The WNBA playoffs are underway, capping a record-breaking season: The league added teams, games saw the highest attendance ever, and television viewership skyrocketed. Many credit rookie player Caitlin Clark for drawing fans to the league after millions tuned in to watch her and rival players compete in this year's college basketball championship. Host Elahe Izadi speaks with sports reporters Kareem Copeland and Ava Wallace about how the “Clark effect” has transformed the WNBA on and off t...
Oct 04, 2024•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast As Election Day looms, we’re seeing more and more headlines based on poll results. Some declare Trump and Harris neck and neck , while others state one candidate has a small advantage over the other. But how can we make sense of all these polls flooding the news cycle? Today, Martine Powers speaks with The Post’s deputy polling director, Emily Guskin. Emily explains how a poll comes to be, what to look for when trying to understand whether a poll is trustworthy and breaks down once and for all w...
Oct 03, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio faced off at what was expected to be the only vice presidential debate on Tuesday night. But it was much less dramatic than the presidential debates. Read more: “Post Reports” co-host Elahe Izadi talks with senior political reporter Aaron Blake about Walz’s stumbling performance, Vance’s efforts to soften his image on unpopular issues for the GOP, like abortion, and whether either performance could significantly imp...
Oct 02, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Across the southeastern United States, Hurricane Helene destroyed houses, swept up cars and overflowed riverbanks. Now millions of people are without power and clean drinking water; more than 100 people are dead . “It's not really an overstatement to say there are towns that were there and are basically not there anymore,” environment and climate reporter Brady Dennis said. He’s been reporting from North Carolina, where many communities were not prepared for the disaster. On today’s show, ...
Oct 01, 2024•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast For months, tensions between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah have increased, with the two sides exchanging cross-border attacks. Yet in recent weeks, Israel has ratcheted up its attacks in Lebanon, including the assassination of Hasan Nasrallah on Friday. The Shiite cleric oversaw Hezbollah for decades and became one of the most powerful and divisive leaders in the Middle East. The impact of Israel’s strikes has also been devastating. The death toll has now surpassed 1,000 people, accord...
Sep 30, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kevin Roche was recently elected to a small governing board in Norfolk, Mass. He had lived in the small town his whole life. Then Roche received the news Haitian migrants were going to be sheltered in Norfolk. The state had opened new shelters in towns across Massachusetts, but none so big in a town so small. This is the story of one town’s reckoning with the national immigration crisis — from inside the auto shop that Kevin operates, to the airport terminal where the migrant families were stayi...
Sep 28, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast “Post Reports” co-host Elahe Izadi and senior political reporter Aaron Blake talk with Senate reporter Liz Goodwin about how Senate Democrats are feeling ahead of the November election. They also dig into the politics of New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s indictment and preview what to expect in next week’s first – and likely only – vice presidential debate. Today’s show was produced by Laura Benshoff and mixed by Sam Bair. It was edited by Lucy Perkins and Mary Jo Murphy. Subscribe to...
Sep 27, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2020, North Carolina was the one that got away for Democrats: Then candidate Joe Biden lost the state by the smallest margin in the presidential election. Now, with the election a little over a month away, Democrats and Republicans are kicking into overdrive, campaigning to win North Carolina, a newly competitive swing state. Elahe Izadi speaks with political reporter Hannah Knowles about why Democrats now think they can win North Carolina and how the state could tip the balance of the electi...
Sep 26, 2024•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Israel unleashed a wave of airstrikes in southern Lebanon, against what it says are Hezbollah targets. At least 569 people have been killed in the attacks this week and more than 1,800 injured, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants but said at least 50 children, 94 women and nine paramedics were among the dead. Thousands of civilians are now fleeing southern Lebanon in search of safety. Also, on Wednesday...
Sep 25, 2024•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Last Friday, Georgia’s state election board voted 3-2 to approve a new election rule: before vote totals can be reported, each precinct must confirm the total number of votes cast by three separate hand counts. The move was spearheaded by a pro-Trump majority who say that it will make elections more transparent. But critics – among them many of Georgia’s election administrators – said hand counts would take too long, cost money and almost certainly produce counting errors, opening the door to do...
Sep 24, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast The FDA wants to propose putting labels on the front of food and drink packages in order to flag whether they are high in added sugar, saturated fat or sodium. The effort aims to help people make healthier choices and to address the nation’s exploding rates of diet-related diseases. The proposal could come as early as next month, but a fight with the food industry is already heating up. At the same time, some nutrition experts and lawmakers worry the FDA options under consideration are con...
Sep 23, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast “Post Reports” co-host Elahe Izadi and senior political reporter Aaron Blake chat with national political reporter Michael Scherer about all of this week’s political news. They also dig into how last week’s first – and perhaps only – debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump is shaping voters’ perceptions of the candidates. Today’s show was produced by Laura Benshoff and mixed by Sean Carter. It was edited by Lucy Perkins and Mary Jo Murphy. Subscribe to...
Sep 20, 2024•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Thousands of people were injured across Lebanon this week in back-to-back explosions of electronic devices – pagers, mostly – used by the militant group Hezbollah. Host Martine Powers speaks with Post correspondent Susannah George about what it’s like in Lebanon in the aftermath of these explosions and why they may portend an escalation of the conflict between Israel and Lebanon. Also, an update on the controversy over the 2024 Olympic medal stripped from Team USA gymnast Jordan Chiles af...
Sep 19, 2024•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the past couple weeks, both former president Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), have pushed unfounded claims about Haitian immigrants stealing and eating pets in the small city of Springfield, Ohio. The story got its start with a viral Facebook post and quickly made its way from far-right corners of the internet into the Republican mainstream. Since the presidential debate between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, during which Trump repeated these claims, the...
Sep 18, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sean Combs was arrested Monday in New York, and today prosecutors unsealed the criminal indictment. The hip-hop impresario could face years in prison if found guilty. Meanwhile, Combs’s lawyers have called the persecution “unjust.” It all comes less than a year after the first public allegations against Combs emerged. Today on “Post Reports,” Martine Powers speaks with Style reporter Anne Branigin about the indictment against Combs, what he’s accused of and what it could mean for the music mogul...
Sep 17, 2024•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today, what we know about a possible second assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump. And, what this latest threat of political violence could mean for his presidential campaign. Read more: Yesterday, Ryan Wesley Routh was arrested on the suspicion of possibly trying to assassinate former president Donald Trump . Today, Routh was charged with two gun-related crimes. Host Martine Powers speaks with national political reporter Isaac Arnsdorf about what happened at Trump’s West Palm B...
Sep 16, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Affirmations help alleviate stress and can make you emotionally and mentally stronger. Host Cristina Quinn talks to clinical psychologist Natalie Dattilo-Ryan about what kinds of affirmations are most effective. She lays out an exercise to help get you started with identifying the right kinds of statements to shore up your sense of self. Next, we dive into research on affirmations and stress levels with Carnegie Mellon University psychology and neuroscience professor David Creswell. Creswell’s w...
Sep 13, 2024•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast As students return to school, more states and districts are cracking down on cellphones. But not everyone agrees. On “Post Reports,” we hear how things look on the frontlines of this battle. Read more: A few years ago, Jennifer Rosenzweig’s high school students gave her a strange nickname: the “Bucket Lady.” That’s because Rosenzweig, an English teacher at Scarsdale High School in New York state, saw students increasingly on their cellphones, including in class, and having trouble focusing. Her ...
Sep 12, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Post Reports co-host Martine Powers talks with senior political reporter Aaron Blake about what each candidate needed to do in this debate to win over voters in an incredibly tight race. They also talk about whether a new endorsement from Taylor Swift could give Harris an edge. Note: An initial version of this episode had an incorrect reference to Springfield, Illinois rather than Springfield, Ohio. The error has been fixed. Today’s show was produced and mixed by Ted Muldoon and Laura Benshoff. ...
Sep 11, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast In preparation for Tuesday’s debate between Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, “Post Reports” fact-checks the former president’s claims about crime and immigration. Read more: Crime is falling rapidly in many U.S. cities for the second year in a row. But the decrease in homicides and assaults has been largely ignored by Republican politicians like Donald Trump, who publicly blames his opponent Kamala Harris and other Democrats for what he claims is a surge in violent crime acro...
Sep 10, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Just 36 hours after his 14-year-old son was arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of four people at Georgia’s Apalachee High School, Colin Gray was charged with two counts of second-degree murder and four counts of involuntary manslaughter. Those are the most serious charges ever filed against the parent of an alleged school shooter. Host Martine Powers speaks with enterprise reporter John Woodrow Cox about how the speed and severity of the charges against Colin Gray mark a shift in sch...
Sep 09, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast “Post Reports” co-host Martine Powers and senior political reporter Aaron Blake talk with White House reporter and Kamala Harris expert Cleve Wootson about what Harris and Donald Trump need to do at next week’s debate. They also dig into Harris’s record fundraising numbers and how Harris hopes to help down ballot Democrats in key House and Senate races. Today’s show was produced and mixed by Ted Muldoon. It was edited by Lucy Perkins and Mary Jo Murphy. Subscribe to Aaron’s newslette...
Sep 06, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast What Michael B. Moore’s congressional race tells us about gerrymandering, and how a Supreme Court decision affects the future of American democracy. Read more: Businessman Michael B. Moore is running a surprising congressional campaign: He’s trying to win as a Democrat in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, a seat that is considered solidly Republican in this election cycle. While he won his primary race, it’s unlikely he’ll win the general election because of a recent Supreme Court dec...
Sep 05, 2024•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Vice President Kamala Harris has been supported by prominent technology executives since the beginning of her political career. She has maintained many of her Big Tech connections while also pushing tighter privacy policies,but she has left her stance on breaking up powerful tech companies largely undefined. This is at odds with the Biden administration’s commitment to antitrust enforcement, bringing lawsuits against companies like Google and Apple. Host Martine Powers speaks with Ca...
Sep 04, 2024•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast At the Pathways to Independence program in Kearny, N.J., disabled workers sort clothing hangers and unload boxes through work contracted with outside companies. One of those workers is 33-year-old Jaime Muniz, who has been there for 11 years and whose paycheck recently averaged about $1.28 per hour. “My payment is not going well,” Muniz told The Post’s disabilities reporter Amanda Morris . “And it's making our lives harder, a lot harder.” Yet paying workers with disabilities far below mini...
Sep 03, 2024•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast When Szu Yu Chen, a graphics reporter at The Washington Post, was covering this year’s Grammy Awards, she couldn’t help but notice how many nominated songs came in under three minutes. The more she looked into it – analyzing Billboard charts and interviewing artists – the more she realized this was a real trend. Meanwhile, when “Post Reports” audio engineer Sean Carter was working in a recording studio in Atlanta, he kept observing a similar shift, too. Today, Carter guest hosts “Pos...
Sep 02, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jesse Dufton was born with a condition in which the light-sensing cells of his retina gradually deteriorated. This did not stop him from climbing with his family – bouldering by age 2, securing his own ropes by 5. When Dufton went to public school and then university, he downplayed his vision problems as he became a better climber. Then he met Molly Thompson, who took note of his long hair that made him look like a mature student. The two grew closer and often climbed together. But e...
Aug 31, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast “Post Reports” co-host Elahe Izadi and senior political reporter Aaron Blake talk with White House reporter Yasmeen Abutaleb about Harris and Walz’s interview on CNN, new polling that shows continued Democratic enthusiasm, and an altercation between the Trump campaign and an employee at Arlington National Cemetery. Today’s show was produced by Laura Benshoff. It was edited by Lucy Perkins and Ariel Plotnick. It was mixed by Sean Carter. Subscribe to Aaron’s newsletter, The Campaign M...
Aug 30, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, there has been a big uptick in the use of the powerful anesthetic ketamine to treat anxiety and depression . But after the death last year of actor Matthew Perry , star of the hit sitcom “Friends,” due in part to the effects of ketamine , doctors and government officials are reconsidering the drug’s widespread availability. On today’s “Post Reports,” Elahe Izadi speaks with reporter Daniel Gilbert, who has been following the ketamine boom for years. T...
Aug 29, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is not the presidential race that former president Donald Trump prepared for. Today, we unpack the state of the Trump campaign, its struggles to adapt and its strategy to face a new opponent. Read more: This presidential race has taken several unexpected turns, especially for former president Donald Trump. Earlier this summer, the spotlight moved off of Trump as Vice President Kamala Harris jumped into the race. Now, the Republican nominee is crisscrossing the country to battleground states...
Aug 28, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
