President Donald Trump promised tariffs on the campaign trail. Those tariffs are here – but how much of them, where, and on who, has changed a few times. Here's where things stand right now: President Trump rolled tariff rates back to a baseline ten percent for most countries, but raised the tariffs on China to 145 percent. Global trading markets plunged due to a series of rapid shifts in trade policy. We discuss how these policies affect small businesses, many of which have to rely on goods tha...
Apr 17, 2025•36 min
The last few weeks have had many of us thinking long and hard about the things we buy, the price of those goods, and the potential for those prices to jump. This episode is part of our series, "How Did This Get Here?", where we follow goods as they make their way through the global supply chain, and explore what the president's announced tariffs may mean for your pocketbook. Today, we continue our series with.a product some of you may be sipping on right now. It's coffee. Coffee is everywhere. T...
Apr 16, 2025•32 min
Frustration with the Internal Revenue Service is nothing new. A Pew Research survey found it's the least popular federal agency among Americans. But that should come as no surprise. After all, the IRS is responsible for collecting what we owe the government. During fiscal year 2024, the IRS collected more than $5 trillion in tax revenue. But this year, Tax Day arrives amid upheaval at the agency. Just last week, the head of the IRS resigned – the third to do so since President Trump's inaugurati...
Apr 15, 2025•35 min
What's the weather like in your area? Chances are you took a look at your preferred weather app on your phone before heading outside. We can find that information easily because of weather data that comes from the National Weather Service. It's a part of the federal agency NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Trump Administration plans to cut billions of dollars from NOAA in its upcoming 2026 budget plans. The cuts could result in a remaking of the agency and eliminate ...
Apr 15, 2025•11 min
The Trump administration is threatening to pull billions of dollars in funding from top universities across the country. Last week, it froze $1 billion meant for Cornell University and $750 million meant for Northwestern University. The two schools are currently being investigated for alleged antisemitism on campus. And last month, the administration canceled $400 million in grants and contracts for Columbia University also over allegations of antisemitism on campus. President Trump has since ta...
Apr 14, 2025•34 min
This week the Supreme Court told the Trump administration Thursday that it must "facilitate" the release and retrieval of a Maryland man who was wrongly deported to a prison in El Salvador. After announcing tariffs on almost every country in the world last week, President Donald Trump announced this week that he was pausing reciprocal tariffs for 90 days. Except for those on China. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. traveled to Texas after a second death linked to a measles outbreak in the s...
Apr 11, 2025•1 hr 22 min
It's safe to say there's been a lot of confusion and even panic in the wake of President Donald Trump's tariff announcement last week — investors are confused, the markets are confused, even the president's Republican colleagues are confused. But what do these tariffs mean for working people? Especially as many have seen their personal wealth take a sizable hit and their budgets likely be blown to bits. We discuss what the tariffs could mean for America's finances in the near and far futures wit...
Apr 10, 2025•34 min
The auto industry is already reeling from President Donald Trump's new tariffs. They've only been in effect for about six days, but the response was immediate. On the same day those tariffs went live, Stellantis temporarily paused production at plants in Canada and Mexico. The company also temporarily laid off 900 U.S. workers. And Volkswagen said it's planning to add an import fee to its sticker price. According to financial analytics firm S&P Global, about half of car sales could be affected b...
Apr 09, 2025•35 min
People visited U.S. National Park sites a record 331 million times last year. Were you one of them? If you were, and plan to visit any National Parks this year though, staff cuts might mean a different kind of experience. At the direction of Elon Musk's DOGE entity, the Department of the Interior fired around 1,000 probationary National Park Service employees in February. That has current and former NPS employees feeling pessimistic about the future. We discuss how these cuts will impact the fut...
Apr 08, 2025•34 min
President Donald Trump's escalating trade war sent markets lurching between hope and panic yesterday. But overall, stocks have been tumbling since last Wednesday. That's when President Trump announced a universal 10 percent tariff on all goods coming into the U.S. He also announced additional import taxes on 185 countries. Those tariffs are set to kick in Wednesday. In response, the global economy is in a tailspin. We discuss the latest. Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio statio...
Apr 08, 2025•12 min
The nation's health administration is the latest target of the Trump administration's effort to dismantle the federal bureaucracy. That's after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. slashed 10,000 jobs at the Department of Health and Human Services early last week. Entire offices were eliminated during the layoffs. Some of those positions, Kennedy says, will need to be reinstated. Experts warn that these sweeping job cuts at the HHS will affect drug approvals, disease tracking, and vital biomed...
Apr 07, 2025•34 min
Donald Trump unveiled his so-called "Liberation Day" plans this week. On Wednesday he announced a slew of tariffs that will affect goods being imported into the U.S. Elon Musk took a hit in Wisconsin. Liberal candidate Susan Crawford emerged victorious in the special election to the state's Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the White House is working to find countries that will take migrants deported from the U.S. Reporting this week found that the Trump Administration has contacted governments in South...
Apr 04, 2025•1 hr 26 min
The arrest and detainment of Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil by Immigration and Customs Enforcement garnered national attention. Last week, the video of the arrest of a Turkish PhD student at Tufts University, Rumeysa Ozturk, by masked federal agents received similar attention. In addition to Ozturk and Khalil, nearly a dozen international students and faculty at universities across the country have been detained for possible deportation as part of President Donald Trump's cr...
Apr 03, 2025•33 min
The Trump administration's cutbacks to the federal workforce continued this week at the Department of Health and Human Services. Thousands of staffers were fired at agencies like the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the layoffs last week, an additional "reduction in force" of 10,000 people on top of the 10,000 who've already left the department this year. This amounts to one of the largest government de...
Apr 03, 2025•11 min
Your new iPhone goes through a lot before you peel the plastic off and finally boot it up. Further Apple purchases might have to go through more thanks to the Trump administration's tariffs. From its assembly, to its packaging, to its shipping, to stocking, to purchase, it's a long process. So, what does it actually look like? Why is this the way we do it? And what could be done to make things better? This is our new series,"How Did This Get Here." We explore how goods make their way to us from ...
Apr 02, 2025•37 min
Some of the best songs you can hear this spring aren't on the radio. Hundreds of millions of birds make their annual migration back into North America in early March. Despite their return to our neighborhoods and backyards to wake us up bright and early, a new report reveals they're numbering fewer and fewer. The 2025 State of the Birds report is a joint effort spearheaded by a coalition of science and conservation organizations. It found widespread population decline across nearly all habitats ...
Apr 01, 2025•30 min
President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" of reciprocal tariffs is almost here. On April 2, Trump is rolling out a plan that would charge a blanket dollar for dollar tax on goods coming into the U.S. Trump clarified Sunday that this policy would apply to all countries instead of a more focused list. The uncertainty around and scope of these tariffs (and a potential trade war) has spooked Wall Street and raised fears of inflation. We discuss America's financial future. Want to support 1A? Give to...
Apr 01, 2025•12 min
President Trump is known for going after his political opponents. And for the past month or so, one target has been certain powerful lawyers and law firms. But why is he going after these lawyers and firms? Will courts let him get away with intimidating law firms he doesn't like with threats and executive orders? And how does it all fit into Trump's broader efforts to tilt the legal system to his advantage? Today we hear from one of the lawyers named in the recent flurry of White House orders an...
Mar 31, 2025•33 min
Florida holds a special election tomorrow for a House seat that has long been solidly red. Now? Maybe a bit less so. Former Congressman Mike Waltz gave up his seat in the 6th Congressional District – the area around Daytona Beach – to accept the post of President Donald Trump's national security advisor. In line to win his vacant seat tomorrow is Trump-backed Randy Fine, a state senator. But in recent days polls have been too close for comfort for many Republicans. Fine's Democratic opponent, ma...
Mar 31, 2025•12 min
We've spent a lot of time in 2025 talking about the president. The executive orders. The court challenges. The cabinet appointments. Now, the Signal group chats. It's a challenge to report on the administration, full stop. But what if you're not reporting on the administration for an audience directly affected by the U.S. federal government? What kinds of challenges does that present? In a 1A first, we sit down in front of an audience at our home base at WAMU in Washington, DC, to talk to three ...
Mar 30, 2025•42 min
This week the Atlantic published messages shared between national security officials on a Signal group chat laying out plans for U.S airstrikes in Yemen. It appears that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz added The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg to the message thread. European leaders have been cautious in their comments on the scandal. President Trump is threatening to suspend security clearances and access to federal buildings of lawyers he does not like. Meanwhile, Israel continu...
Mar 28, 2025•1 hr 27 min
The acting assistant administrator for global health at USAID, Nicholas Enrich, was placed on administrative leave in early March. Before his departure, he had made a series of chilling predictions in memos concerning the consequences of the Trump administration's gutting of the agency. These include some 18 million additional cases of malaria and 166,000 resulting deaths. One million children who will remain malnourished. And 200,000 additional children paralyzed by polio. And he placed the bla...
Mar 28, 2025•16 min
As the earth continues to heat up unsustainably due to society's love of fossil fuels, scientists say natural disasters are only going to become more frequent and more destructive. That's something California knows all too well. Wildfires burned more than 58,000 acres this year and destroyed more than 16,000 structures, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. For many towns, a disaster like a wildfire or hurricane can completely destroy the town and its history, l...
Mar 27, 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 ...
Mar 26, 2025•31 min
It's safe to say the Trump administration has shaken up the federal government. That includes environmental policy and the Environmental Protection Agency. The Trump administration is making deep cuts to the department. The agency's top official, Lee Zeldin, says he wants to cut 65 percent of its budget. The EPA has already slashed jobs at the environmental justice office, which addresses disproportionate environmental and health effects on minority and low-income populations. The agency is now ...
Mar 25, 2025•35 min
The story of TikTok in the U.S. is one that's had many chapters, to say the least. First, then-President Donald Trump called for its ban in 2020. Then, President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan law in 2024 requiring the company in charge of the video-sharing platform to sell the app or face a ban. Then, the app went dark this January after failing to sell, only to come back hours later, thanking newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump for his support in keeping the app operational. The president ...
Mar 24, 2025•39 min
Republican Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas filed resolution to impeach the judge who ordered the Trump administration to stop deportations of Venezuelans. Two federal judges have ordered tens of thousands of fired federal workers to be rehired in recent weeks, but the White House is moving to appeal the decision leading to more questions for and about the fates of federal workers. Meanwhile, the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas collapsed this week as Israel began airstrikes once again on the blocka...
Mar 21, 2025•1 hr 26 min
More than forty percent of American families are struggling to find affordable childcare. A new report from the Economic Policy Institute shows that childcare for one infant now costs more than rent in 17 states and more than in-state college tuition in 38 states. These increasing costs mean more parents of young children are at a crossroads: Drop out of the workforce to save on childcare, or have their salaries eaten up by high childcare costs? We discuss the cost of childcare and the effect hi...
Mar 20, 2025•36 min
On Tuesday Israel broke the ceasefire deal with Hamas that brought relative peace to the Gaza Strip for about two months. In just two minutes, Tuesday became one of the deadliest days in the war between Israel and Hamas. Israeli air strikes and a ground offensive killed more than 400 people and injured 500 more. According to Al Jazeera, most of the airstrikes this week have hit "heavily built-up neighborhoods, makeshift schools, and residential buildings where people are taking shelter." Israel ...
Mar 20, 2025•12 min
We recently spoke with personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary about how to manage money during times of uncertainty. Dozens of our listeners wrote it in with worries about the future of social security. It's perhaps one of the most popular government programs in the country. Around 87 percent of Americans say social security should be a priority no matter what the state of the federal budget is. That's according to the National Institute on Retirement Security. President Donald Trump has...
Mar 19, 2025•41 min
