedy. Fifteen years later, it’s hard to watch Dwight without seeing tragedy.
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AP / The Atlantic Atlas Coughed
Donald Trump has steadily turned masks into symbols—not of government overreach, but of governmental impunity.
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Illustration by Alexandria McLin; photograph by Howard University Kamala Harris’s Ambition Trap
By talking plainly about her qualifications, Harris embodies progress. Will it work?
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Getty / The Atlantic Trump’s Interruptions Had a Double Message
The president’s favorite debate tactic was a foundational form of disrespect—levied against his opponent as well as the nation.
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Getty / Arsh Raziuddin / The Atlantic The Ruth Bader Ginsburg Fandom Was Never Frivolous
The kitschy celebrations of the justice have always insisted, in their way, that the personal is judicial.
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AP / The Atlantic Do You Speak Fox?
How Donald Trump’s favorite news source became a language
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Aaron Coleman for Kansas / Facebook / The … The Unending Influence of ‘Boys Will Be Boys’
The saga of 19-year-old Aaron Coleman’s political candidacy has turned into a too-simple parable about forgiving youthful indiscretion.
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Montree Wongsuli / Shutterstock / The Atlantic Why the DNC Worked So Well
The Democrats, in nominating their 2020 candidates, just did something rare: They publicly acknowledged people’s pain.
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Arsh Raziuddin / The Atlantic Pop Culture Failed to Imagine Kamala Harris
Her candidacy meets a culture that, too often, still doesn’t know what to make of women who seek to lead.
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The Atlantic Before the Media Treated Him as a Threat, They Treated Him as a Joke
Roy Den Hollander, now suspected of murder, was once a mini-celebrity—a figure whose misogyny was dismissed as entertainment.
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