The Sunday Read: ‘What Does the U.S. Space Force Actually Do?’

A battle between two major artists has been dominating the world of music. It’s a fight over one song — a song that may get its biggest stage ever at this weekend’s Super Bowl.Joe Coscarelli, a culture reporter for The New York Times, explains the feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, how Lamar’s “Not Like Us” ripped the music world apart, and why so many fell in love with a song about hate.Guest: Joe Coscarelli, a culture reporter for The New York Times, who focuses on popular music and co-hosts the podcast “Popcast (Deluxe).”Background reading: “Not Like Us” reinvented Kendrick Lamar. Is the Super Bowl ready for it?Listen to “Popcast (Deluxe)” breaking down the feud.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Photo: Monica Schipper/Getty Images for The Recording Academy; zz, via GOTPAP, via STAR MAX, via IPx, via 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.

7 Feb 31min

How is the Democratic Party navigating the dominance of President Trump — and reckoning with the reality that more and more voters have been souring on its message?The Times journalists Michael Barbaro, Shane Goldmacher, Reid J. Epstein and Annie Karni discuss the state of the Democrats.Guests: Shane Goldmacher, a national political correspondent for The New York Times; Reid J. Epstein, a New York Times reporter covering politics; Annie Karni, a congressional correspondent at The New York Times.Background reading: “We have no coherent message”: Democrats have struggled to oppose President Trump.Democrats chose a political operator from Minnesota as their new leader.The House Democratic Super PAC created a $50 million fund targeting the working class.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.

6 Feb 32min

Elon Musk and his team have taken a hacksaw to the federal bureaucracy one agency at a time, and the question has become whether he’s on a crusade that will leave the government paralyzed or deliver a shake-up it has needed for years.Jonathan Swan, a White House reporter for The New York Times, takes us inside this hostile takeover of Washington.Guests: Jonathan Swan, a White House reporter for The New York Times.Background reading: Inside Mr. Musk’s aggressive incursion into the federal government.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Photo: Mike Segar/Reuters 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.

5 Feb 32min

North America came within hours of a multibillion dollar trade war that was poised to hobble the economies of Mexico and Canada.The Times journalists Ana Swanson, Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Simon Romero discuss the last-minute negotiations that headed off the crisis — for now.Guests: Ana Swanson, who covers trade and international economics for The New York Times; Matina Stevis-Gridneff, the Canada bureau chief for The New York Times; and Simon Romero, an international correspondent for The New York Times based in Mexico City.Background reading: President Trump agreed to delay tariffs on Mexico and Canada for a month after both countries pledged to do more to block drugs and migrants.What does Mr. Trump really want from Canada and Mexico?For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Photo: Jeff Kowalsky/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images 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.

4 Feb 31min

Financial markets went into a panic last week over an obscure Chinese tech start-up called DeepSeek. The company now threatens to upend the world of artificial intelligence and the race for who will dominate it.Kevin Roose, a tech columnist at The Times, discusses how DeepSeek caught us all off guard.Guests: Kevin Roose, a technology columnist for The New York Times and co-host of the Times tech podcast, “Hard Fork.”Background reading: DeepSeek’s model has rocked Silicon Valley and upended several fundamental assumptions about A.I. progress.Listen to “Hard Fork”: Your guide to the DeepSeek freakout.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Photo: Greg Baker/Agence France-Presse 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.

3 Feb 23min

Here’s a strange story: One day two summers ago, Jennifer Kahn woke up because her arms — both of them — hurt. Not the way they do when you’ve slept in a funny position, but as if the tendons in her forearms and hands were moving through mud. What felt like sharp electric shocks kept sparking in her fingers and sometimes up the inside of her biceps and across her chest. Holding anything was excruciating: a cup, a toothbrush, her phone. Even doing nothing was miserable. It hurt when she sat with her hands in her lap, when she stood, when she lay flat on the bed or on her side. The slightest pressure — a bedsheet, a watch band, a bra strap — was intolerable.Our understanding of pain, and especially chronic pain, is far behind where it should be. We don’t know what causes a person with an injury to develop chronic pain, or why it happens in some people and not others, or why it happens more often in women. At a genetic and cellular level, we don’t know which systems get out of whack, or why, or how to fix them. 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.

2 Feb 46min

The psychiatrist and author of “Dopamine Nation” wants us to find balance in a world of temptation and abundance. 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.

1 Feb 41min

Since his inauguration, President Trump has exercised a level of power that has directly challenged the checks and balances that, on paper, define the U.S. government.The Times journalists Michael Barbaro, Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan and Charlie Savage discuss Mr. Trump’s plan to institute a more powerful presidency.Guests: Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent for The New York Times.Jonathan Swan, a White House reporter for The New York Times.Charlie Savage, national security and legal policy for The New York Times.Background reading: Mr. Trump’s “flood the zone” strategy has left opponents gasping in outrage.From Day 1 of hs second term, Mr. Trump has tested the limits of his authority.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.

31 Jan 27min