In the weeks since Hamas carried out its devastating terrorist attack in southern Israel, Times journalists have been trying to work out why the Israeli security services failed to prevent such a huge and deadly assault. Ronen Bergman, a correspondent for The New York Times, tells the story of one of the warnings that Israel ignored. Guest: Ronen Bergman , a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine. Background reading: A blueprint reviewed by The Times laid out the Oct. 7 attack in detail. I...
Dec 04, 2023•34 min
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has come to define innovation, but he can also be a lightning rod for controversy; he recently endorsed antisemitic remarks on X, formerly known as Twitter, which prompted companies to pull their advertising. In an interview recorded live at the DealBook Summit in New York with Times business reporter and columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin, Musk discusses his emotional state and why he has “no problem being hated.” To read more news about the event, visit https://www.nytimes...
Dec 03, 2023•2 hr 34 min
For many millennials, buying a home has become almost entirely out of reach. Average 30-year mortgage rates are hovering around 7 percent — the highest they’ve been since 2007 — largely because of the Federal Reserve’s efforts to tame inflation. David Leonhardt, a senior writer for The New York Times, discusses whether it is time to change how we think about buying vs. renting. Guest: David Leonhardt , a senior writer for The New York Times. He writes The Morning, The Times’s flagship daily news...
Dec 01, 2023•28 min
The American economy, by many measures, is doing better than it has done in years. But for many Americans, that is not how it feels. Their feelings point to an enduring mystery: Why do Americans feel so bad when the economy is so good? Jeanna Smialek, who covers the Federal Reserve and the U.S. economy for The Times, discusses a new way to understand the disconnect. Guest: Jeanna Smialek , a reporter covering the Federal Reserve and the U.S. economy for The New York Times. Background reading: Vi...
Nov 30, 2023•22 min
From the moment that Roe v. Wade was overturned, the question was just how much the change would reduce abortions across the United States. Now, more than a year later, the numbers are in. Margot Sanger-Katz, who writes about health care for The Upshot, explains why the results are not what anyone had expected. Guest: Margot Sanger-Katz , a domestic correspondent for The New York Times. Background reading: The first estimate of births since Dobbs found that almost a quarter of women who would ha...
Nov 29, 2023•22 min
Hostages are at the heart of the fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, now in its fifth day. As of Monday night, 50 Israeli hostages had been released, as had 150 Palestinian prisoners. More releases were expected on Tuesday, under what Qatari mediators said was a deal to extend the cease-fire by two days. Isabel Kershner, a Jerusalem-based reporter for The New York Times, explains how a grass-roots movement managed to pause the war, and what it will mean for the rest of the conflict. Gue...
Nov 28, 2023•30 min
Only five members of the U.S. House of Representatives have ever been expelled from the institution. This week, Representative George Santos, Republican of New York, could become the sixth. In a damning ethics report, House investigators found that the congressman spent tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions on Botox, Ferragamo goods and vacations. Grace Ashford, who covers New York State politics and government for The Times, explains why, after a year in office, so many of Mr....
Nov 27, 2023•29 min
It was a head-spinning week in the tech world with the abrupt firing and rehiring of OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman. The hosts of “Hard Fork,” Kevin Roose and Casey Newton, interviewed Altman only two days before he was fired. Over the course of their conversation, Altman laid out his worldview and his vision for the future of A.I. Today, we’re bringing you that interview to shed light on how Altman has quickly come to be seen as a figure of controversy inside the company he co-founded. “H...
Nov 24, 2023•59 min
Polls suggest that they are – and that Black voters’ support for former President Donald J. Trump, especially among men, is rising. Astead W. Herndon, host of "The Run-Up," convened a special Thanksgiving focus group to explore what might be behind those numbers. He spoke with family, friends and parishioners from his father’s church, community members and people he grew up with. It’s a lively conversation with real implications for what might happen if the 2024 presidential race is a Biden-Trum...
Nov 23, 2023•55 min
The board of OpenAI, the maker of the ChatGPT chatbot and one of the world’s highest-profile artificial intelligence companies, reversed course late last night and brought back Sam Altman as chief executive. Cade Metz, a technology reporter for The Times, discusses a whirlwind five days at the company and analyzes what the fallout could mean for the future of the transformational technology. Guest: Cade Metz , a technology reporter for The New York Times. Background reading: With Mr. Altman’s re...
Nov 22, 2023•28 min
As the war against Hamas enters a seventh week, Israel finds itself under intense pressure to justify its actions in Gaza, including the raid of Al-Shifa Hospital, which it says is a center of Hamas activity. Hamas and hospital officials deny the accusation. Patrick Kingsley, the Jerusalem bureau chief for The Times, was one of the reporters invited by the Israeli military on an escorted trip into the enclave. Guest: Patrick Kingsley , Jerusalem bureau chief for The New York Times. Background re...
Nov 21, 2023•40 min
By working with Democrats to avert a government shutdown this past week, Speaker Mike Johnson seemed to put himself on the same path that doomed his predecessor. Or did he? Catie Edmondson, who covers Congress for The Times, explains why things could be different this time. Guest: Catie Edmondson , a reporter in the Washington bureau of The New York Times. Background reading: Congress prevented a shutdown, but the spending fight is far from over . Almost all Democrats and a majority of Republica...
Nov 20, 2023•28 min
The Space Force, the sixth and newest branch of the U.S. military, was authorized by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump in December 2019. The initiative had been shaped within the armed forces and Congress over the previous 25 years, based on the premise that as satellite and space technologies evolved, America’s military organizations had to change as well. From the start, the Space Force had detractors. Air Force officials wondered if it was necessary, while some political ...
Nov 19, 2023•35 min
One of the most highly anticipated diplomatic events of the year took place this week in a mansion outside San Francisco. President Biden and Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, met to repair their countries’ relations, which had sunk to one of their lowest points in decades. Edward Wong, a diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times, discusses the effort to bring the relationship back from the brink. Guest: Edward Wong , a diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times. Background reading: Bot...
Nov 17, 2023•26 min
A little over a year ago, at President Biden’s urging, congressional democrats passed a sweeping plan to supercharge the production and sale of electric vehicles. Jim Tankersley, who covers economic policy for The Times, explains whether the law is actually working. Guest: Jim Tankersley , an economic policy correspondent for The New York Times. Background reading: President Biden’s 2022 climate act spurred big investments in U.S. battery factories, but it has not similarly boosted E.V. sales . ...
Nov 16, 2023•25 min
A historic set of new lawsuits, filed by more than three dozen states, accuses Meta, the country’s largest social media company, of illegally luring children onto its platforms and hooking them on its products. Natasha Singer, who covers technology, business and society for The New York Times, has been reviewing the states’ evidence and trying to understand the long-term strategy behind these lawsuits. Guest: Natasha Singer , a reporter covering technology, business and society for The New York ...
Nov 15, 2023•34 min
To much of the outside world, Hamas’s decision to murder hundreds of Israelis and trigger a war that has since killed many thousands of its own people looks like a historic miscalculation — one that could soon result in the destruction of Hamas itself. Hamas’s leaders, however, say that it was the result of a deliberate calculation. Ben Hubbard, the Istanbul bureau chief for The New York Times, has been reporting on their decision, and what went into it. Guest: Ben Hubbard , the Istanbul bureau ...
Nov 14, 2023•35 min
Warning: This episode contains descriptions of injuries and death. As Israel’s war on Hamas enters its sixth week, hospitals in Gaza have found themselves on the front lines. Hospitals have become a refuge for the growing number of civilians fleeing the violence, but one that has become increasingly dangerous as Israel’s military targets what it says are Hamas fighters hiding inside and beneath them. Today, three doctors working in the Gaza Strip describe what the war looks like from inside thei...
Nov 13, 2023•38 min
In April 2016, 11 Black schoolchildren, some as young as 8 years old, were arrested in Rutherford County, Tenn. The reason? They didn’t stop a fight between some other kids. What happened in the wake of those arrests would expose a juvenile justice system that was playing by its own rules. For years, this county had arrested and illegally jailed hundreds, maybe thousands, of children. Why was this happening – and what would it take to stop it? From Serial Productions and The New York Times, in p...
Nov 12, 2023•29 min
Warning: this episode contains some explicit language. When Adidas terminated its multibillion-dollar partnership with Kanye West over his antisemitic and other offensive public remarks, it seemed like a straightforward story of a celebrity’s suddenly imploding. But a New York Times examination has found that, behind the scenes, the collaboration was fraught from the start. Megan Twohey, an investigative reporter for The Times, talks about what she discovered when she delved into the meltdown. G...
Nov 10, 2023•45 min
A critical gun case was argued before the Supreme Court this week. But instead of opening further freedoms for gun owners — as the court, with its conservative supermajority, did in a blockbuster decision last year — justices seemed ready to rule that the government may disarm people under restraining orders for domestic violence. Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court for The Times, explains why. Guest: Adam Liptak , who covers the Supreme Court for The New York Times and writes Sidebar, a c...
Nov 09, 2023•27 min
Of all the legal cases that former President Donald J. Trump is facing, perhaps the most personal is playing out in a courtroom in Manhattan: a civil fraud trial that could result in him losing control of his best-known buildings and paying hundreds of millions of dollars in fines. In recent days, Mr. Trump and some of his children have taken the stand, defending the family business and the former president’s reputation as a real-estate mogul. Jonah E. Bromwich, who covers justice in New York fo...
Nov 08, 2023•25 min
It’s been one month since the attack on Israel, but Washington has yet to deliver an aid package to its closest ally. The reason has to do with a different ally, in a different war: Speaker Mike Johnson has opposed continued funding for Ukraine, and wants the issue separated from aid to Israel, setting up a clash between the House and Senate. Catie Edmondson, who covers Congress for The Times, discusses the battle within the Republican Party over whether to keep funding Ukraine. Guest: Catie Edm...
Nov 07, 2023•26 min
In a major new campaign poll from The New York Times and Siena College, former President Donald J. Trump leads President Biden in five of the six battleground states likeliest to decide the 2024 presidential race. Widespread discontent with the state of the country and growing doubts about Biden’s ability to perform his job as president threaten to unravel the diverse coalition that elected him in 2020. Nate Cohn, The Times’s chief political analyst, explains why the results are less a reflectio...
Nov 06, 2023•30 min
The beginning of the story was strangely familiar, like the opening scene in a shopworn police procedural: A woman runs screaming down a street in Oak Beach, a secluded gated community on Long Island’s South Shore, only to vanish, it seems, into thin air. It was almost dawn on May 1, 2010. Hours earlier, Shannan Gilbert traveled from New Jersey to see a man who had hired her as an escort from a Craigslist ad. By the time the police arrived, she was gone. They talked to the neighbors, the john an...
Nov 05, 2023•55 min
As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict enters its darkest chapter in decades, both sides are evoking the same foundational moment in their past: the events of 1948. David K. Shipler, a former Jerusalem bureau chief for The New York Times and the author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the conflict, discusses the meaning and reality of what happened that year. Guest: David K. Shipler, author of “Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land.” Background reading: Recent violence in an Israel...
Nov 03, 2023•43 min
The mass shooting in Maine last week, which killed 18 people, was the country’s deadliest of the year. It may have also been one of the most avoidable. More than five months earlier, the Army Reserve and a Maine sheriff’s department had been made aware of a reservist’s deteriorating mental health. Just six weeks before the killings, he had punched a friend and said he was going to carry out a shooting spree. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, a national reporter for The Times, explains why so many warnin...
Nov 02, 2023•25 min
In late September, one of the world’s most intractable conflicts ended suddenly and brutally when Azerbaijan seized the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians fled their homes. Andrew Higgins, the New York Times bureau chief for East and Central Europe, explains how the conflict started, why it lasted for more than 30 years, and what its end can tell us about the nature of seemingly unsolvable disputes. Guest: Andrew Higgins , the East and Central Europe bureau chi...
Nov 01, 2023•34 min
A wave of strikes that has paralyzed the auto industry came to an end on Monday, when the last of the three big car manufacturers, General Motors, reached a deal with the United Automobile Workers union. Neal E. Boudette, who covers the auto industry for The Times, discusses the historic deal and why it was such a big win for workers. Guest: Neal E. Boudette , an auto industry correspondent for The New York Times. Background reading: Autoworkers scored big wins in new contracts with carmakers , ...
Oct 31, 2023•22 min
Over the weekend, the Israeli military appears to have begun an invasion of the Gaza Strip, with tanks rolling into the enclave and Israeli soldiers fighting Hamas inside. But the operation remains shrouded in secrecy, and Israel is revealing little about its actions. Raja Abdulrahim, a Middle East correspondent for The Times, and Patrick Kingsley, the Jerusalem bureau chief, discuss the latest escalation in the war. Guests: Raja Abdulrahim , a Middle East correspondent for The New York Times, b...
Oct 30, 2023•23 min
