Gal Beckerman
@galbeckerman.bsky.social
Staff writer at The Atlantic, formerly NYTBR, and author of the forthcoming “How to Be a Dissident.”
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.
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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 …
tinyurl.com
Gal Beckerman@galbeckerman.bsky.social · 6mo 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
A new chronicle of Trump’s second term achieved stratospheric sales for a nonfiction book. Gal Beckerman explores what the success of “Regime Change” might mean for the president:
The Surprising Return of the Blockbuster Trump Book
What the wild success of Regime Change, after a long slump in newsy nonfiction, might say about the state of the presidency.
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My holiday reading is superb. Thanks so much @galbeckerman.bsky.social for this bloody hopeful book and massive thanks @anandwrites.bsky.social for pointing us to it from your brilliant writing! Anchors, both of you, to where to look for the fire to act.
@boriskachka.bsky.social speaks with @galbeckerman.bsky.social about the philosophers whose thinking helps explain the symbolic importance of the UFC fight staged in front of the White House. Read more in The Atlantic’s Books Briefing.
The Thinkers Who Explain This Baffling Era
These philosophers are less arcane—and more relevant—than some readers might think.
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@boriskachka.bsky.social speaks with @galbeckerman.bsky.social about the philosophers whose thinking helps explain the symbolic importance of the UFC fight staged in front of the White House. Read more in The Atlantic’s Books Briefing.
The Thinkers Who Explain This Baffling Era
These philosophers are less arcane—and more relevant—than some readers might think.
bit.ly
For his 80th birthday, Donald Trump threw America a UFC fight—and one particular book can help you understand how this "spectacle of excess" expresses Trump's worldview, @galbeckerman.bsky.social writes:
The French Theory That Explains the UFC Fight
By staging a “spectacle of excess” on the White House lawn, Trump expressed the violent essence of his worldview.
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I watched the UFC fights last night and I can promise you this is the only piece that brought Roland Barthes into the Octagon.
The French Theory That Explains the UFC Fight
By staging a ‘spectacle of excess’ on the White House lawn, Trump expressed the violent essence of his worldview.
theatlantic.com
As our nation turns 250, it’s worth asking what form patriotism should take, @galbeckerman.bsky.social argues. A new book about American pride prompted him to ponder what it means to love an unfinished country:
The Two Kinds of American Patriotism
As our nation turns 250, it’s worth asking how best to love one’s country.
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This exalted patriotism, a “still-religious intuition that we have already arrived.” It has left festering injustices unattended, “dumb wars,” and a perpetual red-white-and-blue fireworks display that distracts from difficult truths about the country’s failings. www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...
The Two Kinds of American Patriotism
As our nation turns 250, it’s worth asking how best to love one’s country.
theatlantic.com
I laid out in @theatlantic.com a few different ways to love America when you're not on board with Pete Hegseth's idea of patriotism.
The Two Kinds of American Patriotism
As our nation turns 250, it’s worth asking how best to love one’s country.
theatlantic.com
“Erdozain’s argument is that, again and again, the myth of America allowed its leaders to act in ways that violated the founding ethos, that the country was ‘an idea trapped in its own publicity’.” An idea trapped in its own publicity. Brilliant! @galbeckerman.bsky.social
The Two Kinds of American Patriotism
As our nation turns 250, it’s worth asking how best to love one’s country.
theatlantic.com
@galbeckerman.bsky.social and @wajali.bsky.social I was on the waitlist for weeks to get this from my library, but worth the wait 🤓 thanks so much for writing it ❤️
tam@damntam.bsky.social · 2mo ago
@galbeckerman.bsky.social’s new book “How To Be A Dissident” is the latest addition to the Antifascist Book Club reading list. Check out @onoffensepod wherever you get your podcasts for my conversation with Gal. Links in thread 👇 #antifascistbookclub #bookclub #howtobeadissident #readinglist
