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The NPR Politics Podcast

NPR

Politics, News, Daily News

4.5 • 24.9K Ratings

🗓️ 1 January 2026

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Happy New Year! In this special episode, the Politics Podcast team is inviting you into our office to hear from reporters as they reflect on the year we’ve had, and look forward to the year in politics ahead.

This episode: political correspondent Ashley Lopez, congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt, White House correspondents Danielle Kurtzleben and Franco Ordoñez, justice correspondent Ryan Lucas, and political reporter Elena Moore.

This podcast was produced by Casey Morell and Bria Suggs, and edited by Rachel Baye.

Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.

Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message come from Yarl and Pamela Mohn, thanking the people who make public radio great every day and also those who listen.
0:10.4	Hey there, it's Ashley Lopez, wishing you a happy new year. Today on the show, we're doing something a little different. To kick off 2026, we're inviting you into our newsroom.
0:22.6	On this version of it... To kick off 2026, we're inviting you into our newsroom. Going up.
0:24.1	On this virtual tour around the Washington desk at NPR's headquarters,
0:28.4	you'll hear from some of the folks you regularly hear from on the politics podcast
0:31.7	about what they think are some of the biggest moments in politics in 2025
0:35.4	and look ahead to what's to come now that we're in
0:38.8	26.
0:40.4	For a poll.
0:42.0	Newsroom.
0:44.5	Hey guys.
0:45.5	This is Barbara Sprunt.
0:47.2	I cover Congress.
0:48.7	I'm Ryan Lucas.
0:49.5	I cover the Justice Department.
0:50.9	I'm Elena Moore.
0:52.0	I cover politics.
0:52.9	And I had too much coffee today, so I'm sorry in
0:56.5	advance. If I say something that I shouldn't. I'm Danielle Kurtzleben, White House correspondent.
1:03.2	I am Frank Ordonez, and I cover the White House. I have been working in politics. I mean, it's
1:10.7	really kind of hard to say how long I've been working in politics. I mean, it's really kind of hard to say how long I've been working in Washington since 2011, but I was largely a policy person covering immigration, local state coverage for North Carolina, and then doing some investigative work until Trump was elected in the first
1:31.1	administration in 2016. I was actually pulled from policy into covering the White House literally
	...

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