241 episodes

The Atlantic has long been known as an ideas-driven magazine. Now we’re bringing that same ethos to audio. Like the magazine, the show will “road test” the big ideas that both drive the news and shape our culture. Through conversations—and sometimes sharp debates—with the most insightful thinkers and writers on topics of the day, Radio Atlantic will complicate overly simplistic views. It will cut through the noise with clarifying, personal narratives. It will, hopefully, help listeners make up their own mind about certain ideas.
The national conversation right now can be chaotic, reckless, and stuck. Radio Atlantic aims to bring some order to our thinking—and encourage listeners to be purposeful about how they unstick their mind.

Radio Atlantic The Atlantic

    • News
    • 4.3 • 1.8K Ratings

The Atlantic has long been known as an ideas-driven magazine. Now we’re bringing that same ethos to audio. Like the magazine, the show will “road test” the big ideas that both drive the news and shape our culture. Through conversations—and sometimes sharp debates—with the most insightful thinkers and writers on topics of the day, Radio Atlantic will complicate overly simplistic views. It will cut through the noise with clarifying, personal narratives. It will, hopefully, help listeners make up their own mind about certain ideas.
The national conversation right now can be chaotic, reckless, and stuck. Radio Atlantic aims to bring some order to our thinking—and encourage listeners to be purposeful about how they unstick their mind.

    Russia’s Psychological Warfare Against Ukraine

    Russia’s Psychological Warfare Against Ukraine

    After months of struggle with little movement, the war in Ukraine may be nearing a crucial point. With American aid stalled for months, the fight has not been going well for Ukraine. Weapons and ammunition are once again on the way after the long-delayed package passed last month. But will it be enough in time? Russia has broken through the lines around Ukraine’s second-largest city and appears ready to threaten a wider offensive.

    Atlantic staff writer Anne Applebaum joins to discuss the state of the war and how the fight extends well beyond the battlefield itself. Her June cover story in The Atlantic chronicles the “new propaganda war” that Russia, China, and other illiberal states are waging on the democratic world, and how that war can shape the fate of Ukraine.

    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.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 31 min
    Finally, Male Contraceptives

    Finally, Male Contraceptives

    Researchers have been hard at work on a number of male contraceptives that could hit the market in the next couple of decades. Options include a hormone-free birth control pill, an injection that accomplishes the same thing as a vasectomy but is easily reversible, and a topical gel men can rub on their shoulders that doesn’t affect mood or libido. 


    There is a recurring theme in the research on male contraceptives: easy, convenient, minimal side effects. Which is very much not the focus of women’s contraceptive options. What changes in a future in which male contraceptives are readily available, and a routine part of men’s health care? We talk to staff writer Katie Wu.

    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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    • 27 min
    The Chaos of AI Voice Cloning

    The Chaos of AI Voice Cloning

    What happens when voices can be copied so well they can fool friends, family… and voters?

    Staff writer Charlie Warzel has followed the explosion of AI technology with a mix of fascination and fear. DALL-E, Midjourney, Chat-GPT. New leaps in AI tech seem to happen every month now. Recently, he narrowed in on AI voice cloning for a feature for The Atlantic.

    He and host Hanna Rosin cloned their voices and tested it out before a live audience at the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival. What are the promises of the technology? And what are the perils?

    Related Atlantic Podcast: How to Know What's Real 
    Subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | | Pocket Casts

    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.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 33 min
    If Plants Could Talk

    If Plants Could Talk

    Staff writer Zoë Schlanger is the proud owner of a petunia that glows in the dark. But she doesn’t just appreciate the novelty houseplant as work of science. Zoë sees its glow as a way to help us appreciate plants as more alive, more vital, and more complex than we humans typically do. Because in recent years, some scientists have reopened a provocative debate: Are plants intelligent?
    They’ve devised  experiments that break down elements of this big broad question: Can plants be said to hear? Sense touch? Communicate? Make decisions? Recognize kin? 
    Schlanger is the author of the upcoming book: The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life in Earth. How could a thing without a brain be considered intelligent? Schlanger has spoken with dozens of botanists, from the most renegade to the most cautious, and she reports back on the state of the revolution in thinking. 
    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.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 29 min
    In Search of America on the Biggest Cruise Ship Ever

    In Search of America on the Biggest Cruise Ship Ever

    Writer Gary Shteyngart set sail on the inaugural voyage of the biggest cruise ship ever built—the Icon of the Seas—in search of the "real" America. (And maybe to throw a great suite party along the way.) What he found instead, like many a great novelist before him, was a far more isolating experience. Shteyngart recounts his "seven agonizing nights" aboard a giant floating mall full of memorable characters, bad entertainment, even worse food—and the ever-present desire to keep up.
    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.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 24 min
    Trump’s Courtroom Campaign

    Trump’s Courtroom Campaign

    The Stormy Daniels case may have a less serious fact pattern. But it might turn out to be the one chance to hold Donald Trump accountable for election interference. Atlantic staff writer David Graham explains the importance of the case and how Trump might actually be enjoying this new form of courtroom campaigning.

    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.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 28 min

Customer Reviews

4.3 out of 5
1.8K Ratings

1.8K Ratings

profroguerouge ,

Good, but some blind spots

An entire show on grocery prices that doesn’t talk in depth about the centralization of food stores, food deserts, poverty, or Big Ag. There’s a lot of these episodes that seem willfully blind. This show needs to work on its blind spots.

Rickda nurse ,

Always look forward to time with Hanna!

As a longtime reader of The Atlantic, I appreciate the topics and depth of presentation by Hanna and her crew. I find these topics interesting (even if I wasn’t hooked by the title initially). This is the goal of solid authorship. I read The Atlantic cover-to-cover every month just for that. As one of my favorite authors I thoroughly enjoy listening to Hanna and her guests!

Educated yourself ,

You are the best!

Thank you for your bringing us the news.

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