Post Reports
by The Washington Post
Post 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.
Episodes
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Need a budget fix? Introducing: Dollars & Sense with Michelle Singletary
Financial decisions are rarely just about the money. And when life and money collide, it can be hard to make sense of either. That's where Michelle comes in. On Dollars & Sense with Michelle Singletary, Washington Post personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary helps real people navigate the...
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Introducing: Freedom Desk with Jason Rezaian
Jason Rezaian knows the cost of free speech. He spent 544 days in an Iranian prison for simply being a journalist. The world is witnessing the erosion of democratic values. The Freedom Desk video podcast is about what comes next in the global fight for free expression. Every week, Jason talks to...
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Goodbye from "Post Reports"
Just over seven years ago, we launched this daily news podcast from The Washington Post. Our goal was to bring you inside our newsroom, sharing our reporting with listeners to help make sense of what was happening in the world. We’ve published hundreds of episodes. We’ve covered elections, wars…
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A surprise Kennedy Center makeover
In his second term, President Donald Trump has gone on a mission to reinvent the Kennedy Center, the beloved performing arts venue in Washington, D.C. Trump promised to overhaul the center’s programming. He installed loyalists on the board who made him chairman. In December, Trump’s name joined...
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A teddy bear, an ice skate: What remains from last year's deadly D.C. plane crash
In late January of last year, an American Eagle flight and a U.S. Army helicopter collided above the Potomac River, killing everyone aboard both aircraft. It was the deadliest flight disaster in the U.S. in decades. A year later, families and first responders are reflecting on their enduring...
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Jason Rezaian, Iran and the costs of press freedom
Ten years ago this month, Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian was freed from Iran’s Evin prison. He and his wife, Yeganeh, had been arrested at their home in Tehran and falsely accused of espionage. Since then, Rezaian has dedicated himself to advocating for press freedom, and now he’s the...
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Is Minneapolis a turning point in Trump's presidency?
Since the killing of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minnesota, President Donald Trump and his administration are feeling the pressure — not only from Democrats, but also from members of their own party. Some congressional Republicans have been critical of the administration’s...
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The quest to ‘destructively scan’ all the world’s books
In early 2024, executives at artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic ramped up an ambitious project they sought to keep quiet. It was code-named Project Panama, and internal documents filed in court described it as an “effort to destructively scan all the books in the world.” According to the...
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Why smaller houses can make us happier
Houses in the United States keep getting bigger, but the people in bigger houses aren’t necessarily happier. Bigger homes often come with higher costs and more maintenance and can pull people further away from the places and relationships that matter. For some, choosing a smaller home can…
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How Kristi Noem transformed immigration enforcement
After both Renée Good and Alex Pretti were shot and killed by Department of Homeland Security officers in Minneapolis this month, the story from the agency’s secretary, Kristi L. Noem, was that these individuals’ intentions represented acts of domestic terrorism. Confirmed as DHS secretary a year...
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After Alex Pretti's killing, a battle of narratives
The killing of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday morning marks a dramatic escalation of what was already a very tense moment for Minneapolis. Just a day before, thousands of residents marched in a citywide strike organized by faith leaders and labor unions. They were protesting U.S....
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Why going outside is good for you, even when it's freezing
Today on the show, we explore the science behind why going outside is so good for us, even when it’s freezing. If you’re interested in learning more about nature therapy, check out the Center for Nature Informed Therapy. A psychologist says this exercise can make you more hopeful in 14 days: the...
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Trump’s Greenland ‘deal,’ and Democrats’ midterm math
President Donald Trump made headlines with two speeches this week. First came his sprawling, stream-of-consciousness address in the White House briefing room on Tuesday. Then, his barbed remarks about fellow world leaders at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland....
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The Iranian director who risked his freedom to make his Oscar-nominated film
Iranian director Jafar Panahi has been making social cinema since the 1990s. His work follows everyday Iranians and their struggles against societal forces. In 2010 the director received a ban on filmmaking from the Iranian government, and in 2022 he was imprisoned after he inquired into a fellow...
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A mysterious death inside ICE's largest detention center
When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced the death of a detainee at a Texas detention camp this month, the agency initially gave no cause of death. A fellow detainee said he witnessed Geraldo Lunas Campos being choked to death by guards; ICE said “staff observed him in distress.”...
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How Trump’s Nobel obsession is upending geopolitics
Over the weekend, President Donald Trump sent an unusual text to the prime minister of Norway. The two leaders had been messaging about Greenland – specifically, Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on European countries opposed to the United States taking over the autonomous Danish territory....
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How to make – and keep – friends
Friendship is vital for our health and happiness, but we don’t always prioritize it. The Optimist’s Maggie Penman goes on a journey to make new friends and learn why so many of us are craving connection. Today’s show was produced by Maggie Penman, with help from Ted Muldoon, who also mixed the...
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How to live a good life
At a time of year when many of us are reflecting on our lives and setting goals, we look at the research into what makes for a good life – and share some advice on how to get there. Here’s what science considers a path to a good life. Plus, some tips and advice on how to get there. Are you living…
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Trump’s intimidation playbook and a presidential middle finger
This week, the FBI raided the home of a Washington Post journalist, sparking First Amendment fears. At the same time, the Justice Department has opened an investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell, drawing concerns from bigwigs on Wall Street and questions as to how the administration treats its...
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The FBI raid on our reporter's home
Early Wednesday, FBI agents raided the home of a Washington Post reporter as part of an investigation of a government contractor accused of illegally retaining classified government materials. The reporter – Hannah Natanson – was at her home in Virginia at the time of the search. She covers the...
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Why Fed Chair Jerome Powell isn't backing down
For years, President Donald Trump has complained about Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome H. Powell. He’s called him names, said he should be fired and has tried to pressure the Fed leader into lowering interest rates. Trump’s feud against Powell escalated over the weekend, when Powell revealed...
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Are ICE officers doing what they’re trained to do?
Conflicting narratives of Renée Good’s killing in Minneapolis have quickly emerged – federal officials claim the ICE officer who shot her was acting in self-defense, while others believe her death was easily avoidable and that ICE’s tactics are overly aggressive. Host Martine Powers speaks with...
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Will these Iran protests bring the government down?
The turmoil started in late December, when some Tehran merchants closed up shop to protest the free fall of Iran’s currency. That initial outcry sparked a wave of protests across the country. Demonstrators demanded not just economic reform, but a total overhaul of Iran’s government and an end to...
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The hunt for a stolen Jackson Pollock painting
Decades after a brazen art theft drove Merry White’s father to despair, federal agents closed in on the missing work. For White, the search is personal. Read more: Merry White is the daughter of a Harvard professor who was close friends with painter Jackson Pollock. White’s parents came to own...
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Minneapolis ICE shooting, Tim Walz and 'America First' after Venezuela
This week, the shooting of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis has drawn new scrutiny of President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement push, and reactions have become something of a political Rorschach test. Meanwhile…
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The trick to making New Year’s resolutions stick
Go to sleep earlier. Read more books. Eat better. Exercise. Changing our behavior is hard, but what if some simple – and dare we say fun – tricks could help us keep our resolutions for the new year? From temptation bundling to buddying up, Optimist reporter Maggie Penman shares the science on how...
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How a mystery gambler scored big on Maduro’s ouster
Just hours before U.S. aircraft surged into Caracas as part of an operation to capture Nicolás Maduro, an anonymous person placed a final online bet that the Venezuelan president would soon be ousted. The mystery gambler netted more than $400,000 on that long-shot bet – raising questions about...
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Marco Rubio, the Viceroy of Venezuela
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has held many titles during Donald Trump’s presidency. He may have just acquired his most challenging one yet: viceroy of Venezuela. The national security adviser, acting archivist and administrator of the now-defunct U.S. Agency for International Development was...
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With Maduro gone, what's Venezuela's future?
After U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, President Donald Trump declared: “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again.” The world is still digesting the consequences of the intervention, which the Trump administration has...
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How to get stronger as you age
Today we share one of our favorite episodes, from Optimist reporter Maggie Penman about the new science of aging, and a hopeful research finding that getting stronger and healthier in old age is possible for many of us – even after a health setback. If you want to hear more stories like this,...
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How to be a ‘super ager’
Today, we revisit one of our favorite episodes from this past year, about super agers: people who continue to thrive into their 80s and 90s. One of them lives just down my block. Ednajane Truax, who is known to friends and neighbors as “E.J.,” can often be found on her hands and knees in the…
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Meet the man who invites 1,000 people to his house every month
Once a month for 15 years, David Weiner has hosted a jazz party, inviting everyone he knows and many people he’s never met over to his D.C. rowhouse. Today, we revisit one of our favorite episodes of the year and go inside the wildly welcoming ritual to understand how he’s built this community —...
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Is finding "flow" the key to happiness?
In one of our favorite episodes of the year, a group of self-proclaimed “old ladies” dive for garbage — and unexpectedly find joy. This is a story from The Optimist, The Washington Post’s section about the best of humanity. If you want more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter. If you...
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Want to live longer? Try fartleks.
Fartlek is a Swedish term for “speed play.” This informal version of interval training is simple, effective and dare we say … enjoyable? And not just because fartlek is fun to say. Exercise columnist Gretchen Reynolds is here to vouch for this often-overlooked, decades-old practice. Reynolds, who...
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How much do dogs reduce our stress?
Today, we revisit one of our favorite episodes from the past year: about the science of how dogs make us calmer, happier — and maybe even more trusting. If you want more optimistic content on the weekends, let us know at [email protected] and [email protected] – and check out our...
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This school banned phones. Remarkable things happened.
The cafeteria at Ballard High School during lunch is a loud place. Students are talking and laughing, playing card games and going out to the courtyard for an informal recess. On Fridays, students have started playing bingo. It’s a big change from the past couple of years — and it’s not the only...
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The kids keeping go-go music alive
Schools and community programs in Washington, D.C., are teaching students to play go-go music to help extend the legacy of the official music of the District. Producer Sabby Robinson spoke with enterprise reporter Marissa Lang about the history that these students are keeping alive and the impact...
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Stressed about the holidays? Carolyn Hax has advice.
Carolyn Hax has been an advice columnist for The Washington Post for over 25 years. So, she’s seen, heard and read it all. There’s no family drama and no question too bizarre for the seasoned columnist. That’s especially true during the holiday season, when some relationships get tested more than...
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Wait, is weed legal now?
In an executive order last week, President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to reclassify marijuana as a less-dangerous substance. The drug is currently considered Schedule I, which is the most tightly controlled tier of illegal substances. Trump’s order would direct the Justice Department…
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I want to give back! How do I afford it?
Donating money can induce anxiety if you’re not sure how to afford it or feel pressured into doing so by the people around you. “Try This” host Cristina Quinn talks to Washington Post personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary about how to give back, whether it’s through money or time....
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Why MAGA faithful are growing frustrated with Trump
The week started with a Truth Social post from President Donald Trump about the death of Hollywood director Rob Reiner that drew backlash from within his own party. Then, a high-profile Vanity Fair profile of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles revealed her disparaging assessments of the...
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How a gay hockey romance became a global phenomenon
“Heated Rivalry,” a TV adaption of Rachel Reid’s gay romance novel, has taken social media feeds and group chats by storm. Thanks to a deal with HBO, this Canadian TV show has been steaming up living rooms across North America, and has become one of the streamer’s most-watched shows. The series...
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Is this the American oligarchy?
Investigative reporter Beth Reinhard first noticed it in January, when President Donald Trump’s second inauguration celebration got moved indoors because of freezing temperatures. Thousands of ticketed spectators were left to stand out in the cold, but at least 17 billionaires, collectively worth...
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Rob Reiner’s death and legacy
Rob Reiner is the director of classics that include “The Princess Bride,” “When Harry Met Sally” and “This is Spinal Tap.” His wife Michele Singer Reiner worked alongside him and was famous in her own right, including photographing what would become the cover of Donald Trump’s book “The Art of…
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The making of Trump’s presidential library
Historically, presidential libraries have been used as research hubs to house documents and artifacts from a president’s time in the White House. They’re also a living monument to a president’s legacy. Less than a year into President Donald Trump’s second term, planning for his presidential…
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Deep Reads: His wife was dying, his federal job crumbling. It tested his faith — in God and Trump.
In the spring, Edward Brandon Becham was caring for his dying wife. He was also among hundreds of thousands of federal workers weighing whether to abandon public service. Donald Trump had taken office vowing to slash the federal bureaucracy, then entrusted the task to billionaire Elon Musk and a...
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Trump calls affordability a "hoax"; Democrats take note
In the first year of his second term, President Donald Trump has focused his attention on foreign policy and made numerous trips abroad – with an eye toward the Nobel Peace Prize. But as he discusses peace deals with foreign leaders, his ratings domestically have fallen. Critics say that he isn’t...
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The biggest shift yet in U.S. vaccine policy
The U.S. is in the midst of its biggest overhaul yet to childhood vaccinations, and it is already impacting how families are thinking about immunizing their children. President Donald Trump recently directed a review of the longstanding childhood vaccine schedule. And just last week, an…
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The battle for Warner Bros.
The historic movie and television company now known as Warner Bros. Discovery is in high demand. Last week, Netflix announced it would buy some of the company’s most valuable media portfolio for $83 billion. But Paramount Skydance then launched a hostile bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery mere…
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Should Germany ban its far-right party?
To many Americans, the idea of banning a party that has support from a significant portion of voters might seem undemocratic. But Germany, guided by its determination to avoid a repeat of Nazism, included a provision in its post-World War II constitution to allow banning parties that aim to…
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About this show
Post 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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