The Conversation

Qatar Responds: Don’t Cancel the 2022 World Cup

The tournament’s host country pushes back on Franklin Foer’s proposal that FIFA change course and reallocate funds to women’s soccer.

• Jul 15, 2019

Readers Defend the Boomer Generation

“Greed and self-interest know no generational boundaries.”

• Jul 1, 2019

Letters: The Navy Was ‘Conceding Defeat to an Overbearing President’

Members of the American military weigh in on the USS John S. McCain scandal.

• Jun 19, 2019

Letters: Confronting Biological Denialism on Campus

Readers discuss the dangers that arise when students reject well-established scientific ideas—and suggest ways to encourage productive dialogue.

• Jun 13, 2019

Letters: The Meaning of Shakespeare's Identity

Readers discuss the possibility that the person behind Shakespeare’s works was not the man buried in Stratford.

• Jun 8, 2019

Letters: The Two Types of Airport People

People who arrive at the airport early aren’t “overprepared,” one reader argues. “They’re just organized.”

• Jun 7, 2019

Letters: ‘There’s a Joy in Interacting With the Printed Word’

Readers discuss the decline in the use of library books at colleges and universities.

• Jun 1, 2019

Letters: Should New York City Change the Admissions Process for Its Specialized High Schools?

Readers debate the merits of the city’s Specialized High School Admissions Test—and discuss whether it should be phased out altogether.

• May 26, 2019

Letters: ‘I Had Minestrone Soup for Breakfast’

Readers discuss what they like to eat for their first meal of the day.

• May 21, 2019

Atlantic Readers Assess the Impact of the Political Generation Gap

“The Democratic Party must learn from the mistakes of 1968 and be more open to diversified discourse if it wants to effectively use generational shifts to its advantage.”

• May 14, 2019

Letters: College Students ‘Want to Speak to the Manager’

Readers respond to Tom Nichols’s criticism of recent student activism on college campuses.

• May 12, 2019

Atlantic Readers Advocate for Diversity in Medical Schools

“We call on our colleagues in medical education to seek out minority students and support them throughout their medical career.”

• May 5, 2019

A Former Jeopardy Champion Scrutinizes James Holzhauer’s Strategy

“I think he has a good shot at beating Ken Jennings’s overall earnings, but I don’t see him winning anywhere near the 74 consecutive games Jennings won.”

• Apr 30, 2019

Letters: ‘We Never Get Formal Teaching in How to Argue’

Readers discuss whether “erisology”—a new discipline studying unsuccessful disagreement—can usefully augment the work of preexisting fields.

• Apr 30, 2019

Letters: Is Political Comedy Dead?

Readers respond to Andrew Ferguson’s argument that the White House Correspondents’ Dinner represents a kind of joke telling whose moment has passed.

• Apr 27, 2019

A Georgetown Student Defends the Reparations Referendum

“I have no interest in seeing Georgetown front the money promised by this referendum, because I have no interest in seeing Georgetown co-opt this referendum as its own contribution.”

• Apr 24, 2019

Letter: The Census Citizenship Question Is a ‘Nonissue’

An interviewer for the U.S. Census Bureau explains that citizenship information is already available through the American Community Survey.

• Apr 23, 2019

Letters: ‘My Heart Broke When I Found Out Notre-Dame Was Burning’

Readers lament the damage sustained by the cathedral—and discuss its rebuilding.

• Apr 18, 2019

Atlantic Readers on Reading (and Rereading) Slaughterhouse-Five

“If you are troubled by your life, your relationships, politics, cruelty in the world, turning 50, global warming, that’s why you need to read this book.”

• Apr 16, 2019

Letters: ‘You Should See What He’s Done to Satire’

Readers debate whether President Trump has rendered fiction redundant.

• Apr 14, 2019