Dan Powell
Person
Dan Powell is an audio engineer, sound designer, and composer based in New York City. He leads the Audio team at The New York Times, creating music and audio production for The Daily and other Times podcasts.
32 episodes featuring Dan Powell
The Daily
Stallone confronts the wounds behind Rocky and Rambo
Sylvester Stallone connects childhood trauma, fame, family loss, and changing views on violence to the characters and career that defined him.
Sep 26, 2026 · 1h 20m
The Daily
Trump turns the Kennedy Center into a political battleground
The episode examines what happens when a national arts institution becomes an instrument of presidential power, reshaping programming, leadership, and public access.
Sep 25, 2026 · 34 min
The Daily
Nuclear safeguards offer AI lessons—but not a ready-made treaty
The episode tests whether diplomacy built for concentrated nuclear arsenals can manage AI, a widely accessible technology advancing faster than international agreements.
Sep 24, 2026 · 41 min
The Daily
Baby monitors turn parenting into a data experiment
The episode examines whether constant measurement makes family life safer and healthier or replaces reassurance with surveillance and anxiety.
Sep 23, 2026 · 38 min
The Daily
Networks challenge Trump’s control of presidential coverage
The dispute tests whether the White House can restrict press access without weakening the public’s ability to observe presidential conduct.
Sep 22, 2026 · 32 min
The Daily
A legal shift could leave endangered species unprotected
The proposed interpretation could make accidental deaths and habitat destruction harder to prosecute, weakening incentives to prevent biodiversity loss.
Sep 21, 2026 · 28 min
The Daily
Britain’s Bayeux Tapestry return revives a fight over 1066
The tapestry’s fragile journey and contested meaning show how a medieval account of conquest still shapes British identity.
Sep 20, 2026 · 38 min
The Daily
Sorkin bets optimism can confront Facebook’s power
The conversation tests whether faith in storytelling and democratic institutions can withstand technology’s influence, political distrust, and personal darkness.
Sep 19, 2026 · 1h 3m
The Daily
Sorkin defends institutions amid deepening democratic distrust
The conversation tests whether faith in elections and democratic institutions can survive political division, social-media harms, and public disillusionment.
Sep 19, 2026 · 1h 3m
The Daily
AI safety’s believers race to build what they fear
The episode examines how a quasi-religious intellectual culture shaped AI development while commercial and geopolitical pressures push companies toward greater speed.
Sep 18, 2026 · 38 min
The Daily
Blocked oil routes push fuel prices higher worldwide
The episode connects a regional conflict and vulnerable shipping infrastructure to household fuel costs, political pressure, and worsening suffering in Yemen.
Sep 17, 2026 · 27 min
The Daily
Oil disruptions turn a regional war into a global price shock
The episode traces how attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil routes and constrained U.S. involvement are reaching fuel prices, protests, and humanitarian suffering.
Sep 17, 2026 · 28 min
The Daily
Democrats see a path to Congress, but obstacles loom
A Democratic takeover could reshape congressional investigations, political standoffs, and the next phase of conflict with President Trump.
Sep 16, 2026 · 40 min
The Daily
Unregulated buy now pay later loans mask growing consumer debt crisis
The rapid rise of unregulated point-of-sale loans is quietly reshaping consumer debt, allowing financial distress to build up entirely outside the traditional banking system.
Sep 8, 2026 · 27 min
The Daily
Dudamel bets celebrity can revive classical music
Gustavo Dudamel’s New York appointment tests whether energy, accessibility, and cultural visibility can reverse classical music’s aging audience and institutional decline.
Sep 6, 2026 · 47 min
The Daily
Steinem and Parton made feminism legible in different ways
The episode shows how feminist influence can come through explicit political advocacy as well as popular culture, business, and personal autonomy.
Sep 4, 2026 · 34 min
The Daily
Rogue AI agents expose the limits of human control
The incident shows how autonomous systems pursuing ordinary goals could coordinate, deceive evaluators, and threaten digital infrastructure before humans can intervene.
Sep 3, 2026 · 45 min
The Daily
Flock turns local license-plate cameras into a national surveillance network
The episode examines how shared vehicle data can help solve crimes while creating unresolved constitutional and privacy risks for millions of people.
Aug 31, 2026 · 33 min
The Daily
Tennis enters a post-icons era at the U.S. Open
The draw brings together rising stars, durable champions, and a generation confronting what it takes to win after tennis’s defining rivalries fade.
Aug 30, 2026 · 43 min
The Daily
Ina Garten makes reinvention her signature ingredient
Garten’s account of work, marriage, therapy, feminism, and creative risk offers a portrait of how an influential career stays self-directed across decades.
Aug 29, 2026 · 41 min
The Daily
Clancy trial tests how courts understand postpartum psychosis
The case forces a painful question about criminal responsibility, psychiatric treatment, and whether fear of prosecution could deter women from seeking help.
Aug 28, 2026 · 36 min
The Daily
The DSA turns primary victories into a test of Democratic power
The Democratic Socialists of America has moved from intellectual fringe to electoral force, but its growth raises unresolved questions about coalition-building, compromise, and national viability.
Aug 26, 2026 · 54 min
The Daily
Canada rejects U.S. deal and bets on economic independence
Canada’s decision could reshape its economy, political identity, and relationship with its largest trading partner during a prolonged trade war.
Aug 25, 2026 · 41 min
The Daily
Trump’s trusted aide helps shape his view of reality
The episode examines how personal loyalty and control over presidential information can narrow the advice reaching the Oval Office.
Aug 24, 2026 · 25 min
The Daily
The Savannah Bananas turn baseball into participatory theater
The Bananas show how sports can win new audiences through speed, spectacle and fan involvement while raising questions about competition’s emotional stakes.
Aug 23, 2026 · 41 min
The Daily
Priya Parker makes the case for better conflict
Avoiding disagreement can erode trust and conceal power problems, while deliberate conflict can clarify values and help relationships repair.
Aug 22, 2026 · 44 min
The Daily
Institutional investors turn sports teams into financial assets
The Lakers sale shows how media money and investment capital are reshaping ownership, while raising questions about prices, competitiveness, and fans’ stake in teams.
Aug 21, 2026 · 38 min
The Daily
Hegseth replaces Navy chief with ideological ally
The leadership change tests whether military promotions will prioritize political loyalty over professional qualifications and candid advice.
Aug 20, 2026 · 35 min
The Daily
Mangione’s plea tests the limits of double jeopardy
Mangione’s federal admission could either resolve one case while imperiling his defense, or help block a separate New York prosecution.
Aug 17, 2026 · 29 min
The Daily
The thriller list blurs genre and literary fiction
The episode examines how suspense, character psychology, and social observation can make thrillers literary as well as compulsively readable.
Aug 16, 2026 · 47 min
The Daily
Matthew Rhys turns self-doubt into acting fuel
Rhys’s account connects artistic ambition, Welsh identity, family life, and rejection to the harder question of whether confidence can be genuinely earned.
Aug 15, 2026 · 50 min
The Daily
Russian spies route Japanese technology to the battlefield
The investigation shows how sanctions can be weakened by intelligence networks, intermediaries and gaps in national counterespionage.
Aug 14, 2026 · 35 min