Coffers running low and an increasingly absent principal member: the United Nations has never looked so precarious. We discuss its future amid uncertain geopolitics. The generative-AI explosion has mostly been driven by so-called large language models—but small ones look ever more attractive. And we meet the determined students who, against the odds, still want to drive London’s famed black cabs.
Theo Bergqvist is an entrepreneur who enjoys working a lot. He started his first venture in 1999 in the gaming industry, building Paradox, which is now listed on the Nasdaq. Of all his ventures, the common core to them all was technology. Outside of tech, he lives a life dedicated to Japanese martial arts. He practices 5-6 times a week, and have made several trips to Japan with his Sensei, focusing on the art 10 hours a day.
At one point during his career, Theo was working for Ericson around their transformation. He noticed how difficult it was for enterprises to adopt AI tooling and automation. He decided to raise some funds and get started trying to create something to help... and started the build and pivot game.
There’s a race going on among tech firms — big and small — to join in the construction of what President Trump has dubbed the Golden Dome, a missile defense system similar to Israel’s Iron Dome. Tens of billions of dollars in military contracts are at stake. In fact, the total cost might be in the trillions and the project could stretch a decade.
The technology and scale needed to make this all happen is, so far, largely unproven. And a whole host of tech firms are trying to show that they can help with the very complex undertaking. Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with Sheera Frenkel, reporter at the New York Times, about some of the tech that would make this whole system work.
Today, we’re talking about bubbles. Not the kind you play with. The kind that happen in the economy! Bridget and Ryan take a trip down memory lane to answer Jocelin’s question about what caused the 2008 housing bubble. With help from Bridget’s unforgettable treehouse bubble tale, we’ll learn what can happen when prices rise too high, too fast and the bubble finally pops! Plus, why it’s so tricky to spot a bubble before it bursts.
If your family is interested in learning even more about today’s question, check out our website. We’ve got conversation starters and a tip sheet!
This episode is sponsored by Greenlight. Sign up for Greenlight today at greenlight.com/million.
During a televised news conference on Monday night, President Trump repeatedly gave out unproven medical advice that linked autism to Tylenol and childhood vaccines.
Azeen Ghorayshi, a science reporter for The New York Times, explains what Mr. Trump said and what decades of scientific research actually tells us.
Guest: Azeen Ghorayshi, a science reporter for The New York Times.
For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
Photo: Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times
Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Defying medical experts, the Trump administration makes sweeping claims about potential causes and cures for autism. Sources describe the deal in place to transfer TikTok ownership. And President Trump heads to New York to speak to the United Nations.
Almost immediately after the death of George Washington in 1799, the United States began to think of ways to commemorate and honor the father of the country.
The process of creating a monument took decades. There were multiple aborted designs and one idea that was built but never fully implemented.
What ended up being constructed became the world’s tallest structure at the time and became the icon that defines the city of Washington, DC.
Learn more about the Washington Monument, why it was built, and how on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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If you’re anything like us, you’re a sucker for a good spy show: Homeland, Tehran, Fauda, The Bureau. We’re fascinated by the life of spies—the secret meetings in Beirut cafés, the wigs and false identities, the double and triple lives, always one step away from exposure, risking everything for their country.
Most of the time, those TV characters are pure fiction and the stories are the stuff of Hollywood. But our guest’s new book, The Sword of Freedom, reads just like one of those fantastical thrillers—except every word of it is true.
Yossi Cohen—the former director of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency—spent most of his 38-year spy career in the shadows. He was known only by a letter: Y, or sometimes “The Model,” apparently for his looks. He was, as he writes, “a ghost, never to be seen and unable to be heard. I was invisible, a breath of wind in human form.”
Cohen operated under dozens of different identities in some of the most dangerous places for an Israeli, and he personally orchestrated some of the most daring operations in Israel’s history: stealing half a ton of Iran’s most secret nuclear documents from a warehouse in Tehran; assassinating Iran’s top nuclear scientist using an AI-powered machine gun operated remotely via satellite; setting the stage for the pager attack that crippled Hezbollah last year; creating secret relationships with Arab leaders—relationships that changed the direction of the Middle East.
If you look online, you’ll hear that Mossad has been behind everything from tsunamis to floods to political assassinations of famous Americans.
So we could think of no one better to answer the question of what Mossad actually does—and to address the endless conspiracies that swirl around Israel’s version of the CIA—than Cohen.
Today, we talk about all of that. It’s a rare glimpse inside Mossad, inside the world of real espionage—and a conversation with a man who helped shape history from the shadows, and who clearly is considering a run for prime minister.
