Why we can’t understand this moment in politics without first understanding the transformation of American evangelicalism.

“The Run-Up” is a new politics podcast from The New York Times. Leading up to the 2022 midterms, we’ll be sharing the latest episode here every Saturday. If you want to hear episodes when they first drop on Thursdays, follow “The Run-Up” wherever you get your podcasts, including on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and Amazon Music.

As the sun came up over Florida yesterday, a fuller picture began to emerge of the destruction that Hurricane Ian had inflicted on the state and its residents.

The Category 4 storm washed away roads, bridges, cars, boats and homes. The damage is so extensive that, according to the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, it may take years to rebuild.

Guests: Patricia Mazzei, the Miami bureau chief for The New York Times; Richard Fausset, a Times correspondent based in Atlanta; Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, a national news reporter for The Times; and Hilary Swift, a photojournalist.

Background reading: 

• Data from NASA reveals how warm ocean waters in the Gulf of Mexico provided the fuel that turned Hurricane Ian into such a potent force.
• The scale of the wreckage was staggering, even to Florida residents who had survived and rebuilt after other powerful hurricanes.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Kirill, 24, works at a nonprofit for homeless people in the Moscow region. He does not support the policies of President Vladimir V. Putin and is vehemently against the invasion of Ukraine.

After suffering setbacks in the war, Mr. Putin announced a military draft a week ago. Kirill was among those called up. As he hides out to avoid being served his papers, Kirill spoke to Sabrina Tavernise about how his life has changed.

Guest: Kirill, a 24-year-old from Moscow who is attempting to avoid the draft and who asked that only his first name be used to avoid reprisals.

Background reading: 

• In a rare admission of official mistakes, the Kremlin has acknowledged that the military draft has been rife with problems.
• Resistance to the draft has grown as villagers, activists and even some elected officials ask why the conscription drive appears to be hitting minority groups and rural areas harder than the big cities.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Mahsa Amini, 22, traveled from her hometown in the province of Kurdistan to the Iranian capital, Tehran, this month. Emerging from the subway, she was arrested for failing to cover her hair modestly enough. Three days later, she was dead.

The anger over Ms. Amini’s death has prompted days of rage, exhilaration and street battles across Iran, with women stripping off their head scarves — and even burning them — in the most significant outpouring of dissent against the ruling system in more than a decade.

Guest: Farnaz Fassihi, a reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• The protests have been striking for the way they have cut across ethnic and social class divides, but there is one group that has risen up with particular fury.
• Beyond the anger over Ms. Amini’s death lies a range of grievances: a collapsing economy, brazen corruption, suffocating repression, and social restrictions handed down by a handful of elderly clerics.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

During the pandemic, an enormous amount of money — about $5 trillion in total — was spent to help support the newly unemployed and to prop up the U.S. economy while it was forced into suspension.

But the funds came with few strings and minimal oversight. The result: one of the largest frauds in American history, with billions of dollars stolen by thousands of people.

Guest: David A. Fahrenthold, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, focused on nonprofits.

Background reading: 

• Investigators say there was so much fraud in federal Covid-relief programs that — even after two years of work and hundreds of prosecutions — they’re still just getting started.
• A federal watchdog almost tripled its estimate of the amount of unemployment benefits paid out to people who weren’t entitled to them, raising the figure to $45.6 billion, from $16 billion.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The high poverty rate among children was long seen as an enduring fact of American life. But a recent analysis has shown that the number of young people growing up poor has fallen dramatically in the past few decades.

The reasons for the improvement are complicated, but they have their roots in a network of programs and support shaped by years of political conflict and compromise.

Guest: Jason DeParle, a senior writer at The New York Times and a frequent contributor to The New York Times Magazine. 

Background reading: 

• Child poverty in the United States has fallen 59 percent since 1993, a new analysis showed.
• Few states have experienced larger declines in child poverty than West Virginia. One family’s story illustrates the real-life impact that an expanded safety net has provided to millions across America.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The concept of having a “body clock” is a familiar one, but less widespread is the awareness that our body contains several biological clocks. Understanding their whims and functions may help us optimize our lives and lead to better overall health, according to scientists.

Every physiological system is represented by a clock, from the liver to the lungs, and each one is synced “to the central clock in the brain like an orchestra section following its conductor,” writes Kim Tingley, a New York Times journalist who explored the effect this knowledge has on how conditions are treated, and spoke to scientists about how misalignment or deregulation of these clocks can have a profound effect on our health.

Exploring the components that dictate our lives, and how they work together like the “gears in a mechanical watch,” Ms. Tingley builds a case for the importance of paying attention to all our circadian rhythms — and not just when it comes to monitoring our sleep.

This story was written by Kim Tingley and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

In kicking off the midterms, Joe Biden talked about American democracy as a shared value, enshrined in the country’s founding — a value that both Democrats and Republicans should join together in defending. But there is another possible view of this moment. One that is shared by two very different groups: the voters who propelled Biden to the presidency … and the conservative activists who are rejecting democracy altogether.

“The Run-Up” is a new politics podcast from The New York Times. Leading up to the 2022 midterms, we’ll be sharing the latest episode here every Saturday. If you want to hear episodes when they first drop on Thursdays, follow “The Run-Up” wherever you get your podcasts, including on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and Amazon Music.

Evangelicals make up about a quarter of the population in the United States and are part of the nation’s largest religious group. But lately the movement is in crisis.

The biggest issue is church attendance. Many churches closed at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and struggled to reopen while congregations thinned.

But a smaller audience isn’t the only problem: Pastors are quitting, or at least considering doing so.

Guest: Ruth Graham is a national correspondent covering religion, faith and values for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Across the country, theologically conservative white evangelical churches that were once comfortably united are at odds over many of the same issues dividing the Republican Party and other institutions.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In a speech on Wednesday, President Vladimir V. Putin said that he would require hundreds of thousands more Russians to fight in Ukraine — and alarmed the West by once again raising the specter of nuclear force.

The mobilization signals that Mr. Putin is turning the war from one of aggression to one of defense, offering clues about what the next phase of the fighting will involve.

Guest: Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Accelerating his war effort, Mr. Putin accused the West of trying to “weaken, divide and ultimately destroy” Russia.
• American and other officials vowed to continue sending military, economic and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Last week, nearly 50 Venezuelan migrants showed up, without warning, on the wealthy island of Martha’s Vineyard.

Their arrival was the culmination of a monthslong strategy by two of the United States’ most conservative governors to lay the issue of undocumented immigration at Democrats’ doorstep.

How has this strategy played out and what has it meant for the migrants caught in the middle?

Guest: Miriam Jordan, a national correspondent covering immigration for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Scores of migrants have been shipped north by southern Republican governors. Here’s what you need to know.
• Martha’s Vineyard, the moneyed summer resort, has become an unlikely arena in the fight over illegal immigration.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Adnan Syed was accused of the 1999 killing of his classmate and ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, whose body was found buried in a car park in Baltimore.

He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison but has proclaimed his innocence for the last 23 years.

Mr. Syed was the subject of the first season of the podcast “Serial,” which painstakingly examined his case and the evidence against him.

Yesterday, his conviction was overturned. On today’s episode, the “Serial” team looks at how this happened. 

Guest: Sarah Koenig, the host and executive producer of the “Serial” podcast.

Background reading: 

• Mr. Syed had been serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of his high school classmate Hae Min Lee. Here is the timeline of his legal journey.
• A Baltimore City Circuit Court judge vacated Mr. Syed’s conviction “in the interests of justice and fairness.”

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The funeral of Queen Elizabeth today will be one of the most extraordinary public spectacles of the last several decades in Britain, accompanied by an outpouring of sadness, reverence and respect.

But the end of the queen’s 70-year reign has also prompted long-delayed conversations about the future of the Commonwealth and of the four nations that make up the United Kingdom.

Guest: Mark Landler, the London bureau chief for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• In Commonwealth nations with British colonial histories, Queen Elizabeth’s death has rekindled discussions about a more independent future.
• The loss of the beloved figurehead has left many in Britain anxious and unmoored, unsure of their nation’s identity, its economic and social well-being, or even its role in the world.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

“Nobody’s gonna know. They’re gonna know.”

If you’ve been on TikTok in the past year, you’re most likely familiar with these two sentences, first drolly uttered in a post by TikTok creator Chris Gleason in 2020. The post has become a hit and has been viewed more than 14 million times.

But the sound is more famous than the video.

When uploading a video to TikTok, the creator has the option to make that video’s audio a “sound” that other users can easily use in their own videos — lip-syncing to it, adding more noise on top of it or treating it like a soundtrack. Gleason’s sound has been used in at least 336,000 other videos, to humorous, dramatic and sometimes eerie effect.

The journalist Charlotte Shane delves into the world of repurposed sounds, exploring how TikTok and other apps have enabled, as she writes in her recent article for The Times, “cross-user riffing and engagement, like quote-tweeting for audio.” She also considers “what makes a sound compelling beyond musical qualities or linguistic meaning.”

While “brainfeel” may be an apt buzzword for the sensation audio memes elicit, Ms. Shane writes, it is more than a mere trend: We have entered the “era of the audio meme.”

This story was written by Charlotte Shane and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

It’s March 2013. The G.O.P., in tatters, issues a scathing report blaming its electoral failures on an out-of-touch leadership that ignores minorities at its own peril. Just three years later, Donald Trump proves his party dead wrong. Today, how certain assumptions took hold of both parties — and what they’re still getting wrong — heading into the midterm elections.

The adoption of electric cars has been hailed as an important step in curbing the use of fossil fuels and fighting climate change. There is a snag, however: such vehicles require around six times as many metals as their gasoline-powered counterparts.

A giant storehouse of the necessary resources sits at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. But retrieving them may, in turn, badly damage the environment.

Guest: Eric Lipton, an investigative reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Mining in the Pacific Ocean was meant to benefit poorer countries, but an international agency gave a Canadian company access to seabed sites.
• Miles below the surface, harvesting metallic nodules may threaten animals found nowhere else on the planet.
• Here are some of the seabed authority emails and other documents The Times assembled as it worked on its investigation of seabed mining.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

With the midterm elections a few weeks away, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, forwarded a plan to save his party from the growing backlash over abortion.

But the proposal — a federal ban on almost all terminations after 15 weeks — has served mostly to expose the division among Republicans about the issue.

Guest: Lisa Lerer, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Mr. Graham’s effort has reignited debate on an issue that Republicans have worked to confront before midterm elections in which abortion rights have become a potent issue.
• The rejection of Mr. Graham’s bill was the latest misfire in the party’s struggle to unite behind a clear strategy.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

When President Biden canceled college debt last month, he left untouched the problem that created that debt: the soaring price of college.

In the 1980s, the list price of undergraduate education at a private four-year institution could hit $20,000 a year. At some of these schools in the last couple of years, it has topped $80,000. 

Why has a college education become increasingly costly, and why has that become such a difficult problem to solve?

Guest: Ron Lieber, a personal finance columnist for The New York Times and author of “The Price You Pay for College.”

Background reading: 

• Instead of making higher education free, the United States subsidizes it later through repayment plans and attempts at debt cancellation. The complexity is disrespectful, Ron Lieber writes in his “Your Money” column.
• Also from “Your Money”: Student loan borrowers don’t deserve “forgiveness,” they deserve an apology. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Over the weekend, Ukraine’s military stunned the world. After months of a kind of stalemate, its military took hundreds of miles of territory back from Russia — its biggest victory since the start of the war.

How did the war reach this critical point, and what does Ukraine’s success mean for the future?

Guest: Eric Schmitt, a correspondent covering national security for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• A lightning Ukrainian offensive in the country’s northeast has reshaped what had become a grinding war of attrition.
• Stunned by a lightning advance, Russia has acknowledged the loss of the northern region of Kharkiv, which cast doubt on the premise that Ukraine could never defeat it. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The U.S. Open crowned its winners this weekend. But for a lot of fans, this year’s competition was less about who won, and more about a player who wasn’t even involved in the final matches.

Serena Williams, who announced last month that she’d be retiring from tennis after this year’s tournament, has made an indelible impact on her sport and left a legacy away from the court that has very little precedent.

Guest: Wesley Morris, a critic at large for The New York Times and co-host of Times podcast “Still Processing.”

Background reading: 

• At the U.S. Open, Serena Williams laughed, rocked sparkly shoes, rang the bell at the stock exchange, beat two opponents, teared up and said goodbye. Here’s an exploration of her magical last week in tennis.
• As Ms. Williams played her final matches, women have seen their own lives reflected in the triumphs and trials of the tennis superstar.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The Claremont Institute, a right-wing think tank in California, has in recent years become increasingly influential in Republican circles. In 2016, its goal was to turn Donald J. Trump into a legitimate candidate — and then it did .

The journalist Elisabeth Zerofsky traces the origins of the divisive organization, explaining how it made the intellectual case for Trumpism but also how, with ties to Ron DeSantis and John Eastman, the think tank has become a home for “counterrevolutionary” politics that go far beyond the former president.

This story was written by Elisabeth Zerofsky and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

The death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday brought to an end a remarkable reign that spanned seven decades, 15 prime ministers and 14 American presidents.

During her time on the throne, which saw the crumbling of the British Empire and the buffeting of the royal family by scandals, Elizabeth’s courtly and reserved manner helped to shore up the monarchy and provided an unwavering constant for her country, the Commonwealth and the wider world.

Guest: Alan Cowell, a contributor to The New York Times and a former Times foreign correspondent.

Background reading: 

• Amid social and economic upheaval across her 70-year reign, the queen remained unshakably committed to the rituals of her role.
• Her heir, Charles, was long an uneasy prince. But he comes to the throne, at 73, as a self-assured, gray-haired eminence.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

As California watches the impact of rising temperatures devastate its environment with brutal heat waves and raging fires, the state is taking increasingly far-reaching steps to combat climate change.

One of those measures — banning the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035 — could prove a turning point for the transition to electric vehicles.

Guest: Neal E. Boudette, an automotive correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Not only is California the largest auto market in the United States, but more than a dozen other states also typically follow California’s lead when setting their own auto emissions standards.
• Automakers such as General Motors have equally ambitious aspirations for electric cars, but moving away from internal-combustion vehicles will not be easy.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

A counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces to try to drive Russian troops out of southern Ukraine has placed the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the biggest in Europe, directly in the path of the fighting.

As the world scrambles to prevent a catastrophe, the plant’s workers find themselves in a dangerously precarious position.

Guest: Marc Santora, an international news editor for The New York Times, currently based in Kyiv. 

Background reading: 

• Renewed shelling has put the Zaporizhzhia plant at risk despite the presence of U.N. monitors, underscoring what the International Atomic Energy Agency has called the “unprecedented” peril of the moment.
• The U.N. inspectors have called for a security protection zone around the plant. The risks are grave for all involved.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In November, Americans will head to the polls for the first nationwide election since the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. But what happens this fall won’t just be about who wins and who loses. On the first episode of "The Run-Up,” host Astead Herndon lays out the stakes of the midterm elections and explores the big questions the podcast is looking to answer. 

“The Run-Up” is a new politics podcast from The New York Times. You can follow it wherever you get your podcasts, including on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and Amazon Music.

Today marks the unofficial start of the campaign for the midterm elections. This year’s midterms will be the first major referendum on the Biden era of government — and a test of how much voters want to reinstall the Trump wing of the Republican Party.

On today’s episode, Astead W. Herndon, a political reporter and the host of our new podcast, “The Run-Up,” offers a guide to the campaign. He’ll explore the forces at play in this election and how we arrived at such a fraught moment in American politics.

Background reading: 

• Listen to the premiere of "The Run-Up," a podcast dedicated to the 2022 midterms.
• Democratic leaders, once beaten down by the prospect of a brutal midterm election in the fall, sense a shift in the political winds. But it may not be enough.
• Heading into 2022, Republicans were confident of a red wave. But now some are signaling concern that the referendum they anticipated on President Biden is being complicated by former President Donald Trump.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

 An influx of Fentanyl, a highly lethal synthetic narcotic, has aggravated the opioid crisis in the United States and prompted communities to scramble for ways to lower the skyrocketing rates of overdose deaths.

In Vancouver, a Canadian city that has been at the forefront of innovative approaches to drug use, a novel and surprising tactic is being tried: It’s called “safer supply.”

Guest: Stephanie Nolen, a global health reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• The mounting toll of overdose deaths has spurred a search for new solutions, and Vancouver has tried more of them, faster, than anywhere else.
• Why is fentanyl so deadly? How can you ensure that your loved ones, including your children, stay safe? Experts offer tips to talk about opioids with your family.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Few leaders have had as profound an effect on their time as Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, who died this week at 91.

It was not Mr. Gorbachev’s intention to liquidate the Soviet empire when he came to power in 1985. But after little more than six tumultuous years, he had lifted the Iron Curtain and presided over the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, ending the Cold War.

Guest: Serge Schmemann, a member of The New York Times’s editorial board.

Background reading: 

• Adopting principles of glasnost and perestroika, Mr. Gorbachev weighed the legacy of seven decades of Communist rule and set a new course, decisively altering the political climate of the world.
• With the war in Ukraine, Russia’s current leader, Vladimir V. Putin, is trying to unravel Mr. Gorbachev’s legacy.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains detailed descriptions of a mass shooting that some listeners may find disturbing.

A trial is underway in Parkland, Fla., to determine the fate of the gunman who killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.

The trial is expected to last for months, forcing people in Parkland to relive the pain of a day they have spent years trying to put behind them.

We look back at conversations with some of the survivors of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Guest: Jack Healy, a national correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• The rare trial of a gunman in a mass shooting has underscored how massacres shatter families and communities over time.
• As weeks of painful testimony and videos unfold to determine whether the Parkland gunman will face the death penalty, students who spoke out about gun violence have encouraged engagement and changed the national debate.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains discussions about suicide, self-harm and mental health issues.

In decades past, the public health risks teenagers in the United States faced were different. They were externalized risks that were happening in the physical world.

Now, a new set of risks has emerged.

In 2019, 13 percent of adolescents reported having a major depressive episode, a 60 percent increase from 2007. And suicide rates, which had been stable from 2000 to 2007 among this group, leaped nearly 60 percent by 2018.

We explore why this mental health crisis has become so widespread, and why many people have been unprepared to handle it.

Guest: Matt Richtel, a correspondent based in San Francisco for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Depression, self-harm and suicide are rising among American adolescents. The coronavirus pandemic intensified the decline in mental health among teenagers but predated it.
• Increasingly, anxious and depressed teens are using multiple, powerful psychiatric drugs, many of them untested in adolescents or for use in tandem.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Since he left office, former President Donald J. Trump has been facing several investigations.

They include the congressional inquiry into the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol and the F.B.I.’s search of Mar-a-Lago, his club and Florida residence, as part of an investigation into his handling of classified material.

Of all the government investigations, the one that is receiving the least attention — a case being made by a local prosecutor in Georgia — may end up being the most consequential.

Guest: Richard Fausset, a correspondent based in Atlanta for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Over a year into a criminal investigation of election interference by Mr. Trump and his allies, a Georgia prosecutor is beginning to show the broad contours of her inquiry.
• Fani T. Willis, the Atlanta area district attorney, is seeking to build a broad conspiracy case that encompasses multifaceted efforts by Trump allies to disrupt and overturn the 2020 election.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Going to college can be a shock to most: Leaving the comfort of friends and family for a leap into the unknown, a fresh start. But what is the university experience like as a refugee?

The journalist Maddy Crowell met some of the 148 Afghan women who have been enrolled in U.S. colleges to complete their degrees, and relates how they have adapted to American and collegiate life a year on from the fall of Kabul.

It has, she finds, been far from easy. Ms. Crowell wrote that one student said “she spent her days pinballing among exhaustion, despair and a sort of cautious optimism.”

This story was written by Maddy Crowell and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

President Biden’s announcement this week that he would cancel chunks of student loan debt stands to have a major impact for many of the 45 million Americans who owe $1.6 trillion for having gone to college.

Who will benefit from the plan, what will the cost be to the taxpayer and the economy, and, ultimately, could the White House have done more?

Guest: Stacy Cowley, a finance reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• The plan for student loan forgiveness comes after months of deliberations in the White House over fairness and concerns that it could exacerbate inflation before the midterm elections.
• The move has kicked off heated fiscal debate and raised the possibility of opening a deep political rift.
• Here’s what you need to know about Mr. Biden’s proposal.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Daria Dugina and her father, Aleksandr Dugin, have been major figures in the Russian propaganda landscape, advocating Russian imperialism and supporting the invasion of Ukraine.

But a few days ago, Ms. Dugina was killed in a car bomb after leaving a nationalist festival, fueling speculation about who carried out the attack and whether Moscow’s reaction could affect the war in Ukraine.

Guest: Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• The clamor over the killing of Ms. Dugina highlights the prominence of her fellow pro-war Russian ultranationalists.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Across industries and income brackets, a growing number of American workers are discovering that their productivity is being electronically monitored by their bosses.

This technology is giving employers a means to gauge what their employees are doing and it’s already impacting how much and when people get paid.

Times investigative reporters have discovered that this tracking software is more common than one might think.

Guest: Jodi Kantor, an investigative reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Across industries and incomes, more employees are being tracked, recorded and ranked. What is gained, companies say, is efficiency and accountability. What is lost?

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Even as the anti-abortion movement celebrates victories at the Supreme Court and in many states across the country, there is debate about where to go next.

A hard-edge faction is pursuing “abortion abolition,” a move to criminalize abortion from conception, targeting not only the providers but also the women who have the procedure.

Guest: Elizabeth Dias, a correspondent covering faith and politics for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Abortion “abolitionists” are looking to gain followers after the decision to overturn Roe, unsettling mainstream anti-abortion groups.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

For more than 500 days, coal miners in rural Alabama have been on strike. Around 900 workers walked off the job in April 2021, and they haven’t been back since.

As the strike drags on, the miners are discovering that neither political party is willing to fight for them.

For Braxton Wright, 39, a second-generation coal miner and, until recently, a Republican, the experience has altered his view of American politics.

Guest: Michael Corkery, a business reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• To make ends meet, some striking coal miners in Alabama have picked up work at an Amazon warehouse. It’s the same one where workers have tried to unionize.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In the past decade, planting trees has come to represent many things: a virtuous act, a practical solution and a symbol of hope in the face of climate change. But can planting a trillion trees really save the world?

Visiting the Eden Reforestation Projects in Goiás, Brazil, and interviewing numerous international scientists and activists, the journalist Zach St. George offers a vivid insight into the root of the tree-planting movement — from the Green Belt Movement of the 1970s to the Trillion Tree Campaign of the 2010s — and considers the concept’s environmental potential, as well as the movement’s shortcomings.

This story was written by Zach St. George and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

What is a black hole? Why do we remember the past but not the future? If time had a beginning, does it have an end?

We don’t have the answers to some of the universe’s biggest questions. What we do know often feels bleak, such as the notion that in a billion years there will most likely be no life on Earth. Or the reality that someday the entire human race will probably be forgotten.

Nonetheless, people search for answers. These are some of the cosmic questions that haunt the human experience.

Guest: Dennis Overbye, the cosmic affairs correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• When the largest space observatory ever built sent its images back to Earth, here’s what astronomers saw.
• In space you can’t hear a black hole scream, but apparently you can hear it sing. Hear what that sounds like.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Last week, the F.B.I. took the extraordinary step of searching Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald J. Trump’s private club and Florida home. Their goal? To find materials he was thought to have improperly removed from the White House, including classified documents.

An inventory of the material taken from the search showed that agents seized 11 sets of documents with some type of confidential or secret marking on them.

We explore some of the latest developments in the case.

Guest: Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Mr. Trump and his allies have given often conflicting defenses of his retention of classified documents. These shifting explanations follow a familiar playbook.
• The Justice Department’s warrant for the search and two critical supporting memos shed considerable light on the Mar-a-Lago investigation.
• Here’s a timeline of the former president’s false and misleading statements on the search.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Across the United States, airline travel this summer has been roiled by canceled flights, overbooked planes, disappointment and desperation.

Two and a half years after the pandemic began and with restrictions easing, why is flying still such an unpleasant experience?

Guest: Niraj Chokshi, a business reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• The question for many travelers is whether they can trust airlines to get them where they want to go on time. Here is what to know about the air travel mess.
• Travelers on both sides of the Atlantic have endured long lines, delays or cancellations, and plenty of frustration. Is this the new normal?

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

One year ago this week, when the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan, they promised to institute a modern form of Islamic government that honored women’s rights.

That promise evaporated with a sudden decision to prohibit girls from going to high school, prompting questions about which part of the Taliban is really running the country.

Guest: Matthieu Aikins, a writer based in Afghanistan for The New York Times and the author of “The Naked Don’t Fear the Water: An Underground Journey with Afghan Refugees.”

Background reading: 

• After barring girls from high school — and harboring a leader of Al Qaeda — the Taliban risks jeopardizing the billions of dollars of global aid that keeps Afghans alive.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Carried interest is a loophole in the United States tax code that has stood out for its egregious unfairness and stunning longevity. 

Typically, the richest of the rich pay 40 percent tax on their income. The very narrow, select group that benefits from carried interest pays only 20 percent. 

Earlier versions of the Inflation Reduction Act targeted carried interest. But the loophole has survived. Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Democrat of Arizona, demanded her party get rid of efforts to eliminate it in exchange for her support. 

How has the carried interest loophole lasted so long despite its obvious unfairness? 

Guest: Andrew Ross Sorkin, a columnist for The New York Times and the founder and editor-at-large of DealBook.

Background reading: 

• What is the carried interest loophole and why hasn’t it been closed by now?
• Ms. Sinema’s puzzling defense of the loophole.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

It was a long-shot bet on liquid natural gas, but it paid off handsomely — and turned the United States into a leading fossil-fuel exporter.

The journalist Jake Bittle delves into the storied career of Charif Souki, the Lebanese American entrepreneur whose aptitude for risk changed the course of the American energy business.

The article outlines how Mr. Souki rose from being a Los Angeles restaurant owner to becoming the co-founder and chief executive of Cheniere Energy, an oil and gas company that specialized in liquefied natural gas, and provides an insight into his thought process: “As Souki sees it,” Mr. Bittle writes, “the need to provide the world with energy in the short term outweighs the long-term demand of acting on carbon emissions.”

In a time of acute climate anxiety, Mr. Souki’s rationale could strike some as outdated, even brazen. The world may be facing energy and climate crises, Mr. Souki told The New York Times, “but one is going to happen this month, and the other one is going to happen in 40 years.”

“If you tell somebody, ‘You are going to run out of electricity this month,’ and then you talk to the same person about what’s going to happen in 40 years,” he said, “they will tell you, ‘What do I care about 40 years from now?’”

This story was written by Jake Bittle and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Five years ago, after decades of resistance, the Boy Scouts of America made a momentous change, allowing girls to participate. Since then, tens of thousands have joined.

Today we revisit a story, first aired in 2017, about 10-year-old twins deciding which group to join, and find out what’s happened to them since.

Background reading: 

• In 2017, the decision to open up the Boy Scouts was celebrated by many women but criticized by the Girl Scouts, which said that girls flourish in all-female groups.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains strong language and descriptions of an abortion.

With the end of Roe v. Wade, Louisiana has become one of the most difficult places in the United States to get an abortion. The barriers are expected to disproportionately affect Black women, the largest group to get abortions in the state.

Today, we speak to Tara Wicker and Lakeesha Harris, two women in Louisiana whose lives led them to very different positions in the fight over abortion access.

Background reading: 

• The Supreme Court decision to reverse Roe, far from settling the matter, has kindled court and political battles that are likely to go on for years.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

On Monday, federal agents descended on Mar-a-Lago, the private club and Florida home of former President Donald J. Trump, reportedly looking for classified documents and presidential papers.

Trump supporters expressed outrage about the agency’s actions, while many Democrats reacted with glee. But what do we know about the search, and what comes next?

Guest: Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• The search at Mar-a-Lago was the culmination of a lengthy conflict between a president proud of his disdain for rules and officials charged with protecting the nation’s records and secrets.
• Experts say that the Justice Department would have carefully weighed the decision to carry out the search, suggesting that the investigation is serious and fairly advanced.
• Here is the timeline leading up to the search.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This weekend, Democrats passed legislation that would make historic investments to fight climate change and lower the cost of prescription drugs — paid for by raising taxes on businesses.

How did the party finally make progress on the bill, and what effects will it have?

Guest: Emily Cochrane, a Washington-based correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Here’s what is in the climate, tax and health care package.
• How Senator Joe Manchin turned from a holdout into a deal maker.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains descriptions of distressing scenes. 

In a landmark ruling, a jury in Texas ordered Alex Jones, America’s most prominent conspiracy theorist, to pay millions of dollars to the parents of a boy killed at Sandy Hook for the damage caused by his lies about the mass shooting.

What is the significance of the trial, and will it do anything to change the world of lies and misinformation?

Guest: Elizabeth Williamson, a feature writer based in the Washington bureau of The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• What to know about the defamation case against Alex Jones, the far-right conspiracy theorist who used his Infowars media company to spread lies about the Sandy Hook school shooting.
• The parents of a child killed in the Sandy Hook shooting were awarded $45.2 million in punitive damages at the conclusion of the trial. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The more he insisted that his name was Joshua, the more delusional he came to be seen.

Journalist Robert Kolker tells us the remarkable story of Joshua Spriestersbach, a homeless man who wound up serving more than two years in a Honolulu jail for crimes committed by someone else.

It was a case of mistaken identity that developed into “a slow-motion game of hot potato between the police, the courts, the jails and the hospitals,” Mr. Kolker writes. He delves into how homelessness and mental illness shaped Mr. Spriestersbach’s adult life, two factors that led him into a situation in which he had little control — a bureaucratic wormhole that commandeered and consumed two and a half years of his life.

This story was written by Robert Kolker and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Charles Falls Jr., known as Chillie, loves to take cruises. But Covid, as it has done for so many, left him marooned at home in Virginia.

As he told Cristal Duhaime, a producer at the Times podcast First Person, as soon as restrictions eased, he eagerly planned a return to the waves. But for Chillie, who suffers from prostate cancer, resuming his beloved travels — particularly aboard the cramped quarters of a cruise ship, most people’s idea of a pandemic nightmare — was especially perilous.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains mention of sexual assault. 

Kansas this week became the first U.S. state since the fall of Roe v. Wade to put the question of abortion directly to the electorate.

The result was resounding. Voters chose overwhelmingly to preserve abortion rights, an outcome that could have important political reverberations for the rest of the country.

Guest: Mitch Smith, a correspondent covering the Midwest and the Great Plains for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• The defeat of the ballot measure in Kansas was the most tangible demonstration yet of a political backlash against the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe.
• The result relied on a broad coalition of voters who turned out in huge numbers and crashed through party and geographic lines.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Democrats are meddling in Republican primaries this year to an unusual degree, attempting to elevate extremist candidates who they think will be easy to defeat in midterms in the fall.

Nowhere has that strategy been more divisive than in the election for a House seat in Michigan.

Guest: Jonathan Weisman, a congressional correspondent for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• The meddling in Republican primaries has prompted angry finger-pointing and a debate among Democrats over the perils and wisdom of the strategy.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

On Monday, President Biden announced that the United States had killed Ayman al-Zawahri in a drone strike in Afghanistan. 

Al-Zawahri was the leader of Al Qaeda. A long time number two to Osama bin Laden and the intellectual spine of the terrorist group, he assumed power after bin Laden was killed by U.S. in 2011. 

Who was al-Zawahri, and what does his death mean for Afghanistan’s relationship with the United States and for the threat of global terrorism? 

Guest: Eric Schmitt, a senior correspondent covering national security for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• The drone strike that killed al-Zawahri, a key plotter of the 9/11 attacks, capped a 21-year manhunt. 
• Killed at 71, al-Zawahri led a life of secrecy and violence. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In mid-June, cases of monkeypox were in the double digits in the United States. There were drug treatments and vaccines against it. There didn’t seem to be any reason for alarm.

But in the weeks since, the virus has spread rapidly across the country, with some local and state officials declaring public health emergencies.

Guest: Apoorva Mandavilli, a science and global health reporter for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Longstanding weaknesses in the American public health system are giving monkeypox a chance to become entrenched.
• Here are answers to three pressing questions about how the virus spreads and how it can be treated.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

For generations, America’s major publishers focused almost entirely on white readers. Now a new cadre of executives is trying to open up the industry.

The journalist Marcela Valdes spent a year reporting on what she described as “the problematic history of diversity in book publishing and the ways it has affected editors, authors and what you see (or don’t see) in bookstores.”

Interviewing more than 50 current and former book professionals, as well as authors, Ms. Valdes learned about the previous unsuccessful attempts to cultivate Black audiences, and considered the intricacies of an industry culture that still struggles to “overcome the clubby, white elitism it was born in.”

As one publishing executive puts it, the future of book publishing will be determined not only by its recent hires but also by how it answers this question: Instead of fighting over slices of a shrinking pie, can publishers work to make the readership bigger for everyone?

This story was written by Marcela Valdes and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

For decades, Republicans have sought to make gains with a critical voting block: Latinos.

Last month, when Mayra Flores was elected to Congress from Texas, she finally showed them a way to gain that support. Today, we explore what her campaign tells us about the future of the Latino vote.

Guest: Jennifer Medina, a national reporter for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Ms. Flores has leaned into her personal story to persuade voters with conservative values that it’s time to give the Republicans a try.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

To fight historic levels of inflation, the Federal Reserve this week, once again, raised interest rates, its most powerful weapon against rising prices.

The move was intended to slow demand, but there was also a psychological factor: If consumers become convinced that inflation is a permanent feature of the economy, that might become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Guest: Jeanna Smialek, a correspondent covering the Federal Reserve and the economy for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• The Federal Reserve has pushed up borrowing costs at the fastest pace in decades.
• The New York Times invited readers to share their thoughts about the price rises and asked how much more inflation they expected.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains details of alleged sexual assault. 

In the past year, more than 20 women have accused the star N.F.L. quarterback Deshaun Watson of sexual misconduct.

Despite the allegations, Watson has signed one of the most lucrative contracts in the history of football, with the Cleveland Browns, and will take the field today for training camp.

Guest: Jenny Vrentas, a sports reporter for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• The accusations have been frequent and startling: More than two dozen women have said that Watson harassed or assaulted them. Watson and his lawyers say the encounters were innocuous.
• N.F.L. players pay a small price when accused of violence against women, a peer-reviewed study has found.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

After Roe v. Wade was overturned, Democrats introduced a bill to prevent the right to gay marriage from meeting the same fate as the right to abortion.

The bill was expected to go nowhere, but it has won more and more Republican support and now seems to have a narrow path to enactment.

Guest: Annie Karni, a congressional correspondent for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Larger-than-expected Republican support in the House for legislation to codify marriage equality caught both parties off guard.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Born in response to the 2008 financial crisis, cryptocurrency was supposed be a form of money that eliminated the traditional gatekeepers who had overseen the tanking of the economy.

But a crash in value recently has raised questions about cryptocurrency’s central promise.

Guest: David Yaffe-Bellany, a reporter covering cryptocurrencies and fintech for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• No one wanted to miss out on the cryptocurrency mania. A global industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars rose up practically overnight. Now it is crashing down.
• Celsius Network was managing more than $20 billion in assets. Last month, it became the latest crypto venture to spiral into a crisis.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

How do you teach your child about sex? It’s a perennial question that has spawned hundreds of illustrated books meant to demystify sexual intercourse.

But for the Canadian author Cory Silverberg, there was something lacking. Silverberg, who uses they/them pronouns, felt that books on sex aimed at children often omitted mention of intimacy in the context of disability or gender nonconformity. And so they set about making a book of their own.

They wanted to tell a story of how babies are made that would apply to all kinds of children, whether they were conceived the traditional way or through reproductive technologies, whether they live with adoptive or biological parents, and no matter their family configuration.

The book critic Elaine Blair, who had also felt that children’s literature on sex was a little thin on inclusivity, recalls being drawn in by the fact that Silverberg’s “Sex is a Funny Word” is one of few children’s books that contend with the fact that children encounter representations of sexuality in the media.

Ms. Blair met up with Silverberg in Houston to understand the germ of the idea and the editorial process of delivering the book, from conception to print.

This story was written by Elaine Blair and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

The Great Salt Lake is drying up.

Soaring demand for water, exacerbated by drought and higher temperatures in the region, are shrinking the waters, which play such a crucial role in the landscape, ecology and weather of Salt Lake City and Utah.

Can the lake be saved?

Guest: Christopher Flavelle, a climate reporter for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Utah’s dilemma raises a core question as the United States heats up: How quickly are Americans willing to adapt to the effects of climate change, even as those effects become urgent, obvious, and potentially catastrophic?

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

A series of blockbuster hearings from the Jan. 6 committee has put growing pressure on Attorney General Merrick B. Garland to bring criminal charges against former President Donald J. Trump over the efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Before today’s committee hearing, we speak with Andrew D. Goldstein, one of the prosecutors who led the last major investigation into Mr. Trump, about why winning a case against the former president is such a challenge.

Guest: Andrew Goldstein, a federal prosecutor who was part of the Mueller inquiry into Mr. Trump. 

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Mr. Trump has issued a rambling 12-page statement containing his usual mix of outlandish claims, hyperbole and outright falsehoods, but also, apparently, with something different: the beginnings of a legal defense.
• Robert S. Mueller III was often portrayed as the omnipotent fact-gatherer for his inquiry, but it was Mr. Goldstein who had a much more involved, day-to-day role. (Here’s our profile of Mr. Goldstein from 2019.)

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Across the United States, Republicans emboldened by the overturning of Roe v. Wade are passing laws intended to stop medical staff from providing an abortion.

But those same laws may also be scaring health workers out of providing basic care for miscarriages.

Guest: Pam Belluck, a health and science writer for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Although post-Roe laws are technically intended to apply only to abortions, some patients have reported hurdles receiving standard surgical procedures or medication for the loss of desired pregnancies.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

A record-breaking heat wave is currently washing over Europe. In parts of Britain, the mercury has hit a freakishly high 100 degrees Fahrenheit or more.

While that is happening, both Europe and the United States — two of the world’s largest contributors to global warming — are abandoning key commitments to limit emissions.

Guest: Somini Sengupta, the international climate reporter for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, an ardent champion of the fossil fuel industry, has almost single-handedly doused any hopes of immediate climate action in Washington.
• The European Parliament recently endorsed labeling some gas and nuclear energy projects “green.” Critics said it would prolong the reliance on fossil fuels.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In the past, President Biden has called Saudi Arabia a “pariah” for its human rights abuses and said that he would never meet with its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

But Mr. Biden’s first trip as president to the Middle East included talks with the prince. What prompted the change in course?

Guest: Ben Hubbard, the Beirut bureau chief for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Mr. Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia garnered scathing criticism and modest accords.
• An unspoken result of Mr. Biden’s meeting with Prince Mohammed: A setback in the case of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist who was killed by Saudi agents in 2018.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

People heading to court often turn to the internet for guidance. In so doing, many come across the work of Justin Paperny, who dispenses advice on his YouTube channel. His videos offer preparation advice and help manage expectations, while providing defendants information to be able to hold their current lawyers accountable, and to try to negotiate a lighter sentence.

Mr. Paperny, a former financial criminal, also leads White Collar Advice with his partner Michael Santos, another former convict. The firm is made up of 12 convicted felons who each have their own consulting specialty based on where they served time and their own sentencing experiences.

The journalist Jack Hitt relates the story of the two men and the details of their firm, which “fills a need in 21st-century America.” It is, Mr. Hitt writes, “a natural market outgrowth of a continuing and profound shift in America’s judicial system.”

This story was written by Jack Hitt recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Ancient galaxies carpeting the sky like jewels on black velvet. Fledgling stars shining out from deep within cumulus clouds of interstellar dust. Hints of water vapor in the atmosphere of a remote exoplanet.

This week, NASA released new images captured from a point in space one million miles from Earth.

Today, we discuss the James Webb Space Telescope, the world’s most powerful space observatory, its journey to launch and what it can teach us about the universe.

Guest: Kenneth Chang, a science reporter for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Here are more scenes of the universe captured by the Webb telescope.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In recent days, the political crisis in Sri Lanka has reached a critical point, with its president fleeing the country and protesters occupying his residence and office. Today, “The Daily” explores how the island nation, whose economy was once held up as a success story in South Asia, came apart — and why it’s a cautionary tale.

Guest: Emily Schmall, a South Asia correspondent for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Yesterday, mass demonstrations and tear gas filled the streets of Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, and late into the night, protesters clashed with the police outside Parliament.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

For months, leaders of the Democratic Party and President Biden have been bracing for huge losses in the upcoming midterm elections. Today, “The Daily” explores a new New York Times poll that complicates that thinking — and could set the stage for a very different showdown in November.

Guest: Nate Cohn, a domestic correspondent for The Upshot at The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Here’s what a new Times poll shows about divisions and dissatisfaction in the United States.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Last week, Elon Musk announced that he was pulling out of his $44 billion agreement to purchase Twitter. Today, we explore why a company that once tried to fend off this acquisition is now trying to force Mr. Musk to buy it.

Guest: Kate Conger, a technology reporter for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Why Mr. Musk is leaving Twitter worse off than it was when he said he would buy it.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the court’s conservative majority argued it was simply handing the question of abortion to the states and their voters to decide for themselves.

But in reality, the court was ensuring that many states, from Arizona to Ohio, would immediately ban the procedure without much debate, because their legislatures are now dominated by hard-line Republicans. Today, we tell the story of how those Republican legislators achieved that dominance.

Guest: Kate Zernike, a political reporter for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• How the beginning of the end of Roe v. Wade arrived on election night in November 2010.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Warning of imminent ecological catastrophe, the Earth Liberation Front became notorious in the late 1990s for setting fire to symbols of ecological destruction, including timber mills, an S.U.V. dealership and a ski resort. The group was widely demonized. Its exploits were condemned by mainstream environmental groups, ridiculed by the media and inspired a furious crackdown from law enforcement.

But in 2022 the group is more relevant than ever. These days even America’s mainstream environmental movement has begun to take a more confrontational approach, having previously confined its activities largely to rallies, marches and other lawful forms of protest. Even the “staid” environmental groups based in Washington have slowly started to embrace more radical tactics. Climate activists are starting to abandon their dogmatic attachment to pacifism, choosing instead to work toward destroying the “machines” inflicting the damage — but will such a radical idea prove effective?

The journalist Matthew Wolfe delves into the world of the activists, and questions the future of environmental activism.

This story was written by Matthew Wolfe and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

After a flurry of ministerial resignations and calls from members of his own party for his departure, Boris Johnson agreed on Thursday to resign as prime minister of Britain.

During his tenure, Mr. Johnson survived a series of scandals and skated past a lot of bad news. But even he was unable to maneuver his way out of his latest misstep.

Guest: Mark Landler, the London bureau chief for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Mr. Johnson’s resignation brought a messy end to a messy three-year tenure.
• Here’s a guide to why he was forced out and who might succeed him.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

After Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, a group of conservative lawyers embarked on what would become a decades-long mission to reverse the ruling.

One of those lawyers, James Bopp, explains how they succeeded and what comes next.

Guest: James Bopp, general counsel for the National Right to Life Committee. 

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision reflected a polarized nation: jubilation and relief on one side, outrage and grief on the other. Both sides quickly pivoted to the fights ahead.
• Reversing the ruling in Roe v. Wade, far from settling the matter, has instead kindled court and political battles across the states that are likely to go on for years.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Brittney Griner, the American W.N.B.A. star who has been detained in Russia since February, recently sent a letter to President Biden. “I’m terrified I might be here forever,” she wrote.

The White House vowed to use “every tool” to bring Ms. Griner back to the United States, but organizing her release is a tricky proposition, complicated not least by Washington’s break with Moscow over the war in Ukraine.

Guest: Michael Crowley, a diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Brittney Griner has endured months in a Russian prison and faces the threat of years more.
• Her letter to Mr. Biden asked him to keep her case in mind. “I realize you are dealing with so much, but please don’t forget about me and the other American detainees. Please do all you can to bring us home,” she wrote.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

President Biden has heralded the recent gun safety bill as the most significant federal attempt to reduce gun violence in 30 years.

But after a gunman opened fire from a rooftop onto a Fourth of July parade in a Chicago suburb, questions abound about what the landmark legislation will — and will not — achieve.

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

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Background reading: 

• Six people were killed and dozens more wounded in the deadly shooting at a parade in Highland Park, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. The police have taken a 22-year-old man into custody.
• Gun violence researchers have waged an often-frustrating battle to translate their findings into public policy.
• Here’s what is in the gun safety law — officially called the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act — and what was left out.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

A little over 50 years ago, Nancy Stearns, a young lawyer, was presenting a case in New York with a bold legal assertion: that the right to abortion was fundamental to equal rights for women.

She never got to conclude her argument — first New York changed the law, then came Roe v. Wade. Now, with Roe overturned, she describes how it feels to watch the right to terminate a pregnancy fall away.

Guest: Nancy Stearns, a lawyer who used an argument of equal rights to challenge the constitutionality of abortion bans.

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Background reading: 

• The United States almost took a different path toward abortion rights. Abramowicz v. Lefkowitz was the first case in the country to challenge a state’s strict abortion law on behalf of women.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

At the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, European leaders painted the battle in stark moral terms, imposing harsh sanctions against Russia and talking about President Volodymyr Zelensky as a hero.

But as the war drags on, different conversations have taken place behind the scenes to consider what Ukraine might need to give up to achieve peace.

Guest: Matina Stevis-Gridneff, the Brussels bureau chief for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Countries in the Group of 7 face dueling pressures: Penalizing Russia while easing the economic pain at home.
• Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany and President Emmanuel Macron of France are expected to visit Ukraine on Thursday — but they may face a tense reception.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

On Jan. 6, 2021, when supporters of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol, Cassidy Hutchinson was at work in the White House alongside her boss, Mark Meadows, then the chief of staff.

Her stunning testimony has provided a fly-on-the-wall account of what Mr. Trump knew about the events that day.

Guest: Luke Broadwater, a congressional reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Ms. Hutchinson’s evidence made her one of the most forceful and compelling witnesses to reveal details about Mr. Trump’s bizarre and violent behavior.
• The revelations could nudge Mr. Trump closer to facing criminal charges, legal experts said.
• Here’s a timeline of the key scenes in Ms. Hutchinson’s testimony.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In the days since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, states have rushed to either ban, restrict or protect abortion.

The different approaches have created a fragmented, patchwork map of America.

Guest: Margot Sanger-Katz, a domestic correspondent covering health care for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• With Roe overturned, the distances many women will need to travel for an abortion will increase drastically.
• Here are answers to some of the fundamental questions about the ramifications of the justices’ decision.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains strong language and mentions sexual assault.

The Supreme Court decision on Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade sent abortion clinics into a tailspin.

That day Rosenda, a receptionist at a family planning clinic in Arizona, spent eight hours on the phone telling women the clinic could no longer help them.

“I wanted to hug her, I wanted to help her but I know I can’t,” she said of one patient she called. “I wanted to scream.”

In the hours after the decision, we spoke to clinic doctors and staff members trying to make sense of the news.

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Background reading: 

• The overturning of Roe set off waves of triumph and of despair, from the protesters on either side massing in front of the Supreme Court, to abortion clinics and crisis pregnancy centers.
• Over the weekend, anti-abortion forces vowed to push for near-total bans in every state in the nation, and abortion rights groups insisted they would harness rage over the decision to fight back in the courts. See our updates from Sunday.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Michael Kimmelman, the architecture critic of The New York Times, traveled to Houston to observe an approach to chronic homelessness that has won widespread praise.

Houston, the nation’s fourth-most populous city, has moved more than 25,000 homeless people directly into apartments and houses in the past decade, an overwhelming majority of whom remain housed after two years.

This has been achieved through a “housing first” practice: moving the most vulnerable from the streets directly into apartments, instead of shelters, without individuals being required to do a 12-step program, or to find a job.

Delving into the finer details of the process, Kimmelman considers the different logic “housing first” involves. After all, “when you’re drowning, it doesn’t help if your rescuer insists you learn to swim before returning you to shore,” he writes. “You can address your issues once you’re on land. Or not. Either way, you join the wider population of people battling demons behind closed doors.”

This story was written and narrated by Michael Kimmelman. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

This episode contains strong language.

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a ruling that eliminates women’s constitutional right to abortion after almost 50 years. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote on behalf of the majority, while President Biden has denounced the court’s action as the “realization of extreme ideology.” In this special episode, we explore how the court arrived at this landmark decision — and how it will transform American life.

Guest: Adam Liptak, a reporter covering the Supreme Court for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Read the majority decision that overruled Roe v. Wade, with notes by New York Times reporters.
• The court’s decision was one of the legacies of President Donald J. Trump, with all three of his appointees in the majority in the 6-to-3 ruling. Privately, the former president has called the reversal of Roe “bad” for the Republican Party.
• Abortion is now banned in several states, with trigger laws in others set to take effect in the coming days. See where women would be most affected.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

A bitter debate about the criteria for enrolling students at Lowell, in California, has echoes of the soul-searching happening across the U.S. education system.

Guest: Jay Caspian Kang, a writer for Times Opinion and The New York Times Magazine; and Jessica Cheung, a senior audio producer for The Daily. 

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Background reading: 

• The decision to replace Lowell High School’s admission process with a lottery system was a key factor at play in a recall election in February that ousted three members of San Francisco’s school board.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In the most sweeping ruling on firearms in decades, the Supreme Court struck down a New York law today that had placed strict limits on carrying guns outside the home. The decision has far-reaching implications, particularly for six other states that have similar laws limiting guns in public. This evening, we revisit an episode from November 2021 that tells the story behind one of the most significant gun cases in American history.  

Guest: Adam Liptak, a reporter covering the Supreme Court for The New York Times.

While coming rulings on abortion and guns have garnered lots of attention, the Supreme Court is also set to make another major decision in a less-publicized suit involving climate change.

The case, about how far the Environmental Protection Agency can regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, could affect the way the entire government makes rules and regulations.

Guest: Coral Davenport, a correspondent covering energy and environmental policy for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Republican attorneys general and conservative allies have waged a multiyear campaign to tilt courts against climate action.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

During his campaign for president and in his first year in office, Joe Biden tried to be all things to all people. But trying to govern on behalf of such a broad political coalition has left his administration with something of an identity crisis.

In alarming figures for Democrats ahead of the midterms, Mr. Biden’s approval rating has reached the lowest level of his presidency, while 70 percent of Americans say that the country is on the wrong track.

Guest: Alexander Burns, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Confidential polling data obtained by The Times highlights the biggest challenges for Mr. Biden and his party in this election year.
• The $1.9 trillion pandemic-relief law unleashed a giant wave of spending on local construction projects and programs. But Democratic candidates aren’t getting much credit for it.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains strong language.

When Drew Mena and Amena Sengal decided to relocate their young family from New York to Austin, Texas, they figured they’d have no problem.

What they hadn’t realized was that, across the country, home prices — and competition to secure properties — had risen to jaw-dropping levels.

Guest: Francesca Mari, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and a fellow at the think tank New America.

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Background reading: 

• Soaring demand, pinched supply, regular buyers acting like speculators … will real estate ever be normal again?

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

First Person is the newest show from New York Times Opinion. Each week, host Lulu Garcia-Navarro shares the stories of people living through the headlines. In this episode, Lulu asks: Are parents’ rights truly rights for all parents, no matter their politics?

Parental rights. It’s a term that burst into the public consciousness in recent years. This year alone, 82 bills have been introduced in 26 states under the banner of parental rights. On issues such as masking, vaccine mandates, critical race theory and book bans, parents are showing up at school board meetings to demand a greater say in their children’s education and lives. And it has coalesced into a powerful political force on the right.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

This episode contains strong language.

The House committee that was tasked with scrutinizing the events surrounding the attack at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 is holding a series of public hearings.

Testimony from key figures has explored a campaign by former President Donald J. Trump and his allies to subvert American democracy and cling to power by reversing an election. The panel has recounted how Mr. Trump’s actions brought the United States to the brink of a constitutional crisis.

Guest: Luke Broadwater, a congressional reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• On Thursday, testimony laid out how Mr. Trump pressured Vice President Mike Pence to overturn his election defeat, even after he was told it was illegal. Here are four takeaways from Day 3.
• Follow a detailed timeline of the key moments, from the buildup to the attack to now.
• Here are answers to some common questions about the House committee investigating the riot and the proceedings.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Cases of the monkeypox virus are spreading in many countries where it has rarely, if ever, been seen before, including in the United States.

Although there are a lot of unknowns about the illness, the rapidly rising number of infections has caused alarm bells to sound among public health agencies.

Guest: Apoorva Mandavilli, a reporter for The New York Times, with a focus on science and global health.

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Background reading: 

• In the U.S., the monkeypox outbreak has grown to around 80 cases. Globally, there have been about 2,000 confirmed cases.
• The outbreak poses a “real risk” to public health, the World Health Organization said.
• Here’s what to know about monkeypox and the risks it poses.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The meteoric rise of the U.S. stock market over the past two years has come to an abrupt end.

A steep downturn recently has led to what’s known as a bear market. But what does that mean, and why might policymakers have to hurt the economy to help it in the long term?

Guest: Jim Tankersley, a White House correspondent for The New York Times, with a focus on economic policy.

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Background reading: 

• Steep downturns of stocks by 20 percent or more are relatively rare, but how long they last could portend damage.
• The last such drop happened in early 2020 as the coronavirus spread. Here’s what else to know about bear markets.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The Senate has reached a bipartisan deal that could lead to the most significant federal response to gun violence in decades.

Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, was deeply involved in the negotiations. Today, he tells us how news of the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, left him with a feeling of desperation — and renewed determination to make progress.

Guest: Senator Chris Murphy, who has spent the decade since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., trying to enact change on gun safety.

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Background reading: 

• The agreement put forward by 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats would provide funding for states to enact “red flag” laws that allow the authorities to temporarily confiscate guns from people deemed to be dangerous.
• Though the deal is less than Democrats wanted, it is still seen as a significant step that could save lives.
• Americans in communities scarred by mass shootings acknowledged the proposal as progress but said it did not go far enough.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In the nearly four months since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the United States has been giving officials in Kyiv a steady stream of intelligence to aid them in the fight.

But what is becoming clear is that the Ukrainians are not returning the favor.

Guest: Julian E. Barnes, a national security reporter for The New York Times covering the intelligence agencies.

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Background reading: 

• American intelligence agencies know far more about Russia’s military than about Ukraine’s war strategy, officials say.
• The outcome of battles for key cities in eastern Ukraine could prompt the country’s Western allies to start rethinking their goals.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Ezra Marcus takes a deep dive into the world of OnlyFans and self-described e-pimps, and untangles the vast web of models, agencies and “chatters” (the people who often act as the OnlyFans models in private messages with the customers) that support these lucrative businesses.

The article explores how e-pimps can help turn a seemingly simple exchange of “dollars for sexts” into a transaction that extends across layers of third-party intermediaries.

With the help of e-pimps, even the most impersonal of transactions are fine-tuned to feel personal. As Mr. Marcus discovers: “That OnlyFans creator you’re DMing? It’s probably a marketing ghostwriter impersonating a woman.”

When it comes to OnlyFans and its legions of e-pimps, deceit and desire work together closely.

This story was written by Ezra Marcus and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

This episode contains strong language.

This week, voters in San Francisco ousted Chesa Boudin, their progressive district attorney. The move was seen as a rejection of a class of prosecutors who are determined to overhaul the criminal justice system.

But what happened to Mr. Boudin can be seen as more the exception than the rule.

Guest: Astead W. Herndon, a national political reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• By ousting Mr. Boudin, voters in San Francisco put an end to one of the United States’ most pioneering experiments in criminal justice overhaul.
• The progressive backlash in California has sent a signal about the potency of law and order as a political message in 2022.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains strong language.

After a nearly yearlong investigation, the congressional committee examining the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol will begin holding televised hearings on Thursday.

One focus of the hearings will be the Proud Boys. The trajectory of that group, which grew out of a drinking club in New York City for men who felt put upon by liberal culture, has now led to charges of trying to overthrow the United States government.

Guest: Alan Feuer, a reporter covering courts and criminal justice for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• A federal indictment has charged five members of the Proud Boys, including Enrique Tarrio, its former leader, with seditious conspiracy.
• How Gavin McInnes, the Proud Boys founder, went from Brooklyn hipster to far-right provocateur.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

After a series of deadly mass shootings in the United States, the National Rifle Association and some Republican leaders and conservatives are pointing to mental illness.

This approach raises a question: How can the mental health system stop gun violence when mental illness is so rarely the cause of it?

We revisit a conversation from 2018 with a psychiatrist who is wrestling with that challenge.

Guest: Dr. Amy Barnhorst, the vice chairwoman of community psychiatry at the University of California, Davis. 

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Background reading: 

• Many Republicans opposed to more gun control have called instead for investing in mental health programs, increasing funding for law enforcement and bolstering security at schools. Many Democrats say they are missing the point.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In calling for Republicans to pass gun safety measures like expanded background checks, Democrats point to polls that show most Americans support the idea. 

They aren’t wrong about the polling. In fact, some polls show that over 90 percent of Americans support expanded checks. 

Polling, however, does not tell the whole story. 

Guest: Nate Cohn, a domestic correspondent for The Upshot at The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Broad public support for gun control may not be as broad as polling shows or as Democrats hope. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains strong language and details of a sexual assault accusation.

Since a jury ruled in favor of Johnny Depp in his defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard, there has been impassioned debate about what exactly the outcome means for the #MeToo movement.

It raises the question: If people being accused of sexual assault can potentially win defamation cases in court, what does that mean for the accused — and the accusers — moving forward?

Guest: Julia Jacobs, a culture reporter for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Johnny Depp’s victory against his ex-wife Amber Heard in one of the highest profile defamation cases to go to trial could inspire others accused of abuse or misconduct to try their luck with juries. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

We cannot escape our bodies. So how do we reconcile them with who we really are?

Sam Anderson, a staff writer, considers this particular conundrum of the human condition by recounting his lifelong struggle to maintain a healthy weight: his teenage triumph over the “legendary snacker” he was in middle school, the slow creep of the pounds in early adulthood, and the pandemic’s expansive effect on his waistline.

Anderson also explores what it takes to monitor food consumption, the linguistic legacy of 1980s diet culture, the curse of intergenerational weight problems, the natural limitations of weight-loss efforts and the importance of self-acceptance.

This story was written and narrated by Sam Anderson. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

In 1791, enslaved Haitians did the seemingly impossible. They ousted their French masters and created the first free Black nation in the Americas.

But France made Haitians pay for that freedom.

A team of reporters from The New York Times looked at the extent and effect of the ensuing payments.

Guest: Catherine Porter, the Toronto bureau chief for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The first people in the modern world to free themselves from slavery and create their own nation were forced to pay for their freedom. A Times investigation explores Haiti’s reparations to France.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

As a proportion of its population, California has one of the lowest rates of gun deaths in the United States — 8.5 per 100,000 people, compared with 13.7 nationally.

How did the state get that way?

Guest: Shawn Hubler, a California correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Californians are about 25 percent less likely to die in mass shootings, compared with residents of other states, according to a recent study. In a newsletter this week, the Times correspondent Shawn Hubler looked into how and why gun laws there work.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

This episode contains strong language.

Gemma Lopez, 10, watched a movie in class that day. Jacob Albarado, a Border Patrol officer, was getting his hair cut when he heard there was a gunman at his daughter’s school, where his wife is a teacher. Ricardo Garcia, a hospital groundskeeper, can still hear the screaming of parents in the emergency room.

These are some of the stories of those who lived through the devastation of the shooting at Robb Elementary School.

Guest: Rick Rojas, a national correspondent for The New York Times; Natalie Kitroeff, a correspondent for The Times; and Eduardo Medina, a reporter covering breaking news for The Times. 

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Background reading: 

• A week after the shooting, the nearly two dozen funerals have begun in a community that must contemplate an agonizing new reality.
• As soon as the scale of the tragedy became clear, congregants rushed to Sacred Heart Catholic Church. In the days since, they’ve kept going in search of comfort and community.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

After the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, the explanation for how the police acted kept shifting.

Now, a clearer picture has emerged.

Guest: J. David Goodman, the Houston bureau chief for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• A timeline from the state police raised the painful possibility that had officers done more, and faster, not all of those who died — 19 children and two teachers — would have lost their lives.
• The degree to which some law enforcement officers on the scene disagreed with the decision to hold back has become more apparent.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

A dire lack of baby formula in the United States in the past few weeks has been blamed on production deficiencies such as the small number of manufacturers and an inflexible supply chain.

But Christina Jewett, an investigative reporter at The Times, has traced it back further, to deadly bacteria whose detection set off a chain of events that ultimately led to the shortage.

Guest: Christina Jewett, an investigative reporter who covers the Food and Drug Administration for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• While most recent attention has been focused on fixing the supply shortfall, regulators are confronting deeper issues of safety that persist in formula manufacturing.
• Baby formula supplies from Europe have been shipped to the United States to address the shortage, though it may take weeks for supermarket shelves to be fully stocked again.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In Pennsylvania, a candidate falsely claiming election fraud in 2020 prevailed in a crowded Republican primary for governor. But in Georgia, two incumbents — the governor and the secretary of state — beat back challenges from “stop the steal” opponents.

Is re-litigating the 2020 election a vote winner for Republicans? Or is it increasingly becoming a losing issue?

Guest: Reid J. Epstein, a politics reporter for The New York Times who covers campaigns and elections.

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Background reading: 

• Two G.O.P. primaries in Georgia exposed the limit of Donald J. Trump’s hold on his party’s base.
• But Doug Mastriano’s win in Pennsylvania has provoked dissension and anxiety among Republican strategists, donors and lobbyists.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode covers incidents of mass violence.

At least 21 people, including 19 children, were killed when a gunman opened fire at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday morning.

It was the deadliest school shooting in the United States since the 2012 attack on the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

For some of the Sandy Hook parents, news of yet another school massacre provoked a chilling sense of numbness.

Guest: Elizabeth Williamson, a feature writer for The New York Times and the author of a book on the aftermath of Sandy Hook.

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Background reading: 

• Some Sandy Hook parents whose children were killed in the 2012 attack in Newtown, Conn., shared their emotions and responses to another school shooting.
• President Biden said that it was “time to turn this pain into action” in remarks following the massacre in Uvalde.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

For decades, the U.S. has walked a careful line when it comes to Taiwan — vowing to protect the island from China, without saying exactly how far it would go to do that.

On Monday, that appeared to change.

Guest: David E. Sanger, a White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• President Biden’s seemingly offhand remarks about Taiwan, made during his visit to Asia, caught some of his staff by surprise.
• The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been closely watched by those in Taiwan who feel that their island faces a similar threat from Beijing.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Three months since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one of the biggest surprises has been the inability of the Russian military to achieve some of its basic goals. One clear example: A failed attempt to cross the Donets river in eastern Ukraine earlier this month left hundreds of Russian soldiers dead. Its aftermath is raising doubts in Russia, even among the military’s most ardent supporters.

Guest: Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The disastrous Russian attempt to cross the Donets river resonated with some pro-Russian war bloggers who did not appear to hold back in their criticism of what they said was incompetent leadership.
• It appears that much of the military culture and learned behavior of the Soviet era has repeated itself in the war in Ukraine, including corruption in military spending and the longstanding practice of telling government leaders what they want to hear.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Chronic pain is one of the leading causes of long-term disability in the world. By some measures, 50 million Americans live with chronic pain, in part because the power of medicine to relieve it remains inadequate.

Helen Ouyang, a physician and contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, explores the potentially groundbreaking use of virtual reality in the alleviation of acute pain, as well as anxiety and depression, and meets the doctors and entrepreneurs who believe this “nonpharmacological therapy” is a good alternative to prescription drugs.

A lush forest, a snow-capped mountain, a desert at sunset — could these virtual experiences really be the answer for managing chronic pain?

This story was written by Helen Ouyang and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Throughout the pandemic, long Covid — symptoms that occur after the initial coronavirus infection — has remained something of a medical mystery.

Now, amid the latest surge of infections, a series of major studies are shedding light on the condition.

Guest: Pam Belluck, a health and science reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Long Covid has become one of the most daunting legacies of the pandemic.
• Some research has shown that lingering symptoms are more prevalent in people in their 30s and 40s — when workers are often in the prime of their careers.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In the post-Trump era, some red states have moved aggressively to rebuke the Biden administration at the local level and signal to voters what a Republican-led country might look like.

In Texas, immigration is a key battleground. Today, we speak to Hunter Schuler, a member of the National Guards, about why Gov. Greg Abbott has sent him and thousands of other security officers to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Guest: Lulu Garcia-Navarro, a Times Opinion podcast host; and J. David Goodman, the Houston bureau chief for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Operation Lone Star is an expensive and unusual effort to reinforce border security. But after a year, there is little to show for it.
• Soldiers sent to patrol the border have complained of difficulties and a seemingly rudderless mission.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

For the past two months, a group of Ukrainian fighters has been holed up in the Azovstal steel plant in the city of Mariupol, mounting a last stand against Russian forces in a critical part of eastern Ukraine.

On Monday, Ukraine finally surrendered the plant.

After the end of the determined resistance at Azovstal, we hear from Leonid Kuznetsov, a 25 year-old soldier who had been stationed inside.

Guest: Michael Schwirtz, an investigative reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers who fought at the steel plant in Mariupol face an uncertain future in Russian custody.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

When the Supreme Court decriminalized abortion with Roe v. Wade, it established the United States as a global leader on abortion rights, decades ahead of many other countries. 

Now, with Roe likely to be overturned, we look to Mexico, a country where the playbook for securing legalized abortion could be a model for activists in the United States. 

Guest: Natalie Kitroeff, a correspondent covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Verónica Cruz spent years defying the law in Mexico, helping thousands of women get abortions. Now that Mexico has legalized abortion, activists are bringing their mission to a country moving in the opposite direction: the United States.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Over the weekend, an 18-year-old man livestreamed himself shooting 13 people and killing 10. Within hours it became clear that the shooter’s intent was to kill as many Black people as possible. The suspect wrote online that he was motivated by replacement theory — a racist idea that white people are deliberately being replaced by people of color in places like America and Europe. 

What are the origins of this theory, and how has it become simultaneously more extreme and more mainstream?

Guest: Nicholas Confessore, a political and investigative reporter for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Replacement theory, a fringe conspiracy fostered online and espoused by the suspect in the Buffalo massacre, has been embraced by some right-wing politicians and commentators.
• Here are our updates on the Buffalo shooting and the aftermath. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The Times journalist Caity Weaver was tasked by her editor to go on an adventure: With an old college friend she would spend a week in California, living out of a converted camper van, in pursuit of the aesthetic fantasy known as #VanLife.

Given the discomfort that can arise even in the plushiest of vehicles, it’s a surprising trend that shows no sign of letting up. As Weaver explains, even the idea of living full time out of a vehicle has “become aspirational for a subset of millennials and Zoomers, despite the fact that, traditionally, residing in a car or van is usually an action taken as a last resort, from want of other options to protect oneself from the elements.”

Unpacking the craze by testing it herself, Weaver offers a humorous account of the trials of not being adequately prepared, claustrophobia, long restaurant lines, the increase in traffic within the national parks, and the disappointment that occurs when an Instagram aesthetic bumps up against reality. Sometimes fantasies are too good to be true.

This story was written by Caity Weaver and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

This episode contains strong language. 

Hilma Wolitzer lost her husband, Morty Wolitzer, a psychologist who loved cooking and jazz, on April 11, 2020. They had been together for 68 years.

Mary-Margaret Waterbury’s uncle Michael Mantlo had introduced her to Nirvana, grunge and Elvis Costello.

After Terrie Martin’s first born, April Marie Dawson, died at age 43, Ms. Martin said she carried around guilt for not taking more precautions. “I killed my daughter,” she said. “And I have learned nothing from loss.”

Carmen Nitsche’s mother, Carmen Dolores Nitsche, died on May 14, 2020. They were only a few miles apart, but she said she was unable to hold her mother’s hand on her final journey.

In the coming days, the number of known deaths from Covid-19 in the United States is expected to reach one million.

We asked listeners to share memories about loved ones they have lost — and about what it’s like to grieve when it seems like the rest of the world is trying to move on.

“Time keeps moving forward, and the world desperately wants to move past this pandemic,” one told us. “But my mother — she’s still gone.”

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Background reading: 

• As the United States approaches a Covid toll that only hints at the suffering of millions more Americans mourning loved ones, President Biden urged vigilance against a virus that has “forever changed” the country.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Fresh data from the U.S. government on Wednesday showed that inflation was still climbing at a rapid pace, prompting President Biden to say that controlling the rising prices was his “top domestic priority.”

But not everybody experiences inflation equally. Why is that?

Guest: Ben Casselman, an economics and business reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• What’s your rate of inflation? You can answer seven questions to estimate your personal inflation rate here.
• Rising prices could hurt Democrats in the midterms, and Mr. Biden has sought to turn the debate over the economy against his opponents.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains descriptions of sexual violence. 

 In Part 1 of our two-part series, we spoke to anti-abortion activists about their preparations for a future without Roe v. Wade.

Today, we talk to people working in abortion clinics about what the potential change could mean for their patients.

“Everybody’s scared,” said one provider from Oklahoma. “Every single person that walks in our clinic, you can see the fear on their faces.”

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Half of women in the United States could lose access to abortion without Roe v. Wade.
• Here’s how Democrats in Congress are trying to protect abortion rights.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

For years, President Vladimir V. Putin has taken advantage of Victory Day — when Russians commemorate the Soviet triumph over Nazi Germany — to champion his country’s military might and project himself as a leader of enormous power.

This year, he drew on the pageantry of May 9 for an even more pressing goal: making the case for the war in Ukraine.

Guest: Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Victory Day in Moscow this year was set up to be a lavish government-orchestrated show of Russian strength and a claim of rightful dominance over a lost empire.
• Mr. Putin delivered a speech in which he vowed that the military would keep fighting to rid Ukraine, in his false telling, of “torturers, death squads and Nazis.”

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains descriptions of suicide. 

Over the past five years, a series of investigations by The Times has revealed the terror and tragedy that America’s air wars, despite being promoted as the most precise in history, have brought to civilians on the ground.

The program has also exacted a heavy toll on the military personnel guiding the drones to their targets. They include soldiers such as Capt. Kevin Larson, a decorated pilot, who died by suicide after a drug arrest and court-martial.

For suicide prevention resources in the United States, go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources. Go here for resources outside the United States.

Guest: Dave Philipps, a national correspondent covering the military for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Captain Larson was one of the best drone pilots in the U.S. Air Force. Yet as the job weighed on him and untold others, the military failed to recognize its full impact.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

It was meant to mark the start of their lives out of college, but the adventure quickly turned into a nightmare. Beginning with what seemed to be a lucky whale sighting, three friends set out on a sea-kayaking trip through Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska, watching out for bears, and having a good time, when tragedy struck.

In recounting the days preceding and following the accident, which seriously injured one of his friends, the Times journalist Jon Mooallem explains how he was forced to reckon with his fears. Detailing the incident’s surprising repercussions, he muses on the importance of overcoming one’s fears, and finding poetry in life’s darkest moments.

This story was written by Jon Mooallem. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Today, we revisit a two-part series that first ran in 2018 about the history of Roe v. Wade and the woman behind it.

Almost 50 years ago, when the Supreme Court first ruled that women had the constitutional right to an abortion, it was met with little controversy.

In Part 2, we asked: How, then, did abortion become one of the most controversial issues of our time?

Guest: Sabrina Tavernise, co-host of The Daily. As a correspondent in 2018, she reported on the story of Roe v. Wade.

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Background reading:

• Norma McCorvey, the “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade who became a divisive icon for both sides of the abortion debate, died in 2017 at the age of 69.
• What would the end of Roe mean? Here are some key questions and answers.

For more information on today's episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. 

This week, the release of a draft Supreme Court opinion striking down Roe v. Wade has put a spotlight on the 50-year-old case that redefined abortion in America.

Today, we revisit a two-part series that first ran in 2018 about the history of the case and the woman behind it.

In Part 1, the story of Jane Roe.

Guest: Sabrina Tavernise, co-host of The Daily. As a correspondent in 2018, she reported on the story of Roe v. Wade.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading:

• The leaked draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade also takes aim at its version of history, challenging decades of scholarship that argues abortion was not always a crime.
• Remembering a time before Roe: When New York legalized abortion in 1970, three years before the landmark ruling, hundreds of thousands of women traveled there from other states for the procedure.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Since the leak of the Supreme Court draft opinion on overturning the constitutional right to abortion, both sides of the fight have been scrambling.

Today, in the first of two parts, we speak to anti-abortion activists such as Michael Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life, about what comes next.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” he said. “We’re in uncharted territory.”

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• For half a century, right-wing legal thinkers have been working toward the moment foretold by the leaked draft.
• Democrats aim to use abortion rights to jolt state legislative races.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

If the Supreme Court revokes Roe v. Wade, individual states will probably be left to make their own decisions about abortion provision.

Some states will ban abortion, and some will continue to allow it. And then there is a third group: swing states, where a final decision will be up for grabs.

Guest: Margot Sanger-Katz, a domestic correspondent covering health care for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Who gets abortions in the United States?
• What are trigger laws? And which states have them?

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The revelation that the Supreme Court could end the constitutional right to abortion in the United States has set off a political firestorm and deepened divisions about one of the most contentious issues in American society.

What exactly is in the draft opinion that was leaked this week, and what does it mean for the court and for the country?

Guest: Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Here are some key questions and answers about the possible effects of ending Roe v. Wade.
• If the Supreme Court does overturn the ruling, where would abortion be banned?

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Unlike other former presidents after leaving office, Donald J. Trump has remained in the middle of the political stage — raising more money than the Republican Party itself and doling out coveted endorsements.

Who has Mr. Trump backed in the midterms? And to what lengths have candidates gone to secure his favor?

Guest: Shane Goldmacher, a national political reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Inspiring fear, hoarding cash, doling out favors and seeking to crush rivals, Mr. Trump is behaving more like an old-time political boss than a typical former president.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The United States is seeing a revival in union membership.

In the last six months, the National Labor Relations Board has recorded a 60 percent increase in workers filing for petitions that allow for union elections to take place.

The circumstances that have prompted these unionization efforts have some similarities with the period that brought the largest gain in union membership in U.S. history, during the 1930s.

What can that era tell us about today, and are current efforts just a blip?

Guest: Noam Scheiber, a reporter covering workers and the workplace for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Since the Great Recession, the college-educated have taken more frontline jobs at companies like Starbucks and Amazon. Now they’re helping to unionize them.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Is there a connection between former President Donald J. Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine, the Russian invasion and the events of Jan. 6, 2021?

The journalist Robert Draper talked to Fiona Hill, John Bolton and other former Trump advisers to gauge the extent to which the ex-president’s actions had a ripple effect.

This story was written by Robert Draper and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

As the horrors of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have became clearer, the Biden administration has pivoted to a more aggressive stance, with officials talking about constraining Moscow as a global power.

But that is an escalation, and escalations can go wrong.

Guest: David E. Sanger, a White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The United States toughened its messaging on the Ukraine war, saying that the American aim was not just to thwart the Russian invasion but also to weaken Russia so it could no longer carry out such military aggression anywhere.
• The change in stance could signal a situation that pits Washington more directly against Moscow.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data that showed around 60 percent of Americans — more than half of adults and three quarters of children — have now been infected with the coronavirus. 

But herd immunity looks likely to remain elusive, and many people are still at high risk from Covid-19.

What do the C.D.C. figures mean for immunity in the United States, and for the future of the pandemic?

Guest: Apoorva Mandavilli, a science and global health reporter for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Sixty percent of Americans, including 75 percent of children, had been infected with the coronavirus by February — another remarkable milestone in a pandemic that continues to confound expectations.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Joseph A. Kennedy, a former high school football coach, was fired after he made a habit of going to the 50-yard line after his team’s games to thank God and to lead his players in prayer.

On Monday, the Supreme Court heard his suit. The justice’s decision in the complex case could make a major statement about the role religion may play in public life.

Guest: Adam Liptak, a reporter covering the Supreme Court for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Coaching was his calling, Mr. Kennedy said. But after the school board in Bremerton, Wash., told him to stop mixing football and faith on the field, he left his job and sued.
• Members of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority indicated that Mr. Kennedy had a constitutional right to pray after games.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In January 2021, one of President Biden’s first big moves in office was to sign an executive order mandating masks in airports and on planes and other forms of public transit.

But an unexpected ruling from a judge in Florida has abruptly and unexpectedly overturned that mandate — and the implications of the decision could tie the government’s hands when it comes to future health emergencies.

Guest: Sheryl Gay Stolberg, a Washington correspondent covering health policy for The New York Times; and Heather Murphy, a reporter covering travel for The Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• In the end, the mask mandate was brought down by a little-known nonprofit, a conservative judge, and chance.
• While the C.D.C. wants to keep the mandate intact, appealing the ruling is risky: If the Florida decision is upheld, it could permanently weaken the agency’s authority.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

A Times investigation last year found that minor traffic stops in the United States were far more deadly than widely thought — in the previous five years, 400 unarmed motorists who were not under pursuit for any violent crime were killed by the police during such checks.

We look at the different efforts across the country to rethink the stops and at the pushback from opponents who say that restrictions on the practice could keep more guns and criminals on the streets.

Guest: David D. Kirkpatrick, an investigative reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• A recent example of a fatal end to a traffic stop was the death in Grand Rapids, Mich., of Patrick Lyoya, an unarmed 26-year-old Black man who was pulled over for a mismatched license plate.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

America is home to 735 billionaires with a collective worth greater than $4.7 trillion, according to Forbes. There were just 424 billionaires in 2012, Forbes found, and only 243 a decade before that. The billionaires keep multiplying.

In this article, Willy Staley uses information from the first billionaire count — commissioned in 1981 by the entrepreneur Malcolm Forbes for his own magazine — to consider the reasons behind the rapid increase in American billionaires, but also the changing attitudes on publicizing the details of one’s wealth.

Many factors enabled American entrepreneurs to amass such enormous fortunes, including the Reagan administration’s policies, the arrival of computer technology, the creation of a more globalized economy and the rise of the developing world.

Yet despite the conspicuous consumption this level of wealth often encourages, Staley finds that few billionaires want to be discovered. So how do you keep tabs on America’s billionaires?

This story was written by Willy Staley and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

When they go to the polls on Sunday, voters in France will be faced with the same two presidential candidates as 2017: Emmanuel Macron, the president and a polished centrist, and Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Rally party.

Yet the context is different. There is a war in Europe, and the contest is tight.

What are the stakes in the runoff election, and how has the race become so close?

Guest: Roger Cohen, Paris bureau chief for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• President Emmanuel Macron will face Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader, in the runoff on Sunday. The outcome will be crucial for France and reverberate globally.
• No French president has been the object of such intense dislike among significant segments of the population as Mr. Macron. How deep that loathing runs will be a critical factor in the election.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In Texas, a heated political battle is taking place over care provided to young transgender people, with Gov. Greg Abbott taking a leading role.

The story of this confrontation began, improbably, with the contentious divorce of a suburban couple from Dallas, and a nasty custody battle over their daughter.

We look at how a domestic dispute precipitated one of the fiercest political clashes in the country, and return to yesterday’s story about a trans teenager, Grayson, and his mother to explore the impact of this clash.

Guests: J. David Goodman, The New York Times’s Houston bureau chief, covering Texas; and Azeen Ghorayshi, a reporter covering the intersection between sex, gender and science for The Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• How a custody battle in the Dallas suburbs amplified a growing conservative cause and helped fuel a move to treat transgender medicine as abuse.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in the number of younger Americans who identify as transgender and are seeking medical intervention to support their transition. 

This increase has coincided with laws introduced in Republican State Houses across the country that seek to block trans youth from accessing gender-affirming care. Nowhere is the political battle more polarized and heated than in Texas. 

In the first of two episodes on the situation in Texas, we explore the story of one family seeking such care for their son when the political storm hit. 

Guest: Azeen Ghorayshi, a reporter covering the intersection between sex, gender and science for The New York Times. 

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• A Texas clinic for transgender adolescents closed last year amid political pressure. Its demise is evidence of how treating trans minors has become a contentious issue in Republican-controlled states.
• Texas officials have begun investigating parents of transgender adolescents for possible child abuse, according to a recent lawsuit. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Nearly two months into the war in Ukraine, many Russians have gone from shock and denial to support for their troops and anger at the West.

What is behind this shifting view, and what does it mean for those who go against it?

Guest: Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• In Russia, some citizens are turning on one another, illustrating how the war is feeding paranoia and polarization in Russian society.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Across the United States, 45 million borrowers now owe $1.6 trillion in debt for federal loans taken out for college — more than consumers owe on any other debt except mortgages.

For the past two years, beginning as the pandemic spread, the U.S. government has allowed tens of millions of Americans to stop paying back their students loans.

This experiment in debt deferral has had unintended consequences, and poses a dilemma for President Biden.

Guest: Stacy Cowley, a finance reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The Biden administration has paused student loans once again. The four-month delay means the pause will become an issue again before the midterm elections.
• While politically popular with Mr. Biden’s party, the extension of the loan moratorium has drawn criticism for adding a small measure of oomph to the inflation the government is trying to tame.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The Indigenous Brazilian territory of Ituna-Itatá was established in 2011 for the protection of an isolated group that has never been contacted by outsiders or fully confirmed to exist. But despite its special status, it has become one of the most invaded Indigenous territories in Brazil since the election of the pro-development, anti-regulatory president, Jair Bolsonaro, in 2018 — becoming something of a poster board for the Amazon’s eventual demise.

William Langewiesche explores the process of defending these preserves from outside harm, and uses Ituna-Itatá, which has now been heavily deforested, as a grim illustration of the intractable forces destroying the Amazon through logging, ranching and mining.

This story was written by William Langewiesche and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

In the 1990s, Dennis Wayne Hope committed a series of armed robberies. After proving adept at escaping prison, he was put in isolation. He has been there for nearly three decades.

His case, if the Supreme Court agrees to hear it, could answer the fundamental question of how long people can be held in solitary confinement.

Guest: Adam Liptak, a reporter covering the Supreme Court for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Mr. Hope has spent more than half his life in solitary confinement, in a cell that is nine feet long and six feet wide — smaller than a compact parking space.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Elon Musk’s recent investment in Twitter has turned a high-profile and frequent user of the platform into the company’s largest stakeholder.

At first, the involvement of Mr. Musk, the C.E.O. of Tesla, was seen by the social media giant as a chance to gain a powerful ally. Instead, Twitter’s fate has suddenly become much harder to predict.

Guest: Mike Isaac, a technology correspondent for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Twitter has survived founder infighting, boardroom revolts and outside shareholder ire, but Mr. Musk is an activist investor unlike any other.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

After a disastrous defeat in northern Ukraine, Russia has begun a high-stakes battle for the east, while Western allies arm Ukrainian fighters determined to stave off the attack.

After Moscow’s pivot, what lies in store in the coming weeks?

Guest: Eric Schmitt, a senior writer covering terrorism and national security for The New York Times.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia defined a more limited military goal: taking control of the Donbas region in the east of Ukraine — not the whole country.
• Russia reorganized the command of its flagging offensive, selecting for the mission a general accused of ordering strikes on civilian neighborhoods in Syria.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

On the campaign trail and when he first came to office, President Biden had ambitious plans to deal with climate change, including promises to reduce fossil fuel production. 

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, however, Mr. Biden has largely stopped making the case for these plans, instead turning his focus to pumping as much oil and gas as possible. 

What is behind the president’s retreat on climate?

Guest: Coral Davenport, an energy and environmental policy correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Rising costs at the pump, war in Ukraine, an emboldened fossil fuel industry and stalled legislation have imperiled President Joe Biden’s climate agenda.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains strong language. 

A year and a half ago, the Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Karen Weise began examining labor practices at Amazon.

In the process, they met Christian Smalls and Derrick Palmer, two Amazon workers at a warehouse in New York, who had embarked on an improbable attempt to create the company’s first union. Last week, they did it.

We sat down Mr. Smalls and Mr. Palmer to ask them how it happened.

Guest: Jodi Kantor, an investigative reporter for The New York Times; and Christian Smalls and Derrick Palmer, warehouse workers who led the first successful unionization attempt at Amazon. 

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Background reading: 

• How Christian Smalls and Derrick Palmer won the first successful unionization effort at any Amazon warehouse in the United States, potentially one of the most significant labor victories in a generation. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

For more than two decades, Belarus existed in an equilibrium of quiet authoritarianism. If the government’s repressions didn’t directly touch them, most Belarusians tolerated them. But over the course of 2020, the country’s history and identity, which never much interested a majority of people who lived there, became something they would sacrifice their lives for.

Sarah A. Topol explores the battle over a political mural in a public park in Minsk and considers the future of Belarus. As a remarkable campaign of defiance against an increasingly totalitarian regime, the mural is an emblem of strength and a call for change — but to what end?

This story was written by Sarah A. Topol and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Thirty years ago, Germany put forth a theory for how to work with Russia. Major energy deals, leaders argued, would keep Russia from going to war with its neighbors.

Over the past 20 years, Germany has made itself incredibly dependent on Russian gas. 

The war in Ukraine has complicated that relationship and has shown how Germany’s approach to Russia has not only failed, but also backfired.

Guest: Katrin Bennhold, the Berlin bureau chief for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Germany, dependent on Russian gas, has so far refused to cut off President Vladimir V. Putin, whose war it is effectively subsidizing to the tune of some $220 million in energy payments a day.
• Under increasing pressure to sever the country’s reliance on Russian energy, German officials must contend with deeply rooted economic ties. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

As countries have struggled with disease and death throughout the coronavirus pandemic, one part of the world seems to have been mostly spared: central and western Africa.

South Africa was deeply affected by waves of the coronavirus, as were countries in East Africa like Kenya and Uganda. But nations in the center and west of the continent appear to have been largely spared.

What is behind these low case and death rates — and what does that tell us about the future of the pandemic?

Guest: Stephanie Nolen, a global health reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The coronavirus was expected to devastate Africa, but higher-income and better-prepared countries appear to have fared far worse.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode details graphic scenes. 

Many around the world are calling the indiscriminate attacks on civilians in Bucha, a suburb northwest of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, a war crime.

But investigating such atrocities is painstakingly complicated. Could one case that resulted in convictions — the genocide in Bosnia in the 1990s — offer lessons on how to proceed?

Guest: Roger Cohen, the Paris bureau chief for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• With Russian forces retreating, Ukrainians in Bucha are finding scores of bodies in yards and on the roads amid mounting evidence of intentional and indiscriminate killings.
• The images from Bucha spurred Western leaders to promise even tougher sanctions against Russia.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Ukraine and Russia are enormous producers of wheat, corn, barley, sunflower oil and fertilizer. One study calculated that the two countries accounted for 12 percent of the world’s calories.

With Ukraine under attack and Russia hit with strict sanctions, a huge supply of food is suddenly trapped — with Africa and the Middle East particularly imperiled.

Guest: Jack Nicas, the Brazil bureau chief for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• An increase in world hunger could be one of the repercussions of the war in Ukraine.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

After months of investigation by a congressional committee, a federal judge has found that President Donald J. Trump and his allies most likely engaged in illegal activity in the wake of the 2020 election.

How did the committee achieve that ruling?

Guest: Luke Broadwater, a congressional reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The judge’s comments in the civil case of a lawyer, John Eastman, who advised Mr. Trump, marked a significant breakthrough for the House committee.
• The ruling does not necessarily mean that a prosecution would arrive at the same conclusion. Here’s an explanation.

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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Exploring the personal experiences of Sara Mardini and Seán Binder, two volunteers who were arrested in February 2018 after helping migrants cross safely into Lesbos, Greece, the journalist Alex W. Palmer outlines the complex situation aid workers in Europe find themselves in: increasingly demonized by local authorities while also facing pressure from different ends of the international political spectrum.

Palmer traces the origins of the problem, explaining how, in the early days of the migrant crisis, the grass-roots response embodied the broadly held values of E.U. citizens: to be a place of refuge and compassion, to create a new future from the ashes of two world wars and to set an example based on morality rather than power.

But, as Palmer discovers, this idea was never unanimous, and it was only a matter of time before this compassion and idealism was eclipsed by anger and resentment. Many rejected the idea of newcomers entirely. Terrorist attacks and acts of criminality committed by asylum seekers further worsened collective sentiments and heightened public unease about the challenges of integration. The topic became a pawn for far-right media outlets and politicians, who helped stoke the growing anti-immigrant temper, portraying Europe as on the brink of being overrun by foreign hordes — and aid workers as part of the problem.

A highly politicized issue, the debate surrounding the migrant crisis continues to rage. As volunteers are targeted, what’s next for migrant aid in Europe?

This story was written by Alex W. Palmer and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

This episode details graphic scenes. 

Russia has mounted a brutal siege around the port city of Mariupol for more than a month, framing it as the key to a war of liberation. In reality, it’s a campaign against a city that is critical to Russia’s strategy — it would help open an important supply route and serve as a symbol of victory. 

What is happening inside Mariupol, and what does the fighting mean for the future of Russia’s war on Ukraine? 

Guest: Valerie Hopkins, a correspondent for The New York Times, currently based in Ukraine.

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Background reading: 

• In Mariupol, Russia is using hunger as a weapon of war. Residents described how they are surviving a monthlong siege of the southern port with little food and other necessities.
• As the war in Ukraine moves into its second month, fears grow of Mariupol’s fall to Russia.

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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In the past, Republicans have been able to secure what some see as an unfair political advantage by gerrymandering political districts.

But after the recent redrawing of zones, the congressional map across the U.S. is perhaps more evenly split than at any time in the past 50 years.

What happened?

Guest: Nate Cohn, a domestic correspondent for The Upshot at The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The surprisingly fair congressional map defies the expectations of many analysts — and it is something of an accident.

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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

A series of text messages released in the past week show how Ginni Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court, urged White House officials to push to overturn the result of the 2020 election.

There has never been a spouse of a sitting justice who has been as overt a political activist as Ms. Thomas — and that presents a real conundrum for the court.

Guest: Jo Becker, an investigative reporter for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• The long crusade of the Thomases has taken them from the fringes of the conservative movement to the very center of it.
• In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Ginni Thomas was involved in a range of efforts to keep President Donald J. Trump in power.

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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

At every step of his political career, Senator Joe Manchin III has helped a West Virginia power plant that is the sole customer of his private coal business, including by blocking ambitious climate action.

A Times investigation has revealed the strands of the unusual relationship between Mr. Manchin and that especially dirty power plant, showing just how entwined they are.

Guest: Christopher Flavelle, a climate reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• How Mr. Manchin aided coal, stymied climate legislation, and made a fortune.

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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Since the beginning of Russia’s war in Ukraine, 10 million Ukrainians — about a quarter of the population — have been displaced, and about four million have fled the country.

Iryna Baramidze is one of them. From a middle-class neighborhood of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, she has been married to her husband for 12 years and has an 11 year-old son, Yuri.

Over three weeks, our producer Clare Toeniskoetter followed Iryna as she made an impossible choice.

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Background reading: 

• After meeting with Ukrainian refugees in Poland last week, President Biden called Vladimir Putin “a butcher.”
• As Ukrainians flood into Poland, the travel industry has become part of an effort to supply transportation, accommodation and more to the refugees.

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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Demand for traveling nurses skyrocketed during the pandemic. In March 2020, there were over 12,000 job opportunities for traveling nurses, but by early December of that year, the number had grown to more than 30,000 open positions. Lauren Hilgers details the experiences of America’s traveling nurses and questions whether this “boom” will continue.

Myriad factors compelled thousands to abandon their permanent posts, among them the flexible nature of being a traveling nurse and its associated lifestyle (fewer hours, better pay). Traveling nurses can often make more in months than they would make as staff nurses in a year. Insufficient support to deal with waves of coronavirus sufferers at hospitals has driven many away.

But, as Hilgers writes, while hospitals have scrambled to hire traveling nurses, many have been chafing at the rising price tag. A number of states are exploring the option to cap travel-nursing pay, and the American Hospital Association is pushing for a congressional inquiry into the pricing practices of travel-nursing agencies. However, Hilgers concludes, the problem is unlikely to be solved until hospitals start considering how to make bedside jobs more desirable.

After two years, nurses in the United States have borne witness to hundreds of thousands of Covid deaths. Should their pay reflect this?

This story was recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan last year, thousands of women and girls who were in school or had jobs were forced back into their homes.

The Daily producers Lynsea Garrison and Stella Tan have been talking to women and girls across the country about their lives under Taliban rule — and about what kind of future they now face.

Background reading: 

• The Taliban has reneged on its promise to open Afghanistan’s girls’ schools. The reversal could threaten aid as international officials had made girls’ education a condition for greater assistance.

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For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

From the outside, Russia’s relentless bombardment of Ukraine looks indiscriminate and improvised. But the approach is part of an approach devised decades ago in Chechnya.

The Times journalist Carlotta Gall, who covered the Chechen conflict, explains why wars fought by Russia some 30 years ago could inform what happens next in Ukraine.

Guest: Carlotta Gall, the Istanbul bureau chief for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Russia’s experience in a string of wars led to the conclusion that attacking civilian populations was not only acceptable but militarily sound.

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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Democratic support for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who could become the first Black woman to serve as a Supreme Court justice, was never in much doubt. Less certain was the depth of Republican opposition.

To analyze how the arguments have played out so far in her confirmation hearing, we look at four key moments.

Guest: Adam Liptak, a reporter covering the Supreme Court for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• In her first day of hearings, Judge Jackson gave few hints about her judicial philosophy but spoke forcefully about public safety and terrorism.
• On Tuesday, Judge Jackson pushed back against Republican attacks on her record, presenting herself as a firm believer in judicial restraint.

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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Among the actions taken by the West to punish Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine is the blacklisting of the incredibly rich and politically connected Russian businessmen known as oligarchs.

But how could sanctions on Russia’s superwealthy increase the pressure on President Vladimir V. Putin to end the war?

Guest: Matt Apuzzo, a reporter for The New York Times, based in Brussels.

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Background reading: 

• For nearly a decade, sanctions have been little more than names on a list for wealthy Russians. Now, amid the war in Ukraine, governments are working to give them bite.
• Western investment, law and lobbying firms have previously helped enmesh oligarchs into financial and legal systems.

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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

More than two years into the pandemic, coronavirus infections are surging in China and nations in Europe. The reason: BA.2, a highly contagious version of the Omicron variant.

At the same time, the United States is doing away with a number of pandemic restrictions, with mask mandates ending and businesses no longer requiring proof of vaccination from customers.

We explore what these BA.2 surges look like and ask whether the U.S. is ready for a new wave of Covid cases.

Guest: Apoorva Mandavilli, a science and global health reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Another Covid surge may be coming, and some scientists are warning that the U.S. isn’t doing enough to prevent it from endangering vulnerable Americans and upending lives.
• Many epidemiologists suspect that BA.2 may reverse the decline of cases in the United States. Here’s what we know so far about the variant. 

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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In the high-stakes competition to dominate the business of clean energy, the Democratic Republic of Congo is a major arena: The country is the source of more than two-thirds of the world’s cobalt, a key component of electric-car batteries.

In recent years, China has established a strong presence in Congo, while the United States has lost ground. We went to the African country to understand how that happened.

Guest: Dionne Searcey, a correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The United States failed to safeguard decades of diplomatic and financial investments in Congo, where the world’s largest supply of cobalt is now controlled by Chinese companies backed by Beijing.
• The power struggle over Congo’s cobalt has rattled the clean-energy revolution.

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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

It has been three weeks since the war in Ukraine began. The fighting grinds on and there is no clear end in sight. But what are the potential paths forward in the coming days and weeks?

On Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky, in an address to Congress, proposed one such path, though it is an incredibly unlikely one: a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

Elsewhere, Times reporting has suggested four other potential scenarios — a diplomatic end to the conflict; protracted monthslong fighting; China coming to Russia’s rescue; and President Vladimir V. Putin expanding the conflict beyond Ukraine’s borders.

We explore these scenarios and consider which of them is most likely to occur.

Guest: David E. Sanger, a White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The United States accurately predicted the start of the war in Ukraine, sounding the alarm that an invasion was imminent despite Moscow’s denials and Europe’s skepticism. Predicting how it might end is proving far more difficult.
• In a speech to Congress, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called for a no-fly zone and more weapons to combat Russia’s assault and implored President Biden to be “the leader of peace.”

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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

With prices on the rise in the U.S. economy, the Federal Reserve is expected to announce on Wednesday an increase in interest rates, essentially pouring a cold glass of water on the economy.

Why would the central bank do that? The answer lies in the inflation crisis of the 1970s, when a failure to react quickly enough still looms large in the memory.

Guest: Jeanna Smialek, a reporter covering the Federal Reserve and the economy for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The Federal Reserve is facing the fastest inflation most Americans have ever seen. The response may require some aggressive — and painful — measures.
• What is inflation, why is it up, and whom does it hurt? Here’s what to know.

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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode details graphic scenes and contains strong language.

The image shows four people lying on the ground — a woman, a man and two children who had been fleeing from a suburb of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. The woman and her children had been killed by a mortar moments earlier. Around them are Ukrainian soldiers attempting to revive the man.

The picture was taken by the photojournalist Lynsey Addario, alongside Andriy Dubchak, a Ukrainian videographer. When it was published by The Times, the image became a watershed, offering irrefutable evidence that Russia’s tactics in the war were killing civilians.

Guest: Lynsey Addario, a photojournalist currently working in Ukraine.

Background reading: 

• President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has repeatedly denied that his forces are targeting civilians. But only a handful of Ukrainian troops were near the bridge when mortar shells began raining down, and they were helping refugees escape Kyiv.

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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Russians and Ukrainians are deeply connected. Millions of Ukrainians have relatives in Russia. Many have lived in the country.

But Moscow has taken steps to shield its people from open information about the war, even as its bombing campaign intensifies.

When Ukrainians try to explain the dire situation to family members in Russia, they are often met with denial, resistance, and a kind of refusal to believe.

Guest: Valerie Hopkins, a correspondent for The New York Times, currently in Ukraine.

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Background reading: 

• A wave of disinformation has emanated from the Russian state as the Kremlin tries to shape the messages most Russians are receiving.
• At the same time, the last vestiges of a Russian free press are being dismantled.

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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Rozina Ali profiles Rashida Tlaib, the 45-year-old second-term congresswoman from Detroit, who has risen from adverse circumstances to play a significant role in American politics, most notably bringing greater awareness to the ongoing conflict over Palestine.

Tlaib is the only Palestinian American serving in the House of Representatives, and the first with family currently living in the West Bank, whose three million inhabitants’ lives are, as Ali explains, “intimately shaped by American support for Israel.”

The article explores the criticism leveled at Tlaib, sometimes viciously, by Republicans and pro-Israel Democrats for calling Israel an “apartheid regime,” and for her support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which aims to end military occupation by exerting economic pressure on Israel. She has been called antisemitic for her criticism of Israeli policies, and has become a favored quarry of Fox News.

But, as Ali explains, Tlaib’s arrival on the national stage coincided with an opening, albeit a small one, within the Democratic Party to challenge the United States’ Israel policy. At the same time that the left has gained a legible footing on the national stage, the Palestinian cause has become a significant part of the politics of the American left. And so Tlaib, a democratic socialist more outspoken on domestic issues than she is on the Palestinian cause, has found herself at the center of this turn.

Tlaib stands up for many causes — but what, exactly, does she represent?

This story was recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Ending the war in Ukraine very much depends on how and when President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia allows it to end.

In an interview for his podcast “The Ezra Klein Show,” the opinion columnist Ezra Klein spoke with one of the world’s leading experts on Mr. Putin, Fiona Hill, a foreign policy adviser for three United States presidents.

Today, we run the discussion between Ms. Hill and Ezra Klein about how Mr. Putin is approaching this moment, and the right and wrong ways for the West to engage him. 

Guest: Fiona Hill, a senior fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution.

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Background reading: 

• Here’s a guide to the roots of the Ukraine war.
• About two-thirds of Ukraine’s population of 44 million people lived in cities before Russia’s invasion began. Now, many urban areas are in the cross hairs of war. What cities is Russia targeting?

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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

It has been two weeks since the beginning of the war in Ukraine and Russia’s high-tech army of nearly 200,000 soldiers have not taken control of any major cities, except the southern port of Kherson. 

The state of the war is eerily stalled and the Russians’ answer has been to encircle cities and, from a distance, bomb what they can’t control. 

Today, we hear dispatches on two cities in Ukraine’s south that are surrounded and under attack. 

Guest: Michael Schwirtz, an investigative reporter for The New York Times; and Valerie Hopkins, a Moscow correspondent for The Times, currently in Ukraine.

Background reading: 

•  Two weeks after the invasion began, tens of thousands of Ukrainians are without food, water or power. The Russians are increasingly resorting to indiscriminate shelling to help their forces advance.
• The southern city of Mariupol is under a relentless barrage — there is no heat or electricity and little communication with the outside world. 

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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

On Tuesday morning, President Biden took to the podium at the White House to deliver a solemn and provocative speech. As punishment for waging war on Ukraine, he announced,  the United States would cut off Russian oil imports.

Mr. Biden said the move would require some sacrifice, but would be for the greater good.

How much will the ban hurt Russia, and American consumers?

Guest: Clifford Krauss, a national energy business correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Mr. Biden banned oil imports from Russia, calling it a “blow to Putin’s war machine.”
• The ban could have meaningful consequences for the U.S. economy, pushing up prices at the gas pump when inflation is already rapid. 

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Since the start of the war in Ukraine, no single figure has antagonized President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia as effectively or persistently as President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. His defiant videos and speeches have inspired the West into action and, by his own account, made him a target for Russian assassins. 

What is it about the comedian-turned-president and his rise to power that poses such a unique threat to Mr. Putin?

Guest: Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• How Volodymyr Zelensky rallied Ukrainians, and the world, against Putin.

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This episode contains strong language. 

In response to Russia’s increasingly brutal campaign against Ukrainian towns and cities, an estimated 1.5 million people — most of them women and children — have fled Ukraine over the past 10 days. It’s the fastest displacement of people in Europe since World War II.

While evacuating the capital city of Kyiv for Lviv in the west, a seven-hour journey that took two days and nights, the Daily host Sabrina Tavernise traveled alongside some of those fleeing the conflict.

Background reading: 

• With most Ukrainian men legally prohibited from leaving Ukraine, the international border gates serve as a painful filter, splitting families as women and children move on.
• Spared direct attacks so far, Lviv, a city in Ukraine’s west, has become a transit point for thousands of fleeing refugees and for men and supplies headed to the front lines.

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It was a perplexing event, with little in the way of legal closure. Seven years on from a fatal biker shootout in 2015, Mark Binelli explores the details of the event — which started as a brawl between rival “outlaw” motorcycle clubs, the Cossacks and the Bandidos, at a restaurant in Waco, West Texas, which left nine dead and 20 wounded — and the investigation that followed.

The article delves into the methodology of the case’s main investigator, Paul Looney, and a trial-preparation specialist, Roxanne Avery, as well as the event’s cultural significance, described by The New York Times as “what appears to be the largest roundup and mass arrest of bikers in recent American history.”

The aftermath of the deadly brawl, which was preceded by rumblings of an escalating feud, has been the subject of protracted interest: Despite the arrests of 177 bikers — all of whom, regardless of the evidence, were subject to identical felony charges and million-dollar bonds — no one has been convicted.

Binelli explains the root causes of the tensions between the Bandidos and the Cossacks, relays the details of the incident, and considers why it has been so hard to bring the perpetrators to justice.

This story was written by Mark Binelli and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

This episode contains strong language.

After winning his House seat in the 2018 midterm elections, Representative Dan Crenshaw, a Republican of Texas, seemed to have found a sweet spot between full-blown Trumpism and the anti-Trump wing of the party.

But after Jan. 6, and ahead of this year’s midterms, more extreme factions of the Republican Party have cast him less as a vision for the future and more as a symbol of what needs snuffing out.

The once-in-a-decade redistricting process gives those factions a structural advantage. On the ground in Texas, we explore the impact of redistricting and speak to Mr. Crenshaw about the state of his party.

Guest: Shane Goldmacher, a national political reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Competitive districts are disappearing in Texas and beyond. Consider the case of a once-rising Republican star, Dan Crenshaw, in the Houston suburbs.

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After invading, Russia’s military was expected to sweep through Ukraine within a few days, quickly seizing the capital, Kyiv, and installing a pro-Moscow government.

It hasn’t worked out that way.

Now, with Russia’s advance stalling, there are signs that President Vladimir V. Putin is ready to wage a much darker, grimmer campaign.

Guest: Eric Schmitt, a senior writer covering terrorism and national security for The New York Times. 

Background reading: 

• After days of miscalculation about Ukraine’s resolve to fight, Russian forces are turning toward an old pattern of opening fire on cities and mounting sieges.
• Plagued by poor morale as well as fuel and food shortages, some Russian troops in Ukraine have surrendered en masse or sabotaged their own vehicles to avoid fighting, a Pentagon official said.

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As Russian forces bombard Ukraine’s cities and strike civilian areas with increasingly powerful weapons, the European Union has adopted the largest package of sanctions ever imposed on a single country.

The 27-nation bloc overcame a reputation for internal division to agree on the penalties — but will they be enough to help bring the war to an end?

Guest: Matina Stevis-Gridneff, the Brussels bureau chief for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• As sanctions batter the economy, Russians face the anxieties of a costly war.
• From culture to commerce, sports to travel, the world is shunning Russia to protest the invasion.

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This episode contains strong language.

As the Russian assault has intensified, the government in Ukraine has enacted martial law, requiring men to stay in the country and either join the fight or face the prospect of conscription.

We tell the story of three of those men: Eugene, an I.T. worker from the northeastern city of Kharkiv; Tyhran, an animator who attempted to cross the border into Poland; and Andrew, who signed up for the territorial defense force two weeks ago.

Guests: Clare Toeniskoetter, a senior producer for The Daily; and Lynsea Garrison, a senior international producer for The Daily. 

Background reading: 

• “Everybody in our country needs to defend”: Civilian volunteers and paramilitary groups are taking the fight to the Russian Army in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.
• Photographers and videographers around Ukraine have captured a populace struggling with uncertainty and fear.

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This episode contains strong language.

Over the weekend, the battle for Ukraine arrived at the capital, Kyiv, as Russian forces attempted to advance.

Would the Russian military quickly overrun the city? Or would Ukrainians, despite being outgunned, somehow find a way to defend their capital?

Guest: Sabrina Tavernise, a national correspondent for The New York Times, reporting from Kyiv.

Background reading: 

• Ukraine agreed to talks with Russia, but the fighting still rages.
• The roots of the Ukraine war: Here’s a guide to what’s at stake for Russia, the U.S. and NATO.

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Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti investigate Pegasus, an Israeli spying tool that was acquired for use by the F.B.I., and which the United States government is now trying to ban.

Pegasus is used globally. For nearly a decade, NSO, an Israeli firm, had been selling this surveillance software on a subscription basis to law-enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world, promising to consistently and reliably crack the encrypted communications of any iPhone or Android smartphone.

The software has helped the authorities capture drug lords, thwart terrorist plots, fight organized crime, and, in one case, take down a global child-abuse ring, identifying suspects in more than 40 countries. But it has been prone to abuses of power: The Mexican government deployed Pegasus against journalists and political dissidents; and it was used to intercept communications with Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, whom Saudi operatives killed and dismembered in Istanbul in 2018.

Cyberweapons are here to stay — but their legacy is still to be determined.

This story was written by Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the biggest in Europe since World War II.

With the full-scale assault entering its second day on Friday, Ukrainians are coming to terms with the reality that the unthinkable has actually happened.

We explore the significance of this moment and speak to Ukrainians on the ground. 

Guest: Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Russia continued its attack on Ukraine early Friday, one day after it invaded the country by land, sea and air, killing more than 100 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.
• Europe faces a new refugee crisis, and harsh economic penalties meant to punish Russia are expected to reverberate worldwide. Here’s what might happen next in the Ukraine crisis.

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. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

After months of escalating tensions, President Vladimir V. Putin took to state television on Thursday to declare the start of a “special military operation” in Ukraine.

In the prelude to the invasion and as Russian troops launched their attacks, we spoke to our colleagues on the ground as they hunkered down to cover the fighting.

Guest: Sabrina Tavernise, a national correspondent for The New York Times; Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The Times and Michael Schwirtz, an investigative reporter for The Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Areas across Ukraine were under attack on Thursday morning. President Biden condemned Russia’s actions, saying that he would speak to the American people later in the day.
• Why did Russia invade? Here’s what to know about the Ukraine crisis.

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At 10 p.m. in Moscow on Monday night, Russian state television interrupted its regular programming to air an address from President Vladimir V. Putin about the Ukraine crisis.

We look back on what Mr. Putin’s hourlong speech — remarkable for his overt display of emotion and grievance — revealed about his rationale for invading.

Guest: Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Mr. Putin’s speech sounded like a call to war, the culmination of a propaganda barrage orchestrated by Russian state media in recent days.
• The United States and its allies swiftly imposed economic sanctions on Russia for what President Biden denounced as the beginning of an “invasion of Ukraine.”

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This episode contains strong language.

On Monday night, as tensions deepened between Russia and Ukraine, President Vladimir V. Putin sent troops into two regions in eastern Ukraine where separatist forces are friendly to Moscow.

With dispatches from our reporters on the ground, we analyze why the crisis has deteriorated in the past few days and whether the orders are a precursor to a wider war.

Guest: Valerie Hopkins, a correspondent based in Moscow for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The moves by Mr. Putin were his most blatant yet in a confrontation with the West that threatens to escalate into the biggest military action in Europe since World War II.
• In a speech to Russians on Monday, Mr. Putin buoyed his case for the invasion of rebel territories by arguing that the idea of Ukraine statehood was a fiction.
• Here’s what to know about the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

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As hospitals in the United States battled another coronavirus wave in the past few months, another crisis was steadily growing more acute: a shortage of nurses.

We speak to some of the “forgotten warriors” of the nursing profession, at Pascagoula Hospital in Mississippi, to find out what life is like on the front line of the pandemic.

Guest: Andrew Jacobs, a global health reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The exodus of medical workers during the pandemic has been especially brutal for the small, nonprofit safety-net hospitals where millions of Americans seek care.

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Since the beginning of the standoff with Moscow over Ukraine, President Biden has been clear that he will not allow American troops to come into direct combat with Russians.

Why has the U.S., a country that has intervened all over the world in various contexts, taken that powerful option off the table?

Guest: David E. Sanger, a White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• While recent Russian rhetoric has stoked hopes of a diplomatic solution, U.S. and NATO officials have accused Moscow of further building up troops.
• President Biden’s opposition to sending U.S. forces into Ukraine reflects the mood of a war-wary Washington, as well as concerns about Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
• Here’s a guide to the causes behind the Ukraine crisis and where it might be headed.

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Canada has employed strict restrictions in its efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic. But unlike in the United States, such measures have received very little pushback or politicization — until recently.

Truckers protesting a vaccine mandate have occupied the nation’s capital, Ottawa, for three weeks, leading Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to declare a state of national emergency.

We ask how Canada got to this point, and hear what the protest is like on the ground. 

Guest: Catherine Porter, the Toronto bureau chief for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The trucker protests seem to challenge the cherished image that Canadians are moderate, rule-following and just plain nice. But was that really a myth all along?
• The fractious coalition behind Canada’s protests include former law enforcement officers, military veterans and conservative organizers. 

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Officials in the United States say that Russia could invade Ukraine as early as this week, which raises the question: Should an attack come, how will the Ukrainian people respond? 

The answer may be complicated. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, there has been a real push and pull between Russia and the West inside Ukraine. 

We hear about how Ukrainians are viewing the threat. 

Guest: Michael Schwirtz, an investigative reporter with The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• A trip along the Dnieper River explores what it means to be Ukrainian at a moment of extreme peril, as the country debates Russia’s place in its past, and its future.

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As the N.F.L. season comes to a close, we’re looking at a class-action lawsuit that Brian Flores, a former head coach of the Miami Dolphins, has filed against the league.

At the heart of the case is the Rooney Rule, a policy the league implemented two decades ago that has since been adopted across corporate America.

We explore the lawsuit and the Rooney Rule, and we hear from Cyrus Mehri, a civil rights lawyer who helped create the policy.

Guest: Ken Belson, a reporter covering the N.F.L. for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Brian Flores has sued the N.F.L. and its 32 teams alleging that they discriminated against him and other Black coaches in their hiring practices.
• After Mr. Flores’s lawsuit and a cycle in which only two nonwhite head coaches were hired, the Rooney Rule, the N.F.L.’s biggest diversity initiative, is facing new scrutiny.
• Those close to Mr. Flores say his lawsuit is in keeping with the sense of moral rectitude instilled in him by his mother as he grew up in a Brooklyn housing project.

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There’s a working theory for the origins of Covid-19. It goes like this: Somewhere in an open-air market in Wuhan, China, a new coronavirus, growing inside an animal, first made the jump to a human. But what happens when diseases spread in the other direction?

Sonia Shah, a science journalist, explores the dangers of “spillback,” or “reverse zoonosis”: when humans infect non-humans with disease. Using the history of diseases spreading through mink farms in the United States and Europe as a focus, Shah considers the implications of spillback, and how we might minimize its future impact.

Shah considers how spillback can ignite epidemics in wild species, including endangered ones, and can ravage whole ecosystems. More worryingly, she describes how it can establish new wildlife reservoirs that shift the pathogens’ evolutionary trajectory, unleashing novel variants that can fuel new, dangerous waves of disease in humans.

This story was written by Sonia Shah. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

A mysterious letter detailing a supposed plot by Islamic extremists to take over schools shocked Britain in 2014. But who wrote it? From Serial Productions and The New York Times, “The Trojan Horse Affair” is a mystery told in eight parts. Here’s the first. Find the series wherever you get your podcasts.

Joe Rogan, a comedian and host of the hit podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” has come under scrutiny in recent weeks for promoting Covid-19 misinformation. Spotify, which owns exclusive rights to Mr. Rogan’s show, has been criticized as the platform for the misinformation.

Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removed their music from Spotify in protest. Now, a compilation of video clips of Mr. Rogan using a racial slur on past episodes has surfaced, drawing more outrage.

We look into the scandal engulfing the streaming platform and its most popular podcast host.

Guest: Kevin Roose, a technology columnist for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Kevin explains why the challenges presented by this scandal aren’t going away.
• Listen to this episode of Popcast to delve deeper into the thorny questions raised about Spotify’s role as a platform.

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One by one, blue states across the United States have been rolling back their Covid-19 restrictions, going against C.D.C. guidelines that are still backed by the White House.

Why are governors in states like California, Illinois and New York taking those actions? And what do they say about the shifting politics of the pandemic?

Guest: Lisa Lerer, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Democratic governors have been easing Covid rules in a loosely coordinated effort that is the result of months of public-health planning, back-channel discussions and political focus groups.
• The Biden administration said that federal masking guidance would not change for now, but officials are seeking advice from health experts on the way forward.

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Birds Aren’t Real, a conspiracy theory with an apparently absurd premise, has become surprisingly popular in the past few years.

But its followers were in on the joke: The movement’s aim was to poke fun at misinformation … by creating misinformation.

Has it been successful?

Guest: Taylor Lorenz, a former technology reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Among the outlandish claims of the Birds Aren’t Real movement: Our feathered friends are really U.S. government drones used to spy on Americans.

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If Russia invades Ukraine, it would be the largest and potentially deadliest military action in Europe since World War II.

So why is there so much division between the U.S. and its European allies over how seriously to take the threat?

Guest: Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Biden administration officials told lawmakers that a large-scale Russian invasion could kill as many as 50,000 civilians and prompt a refugee crisis in Europe.
• U.S. and European leaders say that they are “absolutely united.” But are they?

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This episode contains depictions of violence

Almost two years ago, a shocking nine-minute video was released showing a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, fatally kneeling on the neck of George Floyd.

Mr. Chauvin is now serving a long sentence for murder.

A few weeks ago, a trial began in the case of the three other officers who were on the scene that day. They are charged with violating Mr. Floyd’s civil rights during the arrest that caused his death.

Guest: Kim Barker, an enterprise reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The three former officers are accused of failing to intervene when they saw Mr. Chauvin using excessive force against Mr. Floyd.
• The case centers on a crucial issue in American policing: the duty of officers to act against colleagues when they witness misconduct.

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If you didn’t think poker and artificial intelligence could be bedfellows, think again. Keith Romer delves into the history of man’s pursuit of the perfect game of poker, and explains how the use of A.I. is altering how it is played: individuals using an algorithmic “solver program” to analyze potential weaknesses about themselves and their opponents, thus gaining an advantage.

While it feels futuristic, this desire to optimize poker isn’t new.

Are these new generations of A.I. tools merely a continuation of a longer pattern of technological innovation in poker, or does it mark an irreversible structural shift? One thing’s for certain: The stakes are high.

This story was written by Keith Romer. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Reporters from The Times are joining athletes from around the world as they descend on Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics, where they are encountering the strictest and most wide-ranging health requirements ever attempted at an Olympic Games.

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has made it his goal to keep the coronavirus out of the country as much as possible, and these requirements are an extension of his “zero Covid” strategy.

We ask what exactly is the zero-Covid strategy, and how long can it last? And we explore what life is like inside China’s Olympic superbubble.

Guest: Amy Qin, an international correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Robots, swabs and a big gamble: One Times correspondent details what life is like inside Beijing’s Olympic bubble.
• China holds the line on “zero Covid,” but some wonder for how long.

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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

A recent ISIS attack on a prison in northeastern Syria became the biggest confrontation between the terrorist group and the United States and its allied forces since 2019. The attack raises a question: Could the Islamic State group be on the cusp of a resurgence? 

We explore what the attack means, why the prison was so vulnerable in the first place and what has become of the thousands of fighters and families left behind after the fall of the Caliphate. 

Guest: Jane Arraf, the Baghdad bureau chief for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The Islamic State may no longer be able to control territory, but the attack on a prison in northeastern Syria has shown that it can still pull off opportunistic military operations.

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Since the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a clearer picture has emerged of the steps that President Donald J. Trump and his allies took to try to keep him in power and overturn the 2020 election.

One of the biggest questions, however, has been how far was Mr. Trump willing to go in using the apparatus of the federal government to stay in power?

The Times has uncovered that in the weeks after Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory, Mr. Trump considered using the levers of the federal government to seize voting machines in swing states.

What exactly did Mr. Trump do, and will this revelation tip the scales of the congressional effort to hold him legally accountable?

Guest: Michael S. Schmidt, a Washington correspondent covering national security and federal investigations for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• New accounts show that Mr. Trump was more directly involved than previously known in plans developed by outside advisers to use national security agencies to seek evidence of fraud.
• The House Jan. 6 committee will look into efforts by Mr. Trump’s outside advisers to create a legal basis for national security agencies to help reverse his defeat in 2020, and it will investigate his involvement in those proposals. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Inflation in the United States has been getting worse. In December, prices were up 7 percent from the previous year — the fastest rise in 40 years. 

Americans feel terrible about the economy, imperiling the Democratic Party’s chances of holding on to power in Washington in this year’s midterm elections.

While disruption caused by the pandemic is a key cause of higher prices — a situation that predates the Biden administration — a question remains: How much have the Democrats’ own policies contributed to the problem?

Guest: Ben Casselman, an economic and business reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Prices in the United States are rising rapidly, wages are growing and consumers are glum as a fraught economic moment poses big challenges for policymakers.
• President Biden is suffering in the polls as high inflation saps confidence in the economy, even as growth comes in strong.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

America, it seems, might be at a turning point in how we think about and respond to the pandemic. Yet, the U.S., at this moment, is still in the midst of crisis — thousands of people are in hospital and dying every day.

In the second part of our exploration of the state of the pandemic, we speak with Dr. Anthony Fauci about the conditions under which we could learn to live with the virus and what the next stage of the pandemic looks like. 

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Dr. Anthony Fauci has cautioned against overconfidence but says the U.S. Omicron wave looks like it’s “going in the right direction” and that coronavirus cases could fall to manageable levels in the coming months.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Today, Maggie Jones explores the overlooked topic of geriatric sex. Profiling older couples for whom it is still important, she considers the obstacles and joys of having sex over the age of 70, and the way society has begun to talk more openly about it in recent years.

As bodies change, Jones writes, good sex in old age often requires reimagining and expanding: a conscious inclusion of more touching, kissing, erotic massage, oral sex and sex toys. Along with pleasure, other benefits are linked to sex: a stronger immune system, improved cognitive function, cardiovascular health in women and lower odds of prostate cancer, along with improved sleep, stress reduction and a cultivation of emotional intimacy.

The subset of older people who are having lots of sex well into their 80s could help shape those conversations and policies, while doctors can also do their part by attending to individuals’ physiological impediments to sex. Many sex experts expect more open conversations and policies related to their senior sex lives in the years to come.

This story was written by Maggie Jones and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

During the pandemic, the price of beef shot up. Wholesale beef prices increased more than 40 percent — more than 70 percent for certain cuts of steak. 

The conventional wisdom was that price increases simply reflected the chaos that the coronavirus had caused in the supply chain. But there’s evidence that they were in fact a reflection of a more fundamental change in the meatpacking business.

We speak to ranchers about the consolidation of the industry and explore what it can show us about a transformation in the American economy — one much bigger than beef. 

Guest: Peter S. Goodman, a global economics correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Despite record beef prices, ranchers aren’t cashing in — the result of years of consolidation. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

On Wednesday, it was revealed that Justice Stephen Breyer, the senior member of the Supreme Court’s liberal wing, will retire from the bench. 

Democrats, and many on the left, will have breathed a sigh of relief. His decision has given President Biden the chance to nominate a successor while Democrats control the Senate. 

We take a look at the legacy of Justice Breyer’s time on the court, why he chose to retire now and how President Biden might decide on his successor. 

Guest: Adam Liptak, a Supreme Court reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Justice Breyer has announced that he will retire from the Supreme Court bench upon the confirmation of his successor.
• President Joe Biden and his legal team have spent a year preparing for this moment: the chance to make good on his pledge to name the first Black woman to the Supreme Court. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

It appears that the United States may be at a turning point in the pandemic. The contagiousness of the Omicron variant has many people resigned to the fact that they probably will be infected; this variant is, relative to its predecessors and in most cases, milder; and there is universal vaccine access for those old enough to receive a shot. 

So, The Times commissioned a poll of 4,400 Americans to discover how they are thinking about the pandemic and gauge how, and when, we might pivot to living with the virus. 

We explore the results of this poll — and the divides in opinion by age, vaccination status and politics. 

Guest: David Leonhardt, a senior writer for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The two Covid Americas: You can read David Leonhardt’s analysis of a poll about attitudes toward the pandemic here. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

When allegations first emerged in November about parties held at 10 Downing Street, the residence and offices of the British prime minister, during a strict Covid lockdown, Prime Minister Boris Johnson waved them away. 

Yet in the weeks since, the scandal has only grown, with public outrage building as more instances and details of lockdown parties at Downing Street have emerged.

Some voters in Britain have long been willing to overlook the foibles of Mr. Johnson’s character, but this is a scandal that poses an existential threat to his leadership. 

Guest: Mark Landler, the London bureau chief for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Boris Johnson’s future is in doubt after two humiliating apologies about parties while the country was under Covid restrictions. Here’s a guide to how he could be forced out, or fight on.
• Mr. Johnson, long famed for brushing off accusations of distortion or outright lying that seemed to only bolster his image as an incorrigible scamp, suddenly faces potential political death over the very charge to which he had seemed immune.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

This episode contains strong language. 

Marieke Vervoort was a champion Paralympic athlete from Belgium. In 2016, Vervoort, who had a progressive disease, announced her retirement from professional sports and spoke of her desire to undergo euthanasia.

Today, we hear Vervoort’s story from Lynsey Addario, a photojournalist who documented the end of her life.

“In most of my experiences covering Iraq and Afghanistan and Democratic Republic of Congo and Darfur, I’m photographing people who are trying not to die,” Lynsey said. “Marieke was the first person I had really met who wanted to die.”

Guest: Lynsey Addario, a photojournalist who spent three years with Marieke Vervoort.

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Background reading: 

• Knowing she had the legal right to die helped Marieke Vervoort live her life. It propelled her to medals at the Paralympics. But she could never get away from the pain.
• Lynsey Addario spent nearly three years photographing Vervoort as she prepared to die by choice. It became one of the most emotional assignments — and friendships — of her life.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

What is “disgust”? Molly Young, a journalist with The New York Times, considers the evolutionary and social uses of this “universal aspect of life” to identify the impact of disgust in its physical, psychological and linguistic manifestations.

Young explains the different forms of disgust, analyzing how the reactions they elicit play out in the body and mind, and why it is in many ways cultural. She explains how disgust shapes our behavior, technology, relationships and even political leanings. It’s behind everyday purity rites; the reason we use toilet paper, wash our hands and hold cutlery; it has shadowed the rules that have governed emotion in every culture throughout time.

Charles Darwin, the scholar William Ian Miller, the research psychologist Paul Rozin and the philosopher Aurel Kolnai, among the many others who felt compelled, Young explained, to investigate this most primal emotion.

This story was written by Molly Young and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Novak Djokovic, the world No. 1 player in men’s tennis, had a lot at stake going into this year’s Australian Open. A win there would have made him the most decorated male tennis player in history. 

But he arrived in the country without having had a Covid-19 vaccination, flying in the face of Australia’s rules, and after a court battle he was ultimately deported.

In Australia, the “Djokovic affair” has become about a lot more than athletes and vaccines — it has prompted conversations about the country’s aggressive border policy, isolationism and treatment of migrants. 

Guest: Damien Cave, the Australia bureau chief for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Prime Minister Scott Morrison latched on to the Djokovic case. But with an election looming, it’s not clear that it was a political winner.
• Novak Djokovic lost his bid to stay in Australia to a government determined to make him a symbol of unvaccinated celebrity entitlement; to an immigration law that gives godlike authority to border enforcement; and to a public outcry, in a nation of rule followers.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Microsoft announced this week that it was acquiring Activision Blizzard, the maker of video games such as Call of Duty and Candy Crush, in a deal valued at nearly $70 billion.

Microsoft, the owner of Xbox, said the acquisition was a step toward gaining a foothold in the metaverse.

But what exactly is the metaverse? And why are some of the biggest companies in the world spending billions of dollars to get involved?

Guest: Kevin Roose, a technology columnist for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Does the metaverse even exist? Here’s what you need to know.
• Video games are not merely entertainment anymore. They have become weapons that today’s technology titans wield to try to shape our future.
• The deal for Activision Blizzard would be Microsoft’s biggest ever, and one that places a major bet that people will be spending more and more time in the digital world.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

It’s a big week in the Senate for voting rights. Democrats have two bills that include measures to bolster and protect elections.

But the bills are almost certain to fail.

Why has it proved almost impossible to pass legislation so integral to the agenda of President Biden and the Democrats?

Guest: Astead W. Herndon, a national political reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Here’s what to know about voting rights and the battle over elections.
• Democrats’ bid to force through a bill intended to offset state voting restrictions appeared destined to fall to a Republican filibuster.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Four years ago, Azmat Khan, an investigative reporter for The Times Magazine, told us the story of Basim Razzo, whose entire family was killed in a U.S.-led airstrike in Iraq. His story helped reveal how American air wars were resulting in a staggering number of civilian deaths.

Analyzing thousands of pages of U.S. military reports and investigating in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, Azmat was able to gain a better understanding of why this was happening.

Azmat Khan, an investigative reporter for The Times Magazine.

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Background reading: 

• The promise was a war waged by all-seeing drones and precision bombs. But Pentagon documents show flawed intelligence, faulty targeting, years of civilian deaths — and scant accountability.
• A trove of internal documents, combined with extensive reporting across the Middle East, reveals the tragic, disastrous failures of the U.S. military’s long-distance approach to warfare.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Elizabeth Weil, the author of today’s Sunday Read, writes that, in her marriage, there was a silent third spouse: California.

“The state was dramatic and a handful,” Weil writes. “But she was gorgeous, and she brought into our lives, through the natural world, all the treasure and magic we’d need.”

However, for Weil, there is internal conflict living in a state where wildfires have become the norm. She describes living through a discontinuity in which previously held logic fails to stand up to reality.

Today, Weil analyzes the sources of California’s crisis — from the impact of colonization and the systemic erasure of Indigenous practices to the significant loss of fire-management practices and critical dryness caused by global warming.

In California, as in much of the world, climate anxiety and climate futurism coalesce into trans-apocalyptic pessimism. But, in spite of the doom, Weil suggests the situation is not completely devoid of hope.

To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Sidney Poitier, who was Hollywood’s first Black matinee idol and who helped open the door for Black actors in the film industry, died last week. He was 94.

For Wesley Morris, a Times culture critic, it is Mr. Poitier — not John Wayne, Cary Grant or Marilyn Monroe — who is the greatest American movie star.

“His legacy is so much wider and deeper than the art itself,” Wesley said. “This man has managed to affect what we see, how we relate to people, who we think we are, who we should aspire to be. And if that’s not a sign of greatness, I don’t know what is.”

Guest: Wesley Morris, a critic at large for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• “The greatest American movie star is Sidney Poitier. You mean the greatest Black movie star? I don’t. Am I being controversial? Confrontational? Contrarian? No. I’m simply telling the truth.” Read Wesley’s tribute to Mr. Poitier.
• Sidney Poitier, who paved the way for Black actors in film, died last week at 94. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

As the highly infectious Omicron variant surged, a high-stakes battle played out between Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago and the city’s teachers’ union about how to keep schools open and safe.

We chart this battle on the ground in Chicago, speaking with teachers, parents and students about the standoff.

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Background reading: 

• The deal between the city and the teachers’ union included provisions for additional testing and metrics that would close schools with major virus outbreaks
• As millions of U.S. students headed back to their desks, the coronavirus testing that was supposed to help keep classrooms open safely was itself being tested. In much of the country, things are not going well.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The diplomatic talks in Geneva this week are of a kind not seen in a long time: an effort to defuse the possibility of a major war in Europe.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has amassed military equipment and personnel on the border with Ukraine.

President Biden has warned that there will be consequences if Mr. Putin decides to invade, but what can Washington do to impel the Kremlin to back down?

Guest: David E. Sanger, a White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Russia and the United States expressed some optimism after negotiations in Geneva, but they did not break an impasse over Moscow’s demand that Ukraine never become a member of NATO.
• Can the West stop Russia from invading Ukraine? Here’s a guide to what’s at stake.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

 The Omicron variant of the coronavirus has a reputation for causing mild illness, yet it’s fueling a staggering rise in hospitalizations across the country. 

In some of the early hot spots for the variant, emergency rooms are filling up, hospitals are being flooded with new patients and there aren’t enough staff to care for all of them. 

We explore why the Omicron surge is leading to hospitalizations and hear from doctors about what they are seeing, and why this surge feels different from the ones that came before. 

Guest: Emily Anthes, a reporter covering science and health for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Covid hospitalizations are surging, though severe cases are a smaller share of the total than in previous waves. With staff shortages, some hospitals are still in crisis.
• In the cities where Omicron first drove a rapid rise in Covid cases, serious outcomes including I.C.U. stays and deaths are following case curves upward.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

This year’s Golden Globes ceremony was muted. Instead of a celebrity-filled evening, broadcast on NBC, the results were live tweeted from a room in the Beverly Hilton. 

It was the culmination of years of controversy for the awards and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organization behind them. 

Who are the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and how did one of the biggest awards shows get to this point?

Guest: Kyle Buchanan, a pop culture reporter and the awards season columnist for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• With the Hollywood Foreign Press Association mired in controversy, the 2022 awards ceremony was devoid of stars or cameras. Winners were announced via Twitter, and social media had a field day.
• Last year, the association, seen as colorful, generally harmless and not necessarily journalistically productive, faced a lawsuit and questions about its voting group.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In her new book, “The Myth of Closure: Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Pandemic and Change,” Pauline Boss considers what it means to reach “emotional closure” in a state of unnamable grief.

Hard to define, these grievances have been granted a new name: ambiguous loss. The death of a loved one, missing relatives, giving a child up for adoption, a lost friend — Boss teases out how one can mourn something that cannot always be described.

The pandemic has been rife with “ambiguous loss,” Boss argues. Milestones missed; friendships and romantic liaisons cooled; families prevented from bidding farewell to dying loved ones because of stringent hospital rules. A sense of “frozen grief” pervades great swathes of the global community. Boss believes that by rethinking and lending language to the nature of loss, we might get closer to understanding it.

This story was recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

After the election on Nov. 3, 2020, President J. Donald Trump and his allies tested the limits of the U.S. election system, launching pressure and legal campaigns in competitive states to have votes overturned — all the while exposing the system’s precariousness.

Although the efforts weren’t successful, they appear to have been only the beginning of a wider attack on American elections. In the final part of our Jan. 6 coverage, we explore the threats to democracy that may come to bear in the next election. 

Guest: Alexander Burns, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The fight over American democracy and the fragility of good faith: Times political journalists talk about the Republicans’ push to restrict voting and seize control over elections, and how Democrats are responding.
• Here are four takeaways from the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

This episode contains strong language. 

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming was the only Republican leader calling on President Donald Trump to move on from his efforts to overturn the results. Then, after the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, she gave a full-throated condemnation of what had happened and the rhetoric that facilitated it. 

A year later, while many of her party have backed down from criticizing the former president, she has remained steadfast — a conviction that’s cost her leadership position.

In the second part of our look at the legacy of the Capitol riot, we speak to Ms. Cheney about that day and its aftermath, the work of the Jan. 6 commission and the future of the Republican Party. 

Guest: Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and former No. 3 Republican in the House of Representatives. 

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Background reading: 

• The Jan. 6, 2021, assault has shaken the foundations of the Capitol, a symbol of American strength and unity, transforming how lawmakers view their surroundings and one another.
• A year after the Capitol riot, Donald Trump’s continued hold on the Republican Party shows, once again, that the former president can outlast almost any outrage cycle.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Who exactly joined the mob that, almost a year ago, on Jan. 6, breached the walls of the U.S. Capitol in a bid to halt the certification of President Biden’s election victory?

Members of far-right extremist groups were present but so too were also doctors, lawyers, substitute teachers and church deacons, many of whom had previously been nonpolitical. 

The question of why they were at the Capitol that day is hard to answer, but some of the most useful clues come from three F.B.I. interviews that have been released to the public.

Today, in the first of a three-part look at what happened on Jan. 6 and what it tells us about the state of American democracy, using voice actors, we bring one of those interviews to life — that of Robert Reeder, a father and delivery driver from suburban Maryland. 

Guest: Alan Feuer, a reporter covering courts and criminal justice for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• In recent weeks, with the anniversary of the riot looming, a few dozen investigators and members of Congress are rushing to dissect what led to the worst attack on the Capitol in centuries.
• A visual investigation into how a presidential rally turned into a Capitol rampage.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

About a decade ago, companies began offering pregnant women tests that promised to detect rare genetic disorders in their fetuses.

The tests initially looked for Down syndrome and worked well, but later tests for rarer conditions did not. An investigation has found that the grave predictions made by those newer tests are usually incorrect.

We look at why the tests are so wrong and what can be done about it.

Guest: Sarah Kliff, an investigative reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• In just over a decade, prenatal tests have gone from laboratory experiments to an industry that serves more than a third of the pregnant women in America. The grave predictions of rare genetic disorders made by newer tests, however, are usually wrong.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The Omicron variant is fueling record-breaking cases across the world and disrupting life. But it may not present as great a danger of hospitalization and severe illness as earlier variants. We explore why this is and what it means for the next stage of the pandemic.

Guest: Carl Zimmer, a science writer and author of the “Matter” column for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• New studies are providing the first indication of why the Omicron variant causes milder disease than previous versions of the coronavirus: It spares the lungs.
• The decision by U.S. health officials to shorten isolation periods for many infected with the coronavirus has drawn both tempered support and intense opposition from scientists.
• The growing consensus in nations with Omicron that the virus is moving too fast to catch is tempered by early evidence that the variant causes milder symptoms.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This week, The Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and checking in on what has happened in the time since they first ran.

With most natural disasters, the devastation is immediately apparent. But when a winter storm hit Texas, some of the damage was a lot less visible.

The stories of Iris Cantu, Suzanne Mitchell and Tumaini Criss showed the depth of the destruction.

Their lives were upended. The storm in February left their homes barely habitable, with collapsed ceilings and destroyed belongings, and it disrupted their children’s learning.

While the state investigated widespread blackouts from the storm, looking for accountability, the three women grappled with a more pressing question: How am I going to move forward with my life?

Today, we return to their stories.

Guest: Jack Healy, a Colorado-based national correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• As the freak winter storm raged, historically marginalized communities were among the first to face power outages.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This week, The Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and checking in on what has happened in the time since they first ran.

The Good Shepherd Nursing Home in West Virginia lifted its coronavirus lockdown in February.

For months, residents had been confined to their rooms, unable to mix. But with everybody vaccinated, it was time to see one another again, albeit with rules on social distancing and mask wearing still in place.

There was Mass in the chapel, lunch in the dining room (decked out in Valentine’s Day decorations) and a favorite activity: the penny auction. Top prize? A tub of cheese puffs.

In March, we shared the home’s some of the relief and joy about the tiptoe back to normalcy. Today, we return to the home to see how life has changed.

Guest: Sarah Mervosh, a national reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The happiness inside the Good Shepherd Nursing Home, after a nearly a year in lockdown.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This week, The Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and checking in on what has happened in the time since they first ran.

This episode contains strong language.

Dogecoin started out as a kind of inside joke in the world of cryptocurrency. However, earlier this year, it quickly became, for some, a very serious path to wealth.

Today, we return to the unlikely story of a 33-year-old who bought the cryptocurrency and became a millionaire in the process, to see what he has lost or gained in the time since.

Guest: Kevin Roose, a technology columnist for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Glauber Contessoto went looking for something that could change his fortunes overnight. He found it in a joke cryptocurrency.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This week, The Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and checking in on what has happened in the time since they first ran.

When Officer Harry Dunn reported for work at the Capitol on the morning of Jan. 6, he expected a day of relatively normal protests.

At noon, the mood shifted. He received calls over his radio that the demonstrations were becoming violent. When he took up position on the west side of the Capitol, he said he realized just how dangerous the situation had become.

Inside the building, after the walls were breached, Officer Dunn found a chaotic scene — one in which officers were overwhelmed and the waves of rioters seemed endless. He also encountered racism from the pro-Trump mob, as did many of his Black co-workers.

We hear from Officer Dunn about what happened that day from his perspective.

Guest: Officer Harry Dunn, a Capitol Police officer who was on duty during the storming of the Capitol.

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Background reading:

• “Black officers fought a different battle” on Jan. 6, Officer Harry Dunn said. Here is what he saw and heard when rioters, including white supremacists, stormed the Capitol.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This week, The Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and checking in on what has happened in the time since they first ran.

This episode contains strong language.

Bartenders, sous chefs, wait staff — back in August, managers in the U.S. hospitality industry were struggling to fill a range of roles at their establishments.

One owner of a gourmet burger restaurant in Houston said that before the pandemic, a job opening could easily get 100 applicants — but that was no longer the case; applications were in the single digits. “I had never seen it like this before in my career,” he told us. “I’ve been doing this for over 25 years.”

Managers blamed pandemic unemployment benefits for the dearth of job seekers. Employees said that the pandemic had opened their eyes to the realities of work.

Today, we return to the country’s labor shortage to find out why so many Americans have left their jobs, and whether the people we spoke to back in August are working again.

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Background reading: 

• Why is it so hard to hire right now? Experts weigh in on what’s going on in the labor market — and what companies can do to attract workers.
• The sharp rebound in hiring, especially in service industries, is widening opportunities and prompting employers to compete on pay.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

A year that started with the mass introduction of Covid vaccines and the astonishing scenes of rioting at the Capitol is ending with concern about new virus variants and fears about the effects of a warming climate.

As we approach the end of the year, we listen back to more of the events that defined 2021.

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Background reading: 

• In a volatile year again dominated by politics and the pandemic, “The Daily” sought out personal stories. Here’s a look back on the episodes that our team can’t forget.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

By the end of last year, if you needed a coronavirus test, you could get one. But when vaccines arrived, focus shifted.

Many of the vaccinated felt like they didn’t need tests and demand took a nosedive. Testing sites were closed or converted into vaccination sites. And Abbott Laboratories, a major test manufacturer, wound up destroying millions.

However, with the surge of the new Omicron variant, which is less susceptible to vaccines, demand for testing is back — and it is outstripping supply.

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

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Background reading: 

• President Biden came into office vowing to make coronavirus testing cheap and accessible, but matching supply with demand has been a persistent problem.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia was always going to be the last Democrat to get on board with President Biden’s $2.2 trillion climate, social spending and tax bill. But the White House was confident that a compromise could be reached.

On Sunday, that confidence was shattered: In an interview on Fox News, Mr. Manchin essentially declared that he could not support the bill as written, and he indicated that he was done negotiating all together.

Where does this leave Mr. Biden’s signature domestic policy goal?

Guest: Emily Cochrane, a correspondent for The New York Times, based in Washington.

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Background reading: 

• Mr. Manchin said on Sunday that he could not support the president’s signature bill, dooming his party’s drive to pass its marquee domestic policy legislation as written.
• Mr. Biden and his top aides have tried to salvage hopes of passing their domestic agenda, acknowledging that their only path forward is to repair a broken relationship with Mr. Manchin.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains references to suicide and abuse that may be upsetting to some listeners.

A few months ago, we told the story of N, a teenager in Afghanistan whose family was trying to force her to marry a member of the Taliban. Her identity has been concealed for her safety.

N resisted, and her father and brother beat her, leading her to attempt suicide. Then she escaped.

This is what happened after she fled her family’s home.

Suicide Prevention Helplines: If you are having thoughts of suicide or are concerned that someone you know may be having those thoughts, in the United States call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 (TALK) or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources. Go here for resources outside the United States.

Guest: Lynsea Garrison, a senior international producer for The Daily, spoke with N, a young woman whose life changed drastically after the fall of Kabul.

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Background reading: 

• Listen to part one of this story.
• Against all predictions, the Taliban took the Afghan capital in a matter of hours. This is the story of how it happened and what came after, by a reporter and photographer who witnessed it all.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Nearly a decade after the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, which destroyed piers and damaged riverside social housing projects, residents of Lower Manhattan are still vulnerable to floods.

Michael Kimmelman, The Times’s architecture critic, explores the nine-year effort to redesign Lower Manhattan in the wake of the hurricane, and the design and planning challenges that have made progress incremental. He goes inside a fight over how to protect the neighborhood in the future — revealing why renewal in the face of climate disaster is so complicated.

This story was narrated by Michael Kimmelman. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

The Headway initiative is funded through grants from the Ford Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), with Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors serving as a fiscal sponsor. The Woodcock Foundation is a funder of Headway’s public square.

The New York Times works with philanthropic organizations that share its belief that editorial independence is crucial to the power and value of its journalism. Funders have no control over the selection, focus of stories or the editing process and do not review stories before publication. The Times retains full editorial control of the Headway initiative.

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus is incredibly contagious — it is able to infect people with even greater frequency than the Delta variant, and it is skilled at evading the immune system’s defenses. Much is still unknown about the new variant, and scientists are racing to understand its threat. But amid the uncertainty, there’s good news about a prospective new virus treatment: A pill by Pfizer is effective in reducing people’s risk of hospitalization or death from Covid-19.

We explore these two developments and what they could mean for the next phase of the pandemic.

Guest: Carl Zimmer, a science writer and author of the “Matter” column for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• An Omicron surge is likely. Here’s what to expect.
• Pfizer announced that its Covid pill was found to stave off severe disease in a key clinical trial and that it is likely to work against the highly mutated Omicron variant of the virus.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Anti-abortion activists across the country are optimistic that they might be on the cusp of achieving a long-held goal of the movement: overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that extended federal protections for abortion.

But many abortion rights activists are hopeful, too. They are watching closely to see whether the Food and Drug Administration will roll back restrictions on one medication, transforming abortion access across the country. Today, we explore the future of America’s abortion fight.

Guest: Pam Belluck, a health and science writer for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Who gets abortions in America? Here’s what we know.
• During the pandemic, health care providers can send abortion medication by mail. Will the courts allow that to continue?

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The economic situation in Afghanistan is perilous. Banks have run out of cash. In some areas, Afghans are selling their belongings in ad hoc flea markets. Parents wait around hospitals and clinics in the hopes of getting treatment for severely malnourished children.

We hear about what the unfolding crisis looks like on the ground, why the economy has deteriorated so quickly, and what role the United States has played.

Guest: Christina Goldbaum, a correspondent for The New York Times, based in Kabul.

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Background reading: 

• An estimated 22.8 million people — more than half of Afghanistan’s population — are expected to face potentially life-threatening food insecurity this winter. Many are already on the brink of catastrophe.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In July, a group of men stormed the presidential compound in Haiti and assassinated the country’s president, Jovenel Moïse. Months later, the case remains unresolved.

Investigating the killing, the Times journalist Maria Abi-Habib found that Mr. Moïse had begun compiling a list of powerful Haitian businessmen and political figures involved in an intricate drug trafficking network.

Guest: Maria Abi-Habib, bureau chief for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Mr. Moïse took a number of steps to fight drug and arms smugglers. Some officials now fear he was killed for it.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains strong language. 

The Steele Dossier — compiled by Christopher Steele, a British former spy — was born out of opposition research on Donald J. Trump, then a presidential candidate, and his supposed links to Russia.

The document, full of salacious allegations, captured and cleaved America. But now, a main source of the dossier’s findings — Igor Danchenko, a Russian analyst — has been charged with lying to federal investigators.

Guest: Michael S. Schmidt, a Washington correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Mr. Trump and his backers say revelations about the Steele dossier show the Russia investigation was a “hoax.” That is not what the facts indicate.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In Memphis, as in America, the benefits of homeownership have not accrued equally across race.

Housing policy in the United States has leaned heavily on homeownership as a driver of household wealth since the middle of the last century, and, for many white Americans, property ownership has indeed yielded significant wealth. But Black families have largely been left behind, either unable to buy in the first place or hampered by risks that come with owning property.

Homeownership’s limitations are especially apparent in Black neighborhoods. Owner-occupied homes in predominantly African American neighborhoods are worth, on average, half as much as those in neighborhoods with no Black residents, according to a 2018 Brookings Institution and Gallup report that examined metropolitan areas.

For neighborhoods like Orange Mound in southeast Memphis, the solutions cannot come fast enough.

This story was recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

In November, Peng Shuai — one of China’s most popular tennis stars — took to Chinese social media to accuse Zhang Gaoli, who was a member of China’s seven-member ruling committee, of sexually assaulting her.

Within minutes, Chinese censors had taken down Ms. Peng’s post, and, for weeks, no one sees or hears from her.

We look at Ms. Peng’s story and what China’s attempts to censor her have meant for the sports industry.  

Guest: Matthew Futterman, a sports reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Chinese propaganda officials have tried to shape the global discussion of the tennis player Peng Shuai’s #MeToo accusations, but their top-down strategy has largely stumbled.
• The WTA has suspended its future tournaments in China and Hong Kong, as questions linger over Ms. Peng. What major sports are still in China amid the scandal?

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains details about suicide deaths and strong language. 

A few years ago, a website about suicide appeared. On it, not only do people talk about wanting to die, but they share, at great length, how they are going to do it.

Times reporters were able to identify 45 people who killed themselves after spending time on the site, several of whom were minors. The true number is likely to be higher.

We go inside the Times investigation into the website, and ask how and why it is still allowed to operate.

If you are having thoughts of suicide or are concerned that someone you know may be having those thoughts, in the United States call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 (TALK) or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources. Go here for resources outside the United States.

Guest: Megan Twohey, an investigative reporter for The New York Times; and Gabriel J.X. Dance, deputy investigations editor for The Times.

Background reading: 

• The Times investigation found that the suicide website had the trappings of social media, a young audience and explicit content that others don’t allow.

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The Russian military is on the move toward the border with Ukraine, with American intelligence suggesting that Moscow is preparing for an offensive involving some 175,000 troops.

Could the moves herald a full-scale invasion? And if so, what is driving President Vladimir V. Putin’s brinkmanship over Russia’s southwestern neighbor?

Guest: Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• There are tactical reasons for Russia’s threatening an invasion of Ukraine, but the real cause may lie in the Kremlin’s fixation with righting what it sees as a historical injustice.
• After eight years in the trenches, Ukrainian soldiers are resigned to the possibility that the Russian military, which dwarfs their own in power and wealth, will come sooner or later.
• In a tense meeting with Mr. Putin, President Biden said that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would result in heavy economic penalties.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Last week, after a shooting at Oxford High School in the suburbs of Detroit that left four teenagers dead, local prosecutors decided on a novel legal strategy that would extend criminal culpability beyond the 15-year-old accused of carrying out the attack. But could that strategy become a national model?

Guest: Jack Healy, a national correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Prosecutors say James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of the 15-year-old accused of killing four classmates, failed to act on troubling signs. The parents pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter charges.
• After a manhunt and an arraignment, scrutiny of them has intensified.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains descriptions of self-harm and alleged sexual abuse.

When Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in a federal jail, dozens of his alleged victims lost their chance to bring him to justice.

But the trial of his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, on charges that she recruited, groomed and ultimately helped Mr. Epstein abuse young girls, may offer an opportunity to obtain a degree of reckoning.

We look into how Mr. Epstein was allowed to die, and ask whether justice is still possible for his accusers.

Guest: Benjamin Weiser, a reporter covering the Manhattan federal courts for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Testimony at Ms. Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial revealed a key question in the case: Were Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein partners, or partners in crime?
• During the second day of the trial, a woman accused Ms. Maxwell of befriending her when she was a 14-year-old girl, only to join in the sexual abuse that followed

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In her book, “My Body,” Emily Ratajkowski reflects on her fraught relationship with the huge number of photographs of her body that have come to define her life and career.

Some essays recount the author’s hustle as a young model who often found herself in troubling situations with powerful men; another is written as a long, venomous reply to an email from a photographer who has bragged of discovering her. Throughout, Ratajkowski is hoping to set the record straight: She is neither victim nor stooge, neither a cynical collaborator in the male agenda, as her critics have argued, nor some pop-feminist empoweree, as she herself once supposed.

To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Stephen Sondheim died last week at his home in Roxbury, Conn. He was 91.

For six decades, Mr. Sondheim, a composer-lyricist whose works include “Sweeney Todd” and “Into the Woods,” transformed musical theater into an art form as rich, complex and contradictory as life itself.

“For me, the loss that we see pouring out of Twitter right now and everywhere you look as people write about their memories of Sondheim is for that person who says yes, devoting yourself to writing or to dancing or to singing or to composing — or whatever it is — is a worthwhile life,” Jesse Green, The Times’s chief theater critic, said in today’s episode. “And there really is no one who says that as strongly in his life and in his work as Sondheim does.”

Today, we chart Mr. Sondheim’s career, influence and legacy. 

Guest: Jesse Green, the chief theater critic for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• With a childlike sense of discovery, Stephen Sondheim found the language to convey the beauty in harsh complexity.
• Mr. Sondheim was theater’s most revered and influential composer-lyricist of the last half of the 20th century, and he was the driving force behind some of Broadway’s most beloved and celebrated shows.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard a case that was a frontal challenge to Roe v. Wade, the nearly 50-year-old decision that established a constitutional right to abortion.

The case in front of the justices was about a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

For the state to win, the court, which now has a conservative majority, would have to do real damage to the central tenet of the Roe ruling.

We explore the arguments presented in this case and how the justices on either side of the political spectrum responded to them. 

Guest: Adam Liptak, a reporter covering the Supreme Court for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• After oral arguments, the Supreme Court seemed poised to uphold the Mississippi abortion law. Whether it will overrule Roe v. Wade remains unclear.
• Here’s what to know about the Mississippi law.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Amazon is constantly hiring. Data has shown that the company has had a turnover rate of about 150 percent a year.

For the founder, Jeff Bezos, worker retention was not important, and the company built systems that didn’t require skilled workers or extensive training — it could hire and lose people all of the time.

Amazon has been able to replenish its work force, but the pandemic has exposed the vulnerabilities of this approach.

We explore what the labor shortage has meant for Amazon and the people who work there. 

Guest: Karen Weise, a technology correspondent, based in Seattle for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Each year, hundreds of thousands of workers churn through Amazon’s vast mechanism that hires, monitors, disciplines and fires. Amid the pandemic, the already strained system lurched.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The story of the Omicron variant began a week ago, when researchers in southern Africa detected a version of the coronavirus that carried 50 mutations. 

When scientists look at coronavirus mutations, they worry about three things: Is the new variant more contagious? Is it going to cause people to get sicker? And how will the vaccines work against it? 

We explore when we will get the answers to these three questions, and look at the discovery of the variant and the international response to it. 

Guest: Apoorva Mandavilli, a reporter covering science and global health for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• South African scientists have said that while they need more data to be sure, existing treatments and precautions seem to be effective against the Omicron variant.
• Mutations can work together to make a virus more fearsome, but they can also cancel one another out. This phenomenon, called epistasis, is why scientists are reluctant to speculate on Omicron.
• Almost two years into the pandemic, finger-pointing, lack of coordination, sparse information and fear are once again influencing policy.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains strong language. 

Heading into deliberations in the trial of the three white men in Georgia accused of chasing down and killing Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed Black man, it was not clear which way the jurors were leaning. 

In the end, the mostly white jury found all three men guilty of murder. We look at the prosecution’s decision not to make race a central tenet of their case, and how the verdict was reached. 

Guest: Richard Fausset, a correspondent based in Atlanta. 

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Background reading: 

• How a prosecutor addressed a mostly white jury and won a conviction in the Ahmaud Arbery case.
• “It’s good to see racism lose”: The murder convictions were praised by many. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

After a landslide re-election in 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s control over India seemed impossible to challenge.

But a yearlong farmers’ protest against agricultural overhauls has done just that, forcing the Indian prime minister to back down.

How did the protesters succeed?

Guest: Emily Schmall, a South Asia correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The protesters received foreign and domestic financial support, kept their camps organized and looked for ways to be seen while trying to avoid violence.
• How a bungled response to Covid and a struggling economy have hurt the governing party’s standing in India.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In the 1950s and ’60s, the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans, one of the oldest African-American neighborhoods in the United States, was a vibrant community.

But the construction of the Claiborne Expressway in the 1960s gutted the area.

The Biden administration has said that the trillion-dollar infrastructure package will address such historical wrongs.

How might that be achieved?

Guest: Audra D.S. Burch, a national correspondent for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Generations of New Orleans residents have dreamed of the day when the Claiborne Expressway might be removed. President Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure package could eventually make that possible.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains strong language.

On Aug. 25, 2020, Kyle Rittenhouse, a teenager, shot three men, two of them fatally, during street protests in Kenosha, Wis., over the shooting of a Black man by a white police officer.

Mr. Rittenhouse’s trial, which began on Nov. 1, revolved around a central question: Did his actions constitute self-defense under Wisconsin law?

Last week, a jury decided that they did, finding him not guilty on every count against him.

We look at key moments from the trial and at how the verdict was reached.

Guest: Julie Bosman, the Chicago bureau chief of The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Mr. Rittenhouse’s acquittal pointed to the wide berth given to defendants who say they acted out of fear.
• The trial highlighted the deep division over gun rights in the United States.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.