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Publication: The Atlantic Monthly
A NASTY BUSINESS
Gathering "good intelligence" against terrorists is an inherently brutish enterprise, involving methods a civics class might not condone. Should we care?
- Topic
- Politics and Public Issues
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- in
MP3
- Author
- Bruce Hoffman
- Publication
- 2002 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Richard Wilson
- Length
- 23 minutes
A NEW HORN
What was that odd-looking instrument you saw in a jazz club or at the symphony? Is was David Monette's reinvention of the trumpet.
- Topic
- Arts and Humanities
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- in
MP3
- Author
- Carl Vigland
- Publication
- 1999 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Richard Wilson
- Length
- 22 minutes
BOBBY FISCHER'S PATHETIC ENDGAME
Paranoia, hubris, and hatred--the unraveling of the greatest chess player ever.
- Topic
- History and Biography
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- in
MP3
- Author
- Rene Chun
- Publication
- 2002 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Michael Emlaw
- Length
- 69 minutes
GONE WITH THE WIND AND HOLLYWOOD'S RACIAL POLITICS
Making Gone With the Wind, David O. Selznick discovered, meant dealing with fierce criticism from black newspapers and public officials.
- Topic
- Ethnicity and Faith-based Culture
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- in
MP3
- Author
- Leonard J. Leff
- Publication
- 1999 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Mary Beth Carroll
- Length
- 32 minutes
JAZZ RELIGIOUS AND CIRCUS
If not exactly a golden age the seventies was a time of remarkable artistic ferment.
- Topic
- Essays
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- in
MP3
- Author
- Francis Davis
- Publication
- 2000 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Richard Wilson
- Length
- 29 minutes
JFK'S FIRST-STRIKE PLAN
The Berlin crisis of 1961 does not loom large in the American memory, but it was an episode that brought the United States and the Soviet Union close to war--nuclear war.
- Topic
- History and Biography
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- in
MP3
- Author
- Fred Kaplan
- Publication
- 2001 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Michael Emlaw
- Length
- 33 minutes
LINCOLN'S GREATEST SPEECH?
Frederick Douglass called it 'a sacred effort,' and Lincoln himself thought that his Second Inaugural, which offered a theodicy of the Civil War, was better than the Gettysburg Address.
- Topic
- History and Biography
- Play
- in
MP3
- Author
- Wills
- Publication
- 1999 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Kathleen Sullivan
- Length
- 50 minutes
OUR FIRST TELEPHONE
we want privacy and still we want to listen in.
- Topic
- Regional and Travel
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- in
MP3
- Author
- Leslie Leyland Fields
- Publication
- 2000 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Paulette Banks
- Length
- 17 minutes
POST-PRESIDENT FOR LIFE
Clinton is the youngest ex-President since Teddy Roosevelt--and he is still the most skillful politician in the Democratic Party. What he does with the rest of his life will set a precedent for the growing number of vigorous and long-lived ex-Presidents to come.
- Topic
- History and Biography
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- in
MP3
- Author
- James Fallows
- Publication
- 2003 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Richard Wilson
- Length
- 53 minutes
SHOOT TO KILL
In the post-Columbine world, police departments all over America are adopting new, no-nonsense SWAT-team tactics.
- Topic
- Politics and Public Issues
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- in
MP3
- Author
- Harper
- Publication
- 2000 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Linda Wilkins
- Length
- 18 minutes
THE CRESCENT AND THE TRICOLOR
France today has more Muslims that practicing Catholics, and the couscous has arguably become the country's national food
- Topic
- World Issues
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- in
MP3
- Author
- Christopher Caldwell
- Publication
- 2000 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Steven Schiff
- Length
- 34 minutes
THE HEALTH-CARE ECONOMY IS NOTHING TO FEAR
Spending on keeping us alive and well may reach 25 percent of all national spending within the foreseeable future. What, the author asks, is so bad about that?
- Topic
- Business and Economics
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- in
MP3
- Author
- Charles Morris
- Publication
- 1999 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Richard Wilson
- Length
- 44 minutes
THE ROARING NINETIES
As the chairman of Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors, and subsequently as the chief economist of the World Bank during the East Asian financial crisis, Joseph Stiglitz was deeply involved in many of the economic-policy debates of the past ten years.
- Topic
- Business and Economics
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- in
MP3
- Author
- Joseph Stiglitz
- Publication
- 2002 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Richard Wilson
- Length
- 47 minutes
WHAT GLOBAL LANGUAGE
English isn't managing to sweep all else before it-and if it ever does become the universal language, many of those who speak it won't understand one another.
- Topic
- World Issues
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- in
MP3
- Author
- Barbara Wallraff
- Publication
- 2000 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Mary Roth
- Length
- 45 minutes
DIVIDED WE SPRAWL
A call for a reinvention of the American city and suburb that would exploit the infrastructure of the one and mitigate the 'frantic privacy' of the other.
- Topic
- Politics and Public Issues
- Play
- in
MP3
- Publication
- 1999 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Richard Wilson
- Length
- 32 minutes
POETRY AND AMERICAN MEMORY
The poet laureate reflects on what makes the American people 'a people''and what our poetry can teach us about the 'fragile heroic enterprise of remembering."
- Topic
- Arts and Humanities
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- in
MP3
- Publication
- 1999 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Chris Purchis
- Length
- 50 minutes
THE NEAR NORTH
There have always been good reasons to visit Iceland's exotic desolation, but next year will bring a few new ones.
- Topic
- Regional and Travel
- Play
- in
MP3
- Publication
- 1999 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Gail Farley
- Length
- 24 minutes
A MYTHIC SOUTH PACIFIC
Tanna is the kind of island you may think never really existed.
- Topic
- Regional and Travel
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- in
MP3
- Author
- J. Maarten Troost
- Publication
- 2000 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Mary Roth
- Length
- 18 minutes
DEGREES OF EVIL
Some thoughts on Hitler bin Laden and the hierarchy of wickedness.
- Topic
- Essays
- Play
- in
MP3
- Author
- Ron Rosenbaum
- Publication
- 2002 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Kathleen Sullivan
- Length
- 29 minutes
THE SOUND TRACKING OF AMERICA
We live surrounded by music from torch songs at Starbucks to the Beatles in the elevator and the barrage may be turning our minds to mush.
- Topic
- Arts and Humanities
- Play
- in
MP3
- Author
- J. Bottum
- Publication
- 2000 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Mary Roth
- Length
- 45 minutes
WHY McDONALD'S FRIES TASTE SO GOOD
The rapid expansion of McDonald's and the popularity of its low-cost, mass-produced fries changed the way Americans eat.
- Topic
- Popular Culture
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- in
MP3
- Author
- Eric Schlosser
- Publication
- 2002 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Gail Farley
- Length
- 36 minutes
THE BUBBLE OF AMERICAN SUPREMACY
A prominent financier argues that the heedless assertion of American power in the world resembles a financial bubble—and the moment of truth may be here
- Topic
- Politics and Public Issues
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- in
MP3
- Author
- George Soros
- Publication
- 2004 The Atlantic Monthly
- Read by
- Grover Gardner
- Length
- 18 minutes