The Atlantic Interview: Caitlin Dickerson

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 podcastchoices.com/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 podcastchoices.com/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 podcastchoices.com/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 podcastchoices.com/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 podcastchoices.com/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 podcastchoices.com/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 podcastchoices.com/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 podcastchoices.com/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 podcastchoices.com/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 podcastchoices.com/adchoices