The Powers That Be: Daily

The besties Jon Kelly and Peter Hamby convene to size up the newly minted Skydance, and the splashy trailer that introduced it. They also dig into what the reported exits of Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca signal about the movies Ellison wants to make, and how his tech-bred, test-and-learn instincts could clash with Hollywood. Then the pair turn to CNN, where Mark Thompson appears to be staying put and Bari Weiss may be out of the running for an expanded role.

With New Mexico joining the early Democratic presidential primary calendar, Peter sits down with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for a dissertation on everything candidates need to know about an often misunderstood state: how to talk about the border and gun rights, why Hispanic identity is different from in Nevada, the truth about tribal sovereignty and land acknowledgements, the trouble with “Woke 1.0,” and so much more.Progress doesn’t just arrive. It’s built - one question, one discovery, and one solution at a time. Explore more at ScienceDelivers.com.

In this special episode, Leigh Ann Caldwell sits down with Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks to discuss why the Clarity Act couldn’t get across the finish line, whether a deal can still happen in the lame duck, and why the crypto industry is making a huge mistake by going to war with Democrats again. She also sheds light on her party’s enduring identity crisis and how Democrats are faring with the midterms inching closer.

Julia Alexander joins Peter to dig into a new wave of A.I. agents, from Meta’s Muse to OpenAI’s Dots, and whether these tools can actually reach mass adoption or are simply products of an “optimization culture” bubble. They also get into Disney’s streaming ambitions, following the studio poaching filmmaker Shawn Levy to help lure young male viewers from Netflix to Disney+.

Dylan Byers joins Peter to untangle the game of executive musical chairs at Condé Nast and Paramount–WBD as David Ellison taps outgoing Mattel chief Ynon Kreiz as his co-C.E.O., and Condé C.E.O. Roger Lynch in turn announces he’s leaving the media company to take Kreiz’s old job running Mattel.