Kevin Townsend

Washington, D.C.

Producer at The Atlantic

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Articles

Biden Steps Aside. How Might Harris Step Up?

Jul 21, 2024 | msn.com | Kevin Townsend

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Biden Steps Aside. How Might Harris Step Up?

Jul 21, 2024 | theatlantic.com | Kevin Townsend

With barely 100 days to go before the general election in November, President Joe Biden has announced that he won’t run for a second term, and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him at the top of the ticket. Staff writer Franklin Foer, who wrote a book on the Biden administration, and staff writer Elaina Plott Calabro, who profiled Harris for this magazine, discuss this extraordinary moment in a bonus episode of Radio Atlantic.
Trump’s Wholesale Renovation of the Republican Party

Jul 18, 2024 | theatlantic.com | Kevin Townsend

The Republican party gathers in a triumphal mood in Milwaukee. Polls favor the GOP in 2024. The long-awaited vice-presidential pick has been made. And Donald Trump prepares to accept the nomination again, just as President Joe Biden faces calls across his party to step away from another run. Four months before the election, the contrast between the two parties is stark.
A Crisis for Democrats

Jul 11, 2024 | theatlantic.com | Kevin Townsend

Was anyone in America excited for a rematch of Trump versus Biden? Two unpopular and aging figures repeating the bruising 2020 race? Both entered with historic flaws: Donald Trump as the first convicted felon to run for a major party, and Joe Biden as already the oldest president when he first took office. But while the Republican Party has remade itself ever more as the party of Trump, Democrats are now openly discussing whether they should renominate the incumbent president.
What Cities Can Teach Us About Life Online

Jun 12, 2024 | theatlantic.com | Kevin Townsend

Learning to live online is a lot like learning to live alongside one another in cities. Digital life is a social experiment full of contradictions. It can connect people while alienating them; embrace difference while policing change; span huge distances but feel small. Humanity’s transition to life online is disorienting, but perhaps not without comparison.