The movies freed Willy, but what about Keiko? For the second part of our trilogy on the biggest aquatic star of the 90s, deep sea correspondent Brianna Bowman takes Sarah through Keiko’s journey to the Oregon Coast Aquarium for rehabilitation and the developing plan to return him to the open ocean. But first, both marine scientists and rich benefactors have to try to teach a killer whale to be wild again. Digressions include the books of Jean Craighead George, the tragedy of the puns we missed, regurgitated meat influencers, and Star Trek IV.
Plus: President Trump threatens to block the opening of a bridge between Windsor and Detroit paid for by Canada. And Gucci parent company Kering plans a return to growth in 2026. Daniel Bach hosts.
Almost a thousand years after the reign of the original Order of Assassins, you might think assassination tactics would be universally illegal -- however, that's not the case. Assassination is a valuable tool for both corporations and nations alike. It's also a big business, a web of conspiracies with an at-times global reach, evolving in step with the world's latest technological innovations. Listen in to learn more about assassination in the modern day in the second part of this two-part series.
Sunday marked one week since Nancy Guthrie, the mother of "Today" show anchor Savannah Guthrie, was kidnapped from her home in Arizona. Meanwhile, in Italy, the home of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, U.S. athletes are speaking out about politics back home. And in 1946, Minute Maid figured out a way to make orange juice a year-round breakfast staple. But now, after 80 years, the company is halting sales of its frozen juice cans. In business, healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente are raising one of California’s first major labor challenges over artificial intelligence, and 25-year-old Ali Ansari is nearing billionaire status after co-founding an AI startup that employs human experts like lawyers and doctors to train AI models. Read more at LATimes.com.
A.M. Edition for Feb. 10. The White House is preparing to reverse a key finding linking greenhouse gasses to public health risks. Plus, President Trump threatens to block the opening of a bridge connecting the U.S. and Canada, baffling officials north of the border. And WSJ editor Peter Landers explains why a stronger Chinese currency is prompting investor chatter about Beijing potentially moving away from the dollar. Luke Vargas hosts.
The latest release of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein has revealed deep and intense relationships with the global elite, long after he became a convicted sex offender.
Debra Kamin, Nicholas Confessore and Matthew Goldstein, Times reporters who have been covering the release of the documents, discuss their findings.
Guest:
Debra Kamin, an investigative reporter for the The New York Times, focusing on wealth, power and corruption in New York City.
Nicholas Confessore, a political and investigative reporter at The New York Times and a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine.
Matthew Goldstein, a New York Times Business reporter focusing on white-collar crime and the financialization of the housing market.
As Ghislaine Maxwell refuses to answer questions from Congress, federal files reveal a new characterization of how much Donald Trump knew about Jeffrey Epstein’s misdeeds. Cuba tells airlines they won’t be able to refuel in Havana, as US sanctions lead to an oil shortage. And drugmaker Novo Nordisk sues compound pharmacy Hims & Hers over copied weight loss drugs.
George Saunders is tired of being the “kindness guy.”
Saunders is one of my favorite fiction writers, and a friend of the pod; I talked to him back in 2021 and 2022. He also has a reputation as a kind of guru of kindness, thanks to a viral commencement speech he gave back in 2013. We talked about kindness on the show before.
But with the publication of his new novel, “Vigil,” I noticed that something about Saunders seemed to have shifted. He was pushing back against that public persona, and wrestling with darker themes.
“Vigil” follows an oil tycoon who, on his deathbed, is visited by angels and people from his past asking him to reassess his life. And you can feel a tension in that book that is also very alive in Saunders himself — between recognizing how much of our lives are conditioned by our circumstances and the need to pass judgment to reckon with the truth.
In this conversation, I discuss that tension with Saunders. I ask him about his relationship not just to kindness but also to anger; how he defines sin; whether he believes in free will; and what he thinks lies beyond kindness.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Annie Galvin. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota, Efim Shapiro and Isaac Jones. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Rollin Hu, Kristin Lin, Emma Kehlbeck, Jack McCordick, Marina King and Jan Kobal. Original music by Aman Sahota and Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.
Streamed by millions every day, porn is everywhere. It shapes our culture, our relationships, and even technology. Yet, nobody seems to know who really controls the business. The power brokers tend to lurk in the shadows, while their performers remain quite literally exposed.
In Pushkin's new audiobook, The Kink Machine: The Hidden Business of Adult Entertainment, two Financial Times journalists, Patricia Nilsson and Alex Barker, start digging into the porn industry and following where the money flows. Their reporting uncovers a shadowy power structure that includes billionaires, tech geniuses, and the most powerful finance companies in the world.
A gripping exposé of how power operates behind the most taboo corner of the internet, Nilsson and Barker unravel a story about control, influence, and an industry with staggering cultural reach that no one really wants to talk about—until now.
Find The Kink Machine on Audible, Spotify, pushkin.fm, or wherever you get audiobooks.
