my private podcast channel
The president's decision to try and get himself out of the Minneapolis mess offers us a chance to assess just how much trouble he's in, and who's responsible for the trouble—is it his advisers, is it the media-Democratic complex, or is it Trump alone? Give a listen.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Since December, the U.S. has been stopping and seizing oil tankers traveling in and out of Venezuela. They are part of what is known as a ghost fleet — tankers that try to secretly move oil around the world, funding states such as Venezuela, Iran and Russia.
Christiaan Triebert, a reporter on the Visual Investigations team, explains what these ghost fleets are and why their days might now be numbered.
Guest: Christiaan Triebert, a reporter for The New York Times working on the Visual Investigations team.
Background reading:
Photo: Andy Buchanan/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.
“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada announced last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
It was one of the most significant foreign policy speeches in years, sending shockwaves through the international community. He was describing a dynamic that’s been building for decades — what the scholars Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman call “weaponized interdependence” — that has now reached a tipping point.
I asked Farrell on the show to explain this dynamic, why this is a “rupture” moment and how other countries are responding. He is an international-affairs professor at Johns Hopkins University, is an author of the book “Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy” and writes an excellent Substack, Programmable Mutter.
Note: This episode touches on the clashes over immigration enforcement in Minneapolis and the killing of Renee Good, but it was recorded on Friday, before the killing of Alex Pretti.
Mentioned:
“Davos 2026: Special address by Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada”
Underground Empire by Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman
“Programmable Mutter” by Henry Farrell
“The nature and sources of liberal international order” by Daniel Deudney and G. John Ikenberry
“The Enshittification of American Power” by Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman
“Too big to care” by Cory Doctorow
Weapons of the Weak by James C. Scott
Private Truths, Public Lies by Timur Kuran
“Further Back to the Future: Neo-Royalism, the Trump Administration, and the Emerging International System” by Stacie E. Goddard and Abraham Newman
“The Dynamics of Informational Cascades: The Monday Demonstrations in Leipzig, East Germany, 1989–91” by Susanne Lohmann
Book Recommendations:
Dollars and Dominion by Mary Bridges
Nonesuch by Francis Spufford
The Score by C. Thi Nguyen
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.
You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Jack McCordick. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Mary Marge Locker, Kate Sinclair Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota and Isaac Jones. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Rollin Hu, Kristin Lin, Emma Kehlbeck, Marina King and Jan Kobal. Original music by Pat McCusker and Carole Sabouraud. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.
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.
Donald Trump caves to the national outrage over Alex Pretti's killing, telling Governor Tim Walz that he'll agree to allow for an impartial investigation and "look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota." Lovett, on the ground in Minneapolis, joins Jon and Tommy to talk about what's happening in the state, and to share reactions to the tragedy and Trump's surprising about-face. Then they discuss Congressional Democrats' demands for reforming DHS, which may lead to a partial government shutdown, and a wild New York Magazine piece about the president's health.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams joins to talk about his new book Five Bullets: The Story of Bernie Goetz, New York's Explosive '80s, and the Subway Vigilante Trial That Divided the Nation. He walks through the courtroom oddities, like a "ballistics demonstration" staged with Guardian Angels as stand-ins, and explains why there was always a legally defensible path to either convicting or acquitting Goetz. The conversation places New York itself as another character in the story of safety and perception, showing how fear influenced juror belief. Plus the idea of moral injury and how official narratives around the recent Minneapolis ICE shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti reflect ethical damage being felt in real bodies and in public outrage.
Produced by Corey Wara
Coordinated by Lya Yanne
Video and Social Media by Geoff Craig
Do you have questions or comments, or just want to say hello? Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com
For full Pesca content and updates, check out our website at https://www.mikepesca.com/
For ad-free content or to become a Pesca Plus subscriber, check out https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/
For Mike's daily takes on Substack, subscribe to The Gist List https://mikepesca.substack.com/
Follow us on Social Media: YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4_bh0wHgk2YfpKf4rg40_g Instagram https://www.instagram.com/pescagist/ X https://x.com/pescami TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@pescagist
To advertise on the show, contact ad-sales@libsyn.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/TheGist
The Trump administration’s version of the Stasi murdered Alex Pretti in cold blood because he was exercising his First Amendment right to peacefully assemble and his Second Amendment right to carry a licensed firearm. But in MAGA land, those rights only apply to the people on their side, not all Americans. The few Republicans who are starting to feel queasy about menacing agents running around our cities should also recognize that they are complicit in the killings of Pretti and Renee Good because they funded them. As for the Dems, they should be considering maximalist demands—like ending the occupation of the Twin Cities—since the serial liars in the administration are acting like they’re above the law. Plus, Tim Cook and the other CEOs who helped fund the golden ballroom or showed up to the “Melania” screening Saturday night are also complicit
Bill Kristol joins Tim Miller.
show notes