Apple News In Conversation

Apple News In Conversation

Apple News In Conversation with Shumita Basu brings you interviews with some of the world’s best journalists and experts about the stories that impact our lives. Join us every week as we go behind the headlines.

Episodes

August 6, 2026 29 mins
Peak tick season is here — and the fastest-growing tick-borne illness in the country is alpha-gal syndrome, a condition that causes an often-severe allergy to red meat and other animal products. It’s primarily spread by lone-star ticks, once confined to the Southeast but now found as far north as Maine and Michigan. The syndrome can trigger a range of reactions — from hives to anaphylaxis — and at least one ...
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This year, the U.S. has seen more than 270 mass shootings — and firearms remain the leading cause of death for American children and teens. But solutions appear largely out of reach. New York Times reporter Mike McIntire, a gun owner himself, traces how we got here in his new book, Ricochet: Guns, Greed, and the American Way of Violence. McIntire talks to Apple News In Conversation guest host David Greene about the surpr...
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President Trump earned more than $2 billion in his first year back in office. According to a mandatory financial disclosure released in June, most of that fortune came from cryptocurrency ventures. David Kirkpatrick, a staff writer at the New Yorker who has tracked Trump’s earnings for years, sat down with Apple News In Conversation guest host David Greene to unpack what the disclosure reveals about the president and his busi...
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GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are being taken by millions of Americans. These medications have been approved for treating diabetes, obesity, and a small number of other chronic conditions. But even as experts are still learning how the drugs work, many people have found that they help with other disorders — from addiction to brain fog to arthritis — where anecdotal evidence is promising but the formal research has...
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The Supreme Court just wrapped one of its most consequential terms in recent memory — issuing major rulings on presidential power, birthright citizenship, and the rights of transgender athletes. But the story playing out in most headlines, legal analyst Sarah Isgur argues, is missing the bigger picture. Isgur is the editor of SCOTUSblog and the author of Last Branch Standing: A Potentially Surprising, Occasionally Witty Journ...
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This episode originally aired on Sept 18, 2025. 

The Constitution has been amended 27 times, but the last meaningful change was over half a century ago. In historian Jill Lepore’s book We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution, she argues that the near impossibility of amendment in recent decades underlies many of today’s political crises, from polarization to battles over the courts. Lepore spoke wi...
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When New Yorker staff writer Jay Caspian Kang sat down to do his taxes, one question surfaced: Should he still be saving for his 9-year-old daughter’s college fund? What followed was a deeply reported series about the growing crisis in American higher education and the forces behind it — from AI to soaring tuition to a collapse in public trust in institutions. Kang speaks with Apple News In Conversation guest host David...
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The United States turns 250 years old this summer — and there’s no shortage of ways to mark the moment. One of the most revealing lenses through which to view the country’s history may be music. Anna Harwell Celenza, professor at Johns Hopkins University and author of On the Record: Music That Changed America, joined Apple News In Conversation guest host David Greene to discuss the hidden political history of Amer...
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This year’s World Cup will be the largest in history, with 48 teams and 104 matches — and, for the first time in more than 30 years, the tournament is being played on American soil. Brendan Hunt, co-creator, writer, and star of Ted Lasso and cohost of the Apple News Original podcast After the Whistle, joins Apple News In Conversation guest host David Greene to talk about how he fell in love with soccer as an adult, the ...
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On July 4, 2025, catastrophic flooding tore through Central Texas, killing more than 130 people and destroying communities along the Guadalupe River. Aaron Parsley, a senior editor at Texas Monthly, was there — and though he survived, his family suffered a devastating loss. His harrowing account of what happened when floodwaters overwhelmed their house and ripped them apart won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. Now...
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The summer travel season is upon us — and this year is more complicated and more expensive than most. The war in Iran has driven up jet-fuel prices globally, and Spirit Airlines, one of the biggest budget carriers in the country, has just shut down. On top of that, a possible super El Niño could cause widespread disruptions. Zach Wichter, a consumer travel reporter at USA Today, joins Apple News In Conversation guest host Sam...
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This episode originally aired on July 10, 2025. 

Americans have a long history of obsession with the ultrarich, from Carnegie and Rockefeller to Bezos and Musk. And today, the gap between the rich and the poor is bigger than ever as the billionaire class has ascended to new heights. In his book, The Haves and Have-Yachts, New Yorker staff writer Evan Osnos explores the extravagant lifestyles of the wealthy and thei...
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At the end of April, the Supreme Court’s ruling on Louisiana v. Callais significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act. The decision made it easier for states to legally draw districts that reduce the voting power of Black voters and other minority groups. In response, several Republican-controlled Southern states have moved to redraw their congressional maps. Adam Serwer, a staff writer at The Atlantic, joins Apple News In Con...
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This week, Brian Goldstone was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his book, There Is No Place for Us, which is featured in this episode from our archives. Millions of Americans cannot afford housing despite working full-time jobs. They live in cars, shelters, or extended-stay hotels and often don’t qualify for assistance programs. Journalist and anthropologist Brian Goldstone follows five Atlanta families who are stuck in this cycl...
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The headlines say that American men are in crisis. But what does that actually mean — and what does it look like up close? Journalist Jordan Ritter Conn spent five years inside the lives of four different men to find out. His new book, American Men, explores the gap between masculine ideals and the reality of men’s lived experience. Apple News In Conversation guest host Sam Sanders sat down with Ritter Conn to talk abou...
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April 23, 2026 31 mins
Nearly a year ago, Robert Prevost became Pope Leo XIV, the first pope in history from the U.S. His papacy so far has been relatively calm — until recent weeks, when a sharp public conflict with President Trump over the Iran war thrust him onto the political stage. Scott Detrow, host of NPR’s All Things Considered and coauthor of the upcoming American Pope: Leo XIV’s Road From the South Side of Chicago to Vatican C...
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The 1990s are back — especially for Gen Z. CDs, flip phones, and ’90s beauty trends are all having a moment among people in their teens and 20s. To understand why this generation is nostalgic for a past they didn’t experience, Apple News In Conversation guest host Sam Sanders talks with psychologist Clay Routledge. Routledge is the author of Past Forward: How Nostalgia Can Help You Live a More Meaningful Life and ...
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A medieval-monster slayer. A tiny alien named Roscoe. A talking plate of spaghetti. These are just a few of the customizable companions available through AI-chatbot apps like Kindroid, Tolan, and Character.AI. In her latest piece for the New Yorker, journalist Anna Wiener explores the rapidly expanding world of these products and the people who use them. She joins Apple News In Conversation guest host Sam Sanders to talk about the ...
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Last June, journalist Andy Greenberg received an anonymous email from someone claiming to be trapped inside a scam compound in Southeast Asia. The source, using the pseudonym Red Bull, said he had access to a trove of internal materials exposing the inner workings of the criminal operation — and that he was willing to risk his life to share them. Greenberg has now published Red Bull’s story in Wired. He joins Apple News...
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We are in the middle of a protein boom. Protein food products make up a more than $100 billion industry — and it’s still growing. In a new book, Protein: The Making of a Nutritional Superstar, health scholar Samantha King and sociologist Gavin Weedon reveal how marketing, industry interests, and cultural trends — not nutritional science — have turned protein into the most popular nutrient of the moment. King...
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