A seminal mid-century paper by the psychologist George Miller asserted that the human brain can hold seven items in short-term memory, give or take a couple. A person can chunk—that is, group items together in sensible, memorable units—to get a bit more bang, but modern psychologists think the species can handle only about four of those.
None of the chunks in the great minestrone that is The Atlantic is going anywhere, though, so enjoy leisurely encoding them in your much more capacious long-term memory. Then dip into a little trivia to see what stuck.
Find last week’s questions here, and to get Atlantic Trivia in your inbox every day, sign up for The Atlantic Daily.
Monday, November 24, 2025
- The venue that hosted a high-profile international conference last week caught fire—a pretty on-the-nose metaphor, considering that the summit was about what subject?
— From Peter Brannen’s “Our Almost-Apocalyptic [REDACTED] Future” - The German theologian Martin Luther is credited with beginning the Reformation in 1517 when he published a collection of his arguments known by what numerical name?
— From George Packer’s “An Anatomy of the MAGA Mind” - The moviemaking industry known as Nollywood is based in what country—the most populous of its continent?
— From Toluse Olorunnipa’s “The Fantastical Storytelling of Nollywood Movies”
And by the way, did you know that in addition to Dollywood (very much not a filmmaking industry, unless you count the 2022 TV movie Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas), there is a Dhollywood and a Dhallywood?
The former is India’s Gujarati-language industry, named for its frequent use of the drum known as a dhol. The latter is Bangladesh’s movie industry, named for the country’s capital, Dhaka. And the surrealist cinema of the early 20th century, such as Un Chien Andalou? Maybe … Dalíwood!
See you tomorrow.
Answers:
- Climate change. Brannen argues that such a fiery fate might await the whole world if society resigns itself to the “climate realism” argument that says a 3-degree rise should be the new do-not-pass line—because, realistically, do-not-pass lines often get passed. Read more.
- The 95 theses. George argues that the United States’ conservative political thought not so long ago was full of dramatic, rigorous ideas; he likens one writer’s reasoned argument against Enlightenment liberalism to Luther’s theses. But that writer, like so many others on the right, George says, has fallen into vulgarity. Read more.
- Nigeria. In the Sunday culture edition of The Atlantic Daily (sign up here), Toluse reminisces on a childhood spent waiting for cousins in Nigeria to mail him physical media from the industry. Now anyone can catch Nollywood fare on streamers, where movie budgets have grown and the storytelling is as fantastical as ever. Read more.
How did you do? Come back tomorrow for more questions, 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 dazzling fact—send it my way at [email protected].
The post Today’s Atlantic Trivia: The Toast of -ollywood appeared first on The Atlantic.
