Happiness, it turns out, comes down to a science — even though what makes each of us happy can vary widely. Host Cristina Quinn talks to happiness scientist Emiliana Simon-Thomas, science director at UC-Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center , about exactly what makes us happy and how much our sense of joy is within our control. Drawing from the science of happiness, Emiliana explains that happiness isn’t about chasing fleeting positive emotions, but rather about fostering an overarching sense o...
Dec 31, 2024•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Carter, a peanut farmer, Navy veteran and Georgia governor, served just four years in the White House. But his time in office was only part of his legacy. Later in life, he would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his pursuit of peace and human rights . Elahe Izadi speaks with national political correspondent Dan Balz about the life and legacy of the former president. Today’s show was produced by Ted Muldoon and Arjun Singh. It was edited by Maggie Penman, with help from Reena Flores. It was m...
Dec 30, 2024•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast It had been five years since Frankie Nole came out from behind prison doors. Now at age 72, Nole shakes his head. He had spent 49 years fighting to get out. He struggled to find work. Managers unfailingly loved his attitude. Then — as always — came the background check and email. “Unfortunately, we have decided to move forward with other candidates …” At a loss for a purpose, two years ago, he started picking up other prisoners on the day they were released. He put out the word to friends ...
Dec 28, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2000, the movie “Erin Brockovich” helped put the small town of Hinkley, California, on the map. The movie stars Julia Roberts as a determined law clerk who takes on the massive utility company Pacific Gas & Electric, which had been dumping chromium-6, the dangerous chemical, in Hinkley's groundwater. Brockovich is depicted gathering evidence and building a legal case against the utility. And she prevails: The movie concludes with a landmark settlement awarded to residents. But...
Dec 27, 2024•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Biologist Daniel Hofstadter and a tiny band of researchers have been carrying out the most expansive barred owl removal effort to date . It’s a project that has killed more than 1,000 owls in Northern California since 2019 across nearly 10 million acres. The biologists believe that their work protecting spotted owls — a species that launched a conservation movement more than three decades ago — will ultimately help safeguard the ecosystem in one of the last old growth forests in the West. ...
Dec 26, 2024•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Tom Sietsema has been The Post’s food critic for 25 years. Over a quarter of a century, Sietsema has eaten at and reviewed thousands of restaurants. Even after all these years, he’s not sick of it. In fact, Sietsema loves the theater of dining out, and he takes great pride in guiding readers toward truly delicious food. Today’s show was produced by Ariel Plotnick. It was edited by Maggie Penman and mixed by Sam Bair. Subscribe to The Washington Post here , or give someone a gift subscripti...
Dec 24, 2024•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast “Sesame Street” is an American institution. It began airing in 1969 as an educational program intended to help toddlers prepare for kindergarten. It has grown into a cultural staple and become one of the longest-running shows in TV history. Back in 2022, Laura Meckler learned that Season 55 of “Sesame Street,” which will start airing next year, will focus heavily on the emotional well-being of young kids. She spent almost two years following the cast and creatives behind the show as they r...
Dec 23, 2024•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast This weekend, the 2024 College Football Playoff kicks off, featuring more teams, more storylines and a lot more money than ever before. Today on the show, how we got to this moment in college sports, and what could be next. Read more: In 2021, amateur athletes won the right to profit off sponsorships using their name, image and likeness or NIL). Now, some college football players are able to ink million-dollar endorsement deals with shoe brands and insurance companies. This has led to sweeping c...
Dec 20, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today on “Post Reports,” Washington scrambles to avoid a government shutdown. President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk have fanned the flames. Read more: On Wednesday, Republicans scrapped House Speaker Mike Johnson’s initial bipartisan plan to avoid a government shutdown. That’s after President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk condemned the bill online . Musk called it “terrible,” “criminal,” “outrageous,” “horrible,” “unconscionable,” “crazy” and, ultimately, “an insane crime.” To...
Dec 19, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast When Francesca Ebel, a Russia correspondent for The Post, returned to one of Moscow’s most popular nightclubs after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, she noticed differences. The physical structure was there, but there were fewer young artists. Something had changed. What Ebel noticed that night was just one example of a bigger shift. Her reporting has since found that young Russians are increasingly embracing a culture of ultranationalist patriotism and Orthodox Christian values. Online influ...
Dec 18, 2024•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Since he last held office, President-elect Donald Trump’s business interests have evolved. The real estate mogul launched the social media company Truth Social, and — in the height of this year’s presidential campaign — he announced a cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial. Both of these industries could be targeted with efforts at regulation during Trump’s second term. So what could it mean for Trump to oversee an administration that also plays a role in these regulations? This d...
Dec 17, 2024•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hundreds of thousands of protestors celebrated in Seoul over the weekend as South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached by the National Parliament. Yoon, who was elected by a narrow margin in 2022, oversaw deepening political divisions and a population increasingly frustrated by income inequality. His tenure was marked by scandals and unpopular choices. But his administration reached a breaking point when Yoon declared martial law in early December, outraging many Koreans who saw th...
Dec 16, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dean DeSoto has been teaching his driving class for aggressive drivers over the past 26 years. During that time, he has come to believe several things. One is that what goes on in the country will play out on its roadways. Another is that anger on the roads is getting worse. Across the country, the number of people injured or killed in road rage incidents involving a gun has doubled since 2018, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group. There is no uniform defin...
Dec 14, 2024•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Aaron Blake, senior political reporter and author of The Campaign Moment newsletter, sits down with senior congressional correspondent Paul Kane and White House reporter Matt Viser to talk about what Biden is trying to do with his last few weeks in office. They also talk about Time magazine’s person of the year interview with Trump and what two GOP Senate appointments could mean for Trump’s ability to get his agenda through Congress. Today’s show was produced by Laura Benshoff. It was edited by ...
Dec 13, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Americans are being conned every day by increasingly sophisticated scams. Today, we hear the story of one woman who lost her life's savings to a government impersonation scam. Read more: According to the Federal Trade Commission, Americans were scammed out of more than $10 billion in 2023. And that’s just what’s been reported. Most scam victims never report the crime because they feel shame and embarrassment . In “ Scammed ,” a seven-part series, personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary ex...
Dec 12, 2024•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Two years ago, President Biden and congressional Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act, aimed at stimulating clean energy production and reducing carbon emissions. Since then, hundreds of thousands of jobs have been created and Americans have claimed over $8 billion in tax credits to spend on climate-friendly technologies for their homes. The biggest winners have been more conservative areas , where more investments have been made because of lower tax barriers and more incentives for comp...
Dec 11, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast After a five-day manhunt, authorities have arrested and charged a man with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Today on “Post Reports,” we bring you the latest in the case — and a look at why some on the internet cheered the killing. Read more: Authorities have charged 26-year-old Luigi Magione with murder in the shooting of Brian Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare chief executive who was killed in New York City last week. New York police say Mangione killed Thompson, 50, with a...
Dec 10, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast After more than a decade of destructive civil war in Syria, it was widely assumed that the Assad regime would keep its grip on power. Instead, lightly armed rebels were able to launch an offensive that succeeded in toppling the regime in less than two weeks. Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow. Louisa Loveluck spoke with Martine Powers as she prepared to cross into Syria. Today’s show was produced by Sabby Robinson, with help from Ted Muldoon, Emma Talkoff and Ariel Plotnick. It was mixed by Justin G...
Dec 09, 2024•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast On Capitol Hill, Hegseth is facing renewed scrutiny over allegations of excessive drinking and sexual misconduct, which he denies. So this week, the veteran and former Fox News host spent time with lawmakers, publicly and privately making the case for his leadership of the Defense Department. But some Republican senators are skeptical, and Trump is reportedly lining up other options. Senior political reporter Aaron Blake breaks down the latest Cabinet controversies with White House editor Naftal...
Dec 06, 2024•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Last month, organic carrots were recalled after they were linked to an E. coli outbreak across 18 states that left one dead. This week, cucumbers available in 19 states have been recalled after regulators fielded reports of at least 68 people falling ill from salmonella. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared a massive E. coli outbreak linked to slivered onions in McDonald’s Quarter Pounders to be over this week. Earlier this year, a Boar’s Head plant shut down and ce...
Dec 05, 2024•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the past week, the civil war in Syria reignited. Islamist rebels seized control of Aleppo, triggering a new phase in a years-long civil war. The Post’s Middle East bureau chief, Kareem Fahim, talks with host Elahe Izadi about why this moment matters. Read more: Last weekend’s assault on Aleppo, Syria’s economic capital, poses the most serious challenge to President Bashar al-Assad in years. Government forces, supported by Russia and Iran, have controlled the majority of territory in Syria. No...
Dec 04, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast The case the Supreme Court will hear Wednesday is brought by a doctor and three transgender teens with their families – including L.W. and her parents, Brian and Samantha Williams. Their suit challenges a law in Tennessee, but nearly half of states have banned certain treatments for minors with gender dysphoria, so the implications of the Supreme Court case could be wide-ranging. When the Williams family first sought out hormone treatment for their daughter, it wasn’t illegal in any...
Dec 03, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today, why so many people on death row will likely never be executed and what this says about the American justice system. Read more: Today, more than 2,000 people sit on American death rows. But some may never see an execution chamber. Between moratoriums, court orders and other official edicts, many people on death row are left in a state of indefinite limbo. Host Martine Powers speaks with criminal justice reporter Mark Berman about the state of the death penalty in America and what those lan...
Dec 02, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast On this episode of “Impromptu,” Opinions columnists Shadi Hamid and Heather Long talk with Style columnist Monica Hesse about what’s really behind the baby bust and whether we just need to prepare for a lower fertility future. Subscribe to The Washington Post here ....
Nov 29, 2024•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Shane Harris first tasted “Vangie’s bacon” 10 years ago, and he hasn’t stopped thinking about it since. But learning her secret recipe turns out to be harder than Shane’s day job covering national security for The Washington Post. Today on the show, Shane goes on a quest to unlock the bacon mystery – and a time in Washington when Republicans, Democrats, spies, diplomats and journalists used to set their differences aside and gather around a dinner table. Today’s show was produced and mixed by Te...
Nov 27, 2024•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today, host Martine Powers talks with The Post’s climate zeitgeist reporter Shannon Osaka about the benefits and challenges of rooftop solar panels, and why rooftop solar is more expensive than solar farms. Shannon also shares advice about how to take advantage of solar tax credits before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House. Today’s show was produced by Peter Bresnan and Ariel Plotnick. It was edited by Lucy Perkins with help from Reena Flores and mixed by Justin Gerris...
Nov 26, 2024•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today on “Post Reports,” we unpack President-elect Donald Trump’s seemingly contradictory picks for the top positions in public health – in particular, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Read more: Public health experts have been alarmed by the idea that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist , could be running the Department of Health and Human Services. But some of his other positions – like getting ultraprocessed foods out of school lunch and leaving abortion decisions up to women a...
Nov 25, 2024•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast “Post Reports” co-host Martine Powers and senior political reporter Aaron Blake talk with reporter Leigh Ann Caldwell, who co-authors the Early Brief politics newsletter for The Post, about why Gaetz’s bid for attorney general lasted just eight days. Aaron breaks down why Trump’s electoral mandate is actually weaker than he claims. Plus, answers to listeners’ and readers’ lingering questions about the 2024 election. Today’s show was produced by Laura Benshoff. It was edited by Lucy Perkins...
Nov 22, 2024•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is poised to have an influential role in the next Trump administration as the president-elect's pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Recently, Kennedy told news outlets that a top priority will be directing communities to take fluoride out of their drinking water. Fluoride has been a pillar of public health for decades, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes it as one of the 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th ...
Nov 21, 2024•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Just a few years ago, the National Women’s Soccer League was a relatively small business. Now, it’s becoming a financial juggernaut with multimillion-dollar investments, a big TV deal and huge attendance. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to tune in this weekend for the big game: the championship match between the Washington Spirit and the Orlando Pride. Guest host and sports writer Ava Wallace speaks with soccer reporter Steve Goff and sports editor Ella Brockway about how the NWSL e...
Nov 20, 2024•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
