There are few issues on which the dominant consensus in Washington has changed as rapidly in recent years as it... more

There are few stories that are more crucial to the world’s future than what’s happening in China. Take any of... more

In recent weeks, America got a preview of how the new Republican House majority would wield its power. In attempting... more

It’s hard to think of a more celebrated figure of the 20th century than Martin Luther King Jr. He has a... more

“Capitalism, it turns out, is more than just the exchange of goods in a market economy,” Katharina Pistor writes. “It... more

Even if you don’t recognize the advice columnist Dan Savage by name, it’s possible that his ideas have influenced how... more

The year 2022 was jam-packed with advances in artificial intelligence, from the release of image generators like DALL-E 2 and... more

Do we know how to truly rest? Who would we be if we did? I’ve been wrestling with these questions since... more

​​“One of the biggest things about poetry is that it holds all of humanity,” the poet Ada Limón tells me.... more

This week, we’re revisiting some of our favorite episodes from the year. For those who make New Year’s resolutions, today’s... more

This past year, we’ve witnessed considerable progress in the development of artificial intelligence, from the release of the image generators... more

This past year, we’ve witnessed considerable progress in the development of artificial intelligence, from the release of the image generators... more

As 2022 comes to a close, we decided to invite listeners to send in questions for an ask-me-anything episode. And... more

It’s not an exaggeration to say that “clock time” runs our lives. From the moment our alarms go off in... more

“From the U.S. Federal Reserve’s initial misjudgment that inflation would be ‘transitory’ to the current consensus that a probable U.S.... more

Since 2021, Democrats have controlled the House, the Senate and the presidency, and they’ve used that power to pass consequential... more

Republicans already hold tremendous power in America. They have appointed six of the nine current Supreme Court justices. They have... more

About 50 years ago, beef cost more than $7 a pound in today’s dollars. Today, despite high inflation, beef is... more

Every day, we consume a mind-boggling amount of information. We scan online news articles, sift through text messages and emails,... more

The fight against climate change is at a crossroads. This past year, the climate movement in the United States achieved significant... more

The results of Tuesday’s midterm elections are still trickling in, but the broader story is clear: The red wave that... more

George Saunders is regarded as one of our greatest living fiction writers. He won the Booker Prize in 2017 for... more

“One can usually pretend that there is a logic to the distribution of wealth — that behind a person’s prosperity... more

As we approach the 2022 midterms, the outlook for American democracy doesn’t appear promising. An increasingly Trumpist, anti-democratic Republican Party... more

How does the popularity of a president’s policies impact his or her party’s electoral chances? Why have Latinos — and... more

​​“What would you do for your relevance?” the political journalist Mark Leibovich asks in his new book, “Thank You for... more

According to the conventional rules of politics, Democrats should be on track for electoral disaster this November. Joe Biden’s approval... more

N.K. Jemisin is a fantasy and science-fiction writer who won three consecutive Hugo Awards — considered the highest honor in... more

“The Rachel Maddow Show” debuted in the interregnum between political eras. Before it lay the 9/11 era and the George... more

Today we’re bringing you an episode from the recently launched New York Times podcast, Hard Fork. Hosted by veteran tech... more

“There are moments when history making creeps up on you,” writes the economic historian Adam Tooze. “This is one of... more

The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that nearly one in five adults in America lives with a mental illness.... more

When most people hear “crypto,” the first thing they think of is “currencies.” Cryptocurrencies have skyrocketed in popularity over the... more

Why do some countries produce far more science Nobel laureates than others? Why did Silicon Valley happen in California rather... more

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the question most analysts were asking was not whether Russia would win. It was... more

In August, Joe Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act, which included $392 billion towards a new climate budget... more

In the past few months, Joe Biden’s agenda has gone from a failed promise to real legislation. Taken together, the CHIPS... more

“We see status virtually everywhere in social life, if we think to look for it,” writes Cecilia Ridgeway. “It suffuses... more

Today we’re bringing you a special episode from New York Times Opinion: a roundtable, hosted by Lulu Garcia-Navarro, about how... more

When is the last time you paused — truly paused the flow of life — to appreciate something beautiful? For... more

Today we're revisiting one of our favorite conversations from 2021 with the novelist Richard Powers. Enjoy! There are certain conversations I... more

In times of deep sorrow or joy, humans have always turned to music. Archaeologists have found evidence of instruments among... more

Today we're revisiting one of our favorite episodes from this year, with the prolific writer Margaret Atwood. A good rule of... more

With Roe now overturned, the evangelical movement has achieved one of its decades-old political priorities. But for many evangelicals, this... more

Today, we’re re-airing one of my favorite episodes of all time. It was originally recorded in February of 2022, but... more

Over the past year, many places have returned to something approximating a prepandemic normal. Restaurants are filling up again. Airports... more

In his latest work, “The Last White Man,” the award-winning writer Mohsin Hamid imagines a world that is very like... more

Today’s show is built around three simple sentences: “Future people count. There could be a lot of them. And we... more

It’s hard to think of anything changing more quickly in our society right now than our understanding of gender. There’s... more

Today we're bringing you an episode from our friends at The Argument, about cultural appropriation in creative work. In recent... more

Today we're taking a short break and re-releasing one of our favorite episodes from 2022, a conversation with the novelist... more

“At the very heart of democracy is a contradiction that cannot be resolved, one that has affected free societies from... more

There’s a paradox that sits at the center of our mental health conversation in America. On the one hand, our... more

America is experiencing a housing crisis — or, more accurately, multiple housing crises. A massive housing shortage in major cities... more

Kim Stanley Robinson is one of the great living science fiction writers and one of the most astute observers of... more

Today, we're bringing you an episode from the recently launched New York Times Opinion podcast, “First Person,” hosted by Lulu... more

“It’s true: We’re in trouble,” writes Michelle Goldberg of the modern feminist movement. “One thing backlashes do is transform a... more

For decades now, the conservative legal movement has been on a mission to remake this nation’s laws from the bench.... more

In the past few weeks alone, the Supreme Court has delivered a firestorm of conservative legal victories. States now have... more

On Friday, a Supreme Court majority voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. On Sunday, we released an episode with Dahlia... more

On Friday, a Supreme Court majority voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. Nearly all abortions are already banned in at... more

The Jan. 6 hearings have made it clear that Donald Trump led a concerted, monthslong effort to overturn a democratic... more

Depending on the data you look at, between 10 and 40 percent of people who get Covid will still have... more

This week, the S&P 500 entered what analysts refer to as a bear market. The index has plunged around 22... more

It’s that time of year, when we invite listeners to send in questions, and I answer them on the air.... more

American socialists today find themselves in a tenuous position. Over the past decade, the left has become a powerful force... more

The French economist Thomas Piketty is arguably the world’s greatest chronicler of economic inequality. For decades now, he has collected... more

“There is definitely a contest for the future of the center right,” says Reihan Salam, the president of the Manhattan... more

For decades, the conservative position on abortion has been simple: Appoint justices who will overturn Roe V. Wade. That aspiration... more

What does it mean to reckon with the violence, the tragedy, and the numerous contradictions of America? That is the... more

​​“One of the biggest things about poetry is that it holds all of humanity,” the poet Ada Limón tells me.... more

When Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization leaked a few weeks ago, it signaled... more

The experience of reading Hannah Arendt’s 1951 classic “The Origins of Totalitarianism” in the year 2022 is a disorienting one.... more

“It begun to dawn on many conservatives that in spite of apparent electoral victories that have occurred regularly since the... more

Today we're bringing you an episode from our friends at Sway about the war in Ukraine and the challenges of... more

Right now, Republicans of all stripes — Ron DeSantis, J.D. Vance, Mike Pence, Glenn Youngkin — are trying to figure... more

Today we're bringing you an episode from our friends at The Argument about Florida's “Don't Say Gay” bill and the... more

If Elon Musk’s bid to purchase Twitter comes to fruition, the world’s richest person will own one of its most... more

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has transformed Europe within a matter of weeks. A continent once fractured by the refugee... more

“Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel was published in 2014. That book imagined the world after a pandemic had... more

With the midterms just over six months away, the electoral prospects for Democrats are looking bleak. President Biden’s approval rating... more

“Trauma is much more than a story about something that happened long ago,” writes Dr. Bessel van der Kolk. “The... more

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is only getting more brutal: We’ve seen the bodies of civilians strewn in the streets in... more

The Russia-Ukraine war has changed considerably in recent weeks. Vladimir Putin is no longer talking explicitly about regime change in... more

The hype around cryptocurrencies has reached a fever pitch. There are Super Bowl ads for crypto companies featuring celebrities like... more

The Russian political scientist Ilya Matveev recently described the impact of the West’s sanctions on his country as “30 years... more

“There is a chance that macroeconomic stimulus on a scale closer to World War II levels than normal recession levels... more

A good rule of thumb is that whatever Margaret Atwood is worried about now is likely what the rest of... more

Nearly every dimension of the Ukraine-Russia conflict has been shaped by energy markets. Russia’s oil and gas exports have long been... more

As we enter the fourth week of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many of the possible pathways this conflict could take... more

“Americans and Europeans were guided through the new century by a tale about ‘the end of history,’ by what I... more

For Western audiences, the past few weeks have been a torrent of information about what’s happening in Russia and Ukraine.... more

Vladimir Putin was looking for a swift invasion that would halt Ukraine’s drift toward the West, reveal NATO’s fractures and... more

“Russia’s utterly unprovoked, unjustifiable, immoral invasion of Ukraine would seem to mark the end of an era,” writes Fareed Zakaria,... more

There’s the Russia-Ukraine war that’s easy to follow in the news right now. We can watch Russian bombs falling on... more

When we play Monopoly or basketball, we know we are playing a game. The stakes are low. The rules are... more

We were promised, with the internet, a productivity revolution. We were told that we’d get more done, in less time,... more

Government is a bureaucratic, slow-moving institution. It’s too easily captured by special interests. It’s often incapable of acting at the... more

This is one of those episodes I feel I need to sell. Because on one level, it’s about an unusual... more

“The sensation of being alive in the early 21st century consisted of the sense that our ability to pay attention... more

Should we be celebrating a Biden boom? Lamenting inflation and its consequences? Both? We know how to talk about booms, like... more

“Getting race wrong early has led courts to get everything else wrong since,” writes Jamal Greene. But he probably doesn’t... more

There’s good reason to worry about the future of democracy, and little reason to believe Democrats have a viable plan... more

The world has gotten louder, even when we’re alone. A day spent in isolation can still mean a day buffeted... more

It’s been a year since Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States. And what... more

I remember thinking, as Covid ravaged the country in December 2020, that at least the holidays the next year would... more

Nothing like a newborn and paternity leave to leave you feeling a bit out of the loop. So for my... more

For decades, our society’s dominant metaphor for the mind has been a computer. A machine that operates the exact same... more

For years, I’ve kept a list of dream guests for this show. And as long as that list has existed,... more

How do you introduce Noam Chomsky? Perhaps you start here: In 1979, The New York Times called him “arguably the... more

“Today, we are supercompetent when it comes to efficiency, utility, speed, convenience, and getting ahead in the world; but we... more

Every day in the United States, more than 10,000 babies are born and 10,000 people turn 65. But America doesn’t... more

Can we predict the future more accurately? It’s a question we humans have grappled with since the dawn of civilization —... more

Joe Biden’s economic agenda is centered on a basic premise: The United States needs to build. To build roads and... more

In 2020 the United States experienced a nearly 30 percent rise in homicides from 2019. That’s the single biggest one-year... more

The compulsion to be happy at work “is always a demand for emotional work from the worker,” writes Sarah Jaffe.... more

Over the course of Donald Trump’s presidency, the far-right fringe became a surprisingly visible and influential force in American politics.... more

“Making it harder to vote, and harder to understand what the party is really about — these are two parts... more

Many of the most contentious debates right now center on whether we, as individuals — and as a country —... more

I’ve been on an octopus kick for a little while now. In that, I don’t seem to be alone. Octopuses... more

Public policy in the United States often overlooks wealth. We tend to design, debate and measure our economic policies with... more

“Progressives understand that culture war means discrediting their opponents and weakening or destroying their institutions. Conservatives should approach the culture... more

One of the most frightening, least understood aspects of the coronavirus pandemic is what’s come to be known as “long... more

In the wake of the “Stop the Steal” campaign, the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and the wave of... more

There are few periods of U.S. history that are as vigorously debated, as emotionally and civically charged as the American... more

I’ve been wanting to explore the world crypto and blockchain technologies could build on the show for a while. In... more

Nick Offerman is best known for his role as Ron Swanson, the mustachioed, libertarian outdoorsman who led the Pawnee, Ind.,... more

Maggie Nelson is a poet, critic and cultural theorist whose work includes the award-winning 2016 book “The Argonauts.” Her newest... more

Do we actually know how much good our charitable donations do? This is the question that jump-started Holden Karnofsky’s current career.... more

In July, Eric Adams narrowly won the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York, making him the odds-on favorite to... more