Impromptu

Ruth Marcus, Dana Milbank and Karen Tumulty got together to talk about their immediate reactions to Donald Trump’s guilty verdict, the quality of his defense, and why the most knowledgeable people in Washington were expecting something different.

Do we actually want AI that seems human?Chatbots are being made to act and sound like humans. That makes them easier to talk to, but there could be other consequences. As our relationships with artificial intelligence evolve, do we need to draw a brighter line between what is technology and what is us? Opinions columnists Josh Tyrangiel, Bina Venkataraman and Amanda Ripley talk about what we really want out of AI. Read more on AI from our Washington Post columnists.Josh Tyrangiel: “Honestly, I love when AI hallucinates”“Let AI remake the whole U.S. government (oh, and save the country)”“College students are dropping out in droves. Two sisters could fix that.”Bina Venkataraman:“When technology of the future traps people in the past” “Can AI solve medical mysteries? It's worth finding out.”Take advantage of our Memorial Day sale and subscribe to The Washington Post for just 99 cents every four weeks for your first year. This deal runs from May 21-June 3, 2024. Subscribe here.

The house, the yard and the picket fence have long been part of the American Dream. Owning a home is lauded as a way to grow your wealth and pass it down to future generations. But high demand and short supply, coupled with today’s soaring interest rates, have made home ownership out of reach for many Americans. Opinions columnist Catherine Rampell and associate editor Alexi McCammond join deputy editor Charles Lane to talk about the cultural and financial forces at work and the generational shift in thinking about whether buying a house is the best place to put your money. Read more from the Washington Post:“The YOLO economy is saving American cities” “Cities try every tool to fix the housing shortage except what works”“Stop blaming millennials for the housing crisis”Take advantage of our Memorial Day sale and subscribe to The Washington Post for just 99 cents every four weeks for your first year. This deal runs from May 21-June 3, 2024. Subscribe here.

As trust in institutions plummets and many people search for shared values, what is the state of American identity? This bonus "Impromptu" episode features a live discussion between Opinions columnists Shadi Hamid and Jason Willick and the hosts of "Post Reports" Martine Powers and Elahe Izadi about the importance of identity in a changing world.For more from our colleagues in the newsroom, listen to "Post Reports," a daily afternoon podcast, where you can hear deep dives into the biggest and most important stories of the day.Subscribe to The Washington Post here.

The WNBA season began this week following a college tournament where the women were more popular than the men. Is this shift about more than Caitlin Clark and the fantastic players in basketball right now? Sports columnist Sally Jenkins joins Opinions columnists Theodore Johnson and Amanda Ripley to talk about what athletes have done for the women’s movement and whether the women’s game can avoid some of the pitfalls that have plagued men’s sports. Read more from our columnists about what they discussed in this episode.Sally Jenkins: “Title IX showed generations of women what was possible” and “Caitlin Clark is coming, and the WNBA better get ready for her”Theodore R. Johnson: “Healing medicine for a fractured nation? College basketball.”

Discussion on the decline of religious affiliation in America and its impact on issues like loneliness and political divisions. Explore personal stories about faith, community, and societal polarization. Reflect on the role of communal spaces beyond work and home in generating meaning. Challenges of belonging to religious groups with differing beliefs and evolving views on religion's impact on community building and loneliness.

Columnists Dana Milbank and Shadi Hamid discuss evolving views on politics and war, campus protests on Israel-Gaza, free speech double standards, and the impact on U.S. politics. They explore potential implications for the upcoming presidential election, particularly among young people.

The Supreme Court is set to decide to what extent former President Trump could be immune from prosecution for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021, as his lawyers have claimed. Post Opinions columnists Charles Lane, Ruth Marcus and Jason Willick discuss the strategy and timing of these arguments and what we might expect the justices to decide in this showdown about the future boundaries of presidential authority.Read Ruth Marcus on why she thinks this case is “simultaneously bogus and important.”: “How the Supreme Court should rule on presidential immunity.” And here’s her column on what she sees as the Trump team’s delay tactics: “How Trump could win by losing, and delay his trial date.”Check out Jason Willick’s column where he describes the “nightmare scenarios” that dominate this debate: “Trump’s immunity claim at the Supreme Court deserves to fail, as does his Jan. 6 prosecution.” Here’s more on his thoughts about how this case has been prosecuted: “Special counsel Jack Smith has exposed his error in prosecuting Trump.”

Some women are retreating to stereotypical, retro gender roles that embrace the patriarchy. Known as “tradwives,” they are all over TikTok. Style columnist Monica Hesse, letters and community editor Alyssa Rosenberg and senior editor for Opinions Amanda Katz discuss how this trend exposes a continued struggle over equality for men and women in modern society.Read Monica Hesse’s column: Tradwives, stay-at-home girlfriends and the dream of feminine leisureRead the Cut article that kicked off a lot of recent controversy over #TradWives: The Case for Marrying an Older Man

Exploring the challenges of the 2024 election, journalists discuss audience engagement, mental well-being, and delivering valuable coverage amidst chaos. Strategies to manage emotional responses to political news are shared, emphasizing the importance of seeking ways to move forward. Reflecting on the impact of a divisive candidate and the role of news media in providing essential information regardless of popular opinion.