The Daily

For years, American consumers have been able to spend next to nothing on the latest fashion trends, thanks in large part to Chinese clothing companies like Shein and Temu. These businesses have long used a loophole to send millions of packages a day into the U.S. from China tax-free. Now, President Trump is closing that loophole, even as he de-escalates his larger trade war with China, and prices are going up. Meaghan Tobin, who covers business and technology in Asia, discusses whether this might be the end for fast fashion.

Transcribed - Published: 15 May 2025

President Trump is in the Middle East on the first major international trip of his second term. At the same time, a firestorm has erupted over his plan to accept a $400 million luxury airplane from the Qatari government. Today, Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent, explains how the free plane may set a problematic precedent — and what Qatar might expect in return.

Transcribed - Published: 14 May 2025

Parents try everything to influence their children. But new research suggests that brothers and sisters have their own profound impact. Susan Dominus, a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, discusses the surprising ways that our brothers and sisters shape our lives.

Transcribed - Published: 13 May 2025

Over the weekend, top negotiators from the U.S. and China met for the first time since President Trump rapidly escalated a trade war between the world’s two economic superpowers. Keith Bradsher, the Beijing bureau chief for The New York Times, discusses the pressures facing China, as it came to the negotiating table and why it so badly needs a deal.

Transcribed - Published: 12 May 2025

For eight years running, Finland has been rated the happiest country in the world by a peculiar United Nations-backed project called the World Happiness Report, started in 2012. Soon after Finland shot to the top of the list, its government set up a “happiness tourism” initiative, which now offers itineraries highlighting the cultural elements that ostensibly contribute to its status: foraging, fresh air, trees, lakes, sustainably produced meals and, perhaps above all else, saunas. Instead of adhering to one of these optimal itineraries or visiting Finland at the rosiest time of year (any time except the dead of winter), Molly Young arrived with few plans at all during one of the bleakest months. Would the happiest country on earth still be so mirthful at its gloomiest?

Transcribed - Published: 11 May 2025

The Bumble CEO has returned to run the struggling company she founded, and says she has a plan for getting Gen Z back. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Transcribed - Published: 10 May 2025

The world’s 1.4 billion Catholics have a new pope, and for the first time, he is from America. Jason Horowitz, the Rome bureau chief of The New York Times, introduces us to Pope Leo XIV.

Transcribed - Published: 9 May 2025

A 90-second failure of Newark Airport’s air-traffic safety systems, which blacked out communication to planes carrying thousands of passengers, has exposed a new level of crisis in air travel. Kate Kelly, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, explains what the problems at one of the country’s biggest airports tell us about air-travel safety in the United States.

Transcribed - Published: 8 May 2025

A few days ago, Warren Buffett, the most successful investor in history, said he would retire as C.E.O. of Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate that he built into a trillion-dollar colossus. Andrew Ross Sorkin, who has covered Mr. Buffett for many years, discusses the career of the man who both personified and critiqued American capitalism.

Transcribed - Published: 7 May 2025

As the Middle East braces for another year of extreme heat, climate change is turning the soil to dust in the landscape that has long been known as the fertile crescent — and water has become a new source of conflict. Alissa J. Rubin, who covers the Middle East, tells the story of Iraq’s water crisis and what it means for the world.

Transcribed - Published: 6 May 2025

At a time of enormous economic upheaval and uncertainty prompted by President Trump’s trade war, we asked our listeners what they wanted to understand about this financial moment. Ben Casselman, the chief economics correspondent for The New York Times, tries to answer some of those questions.

Transcribed - Published: 5 May 2025

When Taffy Brodesser-Akner became a writer, Mr. Lindenblatt, the father of one of her oldest friends, began asking to tell his story of survival during the Holocaust in one of the magazines or newspapers she wrote for. He took pride in telling his story, in making sure he fulfilled what he felt was the obligation of all Holocaust survivors, which was to remind the world what had happened to the Jews. His daughter Ilana knew it was a long shot but felt obligated to pass on the request — it was her father, after all. Taffy declined because after a life hearing about the Holocaust, she said, she was “all Holocausted out.” But, years later, when she learned of Mr. Lindenblatt’s imminent passing, Taffy asked herself what would become of stories like his if the generation of hers that was supposed to inherit them had taken the privilege that came with another generation’s survival and decided not to listen? So here it is, an old Jewish story about the Holocaust and a man who somehow survived the pernicious, organized and intentional genocide of the Jews. But right behind it, just two generations later, is another story, one about the children and grandchildren who have been so malformed by the stories that are their lineage that some of them made just as eager work of running from it, only to find themselves, same as anything you run from, having to deal with it anyway.

Transcribed - Published: 4 May 2025

The poet and novelist on the real reason he became a writer.Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Transcribed - Published: 3 May 2025

In his first 100 days in office, President Trump has struggled to fulfill his promise to carry out mass deportations, a reality that has prompted his administration to change its strategy. Rather than putting its focus on migrants with a criminal record, or those who recently crossed the border, the White House is increasingly seeking to deport those who came to the United States decades ago and have established a life, career and family in America. Jessica Cheung, a producer on “The Daily,” tells the story of one such migrant through the eyes of his daughter.

Transcribed - Published: 2 May 2025

President Trump was once a loud skeptic of cryptocurrency — one who called it a haven for drug dealers and scammers. But over the past few months, he’s emerged as the industry’s biggest cheerleader. A New York Times investigation shows how much the president and his family have profited from that transformation. Eric Lipton, an investigative reporter for The Times, discusses what happens when the country’s top crypto policymaker is himself a crypto entrepreneur.

Transcribed - Published: 1 May 2025

On Tuesday, the second Trump presidency officially reached the 100-day mark. It’s been a hundred days of transformation, tariffs, retribution, firings and deportation the likes of which America has never seen before. The Times journalists Michael Barbaro, Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan and Charlie Savage sit down to assess President Trump’s record.

Transcribed - Published: 30 April 2025

Last year, a historic legal settlement resulted in sweeping rule changes that were supposed to lower the price of buying and selling a home across the country. But those changes would cost real-estate agents money, and so those agents, it turns out, have found ways around the new rules. Debra Kamin, who reports on real estate, explains how they did it.

Transcribed - Published: 29 April 2025

Warning: This episode contains strong language. One question that has hung over the first 100 days of President Trump’s second term: Is his aggressive approach to everything from deportations to tariffs what most Americans want — or has he simply gone too far? In a major new nationwide poll, voters tell The New York Times exactly how they feel about Trump’s agenda. Nate Cohn, The Times’s chief political analyst, explains the results.

Transcribed - Published: 28 April 2025

Online, there is a name for the experience of finding sympathy with Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber: Tedpilling. To be Tedpilled means to read Paragraph 1 of Kaczynski’s manifesto, its assertion that the mad dash of technological advancement since the Industrial Revolution has “made life unfulfilling,” “led to widespread psychological suffering” and “inflicted severe damage on the natural world,” and think, Well, sure. Since Kaczynski’s death by suicide in a federal prison in North Carolina nearly two years ago, the taboo surrounding the figure has been weakening. This is especially true on the right, where pessimism and paranoia about technology — largely the province of the left not long ago — have spread on the heels of the coronavirus pandemic and efforts to police speech on social media platforms.

Transcribed - Published: 27 April 2025

The beloved author left Chile at a time of great turmoil and has longed for the nation of her youth ever since. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Transcribed - Published: 26 April 2025

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard a case that could hand parents with religious objections a lot more control over what their kids learn in the classroom. Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court, explains how a case about children’s picture books with titles like “Pride Puppy” and “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding” has broad implications for schools across the country.

Transcribed - Published: 25 April 2025

In the increasingly bitter trade war between the United States and China, perhaps nobody has more at stake than America’s soybean farmers, whose crop has become the country’s single biggest export to China. Michael Barbaro speaks to an Iowa farmer who helped build that $13 billion market, and asks her what President Trump’s sky-high tariffs mean for her and for tens of thousands of other American farmers.

Transcribed - Published: 24 April 2025

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has deported hundreds of Venezuelan migrants by quickly labeling them as gang members and foreign enemies, and boarding them on planes to El Salvador. It’s sidestepping their rights to a court hearing where anyone might be able to scrutinize the claims against them. As a result, very little has been known about who these men are, or how they were targeted by immigration officials. Until now. Julie Turkewitz, the Andes bureau chief for The New York Times, explains who was actually on those planes, and discusses the secretive process that led to their deportations.

Transcribed - Published: 23 April 2025

Church bells rang out across the world on Monday to mark the death of Pope Francis at the age of 88. Jason Horowitz, the Rome bureau chief at The New York Times, discusses the pope’s push to change the church, his bitter clashes with traditionalists, and what his papacy meant to the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

Transcribed - Published: 22 April 2025

Across the country, millions of Americans with unpaid student loans are discovering that years of patience and forgiveness from the U.S. government have officially come to an end. Stacy Cowley, a business reporter for The Times, explains what is behind the change of heart, sets out its financial consequences for borrowers — and discusses the larger reckoning that it may cause about how Americans pay for higher education.

Transcribed - Published: 21 April 2025

One day at Wrigley Field in Chicago last May, Paul Skenes was pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates, carving out a small piece of baseball history in his second big-league game. He struck out the first seven batters he faced. By the end of the fifth inning, he had increased his strikeout total to 10. More impressive, he hadn’t allowed a hit. Over the past two decades, analysts have identified a treasure trove of competitive advantages for teams willing to question baseball’s established practices. Perhaps the most significant of competitive advantages was hidden in plain sight, at the center of the diamond. Starting pitchers were traditionally taught to conserve strength so they could last deep into games. Throwing 300 innings in a season was once commonplace; in 1969 alone, nine pitchers did it. But at some definable point in each game, the data came to reveal, a relief pitcher becomes a more effective option than the starter, even if that starter is Sandy Koufax or Tom Seaver — or Paul Skenes.

Transcribed - Published: 20 April 2025

Transcribed - Published: 19 April 2025

President Trump’s tariffs have terrified stock markets, business owners and anyone with a 401(k). Does that mean that his approach to trade is becoming a major political liability? Astead W. Herndon, a national politics reporter, asked voters in Michigan what they thought. He found that the answer to that question was not so simple.

Transcribed - Published: 18 April 2025

Testimonies began this week in one of the most aggressive cases the government has ever brought against a big tech company. Over the next eight weeks, the Federal Trade Commission will argue that Meta, the company founded by Mark Zuckerberg, should be broken up. Cecilia Kang, who covers technology and regulatory policy, discusses the strange and contentious relationship between Mr. Zuckerberg and President Trump that has led to this moment, and what the case means for them.

Transcribed - Published: 17 April 2025

For years, President Trump has mocked the Obama administration for the nuclear agreement that it reached with Iran — a plan he disliked so much that he revoked it. Now, as he embarks on talks with Iran to reach a nuclear agreement of his own, the question is whether his administration can achieve a better deal. David E. Sanger, who covers the White House and national security, takes us inside the negotiations.

Transcribed - Published: 16 April 2025

When President Trump met with El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, at the White House, the fate of one man was hanging in the balance. Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court, discusses the Maryland man who was mistakenly sent to a notoriously brutal prison in El Salvador, and what his case means for the limits of presidential power and the rule of law.

Transcribed - Published: 15 April 2025

When President Trump raised tariffs against China to an astonishing 145 percent last week, he radically changed the cost of doing business for thousands of American companies. Michael Barbaro speaks to Beth Benike, a small-business owner who fears her business will not survive the tariffs.

Transcribed - Published: 14 April 2025

When Daniel and Victoria Van Beuningen first toured their future home, a quiet villa in the Polish city of Wroclaw, it had been abandoned for years, its windows sealed up with bricks. But something about its overgrown garden spoke to them. They could imagine raising chickens there, planting tomatoes and cucumbers. They could make something beautiful out of it, they thought — a place where their children could run and play. They moved in knowing very little about what happened at the villa before World War II, when Wroclaw, formerly Breslau, was still part of Germany. The couple wanted to know more, and their inquiries eventually led to the Meinecke family in Heidelberg, Germany, elderly siblings who said they were born in the home. Over a long afternoon, they showed the couple pictures of the place from happier times before the war, but they also offered the Van Beuningens a surprising warning: The couple might find the remains of some German soldiers buried in the garden.

Transcribed - Published: 13 April 2025

The creator and comedian discusses his penchant for self-reflection, how politics fits into his work and why he’s not interested in representing anyone but himself.Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Transcribed - Published: 12 April 2025

Over the past five years, the activist Christopher Rufo has spearheaded the conservative critique of and assault on critical race theory and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, organizing effective campaigns against government offices, corporations and American universities. In the process, Mr. Rufo has become an influential voice in the ear of the Trump administration as it turns his strategy into a wide-ranging government crackdown on higher education. Michael Barbaro speaks to Mr. Rufo about how far his agenda will go.

Transcribed - Published: 11 April 2025

After promising that tariffs against dozens of countries were here to stay, no matter how much they hurt businesses or the stock market, President Trump has abruptly reversed course. But there’s an exception: his levies on China, which he said he would raise to 125 percent. Jonathan Swan, who covers the White House, explains why the president changed his mind, and David Pierson, who covers China, discusses why Beijing won’t back down.

Transcribed - Published: 10 April 2025

Over the past few weeks, some of the most prestigious universities in the country have faced a threat to their very existence. President Trump has frozen billions of dollars in federal funds in an attempt to rid higher education of what he calls its woke ideology. Rachel Abrams speaks to the president of Princeton University, Christopher L. Eisgruber, who has vowed that to fight.

Transcribed - Published: 9 April 2025

On Monday, global stocks whipsawed over President Trump’s tariffs, a bear market briefly became official in the United States and tit-for-tat retaliation with China intensified. As trillions of dollars in corporate value evaporates and Mr. Trump’s support in the business world is cracking, even Republican members of Congress are debating whether to take away the president’s power to wage a trade war. Andrew Ross Sorkin, who covers business and policy, and Jonathan Swan, who covers the White House, talk through the tumultuous past few days on the stock market.

Transcribed - Published: 8 April 2025

Over the past few weeks, President Trump has used executive orders to wage war on law firms, specifically targeting those whose lawyers have investigated or sued him, or represented his enemies in court. Michael Barbaro speaks to Thomas Sipp, a lawyer who chose to quit after his firm, Skadden, negotiated a deal to placate the president.

Transcribed - Published: 7 April 2025

“The force of his will is the thing I remember about him,” says Taffy Brodesser-Akner, who wrote a profile of Val Kilmer for The New York Times Magazine in May 2020. “He was sure he was going to come back to his exact former self. ” The two met for an interview just as a lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic seemed all but certain to happen. Mr. Kilmer, who was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and had undergone a tracheotomy, was still performing. Mr. Brodesser-Akner credits him with providing “the first whiff of overarching hope and positivity that I’d witnessed in I couldn’t remember how many months.” “What does somebody do when the thing that they are known for, which is being a superhero, which is being an action hero, which is being handsome, which is being this sort of picture of good health and vigor, what do you do next?” she said. “And a lot of people, they fade away. But that’s not how it went for Val. ” Mr. Kilmer, who played classic roles such as Batman and Iceman in “Top Gun,” died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 65.

Transcribed - Published: 6 April 2025

The actor talks about his new film “The Friend,” his jerky past and what he doesn’t get about himself. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Transcribed - Published: 5 April 2025

The reverberations from President Trump’s new global tariffs have rocked financial markets and world capitals. American stocks have plunged, and foreign leaders have issued forceful condemnations. The Times journalists Michael Barbaro, Peter Goodman, Natalie Kitroeff and Jeanna Smialek sit down to try to make sense of Mr. Trump’s strategy and its consequences.

Transcribed - Published: 4 April 2025

In a history-making day of tariffs, President Trump imposed charges of at least 10 percent on nearly all of America’s trading partners. Ana Swanson, who covers trade for The Times, discusses who will be affected most and looks at how the levies effectively ended one era of global trade and began a new one.

Transcribed - Published: 3 April 2025

A few days ago, one of the most ubiquitous live shows in the country, Shen Yun, began its latest run at Lincoln Center, drawing thousands of people to a performance that is colorful, acrobatic and — according to many of its performers — shockingly abusive. Nicole Hong, one of the reporters behind a New York Times investigation of Shen Yun, discusses what that reporting has revealed about the secretive enterprise.

Transcribed - Published: 2 April 2025

On paper, the election in Wisconsin on Tuesday is about who should control the state’s highest court. In reality, it has become a referendum on Elon Musk, his agenda in Washington and his willingness to flood American politics with his money. Reid J. Epstein, who has been covering this campaign for The Times, explains why it has become the local election that everyone is watching.

Transcribed - Published: 1 April 2025

Immigration arrests are taking place at universities across the country. The story of three Columbia students helps explain what’s happening, and why. Hamed Aleaziz, who covers immigration policy, lays out what their cases reveal about the latest immigration crackdown — and about this administration’s views on free speech.

Transcribed - Published: 31 March 2025

Troy Merritt, a pilot for a major U.S. airline, returned from his 30th birthday trip in Croatia in October 2022 — sailing on a catamaran, eating great food, socializing with friends — and cried. This wasn’t back-to-work blues but collapsed-on-the-floor, full-body-shaking misery. When he wasn’t crying, he slept. “I’ve got to find a therapist,” he told himself. And he did, quickly. If that therapist didn’t write down “depression,” Merritt would be OK. He could still fly planes, keep his job — as long as he wasn’t diagnosed with a mental illness. Merritt, like all pilots, knew that if he was formally diagnosed with a mental-health condition, he might never fly a plane again.

Transcribed - Published: 30 March 2025

The former Fox News and current YouTube host on her professional evolution, conservative media and why she endorsed Trump.Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Transcribed - Published: 29 March 2025

What does the continuing fallout from the Signal text security breach tell us about President Trump’s cabinet’s approach to blame and accountability? The Times journalists Michael Barbaro, Eric Schmitt, Julian E. Barnes and Maggie Haberman sit down to make sense of the latest week.

Transcribed - Published: 28 March 2025

For the past three decades, the U.S. government has released documents related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy with an overriding goal of dispelling conspiracy theories. Julian E. Barnes, who covers the U.S. intelligence agencies, explains why President Trump’s motivations behind releasing the latest batch are far more complicated.

Transcribed - Published: 27 March 2025