The Dial

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Our AI, Ourselves? — The Dial Recent novels reflect our own confusion about what makes us human.

“All the behavioral flaws we resent in LLMs — sycophancy, mendacity, conformism, a tendency to offer bad and even fatal advice to its ‘users’ or confidants — find precedent in human ones.” Jessi Jezewska Stevens on what recent novels have to say about our anxieties and confusion around AI.

Looking at America From Gaza — The Dial “At times I see it as a site of exclusion and segregation, and at other times as the specter of another possible life.”

From Gaza, Muhammad al-Zaqzouq has watched America project its power with fascination. The Second Intifada, 9/11, the election of Barack Obama, the fall of Kabul, pro-Palestinian demonstrations at U.S. college campuses: With each event, new ideas of the country formed in his consciousness.

Our AI, Ourselves? — The Dial Recent novels reflect our own confusion about what makes us human.

How are fiction authors thinking about AI? Jessi Jezewska Stevens read a handful of recent novels that grapple with the anxiety and confusion of this new technology. Rather than predict the future as most science fiction does, these novels extend the present in an utterly recognizable way.

The Dial

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Looking at America From Gaza — The Dial “At times I see it as a site of exclusion and segregation, and at other times as the specter of another possible life.”

Since he was a child, Palestinian writer Muhammad al-Zaqzouq has watched the United States, a country capable of offering liberation or imposing hegemony, reshape the world and the futures of whole peoples. In this essay, he explores his turbulent relationship with America.

Why Are We So Afraid of Conversation? — The Dial A glut of self-help books promises to teach us to do it better.

There’s a general belief that people of all ages are losing the ability to speak easily to one another. Can self-help books on how to have a conversation actually help us? Lamorna Ash asks. www.thedial.world/articles/new...

Why Are We So Afraid of Conversation? — The Dial A glut of self-help books promises to teach us to do it better.

"I found Fisher’s approach totally uncynical. His mission statement is simple and, in its simplicity, quite radical: We should enter conversations not to prove but to learn something." —Lamorna Ash for @thedialmag.bsky.social

www.thedial.world/articles/new...

Why Are We So Afraid of Conversation? — The Dial A glut of self-help books promises to teach us to do it better.

“Learn all the cheat codes, participate in all the pre-game warmups: It’s still impossible to predict where a conversation might take you.” Lamorna Ash read three self-help books that promise to teach us how to have better conversations: www.thedial.world/articles/new...

DialGPT Powered by Dial editors, trained on years of experience at newsrooms around the world, DialGPT is built to respond to reader queries. Submit your question and we’ll get back to you.

We're answering reader questions! Ask us anything: www.thedial.world/dialgpt

Las Vegas Diaries — The Dial “These days I have no passport, no documents. And even if I manage to get one, I cannot return to Egypt.”

In 2018, two months before his 33rd birthday, Egyptian writer @ahmednaji.bsky.social arrived in the U.S. on a one-way ticket in a journey of exile and self-reinvention. These are excerpts from his journals from that time: www.thedial.world/articles/new...

What do you want to know about The Dial? Or the people behind the magazine? Ask us anything. From now until the end of year, we’ll reply to your questions. Learn more, and ask your question, here: www.thedial.world/dialgpt

Powered by Dial editors, trained on years of experience at newsrooms around the world, DialGPT is built to answer reader questions. Have you ever wondered how we commission pieces? Or want a book recommendation? Ask us anything: www.thedial.world/dialgpt

Today, we’re kicking off our end-of-year fundraising campaign. Support The Dial in promoting the exchange of ideas across borders! www.thedial.world/support

The Search for Migrants’ Bodies — The Dial When migrants die trying to reach Europe, their families become lost in a maze of bureaucracy and manipulation.

When migrants die trying to reach Europe, their families become lost in a maze of bureaucracy and manipulation. Okba Mohammad and Anna Surinyach report on an institutional vacuum that leaves families in the dark and creates a vulnerability bad actors can exploit. www.thedial.world/articles/new...

The Scammer Next Door — The Dial In India, an era of glaring inequality is also a golden age of graft.

"Rana Pratap and his home-grown start-up was the first time a scammer had approached me rather than the other way around. Things had come full circle. Someone had tried to scam me; I was now part of the story." —Snigdha Poonam for @thedialmag.bsky.social

What US Tech Did to Ireland — The Dial The country is alarmingly reliant on Meta, Google and Apple.

Twenty years ago, U.S. tech companies arrived in Ireland eager to set up their European headquarters in an English-speaking country with beneficial tax rates and an educated workforce.

What have they done for the people of Ireland?

@jesstraynor.bsky.social asks: www.thedial.world/articles/new...

Delighted to have a new article with The Dial - this time on tech giants, their alarming inflation of our GDP, and the mutation of the Dublin docklands from the early 2000s to today. Thanks to The Dial for the commission & their wonderful & astute editorial support.

What US Tech Did to Ireland — The Dial The country is alarmingly reliant on Meta, Google and Apple.

Ireland is alarmingly reliant on Meta, Google and Apple. Jessica Traynor reports on how U.S. technology companies have reshaped the economy, leaving it deeply exposed to President Trump’s tariffs: www.thedial.world/articles/new...

“False War,” by Carlos Manuel Álvarez — The Dial The dissident in Berlin.

"As if on an edifying many-layered journey, it’s only now, seeing the warm color of the yolk, that the dissident truly realizes he’s in a different place, an older, mysterious place."

Read an excerpt from Carlos Manuel Álvarez's novel "False War," translated by Natasha Wimmer.

What’s the Point of a Global Climate Target? — The Dial Countries pledged to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Is it time to abandon it?

2/2 “Who to believe? Are those arguing that 1.5C is no longer achievable being defeatist, or are those who insist on continuing to pursue it sharing in a dangerous delusion?" Read Sophie Yeo's report: www.thedial.world/articles/new...

What’s the Point of a Global Climate Target? — The Dial Countries pledged to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Is it time to abandon it?

1/ The 2015 Paris Agreement set a goal to keep the rise in global temperature below 1.5 degrees Celsius. Sophie Yeo considers whether it’s time to abandon the target. www.thedial.world/articles/new...

What’s the Point of a Global Climate Target? — The Dial Countries pledged to keep global warming to 1.5C. Is it time to abandon it?

In 2015, the UN set a climate goal to prevent the global temperature rise from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius. Sophie Yeo reports on how this target is becoming more and more obsolete, evolving from a tangible goal to a symbol of failure. www.thedial.world/articles/new...

What’s the Point of a Global Climate Target? — The Dial Countries pledged to keep global warming to 1.5C. Is it time to abandon it?

In 2015, the UN set a climate goal to prevent the global temperature rise from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius. Sophie Yeo reports on how this target is becoming more and more obsolete, evolving from a tangible goal to a symbol of failure: www.thedial.world/articles/new...

The Scammer Next Door — The Dial In India, an era of glaring inequality is also a golden age of graft.

3/3 Over several months, Snigdha Poonam embedded herself in the scamming industry and learned how the schemes worked.“I finally had an opportunity to explore the empire of scams as one of its foot soldiers,” she writes. www.thedial.world/articles/new...

The Scammer Next Door — The Dial In India, an era of glaring inequality is also a golden age of graft.

2/
What’s your name?

Rana Pratap.

I know what you are doing.

What am I doing?

You don’t need me to tell you that.

You have to trust me.

I don’t need a lottery prize.

Everyone wants a lottery prize.

What I need is a job. Do you have one for me?

Can you trap a target on the phone?

The Scammer Next Door — The Dial In India, an era of glaring inequality is also a golden age of graft.

1/ One day in 2020, Snigdha Poonam got a call from an unknown number. She was told she won a lottery for Rs 25 lakh ($28,400). There was just one problem: she hadn’t bought a lottery ticket. www.thedial.world/articles/new...

“The Competition of Unfinished Stories,” by Sener Ozmen — The Dial An excerpt from the book.

To celebrate both next week’s release of Sener Ozmen’s The Competition of Unfinished Stories and translator @gayadorno.bsky.social being a Literary Host at tonight’s @wwborders.bsky.social Gala, check out an excerpt of this Kurdish novel @thedialmag.bsky.social. www.thedial.world/articles/lit...

Canada’s Heroic Delusion — The Dial The country’s 40-year-ago embrace of free trade with the U.S. has come back to haunt it.

Canada was founded in deliberate defiance of the U.S. Forty years ago, when Progressive Conservative leader Brian Mulroney opened free trade talks with the Reagan administration, it lost sight of that north star. That decision has come back to haunt the country, writes @donalgill.bsky.social:

It was a great pleasure to work with this great team at @thedialmag.bsky.social on this piece, something of a love letter to Canadian cultural nationalism interspersed with political and economic history. It all reverberates in Canada’s terrible position vis-a-vis the Trump admin. today 🇨🇦🍁