The Atlantic Daily
Bhumika Tharoor
Managing editor
In case you’re settling into winter and lamenting not having read everything The Atlantic has published this year, you’re in luck. I’ve created a list of stories you may have missed that are very much worth your time. The assortment ranges widely: eating an organ feast in Mark Twain’s Paris, experiencing a comedy-show adventure in Riyadh, drifting after a shipwreck in the Pacific, and diving into the secrets of the Inca empire. “What Parents of Boys Should Know” sparked many conversations in my group chats, as did this photo of Abraham Lincoln’s ear being cleaned. There are stories that contextualized a chaotic moment for the American experiment, drawing deeply on history.
Below is a selection from the list of stories I compiled. Read the full list here. I hope you’ll spend time with these stories, and I would love to hear what you think. Send me a note: btharoor@theatlantic.com.
Your Reading List
I Watched Stand-Up in Saudi Arabia
By Helen Lewis
What the surreal Riyadh Comedy Festival foretold about the kingdom’s future
The New Rasputins
By Anne Applebaum
Anti-science mysticism is enabling autocracy around the globe.
America and Its Universities Need a New Social Contract
By Danielle Allen
Fifty dollars for STEM, five cents for citizenship—that’s how America apportions its education dollars. Our beleaguered universities must redress the balance—helping the country and themselves.
What Parents of Boys Should Know
By Joshua Coleman
Daughters tend to receive higher levels of affection and patience at home than sons. But the sons might need it more.
Is This the Worst-Ever Era of American Pop Culture?
By Spencer Kornhaber
An emerging critical consensus argues that we’ve entered a cultural dark age. I’m not so sure.
My Shipwreck Story
By Alec Frydman
On my first time out as a commercial fisherman, my boat sank, my captain died, and I was left adrift and alone in the Pacific.
An Innocent Abroad in Mark Twain’s Paris
By Caity Weaver
My quest for a true literary experience resulted in choucroute, a surprise organ feast, an epiphany at the Louvre, existential dread, and a rowboat
A PTSD Therapy ‘Seemed Too Good to Be True’
By Yasmin Tayag
What if overcoming trauma can be painless?
What the Founders Would Say Now
By Fintan O’Toole
They might be surprised that the republic exists at all.
Evening Read
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Culture Break
Watch. Here are the 10 best movies of 2025, according to our critic David Sims.
Explore. What’s the point of school photos anymore? The portraits are kitschy and expensive—but parents can’t seem to stop buying them, Annie Midori Atherton writes.
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In questo spazio non si paga per entrare: si entra perché si riconosce un’eco,
un frammento di sé, un varco che merita di essere custodito.
Se desideri sostenere questo lavoro con un gesto libero, puoi farlo qui:
This space does not ask for payment to enter: you enter because you recognize an echo,
a fragment of yourself, a threshold worth preserving.
If you wish to support this work with a free and voluntary gesture, you may do so here:
En este espacio no se paga por entrar: se entra porque uno reconoce un eco,
un fragmento de sí mismo, un umbral que merece ser cuidado.
Si deseas apoyar este trabajo con un gesto libre y voluntario, puedes hacerlo aquí:
