‘We want to put them in trauma’

Jason Rezaian knows the cost of free speech. He spent 544 days in an Iranian prison for simply being a journalist.The world is witnessing the erosion of democratic values. The Freedom Desk video podcast is about what comes next in the global fight for free expression.Every week, ... Show More

Just over seven years ago, we launched this daily news podcast from The Washington Post.Our goal was to bring you inside our newsroom, sharing our reporting with listeners to help make sense of what was happening in the world. We’ve published hundreds of episodes. We’ve covered e ... Show More

In his second term, President Donald Trump has gone on a mission to reinvent the Kennedy Center, the beloved performing arts venue in Washington, D.C.Trump promised to overhaul the center’s programming. He installed loyalists on the board who made him chairman. In December, Trump ... Show More

<p>On the campaign trail, Donald J. Trump and his allies left little doubt that, if they returned to power, federal workers would face layoffs, buyouts and agency closures.</p><p>Now that President Trump’s plan has become a reality, dozens of federal workers explain what it’s bee ... Show More

The federal workforce is reeling as President Trump and Elon Musk attempt to implement seismic changes to the government. Meanwhile, Team Trump is trying to downplay the stunning proposal to take over Gaza and move the Palestinian people out. Also this morning, what's been called ... Show More

President Trump put Elon Musk in charge of government efficiency and the result has been nonstop chaos and trauma for civil servants. Audie talks with WIRED reporter Vittoria Elliot about how he is doing it and who is helping him. Audie also talks with someone who’s gone through ... Show More

When Donald Trump took office, he appointed Elon Musk as head of the Department of Government Efficiency - or DOGE - a new agency designed to radically slash federal costs. Since inauguration day Musk has done just that, laying off thousands of staff, freezing America's entire in ... Show More

<p>In this urgent episode of <em>Working People</em>, we focus on the Trump-Musk administration's all-out assault on federal workers and its takeover and reordering of our entire system of government. "At least 20,000 federal workers have so far been fired by the Trump administra ... Show More

Federal workers across the United States are feeling the impact of the government shutdown. This comes after months of turmoil for federal workers as agencies have slashed their workforces as part of the Trump administration's large-scale government job cuts.NPR's Andrea Hsu talk ... Show More

<p>For many Americans, the government’s monthly jobs number was a pretty dull statistic — until a few days ago, when President Trump angrily fired the person responsible for producing it, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.</p><p>Now, from Washington to Wall Stree ... Show More

Proposals from DOGE, Elon Musk's entity tasked with making the federal government more "efficient," have resulted in lawsuits, pushback from other federal agencies, and a lot of uncertainty for the millions of people who work for the federal government. We look at what's happened ... Show More

For the past month, chaos and confusion have gripped Washington and the federal government. Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, have served as an iron fist of the Trump administration—ransacking government agencies, lighting fires in various department ... Show More