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The Washington Post

Post Reports is the daily podcast from The Washington Post. Unparalleled reporting. Expert insight. Clear analysis. Everything you’ve come to expect from the newsroom of The Post, for your ears. Martine Powers and Elahe Izadi are your hosts, asking the questions you didn’t know you wanted answered. Published weekdays around 5 p.m. Eastern time.

Post Reports

The Senate remains far apart on resolving the ongoing government shutdown. But the battle for public opinion on who’s to blame has shifted. Republicans appear split on whether to negotiate on health-care costs, as Democrats are demanding. And polling shows voters blame the GOP just as much as Democrats, if not more, for failing to fund the government.

Plus, what Attorney General Pam Bondi’s combative hearing before the Senate Oversight Committee this week signals about her place in the Trump administration, the text messages blowing up a statewide race in Virginia and the peace deal for Gaza that President Donald Trump helped broker. 

Host Colby Itkowitz speaks with national politics reporter Liz Goodwin and Dan Merica, the co-anchor of The Post’s flagship politics newsletter, The Early Brief.

Today’s show was produced by Laura Benshoff and Josh Carroll. It was edited by Reena Flores and mixed by Sean Carter. 

Subscribe to The Washington Post here. You can find this episode on YouTube here.

Shutdown cracks, Jay Jones’s texts, Trump’s Gaza deal

Puerto Rican music superstar Bad Bunny is having a phenomenal year. His seventh album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” came out in January and spent weeks at the top of the charts. He sold out a musical residency in Puerto Rico. And now, he’s set to headline one of the biggest stages for a musical artist: the Super Bowl halftime show. But that performance has ignited a political firestorm on the right. MAGA influencers are criticizing the choice because Bad Bunny, born Benito Ocasio Martinez Ocasio, sings in Spanish, and because he expressed fears this year that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could pursue fans at his shows. 

Host Colby Itkowitz speaks with national politics reporter Sabrina Rodriguez about this right-wing backlash and how it fits into ongoing culture war battles.

Today’s show was produced by Laura Benshoff. It was edited by Ariel Plotnick and mixed by Sam Bair. 

Subscribe to The Washington Post here.

Bad Bunny, the Super Bowl and a MAGA meltdown

Tensions have been escalating in Chicago since the Trump administration began a widespread immigration enforcement operation across the city in early September. Officers have ransacked homes and detained children during raids. Local and state officials have loudly denounced the move and are pushing back against the effort, while residents have banded together to keep neighbors safe. But over the weekend a woman was shot by a Border Patrol agent, and after protests flared the president authorized National Guard troops to go into Illinois.

Host Colby Itkowitz speaks with reporter and Chicago resident Kim Bellware about what it’s felt like to be there and how the city has been responding.

Today’s show was produced by Sabby Robinson with help from Rennie Svirnovsky. It was edited by Peter Bresnan and mixed by Sean Carter. 

Subscribe to The Washington Post here.

The National Guard arrives in Chicago

It is now Day 2 of peace talks in the region, with delegations from Israel and Hamas meeting in Egypt in an attempt to end the conflict. The peace deal – which was originally proposed by President Trump – would look to end fighting, secure the release of all remaining hostages and increase humanitarian aid to Gaza. 

After two years of deadly assault on the Palestinian enclave, the two sides will also look to negotiate Gaza’s security and political future. 

Today on “Post Reports,” host Colby Itkowitz is joined by Washington Post foreign policy reporter Michael Birnbaum. He discusses who will be at the table for both sides, what the future of Gaza could look like and why these talks look to be developing differently than ones in the past.

Today’s show was produced by Rennie Svirnovskiy with help from Lucas Trevor and Sabby Robinson. It was edited by Reena Flores and mixed by Sam Bair. 

Subscribe to The Washington Post here.

Negotiating over Trump's peace plan for Gaza

A single Q&A session with a large language model can consume more than a half-liter of fresh water to cool servers. Asking ChatGPT one question reportedly consumes 10 times as much electricity as a conventional Google search. And generating an image is equivalent to charging a smartphone.

Should we be worried about that?

Climate advice columnist Michael J. Coren doesn’t think so – or, at least, we shouldn’t lose sleep over it. 

Today on “Post Reports,” he joins host Colby Itkowitz to dispel myths around AI’s energy consumption, explain how to use AI chatbots responsibly, and break down our other energy-intensive digital habits. 

Today’s show was produced by Rennie Svirnovskiy. It was edited by Ted Muldoon and Reena Flores, and mixed by Sean Carter. Thanks to Marisa Bellack. 

Subscribe to The Washington Post here.

Talking to ChatGPT drains energy. These other things are worse.

After a two-month trial this summer, Sean “Diddy” Combs was convicted of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution – but acquitted on sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges. 

Combs’s defense attorneys argued he should either get a new trial or be released in under two years, while the prosecution pushed for him to serve over a decade in prison. On Friday, the judge decided that he would spend 50 months in prison. 

Host Elahe Izadi speaks with style reporter Anne Branigin about Combs’s appeal to the judge and how he is already starting his rebrand.

Today’s show was produced by Sabby Robinson and Peter Bresnan. It was edited by Reena Flores and mixed by Sean Carter. 

Follow our coverage of the trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs on Spotify here.

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The Diddy Trial: Sean Combs’s 4-year sentence

In a cold muddy pond in Cape Cod, a group of self-proclaimed “old ladies” dives for garbage — and unexpectedly finds joy.

This is a story from The Optimist, The Washington Post’s section about the best of humanity. If you want more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter. If you love hearing these stories on “Post Reports,” please send us an email at podcasts@washpost.com. You can reach Maggie Penman directly at maggie.penman@washpost.com.

Today’s show was produced by Maggie Penman. It was edited and mixed by Ted Muldoon. Thank you to Allison Klein. 

Subscribe to The Washington Post here.

The group diving for beer cans and baby doll heads

Democrats are making a gamble that voting against a Republican plan to fund the government will be worth the pain of the current shutdown.

New Jersey’s senior Democratic senator Cory Booker voted against a similar Republican plan to fund the government back in March. And he's been one of the most visible critics of the second Trump administration in the Senate. 

Host Colby Itkowitz speaks with Booker about the stakes of the current government shutdown, how long it could go on, and why he says Democrats must “do something” to try to reduce looming hikes in health care costs or risk further alienating their base.

Today’s show was produced by Laura Benshoff and Josh Carroll, with help from Zoe Cummings. It was edited by Reena Flores and mixed by Sam Bair.

Subscribe to The Washington Post here. Check out Post Reports on YouTube here.

Sen. Cory Booker on the Democrats’ risky shutdown bet

The effects of the government shutdown – which started early Wednesday morning – are already being felt. Some national parks are closed, federal job training is suspended, and large swaths of the federal workforce have been furloughed. One major debate led to the shutdown: a fundamental disagreement over health care policy.

Today on Post Reports, national health reporter Paige Winfield Cunningham joins host Elahe Izadi to break down the ins and outs of the health care policy fight that Democrats used to force a government shutdown. 

Today’s show was produced by Rennie Svirnovskiy. with help from Lucas Trevor. It was edited by Ariel Plotnick and mixed by Sean Carter. Thanks also to Fenit Nirappil.

Subscribe to The Washington Post here.

The health care debate behind the government shutdown

During confirmation hearings to become secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. warned that “highly chemical-intensive processed foods” are “poisoning the American people.” 

A striking report from the federal government has since found that Americans on average get about half their calories from ultra-processed foods, which have been linked in studies to increased rates of obesity and chronic disease. 

A central part of the Make America Healthy Again movement’s food agenda is going after some common ingredients in packaged foods: seed oils, corn syrup and food dyes. But what kind of dent will these efforts make in America’s health? 

Today, host Elahe Izadi brings in nutrition columnist Anahad O’Connor and national health reporter Rachel Roubein to discuss MAHA’s popular food policies, what the science says about the threat of these ingredients and some simple steps we can all take to improve our diets. 

Read More: 

Coke confirms cane sugar change. RFK Jr. calls it a MAHA win. Is it?What science says about artificial food dyes amid RFK Jr.’s push to ban themWhich oil do you cook with? The answer can impact your health.Why additives are so common in America’s foodWhich breakfast is highest in sugar? Test your knowledge with our quiz.We analyzed dozens of ultra-processed foods. Here are the healthiest options.
Today’s show was produced by Elana Gordon. It was edited by Peter Bresnan and mixed by Sam Bair. Thanks also to Emily Codik and Fenit Nirappil.

Subscribe to The Washington Post here.

MAHA's fight against food dyes, corn syrup and seed oils

On Tuesday, the top U.S. generals will meet at Quantico for an audience with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump. 

Hegseth’s order for the gathering comes on the heels of the firing of top military officers. It also lands in the middle of Hegseth’s attempts to purge the military of DEI initiatives and programs that he sees as not aligned with the military’s core mission of “lethality.” 

President Trump is expected to address the group. His speech comes after his recent order to send the National Guard into “war ravaged” Portland, Oregon, over the objection of local officials. 

Host Colby Itkowitz speaks with Pentagon reporter Dan Lamothe about how The Post broke the story of the generals’ meeting, the logistics of gathering so many senior military officials in one place, and the optics of the president and defense secretary speeches to the top brass.

Today’s show was produced by Rennie Svirnovskiy with help from Laura Benshoff. It was edited by Ariel Plotnick and mixed by Sean Cater. 

Subscribe to The Washington Post here.

Why Hegseth ordering generals to meet is so unusual

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