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 [email protected].
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 [email protected].
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 [email protected].
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 [email protected]....
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 [email protected].
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 [email protected].
Jan 30, 2025•20 min
What can the 1890s tell us about 21st-century problems and a second Trump administration? According to the Opinion columnist Jamelle Bouie, quite a lot. In this episode, he speaks with Aaron Retica, an editor in Opinion, about what the 19th century and Donald Trump’s surprising new favorite president can tell us about our shifting culture. Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
Jan 28, 2025•20 min
In 1993, Polly Klaas was kidnapped and murdered at the age of 12. Following her death, Polly’s tragic story became a plotline in true crime podcasts, TV shows and books. In this audio essay, Polly’s sister Annie Nichol argues that the popularization of true crime not only re-traumatized victims’ families but also helped create demand for “tough on crime” legislation. “Our legal system actually became more reactionary and more fixated on punishment and fundamentally less just,” she says. Thoughts...
Jan 27, 2025•8 min
President Trump has declared that his second term will begin with the “most extraordinary first 100 days of any presidency in American history.” To track, interrogate and challenge his most consequential actions during his first few months in office, Times Opinion’s deputy editor, Patrick Healy, is beginning a weekly series on “The Opinions” focused on Trump’s first 100 days. He kicks things off with the Times writer David Wallace-Wells, exploring the president’s executive orders on climate and ...
Jan 23, 2025•24 min
Opinion's deputy editor, Patrick Healy, was joined by the columnists David French and Michelle Goldberg to makes sense of President Trump’s first day in office. We're learning “how much the American experiment has depended on the honor system,” French says.
Jan 21, 2025•33 min
Times columnist Thomas Friedman says this is a rare moment in the Middle East when “everything is in play and everything is possible." In this episode of The Opinions, he speaks to editor Dan Wakin about the forces brewing in the Middle East, what he expects of the relationship between Netanyahu and Trump and the one gig he would give up his column to try to do. Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
Jan 21, 2025•14 min
Donald Trump has promised to severely curtail legal and illegal immigration as he takes office for the second time. In this episode of “The Opinions,” the writer Binyamin Appelbaum argues that while the United States needs to improve its immigration enforcement, the country also desperately needs immigrants for cultural and economic vibrancy. Immigrants, Appelbaum explains, are the country’s “rocket fuel,” and he argues for specific legal changes to ensure the United States’ immigration policy m...
Jan 20, 2025•10 min
Maine has one of the highest rates of opioid use disorder in the nation. But a program at a rural Maine jail initiated by an addiction medicine specialist, Alane O’Connor, is offering hope and saving lives. She’s spearheading a pilot program that offers a monthly injection of the drug Sublocade to addicted inmates, which curbs opioid cravings continuously for a month. In this episode, she argues, “jails are an incredible opportunity to help people enter recovery.” Thoughts? Email us at theopinio...
Jan 16, 2025•14 min
The Los Angeles wildfires offer a stark reminder that we no longer live in an era of reliable home insurance. An exodus of insurance companies from disaster-prone areas has put the American dream of homeownership in peril. In this episode, the climate reporter Nick Mott makes the case for a national climate catastrophe insurance plan that could help protect families from the devastating losses being experienced in California. Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
Jan 15, 2025•9 min
Argentina’s head of state, Javier Milei, is the latest inspiration for Donald Trump and his supporters, including Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. As Trump prepares to return to the White House, the Times Opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg explains what his admiration for Milei and his austerity policies might mean for Trump’s new administration. Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
Jan 14, 2025•9 min
The Supreme Court seems ready to uphold the law that would ban TikTok unless the app’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sells it to a U.S. buyer. The Opinion columnist David French talks with the politics editor Katherine Miller about why he believes the app poses a unique threat to U.S. security. Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
Jan 13, 2025•18 min
Sarah Wildman lost her 14-year-old daughter, Orli, to cancer in March 2023. Before she died, Orli had questions about the end of her life, but as Wildman explains in this episode, that conversation wasn’t encouraged by Orli’s doctors and caregivers. Wildman argues that health care providers need to be frank and empathetic with patients and their families about the realities of death. “Everyone deserves the opportunity to sit with these questions at the end of life,” she says. “It’s not impossibl...
Jan 09, 2025•18 min
As the world grows increasingly fractured, taking the time to engage with strangers has become even more important. The artist and graphic journalist Wendy MacNaughton has created a simple but powerful way for people to connect in an isolated world. In this episode, she shares how she brings people together by having them draw each other in public spaces. All it takes is 60 seconds, two pieces of paper, two pens and the willingness to look — really look — at someone you’ve never met. Thoughts? E...
Jan 08, 2025•8 min
Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general, recently recommended that cancer warnings be included on all alcohol products. The author and wine enthusiast Boris Fishman argues that doing so would place all forms of liquor in the same bucket — one that ignores the history, the generations of labor and the joy that accompany sipping a glass of wine. He’d like people “to think about this as just one example out of many in a life that risks becoming stripped of a certain kind of magic because we’re trying to ...
Jan 07, 2025•9 min
In two weeks, the Biden administration will step down, and with it, the most diverse cabinet in American history. In this episode, The Times’s editorial board member Farah Stockman explores the impacts of Joe Biden’s historically significant appointments, both in the United States and abroad. Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
Jan 06, 2025•11 min
President-elect Trump’s pick for secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been critical of ultraprocessed foods. But how bad are they? In this episode, Nicola Guess, a dietitian and researcher at the University of Oxford, explains why we shouldn’t be scared of the label “ultraprocessed.” Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
Jan 02, 2025•10 min
In a time when the internet is teeming with content and hyperfragmented, how do you determine which memes, viral videos and ideas actually matter? The Times Opinion writer Jessica Grose sits down with Ryan Broderick, the creator of the Garbage Day newsletter, to understand the trends that made a splash both on- and offline in 2024. This conversation was recorded in December 2024. Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
Jan 01, 2025•16 min
As the year comes to an end, Times Opinion staff members — and our listeners — shared the things from 2024 they wanted to take with them into the new year. They range from impromptu hangs to weird A.I. TikToks. Take a listen. Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
Dec 31, 2024•10 min
President Jimmy Carter had a rich legacy, often marred by misunderstandings. Despite lasting only one term, his work post-presidency stands tall in its influence around the world. In this audio obituary, the Opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof reminisces on his interactions with the former president, Carter’s social work across countries in Africa and his influence on Kristof’s worldview. Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
Dec 29, 2024•5 min
The scent of vanilla is instantly recognizable — it’s also in danger of disappearing. In this ode to the vanilla bean, writer Aimee Nezhukumatathil explains why climate change might lead to the destruction of the beloved plant. Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
Dec 26, 2024•9 min
Over the past decade, the Times columnist David Brooks has gone from agnostic to deeply religious. In this episode he explores the evolving role of faith in his life, a force he describes as “a longing.” As he explains, “The joy is not in the satisfaction of the longing, but the joy is in the longing itself. It’s a good feeling to worship generosity itself.” Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
Dec 24, 2024•10 min
