The Daily

The midterms are shaping up to be the most expensive election cycle in history as campaigns pour huge sums into the ads voters see virtually everywhere.

Today, Shane Goldmacher, a national political correspondent for The New York Times, breaks down how Democrats are tying Republicans to President Trump, inflation and corruption, while Republicans are trying to paint Democrats as too liberal. He also weighs in on what those competing messages reveal about each party’s hopes, vulnerabilities and strategy as Election Day nears.

Guest: Shane Goldmacher, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Mr. Trump has wielded an unprecedented $277 million in the final stretch of the midterms.
• Both parties are spending enormous amounts of money to try to win whatever votes are left for the taking before Election Day.
• Mr. Trump’s super PAC is flooding Facebook and Instagram with targeted ads as it seeks to turn out Republicans amid the president’s historically low approval ratings.

Photo: Kenny Holston/The New York Times

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

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.

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Americans are expected to spend a record $13.5 billion on Halloween this year, according to the National Retail Federation. That includes costumes, decorations and lots of candy.

In this episode of “The Sunday Daily,” our host Rachel Abrams talks about these three tent poles of the Halloween season with reporters from across the Times newsroom.

Kim Severson, who covers food, tells us about the sour, peelable and texture-confused candy edging out longtime chocolate favorites. Louis Lucero II, an editor for style coverage, predicts the most popular costumes of the year. And Callie Holtermann, a reporter who covers style and pop culture, discusses the enduring joy of “Skelly,” the 12-foot-tall Home Depot skeleton with a cult following.

On Today’s Episode:

Kim Severson covers all aspects of food culture for The New York Times.

Louis Lucero II, an editor for style coverage for The New York Times.

Callie Holtermann, a reporter who writes about style, pop culture and Gen Z for The New York Times.

Background Reading:

• Halloween Costume Ideas That Scream 2026
• Still the Biggest Skeleton In the Game?

Photo credit: The New York Times

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.

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Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee for governor, on her appeal to MAGA voters and her refusal to engage in the “culture wars.”

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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

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The approach to this year’s midterms has brought two hugely consequential changes to voting for Black Americans: the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, and redistricting. In the wake of those actions, efforts are underway to mobilize Black voters in the South.

In Mississippi, the Senate battle is being seen as a sleeper race, and the Black Democrat running has a chance of flipping the seat, but state lawmakers are trying to redraw the maps and do away with their one majority Black district.

Today, Emily Cochrane, a reporter covering the American South for The New York Times, addresses the implications for voters across the region — not just in the midterms, but for years to come.

Guest: Emily Cochrane, a national reporter for The New York Times covering the American South.

Background reading: 

• Black Democratic candidates running in the South have implored Black voters to go to the polls in response to the gutting of the Voting Rights Act.
• High-profile Democrats across the country have some hope in Scott Colom’s bid for a seat in the Senate.

Photo: Anna Foley/The New York Times

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

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.

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Israelis head to the polls next week. On the ballot is the future of a country that has become isolated on the world stage, because of both its war in Gaza and a growing outcry over settler violence in the West Bank.

David M. Halbfinger, the Jerusalem bureau chief for The New York Times, explains how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu differs from his biggest challenger.

Guest: David M. Halbfinger, the Jerusalem bureau chief for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Here’s why Palestinians hope Israelis will oust Netanyahu in pivotal election.
• President Trump endorsed Netanyahu as best U.S. partner in the Israeli election.

Photo: Amir Cohen/Reuters; Ariel Schalit/Associated Press

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.

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The comedian Nathan Fielder came to fame as the creator and host of the Comedy Central series “Nathan for You.” The show followed Fielder as he devised outrageous schemes, ostensibly with the aim of helping various small businesses. What became clear, though, was that Fielder was less interested in helping business owners generate profits than he was in understanding the people ensnared in his plots. His next project, the HBO series “The Rehearsal,” was a similar offbeat portrait of offbeat people. At the center of both projects is Fielder himself, a documentarian whose motives can sometimes be hard to parse.

This week, Fielder’s first feature-length documentary, “You Can See Everything,” hits theaters. Co-directed by Lance Oppenheim, the movie shows Fielder embedding himself into the life of the disgraced Theranos founder and felon Elizabeth Holmes in the days leading up to her imprisonment for fraud. The film caused a big splash when it debuted at the Telluride Film Festival, in part because it presents Holmes, a mysterious and compelling cultural figure, through the eyes of Fielder, a mysterious and compelling filmmaker.

This week, the Times movie critic Alissa Wilkinson and critic at large Jason Zinoman, who covers comedy, join Michael Barbaro for a spoiler-free discussion of Nathan Fielder, his career, and why he might be the perfect person to tell the story of Elizabeth Holmes.

On Today’s Episode

Alissa Wilkinson, a movie critic at The New York Times.

Jason Zinoman, a critic at large for the Culture section of The New York Times.

Background Reading

• ‘The Real World’ and Nathan Fielder can both thank this cult filmmaker.
• ‘You Can See Everything,’ if you could only secure a ticket.

Photo: A24, via Associated Press

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.

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A dramatic pop music comeback story is underway: Celine Dion is performing again.

In 2022, Dion, the renowned Canadian singer, announced that she had stiff person syndrome, a rare and incurable neurological disorder that causes painful muscle spasms and affects roughly one in a million people. The announcement came as a shock to her fans, and in a raw and revealing documentary released in 2024, “I Am: Celine Dion," she shared her struggle to overcome her condition, and sing again. But Dion worked her way back to performing, and is now appearing in a run of sold out shows in Paris.

The culture reporter Elisabeth Vincentelli was there on opening night, and in this episode of “The Sunday Daily,” she talks with our host Natalie Kitroeff about the remarkable comeback of Celine Dion.

On Today’s Episode:

• Elisabeth Vincentelli, an arts, culture, and theater journalist.

Background Reading:

• Celine Dion Is Back Onstage. Naturally, She Chose Paris.
• Paris Really, Really Loves Celine Dion

Photo credit: Clementine Schneidermann for The New York Times.

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.

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If you dine out regularly, you might have noticed some changes in restaurants over the past few years. Perhaps you’ve found yourself ordering at a counter, scanning a QR code to see the menu, or eating … a lot more soft serve.

These changes aren’t just trends. Brett Anderson, a New York Times food reporter, says they are restaurant owners’ desperate attempts to stay afloat in an industry in crisis. According to a report from the National Restaurant Association, 42 percent of restaurant owners said they weren’t profitable in 2025. Many of them were at serious risk of closing.

In this episode of “The Sunday Daily,” Brett talks with our host Michael Barbaro about the economic realities that are forcing businesses to rethink the entire concept of a restaurant, including a radical experiment at one Minneapolis diner that stopped charging for food entirely.

On Today’s Episode:

• Brett Anderson, a reporter for the Food section of The New York Times.

Background Reading:

• This Restaurant Stopped Charging for Food. And Profits Are Up.

• The Restaurant List 2026

  Photo credit: Caroline Yang for The New York Times. 

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.

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The turn of the century was the beginning of a new era in television: prestige TV for the masses. Today, television is where big stars and innovative creators go to marshal sizable budgets and tell meaningful stories.

Over recent months, our colleagues at The New York Times ran a survey, asking industry insiders — on-screen talent, writers, directors, producers, executives and others — to pick their top 10 television series of the last 26 years. We compiled their responses into a list, published this week, of the best TV of the 21st century.

In this episode of “The Sunday Daily,” The Times’s canon editor, Gilbert Cruz, and our chief TV critic, James Poniewozik, talk with our host Natalie Kitroeff about what made the list, and what didn’t.

On Today’s Episode

James Poniewozik is The New York Times’s chief TV critic.

Gilbert Cruz is the canon editor at The New York Times.

Background Reading

• The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century
• The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century: Cast Your Vote
• The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century: How Stars, Creators and Other TV Lovers Voted

Photo: The New York Times

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.

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For the first time in centuries, the Bayeux Tapestry — a nearly 1,000-year-old piece of embroidery that depicts the invasion of England by William the Conqueror in 1066 — is on display in Britain.

It was long said by art experts to be too fragile to move. But in a development that required geopolitical persuasion, this summer the tapestry made its way from Bayeux, France, to the British Museum in London.

When the first block of tickets went on sale, the British Museum said, over 80,000 people at a time waited online to buy them.

In this episode of the “Sunday Daily,” Alex Marshall, a culture reporter for The New York Times, talks with host Michael Barbaro about why this ancient piece of embroidery matters so much to the British public.

On Today’s Episode:

Alex Marshall is a European culture reporter for The New York Times, based in London.

Background Reading:

• How to See a Bayeux Tapestry — Without Going to the British Museum
• A Nation Gripped by ‘Bayeux Fever’ Finally Gets to See the Tapestry

Photo credit: Kin Cheung for Associated Press.

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.

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