The Sunday Read: ‘A Republican Election Clerk vs. Trump Die-Hards in a World of Lies’
14 July 2024 - 29 minsCindy Elgan glanced into the lobby of her office and saw a sheriff’s deputy waiting at the front counter. “Let’s start a video recording, just in case this goes sideways,” Elgan, 65, told one of her employees in the Esmeralda County clerk’s office. She had come to expect skepticism, conspiracy theories and even threats related to her job as an election administrator. She grabbed her annotated booklet of Nevada state laws, said a prayer for patience and walked into the lobby to confront the latest challenge to America’s electoral process.
The deputy was standing alongside a woman that Elgan recognized as Mary Jane Zakas, 77, a longtime elementary schoolteacher and a leader in the local Repub...
Series Episodes
The Battle Over Black Representation in the South
The approach to this year’s midterms has brought two hugely consequential changes to voting for Black Americans: the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, and redistricting. In the wake of those actions, efforts are underway to mobilize Black voters in the South. In Mississippi, the Senate battle is being seen as a sleeper race, and the Black Democrat running has a chance of flipping the seat, but state lawmakers are trying to redraw the maps and do away with their one majority Black district. Today, Emily Cochrane, a reporter covering the American South for The New York Times, addresses the implications for voters across the region — not just in the midterms, but for years to come.
29 mins
23 October Finished
The Election That Will Define Israel’s Future
Israelis on both sides of the political spectrum see next week’s vote as the most consequential in their country’s history.
33 mins
22 October Finished
Is This Economy as Awful as Voters Think? We Ask Our Expert.
As the midterms approach, our chief economics correspondent breaks down the data.
32 mins
21 October Finished
James Talarico on the Rage Economy, Billionaires and Flipping Texas
Our interview with James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas.
35 mins
20 October Finished
Inside Putin’s Plan to Cripple Ukraine This Winter
Moscow seems to be seizing an opening to plunge Ukrainian cities into cold and darkness to try to inflict immense human suffering.
29 mins
19 October Finished
Elizabeth Holmes and Nathan Fielder Keep Us Guessing
The comedian Nathan Fielder came to fame as the creator and host of the Comedy Central series “Nathan for You.” The show followed Fielder as he devised outrageous schemes, ostensibly with the aim of helping various small businesses. What became clear, though, was that Fielder was less interested in helping business owners generate profits than he was in understanding the people ensnared in his plots. His next project, the HBO series “The Rehearsal,” was a similar offbeat portrait of offbeat people. At the center of both projects is Fielder himself, a documentarian whose motives can sometimes be hard to parse. This week, Fielder’s first feature-length documentary, “You Can See Everything,” hits theaters. Co-directed by Lance Oppenheim, the movie shows Fielder embedding himself into the life of the disgraced Theranos founder and felon Elizabeth Holmes in the days leading up to her imprisonment for fraud. The film caused a big splash when it debuted at the Telluride Film Festival, in part because it presents Holmes, a mysterious and compelling cultural figure, through the eyes of Fielder, a mysterious and compelling filmmaker. This week, the Times movie critic Alissa Wilkinson and critic at large Jason Zinoman, who covers comedy, join Michael Barbaro for a spoiler-free discussion of Nathan Fielder, his career, and why he might be the perfect person to tell the story of Elizabeth Holmes.
43 mins
18 October Finished
