What A Day
What A Day
If you’re looking for hype, fake outrage, and groupthink, kindly keep moving. Our mission at What a Day is simple: to be your guide to what truly matters each morning (and the fun stuff you might have missed) in just 20 minutes. Host Jane Coaston brings you in-depth reporting and substantive analysis on the big stories shaping today and the creeping trends shaping tomorrow—and when she doesn’t know the answers, she asks someone even smarter to fill us all in. Radical, right? New episodes at 5:00 a.m. EST, Monday–Friday in your favorite podcast app and on YouTube. Being informed was never this...
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Episodes
The CBS News Crisis 04.06.2026 22:35
CBS News, under the leadership of Bari Weiss, continues to devolve into chaos. On Tuesday, CBS News fired longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley. It came a day after Pelley reportedly said Weiss was "murdering the show" and accused its new producer of having "slender qualifications" for the job. Here to talk about it all is Jeremy Barr, media reporter for The Guardian US. And in headline...
Trump’s Dangerous New Spy Boss 03.06.2026 17:06
President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he's appointing the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Pulte , as acting Director of National Intelligence. The news comes after Tulsi Gabbard announced she was resigning from the position amid her husband's battle with cancer. So who is Bill Pulte? From what we know, Pulte is another Trump-henchman type whose only qualification for th...
Californians Vote With New Map 02.06.2026 21:07
California politics is experiencing a rare moment on the national stage as wacky candidates and local scandals have become a microcosm for the country as a whole, as well as a potential preview of what November’s midterms have in store. We talk to KQED’s Marisa Lagos about what the hell is going on with California politics right now. And in headlines, primary season kicks off nationwide, Trump's I...
Is Social Media Hype Even Real? 01.06.2026 21:36
It’s no secret that what we see on social media is highly choreographed. But a recent article in New York Magazine by Lane Brown confirms it by uncovering the world of artificial hype that drives what we perceive as buzz. The piece dominated the groupchats these last few days, and for good reason: it taps into a general unease about how we’ve ceded our reality to platforms that are manipulated by...
ICE Is Still Detaining People 29.05.2026 21:07
President Donald Trump's immigration policies haven't been getting much attention lately. But don't be fooled — the immigration detention industrial complex hasn't slowed down. One infamous facility in Florida, known as "Alligator Alcatraz," is reportedly closing . Katie Blankenship is an attorney representing immigrants across the country – including some who have been detained at "Alligator Alca...
The Challenge To Ending The Iran War 28.05.2026 20:15
Despite whatever President Donald Trump has said over the last few days, his war in Iran does not look like it's ending soon. But here's the thing: a major factor in what happens with Trump's Iran war isn't Trump – it's Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Despite a ceasefire, Israel has continued to bomb targets in southern Lebanon – part of the country's war against Hezbollah, an Iranian-b...
The Real J6 Victims Are Standing Up 27.05.2026 19:21
You know, President Donald Trump's 1.776 billion-dollar MAGA slush fund? The fund is intended for victims of "DOJ weaponization," like the January 6 insurrectionists Trump pardoned. Shockingly, very few people support it. And now former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and a colleague, actual victims of the January 6 insurrection, are suing the Trump administration to put a stop to this fund. Jan...
MAGA's Misogyny 26.05.2026 20:35
You may have noticed that misogyny seems to be everywhere right now, especially online. As American women continue to move further to the political left, men on the American Right appear to have responded by losing their minds completely. Helen Lewis, a staff writer for the Atlantic, coined a term for these kinds of people. She calls them "masculinists." And she argues that "masculinism" has becom...
How Trump Got In The Way Of His Own Bill 22.05.2026 21:41
Republicans had a filibuster-proof immigration bill that would allocate $70 billion to immigration enforcement and fully reopen the Department of Homeland Security. But then, Trump got involved. First, he wanted $1 billion for " security" for his beloved beautiful ballroom . Then, the Department of Justice announced that $1.776 billion slush fund for Trump's allies. After Acting Attorney General...
Trump's Revenge Tour Could Backfire 21.05.2026 20:40
A swath of President Donald Trump’s handpicked candidates won their primary elections Tuesday night – and one of Trump's biggest opponents in Congress, Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie, lost. It was the continuation of Trump’s weeks-long revenge tour against Republicans he views as disloyal. So, for more about what we learned from Tuesday’s primaries, we spoke with Alex Wagner. She...
Is The US Ready For A New Global Health Threat? 20.05.2026 19:06
The World Health Organization met on Tuesday in Switzerland to discuss a deadly outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. According to the WHO, the outbreak, which has killed more than 130 people and infected more than 500, could last for months. Those numbers could be much, much higher than what they've been able to report. The Ebola outbreak comes in the midst of anot...
Has The West Forgotten About Ukraine? 19.05.2026 19:45
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th, 2022 . And despite President Donald Trump's promise to end the conflict on his first day back in office, the two countries are still at war. So far, over 300,000 Russian soldiers have died in the war, compared to roughly 150,000 Ukrainian soldiers. The fighting is brutal, and it seems to keep… going. So how can both sides end this conflict – and what will t...
Americans Should Be Happy, But They're Not 18.05.2026 19:18
It's rather obvious Americans have not exactly been … cheerful for the last few years. And it's showing up in the data – the General Social Survey , the Consumer Sentiment Survey from the University of Michigan , the World Happiness Report , and even the Federal Reserve all report that Americans are less happy than they were a decade ago. Whether that's with their jobs, the economy, the state of t...
Trump Made Inflation Great Again 15.05.2026 16:31
Life is pretty expensive right now – and Americans are not happy about it . Trump came into office claiming he would lower prices, QUOTE , “on day 1.” But that didn’t happen – and his own policies are partially to blame. To talk more about the economy, inflation, and what we can do when our lives feel way too expensive, we spoke with Stacey Vanek Smith. She’s a reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek...
Stacey Abrams On Why We Still Need The Voting Rights Act 14.05.2026 19:22
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais last month dismantled a critical portion of the Voting Rights Act. And since then, a slew of states — largely in the South — have moved to redraw voting maps. In doing so, they’re eliminating majority-Black voting districts. There are not many people who have done more to fight for Black voting power and for the rights of Black voters in the South...
What Does Trump Need Most From China? 13.05.2026 18:51
President Donald Trump is arriving in Beijing today on a long-awaited trip – one that got delayed even further by Trump’s war in Iran . It’s Trump’s second trip to China and his first in nearly a decade. It’s also a trip where both sides see big opportunities (mostly to make money). But, the global balance of power has shifted – arguably, in China’s favor . Trump is in the midst of an unpopular wa...
Jeffrey Epstein Funded Harvard Women's Athletics 12.05.2026 23:52
The impact of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes has been felt in so many places, from the halls of Congress to the royal families of Britain and Norway. Here in the U.S., it’s taken the work of student journalists to uncover the worrying details about Epstein’s hidden relationship with another important institution: Harvard University. Epstein didn’t go to Harvard (actually, he didn’...
The Gentrification Of Intersectionality 11.05.2026 22:38
Over the last year and a half, the Trump Administration has made a big effort to limit which words are used in federal documents. Across government memos and wide-ranging agency material, hundreds of terms and ideas have been explicitly or implicitly forbidden from use. These terms include words like “accessible” or “activism.” Another example? Intersectionality. It’s been nearly 40 years since Ki...
Trump Still Has A Grip On Indiana 08.05.2026 20:26
There’s a lot going on in this year’s midterm elections. Tennessee Republicans approved a new map on Thursday, splitting the majority-Black voting district that encompasses the city of Memphis – and possibly eliminating the state’s only blue congressional seat. The president also got to flex his muscles this week in Indiana’s Republican primary. Candidates with his support beat at least five Repub...
Why You Shouldn't Buy Into The Crypto Trend 07.05.2026 23:16
President Donald Trump made a lot of promises when he took office for the second time. One of those promises included becoming the most pro-cryptocurrency president ever! (Probably because the Trump family is trying to make as much money as possible from the enterprise.) But the wheels appear to be falling off both Trump’s crypto adventures and the industry itself. Though millions of Americans own...
Can Democrats Sell Affordability? 06.05.2026 22:36
President Trump was elected, in part, due to his many promises to lower the cost of living. Unsurprisingly, he gave up on that pretty much the second he walked into the Oval Office again. Some Democrats see this as an opportunity not just to beat Trump but to move forward as a party. Last week, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus announced a series of bills they’re calling “The New Aff...
Trump v. The Constitution 05.05.2026 20:54
The Supreme Court surprised many on Monday allowing the commonly used abortion medication mifepristone to stay available via mail for at least one more week. But even with this decision, the current Supreme Court still feels like a mystery. For a body that intends to examine the law through a Constitutional lens, the court is kind of… freestyling a lot of the time. And in the era of Trump, a lot o...
A Committee Protecting U.S. Elections Is Under Threat 04.05.2026 18:18
Last week's Supreme Court decision gutting the Voting Rights Act is big news. But there are tons of other ways that the Trump Administration and the GOP are trying to make it harder for you to vote. Take the Technical Guidelines Development Committee, or TGDC. It's supposed to be a nonpartisan federal committee that determines the standards for voting equipment used in elections across the country...
Trump’s Vibing Approach To Governing 01.05.2026 22:21
From the alleged attempted assassination of President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey (and everything in between), it’s been a long week in the United States. But one thing is for certain. Trump is one of the most powerful people on Earth. And yet, he spends so much of his time focused on trivial issues. Take that $400 mil...
SCOTUS Clears The Way for Gerrymandering 30.04.2026 21:59
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court struck down a 2024 Louisiana district map that created a second majority-Black voting district for use in future elections. In a 6-3 decision, the Court found that the Voting Rights Act did not authorize states the ability to create majority-minority voting districts. The ruling didn't overturn Section Two of the Voting Rights Act, but in the dissent, Justice Elena...
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