Best Interpreter Magazine Podcasts (2025)

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John Brennan, Former C.I.A. Director, on Being Targeted by Trump 26:49

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4m ago26:49

26:49

In Donald Trump’s first term, he was furious that people were investigating his connections to Russia—“Russia, Russia, Russia,” he complained. Now, as Trump fulfills a campaign promise of retribution, his Administration has put the Russia “hoax” back into the headlines. They claim to have opened investigations into the former F.B.I. director James …

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Persians Find a New Home in Christ in Germany 31:44

3h ago31:44

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In this podcast recorded almost a year ago, the Rev. Dr. Gottfried Martens, the Rev. Dr. David Preus and the Rev. Dr. Christian Tiews join the podcast to discuss the work at Trinity Lutheran Church, Berlin-Steglitz, Germany. This congregation of the Independent Evangelical — Lutheran Church (SELK) cares for Persian immigrants seeking asylum in Germ…

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Congregational Spotlight: Augustana Lutheran Church, Moscow, Idaho 26:44

3h ago26:44

26:44

The Walking Together column in The Lutheran Witness is a regular column that features congregations of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. In this special edition of the LW podcast, we interview the Rev. Jonathon Krenz, pastor of Augustana. He talks about the struggles of starting a church plant without a physical building, and what it’s like being…

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Dexter Filkins on Drones and the Future of Warfare 21:47

3d ago21:47

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Since the end of the Cold War, most Americans have taken U.S. military supremacy for granted. We can no longer afford to do so, according to reporting by the staff writer Dexter Filkins. China has developed advanced weapons that rival or surpass America’s; and at the same time, drone warfare has fundamentally changed calculations of the battlefield…

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Episode #36: Moving or Relocating with Animals 21:56

5d ago21:56

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Send us a text Loli Jane, an Animal Communicator, and Pranic Healer, shares incredible tips to help ease your animal's anxiety when you have to move or relocate. Whether you are moving locally, to another state or even oversees. Loli teaches you how to may your pets and animals feel comfortable and at ease when moving. Loli Jane is a professional, …

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Mayor Karen Bass on Marines in Los Angeles 29:02

7d ago29:02

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The city of Los Angeles has declared itself a sanctuary city, where local authorities do not share information with federal immigration enforcement. But L.A.—where nearly forty per cent of residents are foreign-born—became ground zero for controversial arrests and deportations by ICE. The Trump Administration deployed marines and the National Guard…

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Director Ari Aster Explains His COVID-Era Western “Eddington” 25:17

9d ago25:17

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“I’m personally desperate for art that at least attempts to grapple with whatever the hell is going on right now,” the writer-director Ari Aster tells Adam Howard, a senior producer of the Radio Hour. “ ‘Eddington’ is a film about a bunch of people who . . . know that something’s wrong. They just—nobody can agree on what that thing is.” Many of us …

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Michael Wolff on MAGA’s Revolt Over Jeffrey Epstein 26:29

13d ago26:29

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The sense that the White House is covering something up about Jeffrey Epstein has led to backlash from some of Trump’s most ardent supporters. Even after the financier was convicted for hiring an underage prostitute, for which he served a brief and extraordinarily lenient sentence, Epstein remained a playboy, a top political donor, and a very good …

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Carrie Brownstein on Cat Power. Plus, “Materialists,” “Too Much,” and the Modern Rom-Com. 1:00:46

16d ago1:00:46

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For The New Yorker’s series Takes, Carrie Brownstein—the co-creator of Sleater-Kinney and “Portlandia”—writes about an iconic rock-and-roll image. In the summer of 2003, the musician Chan Marshall, better known as Cat Power, was transitioning from an indie darling to a major rock artist, and the staff writer Hilton Als wrote a Profile of her in The…

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Janet Yellen on the Danger of a “Banana Republic” Economy. Plus, Susan B. Glasser on Why “We Are the Boiled Frog.” 38:14

20d ago38:14

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In conservative economics, cuts to social services are often seen as necessary to shrink the expanding deficit. Donald Trump’s budget bill is something altogether different: it cuts Medicaid while slashing tax rates for the wealthiest Americans, adding $6 trillion to the national debt, according to the Cato Institute. Janet Yellen, a former Treasur…

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Kalief Browder: A Decade Later 18:17

23d ago18:17

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Kalief Browder was jailed at Rikers Island at the age of sixteen; he spent three years locked up without ever being convicted of a crime, and much of that time was spent in solitary confinement. In 2014, the New Yorker staff writer Jennifer Gonnerman wrote about Browder and the failings of the criminal-justice system that his case exposed: unconsci…

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U2’s Bono on the Power of Music 31:32

27d ago31:32

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In 2022, The New Yorker published a personal history about growing up in Ireland during the nineteen-sixties and seventies. It covers the interfaith marriage of the author’s parents, which was unusual in Dublin; his mother’s early death; and finding his calling in music. The author was Bono, for more than forty years the lyricist and lead singer of…

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“Super Gay Poems” 15:08

1M ago15:08

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In 2024, Harvard University offered a course on Taylor Swift. It was popular, to say the least. That course was taught by a professor and literary critic named Stephanie Burt. In The New Yorker, Burt has written seriously about comics and science fiction, but she’s also considered great poets such as Seamus Heaney and Mary Oliver. Now, Burt has put…

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Bret Baier On Trump’s Love-Hate Relationship with Fox News 34:54

1M ago34:54

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The relationship between Fox News and Donald Trump is not just close; it can be profoundly influential. Trump frequently responds to segments in real time online—even to complain about a poll he doesn’t like. He has tapped the network for nearly two dozen roles within his Administration—including the current Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, a fo…

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Ancient Mission, New Alliances 30:12

1M ago30:12

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In this episode, we interview the Rev. Isaac Machado and the Rev. Allison Henn, alliance missionaries in Spain. Alliance missionaries are called by LCMS partner church bodies to serve as missionaries for the LCMS in an LCMS mission field, with the full support and guidance of the LCMS. For the full story, please read the summer edition of Lutherans…

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America’s Oligarch Problem 15:09

1M ago15:09

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A mega-donor to the Republican Presidential campaign, Elon Musk got something no other titan of industry has ever received: an office in the White House and a government department tailor-made for him, with incalculable influence in shaping the Administration. But even with Musk out of Washington, it remains a fact that the influence of wealth in A…

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Preaching Christ Crucified in Italy 39:44

1M ago39:44

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In this episode, we interview the Rev. Tyler McMiller, LCMS missionary in Italy, to learn about the work of the Confessional Lutheran Church of Italy (CLCI). McMiller serves a number of house churches across the peninsula and recent developments — the ordination of two new local pastors — have greatly expanded the ability of the CLCI to proclaim th…

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Why Israel Struck Iran First 42:38

1M ago42:38

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The Ayatollahs who have ruled Iran since 1979 have long promised to destroy the Jewish state, and even set a deadline for it. While arming proxies to fight Israel—Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, and more—Iran is believed to have sought to develop nuclear weapons for itself. “The big question about Iran was always how sign…

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The Unfolding Genocide in Sudan 19:53

1M ago19:53

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The New Yorker recently published a report from Sudan, headlined “Escape from Khartoum.” The contributor Nicolas Niarchos journeyed for days through a conflict to reach a refugee camp in the Nuba Mountains, where members of the country’s minority Black ethnic groups are seeking safety, but remain imperilled by hunger. The territory is “very signifi…

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Barbra Streisand on “The Secret of Life” 26:14

2M ago26:14

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Barbra Streisand has been a huge presence in American entertainment—music, film, and stage—for more than sixty years. She was the youngest person ever to achieve the EGOT, winning Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards by the age of twenty-seven. At eighty-three years old, Streisand is releasing a new album, “The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume 2.” …

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John Seabrook on the Destructive Family Battles of “The Spinach King” 19:48

2M ago19:48

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John Seabrook’s new book is about a family business—not a mom-and-pop store, but a huge operation run by a ruthless patriarch. The patriarch is aging, and he cannot stand to lose his hold on power, nor let his children take over the enterprise. This might sound like the plot of HBO’s drama “Succession,” but the story John tells in “The Spinach King…

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What Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Doesn’t Understand About Autism 30:23

2M ago30:23

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When Donald Trump made an alliance with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., he brought vaccine skepticism and the debunked link between vaccines and autism into the center of the MAGA agenda. Though the scientific establishment has long disproven that link, as many as one in four Americans today believe that vaccines may cause autism. In April, Kennedy, now th…

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“The Promised Spirit” LW Searching Scripture, June/July 2025: Joel 2:28–32 & Acts 2:1–22 27:26

2M ago27:26

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We have now come through Lent and the Easter season, including the Ascension of Jesus to His Father’s right hand, and in June we celebrate Pentecost. In these studies, we have explored messianic prophecies in January through April, with an introduction to messianic typology last month. This month’s study will deal with a prophecy that is not exactl…

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Brian Eno Knows “What Art Does” 23:46

2M ago23:46

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In the music business, Brian Eno is a name to conjure with. He’s been the producer of tremendous hits by U2, Talking Heads, David Bowie, Grace Jones, Coldplay, and many other top artists. But he’s also a conceptualist, nicknamed Professor Eno in the British music press, and a foundational figure in ambient music—a genre whose very name Eno coined. …

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Easing Pet Anxiety When Traveling 22:47

2M ago22:47

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Send us a text Loli Jane, an Animal Communicator, and Pranic Healer, shares incredible tips to help ease your animal's anxiety of traveling. Whether you are taking them with you or leaving them behind, Loli teaches you how to communicate with your pets, before you even start packing. Loli Jane is a professional, international animal communicator, e…

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Lesley Stahl on What a Settlement with Donald Trump Would Mean for CBS News 27:26

2M ago27:26

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Lesley Stahl, a linchpin of CBS News, began at the network in 1971, covering major events such as Watergate, and for many years has been a correspondent on “60 Minutes.” But right now it’s a perilous time for CBS News, which has been sued by Donald Trump for twenty billion dollars over the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris duri…

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Louisa Thomas on a Ballplayer’s Epic Final Game; Plus, Remembering the Composer of “Annie” 23:59

2M ago23:59

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In honor of The New Yorker’s centennial this year, the magazine’s staff writers are pulling out some classics from the long history of the publication. Louisa Thomas, The New Yorker’s sports correspondent, naturally gravitated to a story about baseball with a title only comprehensible to baseball aficionados: “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu.” The essay was…

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Cécile McLorin Salvant Performs Live In-Studio 26:18

2M ago26:18

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When the jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant was profiled in The New Yorker, Wynton Marsalis described her as the kind of talent who comes along only “once in a generation or two.” Salvant’s work is rooted in jazz—in the tradition of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan and Abbey Lincoln—and she has won three Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Bu…

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From “On the Media” ’s “Divided Dial”: “Fishing in the Night” 33:49

2M ago33:49

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This special episode comes from “On the Media” ’s Peabody-winning series “The Divided Dial,” reported by Katie Thornton. You know A.M. and F.M. radio. But did you know that there is a whole other world of radio surrounding us at all times? It’s called shortwave—and, thanks to a quirk of science that lets broadcasters bounce radio waves off the iono…

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Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson on President Joe Biden’s Decline, and Its Cover-Up 49:50

3M ago49:50

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Nearly a year ago, a Presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash of CNN, began the end of Biden’s bid for a second term. The President struggled to make points, complete sentences, and remember facts; he spoke in a raspy whisper. This was not the first time voters expressed concern about Biden’s ag…

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Percival Everett’s “James” Wins a Pulitzer 20:17

3M ago20:17

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A year ago, Percival Everett published his twenty-fourth novel, “James,” and it became a literary phenomenon. It won the National Book Award, and, just this week, was announced as the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. “James” offers a radically different perspective on the classic Mark Twain novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”: Evere…

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Elissa Slotkin to Fellow-Democrats: “Speak in Plain English” 28:38

3M ago28:38

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When Elissa Slotkin narrowly won her Senate seat in Michigan last fall, she was one of only four Democratic senators to claim victory in a state that voted for Donald Trump. It made other Democrats take note: since then, the Party has turned to her as someone who can bridge the red state–blue state divide. In March, Slotkin delivered the Democrats’…

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"Isn’t That Typical?" LW Searching Scripture, May 2025: Typological Connections Throughout Scripture 24:50

3M ago24:50

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“Type” has to do with forms, shapes, patterns, images. People demonstrate “typical” behavior when they act in a similar pattern time and again. In typesetting, a block with a typographic character on it makes an image of that character on the page. Our first four Bible studies in this year’s series have focused on straightforward messianic propheci…

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How Donald Trump Is Trying to Rewrite the Rules of Capitalism 18:10

3M ago18:10

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For a long time, Republicans and many Democrats espoused some version of free-trade economics that would have been familiar to Adam Smith. But Donald Trump breaks radically with that tradition, embracing a form of protectionism that resulted in his extremely broad and chaotic tariff proposals, which tanked markets and deepened the fear of a global …

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Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and the Confounding Politics of Junk Food. Plus, Kelefa Sanneh on the Long Influence of Kraftwerk 32:29

3M ago32:29

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Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services, has been undermining public trust in vaccines and overseeing crippling cuts to research across American science. And yet his “make America healthy again” highlights themes more familiar in liberal circles: toxins in the environment, biodiversity, healthy eating. Kennedy has put jun…

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A Historical Epic of the Chinese in America 19:30

3M ago19:30

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In recent years, there’s been a stark uptick in the level of violence and hate crimes that Asian Americans have experienced, but the “precarity of the Asian American experience is not new,” Michael Luo tells David Remnick. Luo is a longtime New Yorker editor, and the author of a new book about the Chinese American experience. He looks at how tensio…

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Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership” 30:27

3M ago30:27

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As Donald Trump continues to launch unprecedented and innovative attacks on immigrants, civic institutions, and the rule of law, the Democratic response has been—in the eyes of many observers—tepid and inadequate. One answer to the sense of desperation came from Senator Cory Booker, who, on March 31st, launched a marathon speech on the Senate floor…

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Nikki Glaser at the Top of Her Game 26:36

3M ago26:36

26:36

In the past few years, the comedian Nikki Glaser has breathed new life into the well-worn comedic form of the roast. Last year, she performed a roast of the football legend Tom Brady for a Netflix special, to much acclaim—with Conan O’Brien opining that “no one is going to do a better roast set than that.” Glaser has been on a hot streak since then…

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How Science Fiction Led Elon Musk to DOGE 28:09

3M ago28:09

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Elon Musk, who’s chainsawing the federal government, is not merely a chaos agent, as he is sometimes described. Jill Lepore, the best-selling author of “These Truths” and other books, says that Musk is animated by obsessions and a sense of mission he acquired through reading, and misreading, science fiction. “When he keeps saying, you know, ‘We’re …

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Ryan Coogler on “Sinners” 22:27

4M ago22:27

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Ryan Coogler began his career in film as a realist with “Fruitvale Station,” which tells the story of a true-to-life tragedy about a police killing in the Bay Area. He then directed the class drama of “Creed,” a celebrated “Rocky” sequel. But then he moved to the epic fantasy of Marvel’s hit “Black Panther” movies. In his newest project, “Sinners,”…

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Episode #34: Horse Whispering 22:47

4M ago22:47

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Send us a text Loli Jane, an Animal Communicator, Pranic Healer, and Horse Whisperer, shares how horse whispering or animal communication and energy healing can help with all kinds of equine issues including behavioral or physical issues. Loli also and shares inspiring stories and messages from a remarkable group of horses she worked with along her…

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Will the Supreme Court Yield to Donald Trump? 27:55

4M ago27:55

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Ruth Marcus resigned from the Washington Post after its C.E.O. killed an editorial she wrote that was critical of the paper’s owner, Jeff Bezos. She ended up publishing the column in The New Yorker, and soon after she published another piece for the magazine asking “Has Trump’s Legal Strategy Backfired?” “Trump’s legal strategy has been backfiring,…

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The Writer Katie Kitamura on Autonomy, Interpretation, and “Audition” 18:16

4M ago18:16

18:16

Katie Kitamura’s fifth novel is “Audition,” and it focusses on a middle-aged actress and her ambiguous relationship with a much younger man. Kitamura tells the critic Jennifer Wilson that she thought for a long time about an actress as protagonist, as a way to highlight the roles women play, and to provoke questions about agency. “I teach creative …

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Why the Tech Giant Nvidia May Own the Future. Plus, Joshua Rothman on Taking A.I Seriously 31:44

4M ago31:44

31:44

The microchip maker Nvidia is a Silicon Valley colossus. After years as a runner-up to Intel and Qualcomm, Nvidia has all but cornered the market on the parallel processors essential for artificial-intelligence programs like ChatGPT. “Nvidia was there at the beginning of A.I.,” the tech journalist Stephen Witt tells David Remnick. “They really kind…

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“The Suffering Servant” LW Searching Scripture, April 2025: Isaiah 52:13–53:12 and Psalm 22 24:36

4M ago24:36

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Jesus says of the Old Testament Scriptures that “they … bear witness about Me” (John 5:39). This is especially true of two central messianic prophecies, Isaiah 52:13–53:12 and Psalm 22, which feature prominently in Holy Week services. In Isaiah 52–53, we gain remarkable details about Jesus’ crucifixion from a prophecy that was written more than 700…

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Elaine Pagels on the Mysteries of Jesus 26:17

4M ago26:17

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Thirty years ago, David Remnick published “The Devil Problem,” a profile of the religion professor Elaine Pagels—a scholar of early Christianity who had also, improbably, become a best-selling author. Pagels’s 1979 book, “The Gnostic Gospels,” was scholarly and rigorous, but also accessible and widely read. She changed how a lot of people thought a…

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Senator Chris Murphy: “This Is How Democracy Dies—Everybody Just Gets Scared” 24:23

4M ago24:23

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With congressional Republicans unwilling to put any checks on an Administration breaking norms and issuing illegal orders, the focus has shifted to the Democratic opposition—or the lack thereof. Democrats like Chris Murphy, the junior senator from Connecticut, have vehemently disagreed with party leaders’ reversion to business as usual. Murphy oppo…

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A West Bank Family on the Verge of Annexation 21:57

4M ago21:57

21:57

The far right in Israel has long dreamed of settling all of the West Bank, and Gaza, too—annexing the territories to create the land they refer to as Greater Israel. The Trump Administration might not object: Elise Stefanik, Trump’s pick for Ambassador to the United Nations, has agreed that Israel has a “biblical right” to the West Bank. “I think I…

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Kaitlan Collins Is Not “Nasty”; She’s Just Doing Her Job 28:48

4M ago28:48

28:48

Kaitlan Collins was only a couple years out of college when she became a White House correspondent for Tucker Carlson’s the Daily Caller. Collins stayed in the White House when she went over to CNN during Donald Trump’s first term, and she returned for his second. Trump has made his disdain for CNN clear—and he’s not a big fan of Collins, either. A…

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We the Builders: Federal Employees Stand Up to DOGE; Plus, Celebrating 100 Years: Michael Cunningham on “Brokeback Mountain” 23:40

5M ago23:40

23:40

Across the federal government, the number of federal workers fired under Donald Trump and DOGE currently stands at over a hundred thousand. Some of those workers have turned to a website called We the Builders. It was created by federal workers associated with the U.S. Digital Service as a resource for employees who have lost their jobs, who are af…