Is Everything Terrible? Tablet editor Alana Newhouse on the problem with burning it all down.

Aug 18, 2025

Alana Newhouse, the founder and editor-in-chief of Tablet Magazine, dives into the intricacies of societal breakdown. She discusses her powerful essay, 'Everything Is Broken,' addressing systemic failures in medicine, media, and education. Alana illuminates the concept of 'flatness' in cultural interactions, advocating for embracing complexity and unpredictability. Drawing from her personal journey navigating healthcare for her child, she sheds light on trust in institutions and calls for a deeper engagement with our chaotic world.

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INSIGHT

Institutions Break And Reassemble

Institutions cycle through breakdown and renewal rather than permanently collapsing.
Alana Newhouse sees early signs of re-aggregation and new structures forming amid decay.

INSIGHT

National Politics Replaced Local Meaning

National politics has displaced local institutions as the primary source of meaning for many people.
That shift amplifies despair because politics is a poor substitute for community, media, and religion.

INSIGHT

Avoid Ideological Lenses For Reality

Online culture introduced new metaphors like white-pilling and black-pilling that color how people interpret events.
Newhouse argues reporting must judge reality case-by-case rather than adopt hopeful or fatalistic ideologies.

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This week I’m joined by Alana Newhouse, journalist, cultural critic, and founder/editor-in-chief of Tablet Magazine. Since launching Tablet in 2009, Alana has carved out a space for nuanced and surprising reporting on Jewish identity and the larger cultural questions shaping those issues, as well as the broader issues of our time.

We discuss her 2021 essay, Everything Is Broken, in which she diagnoses systemic failures in medicine, media, education, and culture. Alana traces these breakdowns to a pervasive cultural force she calls flatness — the drive toward frictionless interaction, simplified narratives, and ideological conformity.

Drawing from her own story of navigating a medical crisis with her own child, Alana exposes how even privileged, insured families can be failed by institutions. She also offers a blueprint for repair: embracing complexity, friction, unpredictability, and deep creative engagement.

Alana will be a guest speaker at our Unspeakeasy Small Gathering for Big Ideas weekend, October 11-12 in New York City. Programming and ticketing info here.

Are you a fan of what Alana has done at Tablet? Show your love (and get a big discount) by using promo code ALANA1800 at checkout.

GUEST BIO

Alana Newhouse is the founder and editor-in-chief of Tablet Magazine.

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HOUSEKEEPING

📖 Order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays, on Amazon or directly from the publisher here.

📘 The Catastrophe Hour book club for yearly paying subscribers starts June 11 and will run for 14 consecutive Wednesdays, 3-4 pm ET. We will meet on Zoom. More info here.

🗽 Live event in NYC on Sept 3! Come see me discuss The Catastrophe Hour with bestselling novelist and columnist Lionel Shriver (catch my recent interview with Lionel here). The Village Underground, 6 pm. Tickets and info [here](http://paid%20subscribers%20get%20access%20to%20my%20entire%20interview%20with%20rachel%20mason.%20to%20hear%20the%20entire%20conversation,%20become%20a%20paying%20subscriber%20here./).