Stay ConnectedEvery weekday, NPR’s best political reporters are there to explain the big news coming out of Washington and the campaign trail. They don’t just tell you what happened. They tell you why it matters. Every afternoon.
Support public media by joining NPR+ at plus.npr.org. You’ll get perks for over 25 NPR podcasts, including bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for The NPR Politics Podcast.
Copyright: © Copyright 2015-2026 NPR - For Personal Use Only
For more than a year, immigration activists have been frustrated that the White House has used the pandemic as a reason to turn away hundreds of thousands of migrants before they can make a request for asylum in the United States.
Now, pressure created by the three million Ukrainian refugees could create enough political pressure to force Biden to revisit the policy.
This episode: White House correspondent Asma Khalid, White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez, and correspondent Joel Rose.
Connect:
Email the show at nprpolitics@npr.org
Join the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.
Find and support your local public radio station.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered a video address before Congress Wednesday, in which he asked for additional support to protect the country's citizens against Russian military brutality.
Following the speech, Biden pledged to send an additional $800 million to Ukraine to boost security measures. This is in addition to $200 million in military aid to Ukraine Biden approved on Saturday.
One ask that Zelenskyy is not likely to see answered: a U.S.-led no fly zone, which the Biden administration opposes as it seeks to avoid a direct military conflict with Russia.
This episode: White House correspondent Asma Khalid, acting congressional correspondent Deirdre Walsh, and senior political editor and correspondent Ron Elving.
Connect:
Email the show at nprpolitics@npr.org
Join the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.
Find and support your local public radio station.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
Even before the pandemic, three in five Americans reported feeling like they are left out, poorly understood and lacking companionship.
Communities with low social connectedness have higher rates of crime, lower educational achievement, and poorer physical health than more connected communities. As Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone documented more than 20 years ago, a frayed social fabric also makes governing much harder.
NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben talks to the author about how much worse things have gotten in the two decades since his book came out and what makes things him optimistic about the future.
Putnam's latest work is The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again.
Connect:
Email the show at nprpolitics@npr.org
Join the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.
Find and support your local public radio station.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
The UN says more than 600 civilians been killed, though the true number is likely far higher. Russia's attacks have begun to reach the westernmost parts of the country, including on a military installation near Ukraine's border with Poland.
This episode: White House correspondent Asma Khalid, White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez, and correspondent Ryan Lucas.
Connect:
Email the show at nprpolitics@npr.org
Join the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.
Find and support your local public radio station.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
The $1.5 trillion dollar package also contained billions in aid to Ukraine. One thing that was absent? COVID relief money that the White House was banking on.
And the 2020 Census undercounted many Black, Latino, and Native Americans. White, non-Latino Americans were overcounted. That could help to perpetuate inequality.
This episode: White House correspondent Tamara Keith, congressional correspondent Kelsey Snell, correspondent Hansi Lo Wang, and senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro.
Connect:
Email the show at nprpolitics@npr.org
Join the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.
Find and support your local public radio station.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
The head of the Justice Department said that he is committed to unraveling the conspiracy behind the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, and reiterated that political considerations are no reason to overlook possible criminality.
Garland is also clear-eyed about the limits on the department's ability to protect Americans' right to vote in the face of restrictive new laws passed by Republican-controlled state legislatures. Democrats in Congress repeatedly failed to pass federal voting rights legislation and the Supreme Court struck down much of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
This episode: congressional correspondent Susan Davis and national justice correspondent Carrie Johnson.
Connect:
Email the show at nprpolitics@npr.org
Join the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.
Find and support your local public radio station.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
Democrat Jared Polis ended Colorado's statewide mask mandate in the summer of 2021 and didn't reinstate it during later coronavirus surges. In an interview with the NPR Politics Podcast, Polis suggested that prioritizing vaccine and testing availability over masking helped the state achieve a high rate of immunization and relatively low death rate.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
The symbolic move was accompanied by an acknowledgement from the president that gas prices are likely to keep rising. Nominally at an all-time high, gasoline prices remain well below their 2008 peak after adjusting for inflation.
This episode: White House correspondent Tamara Keith, White House correspondent Scott Detrow, and chief economics correspondent Scott Horsley.
Connect:
Email the show at nprpolitics@npr.org
Join the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.
Find and support your local public radio station.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
Ukraine continues to hold out against a Russian invasion, as the U.S. and its European allies debate military aid and banning Russian oil imports to further constrain the petrostate's economy. NPR's Ryan Lucas is reporting from Ukraine and shares how the people there are experiencing the Russian invasion.
This episode: White House correspondent Tamara Keith, correspondent Ryan Lucas, and national political correspondent Mara Liasson.
Connect:
Email the show at nprpolitics@npr.org
Join the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.
Find and support your local public radio station.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
Lawmakers said in a court filing this week that the evidence they have gathered through their investigation into last year's attack on the U.S. Capitol suggests that former President Donald J. Trump conspired to commit fraud by misleading the public about the outcome of the presidential election.
Also: The Supreme Court's conservative majority could curtail the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to regulate greenhouse gas pollution. And American oil and natural gas proponents are leveraging Russia's invasion of Ukraine to promote expanded domestic oil production, even though it would take months or years for a production boost to impact gasoline prices.
This episode: White House correspondent Scott Detrow, White House correspondent Ayesha Rascoe, congressional reporter Claudia Grisales, and environment correspondent Nathan Rott.
Connect:
Email the show at nprpolitics@npr.org
Join the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.
Find and support your local public radio station.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
