Gal Beckerman
@galbeckerman.bsky.social
Staff writer at The Atlantic, formerly NYTBR, and author of the forthcoming “How to Be a Dissident.”
At The Atlantic Festival, @galbeckerman.bsky.social spoke with the translator Emily Wilson about the pleasures and blind spots of translation, and the backlash to her review of Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of “The Odyssey.”
Emily Wilson Can’t Let ‘The Odyssey’ Go
The translator spoke about her desire to retranslate the epic—and her harsh review of the recent film.
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At The Atlantic Festival, @galbeckerman.bsky.social spoke with the translator Emily Wilson about the pleasures and blind spots of translation, and the backlash to her review of Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of “The Odyssey.”
Emily Wilson Can’t Let ‘The Odyssey’ Go
The translator spoke about her desire to retranslate the epic—and her harsh review of the recent film.
bit.ly
Play today’s Rabbithole, which begins with this question from @galbeckerman.bsky.social’s article on presidential self-reflection. theatln.tc/hUtzCnw1
Trump’s recent Truth Social barrage of fake images reflects the dangers that the AI mirror presents to all of us, @galbeckerman.bsky.social argues.
What Trump’s Bizarre Posts Are Teaching Us About AI
The president’s recent Truth Social barrage of fake images reflects the dangers—for all of us—of virtual self-aggrandizement.
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Francis Fukuyama wants you to know that he was never a naive triumphalist, @galbeckerman.bsky.social writes. Beckerman on Fukuyama’s new memoir and why the end of history is so miserable:
Why the End of History Is So Miserable
Francis Fukuyama has long been considered a naive triumphalist. He now wants to set the record straight.
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Francis Fukuyama wants you to know that he was never a naive triumphalist, @galbeckerman.bsky.social writes. Beckerman on Fukuyama’s new memoir and why the end of history is so miserable:
Why the End of History Is So Miserable
Francis Fukuyama has long been considered a naive triumphalist. He now wants to set the record straight.
bit.ly
Many tech billionaires who grew up on science fiction are intent on building dystopian technology, @galbeckerman.bsky.social argues. He writes about a new book by Jill Lepore that explores how they took the wrong lessons from their favorite novels:
We Are Living in the Fantasy World of 13-Year-Old Boys
Many of the tech billionaires who built our world have taken the wrong lessons from their favorite science fiction.
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"What one gathers from these misreadings is not so much that science fiction itself is nefarious, but that arrested development might be": @galbeckerman.bsky.social on the new Jill Lepore book and the teen-boy mind-set driving the takeover of ... everything: www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...
We Are Living in the Fantasy World of 13-Year-Old Boys
Many of the tech billionaires who built our world have taken the wrong lessons from their favorite science fiction.
theatlantic.com
Born into a period of optimism, “bicentennial babies” such as @galbeckerman.bsky.social have seen life follow “a distinct arc over the past 50 years: one of disillusionment,” he writes.
What a Bicentennial Baby Knows
When I was born, the moniker carried a sheen of optimism. So much feels different now.
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Born into a period of optimism, “bicentennial babies” such as @galbeckerman.bsky.social have seen life follow “a distinct arc over the past 50 years: one of disillusionment,” he writes.
What a Bicentennial Baby Knows
When I was born, the moniker carried a sheen of optimism. So much feels different now.
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Tue 6 Oct: Atlantic staff writer @galbeckerman.bsky.social joins us to discuss his new book, How to Be a Dissident — part philosophy, part history, part manual for living with integrity in an age of authoritarian drift. 🧵
This essay by @galbeckerman.bsky.social hit me hard as a fellow "bicentennial baby" (the secret handshake, as he puts it, that opens no doors). www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...
What a Bicentennial Baby Knows
When I was born, the moniker carried a sheen of optimism. So much feels different now.
theatlantic.com
Latest Daily on Monocle Radio. Julie Norman, Mark Earls and Alexis Self on Oman's emergence as a mediation hub and the day's other stuff, plus @galbeckerman.bsky.social on his terrific new book "How To Be A Dissident". monocle.com/radio/shows/...
How Oman has turned mediation into part of its foreign-policy identity
Iran’s foreign ministry is discussing a new Strait of Hormuz shipping route with Oman. Julie Norman and Mark Earls explore...
monocle.com
Anthony Fauci's diaries are deeply embarrassing—and surprisingly instructive, @galbeckerman.bsky.social argues. theatln.tc/9A629gho 🎨: Jonelle Afurong / The Atlantic. Source: Peter Dazeley.
In the latest episode of #TheContext, author @galbeckerman.bsky.social challenges us to think about the choices we make when something feels wrong. Tune in and subscribe: https://bit.ly/GetTheContext
New episode of #TheContext with @galbeckerman.bsky.social "The Making of a Dissident" out now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G7gYQY0xow
The Making of a Dissident
YouTube video by Kettering Foundation
youtube.com
Looking for a great read today? I still think about this @galbeckerman.bsky.social essay all the time. What if our ancestors didn't feel anything like we do? A deep look at the historians who want to know how past humans experienced love, anger, fear, and sorrow. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
What if Our Ancestors Didn’t Feel Anything Like We Do?
The historians who want to know how our ancestors experienced love, anger, fear, and sorrow
theatlantic.com
"The randomness and unpredictability of existence, the mindless violence of it, necessitated myth. This early religion was a kind of technology, an attempt to make order out of chaos." @galbeckerman.bsky.social
The Odyssey Was Never About the Gods
Christopher Nolan’s largely deity-free blockbuster adaptation only highlights the humanity of the original.
theatlantic.com
This week's feature review is of HOW TO BE A DISSIDENT by Gal Beckerman. Read here: https://twp.ai/4hsfjx
Christopher Nolan’s largely god-free blockbuster adaptation of "The Odyssey" highlights the humanity of the original, @galbeckerman.bsky.social writes:
The Odyssey Was Never About the Gods
Christopher Nolan’s largely deity-free blockbuster adaptation only highlights the humanity of the original.
bit.ly
I wrote about the Odyssey, and why the absence of gods in the film actually helped capture something essential about the poem. www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...
The Odyssey Was Never About the Gods
Christopher Nolan’s largely deity-free blockbuster adaptation only highlights the humanity of the original.
theatlantic.com
Modern vocabulary for describing emotions can be limited and vague. An emerging field of history that investigates how our forebears experienced feelings could allow people to better understand the emotions of the past—and present. @galbeckerman.bsky.social reported in our January issue.
You Had to Be There
An emerging field of history asks if we can ever really understand how our forebears experienced love, anger, fear, and sorrow.
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“It should go without saying, though maybe it needs to be said, that it would be meaningless to have free-speech organizations if they defended only speech they agreed with.” www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...
A Free-Speech Meltdown
PEN America’s president resigned over an article detailing the isolation and exclusion that many Israeli and Jewish writers feel after October 7.
theatlantic.com
PEN America’s president resigned after the organization published an article cataloging the ways Jewish and Israeli writers have felt excluded. The resignation reveals the precarity of free-speech principles, @galbeckerman.bsky.social reports.
A New Test for Free Expression
PEN America’s president resigned over an article detailing the isolation and exclusion that many Israeli and Jewish writers feel after October 7.
bit.ly
PEN America’s president resigned after the organization published an article cataloging the ways Jewish and Israeli writers have felt excluded. The resignation reveals the precarity of free-speech principles, @galbeckerman.bsky.social reports.
A New Test for Free Expression
PEN America’s president resigned over an article detailing the isolation and exclusion that many Israeli and Jewish writers feel after October 7.
bit.ly
You can hear Gal's terrific conversation with me here tinyurl.com/WVGalB
How to Be a Dissident, Lessons from Resistance Then and Now
What makes an ordinary person become a dissident? Gal Beckerman explores moral courage through figures like Alexei Navalny, Osip Mandelstam and Etty Hillesum. Then Buzzy Jackson revisits the story …
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Gal Beckerman@galbeckerman.bsky.social · 7mo agoI’ve spent the past year on a search. How do we push back against the forces that are crushing us right now? How do we resist the dehumanization of our politics, our technology? The answers came from people who pushed back before us: the dissidents...🧵
What makes an ordinary person become a dissident? @galbeckerman.bsky.social explores moral courage through figures like Alexei Navalny, Osip Mandelstam and Etty Hillesum. Then Buzzy Jackson revisits the story of Dutch Resistance fighter Hannie Schaft. Listen www.writersvoice.net
