For millions of families, in vitro fertilization is a modern medical miracle. But the field is largely unregulated, and for a small number of parents, things can go terribly wrong.

Susan Dominus discusses her story about how two families navigated an unthinkable I.V.F. mistake that will connect them for the rest of their lives.

Guest: Susan Dominus, a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine.

Background reading: 

• Read Susan’s original article from 2024.

Photo: Holly Andres for The New York Times

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 Trump administration’s decision to open a criminal investigation into the Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome H. Powell, has stunned the worlds of business and politics.

Colby Smith and Glenn Thrush, who have been covering the news, discuss how the investigation came about, the panic it unleashed and why it might have made the Fed chair stronger than ever.

Guest:

• Colby Smith, a New York Times reporter covering the Federal Reserve and the U.S. economy.
• Glenn Thrush, who reports on the Justice Department for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Blowback builds over the criminal investigation of Mr. Powell.
• Here’s what to know about the criminal investigation of Mr. Powell.

Photo: Caroline Gutman for The New York Times

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.

Iran is experiencing expansive protests after economic grievances snowballed over the past two weeks into a broader challenge to the country’s authoritarian clerical rulers.

In recent days, a full picture of the government’s crackdown on demonstrators has emerged, garnering global condemnation and threats of action from President Trump.

Farnaz Fassihi, who has been covering the story, explains what is driving the protesters and why the regime may be facing one of its gravest challenges in decades.

Guest: Farnaz Fassihi, the United Nations bureau chief for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Accounts of a brutal crackdown are emerging from Iran despite communications restrictions.
• Here’s what to know about the protests in Iran.

Photo: Getty Images/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.

In the days since deposing Nicolás Maduro, President Trump has given several justifications for his dramatic actions in Venezuela. But perhaps most central to his ambitions is opening Venezuela’s oil fields to American companies.

Anatoly Kurmanaev, who covers Venezuela, explains the history behind Mr. Trump’s claims of ownership and what it would really take to get the oil back.

Guest: Anatoly Kurmanaev, a reporter for The New York Times who covers Venezuela.

Background reading: 

• The United States detailed a plan for Venezuela’s oil sales after Mr. Trump claimed millions of barrels.
• Mr. Trump’s goals for reviving Venezuela’s oil industry will not come easily or cheaply.

Photo: Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times

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 celebrated author on the challenges of being kind, the benefits of meditation and the reality check of death.

• Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]
• Watch our show on YouTube: youtube.com/@TheInterviewPodcast
• For transcripts and more, visit: nytimes.com/theinterview

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.

As 2025 comes to an end, The Sunday Special is looking back on the year in culture.

This week, on our final episode of the podcast, we’re talking about movies. The potential acquisition of Warner Brothers by Netflix has dominated entertainment news in recent weeks, but the year in movies has been about a lot more than corporate mergers. Alissa Wilkinson, a movie critic for The New York Times, and Nicole Sperling, a culture reporter based in Los Angeles, join Gilbert Cruz to talk about what really matters: the movies we loved this year.

Movies discussed in this episode include:

“One Battle After Another”
“Sinners”
“A Minecraft Movie”
“Superman”
“Weapons”
“Wicked: For Good”
“Zootopia 2”
“Avatar: Fire and Ash”
“Marty Supreme”
“It Was Just an Accident”
“The Testament of Ann Lee”
“Come and See Me In the Good Light”
“Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning”

On Today’s Episode:

Alissa Wilkinson is a movie critic at The Times.

Nicole Sperling is a reporter covering Hollywood for The Times.

Background Reading:

Netflix vs. Paramount: Inside the Epic Battle Over Warner Brothers

The 25 Most Notable Movies of 2025

Best Movies of 2025

Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures; 20th Century Studios; Disney

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.

In these final weeks of 2025, The Sunday Special is looking back at the year in culture.

Today, we’re talking about the TV we watched this year — the best shows, the most popular ones and the ones that allowed us to just enjoyably veg out. Gilbert Cruz talks with the TV critic James Poniewozik and the culture reporter Alexis Soloski about the year in television.

TV shows discussed in this episode:

“Severance”

“Common Side Effects”

“Too Much”

“Nobody Wants This”

“Dying for Sex”

“The Hunting Wives”

“The White Lotus”

“Dr. Odyssey”

“Long Story Short”

“Heated Rivalry”

“Andor”

“The Lowdown”

“Platonic”

“Pluribus”

“The Pitt”

“Adolescence”

On Today’s Episode:

James Poniewozik is the chief TV critic for The New York Times.

Alexis Soloski is a culture reporter for The Times.

Background Reading:

Best TV Shows of 2025

The Best TV Episodes of 2025

Photo Credit: Apple TV+; Netflix; Lucasfilm/Disney+; HBO

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.

As 2025 comes to an end, The Sunday Special is looking back on the year in culture.

This week, we’re listening to the songs and albums that defined the year, for better or worse. Gilbert Cruz is joined by Caryn Ganz and Lindsay Zoladz from The Times’s pop music desk to discuss some of the biggest and best releases of 2025.

Albums and songs mentioned in this episode:

Bad Bunny, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos”

Lady Gaga, “Mayhem”

Justin Bieber, “Daisies”

Chappell Roan, “The Giver” and “The Subway”

Sabrina Carpenter, “Manchild”

Doechii, “Alligator Bites Never Heal”

Taylor Swift, “The Life of a Showgirl”

Morgan Wallen, “I’m the Problem”

Ghost, “Skeletá”

Dijon, “Baby”

Geese, “Getting Killed”

Water From Your Eyes, “It’s a Beautiful Place”

PinkPantheress, “Fancy That”

Lily Allen, “Tennis”

Ella Langley, “Choosin’ Texas”

Sleigh Bells, “Bunky Becky Birthday Boy”

Hayley Williams, “Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party”

Turnstile, “Never Enough”

On Today’s Episode

Caryn Ganz is the pop music editor at The Times.

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

Additional Reading

Best Albums of 2025

Best Songs of 2025

Photo Illustration by The New York Times; From left, Angela Weiss/AFP — Getty Images (Lady Gaga); OK McCausland for The New York Times (Geese); Erika Santelices/Reuters (Bad Bunny); Helle Arensbak/AFP -- Getty Images, via Ritzau Scanpix (PinkPantheress)

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 first week of December at The New York Times is known as “Cookie Week.” Every day, for seven days, our cooking team highlights a new holiday cookie recipe. This year’s batch features flavors that aren’t necessarily traditional holiday ones — or even, for that matter, flavors. Instead, they draw inspiration from family night at the movies, drinks like Vietnamese Coffee, and perhaps most surprisingly, an Italian deli meat.

In this edition of the Sunday Special, Gilbert Cruz talks with Melissa Clark and Vaughn Vreeland from New York Times Cooking about this year’s cookies, and they answer questions from readers about how to navigate cooking and baking during the holidays.

Background Reading:

These 7 Cookies Will Be the Life of Every Party

Melissa Clark is a food reporter and columnist for The Times.

Vaughn Vreeland is a supervising video producer for NYT Cooking and writes the “Bake Time” newsletter.

Audio produced by Tina Antolini and Alex Barron with Kate LoPresti. Edited by Wendy Dorr. Engineered by Rowan Niemisto. Original music by Daniel Powell and Diane Wong. 

Photo credit: Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. 

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 holiday season is here, which means it’s the time to think of great gifts for everyone on your list. While it can feel like a daunting task to choose thoughtful, personalized presents, we’ve got a fix for you: books.

On this edition of The Sunday Special, Gilbert is joined by Joumana Khatib and Sadie Stein, editors at the Book Review, for a conversation about the best books to give your family and friends. Joumana and Sadie will share what excited them most this year and also provide recommendations for giftees in very specific categories.

Books mentioned in this episode:

“The Colony,” Annika Norlin
“Perfection,” Vincenzo Latronico
“Things: A Story of the 60s,” Georges Perec
“The Bee Sting,” Paul Murray
“The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny,” Kiran Desai
“The Director,” Daniel Kehlmann
“Playworld: A Novel,” Adam Ross
“A Marriage at Sea,” Sophie Elmhirst
“Entertaining is Fun!,” Dorothy Draper
“The Thursday Murder Club,” Richard Osman
“The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels,” Janice Hallett
“Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes,” Roald Dahl
“Mrs. Manders’ Cook Book,” Sarah Manders, edited by Rumer Godden
“Halleluja! The Welcome Table,” Maya Angelou
“The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes of My Life,” Pat Conroy
“Les diners de Gala,” Salvador Dalí
“Diaghilev’s Empire: How the Ballets Russes Enthralled the World,” Rupert Christiansen
“Finishing the Hat and Look I Made a Hat,” Stephen Sondheim
“Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run,” Peter Ames Carlin
“The Uncool: A Memoir,” Cameron Crowe
“The Gales of November,” John U. Bacon
“The Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson,” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Cats in Color,” Stevie Smith
“Archie and the Strict Baptists,” John Betjeman
“Stories 1,2,3,4,” Eugène Ionesco
“Trip: A Novel,” Amy Barrodale

On Today’s Episode:

Joumana Khatib is an editor at The New York Times Book Review.

Sadie Stein is an editor at The New York Times Book Review.

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.

“Wicked” was one of the biggest movies of 2024. It was culturally ubiquitous, a box office smash and an Oscar nominee for Best Picture. Now, a year later, “Wicked: For Good” arrives in theaters to finish the tale of the complicated friendship between Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. Can “Wicked: For Good” be the sensation that its predecessor was? Will it inject new life into a movie business that has suffered a historically bad business year? Will it satisfy the legions of “Wicked” fans who have been waiting to see their favorite musical brought to the big screen?

Gilbert Cruz is joined by Kyle Buchanan, a pop culture reporter for The New York Times who profiled the stars of “Wicked,” and Madison Malone Kircher, a reporter for the Styles desk and affirmed “Wicked” fanatic, to discuss what “Wicked: For Good” means for the movies.

On Today’s Episode

Madison Malone Kircher is a reporter covering internet culture for The Times.

Kyle Buchanan is a pop culture reporter and serves as The Projectionist, the awards season columnist for The New York Times.

Photo: Universal Pictures

Additional Reading

Ariana Grande Still Has Surprises in Store

There Have Been Dozens of “Wicked” Interviews. Why Did This One Go Viral?

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.