The Atlantic

06/24/2026

The winners of New York's primary elections exposed a reality for America's two most powerful Democrats: They are no longer the dominant force in their own hometown, Russell Berman argues.

06/24/2026

“For Trump, capitulation to Iran is just another deal. For the rest of us, it will be something a lot more dangerous,” Tom Nichols argues:

America’s foreign policy is about one man and little else.

06/24/2026

Although most presidents become chastened about their power over time, Trump seems more eager than ever before to shed restraints—even as reality catches up to him, David A. Graham argues in The Atlantic Daily.

06/24/2026

When international visitors descended on the United States for the World Cup, one food rose above all others: ranch dressing, Ellen Cushing writes.

06/24/2026

Bill Pulte has spent his first days as the acting director of national intelligence firing senior personnel. But according to the law, he’s not even eligible for the job he occupies, Shane Harris and Vivian Salama report.

06/24/2026

The birth rate is dropping in every country, Derek Thompson wrote in May: “Is this about phones and technology, or is it a reflection of modern anxiety about the world? Or, perhaps, both?” https://theatln.tc/FmJryhX3

Thompson spoke with the economist Jesús Fernández-Villaverde about why the birth rate is dropping, why it matters, and just how steep the decline is likely to get. Read more from their conversation at the link.

📸: Rolf Zöllner / Bridgeman Images

06/24/2026

Despite the resounding victory of democratic-socialist candidates in the New York primaries, the Democrats’ moderate wing is not going extinct, Adam Serwer argues.

Democratic socialists aren’t taking over America.

06/24/2026

In a quest to find all copies of the Declaration of Independence produced between 1776 and 1826, Danielle Allen’s research team at Harvard stumbled upon something special in the small West Sussex Record Office: a large-scale ceremonial parchment of the Declaration of Independence. https://theatln.tc/JlyLsPuY

“Prior to this find, it had been thought that a single large-scale parchment existed: the one tourists can see protectively encased at the National Archives, in Washington, D.C.,” Allen wrote last year. “The unanswered question was how it had found its way to West Sussex.

The researchers hypothesized that it had originally belonged to Charles Lennox, the third Duke of Richmond. A man of radical views, Lennox was committed to the political empowerment of British citizens and was politically active in Britain before, during, and after the American Revolution. But it wasn’t until a London taxi driver mentioned some trivia to Allen’s family that the mystery really unfolded: Allen discovered that Thomas Paine, the Englishman turned American whose “Common Sense” would become the best-selling political pamphlet of the 18th century—and tilt America toward independence—had lived in Sussex for six years.

Then the connections between this radical duke and Revolutionary polemicist began to unfold. “Richmond had been the first patron of a writer who would do more than any other to stir revolutionary sentiment in the colonies,” Allen continued.

“The American colonists, we’ve come to understand, learned how to govern themselves partly because the British government was an ocean away. Then, when Crown and Parliament sought to assert more control, the homegrown spirit of self-government rose up to resist. But this leaves out an earlier chapter, one centered not in Boston but in London,” Allen writes at the link.

📸: Portrait of Charles Lennox, the third Duke of Richmond, by George Romney, circa 1776 (The Picture Art Collection / Alamy)

06/24/2026

AI may be particularly dangerous for people prone to health anxieties, Sage Lazzaro reported in April. She spoke with therapists who are concerned that AI chatbots are leading their clients to constantly seek reassurance, exacerbating their conditions. https://theatln.tc/Tp1wfgAU

Experts believe that upwards of 12 percent of the population may be affected by health anxiety. According to data from OpenAI published by Axios, more than 40 million people turn to the chatbot for medical information every day. The company leaned into the habit by introducing ChatGPT Health, encouraging users to upload their medical documents, test results, and data from wellness apps, and to talk with ChatGPT about their health, Lazzaro writes.

George Mallon was one of those people—after preliminary results from a routine blood test indicated that he may have blood cancer, Mallon was left in suspense as he waited for further testing. He did what so many others do, and opened ChatGPT. For nearly two weeks, he spent hours each day talking with the chatbot about the potential diagnosis. “It just sent me around on this crazy Ferris wheel of emotion and fear,” Mallon told Lazzaro. Even when tests confirmed it wasn’t cancer after all, he continued to spiral—and he says the chatbot kept the conversation going.

Mallon believes that the cancer scare and ChatGPT together caused him to develop crippling health anxiety. “But he blames the chatbot for keeping him spiraling even after the additional tests indicated that he wasn’t sick,” Lazzaro writes.

“Therapeutic best practices for managing health anxiety hinge on building self-trust, tolerating uncertainty, and resisting the urge to seek reassurance, but ChatGPT eagerly provides personalized comfort and is available 24/7. That type of feedback only feeds the condition,” Lazzaro continues.

Read more at the link.

🎨: Deena So Oteh

06/24/2026

“Friendship is … a bulwark against stasis, a potential source of creativity and renewal in lives that otherwise narrow with time,” Jennifer Senior wrote in 2022. https://theatln.tc/VSmA4zBI

🎨: Oliver Munday