Public health officials are warning of a possible surge in COVID cases this winter. How bad it could get depends on how many people take the right precautions, according to Dr. Ashish Jha . We talk to the White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator about bracing for the next potential wave. Even if a COVID surge doesn't happen, there are plenty of respiratory ailments making a comeback, especially in children. Dr. Ibukun Kalu of Duke Children's Hospital in Durham, North Carolina explains why virus...
Oct 14, 2022•14 min
President Biden met with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this summer — a man he had previously accused of ordering the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But at the meeting, he met the Crown Prince with a fist bump. It all came as gas prices were rising globally, under pressure from Russia's war in Ukraine. One of Biden's goals was to convince Saudi Arabia's leaders to increase oil production. But this month, Saudi Arabia and the other oil producing countries of OPEC Plus dec...
Oct 13, 2022•12 min
There are more than 16 million people in the U.S. that are caring for someone with Alzheimer's and related dementias. More than two-thirds of them are women. Caregiving can be emotionally and physically draining, as well as isolating. There are not a lot of resources available for caregivers and many are not paid. For six years, Jacquleyn Revere took care of her mom who had dementia and posted about the highs and lows on her TikTok account. Revere gained thousands of viewers and followers who co...
Oct 12, 2022•12 min
In the span of one morning this week, Russian airstrikes hit cities across Ukraine—some hundreds of miles from the frontline. Throughout the war, even when Russian troops haven't been able to reach Ukrainian cities, their missiles and rockets and artillery have. More than 6,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia launched its campaign in February, according to the United Nations . NPR's Jason Beaubien has the story of one of those deaths, 11-year-old Nasta Grycenko. This episode a...
Oct 11, 2022•10 min
Last week, the Supreme Court heard opening arguments in Merrill v. Mulligan, a case that could gut the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for the third time this decade. At the center of the debate is Alabama's new congressional maps. Black voters make up the majority of only one out of seven districts. More than a quarter of the state's population is Black. A three-judge federal panel ruled that Alabama should create a second congressional district. The state appealed, arguing that congressional maps sh...
Oct 10, 2022•14 min
Over the past few years, we've heard shocking allegations from women athletes about experiencing sexual harassment and abuse. And earlier this week a report was released outlining a pervasive culture of abuse among coaches in the National Women's Soccer League. Elite women soccer players were subjected to a range of abuse - from belittling comments to sexual advances.Sally Yates, former Acting Attorney General, led the investigation – which was a response to allegations made last year against co...
Oct 08, 2022•14 min
Cheating allegations have rocked many worlds over the last few weeks. Chess, fishing, poker, and even Irish dancing. These 'sports' cheating scandals have attracted a lot of attention lately. Maurice Schweitzer is a professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He studies emotions, trust and ethical decision making and says that our reaction to cheating might tell us something deeper about human nature and why we care about people cheating to get ahead. In partic...
Oct 07, 2022•15 min
As a U.S. territory, Puerto Rico is perpetually stuck in limbo. The people there are subject to federal laws, but don't have a vote for president or Congress. This is a major problem when it comes to responding to disasters like Hurricane Fiona, which hit the island last month. Many Puerto Ricans are deeply frustrated by what they claim has been a slow and inefficient response from a federal government that they have no say in. Some want statehood, some want more autonomy. A small, but growing, ...
Oct 06, 2022•14 min
After a prescribed burn became the largest wildfire in New Mexico history earlier this year, the U.S. Forest Service put a ninety day ban on controlled burns. But while these kinds of burns do carry risk, very few escape, and they are a crucial tool in reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfires. Forest ecologists are worried the ban added to the wildfire risk in areas that desperately need maintenance. An investigation by CapRadio and the California Newsroom found that proper fire mitigation co...
Oct 05, 2022•15 min
The past twelve months have been the deadliest on record for the migrants crossing the Southern U.S. Border from Mexico. More than 800 have died in the last fiscal year. This past year also saw a shift in migration. More and more are coming from Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela. Past entry points have given way to more remote locations on the border, like Eagle Pass and Del Rio, Texas. These were sleepy border towns, now they are some of the busiest junctions on the border. Who is arriving and what...
Oct 04, 2022•13 min
Higher mortgage rates are putting a damper on the U.S. housing market. Home prices are down and sales of existing homes have now fallen for seven months in a row. The ripples in the housing market are being felt as the Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates to fight inflation. And those higher borrowing costs mean that monthly mortgage payments have shot up. We hear from would-be buyers who say that soaring mortgage rates are pushing them out of the market. And we talk to NPR's Chris Ar...
Oct 03, 2022•14 min
The Electoral Count Reform Act is a bipartisan response to the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol where rioters and the former president attempted to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence into subverting the election count. But some critics think it doesn't go far enough and argue that real reform would mean making significant changes to the Electoral College and to the winner take all allotment of electoral votes. Host Michel Martin talks to Stanford Historian Jonathan Gienapp about the o...
Oct 01, 2022•14 min
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the formal annexation of four territories in Ukraine on Friday, after the conclusion of what U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called "sham" referendums and "a complete farce." NPR's Kat Lonsdorf talked with Ukrainians near the frontline about how the turmoil is affecting them. Dara Massicot , a Russian military analyst with the RAND corporation, says, with this move, Putin has "burned bridges behind him," leaving him with few options to force a cl...
Sep 30, 2022•13 min
Hurricane Ian carved a path of destruction through central Florida, with extreme winds, heavy rains and a torrent of waters flooding in from the Gulf of Mexico. Roads and bridges were washed away, coastal cities were swamped and electrical systems were wrecked - leaving millions of homes and businesses without power. While the full scope of the disaster is not yet known, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says it will take years to rebuild. We'll hear an eyewitness account of the destruction in Ft. Myers...
Sep 29, 2022•14 min
The widespread protests in Iran were sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. She died after being detained by Iran's morality police for allegedly violating the country's strict dress code. The fuel that's keeping them going is a broader, deeper resentment at life under the regime. Karim Sadjadpour, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace explains what risk the protests pose to the regime, and why he believes it is incapable of reform. This episode also feature...
Sep 28, 2022•14 min
Every year, more than 300,000 U.S. families have infants who require advanced medical care in neonatal intensive care units. Specialized treatments and round-the-clock care rack up enormous bills for parents as they try to navigate their baby's care. And in the worst case scenarios, some families are left with millions of dollars in medical bills long after their child has passed. We talk to Kaiser Health News correspondent Lauren Weber about her reporting on how steep medical bills have impacte...
Sep 27, 2022•12 min
Ruby Bridges was just six years old in 1960 when she became the first Black child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. She was escorted by four federal marshals and greeted by a mob of angry white protesters. Today, Bridges is a civil rights activist and author, and she is sharing her experience with a new generation of kids in her latest children's book, I Am Ruby Bridges. Bridges tells her story through the eyes of her six-year-old self and talks about ...
Sep 26, 2022•13 min
This week the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force announced recommendations that doctors screen all patients under 65 for anxiety. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we've heard about sharp increases in the number of people suffering from mental health problems. With a health care system already overburdened and seemingly unable to deal with the rise in mental health issues, America is facing what is being called a mental health crisis. But are we losing sight of another crisis - the issues ca...
Sep 24, 2022•13 min
The NFL has dealt with plenty of scandal this century, but this offseason was pretty rough. Accusations of racist hiring practices, star players charged with sexual assault, and owners behaving badly have all been embarrassments for the league. None of that has affected the bottom line. TV ratings are as high as ever and NFL programs dominate the Nielsen top ten. Our host Juana Summers talks to Kevin Draper, sports reporter for the New York Times, about what, if anything, can slow down the NFL j...
Sep 23, 2022•14 min
More than 55,000 people in the U.S. are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole, according to research from The Sentencing Project. Behind bars, they are largely unseen and unheard. The Visiting Room Project is an effort to change that. It's a collection of first-person testimonials of people who are serving life sentences. We hear inmates tell their stories and talk with Calvin Duncan, co-creator the project, which invites the public to sit face-to-face with people who have no ...
Sep 22, 2022•14 min
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has allocated billions of dollars to Puerto Rico to help it rebuild from Hurricane Maria with more resilient infrastructure. Five years after the storm, only a tiny fraction of it has been spent, and Hurricane Fiona has again left much of the island in the dark. NPR's Adrian Florido explains how Fiona has left some Puerto Ricans feeling like their recovery has gone "back to zero." Sergio Marxuach , with The Center for a New Economy, a Puerto Rican think ta...
Sep 21, 2022•11 min
As record numbers of people in the U.S. die from drug overdoses, communities are searching for tools to prevent them. A new program in Canada could serve as a model. Over the past few years, government-approved clinics have opened across the country, where people can use street drugs under medical supervision. If they overdose, they can get life-saving care immediately. Some doctors are even prescribing powerful opioids to patients to keep them from using street drugs that may be laced with dead...
Sep 20, 2022•11 min
For many in the United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth was synonymous with the monarchy. As she's laid to rest, King Charles faces a potentially "existential" challenge in convincing the British and global public that the monarchy is a force for good, according to historian Dan Jones. That may be a difficult task in the Commonwealth, a group of 56 countries connected in part by a history of British colonial rule. Many see the monarchy as inextricably linked to the injustices of that colonial system. Jo...
Sep 19, 2022•13 min
Since a Supreme Court ruling paved the way for college athletes to profit from the use of their name, image, or likeness - NIL for short - athletes are popping up in ads selling everything from protein shakes to air conditioners. Host Michel Martin speaks with Ramogi Huma, founder and President of the National College Players Association, about the hurdles that keep some college players from cashing in, and the future of student compensation. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collect...
Sep 17, 2022•15 min
For the past six months, dancers at the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in Los Angeles have been striking almost every weekend. This is because the strippers say they've faced unsafe working conditions, including assault and harassment from customers. After the dancers say they were unable to meet with club managers to discuss their demands and were not allowed to work, they launched an effort to form a union. This episode also features reporting from NPR's Brianna Scott and KCRW's Robin Estrin . I...
Sep 16, 2022•15 min
It's a strange moment in the pandemic. Mask mandates and other restrictions have all but disappeared. For most vaccinated people, the risk of severe illness has gone way down. But hundreds of people are dying of COVID-19 every day. For their loved ones, grieving a terrible loss as the country is moving back to normal can be jarring. Everyday Americans are weighing the threat the coronavirus poses to them. Scientists, too, are debating how dangerous the virus is right now. NPR's Rob Stein reports...
Sep 15, 2022•8 min
Over the past week, the Ukrainian military has retaken thousands of square miles of territory from Russian troops, in a counteroffensive east of Kharkiv. Retreating Russian soldiers left behind tanks and ammunition as they fled. We'll hear the stories of Ukrainians who spent months under Russian occupation, and take a look at what the counteroffensive means for the next phase of the war. This episode also features reporting by NPR's Ashley Westerman . In participating regions, you'll also hear a...
Sep 14, 2022•13 min
Social media platforms have helped fuel political polarization and incitements to violence across the globe, from the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar to the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. This is because algorithms consistently select content that evokes anger and outrage from its users to maximize engagement. And sometimes, those extreme emotions turn into extreme actions. New York Times reporter Max Fisher took a deep dive into the impact of social media in his book, "The Chaos Machi...
Sep 13, 2022•13 min
A lot of mobile homes aren't actually that mobile. They're brought in trucks in big pieces, then screwed together and put up on foundations. At that point they're basically just houses, with one major exception: the people who own those houses, if they live in a mobile home park, often don't own the land underneath them. That can leave them at the mercy of the big companies that own and manage the mobile home parks. NPR's Chris Arnold and Robert Benincasa have the story of a group of residents w...
Sep 12, 2022•12 min
Even if you have never walked the red carpet at the Met Gala, or sat in the front row of a Fashion Week runway, the notion of fashion is hard to escape. For some of us, what we wear – whether it's Gucci or the GAP–is about more than just the clothes on our bodies. Fashion is often about who we are - our ideas, identity, and culture. For those who cover and create fashion, it can be a way to challenge and change the culture in ways that resonate beyond the red carpet and the runway. Host Michel M...
Sep 10, 2022•14 min
