Category: 3-SometimeCommentary

The Trump administration has cut federal funding to colleges and universities it says don’t align with conservative priorities. And now, the White House says it will reward schools that follow in its ideological footsteps.

Earlier this month, the administration sent a list of demands to nine schools. Officials are calling it the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” Its stipulations include ending considerations of race and sex in admissions and hiring, capping international student enrollment, and limiting what faculty can say about certain issues.

Five institutions — Brown University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Southern California, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Virginia — have rejected the proposal. The others have yet to comment.

Trump’s compact is the latest chapter in the story of how his administration is trying to exert influence over higher education. In March, the White House canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University over allegations of antisemitism.

In this edition of “If You Can Keep It,” our weekly series on the state of democracy, we talk about higher education and what’s at stake if academic freedom is compromised.


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Tariffs are at their highest rate in nearly a century, and the labor market is weakening. These are volatile times for the U.S. economy — but the stock market keeps going up.

Joe Rennison, a reporter covering financial markets for The New York Times, explains what is going on.

Guest: Joe Rennison, a financial reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Read about the factors helping markets climb past bad news.
• The specter of a trade war between Washington and Beijing has the potential to roil markets.

Photo: Jeenah Moon/Reuters

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 Library of Lost Maps by James Cheshire, Professor of Geographic Information and Cartography, tells the story of the discovery of a treasure-trove at the heart of University College London. In a long-forgotten room James found thousands of maps and atlases. This abandoned archive reveals how maps have traced the contours of the world, inspiring some of the greatest scientific discoveries, as well as leading to terrible atrocities and power grabs.

But maps have not always been used to navigate or reveal the world, according to a new exhibition at the British Library on Secret Maps (from 24 October 2025 to 18 January 2026). Jerry Brotton, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University of London, and author of Four Points of the Compass, explains how mysterious maps throughout history have been used to hide, shape and control knowledge.

The biographer Jenny Uglow celebrates a different kind of mapping in her new book, A Year with Gilbert White: The First Great Nature Writer. In 1781 the country curate Gilbert White charted the world around him – from close observation of the weather, to the migration of birds to the sex lives of snails and the coming harvest – revealing a natural map of his Hampshire village.

Producer: Katy Hickman Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez

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He’s the most well known Kennedy in America today and the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. How Robert F. Kennedy Jr grew up a scion to a political legacy, became a former heroin addict, then a vaccine sceptic and the leader of the Make America Healthy Again movement. A PBS Frontline documentary tells the story.array(3) { [0]=> string(20) "https://www.tpr.org/" [1]=> string(0) "" [2]=> string(1) "0" }

On Friday, “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” will be released in theaters. Rather than chronicling Bruce’s entire life, the film focuses on the making of his stripped-down 1982 album “Nebraska” and on his concurrent mental health struggles.

This movie is the latest in a long history of musician biopics featuring stars like Bob Dylan, Loretta Lynn, Eminem and Elvis Presley. Hollywood clearly loves telling the stories of influential artists.

In this episode, Gilbert Cruz chats with Lindsay Zoladz, a pop music critic for The Times, and Joe Coscarelli, a Times culture reporter, about the tropes of the genre and their favorite films that break the mold.

On Today’s Episode:

Lindsay Zoladz, a pop music critic at The Times and the writer of The Amplifier newsletter.

Joe Coscarelli, a culture reporter at The Times and co-host of “Popcast.”

Additional Reading:

The Boss Finally Gets a Biopic, Just Not the One We Expected

He’s Ringo. And Nobody Else Is.

Why Music Movies Stink: ‘Back to Black’ + ‘The Idea of You’ Reactions

Joe Coscarelli’s “Bobby + Joanie” playlist

Photo: 20th Century Studios

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.

Mike revisits his 2019 conversation with Senator Chris Murphy on the AUMF — the two-decade-old law still used to justify U.S. military strikes from Yemen to the Caribbean. Plus, a new strike on a Venezuelan vessel raises questions about presidential authority and transparency. We trace how “temporary” wartime powers became permanent policy, and what it would take for Congress to reclaim its constitutional role.

Produced by Corey Wara

Production Coordinator Ashley Khan

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