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Many of the stories our readers spent time with this year revealed a curiosity about the historical events that shaped current circumstances at home and abroad, and a desire to examine humanity’s best and worst impulses. Spend some of your Sunday with 12 don’t-miss stories of the past year.

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Your 2023 Reading List

Mark Peterson / Redux for The Atlantic

Inside the Meltdown at CNN

By Tim Alberta

CEO Chris Licht felt he was on a mission to restore the network’s reputation for serious journalism. How did it all go wrong?

Maxime Mouysset

The Billion-Dollar Ponzi Scheme That Hooked Warren Buffett and the U.S. Treasury

By Ariel Sabar

How a small-town auto mechanic peddling a green-energy breakthrough pulled off a massive scam

Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times / Getty

The Decolonization Narrative Is Dangerous and False

By Simon Sebag Montefiore

It does not accurately describe either the foundation of Israel or the tragedy of the Palestinians.

Illustration by Ricardo Tomás

How America Got Mean

By David Brooks

In a culture devoid of moral education, generations are growing up in a morally inarticulate, self-referential world.

Ashley Gilbertson / VII for The Atlantic

The Patriot

By Jeffrey Goldberg

How General Mark Milley protected the Constitution from Donald Trump

Alicia Tatone. Sources: Tommaso Boddi / Getty; ITV / Shutterstock.

A Star Reporter’s Break With Reality

By Elaina Plott Calabro

Lara Logan was once a respected 60 Minutes correspondent. Now she trades in conspiracy theories that even far-right media disavow. What happened?

Illustration by Klaus Kremmerz

The Puzzling Gap Between How Old You Are and How Old You Think You Are

By Jennifer Senior

There are good reasons you always feel 20 percent younger than your actual age.

Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times / Getty

What Mitt Romney Saw in the Senate

By McKay Coppins

In an exclusive excerpt from Coppins’s biography of Romney, the senator reveals what drove him to retire.

Pierre Buttin

What the Longest Study on Human Happiness Found Is the Key to a Good Life

By Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz

The Harvard Study of Adult Development has established a strong correlation between deep relationships and well-being. The question is, how does a person nurture those deep relationships?

Nolwenn Brod for The Atlantic; courtesy of Valérie Beausert

The Children of the Nazis’ Genetic Project

By Valentine Faure

Across Europe, some adoptees have had to face a dark realization about their origins.

Didier Viodé

I Never Called Her Momma

By Jenisha Watts

I came to New York sure of one thing—that no one could ever know my past.

Daniele Castellano

The Fake Poor Bride

By Xochitl Gonzalez

In my decade-plus as a luxury-wedding planner, I saw it all: reality-TV brides, a scam from multimillionaires, even a bride who pretended to be poor.

Photo Album

An image of Eden Valley in Cumbria, United Kingdom (Stuart McGlennon / The Tenth International Landscape Photographer of the Year)

This year’s landscape-photography competition received more than 4,000 entries from around the world. Here are some of the top and winning images.

Katherine Hu contributed to this newsletter.

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