Gal Beckerman

I’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...🧵

After decades of the party avoiding explicit morality, Democratic midterm candidates are speaking of good and evil, @galbeckerman.bsky.social argues. He examines a new book by Susan Neiman, “Call It Evil,” and the potential for a moral realignment:

After decades of the party avoiding explicit morality, Democratic midterm candidates are speaking of good and evil, @galbeckerman.bsky.social argues. He examines a new book by Susan Neiman, “Call It Evil,” and the potential for a moral realignment:

The writer S. An-sky set out in 1912 to document the culture of a now-lost Yiddish civilization, @galbeckerman.bsky.social writes. More than a century later, Beckerman explores the thousands of folktales, manuscripts, and sacred objects from An-sky’s expedition:

The writer S. An-sky set out in 1912 to document the culture of a now-lost Yiddish civilization, @galbeckerman.bsky.social writes. More than a century later, Beckerman explores the thousands of folktales, manuscripts, and sacred objects from An-sky’s expedition:

I'm giving a talk in Oslo on Saturday about tactics to derail AI. I'm gathering examples of obfuscation, sabotage and poisoning of AI, and am having a lot of fun planning the talk. Come and listen if you're in Oslo on Saturday 24th at 13:30! www.litteraturhuset.no/nb/arrangeme...

Earlier that day you can also hear @galbeckerman.bsky.social discussing his book, How to be a dissident, with Jonas Bals. Should be good!!

The writer S. An-sky set out in 1912 to document the culture of a now-lost Yiddish civilization, @galbeckerman.bsky.social writes. More than a century later, Beckerman explores the thousands of folktales, manuscripts, and sacred objects from An-sky’s expedition: theatln.tc/CsIb48Mr

In 1912, the writer S. An-sky set out to record the songs and folktales of a Jewish civilization on the brink of destruction. Now the treasures he collected are under threat in wartime Kyiv, @galbeckerman.bsky.social reports.

What a superb article, what an astonishing essay on a miraculously preserved archive: the ethnographic records and other notes of S. An-sky, the maskil, the littérateur, the hyphenated Hebrew preserving a glimpse of a vanished world. Each time I thought it had peaked, it got better. And it's free!

In 1912, the writer S. An-sky set out to record the songs and folktales of a Jewish civilization on the brink of destruction. Now the treasures he collected are under threat in wartime Kyiv, @galbeckerman.bsky.social reports.

In 1912, the writer S. An-sky set out to record the songs and folktales of a Jewish civilization on the brink of destruction. Now the treasures he collected are under threat in wartime Kyiv, @galbeckerman.bsky.social reports.

Thank you for joining us last Tuesday for our talk on ‘How to Be a Dissident’ with @galbeckerman.bsky.social and Núria Ribas Costa!

Three years after the Hamas attack, the Israeli show “Fauda” revisits October 7 in episodes that are difficult to watch but worth the effort, Gal Beckerman writes.

Is there a right way to rebel? How do we push back when extreme views are becoming commonplace? Tomorrow, journalist and The Atlantic staff writer @galbeckerman.bsky.social, will attempt to answer these question in @arminiusdebat.bsky.social. 👉 Final tickets: dedependance.eu/events/how-t...

NAZA, a provocative Israeli documentary, should make viewers think about their own moral parameters—instead, it distances them from the war in Gaza, @galbeckerman.bsky.social writes.

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.”

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.”

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.

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:

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:

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:

"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...

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.

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.

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. 🧵

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/...

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

Essential reading - bookshop.org/p/books/how-...

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...

"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

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:

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...

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.

“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...

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.

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.

This is wild. Good piece from @galbeckerman.bsky.social: www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

You can hear Gal's terrific conversation with me here tinyurl.com/WVGalB

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:

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.