Print Issue
Summer 2026
Stories of American exit in the nation's 250th year.
The United States was founded on opting out: of the Church of England, of monarchy, of the idea that rights are inherited rather than self-evident. That instinct lived on. Modern Americans are leaving churches, colleges, and cities at high rates. The share of U.S. adults who call themselves political independents has never been higher. And for better or worse, the second Trump administration has made opting out of longstanding agreements — treaties, alliances, institutions — de facto policy. This issue is a collection of stories about that American instinct to opt out, to pack up and go, to tell the boss, “I’d prefer not to.” We hope you enjoy reading it — maybe on a night when you decide to turn down plans and stay home.
—The Editors
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Strange Maps
Mapped: America’s 10 most creative acts of noncompliance
From Amish Country to Slab City, these are the places where Americans reject the mainstream.
The Amish constitute America’s largest-scale experiment with opting out of modern society — and judging by the numbers, it’s a very successful one.
History & Society
Van life looks like freedom. It can feel like exile.
I’ve lived in a converted van for six years. The freedom is real — but so are the trade-offs people rarely talk about.
Before, I didn't know how to use a drill. Now I can apart take a diesel heater and service it within an hour or two.
Mini Philosophy
“Live deliberately”: The origin of America’s first philosophy
How a culture of independence gave rise to a philosophy of self-reliance, solitude, and inner authority.
If the U.S. itself is the opt-out nation, transcendentalism is the opt-out philosophy.
Philosophy
Stop chasing your “one true passion.” It might not exist.
Trying to solve one’s existential dread by finding a singular purpose is a game won only by not playing.
History & Society
The $325 permit reshaping homeownership in Arizona
A writer’s search for an affordable home leads to the desert — and a community building a different kind of American dream.
Everyone I spoke to in Cochise County was a graduate of “YouTube University,” having learned about building an earthbag home from videos online.
History & Society
America is opting out of the world order it built
With the U.S. stepping away from international organizations en masse, the groups are being forced to find a new balance.
Even where they stay, what the U.S. is saying is, 'We're using our leverage to get you to work the way we want.'
History & Society
A universe with no humans: Strange sci-visions of intelligence escaping us
From Gilded Age space dreams to AI’s cosmic endgame, fiction reveals how the drive to shed obligations to others can escalate.
Inside that swarm, minds a trillion or more times as complex as humanity think thoughts as far beyond human imagination as a microprocessor is beyond a nematode worm.
History & Society
Dan Carlin: The two-party system was never the plan
A conversation with the Hardcore History host on executive power, political independents, and how America drifted into partisan dysfunction.
The people who get to the top positions of power — these are not people who demonstrated fantastic leadership skills.
Mind & Behavior
Why Gen Z is nostalgic for a world it never knew
A nostalgia-fueled real-world renaissance is underway, led by young adults striving to counter the cultural pessimism and division that pervades much of online life.
Two-thirds of Gen Z report feeling nostalgic for eras before their lifetime.
The Long Game
The 221-year-old company that reinvented itself — 4 times
This carriage maker didn’t get wiped out by the automobile. Instead, it became one of the most successful car businesses in European history.
Crisis has a way of burning off the unnecessary and leaving behind only what was always true.
History & Society
The pressures pushing America toward short-term thinking
A conversation with Richard Haass about reorienting the U.S. toward long-term thinking and reinstating global stability into the 22nd century.
Books
“I would prefer not to”: The mystery behind literature’s most famous act of refusal
The ambiguity of Bartleby shows that opting out can be a form of resistance, retreat, or something harder to judge.
Trauma and the frustrations of modern life can motivate a retreat to nature, but abstaining from society still feels, on some level, like capitulation.
The hidden cost of AI in schools: fewer moments of doubt
Philosopher Gert Biesta on the real reason we should be wary of AI in education.
The myth of a shared reality
In conversation with Kmele Foster, Dan Carlin unpacks the myth of shared reality, the erosion of society, and the history that preceded it.
As print literacy fades, our perception of truth is warping
The printing press gave us objective truth. Social media made truth tribal again. AI could make it something else entirely.
America pioneered gravitational wave research. Now it may leave it behind.
The LIGO facilities in the U.S. are the most sensitive gravitational wave detectors in the world. Their future remains uncertain.
