Could the United States really have a multi-generational, 'above-top-secret' operation to retrieve and reverse-engineer extraterrestrial technology? In the second chapter of this special two-part series, Ben, Matt and Noel dive deeper in the allegations surrounding "The Legacy Program".
United States and Russia are reportedly closing in on a deal to continue the expiring arms control treaty called New START. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has joined the World Health Organization's Global Outbreak Response Network. Meanwhile in California, officials have green-lit a controversial plan to eliminate all the deer on Catalina island. And for the first time in over ten years, NHL players are preparing to face off on Olympic ice. In business, the Eddie Bauer retailer may close its stores as its parent company prepares to file for bankruptcy, and new data shows California’s job losses slowed in January even as layoffs surged nationwide. Read more at LATimes.com.
On this week’s “Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review,” we take a look at Nvidia's changing investment relationship with OpenAI. Plus, a stormy start for the new U.S. version of TikTok. But first, SpaceX, one of the world’s largest rocket companies, announced this week that it’s buying xAI, a two-and-half-year-old artificial intelligence startup. Both companies are controlled by Elon Musk. The new company is reportedly valued at $1.25 trillion. It means the chatbot Grok, the satellite internet company Starlink, and the social media firm X are all going to co-exist under the same rocket hangar. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Paresh Dave, senior writer at Wired, about what adding these companies together equals.
The U.S. and Iran begin high-stakes talks in Oman today over Tehran’s nuclear program, If they can't reach a deal, President Trump could launch a military strike from the large military force assembled in the Middle East. Lawmakers now have just one week to fund the Department of Homeland Security, as Democrats release a detailed list of demands to overhaul how immigration enforcement officers operate. And the FBI confirms a ransom letter in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie, as investigators search for answers and her family pleads for proof she is alive.
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Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Andrew Sussman, Jason Breslow, James Doubek, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Alice Woelfle.
It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Nia Dumas.
Our Director is Milton Guevara.
We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. Our technical director is Stacey Abbott.
Our Executive Producer is Jay Shaylor.
(0:00) Introduction (02:12) US-Iran Talks Begin (05:36) Dem List of DHS Demands (09:24) Search For Nancy Guthrie Continues
Women’s pain is too often dismissed in medicine. An alarming number of women report feeling major surgery and dealing with doctors and nurses who make light of their complaints.
Susan Burton, reporter and host of the podcast “The Retrievals,” shares stories from just a few of the many cases of women who felt significant pain during their C-sections.
Guest: Susan Burton, the host, writer and reporter of “The Retrievals,” a podcast series by Serial Productions.
The family of Nancy Guthrie have begun publicly pleading with would-be kidnappers to clarify any demands. The release of Jeffrey Epstein emails upend public life in the United Kingdom, with pressure building on Prime Minister Keir Starmer. And the Olympic opening ceremonies are about to get underway in Italy.
Ragebait, sponcon, A.I. slop — the internet of 2026 makes a lot of us nostalgic for the internet of 10 or 15 years ago.
What exactly went wrong here? How did the early promise of the internet get so twisted? And what exactly is wrong here? What kinds of policies could actually make our digital lives meaningfully better?
Cory Doctorow and Tim Wu have two different theories of the case, which I thought would be interesting to put in conversation together. Doctorow is a science fiction writer, an activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the author of “Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It.” Wu is a law professor who worked on technology policy in the Biden White House; his latest book is “The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity.”
In this conversation, we discuss their different frameworks, and how they connect to all kinds of issues that plague the modern internet: the feeling that we’re being manipulated; the deranging of our politics; the squeezing of small businesses and creators; the deluge of spam and fraud; the constant surveillance and privacy risks; the quiet rise of algorithmic pricing; and the dehumanization of work. And they lay out the policies that they think would go furthest in making all these different aspects of our digital lives better.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Annie Galvin. Fact-checking by Will Peischel. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Isaac Jones and Aman Sahota. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Rollin Hu, Kristin Lin, Emma Kehlbeck, Jack McCordick, Michelle Harris, Marina King and Jan Kobal. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. And special thanks to Natasha Scott.
The Winter Olympics has the Unexpected Elements team looking into some of the incredible science behind the sports. First up, the tale of India’s lone luge pilot: how did using old train tracks as sled runners give him a competitive edge? Then, we look at the physics behind a cheating scandal that has rocked the ski jumping world. Scientific studies tell us exactly how much difference changing a single stitch in a costume can make.
Did you know there are different types of ice? Professor Christoph Salzmann has discovered three of them, and tells us what makes them unique. Plus dinosaurs, disease, and whether we laugh with an accent. All on this week’s Unexpected Elements.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton, with Chhavi Sachdev and Tristan Ahtone
Producers: Margaret Sessa-Hawkins, with Lucy Davies, Imy Harper and Tim Dodd
