The songwriter was unconscious, but his voice filled the operating room. Mike Frazier’s dirty-blond locks had been partially shaved and his head sanitized. The surgeon standing over him slid his blade in a crescent over Frazier’s right ear and tugged his scalp into position. Then he began opening a window into the musician’s brain.

The task that day was to reach and remove the cause of the grievous pain that had besieged and mystified Frazier for years. After almost a decade as a folk-rock singer with a rollicking vibe and a knack for storytelling, piercing stomach pain had stymied his songwriting and drawn him into a dangerous depression before he turned 30.

This story explores Frazier’s condition, diagnosis and recovery through the songs he would write about the experience.

Michael Laris reported, wrote and narrated the piece. Bishop Sand composed music and produced audio.

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Congress has less than a month to figure out how to fund the government. But instead of that pressing business, calls for greater government transparency over allegations against convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein dominated Capitol Hill this week. On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee released more than 33,000 documents related to the investigation, most of which are already publicly available.. But other lawmakers say this effort doesn’t go far enough. Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) and Ro Khanna (D-California) continued to push a competing effort that could force the Justice Department to release more files.

Host Colby Itkowitz sits down with Post congressional reporter Marianna Sotomayor and senior national political correspondent Naftali Bendavid to discuss this news as well as the looming government funding deadline and how Democrats are thinking about flipping the House in the 2026 midterms.

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The sparks flew in Thursday’s Senate Finance Committee hearing.

Senators – Republicans and Democrats alike – grilled Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his handling of vaccines and the shakeup at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kennedy, for his part, doubled down on his ouster of CDC director Susan Monarez, claiming she was not “trustworthy.” He insisted that Americans would still be able to access coronavirus vaccines, despite his overhauling of a key vaccine panel.

Host Colby Itkowitz speaks with health reporter David Ovalle about the fireworks at Kennedy’s hearing before the Senate. Plus, they discuss what’s happening with diverging school vaccine policies in red and blue states.

Today’s show was produced by Elana Gordon with help from Sabby Robinson. It was edited by Peter Bresnan and mixed by Sam Bair.

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