Work in Progress Newsletter

Short articles about important concepts. Our writer Derek Thompson breaks down current news and future trends in areas like work, technology, and culture—using simple and clear language.

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The Self-Deportation Psyop

3 days ago | theatlantic.com | Nick Miroff

The other night, while watching a baseball game, I saw my first ad for self-deportation. One minute Shohei Ohtani was at the plate and then suddenly there was Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, looking stern and urging immigrants to self-deport using the administration’s new app, CBP Home. “Do what’s right,” Noem advised. “Leave now.”The taxpayer-funded ad had started like a campaign commercial, praising President Donald Trump for locking down the southern border.
Right Move, Wrong Team

5 days ago | theatlantic.com | David Frum

The rulers of Iran bet their regime on the “Trump always chickens out” trade. They refused diplomacy. They got war. They chose their fate. They deserve everything that has happened to them. Only the world’s most committed America-haters will muster sympathy for the self-destructive decision-making of a brutal regime. Striking Iran at this time and under these circumstances was the right decision by an administration and president that usually make the wrong one.
Trump’s Two-Week Window for Diplomacy Was a Smoke Screen

6 days ago | theatlantic.com | Michael Scherer |Missy Ryan |Isaac Stanley-Becker |Shane Harris |Jonathan Lemire

Well, he did it. He actually did it. President Donald Trump had insisted for months that he wanted the ultimate deal with Iran, one that would put a definitive end to the country’s ability to produce a nuclear weapon. As late as Thursday, he’d suggested that Iran’s leaders would have up to two more weeks to negotiate. But at that point, he had already made up his mind: The United States was going to bomb Iran.
How to Deal With Insults

6 days ago | theatlantic.com | Isabel Fattal

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning. Being offended can make a person feel powerless. Someone says (or posts) something hurtful, and the sting comes fast. It doesn’t dissipate just because you tell it to. But there are some ways to control our experience when we feel insulted.
How Tehran Might Be Playing Trump

6 days ago | theatlantic.com | David Frum

President Donald Trump is being pulled toward war in the Middle East by his predator’s eye for a victim’s weakness and his ego’s need to claim the work of others as his own. But since his “unconditional surrender” social-media post on Tuesday, other Trump instincts have asserted themselves: above all, his fear of responsibility. Trump enjoys wielding power. He flinches from accountability. Days ago, Trump seemed to hunger for entry into Israel’s war.
Brad Lander's Stand - The Atlantic

1 week ago | theatlantic.com | Xochitl Gonzalez

As ICE agents dragged Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller and a candidate for mayor, down the hallway of a federal courthouse this week, he repeatedly—and politely—asked to see their judicial warrant. Lander had locked arms with an undocumented man he identified as Edgardo, and refused to let go. Eventually, the ICE agents yanked Lander away from the man, shoved him against a wall, and handcuffed him. Lander told them that they didn’t have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens.
Three Giants, Talking While Hurtling Through Space

1 week ago | theatlantic.com | Robert Rubsam

Space is where billionaires dream. Jeff Bezos thinks that we will soon move heavy industry and most humans off-planet onto massive revolving space stations, allowing the Earth to return to a pristine state. Elon Musk has famously argued that in order for humanity to survive all manner of calamities—asteroids, global warming, nuclear war—we must become an interplanetary species. He wants a million people settled on Mars by 2050.
American Democracy Might Not Survive a War With Iran

1 week ago | theatlantic.com | Robert Kagan

The current debate over bombing Iran is surreal. To begin with, bombardment is unlikely to lead to a satisfactory outcome. If history has shown one thing, it is that achieving a lasting resolution by bombing alone is almost impossible. There was a reason the United States sent ground forces into Iraq in 2003, and it was not to plant democracy. It was that American officials believed they could not solve the problem of Saddam Hussein’s weapons programs simply by bombing. They had tried that.
How a Book Can Change a Graduate’s Life

1 week ago | theatlantic.com | Emma Sarappo

This is an edition of the Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for it here. For many people in their early 20s, graduating from college is both a significant milestone—perhaps the most important of their young life—and a rupture that leaves them utterly unmoored.
‘Materialists’: Modern Dating, With a Lot of Talking

1 week ago | theatlantic.com | Shirley Li

Modern dating, experts have lamented, has become a numbers game; the more matches you make, the more likely you are to land a mate. But in the new film Materialists, the only number that really matters is a suitor’s net worth. Take Harry (played by Pedro Pascal), for example: He’s a partner in a private-equity firm and the owner of a $12 million penthouse apartment in Manhattan.