Inside America’s Death Chambers
What years of witnessing executions taught me about sin, mercy, and the possibility of redemption
July 2025
In This Issue
Witness: Inside America's death chambers. Plus J. D. Vance, the business of animal cloning, Tracy Anderson's luxury-fitness empire, Paul Gauguin, the Rolling Stones play zydeco, James Joyce, our feudal future, the great teen movies, the world's hardest bluffing game, and more.
Cover Story
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Inside the Exclusive, Obsessive, Surprisingly Litigious World of Luxury Fitness
How Tracy Anderson built an exercise empire
The Talented Mr. Vance
J. D. Vance could have brought the country’s conflicting strands together. Instead, he took a divisive path to the peak of power.
Inside the Creepy, Surprisingly Routine Business of Animal Cloning
“Really and truly, a horse can be alive forever. Forever and ever.”
Fiction
Illustration by Ben Pearce Weepers
A short story
Dispatches
Illustration by Ben Hickey Feudalism Is Our Future
What the next Dark Ages could look like
Cannaday Chapman The World’s Hardest Bluffing Game
Why are some Iraqis so good at figuring out when a person is lying?
Bieke Depoorter Looking Up
What we see when we stare at the night sky
Culture & Critics
Illustration by Jan Robert Dünnweller. Sources: Edd Westmacott / Alamy; Paul Natkin / Getty. The Rolling Stones Play Zydeco
How the legendary rock band discovered the music of Clifton Chenier
Heritage Images / Getty How to Look at Paul Gauguin
He was misunderstood, then adored, then vilified. Who was he really?
Photo-Illustration by Colin Hunter. Sources: Getty; Steve Schapiro / Getty; Paramount / Everett Collection; Universal / Everett Collection; Lionsgate Entertainment; CBS Photo Archive / Getty; Silver Screen Collection / Getty. Fast Times and Mean Girls
What the great teen movies tell us about American adolescence
Illustration by Gustavo Ramos. Source: Hulton Archive / Getty. Yes I Will Read Ulysses Yes
How Richard Ellmann made James Joyce a hero to generations of readers and scholars
Departments
Peter Mendelsund Editor's Note: A Reporter in the Death Chamber
On capital punishment, and The Atlantic’s July 2025 cover story
The Atlantic The Commons: We Need to Reckon With Ronald Reagan’s Legacy
Readers respond to our May 2025 cover story and more.
The Atlantic Caleb's Inferno: July 2025
A devilish crossword puzzle
Poetry
Photo-illustration by Liz Hart / The Atlantic. Sources: Futuras Fotos / Alamy; Ironrodart / Getty.
