The Daily

After the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, President Trump took a victory lap to Jerusalem before going on to a peace summit in Egypt. David E. Sanger, who is covering Mr. Trump’s trip, discusses some takeaways.

We also hear from the Times reporter Christopher Flavelle about how the U.S. government shutdown has given the Trump administration an extraordinary amount of power over dozens of agencies.

Guests:

• David E. Sanger, the White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times, reporting on President Trump and his administration.
• Christopher Flavelle, a reporter for The New York Times, covering how President Trump is transforming the federal government.

Background reading: 

• President Trump told the Israeli Parliament, “This is the historic dawn of a new Middle East.” But he has avoided questions about what comes next.
• Missteps, confusion and “viral waste”: The 14 days that doomed U.S.A.I.D.

Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

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 and Spotify. 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.

The Israeli military said on Monday that it had received the 20 remaining living hostages released by Hamas under the terms of the cease-fire deal.

Rachel Abrams speaks to families of those hostages, and to other Israelis, about the long-anticipated moment, and Isabel Kershner, a Times reporter who covers Israel and Palestine, discusses why the hostages have been such a crucial factor in efforts to end the war.

Guest: Isabel Kershner, a reporter for The New York Times in Jerusalem, covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs.

Photo: David Guttenfelder/The New York Times

Background reading: 

• Read live coverage of the hostages’ return and prisoner swap.
• Why now? The lost chances to reach a hostage deal, and a cease-fire, months ago.

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 and Spotify. 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.

Broadway represents some of the best and most exciting of what American theater has to offer. But for many people, it’s inaccessible. Whether because of geography, cost or other considerations, most people will never sit in a Broadway theater and experience a play or a musical in person.

For years, cast recordings have offered a way to experience Broadway shows at a remove. And now, in the streaming era, some Broadway shows are making themselves available to be watched remotely, in movie theaters and on television. Distance and expense aren’t the impediments they once were to culture lovers looking to experience world-class theater.

In this episode, Gilbert Cruz talks with Jesse Green and Elisabeth Vincentelli, two of The New York Times’s culture writers, about new ways to experience some of the joys of theater from the comfort of your own home.

On Today’s Episode:

Jesse Green is a Culture correspondent, focusing primarily on the fine arts, including theater, classical music and art.

Elisabeth Vincentelli writes about culture for The Times.

Background Reading:

Want to Listen to Musical Cast Albums? Our Top 10 Desert Island Picks

Theater to Stream: Mark Rylance in ‘Twelfth Night,’ and More

Times Theater Fans on Their Favorite Musical Cast Albums

Photo Illustration by The New York Times; Inset: Disney+

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. 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.

In a special, subscriber-only episode of “The Daily,” a team of editors from The New York Times’s Games department takes us behind the scenes.

Wyna Liu, Joel Fagliano and Sam Ezersky discuss what goes into making games such as the Mini Crossword, Connections, the Spelling Bee and more.

Guests:

• Wyna Liu, who writes the daily Connections puzzle and is an editor of the New York Times Crossword.
• Joel Fagliano, who created the Mini.
• Sam Ezersky, who edits the Spelling Bee and Letterboxed.

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 and Spotify. 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.

On Thursday, a potentially historic agreement between Israel and Hamas began to take shape. The deal, which was brokered by President Trump, secures the exchange of all remaining Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

Leaders on both sides, and Mr. Trump himself, signaled that this was a decisive step toward the end of the two-year war in Gaza.

Mark Mazzetti, who covers national security for The New York Times, discusses the deal making that got us to this point and whether it really will bring peace.

Guest: Mark Mazzetti, an investigative reporter for The New York Times in Washington, D.C., who focuses on national security.

Background reading: 

• Live updates: Israel approved a Gaza deal that would free hostages and prisoners.
• Here is what we know about the agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Photo: Saher Alghorra for The New York Times; David Guttenfelder/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 and Spotify. 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.

Warning: this episode contains mentions of suicide.

In one of the first cases of the Supreme Court’s new term, the justices considered whether to strike down a ban on conversion therapy, the contentious practice that aims to change a young person’s sexual orientation.

Ann E. Marimow, Supreme Court correspondent for The New York Times, talks us through the case.

Guest: Ann E. Marimow, who covers the Supreme Court for The New York Times from Washington.

Background reading: 

• Read the main points of the conversion therapy argument at the Supreme Court.
• The case considering the Colorado law will have implications for more than 20 states with similar bans.

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/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 and Spotify. 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.

Over the past week, ICE and border patrol agents have clashed with Chicago residents, and federal guard troops arriving in the city might inflame tensions further.

Julie Bosman, Chicago bureau chief for The Times, and Mattathias Schwartz describe the situation on the ground and explain how the city fits into a broader political fight.

Guest:

• Julie Bosman, the Chicago bureau chief for The New York Times.
• Mattathias Schwartz, who has reported on the tension between President Trump and the courts.

Background reading: 

• Drones, helicopters, hundreds of arrests: President Trump’s immigration crackdown in Chicago so far.
• A judge blocked a National Guard deployment in Oregon as Mr. Trump expands his targets.

Photo: Octavio Jones/Agence France-Presse — 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 and Spotify. 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.

In the last few years, GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Zepbound have been radically reshaping the people’s lives, changing appetites and health.

But the drugs also have the power to affect other parts of consumers’ lives, including their romantic relationships.

Lisa Miller, who writes about health for The New York Times, tells the story of how these drugs upended one couple’s marriage.

Guest: Lisa Miller, a domestic correspondent for the Well section who writes about personal and cultural approaches to physical and mental health.

Background reading: 

• Weight-loss drugs have lesser-known side effects on relationships.

Photo: Katherine Wolkoff 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 and Spotify. 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.

During the continuing government shutdown, President Trump has posted memes depicting Russel T. Vought, the White House budget director, as the grim reaper.

Coral Davenport, a Washington correspondent for The Times, explains how Mr. Vought, a once obscure official, has become one of the most influential figures in Washington.

Guest: Coral Davenport, a Washington correspondent for The New York Times, focusing on the Trump administration’s dismantling of federal rules.

Background reading: 

• Mr. Vought has exerted his influence over nearly every corner of President Trump’s Washington with his command of the levers of the federal budget.
• Both parties are resigned to deadlock as the government shutdown takes hold.

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/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 and Spotify. 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.

Amusement parks are enduring vacation destinations for American families. The rides, the long lines for rides, the concessions, the long lines for concessions — these are practically familial rites of passage. Theme parks are also enormous moneymakers, with industry leaders such as Disney and Universal earning billions of dollars each year from their parks.

In this episode, Gilbert Cruz chats with Brooks Barnes, who writes about show business (including theme parks), and Mekado Murphy, a film editor and thrill-seeker who reports on roller coasters. They talk about the state of the contemporary amusement park and the ups and downs of roller coasters around the world.

On Today’s Episode:

Mekado Murphy is the assistant film editor for The New York Times, and its unofficial roller coaster correspondent.

Brooks Barnes covers Hollywood for The New York Times.

Background Reading:

Riding Your Way Through Epic Universe

See the Real Live Man Who Grew Up in a Carnival

Photo: Business Wire/Associated Press

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. 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.