Post Reports
1,462 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month ago - ★★★★ - 4.7K ratingsPost Reports is the daily podcast from The Washington Post. Unparalleled reporting. Expert insight. Clear analysis. Everything you’ve come to expect from the newsroom of The Post, for your ears. Martine Powers and Elahe Izadi are your hosts, asking the questions you didn’t know you wanted answered. Published weekdays around 5 p.m. Eastern time.
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Episodes
The sexual abuse verdict against Trump
May 10, 2023 21:29A civil jury in New York has found that former president Donald Trump sexually assaulted and defamed the writer E. Jean Carroll. Today on “Post Reports,” we talk about the evidence, the possible political consequences and why this trial happened. Read more: Jurors deliberated for less than three hours before siding with Carroll, awarding her a combined $5 million in damages. She testified during the trial that Trump violently assaulted her in the mid-1990s and inflicted further trauma b...
The end of the covid emergency
May 09, 2023 21:58The covid public health emergency is ending this week after more than three years. Today on “Post Reports,” health reporter Dan Diamond breaks down what this means for our day-to-day lives and our future pandemic preparedness. Federal vaccine mandates and travel requirements will soon be gone as what’s left of the nation’s pandemic emergency response ends this month. The White House’s covid response team is disbanding, too – all with little to no fanfare. “It feels like slouching across t...
Why are we forgetting the pandemic already?
May 08, 2023 21:29While the coronavirus emergency declaration officially ends this week, neuroscientist-turned-science-journalist Richard Sima has been pondering this question: Why are so many of us starting to forget much of the pandemic? The coronavirus pandemic is a historic event that has impacted everyone across the world. And yet, “given the quirks of human memory,” many of us may not remember much about this time, Sima tells “Post Reports.” Today, we dig into the science of why many of our brains m...
Crazy rich royals
May 05, 2023 19:51Is King Charles III a billionaire? Officially, it’s unknown how rich the king is, but what is known is that in addition to receiving a stipend from United Kingdom taxpayers, Charles has created a lucrative business empire. As the country prepares to celebrate the king’s coronation on Saturday, which is expected to cost the U.K. government tens of millions of dollars, some British residents have expressed dissatisfaction with the royal family’s wealth and questioned whether the monarchy s...
TV and film writers hit the picket line
May 04, 2023 21:58Television and movie writers kicked off a strike this week after negotiations between the Writers Guild of America and Hollywood producers went sideways. Today we dig into why writers such as Josh Gondelman are hitting the picket lines. Read more: Late-night shows are on hiatus. Movie scripts might not have anyone to write them. And it’s all because at least 11,000 Writers Guild of America union members started striking this week. Writers are fighting for better pay in the streaming age an...
Small steps to live your best sustainable life
May 03, 2023 20:23A lot of us question how much we can minimize our carbon footprint in our day-to-day lives. Should we go vegan? Recycle more? Or just never fly again? That’s where The Post’s climate coach, Michael Coren, comes to the rescue. In today’s episode, he answers your questions about how to make smart decisions every day that will help the planet. Read more: Why free street parking could be costing you hundreds more in rent. These 4 free apps can help you identify every flower, plant and tre...
Playing chicken with the debt ceiling
May 02, 2023 20:54Congress and President Biden have five weeks to strike a deal on raising the debt ceiling, according to a new projection from the Treasury Department. Otherwise, the country will need to brace for an economic catastrophe. The problem? Neither side is willing to compromise. President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have agreed to meet next week, but both have also insisted they are unwilling to negotiate, stoking fears that the government may miss this critical deadline. Tony Romm...
The threat within the world's largest refugee camp
May 01, 2023 22:44Join “Post Reports” on a journey through the Kutupalong mega camp in Bangladesh. It’s home to about a million Rohingya refugees who fled persecution in Myanmar only to face growing militant threats from within the camp. The Kutupalong encampment has become increasingly difficult for visitors to access. Armed guards man the entrance. Documentation to enter is hard to come by. But earlier this year, Rebecca Tan, The Post’s Southeast Asia bureau chief, spent two weeks inside. She discovered d...
Curtis Sittenfeld on “Romantic Comedy”
April 29, 2023 15:00 - 43.7 MBOn today’s bonus episode of “Post Reports,” a conversation between our senior host Martine Powers and the author Curtis Sittenfeld about her new book, “Romantic Comedy.” Read more: This month, Martine spoke with Curtis Sittenfeld in front of a live audience at D.C.’s Sixth & I synagogue, in partnership with Politics & Prose. Learn more about “Romantic Comedy” here. “Who Is Hillary Without Bill?” In her previous book, novelist Curtis Sittenfeld imagines another life for Hillary Rodham.
How artificial intelligence is saving people’s voices
April 28, 2023 15:38Today on “Post Reports,” how artificial intelligence can re-create voices that may have otherwise been lost to disease. Read more: When Mark Dyer was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) last year, he started on a difficult checklist. He got his will in order; he got set up to receive Social Security and disability benefits. But of all the things Mark had to do to get ready for life with ALS, there was one thing he found himself putting off: voice- and phrase-banking. These...
Is Dianne Feinstein a liability for Democrats?
April 27, 2023 20:24After an ongoing medical absence, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is being called on by her colleagues to resign. Today, why Feinstein is in the hot seat and what this moment could mean for the trailblazer’s legacy. Read more: In early March, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) was hospitalized with a case of the shingles. Since then, she’s been absent from her job, and her Democratic colleagues have been calling on her to resign. As the tie-breaking vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee, F...
The rise of a shadowy Russian mercenary network
April 26, 2023 22:04The Wagner Group is a name that seems to be coming up a lot lately, whether it’s in connection with the war in Ukraine or the fighting in Sudan. Today on “Post Reports,” reporter Greg Miller unpacks the origins of this mercenary network and its growth fueling instability around the world. The Wagner Group operated in the shadows for years, its network of mercenary forces aiding the Russian government in military operations in places such as Ukraine. In the time since, the Wagner Group has...
The enthusiasm gap for Biden 2024
April 25, 2023 21:26Here we go again: President Biden has just announced his 2024 reelection bid. But has his time in the White House actually convinced voters to give him another four years? Or are even his supporters turning “blah” for Biden? Read more: The video starts out dramatically. Images of the Capitol under attack on Jan. 6, 2021. Grainy footage of a protest on the grounds of the Supreme Court. A musical score to rival a Marvel superhero movie. And then President Biden’s voice, announcing his ...
This Barbie is a business decision
April 24, 2023 20:08The new live-action Barbie movie is highly anticipated … among adults. Today on “Post Reports,” we unpack the business decisions behind Mattel’s move. Read more: Can nostalgia make the Barbie movie a win for Mattel? A few weeks ago, Warner Bros. dropped a full-length trailer for the highly anticipated film from Greta Gerwig and her co-writer and partner Noah Baumbach. Since the trailer dropped, it has gone viral – among young adults – making business reporter Rachel Lerman wonder why a t...
The deadly world of white-supremacist prison gangs
April 21, 2023 19:04Missing people, buried car parts and human remains in Oklahoma: the silent but not so secret influence of white-supremacist prison gangs. Read more: Carol Knight thought she was going to build her dream home in Choctaw, Okla. But when she started renovations, she discovered all kinds of debris buried on her property. Everything from electronics to car parts and motorcycles. Carol had heard rumors that the previous residents weren’t the most upstanding citizens, so she called her friend J...
Does Disney have a Star Wars problem?
April 20, 2023 20:27Disney has planned out the next decade of Marvel and Star Wars films, but are audiences still willing to keep up with all its content, or is fatigue setting in? When Disney bought Star Wars and Marvel for a total $8.05 billion, it made a big bet that audiences would consistently keep up with the interconnected storylines that span movies, television shows and video games. But while the franchises remain relatively successful, there are signs that audiences are starting to feel fatigue. M...
The warring leaders pushing Sudan to the brink
April 19, 2023 22:20A violent showdown between Sudan’s two most powerful leaders has brought a new level of instability to the region. Today on “Post Reports,” a look at how the country went from hopes of democracy just a few years ago to being on the cusp of civil war. The conflict between the country’s main military and paramilitary leaders – boiled over on Saturday, rocking the country’s capital and catching civilians, aid workers and international residents in the crossfire. “The scale of the violence ...
"I don't want to die trying to have a baby."
April 18, 2023 20:02Today, we look at how vague language in antiabortion laws has disrupted the standard of care for a pregnancy complication called PPROM. Read more: Anya Cook wants a baby more than anything. She and her husband, Derick, live in Florida. They experienced a long line of miscarriages. Then last fall, they tried IVF, and they got further in their pregnancy than ever before. Cook found herself shopping for baby clothes and maternity swimsuits. But then her water broke at 16 weeks; this was the b...
What DeSantis did at Guantánamo Bay
April 17, 2023 21:00When Ron DeSantis first ran for governor in Florida in 2018, a campaign ad boasted that he “dealt with terrorists in Guantánamo Bay.” Today on "Post Reports," our reporter digs in on everything we can learn about that time. Read more; Florida governor and potential 2024 candidate Ron DeSantis is in the news a lot. But little is known about his time serving as a Navy lawyer at Guantánamo Bay. Today on “Post Reports,” political investigative reporter Michael Kranish tells us everything he c...
Fox News on trial
April 14, 2023 20:59Ahead of opening arguments Monday, we unpack the Dominion defamation case against Fox News, and what the outcome could mean for the future of the media and democracy.
The gamers behind a leak of state secrets
April 13, 2023 22:01For the past week, the world has been transfixed by a massive leak of top-secret Pentagon documents. Today, we hear directly from one of the teenagers who was part of the Discord channel where it all started, and get inside the head of the alleged leaker. Read more: On Thursday, a young member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard was arrested by the FBI in the investigation into leaks of hundreds of pages of classified military documents to a Discord group of friends and acquaintances. ...
The top-secret document leak panicking U.S. officials
April 12, 2023 20:48The photos of top-secret Pentagon documents first started appearing online on Discord, a chat platform popular with gamers. But where did they come from? And just how many military secrets do they contain? Read more: Last week, reports surfaced that a trove of classified documents was leaked on a number of social media platforms. The documents cover worldwide intelligence briefings, assessments of Ukraine’s defense capabilities, and the highly classified methods the United States uses to ...
Will abortion pills stay legal?
April 11, 2023 22:21Late Friday, two conflicting rulings threw a key abortion medication’s FDA approval into question. Today on Post Reports, we break down the legal confusion and talk about what could happen next. At the center of this unprecedented legal clash is mifepristone, a drug that is part of a two-step abortion pill regimen used by millions of people. A federal judge in Texas blocked the FDA’s longtime approval of the drug. Less than an hour later, another federal judge, in Washington state, ordere...
The virus hunters
April 10, 2023 21:32An especially risky kind of virus hunting aims to identify new viruses in animals that have yet to jump to humans. Imagine trips to distant caves and wrangling bats to pull blood and DNA samples. The hope is to use that knowledge to be a step ahead and develop therapeutics and surveillance that could help prevent a future outbreak or, worse yet, a deadly pandemic from erupting. But a year-long Post investigation by David Willman and Joby Warrick has found that such research may be putting t...
The Iraq I never knew
April 07, 2023 17:32What is it like to leave a country in crisis - only to return years later to a devastated homeland? Today, a Post photojournalist journeys back to Iraq after 24 years. Read more: Salwan Georges, a photojournalist at The Post, left Iraq more than two decades ago. Georges and his family spent five years in Syria as refugees, eventually settling in Detroit, Mich. As The Post prepared to cover the 20th anniversary of the Iraq war, Georges traveled back to his homeland for the first time sin...
Why American cities are getting Whiter
April 06, 2023 20:25Many American cities are being gentrified — and getting Whiter. Today on “Post Reports,” we go to Denver to see how the city has changed and what longtime residents are doing about it. Read more: As the United States is getting more diverse, the opposite has been happening in American cities over the past decade. In some cities, local governments have invested more money in public infrastructure such as parks and transportation to attract residents as developers have built new upscale apar...
How Putin pushed Finland to join NATO
April 05, 2023 21:00Finland just joined NATO. Sweden is waiting in the wings. Will this beefed-up security alliance — a direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — be enough to keep President Vladimir Putin at bay? Read more: On Monday, Finland officially joined the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) making it the 31st member of the alliance. Finland, which historically stayed neutral throughout the Cold War, felt inspired to join after witnessing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and they’re not the onl...
The politics of Trump's surrender
April 04, 2023 22:23Former president Donald Trump was arraigned Tuesday for hush money payments made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels. Here’s what that means politically for the GOP and Trump. Read more: Former president Donald Trump is still campaigning and collecting contributions even though he surrendered to authorities today in New York. Post reporter Michael Scherer examines what the indictment might mean for the Republican Party. He also explains how Trump is capitalizing on the media attention of t...
An historic global heist — and a rapper on trial
April 03, 2023 22:47Former Fugees rapper Pras is on trial for conspiracy, money laundering and acting as a foreign agent. The case, involving celebrities and political figures, is a small part of a bigger scandal: the $4.5 billion theft from the Malaysian government. Read more: Leonardo DiCaprio. Steve Bannon. Kim Kardashian. All of these people are somehow connected to a trial stemming from one of the biggest financial scams in history: the $4.5 billion theft from the 1MDB Malaysian government fund. Prakazre...
Trump’s indicted. Now what?
March 31, 2023 21:35Former president Donald Trump has been indicted. Today, how the case could test the limits of our political and legal systems. Read more: A Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict former president Donald Trump, making him the first person in U.S. history to serve as commander in chief and then be charged with a crime, and setting the stage for a 2024 presidential contest unlike any other. The indictment was sealed, which means the specific charge or charges are not publicly known. But th...
Finding love in an AI place
March 30, 2023 20:19As loneliness rates spike, more people are getting romantically and emotionally attached to artificial intelligence bots. Today, we report on what it’s like to fall in love with software (and what happens when it breaks your heart). Read more: T.J. Arriaga lost so many family members around the time when he downloaded Replika. The artificial intelligence company allows people to customize AI bots that they can chat with. In Arriaga’s case, he fell in love with his chat bot Phaedra. The 40-...
Can the pitch clock save baseball?
March 29, 2023 20:29“America’s Pastime” is struggling to keep Americans interested. Today ahead of Opening Day, we talk about Major League Baseball’s introduction of a pitch clock to try to speed things up and appeal to younger audiences. Read more: This season, baseball is trying something new to speed up the game: a pitch clock. The goal is to make baseball more exciting by requiring pitchers and batters to move more quickly (but will it actually bring in new fans?). Reporter Chelsea Janes joins Post Repo...
How the AR-15 became America’s gun
March 28, 2023 22:38At a school in Nashville on Monday, a shooter used two AR-style weapons and a handgun to kill three children and three adults. Today on “Post Reports,” we look at the history of the AR-15 and how it became America’s gun. Read more: The AR-15 wasn’t supposed to be a bestseller. The rugged, powerful weapon was originally designed as a military rifle in the late 1950s. “An outstanding weapon with phenomenal lethality,” an internal Pentagon report raved. It soon became standard issue for U....
A turning point in Israel
March 27, 2023 22:34Nationwide strikes and protests erupted in Israel as outrage grew over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the country’s courts. Many saw the move as a threat to Israel’s democracy. And on Monday, Netanyahu announced he would put the plan on pause. Read more: For months, Israelis have rallied against the country’s right-wing government as it tries to force a drastic overhaul of the Supreme Court. But protests intensified when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his def...
The realities of being transgender in the U.S.
March 24, 2023 20:51Today, what a landmark poll of U.S. transgender adults reveals about what life is like for trans people in America. Read more: In this atmosphere of intense polarization around transgender rights, The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation set out to hear what transgender Americans had to say on topics ranging from their experiences as children in school to navigating the workplace, the doctor’s office and family relationships as adults. The resulting Washington Post-KFF Trans Su...
Mr. TikTok goes to Washington
March 23, 2023 22:58TikTok is on Capitol Hill today. Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of the popular social media app, testified in front of Congress about the company’s data security practices and its relationship with the Chinese government, as more lawmakers advocate for banning the app in the United States. Read more: Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, testified in front of the House Energy Committee for five hours on Thursday. He was grilled by lawmakers on issues ranging from data privacy to national security. Fo...
Putin and Xi want a new world order
March 22, 2023 22:18Today, what Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit could mean for the balance of global power. Read more: This week, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin met for the first time since Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine. Reporter Mary Ilyushina says, while the two leaders have met many times before, this meeting showed the two countries' commitment to creating a new world order, one where the U.S. is no longer the arbi...
What priests on Grindr can tell us about data privacy
March 21, 2023 20:13A conservative Catholic group spent millions of dollars on app data that identified gay priests. A Washington Post investigation dives into how this secretive group got data from Grindr and other apps, and what this story can tell us about data privacy in the U.S. Read more: In the summer of 2021, a prominent priest, Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill, was mysteriously outed for being a regular on Grindr, the gay dating and hookup app. The scandal sent shock waves through the Catholic church. Rel...
Should I be worried about all the bank failures?
March 20, 2023 21:22Are we in the middle of a financial crisis? Today’s show breaks down the latest bank crises — from Credit Suisse to First Republic. Read more: Another week, another banking calamity. On Sunday, Swiss banking giant UBS came to the rescue of its rival, Credit Suisse. It was the first near-collapse of a European bank on the heels of three regional bank implosions in the United States. Economics reporter Abha Bhattarai helps us decipher all the bank failures over the past couple of weeks. ...
What's in an American name?
March 17, 2023 20:49As the U.S. continues to grow racially and ethnically diverse, that shift is reflected in how our names are changing. Still, culture wars persist. And that can mean Americans are forced to consider what makes us American, and what makes a name American. Read more: Two years ago this week, a 21-year-old gunman in Atlanta massacred eight people in three spas. Six of those victims were women of Asian descent. It prompted a wave of reporting about racist attacks and violence, and for Marian...
The Texas case that could soon upend abortion everywhere
March 16, 2023 21:48Today on Post Reports, we take you to an abortion hearing in Amarillo, Tex., that the judge didn’t want you to know was coming. Read more: In a four-hour hearing on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk heard arguments in a lawsuit that could restrict access nationwide to the abortion medication mifepristone. The lawsuit alleges that the medication is unsafe, despite being approved and highly regulated by the FDA for decades. However, many antiabortion activists are hopeful tha...
Did the AI behind ChatGPT just get smarter?
March 15, 2023 21:35The AI behind ChatGPT just got an upgrade. But it might not have all of the bells and whistles that some were expecting. Read more: GPT-4 might sound like gibberish, but it could change what you expect from your apps (not to mention what happens when you try out ChatGPT). If you need a recipe and are low on groceries, you could soon take a picture of your open fridge for the system to “look” at, identify your ingredients, and whip up a recipe for the night. That being said, there are lim...
What teachers won’t teach anymore
March 14, 2023 20:37Teachers across the nation are changing how they teach in response to state laws, administrative decrees and parental pressure. Today on “Post Reports,” we explore three examples of things teachers are cutting from their lesson plans. Read more: School districts and teachers are grappling with how to teach race, racism, U.S. history, sexual orientation and gender. These fights are happening in school board meetings, local town halls and on the campaign trail. A growing parental rights m...
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank
March 13, 2023 21:40Silicon Valley Bank is dead. The institution that was a major financier for venture capitalists, tech start-ups and other Silicon Valley outfits has collapsed. Enter: the federal government. Read more: When depositors who belonged to Silicon Valley Bank started quickly withdrawing their money recently, it caused a “bank run.” This led to the ruin of the tech-focused bank, the largest bank failure since the Great Recession. Now the federal government is stepping in to ensure customers are s...
Hollywood sets have a safety problem
March 10, 2023 21:25It’s not just on movie sets like the infamous “Rust.” Beyond Hollywood’s glitz and glamor, and the spectacle of the upcoming 95th Academy Awards, there are hidden dangers on many of the sets for the tv shows and movies we love. Read more: Back in October 2021, two major events happened in Hollywood. First, 60,000 union members overwhelmingly voted to go on strike because of rough working conditions on television and movie sets. The strike was narrowly averted, but it left union members wan...
The science of pandemic grief
March 09, 2023 22:35Today on Post Reports, as we near the three-year mark of the pandemic, health reporter Lena Sun digs into the science of grief and what she learned through her own loss. Her mother was one of more than 1 million Americans who died of covid. Read more: This week, we’re marking three years since the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 was a pandemic. Since March of 2020, more than a million people have died in the United States alone and we’ve lost more than 6 million peop...
The kidnapping of four Americans in Mexico
March 08, 2023 22:03Today, what we know about the four Americans who were kidnapped in Mexico, and what this incident can tell us about medical tourism, the security situation at the U.S. southern border, and how U.S. policy has contributed to the problems. Read more: Last week, four American friends from South Carolina were kidnapped in the Mexican border city Matamoros. By the time Mexican security forces located them on the outskirts of the city Tuesday, two of the Americans were dead and another was injur...
Surviving on less than $6 a meal
March 07, 2023 21:38The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, enables low-income families to put basic food on the table. This month, SNAP experienced dramatic cuts that have left many families and seniors struggling to figure out how to survive on less than $6 per meal. That can mean cheaper, less-healthy options like canned and processed foods, which are high in sugar and are major drivers of obesity, reporter Laura Reiley tells “Post Reports.” “It's a hunger that looks different than ...
The alleged Ponzi scheme that preyed on Mormons
March 06, 2023 19:58Today on the show, the $500 million alleged Ponzi scheme that preyed on Mormons. Read more: Las Vegas investigative reporter Jeff German was killed outside his home in September; a Clark County official he had investigated is charged in his death. To continue German’s work, The Washington Post teamed up with his newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, to complete one of the stories he’d planned to pursue before he was killed. A folder on German’s desk contained court documents he’d starte...
What really happens to your donated clothes
March 03, 2023 21:55If you’re gearing up to clean out your closet this spring, you might be wondering: Where can I donate all these clothes? And: What actually happens to these clothes when I do donate? The Washington Post’s climate solutions team has some answers. Read more: From Goodwill to disaster-relief efforts to those big metal donation boxes on street corners, there are a lot of options for where to give those clothes you just don’t wear anymore. But whether those old t-shirts ever find new, good hom...