Podcast: The Daily

As 2024 comes to a close, critics, reporters and editors at The New York Times are reflecting on the year in arts and culture, including books.

The deputy editor of Culture and Lifestyle, Melissa Kirsch, speaks with the editor of The New York Times Book Review, Gilbert Cruz, about the best books of 2024 — and of the century. Also, The Times’s book critics detail their favorite reads of the year.

To end the year, Melissa Kirsch, The New York Times’s deputy editor of Culture and Lifestyle, talks with Times reporters, editors and columnists whose jobs involve thinking about how we live, and how we might live better.

First, she speaks with Philip Galanes, who writes the Social Q’s column, on what makes good advice. Then, Jancee Dunn, a reporter on the Well desk, shares some of the most useful tips she has gleaned this year. Finally, Daniel Jones, who has edited the Modern Love column for more than 20 years, reflects on the lessons he has learned about love.

And we hear from listeners about the best advice they received this year.

In 1976, after the Watergate scandal and the country’s withdrawal from the Vietnam War, American voters elected Jimmy Carter, a Washington outsider who had served one term as governor of Georgia, to the presidency. Mr. Carter brought a new humility to the Oval Office but, by 1980, many Americans had tired of his modest sensibility and chose not to re-elect him. As it would turn out, the qualities that hurt Mr. Carter in the White House formed the foundation of a post-presidential period that helped redefine, and redeem, his legacy in the final decades of his life.

Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for The New York Times, explains the life, death and legacy of former President Jimmy Carter.

For decades, Big Food has been marketing products to people who can’t seem to stop eating, and now, suddenly, they can. The active ingredient in new drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound mimics a natural hormone that slows digestion and signals fullness to the brain.

Around seven million Americans take these drugs, but estimates from Morgan Stanley suggest that number could increase to 24 million within the next decade. More than 100 million American adults are obese, and the drugs may eventually be rolled out to people who don’t have diabetes or obesity, as they seem to tame addictions beyond food — appearing to make cocaine, alcohol and cigarettes more resistible. Research is at an early stage, but the drugs may also cut the risk of stroke, heart and kidney disease, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Major food companies are scrambling to research the impact of the drugs on their brands — and figure out how to adjust. But for Mattson, which has invented products for the nation’s biggest food conglomerates for nearly 50 years, the Ozempic threat could be a boon.

By the time Sam Apple pulled up with his goldendoodle, Steve, to their resting place, he was tired from the long drive and already second-guessing his plan. He felt a little better when they stepped inside the Dogwood Acres Pet Retreat. The lobby, with its elegant tiled entrance, might have passed for the lobby of any small countryside hotel, at least one that strongly favored dog-themed decor. But this illusion was broken when the receptionist reviewed their reservation — which, in addition to their luxury suite, included cuddle time, group play, a nature walk and a “belly rub tuck-in.”

Venues like this one, on Kent Island in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, didn’t exist when Apple was growing up in the 1980s. If you needed a place to board your dog back then, you went to a kennel, where your dog spent virtually the entire day in a small — and probably not very clean — cage. There were no tuck-ins, no bedtime stories, no dog-bone-shaped swimming pools. There was certainly nothing like today’s most upscale canine resorts, where the dogs sleep on queen-size beds and the spa offerings include mud baths and blueberry facials; one pet-hotel franchise on the West Coast will even pick up your dog in a Lamborghini. Apple knew Dogwood Acres wouldn’t be quite as luxurious as that, but the accommodations still sounded pretty nice. So he decided to check his dog in, and to tag along for the journey.

As 2024 comes to a close, critics, reporters and editors at The New York Times are reflecting on the year in arts and culture, including music.Today, The Times’s pop music critics Jon Pareles, Lindsay Zoladz and Jon Caramanica talk with Melissa Kirsch, the deputy editor of Culture and Lifestyle, about a new generation of women in pop, how the rapper Kendrick Lamar beat Drake in their feud, and why so many pop stars went country.

As we approach the end of 2024, critics, reporters and editors at The New York Times are reflecting on the year in arts and culture, including television and film.The Times’s chief television critic James Poniewozik and chief film critic Manohla Dargis talk with Melissa Kirsch, the deputy editor of Culture and Lifestyle, about why recent entertainment offerings may feel a little “blah,” and also recommend shows and movies that stand out.

In 2022, seven years after surviving a brain aneurysm that left her unable to sing or even speak, Joni Mitchell appeared onstage at the Newport Folk Festival. Singing alongside her were her supportive — and emotional — musician friends, including Brandi Carlile, Marcus Mumford, Wynonna Judd and Annie Lennox.

Our critic Wesley Morris had his doubts. What was really happening here? Did Joni Mitchell even want this? Or were her younger adoring musician fans propping her up for their own reasons? When he learned this fall that Joni would be appearing onstage again, at the Hollywood Bowl, he bought a ticket to see for himself.

On today’s episode, Wesley talks with his editor Sasha Weiss about the concert, and what it’s like to experience an 80-year-old in full command of her meaning.

Hallmark Christmas movies are corny, predictable and just what our critic needed to embrace the holiday spirit. The story of how a big-city culture critic, Amanda Hess, found love where she least expected it — in the monotony of Hallmark’s Christmas movies.

How President Biden could transform women’s rights and rescue his legacy with just a ring. Dozens of congressional Democrats have a simple pitch to President Biden: with a single phone call he can revolutionize women’s rights and salvage his damaged legacy. Annie Karni, a congressional correspondent at The New York Times, discusses whether that plan is possible and, if so, whether Mr. Biden would try.

His wife was spiraling into insomnia, and his children were afraid to go to school, so Jaime Cachua sought out the person he trusted most in a crisis. He sat at his kitchen table in rural Georgia across from his father-in-law, Sky Atkins, the family patriarch. Jaime, 33, hadn’t seen his own father since he was 10 months old, when he left Mexico in a car seat bound for the United States.

“We have to prepare for the worst-case scenario,” Jaime told him. “There’s a chance we could lose everything.”

Jaime muted the football game on TV and began to explain his new reality as an undocumented immigrant after the election of Donald Trump, who had won the presidency in part by promising to deport more than 11 million people living in the country illegally.

“I’m going to be straight with you,” Sky told Jaime. “I voted for Trump. I believe in a lot of what he says.”

“I figured as much,” Jaime said. “You and just about everyone else around here.”

“It’s about protecting our rights as a sovereign country,” Sky said. “We need to shut down the infiltration on the border. It’s not about you.”

“It is about me,” Jaime said. “That’s the thing I don’t understand.”

The star of “The Chosen” discusses his early struggles in Hollywood, fans who conflate him with his character and how his own faith informs his work.

Weeks before his inauguration, President-elect Donald J. Trump is pushing the federal government toward a shutdown, corporate titans are flocking to Mar-a-Lago to gain his favor and a major media company has capitulated to Trump’s legal strategy of suing those who cross him.

The Times journalists Michael Barbaro, Maggie Haberman, Catie Edmondson and Andrew Ross Sorkin try to make sense of it all.

Guest:

Maggie Haberman, a senior political correspondent for The New York Times.
Catie Edmondson, a congressional correspondent for The New York Times.
Andrew Ross Sorkin, a columnist and the founder and editor-at-large of DealBook.

Since Donald J. Trump won the 2024 election, cryptocurrency has surged to its highest level ever.

David Yaffe-Bellany, a technology reporter for The Times, explains how a small, renegade industry that began as a challenge to the financial system ended up on top of it.

Guest: David Yaffe-Bellany, a technology reporter for The New York Times.

Warning: This episode contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence.

After months of testimony, verdicts are expected as soon as this week in a rape trial that has both horrified and captivated the people of France.

Catherine Porter, who has covered the trial, discusses the woman at the center of the case and how, with a single decision, she has turned the power dynamics of the #MeToo era on their head.

Guest: Catherine Porter, an international correspondent for The New York Times based in Paris.

Warning: This episode contains descriptions of torture and death. It also contains audio of death and grief.

Under Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian government set up a vast network of prisons and torture chambers that swallowed up tens of thousands of people. For years, those perceived as enemies of the regime would disappear into the system, and their families would have no idea what happened to them.

Christina Goldbaum, who has covered the events in Syria, takes us inside one of those prisons and tells the story of one man who survived to tell the tale.

Guest: Christina Goldbaum, the Afghanistan and Pakistan bureau chief for The New York Times.

Warning: this episode contains strong language.

Over the past few weeks, the resistance of a single Republican senator, Joni Ernst of Iowa, had threatened to derail Donald J. Trump’s choice of Pete Hegseth to run the Department of Defense.

Karoun Demirjian, who covers Congress for The Times, and Jonathan Swan, who covers politics, discuss how Mr. Trump and his allies ensured that Ms. Ernst’s resistance went away.

Guest:

Karoun Demirjian, who covers Congress for The New York Times, with a focus on national security.
Jonathan Swan, a Times reporter covering politics and Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign.

“You couldn’t have made this movie three years ago,” said Robert Zemeckis, the director of “Here.”

The film stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, and is based on a 2014 graphic novel that takes place in a single spot in the world over several centuries. The story mostly takes place in a suburban New Jersey living room. It skips back and forth through time, but focuses on a baby-boomer couple — played by Hanks and Wright — at various stages of their lives, from age 18 into their 80s.

Before A.I. software, Zemeckis could have had multiple actors play each character, but the audience might have gotten lost trying to keep track. Conventional makeup could have taken a decade off Hanks, who is now 68, but not half a century. The issue with C.G.I. is time and money. Persuading us that we’re watching Hanks and Wright in their 20s would have required hundreds of visual effects artists, tens of millions of dollars and months of postproduction work. A.I. software, though, changed all that accounting.

The guidebook writer and television personality reflects on his cancer diagnosis, social media’s corrosive effect on tourism and the transformative power of travel.

A new study has found that nearly three-quarters of American adults are now obese or overweight, and there’s growing concern — among politicians, scientists and consumers — about one potential culprit: ultraprocessed foods.

Guest: Alice Callahan, a nutrition and health reporter for The New York Times, discusses how these foods came to be such a big part of what we eat, and why that’s so hard to change.