News Commentary

Apple News In Conversation

Apple News

Apple News In Conversation with Shumita Basu brings you interviews with some of the world’s best journalists and experts about the stories that impact our lives. Join us every week as we go behind the headlines.

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Did a Texas man confess to a murder he didn’t commit?
Feb 19, 202223 min
When 52-year-old Larry Driskill was questioned by Texas Ranger James Holland in 2015, he thought he was helping police solve a cold case. But within 24 hours, Driskill confessed to a murder he says he didn’t commit. He’s now in prison. Maurice Chammah spent a year looking into this case and others like it for the <a href="https://apple.news/AHAW1Ge0nSHOw5YfKxTQOXA">Marshall Project</a>. He spoke to Apple News Today host Duarte Geraldino about the techniques used by law enforcement that can result in false confessions.
Are we in the golden age of ‘Jeopardy’?
Feb 12, 202220 min
When host Alex Trebek died in 2020, Jeopardy’s future was unclear. Could the game show continue to be successful without him? So far, the answer is yes. Claire McNear, a reporter at The Ringer and the author of <a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/answers-in-the-form-of-questions/id1502060518">Answers in the Form of Questions: A Definitive History and Insider’s Guide to Jeopardy!</a>, spoke with Apple News Today host Shumita Basu about all things Jeopardy — from superfan online message boards to game strategy to Trebek’s legacy.
They survived school shootings. How are they 20 years later?
Feb 5, 202219 min
In 1998, a student opened fire at a middle-school dance, killing one teacher and wounding another teacher and two students. Journalist Marin Cogan was a sixth grader at the time, and she recalls the shock and horror she and her classmates felt. Back then, school shootings were far more rare; kids and educators didn’t have the language or the tools to talk about — much less process — their trauma. For <a href="https://apple.news/ABOM0tG6MQqOWwwQxylcytg">Vox</a>, Cogan recently connected with survivors of other school shootings that took place in the 1990s. She spoke with Apple News Today host Shumita Basu about coming of age in a world wholly unprepared to deal with the aftermath of mass school shootings.
Nikole Hannah-Jones on the 1619 Project and reframing U.S. history
Jan 22, 202225 min
Nikole Hannah-Jones is a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter for The New York Times Magazine and the creator of the 1619 Project. The project reframes American history around an important date that isn’t mentioned in many history books: 1619, the beginning of American slavery. Hannah-Jones has expanded on the idea and turned it into a book called <a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-1619-project/id1556566008">The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story</a>. Hannah-Jones spoke with Apple News Today host Shumita Basu about the project.
How one journalist helped her dad die
Jan 15, 202228 min
If you’re suffering from a terminal illness and have only a few months to live, should you be allowed to choose how and when to end your life? Ten states in the country allow patients to do just that — a practice referred to as medical aid in dying — under highly regulated laws. In April 2020, <a href="https://apple.news/AWSuCVwB2R7etDK9z9DDBVQ">Bloomberg</a> journalist Esmé Deprez’s father became the second person to end his life under the Maine Death with Dignity Act. Deprez speaks with Apple News Today host Duarte Geraldino about that experience and <a href="https://apple.news/AUV-eGUsTRPSPI20M8Yfofg">a California case</a> making its way through the courts now that could expand the scope of the law.
Feeling burned out? Here’s how to rethink work.
Jan 8, 202225 min
How’s your relationship to your job? Does it feel healthy? Sustainable? For a lot of people, it got worse during the pandemic. One survey in 2021 found that more than a third of the men and nearly half of the women feel burned out. So what’s going wrong here? Apple News Today host Shumita Basu speaks with Anne Helen Petersen about her new book, <a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/out-of-office/id1542798259">Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working From Home</a>, coauthored with Charlie Warzel. It’s all about how we can adjust the role our jobs play in our lives and focus more time and energy on the things we care about the most.
Inside the secret prisons where migrants are tortured and beaten
Dec 11, 202125 min
For the <a href="https://apple.news/A8A5W26CARauEzftK84qb-w">New Yorker</a>, journalist Ian Urbina traveled to Libya to report on an EU-funded shadow immigration system that holds migrants in brutal detention centers. While reporting this story, Urbina was kidnapped, beaten, and detained himself. Now safely back home, he spoke with Apple News Today host Shumita Basu about how this shadow system works and the horrific conditions inside the detention centers.
Jelani Cobb on the backlash to critical race theory
Nov 20, 202122 min
The New Yorker’s Jelani Cobb says conservatives weaponizing critical race theory aren’t acting in good faith. He speaks with Apple News Today host Shumita Basu about his recent piece for the <a href="https://apple.news/AqOnqIwHvSZS1XWSjwBAkig">New Yorker</a> about the founder of the concept, Derrick Bell. Cobb says that Bell could have predicted today’s backlash and that real critical race theory can help us understand today’s debate over false depictions of this term.
Kids were jailed for a crime that doesn’t exist. How could that happen?
Oct 30, 202127 min
Nashville Public Radio’s Meribah Knight speaks with Shumita Basu about her reporting for <a href="https://apple.news/ASGVG-243QVuJK_lQ6YaGZA">ProPublica</a> on the juvenile-justice system in Rutherford County, Tennessee. Knight reveals a disturbing pattern in which hundreds of kids — some as young as 7 years old — were being locked up every year. In many of these cases, the adults responsible acted illegally and faced no consequences.
Think the stock market is rigged? You may be right.
Oct 23, 202115 min
Data shows high-level execs often get unusually good returns trading their own companies’ stocks. But regulators say insider trading is hard to prove under current law. For <a href="https://apple.news/AijUGHJk0QeK7vx1EUYf0yw">Bloomberg Businessweek</a>, Liam Vaughan explains why insider trading is more widespread than you might think — and why some experts argue the system is fundamentally unfair.
Bob Woodward and Robert Costa on the final months of Trump’s presidency
Oct 2, 202126 min
What was it like inside the White House when Donald Trump lost — then denied losing — the election? Journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, authors of the new book Peril, sat down with Apple News Today host Shumita Basu to discuss the chaotic period, which they consider one of the most dangerous in American history. <a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/peril/id1575255441">Peril</a> is available now on Apple Books.
The story of Jane Roe, her baby, and abortion in America
Sep 18, 202124 min
Many people may not know that the woman at the center of Roe v. Wade — whose real name is Norma McCorvey — never got the abortion to which she won the right. Journalist and author Joshua Prager set out to find the daughter whom McCorvey ultimately gave up for adoption. In his new book, <a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-family-roe-an-american-story/id1573959030">The Family Roe: An American Story</a>, Prager details the lives of these women and explores how the issue of abortion became so divisive in the U.S.
E. Alex Jung on who writer Anthony Veasna So might’ve been
Aug 14, 202122 min
Anthony Veasna So was a burgeoning literary star when he died of a drug overdose at 28 last year. For <a href="https://apple.news/AKklvxRn3ReWH-6u3sW5sfQ">New York Magazine</a>, Jung spoke with So’s friends, family, and partner about who he was. They all have different ideas.
Roxane Gay talks Kelis’s farm and the beauty of homegrown food
Jul 31, 202117 min
Kelis is a pop star most widely known for her 2003 hit single, “Milkshake.” She’s still performing, but her talents and interests extend beyond the music world. A few years ago, she and her husband bought a farm outside L.A. and started living off the land.   Best-selling author Roxane Gay wrote about Kelis’s experience running the farm for <a href="https://apple.news/ACqmxb5azQAS2ioVhOHGY7g">Harper’s Bazaar</a>. In her article, Gay explores why Kelis started farming and the freedom it has brought her. Gay also looks at the barriers that often stand between Black people and homegrown food. Gay’s article, called “How Kelis Remixed Her Life,” is available to read (and listen to) in Apple News+.
Allison P. Davis on how Zola’s Twitter thread became a movie
Jul 3, 202124 min
A’Ziah King, also known as Zola, went viral on Twitter back in 2015. Her series of 148 tweets detailed a mostly true story about a trip down to Florida for an exotic-dancing gig that went awry. A film, titled ‘Zola’ and directed by Janicza Bravo, has now been made based on that viral Twitter thread.    Allison P. Davis, a features writer at <a href="https://apple.news/AXAnZN6x5StuFaVRUc6y_uA">New York Magazine</a>, recently profiled Zola. Davis details how many different interests tried to take control of Zola’s story during the filmmaking process — and how Zola feels the final product centers her voice. Davis’s article, called “The Real Zola,” is available to read (and listen to) in Apple News+.