WSJ What’s News

Rank #1: Senate to Vote on Bills to End Shutdown. P.M. Edition for January 23: The Senate votes Thursday on two competing bills that would reopen the government. The Wall Street Journal's Kristina Peterson talks about both bills - one from President Trump, the other from congressional Democrats.

Rank #2: Analysis of President Trump's State of the Union Address. A.M. Edition for February 6th: President Trump delivered his second State of the Union address on Tuesday, with lawmakers still mired in debate over the president's demands for a border wall. The Wall Street Journal's Jerry Seib offers insight and analysis.

Global News Podcast

Rank #1: Desperate Appeal to End Slaughter in Yemen. The UN envoy to Yemen makes an impassioned plea for a ceasefire, the prominent radio journalist shot dead in the rebel-held province of Idlib and the Chinese campaign to encourage women to have more children.

Rank #2: Google Staff Walk Out over Discrimination and Harassment. A reported huge payout for a Google executive accused of sexual misconduct provokes an unprecedented protest. Also: Arron Banks faces Brexit referendum spending probe and scientists count whales from space.

Can He Do That?

Rank #1: Will Trump face a challenger for the GOP's 2020 nomination?. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) wrote an op-ed asserting his independence from Trump -- a move that prompted speculation about a potential 2020 bid. The Post's Robert Costa explains what it would take for Romney, or another GOP contender, to challenge Trump.

Rank #2: Will President Trump's immigration ban survive?. Is President Trump's executive order temporarily barring entry into the U.S. from seven majority-Muslim countries within the bounds of presidential power? With Marc Fisher, Post senior editor and author of "Trump Revealed," we answer that and more.

The New Washington

Rank #1: Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The White House press secretary is one of the most visible jobs in American politics. Michael Grynbaum, a media correspondent for The Times, spoke with Ms. Sanders about growing up as the daughter of a prominent politician, inheriting her position after her celebrity predecessor Sean Spicer quit and trying to manage coverage of a tumultuous White House while mollifying a boss who believes he is his own best spokesman.

Rank #2: Roger Stone. The provocateur, political consultant and subject of a new Netflix documentary is one of President Trump’s oldest advisers. Michael Barbaro and Maggie Haberman listen to and discuss Barbaro's recent conversation with Mr. Stone about his views on the internal White House battle between globalists and nationalists, why he promotes conspiracy theories and mistruths, and what he sees as one of the worst things in politics — being boring.

The Rachel Maddow Show

Rank #1: Case against Trump progeny clearer after Cohen, AMI deals. If prosecutors are following the hush money, there aren't many names on the list of people who have check-signing authority at the Trump Organization.

Rank #2: Democrats aim to build on historic 2018 win, overcome GOP bias. Plus, Shirley Chisholm had guts

NBC Nightly News

Rank #1: Sunday, February 3, 2019. Virginia Gov. Northam faces growing calls to resign over racist yearbook photo, Pres. Trump addresses dispute with intelligence officials in new interview, and crisis in Venezuela grows as Maduro refuses outside aid.

Rank #2: Wednesday, January 9, 2019. Partisan divide over tense shutdown meeting as Pres. Trump says it was a ‘waste of time,’ Deputy AG Rosenstein expected to step down, and first person to make unassisted trek across Antarctica speaks out.

The Daily

Rank #1: The President and the Publisher. On Thursday in the Oval Office, the president of the United States debated the publisher of The New York Times about the role of a free press. Guest: A. G. Sulzberger, The Times’s publisher, sat down with President Trump. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Rank #2: The (Misunderstood) Story of NATO. On a combative opening day of the NATO summit in Brussels, President Trump called other member countries “delinquent” on military spending and attacked Germany as a “captive” of Russia. We examine where his frustration is coming from. Guest: David E. Sanger, a national security correspondent for The New York Times and the author of “The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age.” For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

The New Yorker: Politics and More

Rank #1: The World View of James Mattis. Dexter Filkins joins Evan Osnos to discuss Secretary of Defense James Mattis, his view of the Middle East, and what this means for U.S. foreign policy.

Rank #2: The Producer dream hampton Talks with Jelani Cobb about “Surviving R. Kelly”. For decades, it’s been an open secret that R. Kelly has allegedly kept young women trapped in abusive relationships through psychological manipulation, fear, and intimidation. His domestic situation has been compared to a sex cult. He was acquitted of child-pornography charges even though a video that appears to show him with a fourteen-year-old girl was circulated around the country. It was described only as the “R. Kelly sex tape.” Why has it taken so long for the reckonings of the #MeToo movement to catch up to him? Lifetime just aired “Surviving R. Kelly,” a six-part documentary by the producer dream hampton that airs the full breadth of the accusations against Kelly. (He continues to deny all charges of illegal behavior.) One young woman featured in the documentary left a relationship with Kelly, whom she met when she was a teen-age supporter outside the Chicago courtroom where he was being tried. “He was cruising eleventh graders on that trial,” hampton tells the New Yorker staff writer Jelani Cobb. “I mean, the hubris!” Cobb and hampton discuss the complicated dynamics of accusing R. Kelly. “It’s a deep shame black women have, handing over black men to this system we know to be unjust and that targets them,” she says. “At the same time, black women are black people, and we too are targeted . . . . Most sexual-violence survivors don’t find justice in this system, regardless of race.”   Update: After our program went to air, RCA Records dropped R. Kelly from its roster. 

60 Minutes

Rank #1: Sunday, November 13, 2016. Donald Trump discusses his plans for tackling the hot-button issues of campaign 2016

Rank #2: Sunday, September 10, 2017. Steve Bannon joins Charlie Rose for his first extended interview since leaving the White House.

FiveThirtyEight Politics

Rank #1: Still Processing.... Nate and Harry report on a post-election forum where it was clear that emotions are still very raw. Then, economics editor Ben Casselman discusses Trump's new deals.

Rank #2: What To Make Of Roger Stone's Indictment. In this installment of Mueller Talk, Amelia Thomson-Deveaux discusses the implications of longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone's indictment.

PBS NewsHour - Segments

Rank #1: News Wrap: Trump’s inaugural funds reportedly under investigation. In our news wrap Friday, federal prosecutors are reportedly in the early stages of investigating potentially illegal contributions to Trump’s inaugural committee, while Michael Cohen spoke out for the first time since being sentenced. Also, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis met with their Canadian counterparts to denounce China’s detention of two Canadian citizens.

Rank #2: News Wrap: French police kill Strasbourg shooting suspect. In our Thursday news wrap, French police have found and killed the man accused of opening fire at a Christmas market in Strasbourg. The search for the suspect ended as a third shooting victim died of injuries. Also, after surviving a no-confidence vote, British Prime Minister Theresa May went to the EU to request changes to a proposed Brexit deal, in order to get Parliament to support it.

Vox's The Weeds

Rank #1: Trump Cabinet, Obamacare Update, and Heroin. Sarah, Ezra, and Matt talk about the rush to hold hearings on Trump's cabinet appointees, the sudden emergence of trouble in repeal paradise, and an effort to cut down on pill abuse that backfired massively. 

Rank #2: Ask Weeds Anything!. Matt, Ezra, and Sarah answer your questions.

NBC Meet the Press

Rank #1: December 23 - Government shutdown and Mattis resignation with Sen. Pat Toomey, Sen. Dick Durbin and Julian Castro.

Rank #2: December 30 - Mike Bloomberg, Gov. Jerry Brown and a Climate in Crisis. In a special edition of Meet the Press, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Calif Gov. Jerry Brown (D) discuss the politics of the climate crisis. Kate Marvel, Former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, Former Defense Under Sec. Michele Flournoy, Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fl.) and Anne Thompson join the panel.

The Daily Show With Trevor Noah: Ears Edition

Rank #1: Did Trump Just Botch His Border Wall Negotiation on Live TV? | Meek Mill. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer debate border security with President Trump, Ronny Chieng addresses the addictiveness ofexamines "Fortnite," addiction, and Meek Mill discusses talks prison reform and "Championships."

Rank #2: An Election Day Bill, the FBI's Arrest Tactics & Trump's Clashing Border Wall Demands | Ilhan Omar. Roy Wood Jr. and Michael Kosta get ready for the big game, Neal Brennan calls for stricter social media regulations, and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar stops by.

The New Yorker Radio Hour

Rank #1: Maggie Haberman: Gang War in the White House. Maggie Haberman and Donald Trump go way back.  

Rank #2: The Fall of a Chinese Pop Star, and Calvin Trillin’s Happy Marriage. For some years, Denise Ho was one of the most popular singers in Asia. A Hong Kong native, she performed the style known as Cantopop in mainland China and in foreign countries with Chinese émigré populations. But, as Ho told the staff writer Jiayang Fan, she began to have qualms about the often-saccharine content of the genre. “Is that all? Is that all I can do with my songs, my career—just for personal wealth, and all that?” She was one of the first stars in China to come out as a lesbian, which the government took in stride; but, when she took part in political demonstrations in Hong Kong, she was arrested on television and detained. Authorities began to cancel her concerts, and to block access to her work on the Internet in China. Her endorsements followed suit. “I expected to be banned from China, but I wasn’t expecting the government to react to it in such a way,” she says. “The main goal is to silence everyone—especially the younger generations—with fear.” Now Denise Ho is trying to rebuild her career as something unfamiliar in China: an underground protest singer. Plus: Kai-Fu Lee on China’s tech sector and the challenge it poses to Silicon Valley; and the longtime staff writer Calvin Trillin, who puts his happy marriage onstage in a new play, “About Alice.” “This play certainly would have failed Drama 101 . . . But you have to write about what you know.”