Radio Atlantic

Latest Episodes:

Water Is Not Political Mar 13, 2025

Show notes

How has the cease-fire changed water access in Gaza? And what does it mean when the people in charge of keeping the water flowing are displaced? Host Hanna Rosin talks with Claudine Ebeid, The Atlantic’s executive producer of audio, who reports on her visit with water worker Marwan Bardawil, who is now a Gazan refugee living in Egypt.

Read more about Marwan Bardawil’s journey: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2025/02/gaza-needs-clean-water/681583/

Listen to our previous Radio Atlantic episode with Marwan: https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2023/11/the-man-working-to-keep-the-water-on-in-gaza/675877/

Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/podsub.

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The Mind Readers Mar 06, 2025

Show notes

How far would a parent go to understand their child? How much might a parent believe?

A popular new podcast claims that some nonspeaking kids with autism can read people’s minds. But is it real? Or does it just come from a deep desire to connect?

Read Dan Engber’s story at The Atlantic here.

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What Does a Robot With a Soul Sound Like? Feb 28, 2025

Show notes

The sound designer Randy Thom was faced with a challenge: What does a robot sound like? And what if that robot learns to love?

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The Five Eyes Have Noticed Feb 27, 2025

Show notes

We talk with staff writer Anne Applebaum about what she calls the “end of the post–World War II order.” We also talk with staff writer Shane Harris, who covers national security, about how intelligence agencies are responding to changing positions under the Trump administration. Allies that routinely share intelligence with the U.S. are reassessing how much to trust the U.S.

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Americans Are Stuck. Who's to Blame? Feb 20, 2025

Show notes

Americans used to move all the time to better their lives. Then they stopped. Why?

Read Yoni Appelbaum’s cover story on The Atlantic here.

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The Strange, Lonely Childhood of Neko Case Feb 13, 2025

Show notes

In a new memoir, the singer-songwriter Neko Case recounts a childhood of poverty and neglect: a mother who left her and a father who was barely there. But there was also music. And when there was nothing else, that was, perhaps, enough.

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Purge Now, Pay Later Feb 06, 2025

Show notes

Parts of the federal government are being dismantled. But although the decisions from President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are unusual—perhaps even unprecedented—are they constitutional? The Atlantic staff writers Jonathan Chait and Shane Harris break down the administration’s latest moves and who might really end up paying for them later.

Read more from Chait and Harris about this story on The Atlantic here and here.

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The War for Your Attention Jan 30, 2025

Show notes

Our attention is finite and valuable. And it’s nearing its breaking point. In a new book, MSNBC host Chris Hayes explains how everything—from politics to media to technology—has come to revolve around the pursuit of it and how we’ve lost control of where we actually want our attention to go.

Read more about Hayes’ book The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource at The Atlantic here.

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The Chaos of Blanket Pardons Jan 23, 2025

Show notes

In a matter of hours after being sworn into office, President Donald Trump delivered on a promise in a way that even high-level Republicans didn’t see coming. Trump granted sweeping pardons for more than 1,500 January 6 defendants.

In this episode of Radio Atlantic, Hanna encounters Oath Keeper leader Stewart Rhodes, who is walking free after a commutation from Trump, and she talks with the families of two men who were convicted of crimes for their actions on January 6, and are now newly freed.

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January 6 and the Case for Oblivion Jan 16, 2025

Show notes

As Donald Trump prepares to take office again, the country is still coming to terms with what happened on January 6, 2021. But perhaps the best way to move forward is to neither forgive nor forget the past—but obliterate it.

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