Paul Manafort, American Hustler
Decades before he ran the Trump campaign, Paul Manafort’s pursuit of foreign cash and shady deals laid the groundwork for the corruption of Washington.
March 2018
In This Issue
Why the Chinese love Trump, Paul Manafort and the corruption of U.S. politics, how we will feed the new global middle class, and why you should boycott the GOP. Plus, Mark Bowden revisits the world’s most body-conscious man, Caitlin Flanagan on Modesty Blaise, the failure of American democracy, fiction by Will Mackin, and more.
Cover Story
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China Loves Trump
The people love a winner. The leadership loves a dupe.
Can Planet Earth Feed 10 Billion People?
Humanity has 30 years to find out.
America Is Not a Democracy
How the United States lost the faith of its citizens—and what it can do to win them back
Rib Night
A war story
Dispatches
Edmon de Haro Boycott the Republican Party
If conservatives want to save the GOP from itself, they need to vote mindlessly and mechanically against its nominees.
Christopher DeLorenzo What Makes Something Funny?
There are a lot of theories.
Nick Ballon ‘Humorless Politicians Are the Most Dangerous’
Armando Iannucci, the creator of Veep, answers questions about satire in the time of Trump and his new film, The Death of Stalin.
Esther Aarts Your Dog Feels No Shame
The myth of canine guilt
Geoffroy de Crécy How WeWork Has Perfectly Captured the Millennial Id
The company sells a somewhat uneasy combination of capitalist ambition and cooperative warmth.
Alex Wong / Getty; Zak Bickel; The Atlantic How to Talk Like Trump
A short guide to speaking the president’s dialect
John Cuneo The Man Who Saw Inside Himself
For years, Larry Smarr has used a supercomputer to monitor his health and peer at his organs. Recently, he used his knowledge to help direct his own surgery.
James Graham The Banana Trick and Other Acts of Self-Checkout Thievery
“Anyone who pays for more than half of their stuff in self checkout is a total moron.”
NASA Moon Shot
A very short book excerpt
The Culture File
WG600* The Comic-Strip Heroine I'll Never Forget
Modesty Blaise was something like Wonder Woman meets James Bond—but she was so much more, too.
Jamie Coe How Superhero Movies Became Escapist Fun Again
The self-seriousness of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy and its imitators has finally given way to films that embrace the genre’s comic potential.
Tyler Comrie The Devastating Paradox of Pakistan
How Afghanistan’s neighbor cultivated American dependency while subverting American policy
Margherita Morotti Fire Sermon Is a Profoundly Strange Meditation on Desire
Jamie Quatro's new novel offers deeply uncomfortable, but startlingly original, insights about human yearning.
Random House Educated Is a Brutal, One-of-a-Kind Memoir
Tara Westover's coming-of-age story follows her upbringing in a survivalist family, and her decision to leave that life behind.
Departments
The Conversation: Conservatism Without Bigotry
Readers respond to December and January/February stories and more.
Graham Roumieu What Was the Most Influential Act of Protest in History?
A big question
