Today’s Atlantic Trivia

Updated with new questions at 5:15 p.m. ET on October 7, 2025.

Welcome back for another week of The Atlantic’s un-trivial trivia, drawn from recently published stories. Without a trifle in the bunch, maybe what we’re really dealing with here is—hmm—“significa”? “Consequentia”?

Whatever butchered bit of Latin you prefer, read on for today’s questions. (Last week’s questions can be found here.)

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Tuesday, October 7, 2025

1. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s investments in education, health care, and the fight against poverty were elements of his agenda known by what optimistic, two-word phrase?
   — From Beth Macy’s “What Happened to My Hometown?”
2. Players in what professional sports league—where the average salary is about $120,000—wore T-shirts that read Pay Us What You Owe Us before their most recent all-star game?
   — From Jemele Hill’s “A [REDACTED] Star Goes Scorched-Earth”
3. Avi Schiffmann’s AI company became widely reviled after plastering ads all over the New York City subway with phrases such as I’ll never bail on our dinner plans. What is the one-word name of the company—which is also what it promises lonely users, in the form of a $129 wearable plastic disk?
   — From Matteo Wong’s “The Most Reviled Tech CEO in New York Confronts His Haters”

And by the way, did you know that Stockholm syndrome was originally known within Sweden as Norrmalmstorgssyndromet? That’s for Norrmalmstorg square, which was the site of the bank where in 1973 four employees who ended up being unusually amiable about the situation were taken hostage.

I love the specificity—an admirable attempt to keep the rest of Stockholm out of the psychodrama. Perhaps Paris syndrome, the underwhelming sensation that many tourists feel upon a first visit, paints with too broad a brush; “overcrowded–Mona Lisa-room syndrome” should do the trick.

Answers:

1. Great Society. LBJ’s big promises were just getting started as Macy was growing up in small-town Ohio, where opportunity felt within reach and people generally looked out for one another. During Macy’s visits in the decades since, greatness feels ever further off. Read more.
2. The WNBA. Jemele reports that the league is more popular than ever and that players are sticking up for their own worth, not simply “thanking their lucky stars,” as their antagonistic commissioner would have them do. Read more.
3. Friend. The CEO told Matteo that the backlash was all part of the plan, actually. So does that mean he recognizes the fallibility of his AI-friend tech? He did say it wouldn’t replace human friends—but possibly because it’s more akin to “talking to a god.” Read more.

How did you do? Come back tomorrow for more questions, read below for previous ones, or click here for last week’s. And if you think up a great question after reading an Atlantic story—or simply want to share a stimulating fact—send it my way at trivia@theatlantic.com.

Monday, October 6, 2025

From the edition of The Atlantic Daily, by Will Gottsegen:

1. Teenager Muhammad Gazawi this year became the youngest winner ever in his category of Israel’s Ophir Awards, equivalent to what U.S. prizes? (Gazawi’s American counterpart in the distinction would be Adrien Brody.)
   — From Gershom Gorenberg’s “The Reason Not to Boycott Israeli [REDACTED]”
2. In 1945, Robert Jackson took a leave of absence from his job as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court to serve as chief prosecutor during proceedings in what German city?
   — From Philippe Sands’s “How Far Does Trump’s Immunity Go?”
3. Finish this quote from the self-driving-car expert Bryant Walker Smith: “I like to tell people that if” this AI-powered ride-hailing service “worked as well as ChatGPT, they’d be dead.”
   — From Saahil Desai’s “Move Fast and Break Nothing”

And by the way, did you know that a single town on an island in Sweden gives its name to four elements of the periodic table? From Ytterby in the Stockholm archipelago come yttrium, terbium, erbium, and ytterbium. (Holmium, scandium, thulium, tantalum, and gadolinium were also discovered there, but to be fair, you can only do so much with Y’s, T’s, and a B.)

Answers:

1. The Oscars. The Palestinian-focused movie starring Gazawi, who is Arab, also won Israel’s prize for best picture. Gorenberg argues that the film is a good example of the counterproductivity of a pro-Palestinian boycott of the Israeli film industry, an indispensable channel for dissent in the country. Read more.
2. Nuremberg. Jackson briefly left the bench to prosecute Nazis after World War II at the international tribunal in the city. He also, Sands writes, led the drafting of the tribunal’s statute that foreclosed immunity for any defendant, including former heads of state. The way today’s Supreme Court has granted broad immunity from criminal prosecution to President Donald Trump, Sands argues, threatens that international norm. Read more.
3. Waymo. Happily, Waymo gets high scores on safety. The company has logged 96 million miles of autonomous rides without a single fatality caused by the tech. Look at the chatbots’ records for a contrast, Saahil says; it turns out the “5,000-pound Jaguar SUV may be less concerning than an interactive text box.” Read more.