Warning: This episode contains descriptions of rape, sexual abuse and death.As an epidemic of fentanyl use continues in America, causing tens of thousands of deaths each year, lawmakers and law enforcement agencies are holding one group increasingly responsible: drug users themselves.Eli Saslow, a writer for The Times, tells the story of a man whose friendship ended in tragedy and a set of laws that say he is the one to blame.Guest: Eli Saslow, a writer at large for The New York Times.Background reading: Two friends bought $30 worth of fentanyl before making it into rehab. One overdosed. The other was charged in his death.Harsh fentanyl laws ignite a fierce debate. Critics say, the approach could undermine public health goals and advances in addiction treatment.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

New research and polling show that more and more Americans now doubt a previously unquestioned fact of U.S. life — that going to college is worth it.Paul Tough, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, explains why so many high-school students and their parents are souring on higher education and what it will mean for the country’s future.Guest: Paul Tough, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine who has written several books on inequality in education.Background reading: Americans are losing faith in the value of college. Whose fault is that?In December, Colby-Sawyer in New Hampshire reduced its tuition to $17,500 a year, from about $46,000. The cut was a recognition that few pay the list price.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

As Ukraine’s counteroffensive grinds on, it’s increasingly turning to a secret drone program that is hitting targets deep inside Russian territory. At least three different Ukrainian-made drones have been used in attacks inside Russia, including on Moscow, according to an analysis by The New York Times.Christiaan Triebert, a journalist on The Times’s Visual Investigations team, explains the origins of that program. We also speak to Serhiy Prytula, a former Ukrainian television host who is now a key force behind it.Guest: Christiaan Triebert, a journalist on The New York Times’s Visual Investigations team.Background reading: Officials in Ukraine rarely discuss attacks on targets inside Russia, including Moscow. But video evidence shows an increasing effort to launch long-range strikes inside the country.Moscow said Ukraine used drones to strike Novorossiysk, a Black Sea naval and shipping hub, and a port in occupied Crimea.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Twenty years ago, a glamorous platinum-blond widow arrived at the Paris law office of Claude Dumont Beghi in tears. Someone was trying to take her horses — her “babies” — away, and she needed a lawyer to stop them.She explained that her late husband had been a breeder of champion thoroughbreds. The couple was a familiar sight at the racetracks in Chantilly and Paris: Daniel Wildenstein, gray-suited with a cane in the stands, and Sylvia Roth Wildenstein, a former model with a cigarette dangling from her lips. They first met in 1964, while she was walking couture shows in Paris and he was languishing in a marriage of convenience to a woman from another wealthy Jewish family of art collectors. Daniel, 16 years Sylvia’s senior, already had two grown sons when they met, and he didn’t want more children. So over the next 40 years they spent together, Sylvia cared for the horses as if they were the children she never had. When Daniel died of cancer in 2001, he left her a small stable.Then, one morning about a year later, Sylvia’s phone rang. It was her horse trainer calling to say that he had spotted something odd in the local racing paper, Paris Turf: The results of Sylvia’s stable were no longer listed under her name. The French journalist Magali Serre’s 2013 book “Les Wildenstein” recounts the scene in great detail: Sylvia ran to fetch her copy and flipped to the page. Sure enough, the stable of “Madame Wildenstein” had been replaced by “Dayton Limited,” an Irish company owned by her stepsons.This story was recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

On Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. government recommended that almost every American begin taking a new annual vaccine for Covid, a milestone in the nation’s three-year battle against the virus.Apoorva Mandavilli, a science and global health reporter for The New York Times, explains why the era of booster shots is now over and how to navigate this latest uptick in infections.Guest: Apoorva Mandavilli, a science and global health reporter for The New York Times.Background reading: The C.D.C. recommended all Americans aged 6 months and older should get at least one dose of new Covid vaccines.Covid continues to rise, but experts remain optimistic.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Later this week, as many as 150,000 U.S. autoworkers may walk out in a historic strike against the three Detroit automakers, General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. The United Auto Workers union and the Big Three are still far apart in talks, and have only two days left to negotiate a new labor contract before the deadline.Neal Boudette, who covers the auto industry for The New York Times, walks us through a tangled, decades-long dynamic and explains why a walkout looks increasingly likely.Guest: Neal E. Boudette, an auto industry correspondent for The New York Times.Background reading: An auto strike is looming that threatens to shut down Detroit’s Big Three.The United Auto Workers has said it is prepared to strike at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis if a deal is not reached before current contracts end.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

For years, the government has been trying to rein in Big Tech, pursuing some of the largest and most powerful companies on the internet. This week, the government takes on Google in the first monopoly trial of the modern internet era.David McCabe, who covers technology policy for The Times, discusses the case against the internet giant and what it might mean for the future if the it loses.Guest: David McCabe, a technology policy correspondent for The New York Times.Background reading: The 10-week trial amps up efforts to rein in Big Tech by targeting the core search business that turned Google into a $1.7 trillion behemoth.A federal judge said that the Justice Department could not move forward with a number of claims in antitrust complaints, narrowing the scope of the trial.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In early 2021, a Wikipedia editor peered into the future and saw what looked like a funnel cloud on the horizon: the rise of GPT-3, a precursor to the new chatbots from OpenAI. When this editor — a prolific Wikipedian who goes by the handle Barkeep49 on the site — gave the new technology a try, he could see that it was untrustworthy. The bot would readily mix fictional elements (a false name, a false academic citation) into otherwise factual and coherent answers. But he had no doubts about its potential. “I think A.I.’s day of writing a high-quality encyclopedia is coming sooner rather than later,” he wrote in “Death of Wikipedia,” an essay that he posted under his handle on Wikipedia itself. He speculated that a computerized model could, in time, displace his beloved website and its human editors, just as Wikipedia had supplanted the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which in 2012 announced it was discontinuing its print publication.Recently, when I asked this editor if he still worried about his encyclopedia’s fate, he told me that the newer versions made him more convinced that ChatGPT was a threat. “It wouldn’t surprise me if things are fine for the next three years,” he said of Wikipedia, “and then, all of a sudden, in Year 4 or 5, things drop off a cliff.”This story was recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

In New York, the arrival of more than 100,000 migrants seeking asylum over the past year has become a crisis for the city’s shelter system, schools and budget.As another critical election season begins to take shape, Nicholas Fandos, who covers New York State politics for The Times, explains why the situation has also become a political crisis for the state’s Democratic leaders.Guest: Nicholas Fandos, a reporter covering New York State politics for The New York Times Metro desk.Background reading: New York’s migrant crisis is growing. So are Democrats’ anxieties.A scathing letter revealed tension among New York Democrats over the city’s migrant crisis.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

A Times investigation revealed that in much of the United States, communities and farms are pumping out groundwater at alarming rates. Aquifers are shrinking nationwide, threatening supplies of drinking water and the country’s status as a food superpower.Christopher Flavelle, who covers climate adaptation for The Times, went to Arizona, the state at the forefront of the crisis, and looked at one especially controversial idea to address it: desalination.Guest: Christopher Flavelle covers climate adaptation for The New York Times.Background reading: America is using up its groundwater like there’s no tomorrow.Five takeaways from the investigation into the groundwater crisis.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

A year ago, Congress overhauled the way drugs for older Americans get paid for, by giving Medicare the power to bargain with drug makers over prices in the biggest change to health care for more than a decade. This week, the Biden administration began its implementation.Sheryl Gay Stolberg, who covers health policy for The Times, discusses the decades long battle for bargaining power and Rebecca Robbins, who covers the pharmaceutical industry for The Times, explains its potential to reshape the business of drugs in America.Guest: Sheryl Gay Stolberg, a Washington correspondent covering health policy for The New York Times.Rebecca Robbins, a business reporter for The New York Times covering the pharmaceutical industry.Background reading: The Biden administration announced a long-awaited list of the first 10 medicines that will be subject to price negotiations with Medicare.Drugmakers are “throwing the kitchen sink” to halt Medicare price negotiations.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Over the past decade, China has placed more and more restrictions on the lives of its citizens — tightening its hold over what people can do, read and say.When Bei Zhenying’s husband was arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison for “smearing” the country’s political system, she was left to pick up the pieces of his life. She now believes that her husband was the writer behind one of the most mysterious blogs on the Chinese internet, which for 12 years had ridiculed the ruling Communist Party from within the country.Vivian Wang, a China correspondent for The Times, tells the story of the couple.Guest: Vivian Wang, a China correspondent for The New York Times.Background reading: China took Bei Zhenying’s husband. She was left to uncover his secret cause.China’s search engines have more than 66,000 rules controlling content.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.