Month: January 2026

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The Daily - The Sunday Daily: Our Neanderthals, Ourselves

Pop culture has not been kind to the Neanderthal. In books, movies and even TV commercials, the species is portrayed as rough and mindless, a brutish type that was rightly supplanted by our Homo sapiens ancestors.

But even 40,000 years after the last Neanderthals walked the earth, we continue to make discoveries that challenge that portrayal. New research suggests Neanderthals might have been less primitive — and a lot more like modern humans — than we might have thought.

The Times science reporters Carl Zimmer and Franz Lidz discuss recent discoveries about Neanderthals, and what those discoveries can tell us about the origins of humanity.

 

On Today’s Episode:

Carl Zimmer writes the Origins column and covers news about science for The Times.

Franz Lidz writes about archaeology for The Times.

 

Background Reading:

The Year in Neanderthals

Morning Person? You Might Have Neanderthal Genes to Thank.

What Makes Your Brain Different From a Neanderthal’s?

The Neanderthal Inside Us

 

Photo: Frank Franklin II/Associated Press

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Pod Save America - How Dems Can Defeat MAGA Once and For All

What will it take for Democrats to win not just in 2026, but in 2028 and beyond? What do we need to change to win again in Iowa, Texas, and Florida? What's more important: a candidate's ability to communicate or their ability to govern? Dan talks to David Plouffe, former campaign manager for Barack Obama and senior advisor to Kamala Harris, about some hard truths the Democratic Party needs to get its head around. The two discuss why Democrats need to take a firmer stance on political corruption, how the to-be-determined 2028 primary map could shape that race, and why they're both hoping that an outsider emerges as the party's next presidential nominee.

For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.


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Up First from NPR - Challenger at 40: Lessons from a tragedy

Forty years ago, the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff. Seven astronauts were killed, including teacher-in-space Christa McAuliffe. It was a devastating blow to the U.S. space program and a national tragedy for the country. In the days after the explosion, the search for answers began. Two NPR reporters, Howard Berkes and Daniel Zwerdling, focused their reporting on the engineers who managed Challenger’s booster rockets. On February 20, 1986, Berkes and Zwerdling broke a major story, providing the first details of a last-minute effort by those engineers to stop NASA from launching Challenger. 

In this special NPR documentary, Howard Berkes unfolds an investigation spanning forty years, from those desperate efforts in 1986 to delay the launch, to decades of crushing guilt for some of the engineers, and to the lessons learned that are as critical as ever as NASA’s budget and workforce shrink.



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What Next - David Ellison, Eldest Boy

Having already taken over Paramount, David Ellison was vying to add Warner Bros. Discovery to his portfolio. Are his dad’s politics behind his drive to run Hollywood or is there something else going on?


Guest: Reeves Widemann, features writer at New York Magazine.


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It Could Happen Here - CZM Book Club: Because Change Was the Ocean and We Lived by Her Mercy, by Charlie Jane Anders, Part Two

Margaret concludes reading you a story about subculture and love and how things change

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Global News Podcast - Second fatal shooting by US immigration agents

Masked ICE agents in Minneapolis have shot a US citizen dead -- the second such killing this month - sparking further protests in the city. The Department of Homeland Security says he was violent and armed with a gun. Also, we report from Myanmar on the final stage of elections, with the dominant pro-military party on course for a landslide victory; Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has described the first three-way peace talks with Russia and the United States in Abu Dhabi, as "constructive"; and an exhibition at Britain's National Archives of Love Letters across the generations.

The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight.

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Consider This from NPR - Miles and worlds apart: two NPR reporters on covering the war in Gaza

Even before this latest war in Gaza, NPR’s Jerusalem-based Correspondent Daniel Estrin and Gaza reporter Anas Baba had spent years working together in challenging circumstances. Once war broke out, they had to adapt to a situation that made reporting together even more difficult.


For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. 

Email us at considerthis@npr.org

This episode was produced by Linah Mohammed.. It was edited by Adam Raney and James Hider. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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Newshour - Federal immigration agents shoot dead a man in Minneapolis

For the second time this month, there's been a fatal shooting by federal immigration agents in the US city of Minneapolis. Local police said a thirty-seven year old man, who's believed to be an American citizen, had been killed.

Also in the programme: surviving the cold and war in Kharkiv; and why a beautiful Venetian palazzo is failing to sell.

(Picture: A person holds a placard as federal agents use tear gas to disperse people gathered near the scene where federal agents fatally shot a man while trying to detain him, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., January 24, 2026. Credit: Reuters)