Friendship is vital for our health and happiness, but we don’t always prioritize it. The Optimist’s Maggie Penman goes on a journey to make new friends and learn why so many of us are craving connection.

Today’s show was produced by Maggie Penman, with help from Ted Muldoon, who also mixed the show. It was edited by Allison Klein.

For more stories from The Optimist, subscribe to our newsletter. If you want to hear more stories like this on the weekend, send Maggie an email at maggie.penman@washpost.com.

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The House Oversight Committee released a tranche of emails from the estate of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein that give us more information about his relationship to President Donald Trump. Today on the politics roundtable, we’ll unpack what these emails say and how the White House has responded.

And, after 43 days, the federal government is back open for business. As the dust settles on the longest shutdown in history, we’ll talk about what lawmakers learned – and whether another shutdown could be right around the corner.

Colby speaks with Dan Merica and Matthew Choi, who are co-anchors of our politics newsletter The Early Brief.

Today’s show was produced by Emma Talkoff and Josh Carroll. It was edited by Peter Bresnan and mixed by Sean Carter.

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For months, the relationship between the United States and Latin America has been fraught. President Donald Trump has targeted enemies in the region and propped up MAGA-friendly allies. We’ve now reached an inflection point, and the world is watching for what’s next.

Today, two of The Post’s experts on the region, national security correspondent

Karen DeYoung and Mexico City bureau chief Samantha Schmidt, join host Colby Itkowitz to unpack the latest developments in Latin America, and the throughline of the Trump administration’s ultimate policy objectives.

Today’s show was produced by Elana Gordon and Ted Muldoon, who also mixed the show. It was edited by Ariel Plotnick. Special thanks to Ben Pauker.

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