The Daily

After the movie “Free Willy” became a hit, word got out that the star of the film, a killer whale named Keiko, was sick and living in a tiny pool at a Mexican amusement park. Fans were outraged and pleaded for his release. “The Good Whale” tells the story of the wildly ambitious science experiment to return Keiko to the ocean — while the world watched.An epic tale that starts in Mexico and ends in Norway, the six-episode series follows Keiko as he’s transported from country to country, each time landing in the hands of well-intentioned people who believe they know what’s best for him — people who still disagree, decades later, about whether they did the right thing.“The Good Whale" is a new show from Serial Productions and The New York Times. Search for it wherever you get your podcasts, or follow it at https://lnk.to/good-whale For an exclusive look inside the making of “The Good Whale,” sign up for the newsletter at nytimes.com/serialnewsletter Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore every

The Blackpink star strikes out on her own, away from the system that turned her into a global phenomenon.Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

After just nine days as Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz has withdrawn from consideration.Michael S. Schmidt, an investigative reporter for The Times, discusses the revelations and the reporting that doomed the prospective nomination of Gaetz, a former representative of Florida.Guest: Michael S. Schmidt, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, covering Washington.Background reading: Matt Gaetz withdraws from consideration for attorney general.A federal inquiry traced payments from Gaetz to women.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Warning: This episode contains graphic descriptions of violence and death.On Wednesday afternoon, a guilty verdict was reached in the death of the Georgia nursing student Laken Riley. A 26-year-old migrant from Venezuela was convicted.Rick Rojas, the Atlanta bureau chief for The Times, discusses the case, and how it became a flashpoint in the national debate over border security.Guest: Rick Rojas, the Atlanta bureau chief for The New York Times.Background reading: Ms. Riley, 22, was attacked in February while running on a trail on the University of Georgia campus in Athens. Her killer was sentenced to life in prison.Lawmakers in Georgia approved tougher rules on immigration after the killing.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

For decades, breast augmentations have been one of the most popular cosmetic surgeries in the United States. But in recent years, a new trend has emerged: the breast reduction.Lisa Miller, who covers personal and cultural approaches to health for The Times, discusses why the procedure has become so common.Guest: Lisa Miller, a domestic correspondent for the Well section of The New York Times.Background reading: Are women asserting their independence or capitulating to yet another impossible standard of beauty?For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.  Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Warning: this episode contains strong language.For the past two weeks, Lynsea Garrison of “The Daily” has been talking to people who were part of a movement, known as the resistance, that opposed Donald Trump’s first term as president.With Mr. Trump preparing to again retake the White House, she asked those past protesters how they might react this time.Background reading: Was Mr. Trump’s election a setback for women? Even women do not agree.Nonprofits have vowed a new resistance. Will donors pay up?For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

President-elect Donald J. Trump has picked Representative Matt Gaetz to be his attorney general.Robert Draper, who covers domestic politics for The Times, discusses what the nomination reveals about Mr. Trump’s promise for retribution and how far Republicans might be willing to go to help him get it.Guest: Robert Draper, who covers domestic politics for The New York Times.Background reading: The attorney general pick has set a new bar for in-your-face nominations.A vendetta over the congressional ethics investigation into Mr. Gaetz helped sink the last speaker. The new speaker has moved to quash the report.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Nationwide, just over a million children, mostly girls, participate in cheer each year (some estimates are even higher), more than the number who play softball or lacrosse. And almost every part of that world is dominated by a single company: Varsity Spirit.It’s hard to cheer at the youth, high school or collegiate level without putting money in the company’s pocket. Varsity operates summer camps where children learn to do stunts and perform; it hosts events where they compete; it sells pompoms they shake and uniforms they wear on the sidelines of high school and college football games.Varsity’s market power has made the cheer world a paranoid place. In the reporting for this article, dozens of people spoke about the company in conspiratorial tones better suited to a spy thriller. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Dr. Ellen Wiebe has performed hundreds of medical aid in dying (or MAID) procedures and is one of Canada’s most prominent advocates for the practice. David Marchese had questions — medical, legal and philosophical — about when it makes sense for doctors to help people to die, and also about how MAID might shape our thinking on what, exactly, constitutes a good death.Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

The Democratic Party is sifting through the rubble of its sweeping election loss and trying to work out what went wrong.In an interview, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont discusses his diagnosis and how to chart a path back to power.Guest: Senator Bernie Sanders of VermontBackground reading: Democrats reeling from the election failure have begun playing the blame game.Who are the next leaders of the Democratic Party?For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Warning: this episode contains strong language.In his first week as president-elect, Donald J. Trump moved at breakneck speed to fill out his cabinet with a set of loyalists who were both conventional and deeply unconventional, the U.S. Senate chose a leader who could complicate Trump’s agenda, and President Joe Biden welcomed Trump back to the White House.Times Journalists Michael Barbaro, Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman, sat down to make sense of it all.Guest: Julie Hirschfeld Davis, who covers politics for The New York Times.Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times.Maggie Haberman, a senior political correspondent for The New York Times.Background reading: Matt Gaetz is Mr. Trump’s pick for attorney general.John Thune is set to become the next Senate majority leader.Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump’s brief public display of civility was followed by a two-hour meeting behind closed doors.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transc

After single-handedly remaking the auto industry, social media and the global space race, Elon Musk is now turning his attention, and personal fortune, to politics.Over the past few months, he became one of the most influential figures in the race for president, and on Tuesday Donald J. Trump tapped him to help lead what the president-elect called the Department of Government Efficiency,Kirsten Grind and Eric Lipton, investigative reporters for The Times, explain what exactly Musk wants from the new president, and why he is so well placed to get it.Guest: Kirsten Grind, an investigative business reporter at The New York Times.Eric Lipton, an investigative reporter at The New York Times.Background reading: Mr. Trump tapped Mr. Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency.”Mr. Musk helped elect Mr. Trump. What does he expect in return?For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Unlock

Last Tuesday, voters across the country approved measures to protect abortion rights, while rejecting the presidential candidate who claimed to champion those same rights.Kate Zernike, who covers the issue for The Times, explains that gap and what it tells us about the new politics of abortion.Guest: Kate Zernike, a national reporter at The New York Times, writing most recently about abortion.Background reading: Abortion rights ballot measures succeeded in seven of the 10 states where they were proposed.President-elect Donald J. Trump has distanced himself from the idea of a federal abortion ban, but will face pressure to enact one. Here’s how it could happen.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Democrats, devastated by their sweeping losses in the election, are starting to sift through the wreckage of their defeat.Political leaders from all corners of the Democratic coalition are pointing fingers, arguing over the party’s direction and wrestling with what it stands for.Reid J. Epstein, who covers politics for The Times, discusses the reckoning inside the Democratic Party, and where it goes from here.Guest: Reid J. Epstein, a reporter covering politics for The New York Times.Background reading: In interviews, lawmakers and strategists tried to explain Kamala Harris’s defeat, pointing to misinformation, the Gaza war, a toxic Democratic brand and the party’s approach to transgender issues.Nancy Pelosi, the influential former House speaker, lamented Biden’s late exit and the lack of an “open primary.”For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everyth

When Maggie Jones’s marriage collapsed after 23 years, she was devastated and overwhelmed. She was in her 50s, with two jobs, two teenage daughters and one dog. She didn’t consider dating. She had no time, no emotional energy. But then a year passed. One daughter was off at college, the other increasingly independent. After several more months went by, she started to feel a sliver of curiosity about what kind of men were out there and how it would feel to date again.That meant online dating — the default mode not just for the young but also for people Ms. Jones’s age. Her only exposure had been watching her oldest daughter, home from college one summer, as she sat on her bed rapidly swiping through guy after guy — spending no more than a second or two on each.Ms. Jones tells her story of online dating in later adulthood, and what she learned. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spoti

The former House Speaker reflects on Donald Trump’s victory, Kamala Harris’s candidacy and the future of the Democratic Party.Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

In the days since the election, Donald J. Trump has started preparing to retake the White House.Jonathan Swan, who covered Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign for The Times, and Maggie Haberman, a senior political correspondent, take us inside the campaign’s endgame.Guest: Jonathan Swan, a reporter covering politics and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign for The New York Times.Maggie Haberman, a senior political correspondent for The New York Times.Background reading: President-elect Donald J. Trump faces key personnel choices in the wake of his victory.Mr. Trump named Susie Wiles as his White House chief of staff.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.  Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

As the fallout from the election settles, Americans are beginning to absorb, celebrate and mourn the coming of a second Trump presidency.Nate Cohn, chief political analyst for The Times, and Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent, discuss the voting blocks that Trump conquered and the legacy that he has redefined.Guest: Nate Cohn, chief political analyst for The New York Times.Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for The New York Times.Background reading: Mr. Trump made gains in every corner of the country and with nearly every demographic group.His victory will allow him to reshape the modern United States in his own image.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Donald J. Trump was elected president for a second time.Shortly before that call was made, the Times journalists Michael Barbaro, Nate Cohn, Lisa Lerer and Astead W. Herndon sat down to discuss the state of the election.Guest: Nate Cohn, the chief political analyst for The New York Times.Lisa Lerer, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.Astead W. Herndon, a national politics reporter and the host of the politics podcast “The Run-Up.”Background reading: Follow live election updates.The Republican Party clinched control of the Senate.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.  Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

After two years of campaigning, more than a billion of dollars of advertising and a last-minute change to one of the nominees, the 2024 race for president is now in the hands of the American voters.Nate Cohn, the chief political analyst for The Times, gives a guide to understanding tonight’s election results.Guest: Nate Cohn, the chief political analyst for The New York Times.Background reading: What you need to know about election night results and The New York Times Needle.Despite some late shifts, polls remain closest they’ve ever been.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.  Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.