As American kids head back to school, columnist Daniel Pink makes the case for paying teachers more money. High-quality teachers, he argues, significantly improve student learning, so shouldnt they be paid as much as somebody assessing insurance premiums on your car? Plus, humor columnist Alexandra Petri discusses sending her child to school for the first time. This essay by Daniel Pink is part of a year-long project with Washington Post Opinions called Why Not? Check out some of the other...
Aug 27, 2024•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast We are in Chicago, where it's Kamala Harris's party now. Columnists Dana Milbank, Jennifer Rubin, Jonathan Capehart and Jim Geraghty discuss why gender isnt being talked about in this campaign so far, and they do the math on what percentage of the Democrats energy is from excitement, relief and just avoiding existential dread. Subscribe to The Washington Post here ....
Aug 20, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Pulitzer Prize winner Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was part of Augusts massive prisoner exchange with Russia, sat down to talk with Post Opinions editor David Shipley about his time in jail, the importance of freedom of speech and what the future holds for Putins regime. Todays show was produced by Charla Freeland. It was edited by Allison Michaels and Damir Marusic and mixed by Emma Munger. Subscribe to The Washington Post here ....
Aug 14, 2024•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Tim Walz went from being a little-known Midwestern governor to Democratic vice-presidential candidate in a matter of a few weeks. But in this sprint of a campaign, nothing is moving slowly. Charles Lane, Molly Roberts and Matt Bai talk through whether Walz can keep up the momentum of the Harris campaign, if the weird strategy is good or bad, and how much of a unifier Walz will be for the Democratic ticket. Read more from our columnists about Kamala Harriss choice of a running mate here: Karen Tu...
Aug 06, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Airline travel is increasingly exasperating. Any blip, whether its a weather event or a technical problem, leads to cascading days of delays and cancellations. Why does it all seem so fragile? Charles Lane, Catherine Rampell and Marc Fisher discuss the economics of flying and how customers might be helping drive a race to the bottom. Stay until the end to get humor columnist Alexandra Petri's take on flying. Subscribe to The Washington Post here ....
Jul 31, 2024•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ava Wallace, sports reporter at The Washington Post, is in France to report on the Summer Games and eat a lot of croissants. Join her through the entire run of the games, for several episodes a week as she captures the highs, the lows and the Paris of it all, along with other Post colleagues. Follow The Sports Moment podcast on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Amazon Music or YouTube . Sign up for The Sports Moment: Olympics Edition newsletter here ....
Jul 26, 2024•59 sec•Transcript available on Metacast After all the hand-wringing over the last month, it took only about 24 hours for Democrats to fall in line behind Vice President Harris as their new nominee. Even so, some worry shes not the strongest candidate that could have been put forward. Our columnists discuss whether she can win, who might join her as a running mate and what it means for her chances to be a woman of color on the top of the ticket in 2024. Read more from Post Opinions: The five groups of Democrats that ended Bidens candid...
Jul 23, 2024•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast After a truly wild few weeks in politics, our columnists huddle up at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. They discuss the mood on the ground in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, how the unity message seems to be fraying and what recent events mean for the presidential campaign and the country going forward. Plus, humorist Alexandra Petri serves up an imagined J.D. Vance infomercial using his own words about Trump. Subscribe to The Washingt...
Jul 16, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast With falling poll numbers and President Biden's public appearances doing little to reassure voters hes still got what it takes to win, Democrats are faced with a difficult decision about how to proceed. Biden has dug in, pledging to the public that he isnt going anywhere. Charles Lane, Karen Tumulty and Perry Bacon Jr. talk through whether Biden can salvage his campaign, how possible it really is to change course now and who else could step up. Read more from our columnists: Kamala Harris walks ...
Jul 09, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Its the week of the Fourth of July and the word patriotism is as divisive as the rest of American politics. Theodore Johnson, Karen Attiah and Jason Rezaian discuss the good and the bad about the United States, and how to reconcile its shortcomings while pushing for a better future. Read more from some of our columnists Ted Johnson: American democracy is fine. It's the republic that's in trouble. Buck up, America. Help is on the way. Karen Attiah: How to reckon with the cult of the gun...
Jul 03, 2024•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast President Bidens debate performance has Democrats in a panic and Donald Trump supporters gleeful. Columnists Karen Tumulty, Dana Milbank and Jim Geraghty process how things feel the morning after, whether the president should step aside and how the truth was the nights biggest loser. Read more from our columnists about the debate: Karen Tumulty: The Great Democratic Freakout is upon us Dana Milbank: If America is failing, that debate showed why Subscribe to The Washington Post here ....
Jun 28, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy recommended putting a warning on social media for minors last week, while governors from coast to coast have pushed for restrictions on teen phone use. But how worried should we really be, and what is there to do about it? Post columnists Amanda Ripley, Molly Roberts and Theodore Johnson talk through the dumbphone trend, how explicit lyric warnings on CDs backfired and what actually worked in the campaigns to stop kids from smoking. Listen to Murthy talking ...
Jun 26, 2024•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Its been a rough few years for movie theaters, and the dismal start to the summer blockbuster season hasnt helped. If people go to theaters less often, will that change the type of movies that are made? Is the future of moviegoing a boutique, high-end experience? Matt Belloni, host of The Town , joins The Posts Alyssa Rosenberg and Chris Suellentrop to talk about whats going on with the movies and what, if anything, will get people out of their living rooms and into theaters. Read more from Bell...
Jun 19, 2024•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast A quarter of Americans, most of them Republicans, say immigration is the most pressing issue facing the country. Post columnists Karen Tumulty, Len Krauze and Jim Geraghty discuss why this issue is top of mind for so many people, how politics continues to thwart policy and whether Americans still see our country as a cultural melting pot. Read more from the columnists. Karen Tumulty: The U.S. is failing millions of undocumented essential workers Len Krauze: Baltimore Francis Scott Key Bridge fal...
Jun 12, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Alitos are the latest couple to face the question: When you are married to someone in public life a Supreme Court justice, a member of Congress, a Post Opinions columnist what compromises do you need to make? Should you be held to the same ethical standards as your spouse? Charles Lane, Ruth Marcus and James Hohmann discuss the politics of marriage, whether the Supreme Court is more partisan now than in the past and why they dont think Justice Alito needs to recuse himself in the Jan. 6 case...
Jun 05, 2024•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ruth Marcus, Dana Milbank and Karen Tumulty got together to talk about their immediate reactions to Donald Trumps guilty verdict, the quality of his defense, and why the most knowledgeable people in Washington were expecting something different.
May 31, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Do we actually want AI that seems human? Chatbots are being made to act and sound like humans. That makes them easier to talk to, but there could be other consequences. As our relationships with artificial intelligence evolve, do we need to draw a brighter line between what is technology and what is us? Opinions columnists Josh Tyrangiel, Bina Venkataraman and Amanda Ripley talk about what we really want out of AI. Read more on AI from our Washington Post columnists. Josh Tyrangiel: ...
May 29, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast The house, the yard and the picket fence have long been part of the American Dream. Owning a home is lauded as a way to grow your wealth and pass it down to future generations. But high demand and short supply, coupled with todays soaring interest rates, have made home ownership out of reach for many Americans. Opinions columnist Catherine Rampell and associate editor Alexi McCammond join deputy editor Charles Lane to talk about the cultural and financial forces at work and the generational shif...
May 22, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast As trust in institutions plummets and many people search for shared values, what is the state of American identity? This bonus "Impromptu" episode features a live discussion between Opinions columnists Shadi Hamid and Jason Willick and the hosts of "Post Reports" Martine Powers and Elahe Izadi about the importance of identity in a changing world. For more from our colleagues in the newsroom, listen to " Post Reports ," a daily afternoon podcast, where you can hear deep dives into the biggest and...
May 19, 2024•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast The WNBA season began this week following a college tournament where the women were more popular than the men. Is this shift about more than Caitlin Clark and the fantastic players in basketball right now? Sports columnist Sally Jenkins joins Opinions columnists Theodore Johnson and Amanda Ripley to talk about what athletes have done for the womens movement and whether the womens game can avoid some of the pitfalls that have plagued mens sports. Read more from our columnists about what the...
May 15, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast When asked about their religious affiliation, nearly 30 percent of Americans identify as nones, or nothing in particular. And over the past 25 years theres been a steep decline in people belonging to any type of church, synagogue or mosque. But what is lost as people drift from religion? Is it at all responsible for todays loneliness crisis? Read more from our columnists about what they discussed in the episode. Perry Bacon: I used to be a Christian. Now I miss church. Kate Cohen: How atheists c...
May 08, 2024•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Campus protests across the country have renewed Americans' attention on the Israel-Gaza war and are scrambling U.S. politics, particularly on the left. Senior Opinions Editor Amanda Katz speaks with columnists Dana Milbank and Shadi Hamid about how their views have evolved since Oct. 7, whether theres a double standard on free speech, and what the protests could foreshadow for the upcoming presidential election, particularly among young people. ( Note: This episode was recorded Monday, April 29 ...
May 01, 2024•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Supreme Court is set to decide to what extent former President Trump could be immune from prosecution for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021, as his lawyers have claimed. Post Opinions columnists Charles Lane, Ruth Marcus and Jason Willick discuss the strategy and timing of these arguments and what we might expect the justices to decide in this showdown about the future boundaries of presidential authority. Read Ruth Marcus on why she thinks this case is simultaneously...
Apr 24, 2024•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Some women are retreating to stereotypical, retro gender roles that embrace the patriarchy. Known as tradwives, they are all over TikTok. Style columnist Monica Hesse, letters and community editor Alyssa Rosenberg and senior editor for Opinions Amanda Katz discuss how this trend exposes a continued struggle over equality for men and women in modern society. Read Monica Hesses column: Tradwives, stay-at-home girlfriends and the dream of feminine leisure Read the Cut article that kicked off a lot ...
Apr 17, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast America is entering a grueling presidential election season thats also a rematch of the one from four years ago. Many Americans report feeling dread and exhaustion about politics and the news. So how do we stay engaged? What can journalists do to help? Three of our columnists talk through it. Read Amanda Ripleys deep dive crowdsourcing a playbook for election-year sanity: How to survive another Trump-Biden election And we want to hear your strategies too! Let us know how you plan to make it thro...
Apr 10, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Post columnists David Ignatius and Jim Geraghty just returned from Ukraine. They detail the mood on the ground, how much U.S. aid actually matters and whether the war seems winnable. Plus, Ignatius talks about his meeting with President Zelensky. Read David Ignatiuss interview with President Zelensky: Zelensky: We are trying to find some way not to retreat Read Jim Geraghtys latest columns from Kyiv: Ukrainians have a message for Mike Johnson How Russians are joining the fight against Puti...
Apr 03, 2024•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Biden administration wants America to transition to electric cars. Last week, the EPA announced a rule requiring more than two-thirds of new vehicles be electric or plug-in hybrid by 2032. This comes on top of pouring federal money into tax credits and developing charging infrastructure. But there are still bumps on the road to an electric-vehicle America. Charles Lane, Catherine Rampell and Megan McArdle talk about how to navigate them. Read Megan McArdles latest column on EVs: The best way...
Mar 27, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade back in 2022, it indicated that abortion was an issue to be relegated to the states. Instead, it has blown up American politics, firing up voters and leading to conflicting lower court rulings. Post columnists Ruth Marcus, Alexandra Petri and Amanda Ripley discuss how it feels to be a woman in the post- Dobbs world and whats at stake when abortion returns to the Supreme Court this term as the justices hear a case on access to mifepristone. Ruth...
Mar 20, 2024•21 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast Impromptu from Washington Post Opinions invites listeners to eavesdrop on our columnists as they have frank, thoughtful conversations on the news and cultural debates they cant stop thinking about. Post columnists want to bring you inside their conversations, before they start typing, to help you figure out your own point of view. New episodes of Impromptu will be released every Wednesday, starting March 20. ...
Mar 06, 2024•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast