Podcast: The Daily

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced a crucial nomination hearing on Wednesday where a panel of skeptical senators probed his past, often contentious remarks.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg, who covers health policy for The Times, explains how someone who’s considered on the fringe in a lot of his beliefs came to be picked for health secretary to begin with.

Guests: Sheryl Gay Stolberg, a correspondent based in Washington covering health policy for The New York Times.

In one of his most audacious moves since taking office, President Trump ordered a freeze on Tuesday on trillions of dollars in federal money — from anti-poverty programs to foreign aid — in order to purge the government of what he called woke ideology.

Michael D. Shear, a White House correspondent for The New York Times, discusses the order, the chaos it prompted and whether it is likely to survive in court.

Guests: Michael D. Shear, a White House correspondent for The New York Times.

Warning: This episode contains descriptions of alleged sexual harassment, and a fictional portrayal of domestic violence.

Over the last few weeks, the Hollywood stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have gone to battle over exactly what happened during the making and promotion of their latest film.

It’s a dispute that has pulled back the curtain on an alleged smear campaign and the new set of tools that celebrities can use to defend themselves and redefine their enemies in the court of public opinion.

Megan Twohey, an investigative reporter at The New York Times, discusses the legal complaint that started it all.

Guests: Megan Twohey, an investigative reporter at The New York Times.

At the center of President Trump’s aggressive first week back in office is a 39-year-old adviser, Stephen Miller. His ideas and ideology have animated the blitz of executive orders.

Jonathan Swan, a White House reporter for The New York Times, explains Mr. Miller’s dramatic return to the White House, and why his power has never been greater.

Guests: Jonathan Swan, a White House reporter for The New York Times.

As soon as Camille Bromley got Ellie, a black-eyed, bat-eared German shepherd puppy, she trained her to be a good dog. And so she was. Two years on, Ms. Bromley started to think she was a little too obedient. Ellie was hesitant, whining when she was unsure of herself, in a way that clashed with her big muscles and pointy canines.

The solution, maybe, was buttons. Around this time, Ms. Bromley started to see dogs on social media seeming to express their desires by the most absurdly simple, low-tech means possible: stepping on multicolored plastic buttons on the floor, each disc emitting a word when the dog pressed it. Ms. Bromley scrolled through videos on her phone of dogs pawing FOOD and MORE and NOW, sometimes in that order.

This week, President Trump has banned diversity, equity and inclusion programming in the federal government, punished former aides by taking away their security detail and celebrated the release of hundreds of Jan. 6, 2021, rioters and planners.

The New York Times journalists Michael Barbaro, Maggie Haberman, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and David E. Sanger try to make sense of it all.

Guests:

Maggie Haberman, a senior political correspondent for The New York Times.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a White House correspondent for The New York Times.
David E. Sanger, a White House and National Security Correspondent for The New York Times.

Among the many plans that President Trump laid out on his first day back in office was a directive to abandon the shift toward clean energy and double down on oil.

Coral Davenport, who covers energy and environmental policy for The Times, discusses whether Mr. Trump could pull it off, and what it would mean for the country if he did.

Guest: Coral Davenport, a reporter covering energy and environmental policy, with a focus on climate change, for The New York Times.

At the heart of President Trump’s flurry of executive orders was a systematic dismantling of the United States’ approach to immigration.

Hamed Aleaziz, who covers immigration policy for The Times, explains what the orders do and the message they send.

Guest: Hamed Aleaziz, who covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy in the United States for The New York Times.

On Monday, in the culmination of an extraordinary political comeback, Donald J. Trump was officially sworn in as president of the United States for a second time.

Mr. Trump’s return comes just four years after being voted out of office, and being impeached for trying to overturn that result.

Peter Baker and Jonathan Swan, who cover the White House for The Times, discuss the message Mr. Trump sent in his inaugural address and the actions he took during his first hours in office.

Guests: Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times; Jonathan Swan, a White House reporter for The New York Times.

Over the past few weeks, users of the video app TikTok braced themselves for a national ban to take effect.

This weekend, the app went dark. But less than 24 hours later, it came back. And it credited President-elect Donald J. Trump with flicking the switch.

Sapna Maheshwari, who covers TikTok for The Times, discusses the biggest social media ban in American history — and whether the incoming president can actually stop it.

Guests: Sapna Maheshwari, a reporter covering TikTok, technology and emerging media companies for The New York Times.

Ingrid Jackson had never lived in a trailer before, or a small town. She was born in Louisville, Ky., the daughter of a man with schizophrenia who, in 1983, decapitated a 76-year-old woman. Jackson was 1 at the time. In 2010, at 27, she was in a car accident and was prescribed pain pills. Not long after that, she began using heroin. Over the next decade she went through nine rounds of addiction rehab. Each ended in relapse. Her most recent attempt came in 2022 after her son was sentenced to life in prison for murder; he was 21.

In eastern Kentucky, a region that is plagued by poverty and is at the heart of the country’s opioid epidemic, the burden of addressing this treatment gap has mainly been taken up by addiction-rehab companies. Many stand more like community centers or churches than like medical clinics, offering not just chemical but also spiritual and logistical services with the aim of helping people in addiction find employment and re-enter society.

The once-fringe writer has long argued for an American monarchy. His ideas have found an audience in the incoming administration and Silicon Valley.

Five years ago, we interviewed a woman who asked that we call her Herminia. It was the summer of 2019, just as former President Donald J. Trump — then in his first term — ordered nationwide raids to round up and deport undocumented immigrants. Herminia feared she was on the list. In the end, she was never arrested. A few days ago, we called Herminia back. We asked what has happened to her since Trump left office, and how she is preparing for a second Trump term — in which he has pledged to put the deportation of people like her at the center of his presidency.

After 15 months of war, Israel and Hamas have agreed to a temporary cease-fire. The deal prompted hope that the war could end soon, but also caused worry that the tentative terms could easily fall apart. Patrick Kingsley, the Times’s Jerusalem bureau chief, explains why the agreement finally happened — and what it means for Gaza, Israel and the broader Middle East.

On Tuesday, the confirmation process for President-elect Donald J. Trump’s cabinet picks kicked off with Pete Hegseth, for the position of defense secretary. Eric Schmitt, who covers U.S. national security, explains how the four-hour hearing unfolded, and what the odds are that Mr. Hegseth will soon be leading the Pentagon.

A week after fires broke out in the Los Angeles area, Californians are grappling with the widespread destruction.
They’re also seeking answers from their leaders about why so much has been lost. Mike Baker and Christopher Flavelle, who have been covering the fires, discuss the authorities’ response and whether some of the devastation could have been avoided.

Big Tech’s biggest names are throwing their weight behind Donald J. Trump in the biggest possible way, first as candidate and now as president-elect. Erin Griffith, who covers tech companies and Silicon Valley for The Times, charts the tech billionaire Marc Andreessen’s journey from top-tier democratic donor to Trump adviser, and explains what it reveals about the growing MAGA-fication of Silicon Valley.

“My life has gone rosy, again,” Alice Munro told a friend in a buoyant letter of March 1975. For Munro, who was then emerging as one of her generation’s leading writers, the previous few years had been blighted by heartbreak and upheaval: a painful separation from her husband of two decades; a retreat from British Columbia back to her native Ontario; a series of brief but bruising love affairs, in which, it seems, Munro could never quite make out the writing on the wall. “This time it’s real,” she wrote, speaking of a new romantic partner, Gerald Fremlin, the emphasis acknowledging that her friend had heard these words before. “He’s 50, free, a good man if I ever saw one, tough and gentle like in the old tire ads, and this is the big thing — grown-up.”

The judgment would prove premature. In July 2024, two months after Munro’s death at age 92, Andrea Skinner, the youngest of her three daughters, revealed in an essay in The Toronto Star that Fremlin had sexually abused her.

The actor-director discusses the long-awaited return of the hit series, the comedies that made him a star and growing up with his famous parents.

This week, President-elect Donald J. Trump asked the Supreme Court to prevent him from being sentenced in a New York criminal case and implied that he could use military force to seize control of Greenland and the Panama Canal, while President Biden did his best to try to Trump-proof his legacy. The Times journalists Michael Barbaro, Maggie Haberman, David E. Sanger and Zolan Kanno-Youngs discuss the latest in the presidential transition.