Writing a book can be hard. Add in the twists and turns of a mystery... Where to even start?! Three authors join us today to help us cozy up to confusing capers. In the latest edition of our "Ask A" series, we're asking mystery novelists about how they mystify and confound amateur sleuths and gumshoes the world over. From the red herrings to the smoking guns, how do they craft their whodunits? Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questio...
Jan 01, 2025•36 min
2024 was a hard year for people who make games — the industry saw mass layoffs and increasing consolidation. But for the people who play them, releases didn't slow down. Indie developers released games like the monster-hunting game "Palworld" and "Animal Well," an expansive puzzle game. Big developers moved some releases back — like new additions to the "Assassin's Creed" and "Grand Theft Auto" series. Remakes of legendary titles from the "Silent Hill" and "Final Fantasy" series delighted longti...
Dec 31, 2024•38 min
Art, for many of us, is an escape. Whether it's turning on your favorite album during a traffic-heavy commute or getting lost in your favorite book before bed – art helps us cope with the stresses of everyday life. But how does the role of art shift when your way of life is turned upside down in an instant? That's what happened to Slava Leontyev, his wife, Anya, and their friend Andrey when Russia invaded Ukraine. Instead of leaving, the three Ukrainian artists chose to fight erasure and Russian...
Dec 30, 2024•33 min
If you live in a U.S. city, you've likely seen a rat or two running around. According to the pest control company, Orkin, an estimated 21 million U.S. homes face rodent invasions, each fall. But rats play a much larger role in human history. These creatures have been sacrificed for the advancement of scientific research. Rats are complicated — and it inspire equally complicated feelings in us. This year, New York City held its first ever annual national urban rat summit to address the city's chr...
Dec 27, 2024•31 min
2024's year in film saw a sequel 36 years in the making. There was also a musical that had theater-goers singing along. And a drama-comedy set around a Polish Holocaust tour. We break down the best and most disappointing films of the year. We also talk documentaries, TV shows you need to binge, and what to plan to watch in the new year. 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 signing ...
Dec 26, 2024•35 min
Kris Bowers is no stranger to using music to build a world. The Oscar-winning composer has worked on films like "Green Book," 'Origin," and "The Color Purple," and on the hit Netflix series "Bridgerton." He's also known for his on-the-spot compositions, illustrated in this conversation with 1A Entertainment Correspondent John Horn. His latest project is "The Wild Robot". In the animated feature directed by Chris Sanders, Roz is a robot is marooned on a deserted island, unable to communicate with...
Dec 25, 2024•30 min
Think back to the first time someone told you about the game Tetris. Was it a friend? An older sibling or a parent? Maybe you saw someone playing it at an arcade. How long did it take you to get what Tetris is — what you had to accomplish in the game and how to play it? 2024 boasts the 40th anniversary of the classic game of falling blocks, known as tetrominoes. More than 520 million copies of Tetris have been sold since its worldwide release in the 1980s. For our series "Game Mode", we're setti...
Dec 24, 2024•28 min
Most of us know that trees can help reduce the impacts of climate change by taking in carbon dioxide. Most of us also know that scientists and environmental authorities have been sounding alarms for the better part of the last decade about the devastating effects of climate change. Could trees store enough carbon, with a lot of help from us, to offset humanity's carbon emissions? What's the role of trees in our fight against climate change? And what's better left to other climate solutions? We t...
Dec 23, 2024•29 min
It's no surprise we love talking about food here at 1A. From the latest cookbooks to answering your questions about your favorite foods. As a holiday treat, we're bringing you highlights from the latest episode of Christopher Kimball's Milk Street Radio Podcast. For the complete episode, and to learn more about Milk Street be sure to visit milkstreetradio.com. Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Connect with us. Listen to 1A ...
Dec 22, 2024•33 min
Just hours before federal funding for the government runs out, Congress is left scrambling to find a way to keep the government open after midnight tonight. Meanwhile, a New York judge has decided that Trump can't use his presidential immunity to shed his felony conviction. And Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, was charged with murder as an act of terrorism. In global news, following the fall of the Assad regime, prosecutors, aid workers, and journalists are learnin...
Dec 20, 2024•1 hr 24 min
It's the holiday season. And that means time spent with friends, with family, and... in the car. Or a plane. Or a train. Or maybe even by boat. But one thing's for sure. America will be on the move here soon if it's not already. Where are we going, what's waiting for us when we get there, and why is it so difficult sometimes to get where we need to go at the end of another year? Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Connect wit...
Dec 19, 2024•32 min
Have you ever gotten into an impassioned argument in the shower with a sparring partner who... wasn't actually there? How about replaying a dinner party conversation from weeks ago but this time, you know exactly what to say and you're saying it... to yourself? Whether the dialogue is in our heads or said aloud, many of us talk to ourselves, even if we don't realize it. But oftentimes the habit is seen as strange — especially if there are others around. We get into why so many of us talk to ours...
Dec 18, 2024•30 min
The Federal Reserve has begun cutting interest rates after two years of rate hikes to the highest levels in decades. It meets again this week to decide whether to cut them again, or keep them as is. High interest rates made the cost of borrowing high, meaning that car loans, credit card debt, and mortgages cost exponentially more than before the pandemic. We discuss how the Fed's decision to lower rates affects the economy. Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscrib...
Dec 17, 2024•31 min
Last week, the House passed a bill to create 63 new permanent judgeships. Case backlogs and delays have had many lawmakers saying we need more federal judges. If the bill did become law, President-elect Donald Trump would have 22 new seats to fill. The legislation originally had bipartisan support, but President Joe Biden vowed to veto it, with the support of many Democrats. In his first term, Trump put more judges in place than almost any president in history. Biden has made his mark too, surpa...
Dec 16, 2024•35 min
Bill Browder is a financier turned anti-corruption campaigner. He made his fortune in post-Soviet Russia before falling afoul of Putin. We last spoke to him back in 2018. Back then, few imagined Russia would dare carry out a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But Browder wasn't one of them. Now, with Donald Trump's return to the White House just weeks away, the newly knighted Browder tell us world leaders must act. He joins us to explain why Putin remains such a huge threat to Ukraine and the world...
Dec 15, 2024•34 min
The alleged shooter of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Luigi Mangione, was apprehended this week in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after an employee at a local McDonald's phoned authorities claiming to have recognized him from photographs provided by New York police. President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 1,500 Americans this week. According to his administration, it's a single-day record. After rebels took control of the Syrian capital of Aleppo, President Bashar al-Assad fled the country and has been...
Dec 13, 2024•1 hr 25 min
There are few books in the world that most people have heard of. There are even fewer so recognizable that are 500,000 words long. That's right, we're talking about the dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary is the longest English variant of its kind in the world. But many of those who made significant contributions to its creation went unknown for years — until now. These included hundreds of women, people without formal educations, and patients in mental institutions. In other words, the pe...
Dec 13, 2024•33 min
Pasteurization is the process that rids milk of bacteria. But more people are opting for unpasteurized milk, also known as raw milk. In May, sales of raw milk rose more than 20 percent compared to the year before. That's according to Nielson IQ, a market research firm. But consuming raw milk comes with significant risks. In late November, California regulators recalled some raw milk products after detecting bird flu virus. And last week, the USDA ordered testing across the nation's milk supply o...
Dec 12, 2024•36 min
2024 was, in many ways, a year of elections. Both home and abroad.President-elect Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in November. He won a second term in office and will be headed back to Washington come January. Across the globe, an election took place in India in seven stages starting in the spring and ending in June. Voters in Pakistan and Indonesia also went to the polls. European governments in France, Slovakia, the U.K. all saw switch ups. Germany, a financial powerhouse in...
Dec 11, 2024•39 min
Over the past year, the Chinese government has stepped up its cyber operations, focusing not just on espionage or stealing intellectual property, but on hacking to bolster geopolitical goals. U.S. authorities and institutions are used to digital aggression from the likes of Russia. But are now freshly reconsidering the objectives and capabilities of one of the country's other eastern rivals. We discuss those goals and how China using cyberspace to achieve them. We also discuss the latest from Ru...
Dec 10, 2024•11 min
$10 billion. That's how much money was taken from Americans in fraud schemes last year, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Many of those crimes – specifically those involving imposters – often start with a phone call or a text and a made-up claim. Victims can hand over thousands of dollars. And they often feel ashamed about being duped by these criminals. How do we let go of the stigma around being scammed? And what's being done about the increasingly elaborate ways scammers are stealing...
Dec 10, 2024•33 min
President-elect Donald Trump is packing his administration with incredibly wealthy businesspeople. His picks make up what could be the wealthiest government in U.S. history – worth about $340 billion. Watchdog groups are sounding the alarm, saying the business interests of many of these powerful picks are at odds with what's best for the American people. Trump himself is again bringing financial conflicts into office, too. But this time, there are fewer guardrails to prevent abuses of power for ...
Dec 09, 2024•33 min
On Sunday, Syrian rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) made its final march on the Syrian capital of Damascus. The rebels had already claimed the major cities of Aleppo, Hama and Homs. In a matter of hours and with little violence, Syrian government forces abandoned their posts and HTS claimed victory. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fled the country and has been granted asylum in Russia. After more than five decades, Syria is no longer under the rule of the Assad dynasty. And the region is...
Dec 09, 2024•23 min
Before Kelly Bishop found her way into our hearts as Emily Gilmore, she danced her way into history in Broadway's "A Chorus Line" and the movie "Dirty Dancing." Most recently, you might have seen her as Mrs. Ivey in Hulu's "The Watchful Eye." But chances are you probably recognize the Tony-Award winner from her role as the matriarch of Stars Hollow. She joins us to talk about her new memoir, "The Third Gilmore Girl." Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to th...
Dec 08, 2024•33 min
A manhunt is underway in New York City for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. He was shot and killed on a busy Midtown Manhattan street in a targeted early morning attack. And despite saying that he wouldn't do so, President Joe Biden pardoned his son, Hunter, this week for federal crimes. Also this week, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law. The move was rejected by the parliament and reversed by the president six hours later. His political future hangs in ...
Dec 06, 2024•1 hr 23 min
Bananas are the world's most popular and most consumed fruit. They are also one of the most important agricultural commodities and food staples for hundreds of millions of people around the world. The fruit is also in danger of going extinct. The Panama Disease or TR-4 is threatening the most widely exported variety of the banana, the Cavendish. It makes up 99 percent of global banana exports, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission. But it's vulnerable to an aggressive fungal disea...
Dec 06, 2024•36 min
The start of December brings holiday cheer. And... the flu. Peak season is from December to February. So are we ready? We talk about vaccine hesitancy this flu season. We also get into what we know about the public health policies of the incoming Trump administration. 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 signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a . Learn more about sponsor message ch...
Dec 05, 2024•30 min
President-elect Donald Trump hasn't been shy about his love for tariffs. And now, he hopes to make good on campaign promises to implement them. In practice, these tariffs could raise the prices of a variety of everyday goods including groceries. Economic issues like inflation led many voters to Trump. However, economists have raised concerns that this strategy could lead to another bump in inflation. We unpack what these tariffs could mean for consumers and businesses and talk about how they'll ...
Dec 04, 2024•36 min
Giving season is upon us. And some may say today , Giving Tuesday, kicks it off. And the U.S. is certainly on the generous side. Last year, giving between corporations, foundations, and individuals amounted to more than $500 billion. However, those numbers are on a decline when you compare them to what people gave in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic. But when you look at the long view, giving has increased by billions. Between 1954 and 2016, total giving went from $54 billion to $390 bill...
Dec 03, 2024•34 min
It's a huge development in a war that had seemed to be at a standstill. In a matter of days, rebel groups in Syria took control of most of Aleppo, Syria's second largest city. It had been in the hands of the autocratic Syrian government since 2016. The Syrian regime, led by President Bashar al-Assad, now stands on questionable footing for the first time in years. We discuss what's next for the country. Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Hav...
Dec 03, 2024•11 min
