The New Normal
The Atlantic’s guide to life during the COVID-19 pandemic
The Atlantic’s guide to life during the COVID-19 pandemic
Throughout the pandemic, Americans have been tempted to violate public-health experts’ recommendations. The winter holidays might be the strongest temptation yet.
If I were a perfect social-distancer, I would have stayed home. But I wouldn’t have Sam.
The collective sense of closure we’re all longing for may never arrive. Instead, brace for a slow fade into a new normal.
Missing out on fall traditions—even the stressful ones—can make uncertain times harder to bear for kids and grown-ups alike.
The Great Depression permanently altered many people’s behavior. Could COVID-19 do the same?
Sensing that they’re living through a historic moment, many people are journaling to create a keepsake of life during the pandemic.
The coronavirus could change lingering cultural assumptions about what makes for a full and happy life.
Married life is already the purview of the privileged. The economic crisis will only make things worse.
The narrative of family as the most legitimate form of care during the pandemic can make it hard to see all the creative ways people are showing up for one another.
The pandemic has already taken a toll on the careers of those with young children—particularly mothers.
Moving in with your parents is often seen as a mark of irresponsibility. The pandemic might show the country that it shouldn’t be.
As states and cities waffle on pandemic restrictions, public health has become individuals’ responsibility.
In some ways, the pandemic put time on fast-forward. In others, it transported us back—way back—into the past.
If catching a movie at these establishments once offered a sojourn into the past, going to one amid the pandemic provides a glimpse of the future.
The pandemic made every non-cohabiting couple a long-distance one—and effectively stopped a whole legion of blossoming romances in their tracks.
Those who reject facial coverings during the pandemic do so amid broad consensus about what public safety demands.
If your attention span is frazzled, explore the compact joys of the 30-minute format.
Here’s the speech that graduates need to hear.
Hulu’s new satire may be set in 18th-century Russia, but it understands the theatrical and nearsighted politics of the current moment.
As players return to empty arenas, they are discovering a basic truth: Live sports is an act of social imagination.