The Book Review - Nicholas Boggs on Writing a James Baldwin Biography

Nicholas Boggs’s “Baldwin: A Love Story,” is many things at once. It’s a comprehensive biography of James Baldwin. It’s a nimble excavation of Baldwin’s work, filled with astute literary analysis of his books and prose. And, most pressingly, it’s an argument for a new critical framework to understand Baldwin through the lens of love. The biography is structured around Baldwin’s relationships with a series of men — relationships that, as Boggs outlines, shaped Baldwin’s life and writing in crucial ways. Boggs joins MJ Franklin on this week's episode to talk about his new book.

Other works mentioned in this discussion:

  • Zadie Smith’s essay “Conscience and Consciousness: A Craft Talk for the People and the Person,” from her new collection “Dead and Alive”
  • “James Baldwin: A Biography,” by David Leeming
  • “Little Man, Little Man: A Story of Childhood,” by James Baldwin, illustrated by Yoran Cazac, edited by Nicholas Boggs and Jennifer DeVere Brody
  • “Goodbye Days,” by Jeff Zentner
  • “Virginia Woolf,” by Hermione Lee

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

The Daily - Ozempic for All?

Drugs like Ozempic and Zepbound have revolutionized weight loss. And starting next year, the drugs are going to become more affordable for Americans because of a deal struck with pharmaceutical companies by the Trump administration.

Eshe Nelson, who covers economics and business news, explains how the change has its origins in a huge business blunder from the creator of Ozempic, Novo Nordisk.

Guest: Eshe Nelson, a reporter for The New York Times based in London, where she covers economics and business news.

Background reading: 

Photo: Sergei Gapon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

The Daily - ‘He Knew’: What Epstein Said About Trump in New Emails

Thousands of pages of newly released emails between Jeffrey Epstein and his associates have put the convicted sex offender’s relationship with President Trump back in the spotlight.

David Enrich and Michael Gold, who have been covering the story, explain what the new documents tell us and discuss whether they could prompt the release of the rest of the Epstein files.

Guest: 

  • David Enrich, a deputy investigations editor for The New York Times.
  • Michael Gold, a congressional correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

Photo: Doug Mills/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. 

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

The Daily - An Interview With the Man Behind Trump’s Current Immigration Crackdown

Warning: This episode contains strong language.

As the Trump administration ramps up its crackdown on illegal immigration, it has turned to Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official, to try to increase deportations. He has been at the center of some of the most aggressive raids and tactics being used in American cities.

Hamed Aleaziz, who covers immigration policy, speaks to Mr. Bovino about his career and why his militaristic approach may be here to stay.

Guest:

  • Hamed Aleaziz, who covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy in the United States for The New York Times.
  • Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol chief leading the Southern California immigration crackdown.

Background reading: 

Photo: Gabriela Bhaskar/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. 

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

The Daily - The Messy Politics of the Democratic Shutdown Deal

On Monday night, a small group of Senate Democrats broke from their colleagues and struck a deal with Republicans to try to end the government shutdown. The vote signaled a break in the gridlock that has shuttered the government for weeks.

Catie Edmondson and Shane Goldmacher discuss the agreement, and the rift in the Democratic Party.

Guest:

Background reading: 

Photo: Tierney L. Cross/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. 

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

The Daily - The Gold Rush Behind a Civil War

Twenty years ago, a genocidal campaign in the Darfur region of Sudan shocked the world. Now, videos and images of new atrocities have captured global attention once more.

Declan Walsh, who has been covering Sudan, discusses one of the worst humanitarian conflicts in decades, and how gold is fueling it.

Guest: Declan Walsh, the chief Africa correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

Photo: Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

The Daily - From Serial: ‘The Preventionist’

The story of how this extraordinary situation in the Lehigh Valley came to light — because it almost didn’t.

In the summer of 2023, reporter Dyan Neary received a tip about a problematic doctor in Pennsylvania. Families were claiming that when they sought medical care for their children, this pediatrician falsely accused them of abuse, and their children were taken away from them. The Preventionist traces this doctor’s decades-long career across multiple states, and explores the rise of a new and powerful kind of specialist, the “child abuse pediatrician” — whose decisions can be incredibly difficult to challenge.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

The Daily - ‘The Interview’: Fox News Wanted Greg Gutfeld to Do This Interview. He Wasn’t So Sure.

The pugnacious conservative late-night host on his "hierarchy of smears" and the risks of being a scold.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

The Book Review - The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, 50 Years Later

On Nov. 10, 1975, during a calamitous storm, the Edmund Fitzgerald sunk below the waves of Lake Superior. All 29 men aboard went down with the vessel. With no survivors and no eyewitnesses, there’s always been a sense of mystery to what is arguably the most famous shipwreck in American history. The story itself was almost immediately immortalized in Gordon Lightfoot’s surprise hit ballad “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”

Fifty years on, John U. Bacon has written a new account of the disaster. In “The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” he humanizes the story, telling stories of each man on the ship as well as several of the families left behind. (Readers will also learn a good deal about the history of industry and shipping on the Great Lakes.). In this week’s episode of the Book Review podcast, Bacon spoke with the host Gilbert Cruz about his new book.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

The Daily - Trump’s Bad Week

Over the past few days, Republicans have suffered some major losses at the ballot box, Supreme Court justices have expressed skepticism about tariffs and Congress’s refusal to end the government shutdown will result in thousands of canceled flights. It adds up to a very bad week for the Trump White House.

In a special round-table episode, The Times’s national political correspondent Lisa Lerer, the White House correspondent Tyler Pager and the congressional editor Julie Davis try to make sense of it all.

Guests: 

  • Julie Hirschfeld Davis, congressional editor at The New York Times.
  • Lisa Lerer, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.
  • Tyler Pager, a White House correspondent for The New York Times, covering President Trump and his administration.

Background reading: 

Republicans point fingers after their losses, but not at Trump.

Here are five takeaways from the Supreme Court argument over tariffs.

As the hours dwindled before flight cuts, the government spent most of the time in silence.

Photo: Haiyun Jiang/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. 

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.