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The Daily

This is what the news should sound like. The biggest stories of our time, told by the best journalists in the world. Hosted by Michael Barbaro. Twenty minutes a day, five days a week, ready by 6 a.m.

The Sunday Read: ‘How Tom Sandoval Became the Most Hated Man in America’

The Daily

  • 80 views
  • 26 days ago
  • 49:00

At the end of a quiet, leafy street in the Valley in Los Angeles, the reality TV star Tom Sandoval has outfitted his home with landscaping lights that rotate in a spectrum of colors, mimicking the dance floor of a nightclub. The property is both his private residence and an occasional TV set for the Bravo reality show “Vanderpump Rules.” After a series of events that came to be known as “Scandoval,” paparazzi had been camped outside, but by the new year it was just one or two guys, and now they have mostly gone, too.“Scandoval” is the nickname for Sandoval’s affair with another cast member, which he had behind the backs of the show’s producers and his girlfriend of nine years. This wouldn’t be interesting or noteworthy except that in 2023, after being on the air for 10 seasons, “Vanderpump” was nominated for an Emmy for outstanding unstructured reality program, an honor that has never been bestowed on any of the network’s “Housewives” shows. It also became, by a key metric, the most-watched cable series in the advertiser-beloved demographic of 18- to 49-year-olds and brought in over 12.2 million viewers. This happened last spring, when Hollywood’s TV writers went on strike and cable TV was declared dead and our culture had already become so fractured that it was rare for anything — let alone an episode of television — to become a national event. And yet you probably heard about “Scandoval” even if you couldn’t care less about who these people are, exactly.As “Vanderpump” airs its 11th season, Tom Sandoval reflects on his new public persona.

Biden, Trump and a Split Screen at the Texas Border

The Daily

  • 92 views
  • 28 days ago
  • 30:17

President Biden and Donald J. Trump both made appearances at the southern border on Thursday as they addressed an issue that is shaping up to be one of the most important in the 2024 election: immigration.Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a White House correspondent for The Times, discusses Mr. Biden’s risky bid to take perhaps Trump’s biggest rallying point and use it against him.Guest: Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a White House correspondent for The New York Times.Background reading: In appearances some 300 miles apart, Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump tried to leverage a volatile policy dispute of the 2024 campaign.How visiting the border has become a potent form of political theater.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

How Poisoned Applesauce Found Its Way to Kids

The Daily

  • 110 views
  • 29 days ago
  • 25:11

A Times investigation has revealed how applesauce laced with high levels of lead sailed through a food safety system meant to protect American consumers, and poisoned hundreds of children across the U.S.Christina Jewett, who covers the Food and Drug Administration for The Times, talks about what she found.Guest: Christina Jewett, who covers the Food and Drug Administration for The New York Times.Background reading: Lead-tainted applesauce sailed through gaps in the food-safety system.What to know about lead exposure in children.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

An Arms Race Quietly Unfolds in Space

The Daily

  • 110 views
  • 30 days ago
  • 25:02

U.S. officials have acknowledged a growing fear that Russia may be trying to put a nuclear weapon into orbit.Eric Lipton, an investigative reporter for The Times, explains that their real worry is that America could lose the battle for military supremacy in space.Guest: Eric Lipton, an investigative reporter for The New York Times.Background reading: The U.S. warned its allies that Russia could put a nuclear weapon into orbit this year.The Pentagon is in the early stages of a program to put constellations of smaller and cheaper satellites into orbit to counter space-based threats of the sort being developed by Russia and China.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The Voters Willing to Abandon Biden Over Gaza

The Daily

  • 110 views
  • about 1 month ago
  • 35:33

In the past few weeks, activists in Michigan have begun calling voters in the state, asking them to protest President Biden’s support for the Israeli military campaign in Gaza by not voting for him in the Democratic primary.The activists are attempting to turn their anger over Gaza into a political force, one that could be decisive in a critical swing state where winning in November is likely to be a matter of the slimmest of margins.Jennifer Medina, a political reporter for The Times, explains how the war in Gaza is changing politics in Michigan.Guest: Jennifer Medina, a political reporter for The New York Times.Background reading: Will Biden’s Gaza stance hurt him in 2024? Michigan is the first test.The war in Gaza turned this longtime Michigan Democrat against Biden.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The Alabama Ruling That Could Stop Families From Having Kids

The Daily

  • 120 views
  • about 1 month ago
  • 29:02

 A surprise ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court has halted fertility treatments across the state and sent a shock wave through the world of reproductive health.Azeen Ghorayshi, who covers sex, gender, and science for The Times, explains what the court case means for reproductive health and a patient in Alabama explains what it is like navigating the fallout.Guests: Azeen Ghorayshi, who covers sex, gender and science for The New York Times; and Meghan S. Cole, who is in the final stages of IVF treatment in Alabama.Background reading: Alabama ruled frozen embryos are children, raising questions about fertility care.Fertility clinics are routinely sued by patients for errors that destroy embryos, as happened in Alabama. An effort to define them legally as “unborn children” has raised the stakes.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The Sunday Read: ‘How Do You Make a Weed Empire? Sell It Like Streetwear.’

The Daily

  • 170 views
  • about 1 month ago
  • 29:42

The closest thing to a bat signal for stoners is the blue lettering of the Cookies logo. When a new storefront comes to a strip mall or a downtown shopping district, fans flock to grand-opening parties, drawn by a love of the brand — one based on more than its reputation for selling extremely potent weed.People often compare Cookies to the streetwear brand Supreme. That’s accurate in one very literal sense — they each sell a lot of hats — and in other, more subjective ones. They share a penchant for collaboration-based marketing; their appeal to mainstream audiences is tied up with their implied connections to illicit subcultures; and they’ve each been expanding rapidly in recent years.All of it is inextricable from Berner, the stage name of Gilbert Milam, 40, Cookies’ co-founder and chief executive, who spent two decades as a rapper with a sideline as a dealer — or as a dealer with a sideline as a rapper. With the company’s success, he is estimated to be one of the wealthiest rappers in the world, without having ever released a hit record.

Trump’s Cash Crunch

The Daily

  • 130 views
  • about 1 month ago
  • 25:16

Last week, when a civil court judge in New York ruled against Donald J. Trump, he imposed a set of penalties so severe that they could temporarily sever the former president from his real-estate empire and wipe out all of his cash.Jonah Bromwich, who covers criminal justice in New York, and Maggie Haberman, a senior political correspondent for The Times, explain what that will mean for Mr. Trump as a businessman and as a candidate.Guests: Jonah E. Bromwich, a criminal justice correspondent for The New York Times; and Maggie Haberman, a senior political correspondent for The New York Times.Background reading: Mr. Trump was met with a $450 million blow to his finances and his identity.Here’s a guide to the New York law that made the fierce punishment possible.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Putin’s Opposition Ponders a Future Without Aleksei Navalny

The Daily

  • 110 views
  • about 1 month ago
  • 31:31

Last week, the Russian authorities announced that Aleksei A. Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader and an unflinching critic of President Vladimir V. Putin, had died in a remote Arctic prison at the age of 47.Yevgenia Albats, his friend, discusses how Mr. Navalny became a political force and what it means for his country that he is gone.Guest: Yevgenia Albats, a Russian investigative journalist and a friend of Mr. Navalny.Background reading: Who was Aleksei Navalny?The sudden death of Mr. Navalny left a vacuum in Russia’s opposition. His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, signaled that she would try to fill the void.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

What Happens if America Turns Its Back on Its Allies in Europe

The Daily

  • 230 views
  • about 1 month ago
  • 23:01

Over the past few weeks, a growing sense of alarm across Europe over the future of the continent’s security has turned into outright panic.As Russia advances on the battlefield in Ukraine, the U.S. Congress has refused to pass billions of dollars in new funding for Ukraine’s war effort and Donald Trump has warned European leaders that if they do not pay what he considers their fair share toward NATO, he would not protect them from Russian aggression.Steven Erlanger, the chief diplomatic correspondent for The Times, discusses Europe’s plans to defend itself against Russia without the help of the United States.Guest: Steven Erlanger, the chief diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times.Background reading: In Europe, there is a dawning recognition that the continent urgently needs to step up its own defense, especially as the U.S. wavers, but the commitments still are not coming.Europe wants to stand on its own militarily. Is it too little, too late?For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Stranded in Rafah as an Israeli Invasion Looms

The Daily

  • 110 views
  • about 1 month ago
  • 40:43

This episode contains strong language and descriptions of war.After months of telling residents in the Gaza Strip to move south for safety, Israel now says it plans to invade Rafah, the territory’s southernmost city. More than a million people are effectively trapped there without any clear idea of where to go.Two Gazans describe what it is like to live in Rafah right now.Guest: Ghada al-Kurd and Hussein Owda, who are among more than a million people sheltering in Rafah.Background reading: Israel’s allies and others have warned against an offensive, saying that the safety of the civilians who have sought shelter in the far south of Gaza is paramount.Palestinians in Rafah described a “night full of horror” as Israeli strikes pummeled the area during an Israeli hostage rescue operation.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The Booming Business of Cutting Babies’ Tongues

The Daily

  • 190 views
  • about 1 month ago
  • 35:49

A Times investigation has found that dentists and lactation consultants around the country are pushing “tongue-tie releases” on new mothers struggling to breastfeed, generating huge profits while often harming patients.Katie Thomas, an investigative health care reporter at The Times, discusses the forces driving this emerging trend in American health care and the story of one family in the middle of it.Guest: Katie Thomas, an investigative health care reporter at The New York Times.Background reading: Inside the booming business of cutting babies’ tongues.What parents should know about tongue-tie releases.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Sunday Special: Un-Marry Me!

The Daily

  • 140 views
  • about 1 month ago
  • 27:03

Today we’re sharing the latest episode of Modern Love, a podcast about the complicated love lives of real people, from The New York Times.Anna Martin, host of the show, spoke to David Finch, who wrote three Modern Love essays about how hard he had worked to be a good husband to his wife, Kristen. As a man with autism who married a neurotypical woman, Dave found it challenging to navigate being a partner and a father. Eventually, he started keeping a list of “best practices” to cover every situation that might come up in daily life – a method that worked so well he wrote a best-selling book on it.But almost 11 years into his marriage, Kristen said she wanted to be “unmarried.” Dave was totally thrown off. He didn’t know what that meant, or if he could do it. But he wasn’t going to lose Kristen, so he had to give it a try.For more episodes of Modern Love, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop Wednesdays. 

An Explosive Hearing in Trump’s Georgia Election Case

The Daily

  • 170 views
  • about 1 month ago
  • 36:18

In tense proceedings in Georgia, a judge will decide whether Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, and her office should be disqualified from their prosecution of former President Donald J. Trump.Richard Fausset, a national reporter for The Times, talks through the dramatic opening day of testimony, in which a trip to Belize, a tattoo parlor and Grey Goose vodka all featured.Guest: Richard Fausset, a national reporter for The New York Times.Background reading: With everything on the line, Ms. Willis delivered raw testimony.What happens if Fani Willis is disqualified from the Trump case?Read takeaways from the hearing.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

How China Broke One Man’s Dreams

The Daily

  • 210 views
  • about 1 month ago
  • 29:38

A crisis of confidence is brewing inside China, where the government is turning believers in the Chinese dream into skeptics willing to flee the country.Li Yuan, who writes about technology, business and politics across Asia for The Times, explains why that crisis is now showing up at the United States’ southern border.Guest: Li Yuan, who writes the New New World column for The New York Times.Background reading: Why more Chinese are risking danger in southern border crossings to the United States.More than 24,000 Chinese citizens have been apprehended making the crossing from Mexico in the past year. That is more than in the preceding 10 years combined.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The Biden Problem Democrats Can No Longer Ignore

The Daily

  • 150 views
  • about 1 month ago
  • 33:06

Questions about President Biden’s age sharpened again recently after a special counsel report about his handling of classified information described him as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent for The Times, explains why Mr. Biden’s condition can no longer be ignored.Guest: Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times.Background reading: How Old Is Too Old to Be President? An Uncomfortable Question Arises Again.‘My Memory Is Fine,’ a Defiant Biden Declares After Special Counsel ReportFor more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Why the Race to Replace George Santos Is So Close

The Daily

  • 150 views
  • about 1 month ago
  • 27:23

Voters in New York are choosing the successor to George Santos, the disgraced Republican who was expelled from Congress in December.Nicholas Fandos, who covers New York politics and government for The Times, explains how the results of the race will hold important clues for both parties in November.Guest: Nicholas Fandos, a reporter covering New York politics and government for The New York Times.Background reading: What to Know About the Race to Replace George SantosDays before a special House election in New York, Tom Suozzi and Mazi Pilip traded blows in the race’s lone debate.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Why Boeing’s Top Airplanes Keep Failing

The Daily

  • 190 views
  • about 2 months ago
  • 21:57

When a piece of an Alaska Airlines flight blew out into the sky in January, concern and scrutiny focused once more on the plane’s manufacturer, Boeing.Sydney Ember, a business reporter for The Times, explains what has been learned about the incident and what the implications might be for Boeing.Guest: Sydney Ember, a business reporter for The New York Times.Background reading: The Alaska Airlines plane may have left the Boeing factory missing bolts, the National Transportation Safety Board said.Facing another Boeing crisis, the F.A.A. takes a harder line.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The Sunday Read: ‘The Unthinkable Mental Health Crisis That Shook a New England College’

The Daily

  • 140 views
  • about 2 months ago
  • 42:04

The first death happened before the academic year began. In July 2021, an undergraduate student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute was reported dead. The administration sent a notice out over email, with the familiar, thoroughly vetted phrasing and appended resources. Katherine Foo, an assistant professor in the department of integrative and global studies, felt especially crushed by the news. She taught this student. He was Chinese, and she felt connected to the particular set of pressures he faced. She read through old, anonymous course evaluations, looking for any sign she might have missed. But she was unsure where to put her personal feelings about a loss suffered in this professional context.The week before the academic year began, a second student died. A rising senior in the computer-science department who loved horticulture took his own life. This brought an intimation of disaster. One student suicide is a tragedy; two might be the beginning of a cluster. Some faculty members began to feel a tinge of dread when they stepped onto campus.Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts is a tidy New England college campus with the high-saturation landscaping typical of well-funded institutions. The hedges are beautifully trimmed, the pathways are swept clean. Red-brick buildings from the 19th century fraternize with high glass facades and renovated interiors. But over a six-month period, the school was turned upside down by a spate of suicides.

Kick Trump Off the Ballot? Even Liberal Justices Are Skeptical

The Daily

  • 150 views
  • about 2 months ago
  • 34:05

In December, the Colorado Supreme Court issued a bombshell ruling that said Donald Trump was ineligible to be on the state’s ballot for the Republican presidential primary, saying he was disqualified under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution because he had engaged in insurrection on Jan. 6.The Supreme Court has taken on the case and on Thursday, the justices heard arguments for and against keeping Trump on the ballot.Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court for The Times, analyzes the arguments, the justices’ responses, and what they can tell us about the likely ruling in a case that could alter the course of this year’s race for president.Guest: Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court for The New York Times and writes Sidebar, a column on legal developments.Background reading: What Happens Next in Trump’s Supreme Court Case on His EligibilityA Ruling for Trump on Eligibility Could Doom His Bid for ImmunityFor more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.