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...
How Charlize Theron Overcame Her Dark Family Past
The Oscar-winning actress reflects on pain, healing and becoming an action hero.
59 mins
18 April Finished
A Week of Scandal, Reckoning and Resignations in Congress
explicitWarning: This episode discusses suicide. This week, Congress was on the cusp of doing something that has never happened in U.S. history: forcibly removing four House members. Two of those members resigned. Michael Gold, who covers Congress, explains what unfolded on Capitol Hill, and what the events tell us about how willing Congress is to hold itself accountable.
26 mins
17 April Finished
Trump vs. the Pope
This week, an unusual disagreement broke out between the president of the United States and Pope Leo XIV. The New York Times Rome bureau chief, Motoko Rich, explains why President Trump cares so much about what the pope thinks, and why it matters that they are so deeply at odds.
34 mins
16 April Finished
Trump’s Risky Strategy to Blockade Iran’s Blockade
Over a month into a war with Iran that has no clear end, President Trump has enforced a blockade, which went into effect on Monday at the Strait of Hormuz. The New York Times reporters David E. Sanger, Rebecca F. Elliott and Eric Schmitt discuss the strategy behind the blockade, the dangers that it poses and whether or not it’s actually working.
27 mins
15 April Finished
The Workers Letting A.I. Do Their Jobs
In an era of agents powered by artificial intelligence, many programmers are barely programming.
36 mins
14 April Finished
Why U.S.-Iran Negotiations Failed
After 21 hours of talks, Vice President JD Vance said Washington and Tehran had not reached a deal to end the war.
31 mins
13 April Finished