Radio Atlantic

For most of his second term, Donald Trump has successfully conveyed the message that defiance is not an option. Republicans who ignored that message generally wound up out of office, so they largely toed the line. Lately, though, that seems to be changing. 

Republicans recently pushed back against the president’s proposed “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” and the administration ultimately scrapped it. Trump asked for nearly $1 billion in security funding for his ballroom, and Senate Republicans forced him to abandon that plan as well. Perhaps most stunning, some House Republicans this week broke ranks to rebuke Trump’s war in Iran, directing him to withdraw U.S. forces or win approval from Congress.

The seeds of mutiny are detectable. But also the president still has the strength and support to suppress them. So who is willing to take the risk, and who isn’t? 

On this week’s “Radio Atlantic”: Indiana State Senator Jim Buck, a pro-Trump Republican who did not vote for his state’s redistricting plan and faced an onslaught of what he calls “lies” and threats as a result; also the Atlantic staff writer Russell Berman on the dueling forces of Trump’s revenge campaign and growing party defiance.

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Not long after U.S. commandos swiftly extracted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and flew him to the United States, Donald Trump set his sights on the next target: Cuba.

Some administration officials seem interested in Cuba’s nickel and cobalt deposits. Secretary of State Marco Rubio shares the dream of many Cuban exiles for regime change on the island. Although, from the Cuban perspective, the prospect of the U.S. bringing regime change is fraught, coming after centuries of conflict and colonial extraction. 

On this week’s Radio Atlantic: Host Hanna Rosin speaks with the Atlantic staff writer Vivian Salama and the historian Ada Ferrer, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Cuba: An American History, as well as the new book Keeper of My Kin: Memoir of an Immigrant Daughter.

- - -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. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/Listener.
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Universities tried to be all things to all people. That model may not be working anymore.

Adam Harris is joined by Ian Bogost, Atlantic contributing writer and a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, to discuss the state of higher education.

On campuses across the country, students are graduating into a job market with questions on their mind. What kind of career is stable in 2026? Will AI make it even harder to get an entry-level job? Was my education worth all the money it cost?

For universities that are already facing federal funding cuts and enrollment declines, the identity crisis their graduates are facing is an extension of their own: Is the purpose of college just to get a good job, or is there more to it? 

Colleges have been in rough spots before, but is it finally time to start rethinking their entire model?

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There is an ongoing battle for House seats. And it’s playing out not so much in elections but in congressional maps. The Atlantic staff writers Russell Berman, who’s been covering the redistricting wars for the past several months, and Vann R. Newkirk II, who’s long followed the Voting Rights Act (and now its demise), explain how this new era of tit-for-tat gerrymandering is different than ever before.

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The author Caro Claire Burke discusses her debut novel, Yesteryear, about a tradwife influencer suddenly transported back to 1855 and faced with the harsh realities of actual pioneer life. The book is a No. 1 New York Times best seller, and its film rights have already been sold and Anne Hathaway is attached to star. 

Seen one way, the tradwife is just a social-media trend, sometimes soothing to watch, sometimes infuriating. But the fantasy that fuels the phenomenon—that women should be subservient to their husbands, staying at home and tending the hearth—reflects views in the real world, where actual policies get made. Burke talks about her novel and her own political evolution.

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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. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at ⁠TheAtlantic.com/Listener⁠.
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