Apple News In Conversation

New Yorker staff writer Michael Schulman has been an Oscar enthusiast for decades. He’s even memorized every acceptance speech ever given by Meryl Streep. Now he’s out with a new book called Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears . It’s a deep dive into key moments in the Oscars’ history that signaled shifts in the culture and industry. Schulman spoke...

Jeff German was a legendary reporter in Las Vegas known for holding power to account. He was killed last September, and a local official has been charged with his murder. After German’s death, the Washington Post reached out to the Las Vegas Review-Journal — where he had worked since 2010 — offering reporting resources to help finish the work still sitting on his desk. The story...

There’s no such thing as a “miracle pill” for weight loss. But for many people who’ve struggled with their weight, drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro come pretty close. These medications — some of which were originally developed to treat diabetes — have been flying off the shelves, but a number of experts are concerned they could be misused. On Apple News...

Recent economic indicators point to a relatively healthy U.S. economy. That’s despite an economic slowdown caused by the pandemic, inflation, a wacky housing market, and fears of a recession. On Apple News In Conversation , Vox senior correspondent Emily Stewart breaks down how we got here and what government officials need to do now to keep the economy trending in the right direction.

When it comes to love and money, the old adage is true: Opposites do attract. But with that can come a lot of disagreements over how to spend and save. In the latest episode of Apple News In Conversation , host Shumita Basu speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Julia Carpenter about the challenges couples face when managing their finances — and what experts say about how to more succ...

Every day, nearly 200 Americans die from a fentanyl overdose. This synthetic drug represents the latest phase of the decades-long opioid epidemic that began with prescription pain pills. Scott Higham is part of a team of reporters at the Washington Post that investigated the crisis — and the government failures that led us here. Higham spoke with Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu...

The Supreme Court is expected to soon hand down a ruling in Students for Fair Admissions  v. Harvard , a case that could end affirmative action in college admissions. But professor Evan Mandery says we’re talking about the wrong issue. In his new book, Poison Ivy: How Elite Colleges Divide Us , Mandery explains how top schools disproportionately favor wealthy white students — and...

When Bitcoin was first created, it was believed to be an untraceable form of currency. This promise attracted tons of bad actors — and it turned out to be untrue. Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu spoke with journalist Andy Greenberg about his new book,  Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency . Greenberg lays out how U.S. authorities u...

The majority of NFL players are Black. So how is it possible that the league has only had 20 Black head coaches since 1990 — compared to 154 white coaches? The glaring disparity is at the center of an ongoing lawsuit against the NFL brought by former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores. Washington Post  reporter Michael Lee talks to Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu about this...

When longtime LA Times columnist Steve Lopez reached his mid-60s, he started to think about retiring. But he wasn’t sure how to go about it — or if he should do it all. He gave himself one year to decide and spoke with many different people — Norman Lear and Mel Brooks, among others — about their thoughts on retirement. He wrote a book about his journey, called Independence...

This is an interview from our archives. It was part of a series called  Think Again —  a guide to reimagining work, home, relationships, and more. In this episode, Apple News In Conversation   host Shumita Basu talks with Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes, hosts of the  Maintenance Phase  podcast, about how to outsmart the wellness industry, spot junk health science,...

This is an episode from our archives. At Yale University, psychology professor Laurie Santos saw firsthand how so many college students were anxious or depressed. So she decided to teach a class on the science of happiness — and how to apply it in real life. It became the school’s most popular course ever.  Apple News In Conversation  host Shumita Basu spoke with Santos...

Microplastics cover every inch of our world, from the rain forest to Mount Everest — they’re even in our lungs. Much remains unknown about their impact on our health, but so far the research paints a bleak picture. In his new book, A Poison Like No Other , science journalist Matt Simon breaks down some big and small changes we can all make to mitigate our exposure to microplastics and...

Nobel Peace Prize–winning journalist Maria Ressa has a warning for the world. In her new book, How to Stand Up to a Dictator , Ressa lays out how social media has been weaponized to support the rise of authoritarianism in the Philippines — and why the rest of the world needs to pay attention. She spoke with Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu about the urgent actions needed to...

Cellular biology has already transformed medicine. It’s the science behind treatments like blood transfusions, in vitro fertilization (IVF), and chemotherapy. But as the field continues to develop, it keeps pushing up against one question: What’s a disease — and what’s a desire? In his new book, The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human , Pulitzer Prize–winning author and...

This is an episode from our archives. Scott McCartney has been covering the airline industry for more than two decades. He spoke with Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu about why air travel is such a mess — and what can we do about it.

We’ve got something special for you this weekend. Apple News is launching a new World Cup podcast — hosted by Brendan Hunt (who plays Coach Beard on ‘Ted Lasso’) and Rebecca Lowe (who covers the English Premier League for NBC Sports). We’re bringing you the podcast’s first episode. In this inaugural episode, Brendan Hunt and Rebecca Lowe gear up for the World Cu...

This week, the Powerball topped $2 billion, making it the biggest jackpot ever. Historian Jonathan D. Cohen is the author of the book For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America . He spoke with  Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu about our enduring obsession with the lottery — and the industry’s most troubling problems.

This episode is part of a special series from Apple News Today exploring the lead-up to the 2022 midterm elections. Which party will control Congress? What are the most crucial races to watch? What do voters say they want? Apple News editor Gideon Resnick put these questions and more to a panel of election watchers: Amy Walter, the editor-in-chief of the Cook Political Report , Errin Haines, the e...

A recent study by the Reuters Institute found that only 29% of Americans say they trust the news most of the time. Where has the press gone wrong — and how can it change to better serve the public? Longtime media critic Margaret Sullivan explores these questions in her new book, Newsroom Confidential: Lessons (and Worries) From an Ink-Stained Life . Below are excerpts from her interview with...

In September, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was visiting Tehran when she was arrested by the country’s morality police for improperly wearing her hijab. She died while in custody. Since then, anti-government demonstrators — many of them women — have taken to the streets in cities across the country and around the world to demand more freedom and civil liberties in Iran. Pardis Mahdavi...

Many books have been written about Donald Trump’s presidency. But one stands out from the rest. It’s called The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017–2021 , and it’s by New York Times journalist Peter Baker and New Yorker writer Susan Glasser. The husband-and-wife coauthors exhaustively cataloged Trump’s four years in office and interviewed more than 300 people...

After 9/11, the U.S. spent billions of dollars establishing the Transportation Security Administration. After more than 20 years of pat-downs, barefoot X-rays, and so-called random screenings, evidence shows that the TSA has played almost no role in foiling terrorist plots. Journalist Darryl Campbell recently wrote for The Verge about the agency’s history. He spoke with Apple News In Co...

During her long career covering the Supreme Court, journalist Nina Totenberg cultivated friendships with many justices, including Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Antonin Scalia. Totenberg spoke with  Apple News In Conversation  host Shumita Basu about how she maintained journalistic integrity while cultivating those relationships, what she thinks about the court today, and her new book...

The Dallas Cowboys may be “America’s Team,” but the hundreds of women behind the Cowboys Cheerleaders deserve a lot of credit for its success. Journalist Sarah Hepola tells their story in an article for Texas Monthly , “Sex, Scandal, and Sisterhood: Fifty Years of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders,” and in the podcast America’s Girls . Hepola spoke with  Appl...