The Daily

When it comes to movies we love, there are the artistic masterpieces and there are the foot-stomping crowd pleasers. But there’s another particular kind of beloved movie, the one that makes our friends groan, but that we rewatch incessantly; the one that we can quote line for line, even as we giggle at the actors’ performances; the one that we’d say is great, but that we might not say is good. These are the kinds of movies that Maya Salam, a pop culture writer at The New York Times, covers in her monthly column, The Good-Bad.

This episode is a celebration of good-bad movies, timed to the release of “Practical Magic 2,” the long-awaited sequel to the 1998 cult film that Salam called “a bubbling cauldron of plot holes and tones.” Our host Rachel Abrams talks to Salam about the joys of loving a movie despite (or because of) its flaws. Then, they’re joined by The Times’s canon editor, Gilbert Cruz, and Taffy Brodesser-Akner, a Times Magazine writer, to discuss the best of good-bad cinema.

On Today’s Episode:

Maya Salam covers pop culture for The New York Times.

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

Taffy Brodesser-Akner is a features reporter for The New York Times Magazine.

Background Reading:

• The Good-Bad
• Why Loving Good-Bad Movies Feels All Good

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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This week marks the start of the Gustavo Dudamel era in New York.

The superstar conductor was just 28 when he became the musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2009. A native of Venezuela and a product of its El Sistema musical training program, Dudamel quickly established himself not just as a great conductor, but also as a cultural force of nature. In his time in Los Angeles, he expanded the Philharmonic’s repertoire, created a successful youth outreach program, won prestigious awards and ingratiated himself with Hollywood elite.

Now, after 17 years in Los Angeles, Dudamel is taking the helm at one of the world’s most famous and storied orchestras: the New York Philharmonic. It’s a job once held by Leonard Bernstein, and Dudamel is hoping to follow in Bernstein’s footsteps to make the Philharmonic and the music that it plays a bigger part of the pop culture landscape.

On today’s episode, Joshua Barone, who covers classical music for The Times, discusses Dudamel, what he’s accomplished and the high hopes for his tenure with the New York Philharmonic.

Music Featured (in order of appearance, all conducted by Gustavo Dudamel):

• Johann Strauss, Tik-Tak Polka, Polka Schnell, Op. 365, Weiner Philharmoniker (Sony Music Entertainment)
• Dmitri Shostakovich, Festive Overture, Op. 96, Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra (Deutsche Grammophon)
• Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 5 in C-Sharp Minor IV. Adagietto, Berlin Philharmonic (Berlin Philharmonic Recordings)
• Antonin Dvorak, Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88, B. 163, III. Allegretto grazioso- Molto vivace, Los Angeles Philharmonic (Deutsche Grammophon)
• John Williams, “The Imperial March” (From “Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back”), Los Angeles Philharmonic (UMG Recordings, Inc)
• John Adams, “En un Día de Amor Yo Bajé Hasta la Tierra,” The Gospel According to the Other Mary, Los Angeles Master Chorale and Los Angeles Philharmonic (Deutsche Grammophon)
• Gabriela Ortiz, “Kauyumari,” Los Angeles Philharmonic (Platoon)
• Ludwig Beethoven, Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92, IV. Allegro con brio, Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra (Deutsche Grammophon)
• Thomas Adès, “XII. The Thieves — devoured by reptiles,” Dante, Los Angeles Master Chorale and Los Angeles Philharmonic (Nonesuch Records)
• Ludwig Beethoven, Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67: I. Allegro con brio, Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra (Deutsche Grammophon)
• Ludwig Beethoven, Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67: I. Allegro con brio, Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra (self-released)
• Leonard Bernstein, “End Credits” and “The Dance at the Gym: Mambo,” from “West Side Story” (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), Los Angeles Philharmonic and New York Philharmonic (Hollywood Records)

On Today’s Episode:

Joshua Barone is an editor for the Culture section of The New York Times who works on classical music and dance coverage. He also writes criticism about classical music and opera.

Background Reading:

• Gustavo Dudamel’s Long Goodbye to L.A., and Long Hello to New York

• What Makes Superstar Conductor Gustavo Dudamel So Good?

  Photo Credit: James Estrin/ 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 U.S. Open, the final tournament of the tennis season, is getting underway. The world’s best players are heading to the U.S.T.A. Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, N.Y., to battle it out for the chance to play a championship match at Arthur Ashe Stadium, the largest tennis arena in the world.

The players come freighted with great expectations, previous victories and defeats, aches and pains, personal dramas and professional rivalries, all of which they will carry with them out on the court when they play. Tennis is a game that exposes a lot about its players, which is one of the things that makes it so beloved around the world.

In this episode of the “Sunday Daily,” the host Natalie Kitroeff talks with Matthew Futterman, a senior tennis writer for The Athletic and the author of “The Cruelest Game: Chasing Greatness in Professional Tennis,” about this year’s crop of players. They’ll dig into the biggest rivalries and dramas brewing in the tournament ahead.

On Today’s Episode:

Matthew Futterman, a senior tennis writer for The Athletic, and the author of “The Cruelest Game: Chasing Greatness in Professional Tennis.”

Background Reading:

“U.S. Open Men’s Title Contenders: Jannik Sinner Cut, Carlos Alcaraz In and a U.S. Man’s Big Chance?”

Photo credit: Al Bello/Getty Images. 

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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Jesse and Emily Cole created the Savannah Bananas with a simple mission in mind: to make baseball as entertaining as possible. They introduced some innovations to America’s pastime, including twerking umpires, stilt-walking pitchers and TikTok-ready choreographed dance numbers. They tinkered with the rules of baseball, making a game that was shorter and faster, with plenty of opportunities for fan engagement. The result? A sports sensation. In the 10 years since its founding, the team has become one of the most popular sports organizations in the world, reaching tens of millions of fans online, with a waiting list of millions of others hoping to see a game in person.

For many, the Bananas are the ultimate sports success story, one that shows a path forward for teams and leagues concerned about fan retention in an era of shortened attention spans and endless entertainment options. But others take a less rosy view of the Bananas and their hyper-energetic brand of baseball, seeing them as an existential threat to a game that fans have loved for more than a hundred years.

On today’s show, our host Natalie Kitroeff talks with Jonathan Abrams, a Times reporter who covers culture news, about the Bananas phenomenon, and then heads to a Banana Ball game to see things for herself.

On Today's Episode

Jonathan Abrams is a reporter for The New York Times covering national culture news.

Background Reading

A Broadway Star Is the Savannah Bananas’ Phantom of the Bullpen

As Savannah Bananas pursue ‘a billion fans,’ are they real competition for MLB?

Photo: Al Bello/Getty Images

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 New York Times Book Review recently released its list of the 50 best thrillers of the 21st century.

To put it together, the team asked almost 300 authors and other experts to vote for the best heart-thumping, page-turning, white knuckle reads published since 2000.

In this episode of “The Sunday Daily,” Natalie Kitroeff talks with the Times thrillers columnist, Sarah Lyall, about how the list came together. Then, Natalie speaks with one of the greatest thriller writers of this century — with four books featured on the list — the author Tana French.

On Today’s Episode:

Sarah Lyall writes a monthly thrillers column for The New York Times.

Tana French is the author of many best-selling books, including “In the Woods,” “The Searcher,” “The Likeness” and “The Witch Elm.”

Background Reading:

The 50 Best Thrillers of the 21st Century

Photo credit: Naila Ruechel

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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“Traditional” French parenting is built on a foundation of firm boundaries, strictness and punishment for misbehavior. Within these rules, children are also allowed freedom and autonomy, which some say results in both well-behaved children and stress-free parents.

In recent years, though, American-style “gentle” or “positive” parenting has gained a toehold in the country, unsettling decades of orthodoxy about the best way to raise a French child. It has prompted a fierce debate, with both sides accusing the other of being harmful.

In today’s episode, Madeleine Schwartz, a journalist who lives in Paris, talks with Michael Barbaro about the dispute over parenting styles in France and what it says about the eternal search for the “right” way to raise children.

On Today’s Episode:

Madeleine Schwartz is a journalist and editor in Paris.

Background Reading:

Did American-Style ‘Gentle Parenting’ Spoil French Children?

Art Credit: Illustration by Kimberly Elliott

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 decades, the kitchen was the centerpiece of Yewande Komolafe’s life. She spent long hours there, first as a restaurant cook and later as a recipe developer. But though she loved the often-intense culinary world, she had to navigate it with certain limitations: She was born with sickle cell disease, an inherited blood disorder, which required her to carefully manage her working life. She did so successfully, becoming a celebrated cookbook author and food writer for The Times.

A medical crisis in December 2023 changed all of that. Komolafe ended up in a coma for six weeks, and after emerging learned that both her legs and her fingers would need to be amputated. In this episode of “The Sunday Daily,” Komolafe tells Rachel Abrams about what happened and how, after everything, she made her way back into the kitchen.

On Today’s Episode:

Yewande Komolafe is a cooking columnist for The New York Times.

Background Reading:

How Losing My Limbs Turned Me Into a Different Kind of Cook

The Chef Imagining a More Accessible World, One Meal at a Time

Photo credit: Lanna Apisukh.

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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When the Times reporter Ellen Barry’s father developed dementia after a fall, her family spent years trying to manage his erratic behavior and confusion. They struggled to convince him that he was home, he was safe, and he shouldn’t try to leave. The experience was exasperating and impossible to understand.

Today, Ellen tells the story of those years, and of how she discovered scientific research that helped explain everything her family had lived through — research that could potentially help to save precious memories from being lost forever.

On Today’s Episode

Ellen Barry, a mental health reporter for The New York Times

Background Reading

When My Father’s Canary Flew Away

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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After a month of competition across North America and 103 matches, the 2026 World Cup is down to its final game. Spain and Argentina will meet this afternoon in a match expected to draw over one billion viewers around the world. 

On today’s episode, Tariq Panja traces the road to this historic final and explains what to know before kickoff.

Tariq Panja, a global sports correspondent for The New York Times.

Background Reading

Why Everyone Cares About This World Cup

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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This Friday, “The Odyssey,” directed by Christopher Nolan, hits theaters. Even before the movie’s release, though, it’s proving to be a cultural event. Spirited discussions of Nolan’s cinematic interpretation of the epic poem already abound online, and they are likely to intensify after the public sees the film.

Why does a 12,000-line poem that is nearly 3,000 years old still feel resonant today? In this episode of “The Sunday Daily,” Natalie Kitroeff talks about the “Odyssey” with two writers who have produced some critically acclaimed and widely read modern interpretations of Greek classics: Emily Wilson, the first woman to translate the “Odyssey” from ancient Greek, and Madeline Miller, the author of the best-selling novels “Circe” and “Song of Achilles.”

On Today’s Episode:

Emily Wilson, a professor, classicist, author and translator of the “Odyssey”

Madeline Miller, the author of “Circe,” “Song of Achilles” and other books

Background Reading:

We’ll Help You Find Your Next Great Book. (Spoiler: It’s the ‘Odyssey.’)

The First Woman to Translate the ‘Odyssey’ Into English

Book Review: Turning Circe Into a Good Witch

Photo: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures

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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