Today’s Atlantic Trivia: Aruba, Jamaica, Ooh, I Wanna Take Ya

Updated with new questions at 3:30 p.m. ET on January 23, 2026.

In Princeton, New Jersey, a short stroll from the university you have heard of, there lies a little campus home to the Institute for Advanced Study. It was founded in 1930 not to confer degrees nor—God forbid!—to make money, nor even to conduct research toward any end in particular. The institute proclaims that its purpose is “the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake.”

Founder Abraham Flexner reckoned that brilliant minds, once freed to pursue “useless satisfactions,” would stumble upon discoveries of “undreamed-of utility,” as he wrote in a magazine a few years into the institute’s work. It seems to have worked for Albert Einstein, who had an office there. J. Robert Oppenheimer, too.

Enjoy this week’s useless satisfactions. I look forward to your theory of everything the week after.

Find last week’s questions here, and to get Atlantic Trivia in your inbox every day, sign up for The Atlantic Daily.

Friday, January 23, 2026

1. What 2025 film holds the record for most Oscar nominations, including one for its star, Michael B. Jordan (yes, just one, despite his playing two roles)? — From David Sims’s article on how the Oscars are rewarding Hollywood’s big bets
2. In 1848, President James K. Polk offered Spain $100 million to renounce its claim to what Caribbean territory—an offer the Spanish rejected, meaning that the United States never came to own the island? — From Vivian Salama’s article on contemporary echoes of manifest destiny
3. The doctrine of foquismo—that a small group of guerrilla fighters can create the conditions for a revolution—was developed by what fighter of the 1950s and ’60s? — From Jason Burke’s essay on the lessons of the previous century’s radicals

And by the way, did you know that the United States spent only $10,000 on the last land that it outright purchased? In 1944, the country bought Water Island, 500 volcanic acres in the Caribbean just south of St. Thomas; it had purchased the Virgin Islands (including St. Thomas) from Denmark a few decades earlier.

Water Island was not then owned by Denmark, but rather the Danish East Asiatic Company. By World War II, the United States wanted Water Island too, to support military operations on St. Thomas, so it scooped up the land for a bargain.

This, however, was not the last time the United States tried to purchase land, and not even that decade. Two years after the Water Island purchase, the Truman administration offered Denmark $100 million in gold to buy … Greenland.

Have a great weekend!

Answers:

1. Sinners. The feting of Sinners and other swings for the fences (such as One Battle After Another) is a pivot for the Academy, David writes, which is coming off a yearslong tilt toward international and art-house movies. This is not a year, he says, in which the Academy will be struggling for relevance. Read more.
2. Cuba. There’s a clear parallel to Donald Trump’s quest for Greenland—a proposed acquisition that now looks as though it’s not going to come to pass either. Vivian notes that Polk’s failure to annex Cuba turned Americans against expansionism for decades to come. Read more.
3. Che Guevara. Burke argues that extremist movements always learn from their forebears; nothing comes from nothing. And history shows that absent a political outlet for radical change, violence will necessarily resurge, he writes. Read more.

How did you do? Come back next week for more questions, and if you think up a great question after reading an Atlantic story—or simply want to share a fact—send it my way at [email protected].

Thursday, January 22, 2026

1. What establishment is known as the “nation’s attic” for its vast collection of American artifacts? — From Lily Meyer’s article on the long-running argument over that attic
2. The Arabic word for “everything” is the name of what website that concerns itself with elections, sports scores, geopolitical happenings, and basically any other predictable event a user can think up? — From Saahil Desai’s article on the danger of this sort of site
3. What political-science term describes a country with a weak government, an exploited working class, and an elite-controlled economy that usually depends on one (possibly fruity) commodity? — From Marc Novicoff’s essay on looking for a label for Donald Trump’s governance

And by the way, did you know that the vaunted Athenians, inventors of democracy, most commonly selected their political officeholders by chance? Bronze tokens representing the adult men of Athens would be slotted into a carved-stone device called the kleroterion, then dice would be repeatedly dropped into the contraption to rule out tokens until only the number required to hold office remained.

The proper poli-sci term for this is sortition, which also applies to how the United States selects people for jury duty today. But imagine the rest of U.S. democracy working like that: You’re tossing out your junk mail when you notice a letter from the feds—congrats, the big government Plinko board has decided you’re serving one year in Congress. Good luck!

Answers:

1. The Smithsonian. The world’s largest museum complex is, naturally, more than just dusty storage, and the “attic” moniker belies the power the Smithsonian Institution has to shape the narrative of the United States, Lily writes. The story matters more than all the stuff—so it’s no wonder people fight over it, she says. Read more.
2. Kalshi. Like Polymarket, Kalshi is one of those sites that purports to be a “prediction market” and not a gambling platform—repeat, not a gambling platform. Except, Saahil writes, any forum for betting is definitionally manipulable; the media outlets that breathlessly report odds as determined by Kalshi had better beware. Read more.
3. Banana republic. The term, typically applied to Latin American countries, doesn’t really fit the United States, Marc writes (although artificial intelligence certainly seems like the country’s banana right now), nor does authoritarianism, fascism, or kleptocracy. Rather, Marc argues, the United States might right now be a kakistocracy. Read more.

Wednesday, January 21, 2026

1. The strangely shaped juhyo—“monsters” made where the wind sculpts snow around evergreen trees—appear each winter on Mount Zao, in a rural prefecture of what country? — From Alan Taylor’s collection of photos of the phenomenon
2. The Trump administration this month posted images of politicians and celebrities sporting a particular type of mustache—a campaign intended to encourage consumption of what dietary item? — From Yasmin Tayag’s article on one of the food world’s longest wars
3. In internet slang, what four-letter first name can be applied to any muscular, romantically successful “alpha male”? (Drop a letter, and you get a word for a man who behaves boorishly toward women.) — From Thomas Chatterton Williams’s essay on the crisis of “looksmaxxing”

And by the way, did you know that—speaking of snow monsters—the U.S. State Department in 1959 issued guidance on yeti expeditions? It informed Americans who wished to hunt for the abominable snowman that they would have to comply with certain rules set by Nepal: They needed to pay for a permit, they had to share any photographic evidence they found, and they were allowed to capture the yeti alive but could kill it only “in an emergency arising out of self defence.”

Alas, this did not mean that State officials believed in the monster. Rather, they were trying to show their support for Nepalese sovereignty—and thus keep the country out of the clutches of a boogeyman that scared Americans even more than the yeti: communism.

Answers:

1. Japan. The monsters make for eerie skiing in the mountains of Yamagata prefecture, the site of one of Japan’s oldest resorts. If a jaunt there is out of the question, the photos Alan compiled are a stunning substitute. See the pictures.
2. Milk. The dairy ’staches are a throwback to the “Got Milk?” campaign launched in the 1990s. Now the Trump team wants everyone drinking whole milk specifically, Yasmin says—possibly to recapture America’s lost promise? The details are fuzzy. What’s clear, Yasmin writes, is that “the idealized era of perfectly safe, perfectly wholesome dairy never really existed.” Read more.
3. Chad. (And your drop-a-letter answer is cad.) The Chad is one of the more legible elements of the corner of the internet devoted to “looksmaxxing”—the “monomaniacal commitment” to improving one’s appearance, as Thomas puts it. Reporting on this troubling, uncompassionate subculture, Thomas concludes that it might be the perfect distillation of the moral crisis young men face. Read more.

Tuesday, January 20, 2026

1. Whereas Swedish institutions select the winner of every other Nobel Prize, the award for peace is conferred by a committee from what country? — From Anne Applebaum’s analysis of Donald Trump’s threatening Greenland letter
2. What 1986 sports movie follows the boys of tiny Milan High School to their state-championship victory over Muncie Central? — From Keith O’Brien’s article on the end of the underdog
3. The Barbz are—or were—the fan base of what “Anaconda” rapper, who recently alienated many of them when she appeared at a Turning Point USA event alongside Charlie Kirk’s widow? — From Spencer Kornhaber’s essay on Trump’s ever-stalled effort to win the culture war

And by the way, did you know that throughout the history of the Nobel Prizes, there have been years so turbulent that the Peace Prize committee determined not to confer an award, even as other categories went on?

This happened in a few of the interwar years as Nazi Germany rearmed, Italy invaded Ethiopia, and peace generally disintegrated. It was also the case for the years of World War I, with the exception of 1917, when the committee recognized the Red Cross for its humanitarian aid. (All of the Nobel Prizes were suspended during the early years of World War II.)

The circumstances were a bit different in 1948, when the committee ruled that “there was no suitable living candidate.” The clear message was that the award—which by rule cannot be given posthumously—should have gone to Mahatma Gandhi, assassinated earlier that year.

Answers:

1. Norway. Neither of those countries, you’ll note, is Denmark, the Scandinavian state that Greenland is a part of. Still, Anne writes, in a letter to Norway’s prime minister, Trump threatened invasion of the territory as a consequence of his not receiving a Nobel Peace Prize—never mind that Norway’s government doesn’t determine the winner, either. Read more.
2. Hoosiers. The real-life miracle that immortalized Milan, Indiana, is perhaps the underdog story in sports. Indiana University’s win on Monday in college football’s national championship is, likewise, a great story, O’Brien writes—but no matter how many Hoosier comparisons commentators make, the victory is not the tale of an underdog. That storyline, at least in college football, is kaput. Read more.
3. Nicki Minaj. Minaj’s appearance at AmericaFest was certainly a “plot twist,” Spencer writes, but it’s also in keeping with conservatives’ attempt to so disorient America that they can graft “a new zeitgeist” onto the culture. Alas—ask a Barb—culture is still too surprising and messy to control. Read more.

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