Apple News In Conversation

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...

At the end of April, the Supreme Court’s ruling on Louisiana v. Callais significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act. The decision made it easier for states to legally draw districts that reduce the voting power of Black voters and other minority groups. In response, several Republican-controlled Southern states have moved to redraw their congressional maps. Adam Serwer, a staff writer at Th...

This week, Brian Goldstone was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his book, There Is No Place for Us , which is featured in this episode from our archives. Millions of Americans cannot afford housing despite working full-time jobs. They live in cars, shelters, or extended-stay hotels and often don’t qualify for assistance programs. Journalist and anthropologist Brian Goldstone follows five Atlanta...

The headlines say that American men are in crisis. But what does that actually mean — and what does it look like up close? Journalist Jordan Ritter Conn spent five years inside the lives of four different men to find out. His new book, American Men , explores the gap between masculine ideals and the reality of men’s lived experience. Apple News In Conversation guest host Sam Sanders sa...

Nearly a year ago, Robert Prevost became Pope Leo XIV, the first pope in history from the U.S. His papacy so far has been relatively calm — until recent weeks, when a sharp public conflict with President Trump over the Iran war thrust him onto the political stage. Scott Detrow, host of NPR’s All Things Considered and coauthor of the upcoming American Pope: Leo XIV’s Road From the...

The 1990s are back — especially for Gen Z. CDs, flip phones, and ’90s beauty trends are all having a moment among people in their teens and 20s. To understand why this generation is nostalgic for a past they didn’t experience, Apple News In Conversation guest host Sam Sanders talks with psychologist Clay Routledge. Routledge is the author of Past Forward: How Nostalgia Can Help Y...

A medieval-monster slayer. A tiny alien named Roscoe. A talking plate of spaghetti. These are just a few of the customizable companions available through AI-chatbot apps like Kindroid, Tolan, and Character. AI. In her latest piece for the New Yorker , journalist Anna Wiener explores the rapidly expanding world of these products and the people who use them. She joins Apple News In Conversation gues...

Last June, journalist Andy Greenberg received an anonymous email from someone claiming to be trapped inside a scam compound in Southeast Asia. The source, using the pseudonym Red Bull, said he had access to a trove of internal materials exposing the inner workings of the criminal operation — and that he was willing to risk his life to share them. Greenberg has now published Red Bull’s...

We are in the middle of a protein boom. Protein food products make up a more than $100 billion industry — and it’s still growing. In a new book, Protein: The Making of a Nutritional Superstar , health scholar Samantha King and sociologist Gavin Weedon reveal how marketing, industry interests, and cultural trends — not nutritional science — have turned protein into the most...

Twitter was created 20 years ago. Many saw the platform as an online public square — a place to connect with strangers, spark viral debates, and even launch careers and social movements. When Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022, he began reshaping it in his own image, eventually rebranding it as X, and redefining how it operates and what it’s used for. New York Times technology reporters...

The Academy Awards are finally here. The race to win isn’t just about art — it’s also about creating carefully orchestrated, big-budget campaigns. Katey Rich, awards editor at The Ankler and host of the Prestige Junkie podcast, joins Apple News In Conversation guest host Sam Sanders to pull back the curtain on what it really takes to win an Oscar, who she thinks will bring home t...

On Feb. 28, the United States and Israel launched a series of military strikes against Iran, killing the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Since then, Iran has retaliated, and the conflict has spread across the region. The escalation comes during President Trump’s second term in office, which has already included several instances of military action abroad. To help make...

This is an episode from our archives. For more than a century, Johnson & Johnson has billed itself as one of the most trusted companies in American history. But, in a stunning investigation, journalist Gardiner Harris documents decades of misconduct and malfeasance by the health-care conglomerate. Harris’s book is called No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson . He spoke...

When she was 28, Laura Mauldin became a full-time caregiver for her romantic partner with leukemia — an experience that exposed how deeply America’s health-care system depends on the unpaid labor of loved ones. Now a disability scholar, Mauldin explores this hidden reality in her new book, In Sickness and in Health: Love Stories From the Front Lines of America’s Caregiving Crisis...

A battle is underway over some of Hollywood’s most valuable properties. Paramount Skydance and Netflix are vying for control of Warner Bros. Discovery — the parent company of CNN, HBO, and a vast library of iconic films and TV shows. New York magazine features writer Reeves Wiedeman recently profiled David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount Skydance and son of tech billionaire Larry Ellison...

Bad Bunny is one of the most popular artists in the world. He’s won six Grammys — including Album of the Year for his latest record, Debí Tirar Más Fotos , the first Spanish-language album to take home the award — and this weekend, he’ll headline the Super Bowl halftime show. Suzy Exposito, an editor at De Los , has followed Bad Bunny’s rise for years an...

Since President Trump took office just over a year ago, federal immigration enforcement has substantially expanded — nowhere more visibly than in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where federal officers have killed two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Widespread protests, scrutiny of ICE operations, and questions about accountability have intensified in recent weeks. Caitlin Dickerson, s...

New Yorker staff writer Elizabeth Kolbert has been reporting on climate and the environment for more than 25 years. In her work, she captures both the awe-inspiring beauty of the natural world and the unsettling truth about what humans are doing to it. Her latest book, Life on a Little-Known Planet: Dispatches From a Changing World , is a collection of essays from her decades-long career. Kolbert...