The Atlantic

Why Nothing Works Anymore

Technology has its own purposes.

This Article Won’t Change Your Mind

The facts on why facts alone can’t fight false beliefs

When Evidence Says No, but Doctors Say Yes

Long after research contradicts common medical practices, patients continue to demand them and physicians continue to deliver. The result is an epidemic of unnecessary and unhelpful treatments.

When Your Child Is a Psychopath

The condition has long been considered untreatable. Experts can spot it in a child as young as 3 or 4. But a new clinical approach offers hope.

The Digital Ruins of a Forgotten Future

Second Life was supposed to be the future of the internet, but then Facebook came along. Yet many people still spend hours each day inhabiting this virtual realm. Their stories—and the world they’ve built—illuminate the promise and limitations of online life.

Total Eclipse

“Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him.”

The Mystery of Why People Go Missing in Alaska

Two families, two bodies, and a wilderness of secrets

The Twilight of White America

Racial resentment and economic anxiety are not separate forces. For many Trump supporters, they are inextricably linked.

The Secret Shame of Middle-Class Americans

Nearly half of Americans would have trouble finding $400 to pay for an emergency. I’m one of them.

When Are You Really an Adult?

In an age when the line between childhood and adulthood is blurrier than ever, what is it that makes people grown up?

The Tyranny of Simple Explanations

The history of science has been distorted by a longstanding conviction that correct theories about nature are always the most elegant ones.

Rest in Peace, VCR

An elegy for the machine that let people travel through time—but only by a little

The Four-Letter Code to Selling Just About Anything

What makes things cool?

How to Sleep

Should you drink more coffee? Should you take melatonin? Can you train yourself to need less sleep? A physician’s guide to sleep in a stressful age.

Quit Your Job

A midlife career shift can be good for cognition, well-being, and even longevity.

When the Body Attacks the Mind

A physiological theory of mental illness

What’s a Language, Anyway?

The realities of speech are much more complicated than the words used to describe it.

The World’s Most Efficient Languages

How much do you really need to <em>say</em> to put a sentence together?

The Greatest Good

<span>Inspired to make a meaningful donation, I wondered: What is the best charitable cause in the world, and was it crazy to think I could find it?</span>

Letter to My Son

<span>“Here is what I would like for you to know: In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body—<em>it is heritage</em>.”</span>