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1. 

   23 Aug 2026 · 37 min

   Think Baseball Is Boring? The Savannah Bananas Are Here to Fix That.

   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…

2. 

   16 Aug 2026 · 42 min

   What Makes a Killer Thriller?

   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.

3. 

   9 Aug 2026 · 39 min

   Is 'Gentle Parenting' Ruining French Children?

   “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…

4. 

   2 Aug 2026 · 31 min

   After Losing Her Limbs, Our Cooking Columnist Returns to the Kitchen

   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…

5. 

   26 Jul 2026 · 29 min

   Why Do Some Memories Survive Dementia?

   When 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.

6. 

   12 Jul 2026 · 51 min

   What’s Epic About the ‘Odyssey’? Everything.

   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…

7. 

   5 Jul 2026 · 43 min

   The Most American Episode of The Daily, Ever.

   In celebration of the United States of America’s 250th birthday, we posed a simple question to some of our favorite critics, columnists and editors across the New York Times newsroom, people who write about books, movies, TV shows, science, sports, wellness and food. We asked: What’s the most American thing on your beat? On today’s episode, we present their answers. Happy Birthday, America!

8. 

   28 Jun 2026 · 42 min

   The Last 12 Weeks

   In 1992, David Wood became El Paso’s most notorious convicted serial killer. He has been on death row ever since. More than 30 years later, his lawyers have just a few months to argue his innocence and stop his execution.

9. 

   21 Jun 2026 · 47 min

   Can a Bad Man Be a Good Father?

   The writer Tom Junod has spent a career crafting profiles for men’s magazines like GQ and Esquire, often of famously complicated men like Norman Mailer, Kevin Spacey and Tony Curtis. But another man loomed behind Junod’s interest in these figures, informing his own sense of masculinity and manhood: his father, Lou. Lou Junod was handsome, charismatic — a man who seemed like a celebrity, even though he wasn’t famous. He was also mysterious, a keeper of secrets that have continued to reverberate through his son’s life. On today’s episode, Michael Barbaro talks with Junod about his new book,…

10. 

    14 Jun 2026 · 39 min

    Do Aliens Exist? Steven Spielberg Believes They Do

    Almost 50 years ago, Steven Spielberg directed “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” the story of an average man who discovers that humanity may not be alone in the universe. Over the decades, Spielberg has directed several movies about what would happen if humanity made contact with aliens. Would the aliens be kind like the title character in “E.T. the Extra Terrestrial”? Would they be cruel like the murderous aliens of “War of the Worlds”? And regardless of what the aliens were like, would we humans be ready to receive them? Spielberg returns to the question of whether we’re alone in the…