In 2016, U.S. government officials began reporting a mysterious set of symptoms. They first appeared in Havana, but then showed up in other countries around the world. In a podcast for Vice World News , reporters Adam Entous and Jon Lee Anderson explain everything they’ve learned about what’s now commonly called Havana syndrome, and why the U.S. still can’t explain what causes it. On this week’s episode of Apple News In Conversation , Entous and Anderson discuss their reporting with host Shumita...
Mar 16, 2023•28 min
New Yorker staff writer Michael Schulman has been an Oscar enthusiast for decades. He’s even memorized every acceptance speech ever given by Meryl Streep. Now he’s out with a new book called Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears . It’s a deep dive into key moments in the Oscars’ history that signaled shifts in the culture and industry. Schulman spoke with Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu about this evolution — and what to watch for at this year’s awards....
Mar 11, 2023•33 min
Jeff German was a legendary reporter in Las Vegas known for holding power to account. He was killed last September, and a local official has been charged with his murder. After German’s death, the Washington Post reached out to the Las Vegas Review-Journal — where he had worked since 2010 — offering reporting resources to help finish the work still sitting on his desk. The story the Post ultimately took on was assigned to reporter Lizzie Johnson. Johnson spoke with Apple News In Conversation hos...
Mar 04, 2023•21 min
There’s no such thing as a “miracle pill” for weight loss. But for many people who’ve struggled with their weight, drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro come pretty close. These medications — some of which were originally developed to treat diabetes — have been flying off the shelves, but a number of experts are concerned they could be misused. On Apple News In Conversation , health reporter Julia Belluz breaks down how these drugs work, who they’re for, and how they are impacting conversatio...
Feb 25, 2023•23 min
Recent economic indicators point to a relatively healthy U.S. economy. That’s despite an economic slowdown caused by the pandemic, inflation, a wacky housing market, and fears of a recession. On Apple News In Conversation , Vox senior correspondent Emily Stewart breaks down how we got here and what government officials need to do now to keep the economy trending in the right direction....
Feb 18, 2023•26 min
When it comes to love and money, the old adage is true: Opposites do attract. But with that can come a lot of disagreements over how to spend and save. In the latest episode of Apple News In Conversation , host Shumita Basu speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Julia Carpenter about the challenges couples face when managing their finances — and what experts say about how to more successfully build wealth together....
Feb 11, 2023•37 min
Every day, nearly 200 Americans die from a fentanyl overdose. This synthetic drug represents the latest phase of the decades-long opioid epidemic that began with prescription pain pills. Scott Higham is part of a team of reporters at the Washington Post that investigated the crisis — and the government failures that led us here. Higham spoke with Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu about the Post’s investigation....
Feb 04, 2023•26 min
The Supreme Court is expected to soon hand down a ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard , a case that could end affirmative action in college admissions. But professor Evan Mandery says we’re talking about the wrong issue. In his new book, Poison Ivy: How Elite Colleges Divide Us , Mandery explains how top schools disproportionately favor wealthy white students — and why that’s dangerous. Mandery spoke with Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu about the problem with elite col...
Jan 28, 2023•24 min
When Bitcoin was first created, it was believed to be an untraceable form of currency. This promise attracted tons of bad actors — and it turned out to be untrue. Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu spoke with journalist Andy Greenberg about his new book, Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency . Greenberg lays out how U.S. authorities used cryptocurrency tracing to take down some of the most prolific criminals on the dark web....
Jan 21, 2023•25 min
The majority of NFL players are Black. So how is it possible that the league has only had 20 Black head coaches since 1990 — compared to 154 white coaches? The glaring disparity is at the center of an ongoing lawsuit against the NFL brought by former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores. Washington Post reporter Michael Lee talks to Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu about this persistent problem — and how the NFL needs to change, fast....
Jan 14, 2023•26 min
When longtime LA Times columnist Steve Lopez reached his mid-60s, he started to think about retiring. But he wasn’t sure how to go about it — or if he should do it all. He gave himself one year to decide and spoke with many different people — Norman Lear and Mel Brooks, among others — about their thoughts on retirement. He wrote a book about his journey, called Independence Day: What I Learned About Retirement From Some Who’ve Done It and Some Who Never Will . He spoke with Apple News In Convers...
Jan 07, 2023•30 min
This is an interview from our archives. It was part of a series called Think Again — a guide to reimagining work, home, relationships, and more. In this episode, Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu talks with Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes, hosts of the Maintenance Phase podcast, about how to outsmart the wellness industry, spot junk health science, and find information that will actually help you live healthier. Below are excerpts from the interview....
Dec 31, 2022•29 min
This is an episode from our archives. At Yale University, psychology professor Laurie Santos saw firsthand how so many college students were anxious or depressed. So she decided to teach a class on the science of happiness — and how to apply it in real life. It became the school’s most popular course ever. Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu spoke with Santos about her podcast, The Happiness Lab , and the evidence-based strategies that can help us improve our lives and outlook. Below ar...
Dec 24, 2022•29 min
Microplastics cover every inch of our world, from the rain forest to Mount Everest — they’re even in our lungs. Much remains unknown about their impact on our health, but so far the research paints a bleak picture. In his new book, A Poison Like No Other , science journalist Matt Simon breaks down some big and small changes we can all make to mitigate our exposure to microplastics and reduce their spread. Below are excerpts from his interview with Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu....
Dec 17, 2022•22 min
Nobel Peace Prize–winning journalist Maria Ressa has a warning for the world. In her new book, How to Stand Up to a Dictator , Ressa lays out how social media has been weaponized to support the rise of authoritarianism in the Philippines — and why the rest of the world needs to pay attention. She spoke with Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu about the urgent actions needed to safeguard democracy today....
Dec 10, 2022•28 min
Cellular biology has already transformed medicine. It’s the science behind treatments like blood transfusions, in vitro fertilization (IVF), and chemotherapy. But as the field continues to develop, it keeps pushing up against one question: What’s a disease — and what’s a desire? In his new book, The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human , Pulitzer Prize–winning author and cancer researcher Siddhartha Mukherjee takes a deep dive into the perils and potential of advancing ...
Dec 03, 2022•20 min
This is an episode from our archives. Scott McCartney has been covering the airline industry for more than two decades. He spoke with Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu about why air travel is such a mess — and what can we do about it.
Nov 22, 2022•27 min
We’ve got something special for you this weekend. Apple News is launching a new World Cup podcast — hosted by Brendan Hunt (who plays Coach Beard on ‘Ted Lasso’) and Rebecca Lowe (who covers the English Premier League for NBC Sports). We’re bringing you the podcast’s first episode. In this inaugural episode, Brendan Hunt and Rebecca Lowe gear up for the World Cup. Hear them battle out their national allegiances to the U.S. and England, reflect on the human-rights abuses taking place in Qatar, an...
Nov 19, 2022•29 min
This week, the Powerball topped $2 billion, making it the biggest jackpot ever. Historian Jonathan D. Cohen is the author of the book For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America . He spoke with Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu about our enduring obsession with the lottery — and the industry’s most troubling problems....
Nov 12, 2022•27 min
This episode is part of a special series from Apple News Today exploring the lead-up to the 2022 midterm elections. Which party will control Congress? What are the most crucial races to watch? What do voters say they want? Apple News editor Gideon Resnick put these questions and more to a panel of election watchers: Amy Walter, the editor-in-chief of the Cook Political Report , Errin Haines, the editor-at-large for the 19th , and Mike Madrid, a GOP consultant and co-host of the Latino Vote podca...
Nov 05, 2022•30 min
A recent study by the Reuters Institute found that only 29% of Americans say they trust the news most of the time. Where has the press gone wrong — and how can it change to better serve the public? Longtime media critic Margaret Sullivan explores these questions in her new book, Newsroom Confidential: Lessons (and Worries) From an Ink-Stained Life . Below are excerpts from her interview with Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu....
Oct 29, 2022•27 min
In September, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was visiting Tehran when she was arrested by the country’s morality police for improperly wearing her hijab. She died while in custody. Since then, anti-government demonstrators — many of them women — have taken to the streets in cities across the country and around the world to demand more freedom and civil liberties in Iran. Pardis Mahdavi is a scholar of feminist movements in the country. In her interview with Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu,...
Oct 22, 2022•33 min
Many books have been written about Donald Trump’s presidency. But one stands out from the rest. It’s called The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017–2021 , and it’s by New York Times journalist Peter Baker and New Yorker writer Susan Glasser. The husband-and-wife coauthors exhaustively cataloged Trump’s four years in office and interviewed more than 300 people, including Trump, for the book. They spoke with Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu about their reporting....
Oct 15, 2022•33 min
After 9/11, the U.S. spent billions of dollars establishing the Transportation Security Administration. After more than 20 years of pat-downs, barefoot X-rays, and so-called random screenings, evidence shows that the TSA has played almost no role in foiling terrorist plots. Journalist Darryl Campbell recently wrote for The Verge about the agency’s history. He spoke with Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu about the state of airport security today and what a better system could look like...
Oct 08, 2022•28 min
During her long career covering the Supreme Court, journalist Nina Totenberg cultivated friendships with many justices, including Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Antonin Scalia. Totenberg spoke with Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu about how she maintained journalistic integrity while cultivating those relationships, what she thinks about the court today, and her new book, Dinners With Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships ....
Oct 01, 2022•29 min
The Dallas Cowboys may be “America’s Team,” but the hundreds of women behind the Cowboys Cheerleaders deserve a lot of credit for its success. Journalist Sarah Hepola tells their story in an article for Texas Monthly , “Sex, Scandal, and Sisterhood: Fifty Years of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders,” and in the podcast America’s Girls . Hepola spoke with Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu about how the squad’s choreography, costumes, and controversial codes of conduct have changed with Am...
Sep 24, 2022•32 min
Schools across the U.S. closed their doors for 58 weeks during the pandemic. Journalist Anya Kamenetz writes about the ripple effects of school closures in her new book, The Stolen Year: How COVID Changed Children’s Lives, and Where We Go Now . Kamenetz spoke with Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu about the consequences of our failure to prioritize kids....
Sep 17, 2022•24 min
This interview is part of a new series from Apple News In Conversation called Think Again — a guide to reimagining work, home, relationships, and more. In this episode, In Conversation host Shumita Basu talks with Jenny Odell, an artist and the author of the book How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy . Odell provides strategies for training our attention away from devices and toward the world....
Sep 10, 2022•19 min
This is an episode from our archives. It’s re-airing as part of our new series, Think Again , a guide to reimagining work, home, relationships, and more. How’s your relationship to your job? For a lot of people, work-life balance has felt far from perfect for a while. Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu speaks with Anne Helen Petersen about her 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 t...
Sep 03, 2022•25 min
This interview is part of a new series from Apple News In Conversation called Think Again — a guide to reimagining work, home, relationships, and more. In this episode, In Conversation host Shumita Basu talks with Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes, hosts of the Maintenance Phase podcast, about how to outsmart the wellness industry, spot junk health science, and find information that will actually help you live healthier. Below are excerpts from the interview....
Aug 27, 2022•29 min
