THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘My Year as a Degenerate Gambler”…

Sucker

My year as a degenerate gambler

On a Thursday evening in September, I excused myself from the family dinner table and slipped into my bedroom. I didn’t want my kids to see what I was about to do.

With the door locked behind me, I pulled out my phone and downloaded the DraftKings betting app. I felt a certain thrill as I typed in my debit-card information and deposited $500. The first game of the NFL season was a few minutes away. Anything seemed possible. …By McKay Coppins

What 100 Million Volts Do to the Body and Mind

The odds of being struck by lightning in America in a given year are one in 1.2 million. How does the experience reorient a person’s sense of chance, of fate? By Jacob Stern

The Pete Hegseth Exception

Nearly a year after a national-security scandal erupted on my iPhone, no one in the Trump administration has faced consequences. By Jeffrey Goldberg

The Forgotten Female Pilots of World War II

The WASPs risked their lives flying for the Army. But for decades, the U.S. government refused to recognize their military service. By Ellen Cushing