Radio Atlantic

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Charlottesville: One Year Later Aug 10, 2018

Show notes

It’s been a year since the violence of the “Unite the Right” rally and the political turmoil of its aftermath. How did Charlottesville change the country? Has the alt-right withered under the new scrutiny or grown amidst the new visibility? And what responsibility do tech platforms have to stop the spread of hateful ideologies?

Links

- "The White Nationalists Are Winning" (Adam Serwer, August 10, 2018)

- “White threat in a browning America” (Ezra Klein, Vox, July 30, 2018)

- “The Hate Report: The alt-right is down, but not out” (Will Carless and Aaron Sankin, Reveal, June 1, 2018)

- “The Defense That Failed White Nationalists” (Adam Serwer, May 10, 2018)

- “The Lost Boys” (Angela Nagle, December 2017 Issue)

- “The Hoods Are Off” (Matt Thompson, August 12, 2017)

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Keepers of the Year 2018 Jul 20, 2018

Show notes

The first anniversary of Radio Atlantic this week coincides with one of the newsiest weeks of 2018. So we’ve decided to take the opportunity to lift our sights above the fog of news for a few minutes, and discuss the things that are most important to remember—the Keepers of the Year. We revisit some of the most memorable keepers of the show’s earliest months, and share reflections from our Atlantic colleagues.

Links

- “Nanette Is a Radical, Transformative Work of Comedy” (Sophie Gilbert, June 27, 2018)

- Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (Neil Postman, 1985)

- “My Family's Slave” (Alex Tizon, June 2017 Issue)

- “Complicating the Narratives” (Amanda Ripley, Medium, June 27, 2018)

- “how to do nothing” (Jenny Odell, Medium, June 29, 2017)

- “Philip Roth's final interview: 'Life can stop on a dime'” (Charles Mcgrath, Irish Times, January 22, 2018)

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The Future of Europe Jul 13, 2018

Show notes

As President Trump meets with other western leaders in Europe, the spirit of democratic cooperation we’re used to in NATO summits is gone. But it’s not just Trump. Populist movements around Europe are agitating against the cooperation that has bound the continent since World War II. Where is the West headed? Is this a short-term fever brought on by unique stresses? Or does it herald a re-fracturing of the continent? Are the ‘member states’ of Europe becoming ‘nation states’ again?

Links

- “Angela Merkel, Escape Artist” (Yasmeen Serhan, July 3, 2018)

- “What If Russia Invaded the Baltics—and Donald Trump Was President?” (Uri Friedman, July 27, 2016)

- “England’s Unfamiliar Emotion: Hope” (Sophie Gilbert, July 10, 2018)

- “Why Didn't Boris Johnson Get Fired Before He Quit?” (Yasmeen Serhan, July 9, 2018)

- “The End of the Brexit Illusion” (David Frum, July 9, 2018)

- “Trump’s Plan to End Europe” (David Frum, May 2017 Issue)

- Educated (Tara Westover, 2018)

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Are We Ready for the Next Pandemic? Jul 06, 2018

Show notes

“Humanity is now in the midst of its fastest-ever period of change,” writes Ed Yong in the July/August issue of The Atlantic. Urbanization and globalization mean pathogens can spread and become drug-resistant more quickly than ever.

Yong joins executive editor Matt Thompson and fellow science writer Sarah Zhang to discuss what vulnerabilities exist a century after the 1918 pandemic, and how our sharpest risks might be societal and psychological.

Links

- “The Next Plague Is Coming. Is America Ready?” (Ed Yong, July/August 2018 Issue)

- “VIDEO: Is Trump Ready for a Global Outbreak?” (Ed Yong, Jun 14, 2018)

- “China Is Genetically Engineering Monkeys With Brain Disorders” (Sarah Zhang, June 8, 2018)

- “The Perfect Storm Behind This Year's Nasty Flu Season” (Sarah Zhang, January 13, 2018)

- “Trees That Have Lived for Millennia Are Suddenly Dying” (Ed Yong, Jun 11, 2018)

- @sarahzhang on Twitter; @-mention her if you’ve read Audrey Schulman’s A Theory of Bastards

- 160 Years of Atlantic Stories

- “How Bad Is the Flu?” (Justina Hill, March 1944 Issue)

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The View from the Border Jun 21, 2018

Show notes

Outrage over families separated at the border has reached a fever pitch. Social media is awash with images of undocumented migrants held in cages, sounds of children crying for their parents, and viral videos of a callous administration response. On Wednesday, President Trump caved to immense political pressure and signed an executive order meant to end family separation at the border. But what effect will it actually have?

Video producer Jeremy Raff has been in McAllen, Texas, attending "mass trials" of immigrants—many of whom have been separated from their children with no certainty on when, or if, they will be reunited. Raff shares what's happening along the border, then staff writer Priscilla Alvarez joins to discuss what the news in Washington means for separated families.

Links

- "Purgatory at the Border" (Jeremy Raff, June 19, 2018)

- "'So What? Maybe It Is a Concentration Camp'" (Jeremy Raff, February 23, 2018)

- "Extinguishing the Beacon of America" (Alex Wagner, June 15, 2018)

- "Trump Says He Will End the Family Separations He Imposed" (David A. Graham, June 20, 2018)

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Being Black in America Can Be Hazardous to Your Health Jun 15, 2018

Show notes

Nationwide, black Americans live three years less than white Americans. In places with a history of segregation, that life-expectancy gap can be as much as twenty years. Staff writer Olga Khazan joins Matt Thompson, Alex Wagner, and Vann Newkirk to share the story of Kiarra Boulware, a young black woman from Baltimore whose struggles shed a light on how people living only a few miles apart have such disparate health prospects

Links

- “Being Black in America Can Be Hazardous to Your Health” (Olga Khazan, July/August 2018 Issue

- “The 'Horrifying' Consequence of Lead Poisoning” (Olga Khazan, November 8, 2017)

- “The Lead-Poisoned Generation in New Orleans” (Vann R. Newkirk II, May 21, 2017)

- “How Income Affects the Brain” (Olga Khazan, May 15, 2018)

- “The Obesity Cure Is Out of Reach in the Heaviest States” (Olga Khazan, May 7, 2018)

- “Trump's EPA Concludes Environmental Racism Is Real” (Vann R. Newkirk II, February 28, 2018)

- “Food Swamps Are the New Food Deserts” (Olga Khazan, December 28, 2017)

- “What the 'Crack Baby' Panic Reveals About The Opioid Epidemic” (Vann R. Newkirk II, July 16, 2017)

- “The Fight for Health Care Has Always Been About Civil Rights” (Vann R. Newkirk II, June 27, 2017)

- “VIDEO: Environmental Racism Is the New Jim Crow” (Vann R. Newkirk II, June 5, 2017)

- “When You Can't Afford Sleep” (Olga Khazan, September 15, 2014)

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The North Korea Summit Jun 08, 2018

Show notes

Two of the world’s most volatile heads of state—Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump—have moved in the span of a year from trading insults to trading fawning letters. Now, they're days away from the first meeting between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader. Between Kim's nuclear ambitions and Trump's political pressures, the stakes of this exchange couldn’t be higher. Are we headed toward the world’s most unlikely match? Or its worst diplomatic divorce?

Links

- “The Threat to Kim Jong Un Within North Korea” (Uri Friedman, June 4, 2018)

- “So Is the North Korea Summit Back On, or What?” (Uri Friedman, May 31, 2018)

- “How South Korea Pulled Trump and Kim Back From the Brink” (Uri Friedman, May 27, 2018)

- “South Korea’s President Moon is the man in the (very precarious) middle” (Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Washington Post, May 28, 2018)

- “Former South Korean National-Security Adviser: The U.S. May Have to Withdraw Some Troops” (Uri Friedman, May 23, 2018)

- “Trumpism: Speak Loudly and Carry a Big Stick" (Uri Friedman, April 6, 2018)

- “The Man Behind the North Korea Negotiations” (S. Nathan Park, March 12, 2018)

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A White House Troll ‘Owning the Libs’ Jun 01, 2018

Show notes

A new generation of political activists have grown up more interested in provoking outrage from their fellow citizens than in winning them over. Among the most influential exemplars of the genre is Stephen Miller, a senior policy adviser to President Trump. What happens when the trolls run politics? What happens when they run the White House?

Links

- “Trump’s Right-Hand Troll” (McKay Coppins, May 28, 2018)

- “How an Aspiring It-Girl Tricked New York's Party People - and Its Biggest Banks” (Jessica Pressler, New York Magazine, May 28, 2018)

- “Review: 'Children of Blood and Bone,' by Tomi Adeyemi” (Vann R. Newkirk II, April 2018 Issue)

- “This Is The Daily Stormer’s Playbook” (Ashley Feinberg, Huffington Post, December 13, 2017)

- “Watch: Young Stephen Miller jokes “torture is a celebration of life”” (Noah Kulwin, Vice, May 30, 2017)

- “The Future of Trumpism Is on Campus” (Elaine Godfrey, January 2, 2018)

- “Is Free Speech Really Challenged on Campus?” (Julian E. Zelizer and Morton Keller, September 15, 2017)

- “Trolls Are Winning the Internet, Technologists Say” (Adrienne LaFrance, March 29, 2017)

- “The First Troll” (James Parker, December 2016 Issue)

- “Should We Feed the Trolls?” (Adrienne LaFrance, April 28, 2016)

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Is the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Past Solving? May 25, 2018

Show notes

The decades-old dispute between Israelis and Palestinians seems to be at a new low these days. Two American-born writers – an Israeli author and a Muslim journalist – join editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg and global editor Kathy Gilsinan to grapple with the bleak state of affairs. Yossi Klein Halevi is the author of the new book Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor. Wajahat Ali recently traveled to the West Bank to write “A Muslim Among Israeli Settlers” for the June 2018 issue of The Atlantic. The four discuss how we got here and what paths forward remain.

Links

- “A Muslim Among Israeli Settlers” (Wajahat Ali, June 2018 Issue)

- "Settlers in the 'Most Contentious Place on Earth'" (Wajahat Ali, May 10, 2018)

- “The Real Dispute Driving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” (Yossi Klein Halevi, May 14, 2018)

- Yossi Klein Halevi joined Jeffrey Goldberg on The Atlantic Interview (May 1, 2018)

- “Jerusalem’s Ramadan Is Different This Year” (Emma Green, May 18, 2018)

- “The Coming Storm in Israel” (Neri Zilber, May 11, 2018)

- “Iran vs. Israel: Is a Major War Ahead?” (Avi Issacharoff, May 11, 2018)

- “Celebration in Jerusalem, Bloodshed in Gaza” (Emma Green, May 14, 2018)

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Happy Mueller-versary May 18, 2018

Show notes

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has been the focus of headlines and cable news for a full year now. Despite his seemingly leak-proof team, speculation and anxiety swirl around the inquiry. What do we actually know about the investigation? How much deeper does the iceberg go? And where is it heading next?

Links

- "The Lingering Mysteries of a Trump-Russia Conspiracy" (Natasha Bertrand, May 16, 2018)

- "Trump Finally Fesses Up to Reimbursing Michael Cohen" (David A. Graham, May 16, 2018)

- “What Exactly Is Rudy Giuliani's Role?” (David A. Graham, May 7, 2018)

- "Trump Goes to War With Mueller" (David A. Graham, May 2, 2018)

- "Mueller's Probe Is Even More Expansive Than It Seems" (Natasha Bertrand, May 14, 2018)

- "'These Are Very Dangerous Questions for the President'" (Adam Serwer, May 1, 2018)

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