The Daily

Why Do Some Memories Survive Dementia?

⏱ 29 min listen · ~2 min read 🎙 Ellen Barry

If dementia has touched your family, the explanation in the second half reframes years of behavior that looks like stubbornness — it's one of the most consoling pieces of science journalism The Daily has run.

Key takeaways

01Ellen Barry's father fell and suffered a brain bleed at 89, a week before a planned move, then declined through vascular dementia for four and a half years.
02Barry's father packed suitcases and once loaded a decorated Christmas tree into the car to leave for Kiev, Vienna or China; her husband drove him to Logan Airport.
03The bleed sat on Barry's father's right hippocampus, the brain's map of place, which is why no reassurance could convince him he was already home.
04A Rockefeller University neuroscientist points to the thalamus as a gatekeeper that routes emotionally charged memories into protected cortical storage.

Chapters

0:00 · The 1956 story his dementia never touched2:48 · Moving home from India to build a multi-generational house4:12 · The fall: a brain bleed one week before the movers arrived5:34 · Caviar smugglers and KGB nurses — the first delusions6:51 · Seven birdbaths and five laptops: shopping as a symptom9:25 · Packing for Kiev, Vienna and China+7 more

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The Iranians Who Want More War

⏱ 29 min listen · ~3 min read 🎙 Abdi Latif Dahir and Farnaz Fasihi

A rare inside-Iran report that explains why a peace deal both governments signed keeps collapsing: the people who can restart the war aren't the ones who negotiated it.

Key takeaways

01Iran admitted a New York Times reporter for the first time in months, to cover the state funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after his death in the 13-day air war.
02Mourners nearly knocked President Pezeshkian to the ground and threw stones at foreign minister Araghchi — the officials who negotiated the peace deal.
03Three ships were struck in the Strait of Hormuz as the funeral ended, reportedly by rogue Revolutionary Guards elements acting without central command.
04The live fight is inside the conservative camp — Saeed Jalili's ultra-hardliners, 10 to 20 percent of Iranians, against pragmatists who want sanctions lifted.

Chapters

0:00 · A choreographed invitation into Tehran1:16 · Minders, nightly reports, and the Ayatollah's funeral2:36 · Millions mourn — a stage-managed sea of people3:55 · Grief hardens into demands for revenge5:15 · Fereshteh Sultan Ali: no negotiations, only revenge7:54 · Mourners turn on the president and foreign minister+8 more

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Europe Is Burning

⏱ 29 min listen · ~2 min read 🎙 Chico Harlan and Mark Landler

Two on-the-ground explanations — one of the climate mechanics, one from inside the evacuation centers — of why Europe's worst fire season is a preview, not an anomaly.

Key takeaways

01France and Spain are fighting the largest wildfires in each country's history, near Bordeaux and Madrid, after heat waves that began in May.
02Western Europe's June heat deaths are estimated at 10,000 to 20,000, driven by heat-retaining old buildings, zinc roofs and little air conditioning.
03Europe is warming about 0.5C per decade, faster than any other continent, because the melting Arctic now absorbs radiation its ice used to reflect.
04The forest around Bordeaux is a 19th-century pine monoculture planted on drained swampland, a decision that became a liability only as the climate shifted.

Chapters

0:00 · Historic fires in France and Spain at once1:20 · May 2026: Western Europe's first heat wave2:40 · 111 degrees — three national heat records in three days3:58 · Why Europe's heat is so deadly: buildings and no AC6:32 · The Arctic's dark water: why Europe warms fastest7:51 · A 19th-century pine plantation becomes a tinderbox+8 more

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The World Cup Final Is Here

⏱ 30 min listen · ~2 min read 🎙 Tariq Panja

The whole five-week tournament — heroes, scandal, and the stakes of Messi's likely last final — compressed into one conversation you can absorb before kickoff.

Key takeaways

01The biggest World Cup ever played — 48 teams across three countries — was also the most-watched, despite ticket prices that priced out millions of fans.
02Cape Verde held Spain in the group stage and nearly eliminated Argentina, behind 40-year-old goalkeeper Vozinha and Sidney Lopez Cabral's strike.
03Expanded video review drew backlash for killing spontaneous joy, most painfully when a sweeping Egypt goal against Argentina was overturned mid-celebration.
04Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino after Balogun's red card, the one-match suspension was overturned, and the U.S. became the tournament's villains.

Chapters

0:00 · Final day: five weeks down to two teams1:18 · Recap of the biggest World Cup ever played2:40 · Cape Verde's run and folk-hero keeper Vozinha4:01 · Haaland drags Norway to the quarterfinals6:38 · Lopez Cabral's wonder goal against Argentina7:55 · The Balogun red card and Trump's call to FIFA+6 more

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Karl-Anthony Towns Knows the Knicks' Win Was Bigger Than Basketball

⏱ 39 min listen · ~3 min read 🎙 Karl-Anthony Towns

A newly minted champion walking through the title run play by play — and getting more honest about trades, grief, and his own reputation than athletes usually do in a press setting.

Key takeaways

01Karl-Anthony Towns won the Knicks their first championship in 53 years and still flinches when strangers call him champ.
02Down almost 30 in Game 4 of the Finals, Towns told the locker room to remember the Boston comeback a year earlier and swing for the fences.
03The title-winning play was designed for Towns: two defenders collapsed on him, Jalen Brunson fired a quick three, and inbounder OG Anunoby tipped in the miss.
04Moving Towns to the hub at the top of the key, a role he lobbied for all season, dragged opposing bigs from the rim and eased Brunson's ball-handling load.

Chapters

0:00 · Getting used to being called champ2:36 · Game 4: down almost 30, swing for the fences5:10 · OG Anunoby's championship-winning tip-in7:44 · Trash talk and respect for Wembanyama10:22 · Learning aggression as the young kid in Piscataway11:39 · Playing for his late mother+9 more

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Israel, AIPAC and Difficult Questions for Democrats

⏱ 39 min listen · ~3 min read 🎙 Jonathan Mahler

A clear, decision-by-decision account of how one lobby's tactics turned U.S. support for Israel from a bipartisan given into the left's most contested primary question — with the Michigan showdown days away.

Key takeaways

01Roughly 100 House Democrats, nearly half the caucus, voted to end U.S. military aid to Israel — a shift Jonathan Mahler calls unprecedented.
02AIPAC's first open break with bipartisanship came in 2015, when it backed Netanyahu against Obama's Iran nuclear deal.
03AIPAC's United Democracy Project super PAC spent $26 million in 2022 on ads about issues like abortion and ICE that never mentioned Israel.
04AIPAC spent $120 million in 2024 and ousted squad members Cori Bush and Jamal Bowman from their seats.

Chapters

0:00 · A record-spending litmus test for Democrats1:17 · Nearly half of House Democrats vote against aid3:51 · AIPAC's bipartisan origins after 19487:39 · 2015: the Iran deal and Netanyahu in Congress10:11 · The squad arrives and the threat hardens12:49 · Going super PAC: the United Democracy Project+9 more

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The Last 12 Weeks

⏱ 42 min listen · ~2 min read 🎙 Maurice Chammah

Rare live audio of a death penalty team improvising against a clock — you hear the door close in the lawyers' faces in real time, and the case itself genuinely cuts both ways.

Key takeaways

01David Wood, convicted as the El Paso Desert Killer, is months from execution, and his lawyers have 87 days left when reporter Maurice Chammah starts recording.
02George Hall, silent for 30 years while on parole, now swears the two informants who testified against Wood fabricated his jailhouse confessions.
03Court records show one of those informants received $13,000 in reward money and the other had his own capital murder charge dropped.
04Retesting found male DNA on a victim's clothing that is not Wood's, while Texas has refused to test more than 100 other pieces of evidence.

Chapters

0:00 · A feed drop: The Last 12 Weeks, episode one1:17 · George Hall's 30-year-old secret3:52 · A joyride, case files, and an invitation to snitch7:50 · Chammah gets an email from Wood's lawyer11:49 · Detective Guerrero lays out the Desert Killer case15:42 · Judith Kelling's escape and the arrest+7 more

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Why Do Some Memories Survive Dementia?

The Iranians Who Want More War

Europe Is Burning

The World Cup Final Is Here

Karl-Anthony Towns Knows the Knicks' Win Was Bigger Than Basketball

Israel, AIPAC and Difficult Questions for Democrats

The Last 12 Weeks

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