Apple News In Conversation

Democrats pulled off stunning victories in this year’s midterms, flipping control of Congress and winning in deep-red strongholds like Texas and Kansas. But as Republicans face a historic reckoning and an uncertain post-Trump future, veteran political journalist Molly Ball warns that Democrats shouldn’t get comfortable either. Ball, whose forthcoming book explores America’s polit...

Earlier this year, Brad Reese — the grandson of the inventor of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups — accused Hershey of secretly changing its recipes and making this beloved treat taste worse. New York magazine features writer Rachel Handler had also noticed a decline in the quality of mass-market chocolate, and Reese’s viral post inspired her to investigate just what has happened...

In the span of a month, Christa Pike survived a botched lethal-injection execution in Tennessee and the Pentagon announced plans to livestream the firing-squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan. President Trump later walked back the livestream, although the execution is still scheduled; it will be the first military firing-squad execution in the country since World War II. Maurice Chammah...

With the 2026 midterms just two weeks away, many Americans are paying close attention not only to races and candidates but to the election process itself. Cook Political Report editor in chief Amy Walter and veteran GOP pollster Patrick Ruffini join Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu to answer questions from our listeners — including why polling has become so hard to trust, how red...

A lawsuit filed by a former Cornell student that alleges she was sexually assaulted by seven fraternity members in 2024 has sparked an outpouring of women sharing their own stories of campus assault. While the case reflects dynamics that researchers have tracked since the 1980s, it also reveals something distinctly modern: how fraternity culture and online misogyny now collide in unchecked digital...

Fewer people around the world are having kids — the global birth rate has been falling steadily since the 1970s — but, for many, it’s not because they don’t want to become parents. A deep sense of uncertainty about money, relationships, and the future has made starting a family feel harder than ever. Anna Louie Sussman, author of the new book Inconceivable: The Impossibilit...

Americans spend billions of hours a year navigating government bureaucracy, whether filling out forms, waiting on hold, or standing in endless lines. Researchers call this hidden burden the “time tax.” In her new book, The Time Tax: How the Government Wastes Our Time — and How to Fix It , Atlantic staff writer Annie Lowrey argues all of this red tape is more than just annoying &m...

Unsettling headlines about AI are dominating the news. In the past few weeks, an Anthropic researcher quit his job out of fear that the technology could “kill us all,” OpenAI revealed that its models have demonstrated “concerning behavior,” and four tech CEOs made an unprecedented call for a slowdown. Nilay Patel, editor in chief of The Verge and host of the Decoder po...

Warning: This episode includes descriptions of violence against children, adult language, and mentions of suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling, contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. The trial of Lindsay Clancy — the Massachusetts mother accused of murdering her three young children in 2023 — ended this month in a mistrial. Her defense didn&rs...

This is an episode from our archives. It originally aired in May 2025. Forever chemicals, also known as PFAS, are found in virtually every corner of the world, including in most people’s bodies. These synthetic compounds have been linked to a wide range of health issues — from infertility to cancer to neurological problems — even at low levels of exposure. In a new book, They Poi...

For the past few years, a campaign against sunscreen has been building — with social-media influencers claiming that sunscreen itself, rather than the sun, is damaging people’s skin and harming their health. The misinformation is working: More than 16 million adults have cut back or stopped using sunscreen because of it. Meanwhile, skin-cancer rates continue to rise. Brian Underwood, b...

Testosterone prescriptions are at an all-time high in the U.S., and according to a survey by Men’s Health , 70% of men say their levels of the hormone are important to them. This increased attention to T has even reached the Pentagon, which announced mandatory testosterone screenings for troops over the age of 30. Michael Andor Brodeur, a Men’s Health contributor and author of the book...

This summer, the U.S. saw its largest cyclospora outbreak on record — with more than 22,000 suspected cases linked to contaminated iceberg lettuce, alongside a wave of other foodborne illnesses. Timothy D. Lytton, a law professor at Georgia State University and author of Outbreak: Foodborne Illness and the Struggle for Food Safety , joins Apple News In Conversation host David Greene to expla...

Peak tick season is here — and the fastest-growing tick-borne illness in the country is alpha-gal syndrome, a condition that causes an often-severe allergy to red meat and other animal products. It’s primarily spread by lone-star ticks, once confined to the Southeast but now found as far north as Maine and Michigan. The syndrome can trigger a range of reactions — from hives to an...

This year, the U.S. has seen more than 270 mass shootings — and firearms remain the leading cause of death for American children and teens. But solutions appear largely out of reach. New York Times reporter Mike McIntire, a gun owner himself, traces how we got here in his new book, Ricochet: Guns, Greed, and the American Way of Violence . McIntire talks to Apple News In Conversation gue...

President Trump earned more than $2 billion in his first year back in office. According to a mandatory financial disclosure released in June, most of that fortune came from cryptocurrency ventures. David Kirkpatrick, a staff writer at the New Yorker who has tracked Trump’s earnings for years, sat down with Apple News In Conversation guest host David Greene to unpack what the disclosure revea...

GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are being taken by millions of Americans. These medications have been approved for treating diabetes, obesity, and a small number of other chronic conditions. But even as experts are still learning how the drugs work, many people have found that they help with other disorders — from addiction to brain fog to arthritis — where anecdotal evidence is pr...

The Supreme Court just wrapped one of its most consequential terms in recent memory — issuing major rulings on presidential power, birthright citizenship, and the rights of transgender athletes. But the story playing out in most headlines, legal analyst Sarah Isgur argues, is missing the bigger picture. Isgur is the editor of SCOTUSblog and the author of Last Branch Standing: A Potentially S...

This episode originally aired on Sept 18, 2025.  The Constitution has been amended 27 times, but the last meaningful change was over half a century ago. In historian Jill Lepore’s book We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution , she argues that the near impossibility of amendment in recent decades underlies many of today’s political crises, from polarization to battles ove...

When New Yorker staff writer Jay Caspian Kang sat down to do his taxes, one question surfaced: Should he still be saving for his 9-year-old daughter’s college fund? What followed was a deeply reported series about the growing crisis in American higher education and the forces behind it — from AI to soaring tuition to a collapse in public trust in institutions. Kang speaks with Apple Ne...

The United States turns 250 years old this summer — and there’s no shortage of ways to mark the moment. One of the most revealing lenses through which to view the country’s history may be music. Anna Harwell Celenza, professor at Johns Hopkins University and author of On the Record: Music That Changed America , joined Apple News In Conversation guest host David Greene to discuss...

This year’s World Cup will be the largest in history, with 48 teams and 104 matches — and, for the first time in more than 30 years, the tournament is being played on American soil. Brendan Hunt, co-creator, writer, and star of Ted Lasso and cohost of the Apple News Original podcast After the Whistle , joins Apple News In Conversation guest host David Greene to talk about how he fell i...

On July 4, 2025, catastrophic flooding tore through Central Texas, killing more than 130 people and destroying communities along the Guadalupe River. Aaron Parsley, a senior editor at Texas Monthly , was there — and though he survived, his family suffered a devastating loss. His harrowing account of what happened when floodwaters overwhelmed their house and ripped them apart won the Pul...

The summer travel season is upon us — and this year is more complicated and more expensive than most. The war in Iran has driven up jet-fuel prices globally, and Spirit Airlines, one of the biggest budget carriers in the country, has just shut down. On top of that, a possible super El Niño could cause widespread disruptions. Zach Wichter, a consumer-travel reporter at USA Today , join...

This episode originally aired on July 10, 2025.  Americans have a long history of obsession with the ultrarich, from Carnegie and Rockefeller to Bezos and Musk. And today, the gap between the rich and the poor is bigger than ever as the billionaire class has ascended to new heights. In his book, The Haves and Have-Yachts , New Yorker staff writer Evan Osnos explores the extravagant lifes...