Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, OpenAI Head of Product Kevin Weil, and Thinking Machines Lab advisor Bob McGrew are now lieutenant colonels in the U.S. Army Reserves. They're part of a military unit called Detachment 201, also known as the the Executive Innovation Corps. Their US Army says their swearing in is the "start of a bigger mission to inspire more tech pros to serve without leaving their careers, showing the next generation ...
Jul 03, 2025•40 min
The so-called 'big, beautiful bill' has squeaked by in the Senate and now moves back to the House. The massive piece of legislation is the centerpiece of Trump's agenda, filled with tax breaks and spending cuts that would touch just about every American. We discuss what's on the table now in the GOP mega bill. And how might it affect us if it passes. Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Connect with us. Listen to 1A sponsor-fr...
Jul 02, 2025•30 min
Last week, Kennedy announced the U.S. would not renew its $1.2 billion commitment to the global vaccine agency Gavi. The new Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices also met for the first time last week since Kennedy fired and then replaced its members. We talk about the outlook for U.S. vaccine policy both at home and abroad. Then, we switch gears to discuss the link between menopause and an increased risk of cardiovascular illness. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in women in t...
Jul 01, 2025•31 min
Last month, President Donald Trump openly questioned the separation of church and state during the establishment of the Presidential Commission on Religious Liberty. He said that he is bringing religion back to the country. We continue our "If You Can Keep It" series by assessing the boundaries of the separation between religion and the government. Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Connect with us. Listen to 1A sponsor-free...
Jun 30, 2025•23 min
Sen. Elissa Slotkin isn't just a congressperson, she's also a former CIA analyst. That means she has special insight into what's be going on abroad. And there's a lot happening these days. But, as a Democrat, there are plenty of things to focus on at home, too. Namely, what her party is going to do to ensure success in the midterm elections. We sit down with her to discuss the Trump administration, the Democratic party, and American foreign policy. Want to support 1A? Give to your local public r...
Jun 30, 2025•22 min
NATO leaders met this week and promised to increase defense spending to 5 percent of GDP. Meanwhile, Donald Trump claimed at that same summit that the U.S. strikes on nuclear sites in Iran had "completely and fully obliterated" the country's nuclear program. American intelligence reports, however, indicate the attack only set Tehran back a few months. Zohran Mamdani, the New York assembly member representing the state's 36th district, is expected to be the Democratic party's nominee for mayor af...
Jun 27, 2025•1 hr 25 min
80 years ago, Smokey the Bear was mostly talking about campfire safety. Now? Things are a little different. Forest fires have always been a normal part of our landscape – and a tool used by human civilizations for millennia. But as climate change makes our landscapes hotter and drier, wildfires are getting bigger and more destructive. Fire consumed 8.9 million acres across the U.S. last year. The LA County fires this January are the costliest so far, with some estimates putting the total close t...
Jun 26, 2025•33 min
Earlier this week, the U-S embassy in Qatar issued a warning to American citizens to quote: "shelter in place until further notice." Qatar is home to the largest U-S military base in the Middle East. The alert came amid growing fears of Iranian retaliation against U-S troops and personnel overseas, after President Trump ordered strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites. When global news like this breaks, embassies – and the ambassadors leading them – play a crucial role. They're on the ground, serv...
Jun 25, 2025•33 min
José Andrés is a Michelin-starred chef and the owner of 40 restaurants across the globe. But the culinary star is just as well known for his humanitarian work. His organization, World Central Kitchen, has fed millions in Gaza and Ukraine and during natural disasters in the U.S. and abroad. Now, he's releasing a memoir about what it's like to not only feed people when they want it, but when they need it. We talk to Andrés about his life, work, and his new book, "Change the Recipe." Want to suppor...
Jun 24, 2025•33 min
Donald Trump's new Commission on Religious Liberty met last week for the first time. When Trump signed the executive order in May establishing the group, he marked the occasion by saying, "We're bringing religion back to our country, and it's a big deal." But isn't the separation of church and state guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution? Can the president just "forget about it" even once? We discuss the complicated answer. Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe t...
Jun 23, 2025•20 min
With strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities on Saturday, President Donald Trump has brought the United States into Israel's war with Iran. Israel began its campaign against Iran 10 days ago with what it called a "preemptive strike." Now, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi warned on social media that Iran "reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interest, and people." Iran has so far retaliated only on Israeli sites. Some 40,000 American troops on the ground across the Middle Ea...
Jun 23, 2025•23 min
In his first six months back in the Oval Office, President Trump rolled back decades of U.S. climate policy. So far, he's scaled back regulations that help keep our air and water clean, delayed critical protections for endangered species, withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement for a second time, and cut staffing and federal spending on critical environmental agencies and programs – among other changes. Trump's commitment to increase oil and gas production will escalate the effects w...
Jun 20, 2025•31 min
What's your most vivid school memory? Do you remember it as a time of exploration? Was it a place where you could figure out who you were and what you wanted to become? Or did it feel like it wasn't made for you? Did it feel constricting, or like a place with lots of rules about how you had to act and what you couldn't do? Your experience of schools likely depended on the administrators, who your teachers were, how your city or state set up the curriculum, and the resources your school received....
Jun 19, 2025•33 min
Drug overdose deaths have been increasing steadily for over two decades in large part due to opioids. That's until recently. Now, new data from the Centers for Disease Control found that 2024 saw the largest one year decline ever recorded. And that 24% decline was felt across the country. Every state except two saw a drop in overdose deaths. The drop comes after an aggressive public health response from both the Biden Administration and local efforts, including making the overdose reversing drug...
Jun 19, 2025•33 min
On Monday, the Israeli military struck the headquarters of Iran's state television network. The explosion was caught on video in the middle of a news broadcast. As the conflict enters its fifth day, 224 civilians have been killed in Iran. And in Israel, at least 24 people have been killed according to the prime minister's office. Meanwhile, Israel's war in Gaza continues. This weekend at least 79 Palestinians were killed across the Gaza strip, many at an aid distribution point operated by the U-...
Jun 17, 2025•12 min
On Saturday, Representative Melissa Hortman, a Democratic-Farmer-Labor party leader in the Minnesota House, was killed along with her husband Mark at their home in a suburb of Minneapolis. Another state representative, Democratic senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette, were also shot, but are recovering. Minnesota governor Tim Walz announced late Sunday that police had caught the main suspect in the case after a massive manhunt. The suspect, Vance Boelter, is due in court on Monday. We discuss...
Jun 16, 2025•11 min
President Donald Trump's decision to send the National Guard to Los Angeles is now up in the air – with a federal appeals court reviewing the case. A lower court has already said Trump acted illegally. For this edition of our weekly politics series, "If You Can Keep It," we explore how presidents can and can't deploy U.S. troops domestically. Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Connect with us. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by si...
Jun 16, 2025•31 min
The second iteration of Donald Trump's travel ban goes into effect. A federal judge rules that the government must release Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil. The International Monetary Fund looks to support Syria's economic recovery, saying that it will require investment from abroad. And, more deaths are reported at food aid distribution sites in the Gaza Strip. Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Connect with us. Lis...
Jun 13, 2025•1 hr 23 min
When someone hurts us, we might feel wounded or sad. We might feel angry and defensive. But sometimes those feelings turn into something more dangerous: a desire for revenge. Wanting to right a perceived wrong is normal. But neuroscientists are now finding that revenge-seeking behavior can be a form of addiction. Why does hurting those who have hurt us make us feel good, at least in the moment? And why does getting back at someone often backfire? Want to support 1A? Give to your local public rad...
Jun 12, 2025•31 min
People aged 50 and older have grown from about 10 percent of the homeless population to half. That's according to the most recent federal data. The increase is being driven by a number of factors including housing affordability and fixed incomes. It comes as social safety net programs like Medicaid are on the chopping block and fears grow over the future of Social Security under the Trump Administration. We talk about the reasons behind the dramatic increase in homelessness among seniors and how...
Jun 11, 2025•37 min
The first official "Song of Summer" award was given to One Direction in 2013 for... well... "Best Song Ever." It's been more than a decade since that inaugural MTV Video Music Award. But has the way we consume music evolved so much that a "song of summer" is a relic of the not-so-distant past? How can we measure what makes a good summer song? We convene the 1A Record Club to get into it. Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Co...
Jun 11, 2025•36 min
After slashing the federal workforce by tens of thousands earlier this year, the Trump administration is looking to fill those empty positions again. But this time, they want Trump loyalists. It's a move that challenges more than 150 years of precedent set forth in the Pendleton Act of 1870, which created a nonpartisan civil service. The outlook for the federal workforce is changing again under Trump. Today, we talk about what it means for the government now and down the line, Want to support 1A...
Jun 09, 2025•30 min
Donald Trump's travel ban is back. Its second iteration blocks all travelers from 12 countries and partially restricts those from seven more starting next week. The GOP's budget bill has made its way to the Senate, but not all Republicans are falling in line to pass it. In the Gaza Strip, at least 80 people are dead and hundreds more wounded in a series of shooting attacks near aid distribution sites. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said this week that his country would not stop e...
Jun 06, 2025•1 hr 26 min
Hurricane season is here. June 1 marks its official start and NOAA says it could be a busy one. But with the Trump administration's recent cuts to federal agencies, including FEMA, how ready are we to respond when disaster hits? How will reductions in staff – and budgets – affect the government's ability to predict severe weather? We discuss how the country is gearing up for a summer of storms. Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questi...
Jun 05, 2025•36 min
U.S. officials are turning their attention to a pressing problem in space. Not asteroids crashing into earth, but something else: space debris. Thousands of satellites have been launched into space because our modern life depends on them. There are about 10,000 active satellites in low earth orbit right now. But as more and more of them go up, space is getting crowded. And where there's crowds, there's waste. Millions of pieces of space debris are circling Earth right now. There are big pieces —...
Jun 04, 2025•36 min
If you've been following the news lately — including with 1A — it can be a lot to take in. We've heard from many of you about how the news makes you feel. But what can we do in chaotic moments of history to build a sense of control in our lives? Maybe it's organizing in your community, starting a new hobby, or picking up that TV show from 10 years ago that you promised you'd get around to watching. We talk about what finding agency in the chaos can look like, and why we should actively focus on ...
Jun 03, 2025•31 min
Last week, the House passed a sweeping budget bill, the centerpiece of President Donald Trump's domestic agenda. The final vote was 215 to 214, just one vote shy of failure, with all but two Republicans supporting the package. Now, all eyes are on the Senate. It's their job to take the legislation over the finish line and deliver it to the president's desk. Headlines about the bill are focused on tax cuts for the wealthy and steep cuts to programs like Medicaid and food stamps. But buried in thi...
Jun 02, 2025•40 min
This week Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the U.S. will begin revoking the visas of some Chinese students. Elon Musk isn't leaving Washington quietly. In an interview with CBS news Musk took aim at the tax bill making its way through Congress, saying it undermines the work he and DOGE undertook. Israel's latest offensive in Gaza is drawing criticism from world leaders. This week officials in Germany, Italy, and Spain called for the Israeli military to cease its campaign against Pal...
May 30, 2025•1 hr 23 min
It's been five years since widespread protests erupted after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd on May 25, 2020. That murder, and the resulting national protests, led to numerous calls for police reform in communities around the country. But the politics of policing have changed since 2024. Perceptions of crime and its relationship with immigration were central issues during the last presidential election, particularly for the Republican Party. And now, the Trump admi...
May 29, 2025•36 min
80 years ago, Smokey the Bear was mostly talking about campfire safety. Now? Things are a little different. Forest fires have always been a normal part of our landscape – and a tool used by human civilizations for millennia. But as climate change makes our landscapes hotter and drier, wildfires are getting bigger and more destructive. Fire consumed 8.9 million acres across the U.S. last year. The LA County fires this January are the costliest so far, with some estimates putting the total close t...
May 28, 2025•33 min
