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Twelve Atlantic stories not to be missed

Posted on by Taylor Reeves
Twelve Atlantic stories not to be missed

This is an edition of The Atlantic A daily newsletter that takes you through the day’s biggest stories, helps you discover new ideas and recommends the best of culture. Register here.

Read our list of popular stories from 2024, including the story of a disastrous cruise vacation, a deep dive into why Americans stopped hanging out, news of a life-changing medical breakthrough, and more.

Your 2024 reading list

The Icon of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world, docked in the harbor
Gary Shteyngart

Crying myself to sleep on the greatest cruise ship of all time

Seven agonizing nights aboard the Icon of the Seas

By Gary Shteyngart

People eat alone at separate tables in a restaurant
Alec Soth/Magnum

Why Americans suddenly stopped hanging out

Too much aloneness leads to a crisis of social fitness.

By Derek Thompson

Color illustration of a giant double helix in a shopping basket
Illustration by Akshita Chandra / The Atlantic. Source: Getty

Do you remember the DNA you gave to 23andMe?

The company is in trouble and anyone who has spit in one of its test tubes should be concerned.

By Kristen V. Brown

A photo of suitcases packed in the overhead bins of an airplane
Santiago Urquijo/Getty

The hand luggage bubble is in danger of bursting

Airplanes are not designed to carry that much luggage.

By Ian Bogost

Photo illustration featuring 18 photos of Jewish celebrities, including Bob Dylan, Henry Winkler, Barbra Streisand and more, plus lines of text in red and blue
The Atlantic*

The golden age of American Jews is coming to an end

Anti-Semitism on the right and left threatens to end an unprecedented period of security and prosperity for Jewish Americans — and destroy the liberal order they helped build.

By Franklin Foer

A dawn photo in the village of Bajo Chiquito showing a group of migrants waiting to board motorized canoes, the next step in their journey north
Lynsey Addario for The Atlantic with support from the National Geographic Society

Seventy miles in hell

The Darién Gorge was once considered impassable. Now hundreds of thousands of migrants are risking dangerous terrain, violence, hunger and disease to travel through the jungle to the United States.

By Caitlin Dickerson

Donald Trump in front of military insignia
Almond Ngan/AFP/Getty

Trump: “I need the kind of generals Hitler had”

The Republican candidate’s preoccupation with dictators and his contempt for the American military are increasing.

By Jeffrey Goldberg

An illustration of a black plastic spatula melting in a neon green cloud
Illustration from The Atlantic. Source: Getty.

Throw away your black plastic spatula

This is probably how chemicals get into your cooking oil.

By Zoë Snaker

A photo of a family with the children is cut out
Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani. Source: Getty.

The Real Reason People Don’t Have Children

It is a need that government subsidies and better family policies cannot necessarily meet.

By Christine Emba

A close-up of a girl on her cell phone
Maggie Shannon for The Atlantic

End phone-based childhood now

The environment in which children grow up today is hostile to human development.

By Jonathan Haidt

A photo of a redhead woman with her eyes closed wearing a black jacket in the sunlight with mountains and blue sky in the background
Fumi Nagasaka for The Atlantic

The cystic fibrosis breakthrough that changed everything

The disease used to guarantee an early death – but a new treatment has given many patients the chance to live decades longer than expected. What are they doing now?

By Sarah Zhang

An illustration of students sitting at desks made up of huge books
Illustration by Masha Krasnova-Shabaeva

The elite students who can’t read books

To read a book in college, it helps to have read a book in high school.

By Rose Horowitch

* Main image source “The Golden Age of American Jews Comes to an End”: Top row from left to right: Michael Ochs Archives / Getty; Universal History Archive/Getty. Middle row from left to right: Robert Mitra / WWD / Penske Media / Getty; Ulf Andersen/Getty; Jean-Régis Roustan / Roger Viollet / Getty; CBS Photo Archive/Getty; Daily Herald / Mirrorpix / Getty; Bettman/Getty; David Lefranc/Getty; Bettman/Getty; Frederick M. Brown / Getty; CBS Photo Archive/Getty; Theo Wargo/Getty; Max B. Miller / Archive Photos / Getty. Bottom row from left to right: ABC Photo Archives/Getty; Bachrach/Getty; Getty; Bernard Gotfryd/Getty.

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