The Daily Podcast

“The Daily” is a news podcast by The New York Times, hosted by Michael Barbaro and Sabrina Tavernise. Each weekday, they discuss the latest news based on The Times’ reporting. The episodes include interviews with New York Times journalists and usually last between 20 to 30 minutes.

Background

“The Daily” started in January 2017, hosted by Michael Barbaro, a political journalist from The New York Times. It was created as a follow-up to their 2016 election podcast “The Run-Up.”

The podcast features interviews with Times journalists who summarize and discuss their stories. It also includes recordings related to the topic and original reporting such as interviews with people involved in the stories. Each episode ends with a summary of headlines.

“The Daily” is free to listen to and makes money through advertising. The New York Times has said the podcast is profitable and plans to build a franchise around it. They launched a spin-off called “The New Washington” in summer 2017, which ran until December of that year. A children’s version of “The Daily” was also planned. In January 2019, they introduced a weekly newsletter.

As of Wordle Magazine updates, in March 2022, Sabrina Tavernise joined as the second host after guest hosting and reporting on events like the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Opening Theme

The opening theme for “The Daily” is created by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk who work together as Wonderly. They are longtime friends of Lisa Tobin, one of the podcast’s producers. Michael Barbaro, the host, suggested they get inspiration from the theme music of the TV show “Westworld” by Ramin Djawadi. Additionally, Andy Mills, another producer, sent them music by Cliff Martinez from the TV series “The Knick,” which also influenced the theme music for “The Daily.”

Spinoff TV Series

The podcast “The Daily” was so successful that it inspired a weekly documentary series called “The Weekly,” which premiered on FX on June 2, 2019. “The Weekly” started as a narrative investigative journalism series covering recent news and cultural stories. Later, it evolved into longer documentaries under the title “The New York Times Presents.”

Reception

Since its start in January 2017, “The Daily” has been a huge success for The New York Times. TheStreet called it “a phenomenon, an out-of-the-blue hit.” By August 2017, it had 3.8 million listeners and was often among the top ten most-listened podcasts by autumn that year. The New Yorker said the podcast’s success was due to its “conversational and intimate” tone, making news more accessible and Michael Barbaro’s unique way of speaking. His habit of saying “hmm” after interesting comments from guests has become well-known and discussed online.

In 2018, American Public Media started syndicating the podcast to radio. By June 2018, it received 1.1 million downloads every weekday, increasing to 2 million by January 2020. The podcast was honored with the Webby Voice of the Year award, a Special Achievement award, at the 2020 Webby Awards.