The Daily

Here’s what to know about key elections.

Has the country entered a new, dangerous phase of political violence?

Roughly a year ago, a team at The New York Times Magazine set about tackling a nearly impossible task: creating a list of the greatest living American songwriters. But how to take the tens of thousands of songwriters working in this country and narrow them down to a digestible list? The answer involved thousands of voting ballots, hundreds of music industry insiders and a series of closed-door meetings among a small group of music experts. The result, The Times’s list of the 30 greatest living American songwriters, was published this week. Today, Michael Barbaro talks with Sasha Weiss, a deputy editor of The Times Magazine, who oversaw the project, as well as Joe Coscarelli and Jody Rosen, two members of the cadre of critics assigned with compiling the final list. They discuss the list-making process, what defines a great songwriter and why Billy Joel didn’t make the final cut. We also hear from some of the songwriters featured on the list, including Taylor Swift, Nile Rodgers and the songwriting team of Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne.

The conservative media commentator split with the administration over the war in Iran. Will the breakup last?

Congress questioned Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, over the war in Iran, an accusation of antisemitic remarks and women in combat.

With war, political wrangling and price hikes jockeying for headlines, it’s a rare thing to sit for an hour with a large group of strangers and focus on the small pleasures in life. But that’s what the show “Every Brilliant Thing” is all about. Since 2013, Duncan Macmillan’s audience-participation-heavy play has been performed in dozens of languages in hundreds of locations across the globe. It revolves around a central character who writes a list of all the good things in life for a depressed parent. And while it tackles dark subject matter — including frequent mentions of a loved one’s suicide — it may be one of the funniest shows about depression, ever. In this episode of “The Sunday Daily,” Michael Barbaro talks with Daniel Radcliffe, who currently stars in a Broadway production of the show, and Mariska Hargitay, who will step into the role in a few weeks. We’ll also hear from the playwright and several other actors who have performed the play on stages, in living rooms, on basketball courts and aircraft carriers all over the world.

The reality show “Love on the Spectrum” — which just released its fourth season — has become a big hit; it’s currently one of the most watched shows on Netflix in the United States. The show follows autistic adults as they search for love. “Love on the Spectrum” is unlike much of reality television — a genre known to subject its cast members to drama and humiliation for entertainment’s sake. Instead, the show captures a dating world that has more heartwarming moments than histrionics, and is sensitive and nuanced in its portrayal of neurodivergent people. On today’s episode of “The Sunday Daily,” Rachel Abrams talks with Anna Peele, a contributing writer for The New York Times, about the show’s origin story and why it has resonated with so many people.

The first time Robert Draper heard about the psychedelic drug ibogaine, it was from an unlikely source: the retired U.S. senator Kyrsten Sinema. As a political reporter for The New York Times, Draper often talks to figures like Ms. Sinema. But on this occasion, he said, she wanted to tell him about how she had tried ibogaine, which is illegal in the United States. She’d become such a believer in the drug that she was pushing her home state of Arizona to fund clinical trials for veterans with combat-related trauma. Draper found that Ms. Sinema wasn’t the only politician to take up the cause. Rick Perry, the former Texas governor, Republican presidential candidate and Trump energy secretary, has also advocated for research into ibogaine in recent years and taken the drug himself. In 2025, because of Mr. Perry’s efforts, Texas became the first state to dedicate public funds to ibogaine research with veterans. Recent studies of ibogaine at Stanford University and elsewhere suggest that it might prove effective in treating post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries, addiction and a range of other conditions. As Draper reported on ibogaine’s transformative effects on others, he wondered: Could it help him, too? Today, on “The Sunday Daily,” Natalie Kitroeff talks to Robert Draper about what drew him to travel to Mexico to try ibogaine, and how his trip changed his life.

Lise Davidsen is one of the greatest opera singers of our time — a soprano with a voice so rare, critics reach back a century for comparison. This spring, she has been starring in a sold-out new production of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” at the Metropolitan Opera. But she’s also at a crossroads: Her first performance as “Isolde” on the Met stage came just nine months after giving birth to twins. Today on The Sunday Daily, Natalie Kitroeff talks with the Times writer Zachary Woolfe about his recent conversation with Davidsen, and the unexpected emotional weight she felt while returning to the stage as a new mother. They discuss how a production centered on birth, death and renewal gave Davidsen a way to work through this seismic shift in her life, all while tackling the role of a lifetime.

“Love Story,” the FX limited series about John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s relationship, has taken audiences by storm. Its unstoppable wave of ’90s nostalgia has swept through the world of fashion, revitalized iconic New York landmarks and set off a yearning for simpler days before smartphones and dating apps. The series has also drawn significant backlash, with criticism ranging from bad reviews to accusations of inaccuracy and even harm. Today, Rachel Abrams talks to Alexandra Jacobs, a critic for The New York Times Book Review, about why America can’t seem to look away from “Love Story.”