The Daily

Note: This episode contains strong language.

The upheaval and anguish caused by the pandemic led to a series of actions that cost both the captain of an aircraft carrier and the head of the Navy their jobs. Today, we explore how the coronavirus has created a crisis inside the service.

Guest: Eric Schmitt, who covers terrorism and national security for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Background reading:

• In a letter that leaked to the news media, Capt. Brett E. Crozier described what he said were the Navy’s failures to provide the resources to combat the virus spreading aboard his aircraft carrier. Now the captain himself has tested positive for Covid-19.
• Thomas B. Modly, acting Navy secretary, condemned the ousted captain to his former crew on the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt. Days later, Mr. Modly resigned.

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, Spotify and Amazon Music. 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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Against the advice of public health officials and the wishes of its own governor, Wisconsin will hold its Democratic primary today — in the middle of a pandemic. So how did that happen? Guest: Astead W. Herndon, who covers national politics for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Background reading:

• The political and legal fight between Wisconsin’s conservative state legislature and its Democratic governor was only the first round of an expected national fight over voting rights during the coronavirus crisis.

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, Spotify and Amazon Music. 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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

To contain the pandemic, the U.S. government has brought the economy to a halt. Today, we explore one result of their containment efforts: one of the worst unemployment crises in American history. Guest: Jim Tankersley, a reporter covering economic and tax policy for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Background reading:

• The national unemployment rate is probably around 13 percent, The Times estimated. “Scary things are going on in our life right now,” one idled Lyft driver said.
• Whole sectors of the U.S. economy have gone dark to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Here’s what comes next.

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, Spotify and Amazon Music. 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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On this week’s “Sunday Read,” the magazine writer Jack Hitt introduces his story of how one 1960s bondage-film actress waged legal combat with a toy company for ownership over her husband’s mail-order aquatic-pet empire. The story is as crazy as it sounds.

This story was recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

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, Spotify and Amazon Music. 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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today, we’re sharing an excerpt from a new Times audio series called “Sugar Calling,” hosted by the best-selling author Cheryl Strayed. Each week, Cheryl will call a writer she admires in search of insight and courage. She’s turning to some of the most prolific writers of our time — all over the age of 60 — to ask the questions on all our minds: How do we stay calm when everything has been upended? How do we muster courage when fear is all around us?

To start, Cheryl reaches out to the author George Saunders, her old friend and mentor.

"Sugar Calling" is a new podcast by The New York Times. You can listen to the full version of the first episode here.

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, Spotify and Amazon Music. 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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In recent years, governors have sat on the sidelines as the federal government has commanded most of the attention and airtime. Today, we explore how the pandemic has generated a revival of state and local politics — and made governors into national heroes. Guest: Alexander Burns, who covers national politics for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Background reading:

• Governors of both parties have taken a lead role in confronting the crisis, asserting themselves in ways that have only highlighted the initial lack of seriousness from the White House.
• With his widely watched coronavirus briefings, one governor in particular has stood out: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. Here’s how the leader of New York State has become a figurehead for the Democratic Party.

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, Spotify and Amazon Music. 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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today, we speak with Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases, about his experience in the trenches of the government’s response to the coronavirus crisis. “We are in a war. I mean, I actually think this is exactly what generals or leaders in real, you know, violent combat wars feel.”

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Background reading:

• Dr. Fauci has been clear about the need to practice social distancing to contain the spread of the virus, but that stance has made him the target of online conspiracy theorists.
• This week, scientists with the coronavirus task force used models to deliver an update on the expected spread of the disease, projecting the coronavirus could kill up to 240,000 Americans. They pledged to do everything possible to reduce that number.

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, Spotify and Amazon Music. 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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Scientists are racing to make a vaccine for the coronavirus, collaborating across borders in what is usually a secretive and competitive field. But their cooperation has been complicated by national leaders trying to buy first claim on any breakthrough. Today, we explore how the fight to own a future coronavirus vaccine is revealing the boundaries of international solidarity.

Guest: Katrin Bennhold, Berlin bureau chief for The New York Times, spoke with Lidia Oostvogels, who researches infectious diseases with the German biotech company CureVac. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Background reading:

• The United States says it will share any vaccine breakthroughs with the world. So why did President Trump reportedly try to purchase a German biotech company that is trying to develop a shot for the coronavirus?
• The latest updates from top U.S. government scientists project that the coronavirus could kill 100,000 to 240,000 Americans — even with strict social distancing.

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, Spotify and Amazon Music. 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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

States and cities across the United States are reporting dangerous shortages of the vital medical supplies needed to contain the coronavirus. Why is the world’s biggest economy suffering such a scramble to find lifesaving equipment?

Guest: Sarah Kliff, an investigative reporter covering health care for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Background reading:

• The scarcity of ventilators has become an emergency, forcing doctors to make life-or-death decisions. The collapse of a government effort to produce an emergency stockpile reveals much about the challenges now being faced in fighting the pandemic.
• This map of the United States shows gaps in the existing health care infrastructure — and which areas may face a shortage of hospital beds as the virus spreads.

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, Spotify and Amazon Music. 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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Across the United States, many hospitals are confronting their first cases of coronavirus. Today, we speak to New Jersey’s first confirmed coronavirus patient, a medical professional, about what having the virus was like for him, what he learned from the experience and why he thinks, “America is not ready.”

Guests: Susan Dominus, a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine, spoke with James Cai, a physician assistant. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Background reading:

• James Cai was told his test for coronavirus had not been completed. Then he heard from the governor on the news that he was the first confirmed case in New Jersey. Why states must ask knotty questions about how much to tell the public — and when.
• President Trump, listening to his health advisers, has said that the country should be practicing social distancing until at least the end of April. Here are the latest updates.

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, Spotify and Amazon Music. 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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.