The Atlantic Interview

Holy Week: The story of a revolution undone. The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, is often recounted as a conclusion to a powerful era of civil rights in America, but how did this hero’s murder come to be the stitching used to tie together a narrative of victory? The week that followed his killing was one of the most fiery, disruptive, and revolutionary, and is nearly forgotten. Over the course of eight episodes, Holy Week brings forward the stories of the activists who turned heartbreak into action, families scorched by chaos, and politicians who worked to contain the grief. Seven days diverted the course of a social revolution and set the stage for modern clashes over voting rights, redlining, critical race theory, and the role of racial unrest in today’s post–George Floyd reckoning. Subscribe and listen to all 8 episodes now: theatlantic.com/holyweek Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Atlantic's editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg talks with staff writer Caitlin Dickerson about her recent piece, "An American Catastrophe," a comprehensive investigation of the Trump administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their families. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Disinformation is the story of our age. We see it used as a tactic of war and to further embolden autocrats.. The very tools that once helped pro-democracy movements are now being used to disseminate falsehoods—misleading the public and threatening the strength of democracies around the globe.  Former President Barack Obama and editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg talk about disinformation—how to define it, how to combat it, why it threatens democratic stability around the world, and how future generations can uphold truth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new podcast from The Atlantic and WNYC Studios, The Experiment, tells stories from our unfinished country. On the first episode, host Julia Longoria tells the story of the “zone of death,” where a legal glitch could short-circuit the Constitution—a place where, technically, you could get away with murder. At a time when we’re surrounded by preventable deaths, we document one journey to avert disaster. Listen and subscribe to The Experiment: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Atlantic has launched three new podcasts this year: Social Distance, Floodlines, and The Ticket. Subscribe to keep up with Atlantic journalism. Subscribe to Social Distance: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pocket Casts Subscribe to Floodlines: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pocket Casts Subscribe to The Ticket: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pocket Casts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we bring you the second episode of our new show Crazy/Genius, hosted by Atlantic staff writer Derek Thompson. In this episode, Derek asks if Amazon –  which may soon be the first trillion-dollar company in the history of the world – has become a dangerous monopoly threatening the U.S. economy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“I discovered the reality and the power of Palestinian identity by getting a rock thrown at my head.” Israel author Yossi Klein Halevi joins The Atlantic's editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg to discuss the conflict in the Middle East and his new book Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor. Halevi shares how he believes Israelis need to both remember that they live in a world where genocide is possible and to remember that they were strangers in the land of Egypt. “And if you don’t have both of those sensibilities, then you are a one-dimensional Jew,” says Halevi. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pete Souza spent eight years photographing the Obama White House, an effort he now chronicles his new book Obama: An Intimate Portrait. Souza joins The Atlantic's editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg to share the stories behind his most famous photos: a 5-year-old boy patting the president's head, the tense scene in the Situation Room during the mission against Osama bin Laden, and many more. What was it like to be a fly on the wall in the West Wing? (View the photos discussed here.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Madeleine Albright considers Donald Trump "the first antidemocratic president in modern U.S. history." Alarmed at the rise in authoritarian tendencies around the world, the former Secretary of State has written a new book, Fascism: A Warning. Twice a refugee of her native Czechoslovakia – first from the Nazi invasion, then later from the Communist coup – Albright is all too familiar with the loss of democracy. In a conversation on stage at Sixth & I with The Atlantic's editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, Albright shares her thoughts on President Trump, her worries about fascism, and what it’s like to get interrupted by a porn star.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"For decades, examining race in America meant focusing on the advancement and struggles of people of color. Under this framework, being white was simply the default," writes Michele Norris in National Geographic's issue on race. Previously a host of NPR's All Things Considered, Norris is now the Director of The Bridge – the Aspen Institute's new program on race, identity and inclusion – building on her work as the founder of The Race Card Project. She tells The Atlantic's editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg that the public clashes over race may get our attention, but they also distract from the private conversations going on across America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"There is a difference between remembrance of history and reverence of it," said New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu in his now-famous speech in May of 2017. As Landrieu said those words, city workers a few blocks away uprooted an enormous statue of Robert E. Lee – the last of four Confederate monuments the mayor removed from the city after a years-long process. In a conversation with The Atlantic's editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, Landrieu discusses the politics of race in the south, his grappling with history as a white southerner, and his own family’s connection to the story of civil rights in America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The growing prominence of The Atlantic's national correspondent Ta-Nehisi Coates means that he's often asked to comment on matters on which he lacks expertise, but he demurs. In a conversation with The Atlantic's editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, recorded in front of an audience at South by Southwest in Austin, Coates explains why he isn't interested in interviewing Donald Trump, why he cannot use Twitter ever again, and how his complicated feelings about America inflect his writing for Captain America.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amy Klobuchar, the first woman to be elected U.S. Senator from Minnesota, has been been working faithfully toward little victories in Donald Trump's Washington. Now, she's turned her attention toward that unicorn of lawmakers all over the country--a sensible gun bill that can get around the National Rifle Association. She talks to the Atlantic's editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg about how this time might be different, and why she is taking Donald Trump at his word. They also discuss her tater tot hotdish recipe.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Caitlin Flanagan wrote a devastating story about the death of a fraternity pledge at Penn State University for the Atlantic last year, and she has updates on the case for editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg. They discuss why fraternities are still attractive to straight, white, well-off young men on college campuses. Flanagan has also started fighting feminists, with her provocative essays on how some women are turning the #MeToo movement into a racket. She sees some women using the moment to take revenge against individual men while doing nothing to topple the patriarchy. She talks about why millennial women are confused and angry about their sexual encounters. She also says that our fear of toxic masculinity is crowding out an honest look at toxic femininity.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The mission of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to ease suffering around the world may be somewhat at odds with the "America First" sentiments that propelled Donald Trump into the presidency. But Bill Gates is moving ahead with enthusiasm. He tells Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic's editor in chief, why he's still optimistic, and how he feels about no longer being the richest man in the world.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steve Coll is one of the foremost chroniclers of the war in Afghanistan, now in its eighteenth year. Coll talks with Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg about why the war has persisted, well after the idea of a military solution lost any luster it might have had. They discuss Pakistan's struggles during the war in Afghanistan, and why disrupting the terrorism networks that now thrive in the area might require much more than just American troops. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mollie Hemingway, a senior editor for the Federalist and Fox News contributor, finds most of the media's histrionics over President Donald Trump to be overblown. While she won't let her kids listen to the president's most vulgar remarks, she's willing to defend his policies and his record, a fact which has cost her some friends. She talks to Jeffrey Goldberg, the Atlantic's editor in chief, about where she finds Trump most effective, and what his successes mean for American politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Israeli chef Mike Solomonov recently won the James Beard Award for outstanding chef. He created the restaurant Zahav in Philadelphia, built a food empire, and expertly hid a drug addiction from everyone in his life. He talks with Jeffrey Goldberg, the Atlantic's editor in chief, about what he felt when his brother was killed, and how the tragedy first fueled and then helped him fight his addiction. Now in a long recovery, he cooks Israeli food as a kind of cultural mission. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Atlantic's editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg revisits a persistent problem in the tech industry: Why is it so difficult for people who aren't white and male? He talks with Tracy Chou, an engineer and long-time veteran of the start-up world whose current work focuses on that problem. She discusses her own experiences with harassment and discrimination, and why those experiences didn't drive her out of tech, as they did for many others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For thirty years, Robert Siegel has given us the afternoon news. Having started his career in public radio when it was a scrappy enterprise, he's spent the past three decades shaping NPR as host of All Things Considered. He retired this week, at a time when NPR plays a critical role in educating the electorate. Jeffrey Goldberg,   Atlantic’s editor in chief, turns the microphone on Robert Siegel for a change.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices