A Times host interviews the paper's own reporters on the day's biggest story.
The Daily is a measured current-events show built around reported conversations, tape, and careful context. Recent episodes range from AI inside software work to U.S.-Iran negotiations, birthright citizenship, Mississippi schools, psychedelics, spaceflight, and legal turmoil.
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The show is interview-driven throughout: even its news episodes are structured as a host questioning a Times reporter who has just filed on a story, rather than a solo monologue. Natalie Kitroeff hosts news-focused episodes on subjects like US-Iran negotiations and education policy; Rachel Abrams hosts Sunday-leaning culture segments such as a look at ongoing public fascination with the Kennedy family; David Marchese hosts the longer-form interview episodes that run under The Interview banner within the same feed. Guests are typically Times staff reporters and correspondents explaining their own on-the-ground or investigative reporting, occasionally joined by outside newsmakers or public figures, such as YouTube CEO Neil Mohan or actors and writers like Lena Dunham and Richard Gadd. Recurring subject areas include Middle East and US foreign policy, domestic education and political debates, the effect of AI tools on white-collar and coding work, celebrity fame and its psychological toll, and mental-health topics including psychedelic-assisted therapy. Episodes lean conversational and dialogue-heavy, built around a clear question the host is trying to get the guest to answer rather than ambient sound design or narrative reenactment. Listeners who want a daily explainer on a single news story, paired with occasional long-form personal interviews, are the core audience. Some episodes deal directly with sexual assault, childhood trauma, addiction, and war violence as reported subject matter rather than incidental references. The pacing suggests near-daily publication with an occasional longer weekend or interview-format episode mixed in. Production centers on Times journalists as the connective thread across otherwise unrelated topics.
Made for: News-attentive listeners who want a daily explainer on one major world or domestic story, plus occasional long-form interviews with cultural figures.
What sets it apart: Rather than a single narrator explainer, nearly every episode is structured as the host interviewing a Times reporter or outside guest, and the feed doubles up with long-form interview episodes from the paper's separate Interview show.
This is what the news should sound like. The biggest stories of our time, told by the best journalists in the world. Hosted by Michael Barbaro, Rachel Abrams and Natalie Kitroeff. Twenty minutes a day, six days a week, ready by 6 a.m. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
It turns public figures' answers into revealing tests of power, responsibility, self-knowledge, and the stories built around them.
The Daily moves from sustained interviews to reported conversations without losing its interest in how public events become personal. Lulu Garcia Navarro presses J.B.
Polite questions keep tightening until billionaires, CEOs and celebrities run out of comfortable answers.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
AI at work feels real when agents start questioning coders and still need a human to keep them honest.
Clive Thompson tracks software developers as AI shifts from helper to active participant in writing code. The episode works best when it stays concrete: agents question coders about how features should behave, then take on more of the work while humans stay close enough to catch…
A focused look at how Israel's choices could strain a fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire.
The failed U.S.-Iran negotiations leave the temporary ceasefire on uncertain ground, and The Daily turns its attention to the choices Israel makes next.
A careful portrait of Robert Draper's ibogaine trip that stays rooted in reporting rather than spectacle.
The Daily treats Robert Draper's ibogaine trip in Tijuana as reporting first and sensation second. Natalie Kittroweth stays with the controlled setting, the screening, the long preparation, and the moment Draper decides he needs to see the therapy for himself.
A candid look at Lena Dunham, Girls, and the painful loop between self-exposure and public judgment.
David Marchese's conversation with Lena Dunham uses her memoir, Famesick, to revisit the reaction that built around Girls and around Dunham herself.
Mississippi's school turnaround puts testing, accountability, and student growth under a sharper lens.
Mississippi's school turnaround gives The Daily a grounded way into the question of how education policy survives contact with classrooms. Sarah Mirvosh follows the state from its 49th-place education ranking in 2013, especially for young children learning to read, to what…
Pam Bondi's Epstein files strategy turns loyalty into a bipartisan pressure campaign.
The Daily follows Pam Bondi's turn from President Trump's loyal attorney general into a political liability, using the Epstein files, promised indictments, and the backlash that followed when neither delivered what conservatives had been led to expect.
A focused account of the historical argument driving a birthright citizenship fight.
The Daily frames a Supreme Court fight over birthright citizenship as a deeper test of who gets to count as American. It follows the government's effort to narrow the 14th Amendment through arguments about allegiance and history, while staying close to the justices as they probe…
A lunar mission becomes a measured story about the people carrying its history and hopes beyond Earth.
The Daily treats the coming lunar mission less as launch-day spectacle than as a test of what returning to the moon is meant to prove. Ken Chang frames it as the first close pass by humans in more than 53 years, then keeps the focus on the four astronauts: Reid Weissman leaving…
Outline writers unpack their own published stories, one essay-driven conversation at a time.
Monocle's weekday briefing on Iran, Hormuz, and Gulf diplomacy, often broadcast live from Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Software developers are bringing A.I.
A temporary ceasefire looks shakier by the hour.
Robert Draper spent Thanksgiving in Tijuana.
Lena Dunham returns to an old argument.
Mississippi sits in the middle of a surprise.
Pam Bondi is in the hot seat.
People slept outside the Supreme Court.
Florida is where this one begins.
Ana was lonely inside the movement.
A month into the war, diplomacy is now the problem in the room.
Panna 2 glows under too many Christmas lights.
YouTube now sits at the center.
This episode explores the domestic impact of war through a Florida gas station, where manager Cam Judy navigates raising prices on loyal customers.
A traveler is trying the airport for the third time.
Energy prices are not staying local.
China did not buckle.
Trump promised no endless wars.
A corner of the internet is scoring young men's bodies.
Richard Gadd is still sitting with the aftermath.
The bill is the hinge.
Iran has not backed down.
Stephen Colbert is the first alarm bell.
New York Times reporter Farnaz Fasihi explains how Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the assassinated supreme leader, became Iran's new supreme leader despite the Islamic Republic's foundational rejection of hereditary power.
New York Times Beirut bureau chief Christina Goldbaum describes escalating Israeli bombardment of Lebanon as a second front in the broader war following Iran's involvement, with over a million people displaced and more than 800 killed in Israeli strikes.
Former New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells discusses how a health scare forced him to completely transform his relationship with food, leading him to quit his prestigious job, adopt mindful eating practices, and overhaul his diet to save his life.
In this interview, Illinois Governor J.B.
This episode investigates the case of Christy Metcalf, a Black lawyer in Mississippi who faced pay discrimination from the state Senate.
The Daily investigates how the U.S.
This episode examines how the war in Iran has triggered a global oil crisis by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route for 20% of the world's oil supply.
This episode analyzes the first 10 days of a U.S.-Israeli military assault on Iran, examining the strategic failures, civilian casualties, and Iran's retaliatory tactics that have spiked oil prices and drawn in other countries.
This episode investigates the high-stakes battle between AI company Anthropic and the Pentagon over the use of AI in warfare, focusing on safety concerns and control.
The episode features New York Times chief movie critic Manola Dargis discussing the 2026 Oscars, analyzing frontrunners and personal favorites in Best Actress, Best Actor, and Best Picture categories.
David Marchese interviews writer Rebecca Solnit for The Daily's Interview series about her new book The Beginning Comes After the End, a philosophical and political argument for a longer-term, more hopeful view of social change that pushes back against progressive despair and doomerism.
This episode of The Daily examines the firing of Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security, detailing how her aggressive immigration enforcement, a costly ad campaign, and scandals led to her downfall.
This episode investigates the close cooperation between the U.S.
This episode analyzes the $111 billion merger between Paramount and Warner Brothers, exploring its impact on Hollywood, streaming competition, and political influence.
This episode analyzes the Texas Senate primary, where Republicans grapple with Trump's influence in a race between incumbent John Cornyn and Trump-aligned Ken Paxton, while Democrats choose between healer James Tallarico and fighter Jasmine Crockett.
Michael Barbaro speaks with New York Times foreign correspondent Farnaz Fasihi on the day after Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in a U.S.-Israeli strike while sitting in his office during a meeting of senior military commanders, alongside the deaths of the IRGC commander-in-chief, the defense minister, and other officials.
The United States and Israel launched massive coordinated strikes against Iran killing Supreme Leader Khamenei and multiple regime officials, marking the most aggressive U.S.
Lulu Garcia-Navarro interviews Maggie Gyllenhaal for The New York Times Interview podcast about her feature film The Bride, a revisionist Bride of Frankenstein retelling starring Jesse Buckley that she both wrote and directed for Warner Brothers.
Sebastian Lai discusses his father Jimmy Lai, the 77-year-old Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and newspaper founder who received a 20-year sentence for national security crimes after 1,800 days in solitary confinement.
This episode investigates the operation to capture and kill El Mencho, Mexico's most powerful drug lord, detailing his brutal rise, the cartel's economic diversification, and the political pressure from the U.S.
The episode analyzes President Trump's record-long State of the Union speech, covering his inflated economic claims, partisan attacks on Democrats over immigration, and ambiguous foreign policy stances on Iran and Ukraine.
This episode analyzes the escalating tensions between the U.S.
This episode analyzes the global fallout from a Supreme Court ruling that struck down President Trump's tariffs, featuring insights from White House, trade, and corporate reporters.
This episode explores the decline of swipe-based dating apps and the rise of alternatives, from in-person events like wrestling mixers and wine tastings to AI-driven matchmaking.
David Marchese interviews wellness influencer Jay Shetty, exploring tensions between his monk training and glamorous influencer life, addressing controversies from a Guardian article, and discussing skepticism around his content and ethics.
This special episode of The Daily covers the Supreme Court's historic 6-3 decision striking down President Trump's global tariffs as illegal, with host Natalie Kitroeff interviewing legal journalist Adam Liptak to analyze the ruling's legal logic, political implications, and Trump's defiant response.
This episode examines the arrest of former Prince Andrew in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, exploring why legal consequences have been elusive despite years of allegations.
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a moderate Democrat and former attorney general, explains why she supports a government shutdown targeting DHS funding over ICE's immigration enforcement tactics.
The Daily host Natalie Kitroeff and New York Times tech reporter Kevin Roos explain vibe coding, a term coined by former OpenAI programmer Andrej Karpathy to describe a new approach to software development in which users describe what they want in plain language and AI tools write the code entirely.
NYT reporters Frenchie Robles and Michael Crowley explain how the Trump administration, driven by Marco Rubio's personal campaign to topple the Castro regime, pressured Venezuela's Maduro to cut Cuba's oil supply and then threatened tariffs on any country that continued shipping oil to the island.
This episode investigates the backlash against AI data centers in rural America, focusing on St.
This episode explores the 2026 Winter Olympics, focusing on how geopolitical tensions, particularly involving the U.S.
New York Times journalist Lulu Garcia-Navarro interviews Giselle Pellicot, the French woman who was drugged and repeatedly raped by her husband Dominique Pellicot over years while he invited dozens of men to assault her while she was heavily sedated, in Pellicot's first interview with an American media outlet.