The Opinions

President Trump’s proposed political slush fund is getting pushback — including from his own party. This week on “The Opinions,” the national politics writer Michelle Cottle and the columnists Jamelle Bouie and David French discuss how the president’s “reparations for rioters” settlement fund may be his biggest miscalculation yet ahead of the November midterms.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].

This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Derek Arthur. It was edited by Kaari Pitkin. Mixing by Pat McCusker. Video editing by Julian Hackney. The postproduction manager is Mike Puretz. Original music by Pat McCusker. Fact-checking by Julie Beer and Kate Sinclair. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta and Kristina Samulewski. The director of Opinion Video is Jonah M. Kessel. The deputy director of Opinion Shows is Alison Bruzek. The director of Opinion Shows is Annie-Rose Strasser.

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

Is the MAHA movement’s political influence waning? On “The Opinions,” the Times Opinion science editor Alexandra Sifferlin, the columnist and sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom and the Opinion science writer David Wallace-Wells explored this question in a live event at the Brooklyn Public Library. They discussed the impact of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s tenure as secretary of health and human services and what a counternarrative to MAHA should look like.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].

This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Derek Arthur. It was edited by Kaari Pitkin. Mixing by Pat McCusker. Original music by Carole Sabouraud, Aman Sahota and Pat McCusker. Fact-checking by Lori Segal and Kate Sinclair. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta and Kristina Samulewski. The deputy director of Opinion Shows is Alison Bruzek. The director of Opinion Shows is Annie-Rose Strasser. Special thanks to the Brooklyn Public Library.

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

Silicon Valley wants to be the best tastemaker in town. Artificial intelligence is changing how we decide what to wear and read and how we interact with pop culture. The Times Opinion culture editor Nadja Spiegelman talks to the New Yorker writer Kyle Chayka and the journalist and critic Sophie Haigney about the rise of “taste slop” and what happens to culture if the internet collapses into just a few chatbots that serve us everything.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].

This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Vishkaha Darbha. It was edited by Kaari Pitkin and Jasmine Romero. Mixing by Carole Sabouraud. Video editing by Steph Khoury. The postproduction manager is Mike Puretz. Original music by Pat McCusker, Isaac Jones, Carole Sabouraud and Aman Sahota. Fact-checking by Mary Marge Locker. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta and Kristina Samulewski. The director of Opinion Video is Jonah M. Kessel. The deputy director of Opinion Shows is Alison Bruzek. The director of Opinion Shows is Annie-Rose Strasser.

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

The Supreme Court’s recent decision on the Voting Rights Act has supercharged a redistricting frenzy in states across the country. The Times Opinion contributors Robert Siegel and E.J. Dionne and the SCOTUSblog editor Sarah Isgur discuss the ruling’s implications for future elections. Ms. Isgur makes the case that voters are over reality TV politics and warns Democrats against embracing Trump-style candidates.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].

This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Jillian Weinberger with help from Derek Arthur. It was edited by Kaari Pitkin. Mixing by Pat McCusker. Video editing by Arpita Aneja and Kristen Williamson. The postproduction manager is Mike Puretz. Original music by Carole Sabouraud and Pat McCusker. Fact-checking by Mary Marge Locker. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta and Kristina Samulewski. The director of Opinion Video is Jonah M. Kessel. The deputy director of Opinion Shows is Alison Bruzek. The director of Opinion Shows is Annie-Rose Strasser.

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

The columnist M. Gessen has spent most of their career reporting on and writing about authoritarianism in Russia. They now cover President Trump and the MAGA movement in the United States. In this conversation with Rachel Louise Snyder, a Times Opinion contributing writer and an expert on domestic violence, M. Gessen draws parallels between interpersonal violence and the way authoritarians coerce and control their subjects. The two discuss a question that domestic violence victims and those who live under authoritarianism often get: Why didn’t you just leave?

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].

This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Jillian Weinberger. It was edited by Kaari Pitkin. Mixing by Carole Sabouraud. Original music by Pat McCusker, Carole Sabouraud and Sonia Herrero. Fact-checking by Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta and Kristina Samulewski. The deputy director of Opinion Shows is Alison Bruzek. The director of Opinion Shows is Annie-Rose Strasser.

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

On this episode of “The Opinions,” the Opinion writers David Wallace-Wells and Michelle Cottle join the columnist David French to discuss why this “especially messy” war of choice could reshape the global economy and why the biggest effects may still be ahead. “I don’t think that anyone in the Trump administration adequately game-planned for that, which is a huge indictment of them,” argues Wallace-Wells. Plus, amid the turmoil, there may be one unexpected silver lining: an acceleration of the transition to green energy.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].

This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Derek Arthur. It was edited by Kaari Pitkin. Mixing by Efim Shapiro. Video editing by Arpita Aneja. The postproduction manager is Mike Puretz. Original music by Pat McCusker. Fact-checking by Mary Marge Locker. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta and Kristina Samulewski. The director of Opinion Video is Jonah M. Kessel. The deputy director of Opinion Shows is Alison Bruzek. The director of Opinion Shows is Annie-Rose Strasser.

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

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the columnist David French sits down with a fellow originalist, the Supreme Court justice Neil Gorsuch. The two discuss the radical nature of the country’s founding, its continuing influence on the court and why David sees the justice’s jurisprudence as “a combination of originalist and anti-bully.”

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].

This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Jillian Weinberger with help from Derek Arthur. It was edited by Kaari Piktin and Alison Bruzek. Mixing by Pat McCusker. Video editing by Arpita Aneja, Kristen Williamson with help from Jan Kobal. The postproduction manager is Mike Puretz. Original music by Carole Sabouraud, Isaac Jones and Pat McCusker. Fact-checking by Julie Beer, Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta and Kristina Samulewski. The director of Opinion Video is Jonah M. Kessel. The deputy director of Opinion Shows is Alison Bruzek. The director of Opinion Shows is Annie-Rose Strasser.

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

As a new flood season approaches, many Americans remain haunted by the last. Families across the country are still in mourning months after the waters receded from places like the Texas Hill Country, where a flash flood on the Guadalupe River in July left at least 135 people dead, many of them children.

There is a way for communities to prepare for future floods and try to limit their damage. The producer Jillian Weinberger went to a small town in Iowa to meet a mayor who discovered how effective one solution can be in a crisis. As the Trump administration leaves communities to fend for themselves, one state has a model that could help us all as the waters rise.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].

This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Jillian Weinberger. It was edited by Kaari Pitkin. Mixing by Carole Sabouraud. Original music by Pat McCusker, Isaac Jones, Carole Sabouraud and Aman Sahota. Fact-checking by Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta and Kristina Samulewski. The deputy director of Opinion Shows is Alison Bruzek. The director of Opinion Shows is Annie-Rose Strasser. Special thanks to David Leonhardt and Derek Arthur.

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

President Trump, the self-proclaimed master of deal making, is struggling to end his war with Iran. This week, the contributing Opinion writers E.J. Dionne Jr. and Robert Siegel reunite with the Opinion columnist Carlos Lozada to discuss the confusion caused by Trump’s foreign and domestic policies, the power of political memoirs, and whether a bill in Virginia could upend the Electoral College.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].

This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Derek Arthur. It was edited by Alison Bruzek and Kaari Pitkin. Mixing by Efim Shapiro and Isaac Jones. Video editing by Arpita Aneja. The postproduction manager is Mike Puretz. Original music by Carole Sabouraud and Sonia Herrero. Fact-checking by Kate Sinclair and Annika Robbins, with support from Michelle Harris. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta and Kristina Samulewski. The director of Opinion Video is Jonah M. Kessel. The deputy director of Opinion Shows is Alison Bruzek. The director of Opinion Shows is Annie-Rose Strasser.

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

When does shoplifting become an act of political protest? The Opinion culture editor Nadja Spiegelman is calling this microlooting, and it describes the phenomenon of people stealing small things from big corporations like Whole Foods. The New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino and the political commentator Hasan Piker join Spiegelman for a lively discussion on what’s behind this trend and where it might lead.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].

This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Vishakha Darbha. It was edited by Kaari Pitkin and Jasmine Romero. Mixing by Carole Sabouruad. Video editing by Steph Khoury. The postproduction manager is Mike Puretz. Original music by Pat McCusker, Isaac Jones and Carole Sabouraud. Fact-checking by Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta and Kristina Samulewski. The director of Opinion Video is Jonah M. Kessel. The deputy director of Opinion Shows is Alison Bruzek. The director of Opinion Shows is Annie-Rose Strasser.

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