Franke spoke out during the spring student protests on the Columbia University campus. She had watched as mostly Republican lawmakers grilled the presidents of MIT, the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard on live television. Soon after, the latter two women resigned — followed months later by Columbia’s Minouche Shafik . Franke read about professors at colleges in other states, from Arizona to California to Pennsylvania , who said they were fired or punished for speaking out about the Gaza wa...
Feb 01, 2025•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Trump’s extraordinary news conference on the plane crash near Reagan National Airport, his administration’s freeze and unfreeze of all federal funds, and the Senate hearings for three more of his controversial Cabinet picks. Senior political reporter Aaron Blake talks through another chaotic week of political news with Congress reporter Liz Goodwin and White House economics reporter Jeff Stein. They break down Trump’s baseless claims that DEI could be the cause of the fatal plane crash in the Po...
Jan 31, 2025•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast “It was probably out in the middle of the river. I just saw a fireball, and then it was gone.” Today on “Post Reports,” unpacking a deadly collision in the nation’s capital. Read more: On Wednesday night, an American Airlines plane and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided in midair near Reagan National Airport. Both aircraft crashed into the Potomac River in Washington. D.C. officials believe the three soldiers in the helicopter and all 64 passengers and crew aboard the airplane were kil...
Jan 30, 2025•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast The stock market plummeted this week after a Chinese company showed it could do more with less. Today, we talk about the new AI chatbot DeepSeek, and why people are freaking out about it – from Silicon Valley to Wall Street to Washington. Read more: For two years, American artificial intelligence companies looked unstoppable. Then came DeepSeek. Today on Post Reports, we talk to tech policy reporter Eva Dou about how a scrappy startup became so dominant , and what it means for the AI arms ...
Jan 29, 2025•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s selection has raised red flags among medical experts and public health officials, especially because of his stance on vaccines. Health reporter Lauren Weber and data reporter Caitlin Gilbert examined hundreds of appearances that RFK Jr. has made to understand the extent of his disparaging claims about vaccines. Today on “Post Reports,” Weber discusses what they exclusively unearthed and what it all means for the contentious confirmation battle ahead. Read more...
Jan 28, 2025•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Over the weekend, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials received instructions from the White House to ramp up deportations, from a few hundred per day to at least 1,200. This came after President Donald Trump expressed disappointment with the results of his mass deportation campaign so far, according to people with knowledge of the briefings. The orders significantly increase the chance that officers will engage in more indiscriminate enforcement tactics or face accusations of civil...
Jan 27, 2025•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ahead of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, scores of career diplomats at the State Department were asked by Trump aides to resign. Trump campaigned on dismantling what he has called the “deep state” of federal bureaucrats, who he views as lacking loyalty to him and undermining his agenda. The forced departures were seen as confirmation of this plan – and a step toward changing the tone of the department. But who are these bureaucrats, and what are their stories? Those are ...
Jan 25, 2025•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Senior political reporter Aaron Blake talks with senior White House reporter Isaac Arnsdorf and national political reporter Marianne LeVine about how Trump’s executive actions are already having a tangible impact . They also talk about how Trump’s pardon of Jan. 6 rioters was met with a muted response from several prominent Republicans. Today’s show was produced by Laura Benshoff. It was edited by Lucy Perkins and Rachel Van Dongen and mixed by Sam Bair. Subscribe to The Washington P...
Jan 24, 2025•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Historically, many women dropped out of the labor force because of family obligations. Today, women are working longer — in some cases because they feel like they’ve finally hit their stride in their careers. In other cases, they feel they can’t afford to retire. Hannah Ziegler is a business reporter for The Post, and she talks to host Martine Powers about this Big Shift as the workforce becomes older — and more female. Today’s show was produced by Ariel Plotnick. It was edited by Ma...
Jan 23, 2025•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast On Wednesday, Rupert Murdoch’s British media group agreed to pay “substantial damages” and apologized to Prince Harry as part of a settlement agreement over claims that the paper illegally intruded into the prince’s life . Harry is one of many celebrities and politicians who have sued Murdoch’s papers for illegally obtaining private information – the claims stretch back to 2011, when it was first revealed that journalists at the tabloids might be hacking phones. Martine speaks with democra...
Jan 22, 2025•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s not over for TikTok. Or is it? Today on “Post Reports,” why the app went dark in the United States, how it came back and who controls its fate. Read more: Last week, the Supreme Court upheld a federal law banning TikTok in the United States unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sold to an American buyer. On Sunday, the popular video-sharing app went dark, only to come back later that night. And on Monday, Trump signed an executive order to halt the ban . Today on “...
Jan 21, 2025•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Crowds of Trump supporters in Washington were supposed to watch the inauguration on the National Mall. But when plans changed last-minute because of freezing temperatures, the president’s fans crowded instead into indoor space at Capital One Arena and nearby bars. At the same time, Trump was getting sworn in at the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, flanked by tech billionaires and members of his proposed Cabinet. On today’s episode, host Martine Powers talks with chief correspondent Dan Balz ab...
Jan 21, 2025•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this special episode of “Post Reports,” columnist Petula Dvorak reads her first installment of The Post’s revealing history column, Retropolis. James Buchanan barely won the presidency. The nation was roiling in the debate over slavery. So when Buchanan became gravely ill before his inaugural address, it wasn’t a stretch to suspect an assassination attempt. The presidential entourage all stayed at the posh National Hotel on Capitol Hill and they fell ill, too. It hit more than 400 guest...
Jan 18, 2025•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Aaron Blake, senior political reporter and author of The Campaign Moment newsletter talks with national security reporter Abby Hauslohner and national politics reporter Hannah Knowles about the most heated exchanges that Trump’s picks for defense secretary and attorney general, Pete Hegseth and Pam Bondi, faced during their Senate confirmation hearings. They also talk about what to expect if the historic ceasefire deal goes into effect over the weekend and what to watch for at Trump’s inaugurati...
Jan 17, 2025•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast After months of negotiations mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar, Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement. But its fate is already in doubt. If the agreement takes effect as planned Sunday, an initial 42-day ceasefire would bring Gaza’s residents some relief from Israeli attacks that have killed more than 46,700 people there, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry’s toll does not distinguish between civilians and militants. In exchange, Hamas has agreed to re...
Jan 16, 2025•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast The 2024 election pushed some people to put down their phones more and tune out of the news. But author Catherine Price started thinking about breaking up with her phone years ago, after realizing she was focusing on it instead of her newborn daughter. “Our devices and their apps are designed to fragment our attention, whether it is taking us out of our real-life experience and getting us to focus our attention even momentarily on the phone itself or it's what we do within apps where we ar...
Jan 15, 2025•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast After two men brutally assaulted a security guard on a train platform in St. Louis, police detectives faced a daunting challenge: identifying the attackers. Police turned to facial recognition technology, feeding a blurry image from a small surveillance camera into the software. The software gave them the mugshot of a man who says he had nothing to do with the crime. Christopher Gatlin spent over a year in jail awaiting trial before the case was dropped. Gatlin is one of at least eight people in...
Jan 14, 2025•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today, when disaster hits home. Weather editor Paulina Firozi and Brianna Sacks, an extreme weather and disaster reporter, are Post colleagues. We'll hear how they and others are grappling with the devastation in L.A. Read more: When several wildfires began ripping through parts of Los Angeles County on Jan. 7, The Post’s Brianna Sacks, an extreme weather and disaster reporter, began documenting the destruction. Then the story turned personal as her own father’s house in Pacific Palisades ...
Jan 13, 2025•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Senior political reporter Aaron Blake talks with The Post’s White House editor, Naftali Bendavid, and national political reporter Maeve Reston about the politics of Trump’s sentencing in the New York hush money case. They also dig into how Trump is trying to pin the Los Angeles wildfires on Democrats and look ahead to next week ’s Senate confirmation hearing for Trump’s pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth. Today’s show was produced by Sabby Robinson. It was edited by Lucy Perkins and ...
Jan 10, 2025•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast After 10 years on the job, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced earlier this week that he is stepping down. Today, The Washington Post’s Amanda Coletta and host Elahe Izadi break down Trudeau’s career, where this leaves Canadian politics and what this could mean for U.S.-Canada relations. Today’s show was produced by Ariel Plotnick with help from Sabby Robinson. It was edited by Reena Flores with help from Monica Campbell. It was mixed by Sam Bair. Thanks to Reem Akkad. Subscri...
Jan 09, 2025•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Early Tuesday, wildfires started burning across Los Angeles County. The scale of the destruction is massive; entire neighborhoods are in flames, with longtime businesses, schools and houses of worship burnt to the ground. Today, guest host Rachel Siegel speaks with extreme weather and natural disaster reporter Brianna Sacks about what Los Angeles looks like as the wildfires rage, and the struggle to contain the flames. Today’s show was produced by Rennie Svirnovskiy with help from Ariel Pl...
Jan 08, 2025•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast The country’s top doctor is calling for cancer risk warning labels on alcohol. On “Post Reports,” why, and what that could mean for you. Read more: Last week, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said in an advisory that studies suggest alcohol is the third leading preventable cause of cancer, contributing to 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 related deaths each year. For that reason, he says health warning labels on bottles of alcohol should be updated to include a cancer risk warning and that...
Jan 07, 2025•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast On New Year’s Day in New Orleans, a man drove a pickup truck into a crowd of people, killing 14 and leaving many others injured. In the aftermath law enforcement found an Islamic State flag in the truck, and evidence that shows the man was inspired by the extremist group. This wasn’t the only Islamic State-inspired incident in recent months. Today on “Post Reports,” guest host Rachel Siegel speaks with national security reporter Joby Warrick about how people become radicalized by the Islam...
Jan 06, 2025•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast On Friday, Republicans once again selected Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) to be speaker of the House — but not before there was a little bit of drama. Earlier this week, President-elect Donald Trump took to social media to link the New Year’s Day vehicular attack in New Orleans to weak border policies, even though the attacker was an American citizen born in Texas. In the hours following, the message became a popular Republican talking point. Reporters Marianna Sotomayor, Marianne LeVine ...
Jan 03, 2025•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Early in the morning on New Year’s Day, a man drove a truck into a crowd of people celebrating on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. In the hours since, law enforcement has discovered key details that point to a possible motive, including an Islamic State flag in the attacker’s car. Guest host Rachel Siegel and Justice Department reporter Perry Stein break down what we know about the terrorist attack in New Orleans. We also talk about the investigation into a possible attack in Las Vegas with ...
Jan 02, 2025•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 
