Today The Atlantic is launching Galaxy Brain, a new video podcast hosted by staff writer Charlie Warzel about making sense of the online fire hose of our information ecosystem. In new episodes released every Friday, Charlie will be joined by a different guest each week to ask big questions about the intersection of online culture and human behavior. The first episode, which is now available, features the YouTuber Hank Green on what it means to survive online for 26 years. In their conversation, Charlie and Hank look at where the internet stands today—how it became a misery machine, how institutions lost trust, and how they might begin to win it back. The pair discusses the universal frustration of being online and knowing you’re being manipulated by algorithms—and what, if anything, we can do to push back.
In an introduction to the show, Charlie writes: “People everywhere are ensconced in their own, algorithmically tailored realities. Social media is warping our perception of the world, while artificial intelligence threatens to remake it entirely. It all feels ridiculous and unmooring.” He continues, “Galaxy Brain will aim to be a grounding force—a space for conversations, explanations, and tangents that anchor you to reality, however strange it may be. No slop, bots, or spam.”
The podcast builds upon Charlie’s acclaimed reporting for The Atlantic, which orients people to a fast-changing digital culture and examines how online life is shaping and warping offline behaviors. He has recently written the articles “The Dumb Truth at the Heart of the Epstein Scandal,” on how the newly released documents are a skeleton key for understanding the dynamics of Donald Trump’s America; “The Opposite of Slop Politics,” about the success of Zohran Mamdani’s online campaign; “A Tool That Crushes Creativity,” looking at how it feels to live in the golden age of AI slop; and “I’m Running Out of Ways to Explain How Bad This Is (Again).”
Galaxy Brain is The Atlantic’s second video podcast, following the launch of The David Frum Show this past spring. Earlier this year, The Atlantic launched the second season of Autocracy in America and the eighth season of its How To franchise, How to Age Up, and this summer it published No Easy Fix, a three-part podcast series from Radio Atlantic.
Episodes of Galaxy Brain will be released each Friday; viewers can subscribe to watch here, or listen wherever they get podcasts. Please reach out with any questions or requests.
Press Contacts:
Paul Jackson and Quinn O’Brien | The Atlantic
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