The Sunday Read: ‘What Alice Munro Knew’
12 January 2025 - 1 hour 1 min“My life has gone rosy, again,” Alice Munro told a friend in a buoyant letter of March 1975. For Munro, who was then emerging as one of her generation’s leading writers, the previous few years had been blighted by heartbreak and upheaval: a painful separation from her husband of two decades; a retreat from British Columbia back to her native Ontario; a series of brief but bruising love affairs, in which, it seems, Munro could never quite make out the writing on the wall. “This time it’s real,” she wrote, speaking of a new romantic partner, Gerald Fremlin, the emphasis acknowledging that her friend had heard these words before. “He’s 50, free, a good man if I ever saw one, tough and gentle li...
Series Episodes
'The Interview': Many See a World In Crisis. Rebecca Solnit Sees Possibility.
The writer and activist on how political change happens and taking the long view.
38 mins
7 March Finished
The Firing of Kristi Noem
On Thursday, President Trump fired Kristi Noem, his secretary of homeland security, whose agency is at the center of his second-term agenda. Hamed Aleaziz, who covers the department, explains how Ms. Noem ended up losing the president’s trust.
30 mins
6 March Finished
Did Israel Push Trump Into War?
The U.S. decision to strike Iran was a victory for Israel, which had been pushing President Trump for months on the need to hit the country. Now, Israel’s role in spurring the operation has become a point of political tension. The New York Times journalists Mark Mazzetti and Ronen Bergman discuss what we know about the extraordinarily close cooperation between Israel and the United States.
37 mins
5 March Finished
A New Media Empire
The bidding war between Paramount and Netflix over the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery appeared to come to a close last week, when Netflix backed out. The Times journalists Nicole Sperling, Lauren Hirsch and Jonathan Mahler discuss this Hollywood drama fit for the big screen, and why it could reshape our political and cultural landscape.
25 mins
4 March Finished
The Midterms Begin With a Texas-Size Showdown
Democrats and Republicans will head to the polls in Texas today for an election that will send both parties a message about what voters want in Trump’s America. Shane Goldmacher, a national political correspondent for The New York Times, discusses the Senate primary that so many are watching.
33 mins
3 March Finished
Celebration and Mourning: Inside an Iran at War
The United States and Israel continued to strike Iran with missiles for a second day on Sunday, destroying more power centers of the Iranian regime and, according to rights groups, bringing the civilian death toll over 100. Iran responded with retaliatory attacks. At the same time, all eyes were on the Iranian government and the millions of citizens who have long opposed it. Farnaz Fassihi, who covers Iran for The New York Times, brings us the view from a pivotal moment inside Iran.
35 mins
2 March Finished
