R.F.K. Jr.’s Newest Mission: Getting Us Off Antidepressants
The Daily
06/22/26
•31m
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In his latest public health crusade, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, is asking why millions of Americans have been taking psychiatric drugs for far longer than ever intended.
In the process, he’s highlighting an open secret in medicine: that doctors are better at starting drug treatments than at stopping them, and that patients who want to end their treatment are increasingly taking matters into their own hands.
Ellen Barry, a mental health reporter, takes us inside the growing movement to “deprescribe.”
Guest: Ellen Barry, a reporter covering mental health for The New York Times.
Background reading: Some psychiatrists fear that Mr. Kennedy’s call to rein in the use of depression medications will drive patients away from care.
Photo: Darren Staples/Reuters
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Previous Episode
Can a Bad Man Be a Good Father?
June 21
•46m
The writer Tom Junod has spent a career crafting profiles for men’s magazines like GQ and Esquire, often of famously complicated men like Norman Mailer, Kevin Spacey and Tony Curtis.
But another man loomed behind Junod’s interest in these figures, informing his own sense of masculinity and manhood: his father, Lou.
Lou Junod was handsome, charismatic — a man who seemed like a celebrity, even though he wasn’t famous. He was also mysterious, a keeper of secrets that have continued to reverberate through his son’s life.
On today’s episode, Michael Barbaro talks with Junod about his new book, “In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man,” which is part memoir and part detective story, as well as a powerful meditation on fatherhood.
On Today’s Episode:
Tom Junod is the author of “In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man.”
Background Reading:
Tom Junod Would Like to Tell You About His Father
Art: Lou Junod with baby Tom in 1958.
For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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Next Episode
Through his second term, President Trump has systematically pressured judges to carry out his agenda in a little-known court system that oversees immigration.
Nicholas Nehamas, a Washington correspondent for The New York Times, speaks to Judge Holly D’Andrea about the Trump administration’s efforts to speed up deportations.
Guest:
- Nicholas Nehamas, a Washington correspondent for The New York Times.
- Holly D’Andrea, an immigration judge and president of the National Association of Immigration Judges.
Background reading:
- How Mr. Trump purged immigration judges to speed up deportations.
Photo: Desiree Rios for The New York Times
For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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