March 11 will mark one year since the World Health Organization officially declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic — when schools, businesses and workplaces began shutting down. To mark the moment, two of the nation's top public health officials who have helped lead the U.S. response to the pandemic — Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins — spoke to NPR about what they've learned, what they regret and why they're hopeful about the year ahead. Hear their full interview with NPR's ...
Mar 10, 2021•15 min
Jury selection in the highly anticipated trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin began Tuesday after being delayed amid an effort to gain clarity on the potential of a third-degree murder charge. Chauvin faces charges in the killing of George Floyd last Memorial Day. Jamiles Lartey , who reports on criminal justice and policing for The Marshall Project , explains the delay. NPR's Leila Fadel and Adrian Florido have been covering the trial in Minneapolis. Benjamin Crump, the atto...
Mar 09, 2021•14 min
Over the weekend, the Senate approved a version of President Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, setting up a vote in the House that could send the package to Biden's desk as early as Tuesday. The package contains direct cash payments for many Americans, extended unemployment benefits, billions of dollars for vaccine distribution and a significant change to the child tax credit that could lift millions of American children out of poverty. Indi Dutta-Gupta of the Georgetown Center on Pove...
Mar 08, 2021•12 min
What do you do after you've survived a mass shooting? In this episode of NPR's Embedded podcast, we hear the staff at the Capital Gazette newspaper return to work after losing five of their colleagues. Trauma reveals itself in unexpected ways, coworkers struggle to figure out how they fit together as a team, and the staff grapples with the question: Is the newspaper that existed before the shooting the same one that exists after? See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use o...
Mar 07, 2021•34 min
Colombian President Iván Duque won praise from the United Nations, Pope Francis and the Biden administration with his recent announcement that Colombia would welcome Venezuelan refugees with open arms — providing protected status, work permits and legal residency for up to 10 years. President Duque tells NPR why he's hopeful the move will spur the U.S. toward more aggressive support of Venezuelan migrants, some of whom are currently protected by a deferred deportation order signed by President T...
Mar 05, 2021•14 min
In the U.S., the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines is improving every day, but hundreds of millions of people are still vulnerable. And now, with some states relaxing or eliminating public health measures altogether, many people live in places where the virus will be freer to spread unchecked. KUT reporter Ashley Lopez reports on how business owners and employees are reacting to the rollback of COVID-19 restrictions in Texas. And Rochelle Walensky, the new director for the Centers of Disease Control ...
Mar 04, 2021•14 min
The Supreme Court heard arguments this week about voting laws in Arizona that would make ballot access harder for people living in rural areas like the Navajo Nation. NPR's Nina Totenberg reports that the conservative court isn't likely to strike down the laws which could pave the way for more legislation that cuts into future election turnout. The push for legislation that would restrict voter access comes primarily from Republican lawmakers in state houses across the country. This is despite t...
Mar 03, 2021•15 min
Disinformation isn't new. But in the last decade, the growth of social media has made it easier than ever to spread. That coincided with the political rise of Donald Trump, who rose to power on a wave of disinformation and exited the White House in similar fashion. NPR's Tovia Smith reports on the growing threat of disinformation — and how expert deprogrammers work with people who believe it. Other reporting on disinformation in this episode comes from NPR correspondents Joel Rose and Sarah McCa...
Mar 02, 2021•13 min
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines has taken over after a turbulent time. Former President Donald Trump was frequently at odds with the American intelligence community, including some of his hand-picked intel chiefs. In her first interview after a month on the job, Haines tells NPR's Mary Louise Kelly "it has been a challenging time" for the U.S. intel community. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your c...
Mar 01, 2021•15 min
Bayard Rustin, the man behind the March on Washington , was one of the most consequential architects of the civil rights movement you may never have heard of. Rustin imagined how nonviolent civil resistance could be used to dismantle segregation in the United States. He organized around the idea for years and eventually introduced it to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But his identity as a gay man made him a target, obscured his rightful status and made him feel forced to choose, again and again, whi...
Feb 28, 2021•1 hr 12 min
It's been almost a decade since Washington and Colorado became the first states in America to legalize recreational marijuana. Now a new generation of states are wrestling with how to do it with a focus on racial equity that was missing from early legalization efforts. WBEZ reporter Mariah Woelfel reports from Chicago on why legalization plans in Illinois are still leaving Black businesses behind. VPM reporters Ben Paviour and Whittney Evans explain how lawmakers in Virginia are designing new ma...
Feb 26, 2021•13 min
Just because the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump is done, it doesn't mean the story of what happened on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol is over. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to set up a commission, similar to the one created after the Sept. 11 attacks, to investigate what happened that day and what measures might prevent a future attack. That's not so easy in this moment, when Congress is often gridlocked over the most basic things. And when lawmakers themselves are also...
Feb 25, 2021•13 min
Natural gas utilities face a bleak future in a world increasingly concerned about climate change. An NPR investigation shows how they work to block local climate action and protect their business. More from NPR's Jeff Brady and Dan Charles : As Cities Grapple With Climate Change, Gas Utilities Fight To Stay In Business . Additional reporting in this episode from NPR's Nathan Rott . In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in...
Feb 24, 2021•12 min
After more than 500,000 deaths and nearly a full year, experts say there are a growing number of reasons to be optimistic about the direction of the pandemic. Cases, hospitalizations and deaths have all fallen dramatically in recent weeks. Among those falling numbers, a vaccine from Johnson & Johnson that may be authorized by the Food and Drug Administration this week. Dr. Ashish Jha of Brown University explains why the shot is just as desirable as already-authorized vaccines from Pzifer and...
Feb 23, 2021•13 min
Last summer, the city of Austin, Texas, slashed the budget for its police department. More recently, the city council voted on a new way to spend some of that money. KUT reporter Audrey McGlinchy explains what other changes have taken place in Austin. A powerful new player is joining calls for reparations for Black Americans: the American Civil Liberties Union . Civil rights attorney Deborah Archer — the ACLU's newly elected board president and the first Black person to assume that role — explai...
Feb 22, 2021•13 min
Why is it so hard to feel the difference between 400,000 and 500,000 COVID-19 deaths — and how might that impact our decision making during the pandemic? In this bonus episode from NPR's daily science podcast Short Wave , psychologist Paul Slovic explains the concept of psychic numbing and how humans can often use emotion, rather than statistics to make decisions about risk. To hear more about new discoveries, everyday mysteries, and the science behind the headlines, listen to Short Wave via App...
Feb 21, 2021•12 min
The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 is on track to pass a number next week that once seemed unthinkable: Half a million people in this country dead from the coronavirus. And while the pandemic isn't over yet, and the death toll keeps climbing, artists in every medium have already been thinking about how our country will pay tribute to those we lost. Poets, muralists, and architects all have visions of what a COVID-19 memorial could be. Many of these ideas are about more than just honoring those we...
Feb 19, 2021•13 min
Millions of people in Texas have gone three or more days without power, water or both. Texas has had winter weather before, so what went so wrong this time? Reporter Mose Buchele of NPR member station KUT in Austin explains why the state's power grid buckled under demand in the storm. And Marshall Shepherd , director of the Atmospheric Sciences Program at the University of Georgia, explains the link between more extreme winter weather and climate change. Additional reporting in this episode from...
Feb 18, 2021•14 min
After the Senate vote failed to convict former President Donald Trump, a clearer picture of the political consequences is emerging — both for the Republican party and for the United States on the world stage. NPR's Don Gonyea reports on Republican infighting the national, state and local level. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tells NPR that the events of Jan. 6 have came up in conversations he's had with diplomatic counterparts around the world. Read more of Blinken's wide-ranging interview wi...
Feb 17, 2021•14 min
There's evidence of at least seven U.S. variants of the coronavirus, while another that emerged from the U.K. is poised to become the dominant strain here by the end of March. One adviser from the Food and Drug Administration tells NPR there's a tipping point to watch for: when a fully vaccinated person winds up hospitalized with a coronavirus variant. NPR science correspondent Richard Harris reports on concerns that COVID-19 vaccines themselves could cause the virus to mutate. NPR science repor...
Feb 16, 2021•13 min
The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, says more than 60 countries around the world are using COVID-19 as an excuse to skirt international law by closing borders and ports to asylum-seekers. That has contributed to an increase in delayed rescues and unlawful expulsions of refugees to dangerous places. NPR's Joanna Kakissis tells the story of one teenage survivor. And NPR's Ruth Sherlock reports on a doomed journey of Lebanese refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean sea — where over 1,0...
Feb 15, 2021•12 min
We asked for your questions on navigating love and dating during the pandemic. Therapist and sexologist Lexx Brown-James has answers. She's joined by Sam Sanders , host of NPR's news and pop culture show, It's Been A Minute. Listen via Apple or Spotify . And University of Georgia social scientist Dr. Richard Slatcher shares some findings from his global research project, Love In The Time Of COVID . In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of w...
Feb 12, 2021•15 min
The pandemic economy has left different people in vastly different situations. Today, we introduce four American indicators — people whose paths will help us understand the arc of the recovery. Hear their stories now, and we'll follow up with them in a few months: Brooke Neubauer in Nevada, founder of The Just One Project ; Lisa Winton of the Winton Machine Company in Georgia; Lee Camp with Arch City Defenders in Missouri; and New Jersey-based hotel owner Bhavish Patel. In participating regions,...
Feb 11, 2021•15 min
The Biden administration has set a goal: a majority of public schools open "at least one day a week" by the 100th day of his presidency. But it's possible the country is already there — and decisions about when to reopen largely fall to cities and school districts, where administrators and teachers sometimes don't see eye-to-eye. Students are losing a lot of academic ground the longer their schooling is disrupted. Maine Public Radio's Robbie Feinberg reports on how one rural district is trying t...
Feb 10, 2021•14 min
In the weeks after Jan. 6. insurrection, even top Republicans like Mitch McConnell said Donald Trump provoked the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol, leaving five people dead. But it appears unlikely enough Republican Senators will find that he bears enough responsibility to warrant conviction in his second impeachment trial — which could prevent him from ever holding office again. Charlie Sykes , founder and editor at large of the conservative site The Bulwark , argues that Republicans are faili...
Feb 09, 2021•13 min
Using data from several states that have published their own maps and lists of where vaccination sites are located, NPR identified disparities in the locations of COVID-19 vaccination sites in major cities across the Southern U.S. — with most sites placed in whiter neighborhoods. KUT's Ashley Lopez , Shalina Chatlani of NPR's Gulf States Newsroom, and NPR's Sean McMinn explain their findings. Read more here . Also in this episode: how one county in Washington state is trying to make vaccine dist...
Feb 08, 2021•14 min
People of color experience more air and water pollution than white people and suffer the health impacts. The federal government helped create the problem, and has largely failed to fix it. In this episode of Short Wave , NPR climate reporter Rebecca Hersher talks about the history of environmental racism in the United States, and what Biden's administration can do to avoid the mistakes of the past. Read Rebecca's reporting on how Biden hopes to address the environmental impacts of systemic racis...
Feb 07, 2021•14 min
Why does Whitney Houston's 1991 Super Bowl national anthem still resonate 30 years later? In this episode of NPR's It's Been A Minute , host Sam Sanders chats with author Danyel Smith about that moment of Black history and what it says about race, patriotism and pop culture. Smith wrote about the significance of that national anthem performance back in 2016 for ESPN. Listen to more episodes of It's Been A Minute on Apple Podcasts and Spotify . See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collec...
Feb 06, 2021•25 min
The pandemic leveled live performance, and the industry is last in line for a return to normal. Musician Zoe Keating and production designer Terry Morgan describe how their work has changed with live venues nationwide shuttered for nearly a year. Venue owner Danya Frank of First Avenue and Jim Ritts of the Paramount Theatre explain why the gears of the performing arts economy are not designed for a slow return to normalcy. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will...
Feb 05, 2021•14 min
Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour is one of President Biden's priorities with the newest COVID-19 relief package. But Republicans say it will hurt small businesses too much and some swing voting Democrats are hesitant too. The history of the minimum wage in the U.S. is tied closely to civil rights. Ellora Derenoncourt, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, says one theme of the 1963 March on Washington was a call for a higher minimum wage. Many states have a higher minimu...
Feb 04, 2021•14 min
