In this episode, the Times Opinion columnist David French explores how Poland managed to turn the tide against right-wing populism and restore constitutional order. Thoughts? Email us at theopinions@nytimes.com. This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Jillian Weinberger. It was edited by Alison Bruzek and Kaari Pitkin. The rest of the show's production team includes Derek Arthur and Vishakha Darbha. Mixing by Carole Sabouraud. Original music by Pat McCusker and Carole Sabouraud. Fact-chec...
Apr 02, 2025•20 min
The Opinion writer Michelle Cottle and contributing Opinion writer Ben Rhodes discuss why the Democratic Party hasn’t launched an effective opposition and who they see as the future of the party. Thoughts? Email us at theopinions@nytimes.com. This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Vishakha Darbha. It was edited by Kaari Pitkin and Alison Bruzek. The rest of the show's production team also includes Derek Arthur and Jillian Weinberger. Mixing by Sonia Herrero. Original music by Pat McCuske...
Mar 31, 2025•23 min
In his HBO special, “Just for Us,” the comedian Alex Edelman explores his Jewish identity and whiteness in an unusual way: attending a neo-Nazi meeting in Queens. Before the 2024 presidential election, he traveled to Minnesota to watch a stranger perform his comedy special in a theater performance. In this episode, Edelman joins the Opinion editor Susannah Meadows to reflect on that experience, what “Just for Us” means after Donald Trump’s return to office and why hard conversations — even with ...
Mar 29, 2025•14 min
On this episode, Patrick Healy and David Leonhardt discuss President Trump’s attempts to remake higher education and argue that higher education should reform itself first. Thoughts? Email us at theopinions@nytimes.com. This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Jillian Weinberger. It was edited by Alison Bruzek and Kaari Pitkin. The show's production team also includes Derek Arthur and Vishakha Darbha. Mixing by Carole Sabouraud. Original music by Sonia Herrero, Carole Sabouraud and Aman Sa...
Mar 27, 2025•31 min
In this episode, the New York Times Opinion columnist David French breaks down the security concerns behind the Trump administration’s military discussions on the Signal app and the consequences such a security breach could have on American safety and military strategy. Thoughts? Email us at theopinions@nytimes.com. This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Vishakha Darbha. It was edited by Alison Bruzek and Kaari Pitkin. Mixing by Carole Sabouraud. Fact-checking by Mary Marge Locker. Audie...
Mar 26, 2025•11 min
More than two months into his second term, President Donald Trump is testing the limits of the U.S. Constitution. But which of his executive actions are legally sound, and which defy constitutional principles? In this episode, the Opinion columnist Jamelle Bouie sits down with his editor, Aaron Retica, for a deep dive into the crisis that’s reshaping American democracy. Thoughts? Email us at theopinions@nytimes.com. This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Derek Arthur. It was edited by Al...
Mar 24, 2025•29 min
President Trump has been operating with complete impunity and disregard for American institutions. In this episode, the Times Opinion deputy editor Patrick Healy and the columnist Thomas L. Freidman discuss the repercussions of such behavior on America’s national and international policy. Thoughts? Email us at theopinions@nytimes.com. This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Vishkaha Darbha. It was edited by Alison Bruzek and Kaari Pitkin. Mixing by Sonia Herrero. Original music by Aman Sa...
Mar 20, 2025•20 min
What does it look like when some of the world’s richest men withdraw assistance for the world’s poorest women and children? After Elon Musk claimed no one had died from cuts to American foreign aid spending, the Opinion writer Nicholas Kristof traveled to South Sudan to see the impact for himself. In this episode, he shares how millions of people now face death and starvation and why Americans — including those who believe in “America First” — should care. Read Kristof’s interactive essay with p...
Mar 19, 2025•11 min
A measles outbreak in West Texas has claimed two lives, and President Trump’s secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is spreading false claims about the disease and the vaccines that nearly eliminated it. In this episode of “The Opinions,” a Times Opinion editor, Alexandra Sifferlin, and an Opinion writer, Jessica Grose, discuss how the successes and failures of our modern health care system brought us to this moment and the Make America Healthy Again movement. We have el...
Mar 17, 2025•17 min
Inspectors general are our government watchdogs. They root out corruption and check for fraud and inefficiencies — all things President Trump has claimed to want to do. And yet, when he took office, he fired more than a dozen inspectors general without warning. In this episode of The Opinions, we spoke to the reporter and filmmaker Francesca Trianni about her interviews with seven of these inspectors, their relationship to the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and why they’re worried...
Mar 13, 2025•11 min
President Donald Trump is about halfway through his first 100 days in office. In this episode of The Opinions, Patrick Healy talks with the columnist Michelle Goldberg and contributor Frank Bruni about the moments that have defined Trump’s second term so far and what his first 50 days portend for the rest of Trump’s second term. Thoughts? Email us at theopinions@nytimes.com You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Opinions” at nytimes.com/column/the-opinions . This epis...
Mar 12, 2025•30 min
Time is running out for transgender service members in the U.S. military. The Trump administration has put in motion plans to identify and remove transgender troops, with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth saying they are unfit to serve. In this episode with the Opinion editor Sarah Wildman, Col. Bree Fram, one of the highest-ranking transgender members of the military, speaks about her journey and her uncertain future. Note: The views presented are Colonel Fram’s and do not reflect the official ...
Mar 10, 2025•21 min
The columnist David Brooks joins Patrick Healy to take stock of President Trump’s fifth address to Congress, to analyze the Democrats’ response, and to discuss where Americans who care about moral leadership should put their energies today. Thoughts? Email us at theopinions@nytimes.com You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Opinions” at nytimes.com/column/the-opinions . This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Jillian Weinberger. Edited by Kaari Pitkin and Aliso...
Mar 06, 2025•25 min
As a fiscal conservative, the columnist David French would normally be excited about a Department of Government Efficiency and the opportunity to rein in spending. But Elon Musk’s approach to cost cutting has left much to be desired. In this conversation with the Manhattan Institute's Jessica Riedl, French reckons with what Musk and his department have wrought on the government, and argues that DOGE will do little to ameliorate the proposed tax cuts in the budget resolution recently passed by th...
Mar 05, 2025•17 min
President Trump’s outsize performance of masculinity has won him attention, elections and the support of manosphere influencers like Andrew Tate and Joe Rogan. In this episode of “The Opinions,” the deputy editor of Times Opinion, Patrick Healy, speaks with its columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom about what Trump’s focus on gender means for women, minorities and American politics. Thoughts? Email us at theopinions@nytimes.com. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Opin...
Mar 03, 2025•30 min
When Hillary Frank took her middle-school-age daughter to see “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.,” she was surprised to learn that the fictional Margaret had more sex education than her daughter. In this episode, Frank reflects on what she wishes she learned in health class as a teenager and how we might improve sex education in schools across the country. Thoughts? Email us at theopinions@nytimes.com. You can find transcripts (posted within 24 hours) and more episodes of “The Opinions” at n...
Feb 27, 2025•9 min
President Trump has appointed Dan Bongino — a former U.S. Secret Service agent, right-wing podcaster and an outspoken critic of the F.B.I. — as the agency’s deputy director. In this episode, the Opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg examines what Bongino’s appointment means for the bureau and for the new order of American politics. Thoughts? Emails us at theopinions@nytimes.com.
Feb 26, 2025•12 min
Turning our back on Ukraine would only weaken America. The Trump administration may be considering negotiating a peace deal with Russia that would end the war in Ukraine. “No American president in the last 80 years and probably 100 years before that would have made this bargain,” Kori Schake, the director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, tells the Opinion columnist David French. Thoughts? Questions? Get in touch at theopinions@nytimes.com....
Feb 24, 2025•28 min
President Trump appears ready to cut a deal that could end Russia’s war in Ukraine without ever consulting Ukraine. In this episode, the deputy Opinion editor Patrick Healy talks to the Opinion columnist Thomas L. Friedman about Trump’s unpredictable approach to foreign policy. Thoughts? Email us at theopinions@nytimes.com.
Feb 20, 2025•22 min
In this episode, the Opinion editor Aaron Retica and the columnist Jamelle Bouie discuss how President Trump, Elon Musk and their supporters are trying to sidestep Congress and reshape executive power. Thoughts? Email us at theopinions@nytimes.com.
Feb 19, 2025•28 min
Kirk Wallace Johnson served with U.S.A.I.D. in Baghdad and Fallujah. When he returned to the United States, he spent much of his career helping thousands of Iraqis and Afghans, many of whom risked their lives working with American troops, gain refugee status in the United States through the List Project . As President Trump closes the door on the American refugee program, Johnson and the Times columnist Lydia Polgreen grapple with how to live now, through Trump’s second term, in the face of a mu...
Feb 17, 2025•29 min
It’s Valentine’s Day, and if you celebrate, the chances of giving or receiving a bouquet of flowers is high. But have you considered the environmental impact of those flowers? In this audio essay, the contributing Opinion writer Margaret Renkl explains the true cost of bouquets and argues for other, less environmentally harmful ways to express your love. This episode originally aired February 14, 2024.
Feb 14, 2025•8 min
The deputy editor of Opinion, Patrick Healy, speaks with the columnist M. Gessen about why so many people and institutions, including Democrats, have bent the knee to Trump, despite strongly disagreeing with him. Thoughts? Email us at theopinions@nytimes.com.
Feb 13, 2025•29 min
In June 2020, Manuel Bayo Gisbert, a visual anthropologist and artist, was abducted by members of a drug cartel outside of Mexico City. He was beaten, tortured and ultimately released, making him one of the few survivors of kidnappings in Mexico. A crisis of violence and disappearances has plagued the country for decades. In this episode, hear Gisbert tell his own story and how it led him to collect the memories of those who are still missing. Read Gisbert’s essay and see his photos of the survi...
Feb 12, 2025•12 min
The biggest challenge to President Trump’s executive orders may be the American judicial system. In this episode, the Times Opinion columnist David French is joined by the federal judge Jeffrey S. Sutton to talk about the principles that guide the courts and how the calls made in those rooms could decide the future of American democracy in the next four years. Thoughts? Email us at theopinions@nytimes.com.
Feb 10, 2025•23 min
The New York Times Opinion writer Binyamin Appelbaum has been writing and thinking about President Trump’s economic policy since his first term in office. In this episode, he joins the deputy Opinion editor Patrick Healy to talk tariffs, economic expansion and Trump’s recklessness. Thoughts? Email us at theopinions@nytimes.com.
Feb 06, 2025•20 min
In this episode, the actor Hank Azaria, known in part for his numerous roles on “The Simpsons,” confronts how A.I. is already shaking up the vocal acting world. As he explains the human touches that shape his characters, he also offers hope for a future in which there is still a need for performers like himself. Is it inevitable that artificial intelligence will soon put him and his fellow creatives out of a job? Read Hank Azaria’s essay and watch him perform his most famous “Simpsons” character...
Feb 04, 2025•13 min
On his first day back in office, President Trump signed an executive order to end unconditional birthright citizenship. Lawsuits immediately began pouring in, and a federal judge blocked the order for now. But as the columnist Carlos Lozada and the editor Aaron Retica point out in this discussion, the true impact of the order might not be in changing the law — at least right away — but in challenging the very idea of what it means to be American. Thoughts? Email us at theopinions@nytimes.com....
Feb 03, 2025•21 min
President Trump’s pick for F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, is no stranger to controversy. And despite a vigorous Senate hearing on Thursday, he appears to be coasting toward confirmation. The New York Times politics correspondent Michelle Cottle spoke to the journalist and author Garrett Graff on what Patel’s F.B.I. appointment could mean for America, and of all of Trump’s nominees, why Patel is among the most dangerous. Thoughts? Email us at theopinions@nytimes.com.
Jan 31, 2025•18 min
Maureen Dowd got her start in journalism during the Nixon era. Over her decades in Washington, she’s developed a keen understanding of how presidents wield power to further their goals. In this episode of “The Opinions,” she joins the deputy Opinion editor, Patrick Healy, to examine the breathtaking speed with which President Trump is carrying out his agenda. Thoughts? Email us at theopinions@nytimes.com.
Jan 30, 2025•20 min
