Apple News In Conversation

Apple News In Conversation with Shumita Basu brings you interviews with some of the world’s best journalists and experts about the stories that impact our lives. Join us every week as we go behind the headlines.

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Episodes

Nikole Hannah-Jones on the 1619 Project and reframing U.S. history

Nikole Hannah-Jones is a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter for The New York Times Magazine and the creator of the 1619 Project. The project reframes American history around an important date that isn’t mentioned in many history books: 1619, the beginning of American slavery. Hannah-Jones has expanded on the idea and turned it into a book called The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story . Hannah-Jones spoke with Apple News Today host Shumita Basu about the project....

Jan 22, 2022•25 min

How one journalist helped her dad die

If you’re suffering from a terminal illness and have only a few months to live, should you be allowed to choose how and when to end your life? Ten states in the country allow patients to do just that — a practice referred to as medical aid in dying — under highly regulated laws. In April 2020, Bloomberg journalist Esmé Deprez’s father became the second person to end his life under the Maine Death with Dignity Act. Deprez speaks with Apple News Today host Duarte Geraldino about that experience an...

Jan 15, 2022•28 min

Feeling burned out? Here’s how to rethink work.

How’s your relationship to your job? Does it feel healthy? Sustainable? For a lot of people, it got worse during the pandemic. One survey in 2021 found that more than a third of the men and nearly half of the women feel burned out. So what’s going wrong here? Apple News Today host Shumita Basu speaks with Anne Helen Petersen about her new book, Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working From Home , coauthored with Charlie Warzel. It’s all about how we can adjust the role our jo...

Jan 08, 2022•25 min

Inside the secret prisons where migrants are tortured and beaten

For the New Yorker , journalist Ian Urbina traveled to Libya to report on an EU-funded shadow immigration system that holds migrants in brutal detention centers. While reporting this story, Urbina was kidnapped, beaten, and detained himself. Now safely back home, he spoke with Apple News Today host Shumita Basu about how this shadow system works and the horrific conditions inside the detention centers.

Dec 11, 2021•25 min

Jelani Cobb on the backlash to critical race theory

The New Yorker’s Jelani Cobb says conservatives weaponizing critical race theory aren’t acting in good faith. He speaks with Apple News Today host Shumita Basu about his recent piece for the New Yorker about the founder of the concept, Derrick Bell. Cobb says that Bell could have predicted today’s backlash and that real critical race theory can help us understand today’s debate over false depictions of this term.

Nov 20, 2021•22 min

Kids were jailed for a crime that doesn’t exist. How could that happen?

Nashville Public Radio’s Meribah Knight speaks with Shumita Basu about her reporting for ProPublica on the juvenile-justice system in Rutherford County, Tennessee. Knight reveals a disturbing pattern in which hundreds of kids — some as young as 7 years old — were being locked up every year. In many of these cases, the adults responsible acted illegally and faced no consequences.

Oct 30, 2021•27 min

Think the stock market is rigged? You may be right.

Data shows high-level execs often get unusually good returns trading their own companies’ stocks. But regulators say insider trading is hard to prove under current law. For Bloomberg Businessweek , Liam Vaughan explains why insider trading is more widespread than you might think — and why some experts argue the system is fundamentally unfair.

Oct 23, 2021•15 min

Bob Woodward and Robert Costa on the final months of Trump’s presidency

What was it like inside the White House when Donald Trump lost — then denied losing — the election? Journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, authors of the new book Peril, sat down with Apple News Today host Shumita Basu to discuss the chaotic period, which they consider one of the most dangerous in American history. Peril is available now on Apple Books.

Oct 02, 2021•26 min

The story of Jane Roe, her baby, and abortion in America

Many people may not know that the woman at the center of Roe v. Wade — whose real name is Norma McCorvey — never got the abortion to which she won the right. Journalist and author Joshua Prager set out to find the daughter whom McCorvey ultimately gave up for adoption. In his new book, The Family Roe: An American Story , Prager details the lives of these women and explores how the issue of abortion became so divisive in the U.S....

Sep 18, 2021•24 min

E. Alex Jung on who writer Anthony Veasna So might’ve been

Anthony Veasna So was a burgeoning literary star when he died of a drug overdose at 28 last year. For New York Magazine , Jung spoke with So’s friends, family, and partner about who he was. They all have different ideas.

Aug 14, 2021•22 min

Roxane Gay talks Kelis’s farm and the beauty of homegrown food

Kelis is a pop star most widely known for her 2003 hit single, “Milkshake.” She’s still performing, but her talents and interests extend beyond the music world. A few years ago, she and her husband bought a farm outside L.A. and started living off the land. Best-selling author Roxane Gay wrote about Kelis’s experience running the farm for Harper’s Bazaar . In her article, Gay explores why Kelis started farming and the freedom it has brought her. Gay also looks at the barriers that often stand be...

Jul 31, 2021•17 min

Allison P. Davis on how Zola’s Twitter thread became a movie

A’Ziah King, also known as Zola, went viral on Twitter back in 2015. Her series of 148 tweets detailed a mostly true story about a trip down to Florida for an exotic-dancing gig that went awry. A film, titled ‘Zola’ and directed by Janicza Bravo, has now been made based on that viral Twitter thread. Allison P. Davis, a features writer at New York Magazine , recently profiled Zola. Davis details how many different interests tried to take control of Zola’s story during the filmmaking process — and...

Jul 03, 2021•24 min

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