Tomorrow is election day. More than 74 million Americans have already cast their votes. Over the weekend, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump made what will likely be their final pitches to voters. We discuss what we can expect the rest of the week and more importantly, in the weeks to follow. 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 plu...
Nov 04, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the final days of his campaign, former President Donald Trump held a rally at Madison Square Garden in his home city of New York. The supposed success of the event was unfortunately overshadowed by racist comments made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who was invited to open for the former real estate mogul. House Speaker Mike Johnson took aim at the Affordable Care Act this week, promising massive reform to the law at an event in Pennsylvania should Trump emerge victorious from the election. Me...
Nov 01, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Transcript available on Metacast What scares you the most? Is it something creepy and crawly? Something that slithers? Maybe it's the dark, or the end of the world, or, even worse, a bad report card. We all have things that scare us. And movies are good at making us experiencing those things in a safe way. But why do we even want to do it in the first place? We discuss what we like about being scared. And later... Vampires have been a pop culture staple for decades — as movie monsters and as metaphors for our deepest desires. A...
Oct 31, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you've ever travelled to a different time zone, you probably felt groggy and tired after your flight. Or you've likely missed that extra hour when the clock jumps forward for Daylight Savings time in the spring. You may work a 9-to-5 job or go to school from 8 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. But these aren't the only clocks that dictate how we live. In fact, our bodies have trillions of internal clocks that tell us when to eat, sleep, and perform other biological tasks throughout the day. One of those cloc...
Oct 30, 2024•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Less than one week from election day, Vice President Kamala Harris delivered her final address to a crowd of more than 75,000 in Washington D.C. That number is according to the Harris campaign. Last night's rally was held at the Ellipse, the park south of the White House. It's also the site where former President Donald Trump held his rally on Jan. 6 of 2021. It was an event alluded to by the vice president, who focused her address on the differences between herself and Trump. The race between H...
Oct 30, 2024•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast We're one week away from the election. Millions of Americans have already cast their votes, but Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are not done campaigning. Over the weekend, Harris garnered support from several major Latino artists, including Bad Bunny, J-Lo and Ricky Martin. Their endorsements followed racist remarks about Latinos and Puerto Ricans made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday. The Trump campa...
Oct 29, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast It was early on Wednesday morning some four years ago, hours after the polls had closed when then President Donald Trump falsely claimed victory in the election of 2020. Never mind the fact that millions of legitimate votes had yet to be counted. And a half-dozen states hadn't yet been called for either Trump or President Joe Biden. POLITICO has spoken to dozens of people familiar or involved with the election process this year. And according to their reporting, a consensus has emerged. Not only...
Oct 28, 2024•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast Early voting is underway in the 2024 election. Donald Trump's former chief of staff revealed some upsetting details of the former president times in office this week. John Kelly, the former Marine general who worked for the Trump administration, said that the 45th president once remarked he needed "Hitler's generals" during a conversation about Germany. Meanwhile, overseas, a top Hezbollah leader was killed this week in an Israeli air attack. Hashem Safieddine was expected to assume control of t...
Oct 25, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Transcript available on Metacast The ideology of Christian nationalism holds that the United States should be closer to and informed by Christian principles. It's been more present in American politics lately, being referenced openly by elected officials and candidates alike. But what is Christian nationalism? Who follows it and what is its purpose? Why is it different from Christian faiths, including evangelical Christianity? We talk to three Christians who are making it their job to push back against this movement from a reli...
Oct 24, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast U.S. health care has a reputation for costing a pretty penny – and making one, too. So, when the country's largest for-profit health care system – Steward Health Care in Dallas, Texas – filed for bankruptcy in May, alarm bells sounded. In September, CEO Ralph de la Torre was subpoenaed to testify about it in front of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee. For the latest installment of our Local Spotlight series, we highlight the work of The Boston Globe's Spotlight team...
Oct 23, 2024•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast When most people think of the a midlife crisis, they picture a man in his 50s dating a younger woman and buying a sports car. But what does this depiction of midlife get wrong and who gets left behind by this narrative? What changes actually take place during our midlives and why is this period of life so under-researched despite everyone alive having decent odds of living through it? We gather a panel of experts and sit down to break down our midlives. Want to support 1A? Give to your local pub...
Oct 22, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast 2024 is the first presidential election with AI in play, and currently, there are few regulations about the use of AI in politics. Last month, the Federal Election Commission decided not to impose new rules on the tech ahead of the election. That means it's fair game and it's being used as such. In August, former president Donald Trump posted a picture of an AI generated image of Taylor Swift endorsing him. It led to a response from the pop mega star. In July, Elon Musk shared a video on X that ...
Oct 21, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Polling suggests the momentum Vice President Kamala Harris enjoyed in August has slowed somewhat. Walgreens is set to close 1,200 stores over the next 3 years and some 800 more are under evaluation. U.S. officials have given Israel an ultimatum: either allow more aid into Gaza or face the prospect of an arms embargo and cuts to other military support. And India and Canada have each expelled the other's top diplomats after Canadian officials accused their Indian counterparts of orchestrating the ...
Oct 18, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Transcript available on Metacast For this installment of our Sound Bites series, we're thinking about why fall favorites are so beloved. Of course, there's the staples, like apples and pumpkins and yams. But what about other in-season offerings, like guavas, and watermelons? We dive into the familiar and not-so-familiar flavors that make this season special, discuss nutrition, and offer up some recipes you can use to make the most of your fall harvest. Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to...
Oct 17, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast How do we really come to understand what it is we put in our bodies? Things like nutrition, expiration, and innovation? How long do leftovers really last? Why do certain food combinations work so well? How do companies like Lays and Taco Bell come up with new food flavors? In this edition of Sound Bites, we break down the science of food and the process of food innovation. Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Connect with us. ...
Oct 16, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Men under 30 are more likely to support Donald Trump than women in their age group. The gender gap in terms of American voters' candidate preference has never been wider. We talk about the role young male voters will play in this election. We discuss what this election means to this group of people, and what trends in their preferences can tell us about their role in deciding the next president. Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have quest...
Oct 16, 2024•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this edition of Sound Bites, we're talking about the art of food preservation. Pickling, canning, pie fillings and jams. We ask master food preserver Christina Ward about the best ways to save the last of your summer fruits and veggies, and what you can preserve as the fall harvest begins. Is there something in the garden that needs saving before it goes bad? Eyeing something at the farmer's market, but not sure how to save it for the colder months? We get into it. Want to support 1A? Give to...
Oct 15, 2024•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast A mission to study one of the solar system's most promising environments is underway. NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft was designed to explore its namesake, Jupiter's moon Europa, launched on Monday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Europa Clipper will serve as the organization's first spacecraft dedicated to studying an ice-covered ocean world in our solar system. It aims to determine whether the moon could be habitable for life as we know it. The spacecraft will carry nine instrumen...
Oct 15, 2024•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on the podcast "Call Her Daddy" last week. She spent some time responding to a comment from Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee-Sanders who spoke about the Democratic nominee at a Trump rally in September. "My kids keep me humble. Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn't have anything keeping her humble," said Sanders. Kamala Harris is a step-mom to her husband, Doug Emhoff's two kids. What does it mean to be a step-mom – and for that matter, step-kid, dad, and sibling...
Oct 15, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Fall is a season that's great for many things: taking walks among the red-orange leaves, sipping warm beverages with a book in hand. It's also an especially good time for baking. It's last day of September, but the first day of our weeklong fall food series called "Sound Bites." Each day, we're tackling a different topic related to fall foods from the art of preservation to fall flavors with a food scientist. And we're starting the week with a show on fall baking. We're talking about bread, cook...
Oct 14, 2024•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's just not one election that picks the president. It's 51. Every state and Washington D.C. has its own rules and deadlines for voting. And in most states, early voting is already underway. More than 4 in 10 voters cast their ballots by mail in 2020. That's according to an analysis from MIT's Election Data and Science Lab. Nearly 4 million mail-in ballots have already been cast in this election. That's only a fraction of the more than 53 million voters have requested so far – about a quarter o...
Oct 14, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Admiral James Stavridis led NATO's global operations from 2009 to 2013 as 16th Supreme Allied Commander for the alliance. His new book is called "The Restless Wave." It's the latest installment of historical fiction from one of the country's most respected military leaders. Stavridis recently warned that warfare is "shapeshifting in front of our eyes." He says the war in Ukraine is a fight that's both very low tech, a battle being fought in the trenches, and high tech, with the use of drones in ...
Oct 13, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Just days after Hurricane Helene devastated the American southwest, Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida, hitting Tampa, Sarasota, and St. Petersburg hard. During an appearance on a podcast, former President Donald Trump said that he believed immigrants who commit murder have "bad genes," a concept that ties the impulse to commit such a crime is genetically determined. Meanwhile, as the war in Gaza and Israel's invasion of Lebanon continue, the Biden administration is losing trust in the Is...
Oct 11, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Transcript available on Metacast From Vice President Kamala Harris's viral campaign moments to former President Donald Trump's appearances on popular podcasts, this election has served up a different flavor of how the internet can shake up an election. But how powerful can the tides of the internet really be for a presidential candidate? We talk about the power of social media and influencers have in this election season. We also sit down with Gen Z voters to hear what issues matter most to them, their thoughts on misinformatio...
Oct 10, 2024•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast For the first time in decades, obesity rates in the U.S. are not on the rise. The adult obesity rate fell to about 40 percent in 2023, down from 41.9 percent in 2020, according to the latest National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from the CDC. While the study doesn't pinpoint one sole reason for the change, the timing coincides with the rise of a new class of drugs targeting diabetes and weight loss, like Ozempic and Wegovy. As part of our series In Good Health, we discuss these new me...
Oct 09, 2024•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Octavia Butler's 1993 novel "The Parable of the Sower" contains a powerful and poignant vision of the United States of the future, one that rings scarily true in the present. The 2024 of Butler's 1993 work isn't so far away from the 2024 in which we're all currently living. Butler published a sequel, Parable of the Talents , in 1998. Both feature a protagonist named Lauren Olamina, a young woman trying to survive and make a life for herself. So what can we learn from Butler's novel? What makes b...
Oct 08, 2024•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Millions in Florida and across the southeast are bracing for the arrival of Hurricane Milton. On Monday, the storm was upgraded to Category 4 hurricane over the southern Gulf of Mexico. The storm's expected to landfall on Wednesday suggests a path of movement that includes Tampa and Orlando. Mass evacuations are underway less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene swamped the coastline. We discuss how those in harm's way are preparing for another storm with life-threatening power. Want to support...
Oct 08, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hamas fighters killed over 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. In response, the Israeli government launched airstrikes and a ground invasion in Gaza, killing almost 42,000 people so far according to Palestinian health authorities. Despite repeated attempts, the United States has failed to broker a ceasefire – in both Gaza and now at Israel's northern border as its military targets the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. Typically, each week leading up to Nov. 5, we f...
Oct 07, 2024•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hurricane Helene ripped through several states in the southeast and southern Appalachian regions of the U.S. Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Republican Sen. JD Vance faced off on Tuesday in what's expected to be their only debate of this election cycle for Vice President. Meanwhile, Israeli forces crossed the border into Lebanon this to conduct what authorities called "localized raids" into Lebanese villages that they claim pose threats to Israeli communities. They also battled Hezbo...
Oct 04, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hurricane Helene and its aftereffects are devastating areas in the southern United States as towns are flooded and communities are isolated. The storm has killed at least 166 people across six states with many still missing. Hundreds of roads have been closed, over a million people are without power, and in Asheville, North Carolina, 100,000 people are facing the possibility of going weeks without water. We get into what relief efforts are being undertaken, and what the situation looks like on t...
Oct 03, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
