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

It is too early to talk about a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. With the trauma of Oct.... more

This is a conversation about the relationship between Jewishness and the Jewish State. About believing some aspects of Israel have... more

A New York Times and Siena College poll released Nov. 5 showed Donald Trump leading Joe Biden in five of... more

Earlier this week, we heard a Palestinian perspective on the conflict. Today, I wanted to have on an Israeli perspective. Yossi... more

Before there can be any kind of stable coexistence of people in Israel and Palestine, there will have to be... more

The day before Hamas’s horrific attacks in Israel, the Arab Barometer, one of the leading polling operations in the Arab... more

“Two things are true: Israel must do something, and what it’s doing now is indefensible.” So writes Zack Beauchamp, a... more

After factional infighting dominated the G.O.P.’s struggle to elect a House speaker, it feels weirdly quaint to revisit Mitt Romney’s... more

Grief moves slowly and war moves quickly. After Hamas assailants killed at least 1,400 Israelis and took hundreds more hostage,... more

Oct. 7 was Israel’s Sept. 11. That’s been the refrain. I fear that analogy carries so much more truth than... more

It’s a time of contrast and contradiction for gender queerness in America: At the same time that about 5 percent... more

The New Right has been associated with everyone from Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri to right-wing influencers and Catholic integralists.... more

With four ongoing criminal investigations, Donald Trump is the most indicted president in U.S. history. After years of defying unwritten... more

Love it or hate it, self-care has transformed from a radical feminist concept into a multibillion-dollar industry. But the wellness... more

Public libraries around the country have become major battlegrounds for today’s culture wars. In 2022, the American Library Association noted... more

This summer has been a parade of broken climate records. June was the hottest June and July was not just... more

Should schools have been closed down? Were lockdowns a mistake? Was masking even effective? Was the economic stimulus too big? These... more

The global decarbonization effort is colliding headfirst with the realities of great power politics. China currently controls more than 75... more

You can’t understand the modern Republican Party without understanding the complete collapse of trust in mainstream institutions that has taken... more

The 2024 Republican presidential primary is officially underway, and Donald Trump is dominating the field. But this is a very... more

The world economy has experienced many shocks over the past few years: A pandemic. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Skyrocketing inflation.... more

As I head into a three-month book leave, I wanted to take some time to address a wide array of... more

When Barbara Kingsolver set out to write her latest novel, “Demon Copperhead,” she was already considered one of the most... more

California has around half of the nation’s unsheltered homeless population. The state’s homelessness crisis has become a talking point for... more

There are few actors as widely beloved as Tom Hanks. Hanks has acted in over 75 films in his 46-year... more

Since the release of ChatGPT, huge amounts of attention and funding have been directed toward chatbots. These A.I. systems are... more

The Inflation Reduction Act was the largest piece of climate legislation ever passed in the United States, setting aside hundreds... more

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

Last weekend, in the course of about 36 hours, Vladimir Putin faced — and then survived — one of the... more

One of the oldest human ideas is that we are somehow different from animals, somehow superior to them. That’s a... more

“Wealth is the paramount indicator of economic prosperity and well-being,” says the economist Darrick Hamilton. He’s right. Policy analysis tends... more

Earlier this month, a news outlet called The Debrief published a story that included, to put it mildly, some explosive... more

A recent AP-NORC poll found that just a quarter of voters, including only around half of Democrats, want to see... more

Although 12 candidates have entered the Republican presidential race so far, only Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is polling anywhere... more

“Today’s future-positive writers critique our economies while largely seeming to ignore that anything might be amiss in our private lives,”... more

My pitch for this episode is simple: Jennifer Pahlka has written one of the best policy books I’ve ever read. Pahlka... more

Some thoughts on how humans think, how economies grow and why the technologies we think will help so often hurt. Column: “Beyond... more

A lot about the world has changed since February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. The war itself has brought a... more

Today we’re bringing you an episode from the latest New York Times Opinion podcast, “Matter of Opinion.” It’s a chat... more

Here’s a little experiment. Take a second to think about how you would fill in the blank in this sentence:... more

The data is clear: Levels of anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide have spiked for American teenagers over the last decade.... more

We’re in the midst of a serious teen mental health crisis. The number of teenagers and young adults with clinical... more

On Jan. 19, the United States officially hit its debt limit. In response, the Treasury Department began using accounting maneuvers... more

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

Here’s a sobering thought: The older we get, the harder it is for us to learn, to question, to reimagine.... more

On Monday, First Republic Bank folded before being sold by regulators to JPMorgan Chase. At the time, it was the... more

In recent months, we’ve witnessed the rise of chatbots that can pass law and business school exams, artificial companions who’ve... more

California is a land of contrasts. The state is home to staggering wealth, world-remaking tech companies, and some of the... more

On Monday, Fox News abruptly announced that the network and its star primetime host, Tucker Carlson, “have agreed to part... more

According to the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University, 14.3 percent of Americans — nearly 50 million... more

It’s impossible to deny that the U.S. has a serious loneliness problem. One 2018 report by the Kaiser Family Foundation... more

America today faces a crisis of governance. In the face of numerous challenges — from climate change, to housing shortages,... more

In October, the White House released a 70-plus-page document called the “Blueprint for an A.I. Bill of Rights.” The document’s... more

Typically when we put out a call for audience questions, there’s no single topic that dominates. This time was different.... more

“We rarely think about chips, yet they’ve created the modern world,” writes the historian Chris Miller. He’s not exaggerating. Semiconductors don’t... more

In last November's midterm elections, voters placed the Republican Party in charge of the House of Representatives. In 2024, it’s... more

Donald Trump’s legal troubles are mounting. A Manhattan grand jury investigation into the hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels could soon... more

It’s been two weeks since the Silicon Valley Bank run, and we’re still feeling the ripple effects — not just... more

OpenAI last week released its most powerful language model yet: GPT-4, which vastly outperforms its predecessor, GPT-3.5, on a variety... more

This is something a bit different: Not an interview, but a commentary of my own. We’ve done a lot of... more

Last Friday, in the largest bank failure since 2008, Silicon Valley Bank failed. Banks fail all the time. But unless it’s... more

In just a few years, the narrative on China has almost completely flipped. The dominant sentiments in America had been... more

In 1972, when Congress passed Title IX to tackle gender equity in education, men were 13 percentage points more likely... more

In the 2023 legislative session alone, Republican state legislators have introduced more than a hundred bills seeking to restrict transgender... more

“Poetry is the attempt to understand fully what is real, what is present, what is imaginable, what is feelable, and... more

Our society’s dominant narrative is that body size is a product of individual willpower. We are skinny or fat because... more

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s “Children of Time” is about an advanced civilization built by sentient spiders. A sequel, “Children of Ruin,” is... more

Physical pain is a universal human experience. And for many of us, it’s a constant one. Roughly 20 percent of... more

In recent months, the story of the U.S. economy has changed significantly. The January Consumer Price Index showed that annual... more

For most of us, seeing an advertisement pop up while we’re scrolling on Instagram or reading an article or watching... more

Reading Rick Rubin’s production discography is like taking a tour through the commanding heights of American music over the past... more

In my columns and on this show over the past few years, I’ve argued that to achieve the goals liberals... more

Ezra is out sick, so today, we’re sharing one of our favorite conversations — with Jenny Schuetz, a senior fellow at... more

Ezra is out sick, so today, we're sharing an episode from the New York Times Opinion podcast, “First Person.” Each... more

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