1A

Abraham Lincoln was the first U.S. president to sport a beard. For the next 50 years, whiskers were commonplace in the White House. But then, they went out of style. Now, Vice President JD Vance is the first executive branch leader in more than a century with a furry face. And others are following suit. From the Senate to the campaign trail, more and more men in politics are letting their facial h...

President Donald Trump delivered a national address on Wednesday in an attempt to set the record straight on his economic record. Gun violence dominated the news this week. Two people were killed in a shooting at Brown University. Six teenagers were injured in a shooting outside of a birthday party in Brooklyn. And an MIT professor was shot and killed inside of his home Tuesday. And an appeals cou...

The modern world is a noisy, chaotic place. News about what’s happening in the world is constantly available on a device in your pocket. The internet offers more content than any person could consume in their lifetime, or in 10 lifetimes. Politics can feel unstable, with elected officials changing the norms and rules of our political system. AI is upending our ideas about what work will look like...

It’s a stressful day at the office. You want to get away from work. The sounds of notifications, meeting alerts, and Zoom calls ring through your ears. You step outside for your lunch break. No matter where you are in the world, you’re likely to hear the same thing: the sounds of bir ds. They’re everywhere, after all. Despite their constant presence in our lives and our world, there’s still a lot...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants to tightly control the news that comes out of the Pentagon — even as he deals with the fallout over strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean. In October, nearly all mainstream media outlets left the Pentagon press pool after refusing to comply with restrictive rules from the Trump administration. The exodus included the Associated Press , NPR, and Th...

Democrats were on the receiving end of some midterm election momentum this week. In Indiana, Republicans lawmakers defied intense pressure from President Donald Trump rejecting his demands for a newly gerrymandered Congressional map. In Miami, residents elected Eileen Higgins as mayor, the first woman to hold the job in the city’s history. She’s also the first Democrat to hold the office in 28 yea...

What would you sacrifice to push efforts forward on eliminating diseases? What about to make sure our products and medicines are safe, especially for our most vulnerable? These questions lead us to ethical quagmire and, oftentimes, to the use of animals for research, testing, and experimentation. We’ve long heard the term “lab rat.” Its popularity in conversation belies an understanding that these...

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel voted to end a recommendation that all newborns be immunized at birth against hepatitis B. That guidance had been in place for more than 30 years. Hepatitis B is a highly infectious virus that can cause severe liver damage, including cirrhosis and cancer. The members of this panel, known as ACIP, were handpicked by...

As of Thursday, the Pentagon says it’s attacked 23 boats and killed at least 87 people as part of the Trump administration’s campaign against drug trafficking in the Caribbean. In the months since the first strike on Sept. 2, one question has emerged that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cannot seem to shake: Are these boat strikes legal? The White House says yes. But several members of Congress, le...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was under the spotlight this week. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are demanding video and audio of a “double-tap” strike he ordered on a boat allegedly carrying drugs into the U.S. The Trump administration has halted immigration applications from 19 countries. This comes after the shooting of two National Guard members by an Afghan national in Washington D.C. The city of...

Between 2010 and 2022, pedestrian deaths in the U.S. jumped nearly 80 percent. Since then, the number of walkers struck and killed by cars has remained stubbornly high – with pedestrian deaths in some cities continuing to rise. What’s made our streets so dangerous and what can we do about it? Find more of our programs online . Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a ....

No matter where you live in the U.S., you’ve probably heard stories — or have your own — about not being able to afford to live. The couple in their 30s that can’t buy a home. The 20-something who can’t afford rent without living with several roommates. The family of five who feel pinched every time they visit the grocery store. The retiree struggling to pay their health insurance premium. Whateve...

The longest government shutdown in U.S. history ended a little over two weeks ago. Federal workers are back on the job. But one of the biggest fights that helped fuel that shutdown remains unresolved. The enhanced subsidies that help millions of people afford health plans on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces are set to expire at the end of this year. Meanwhile, open enrollment for 2026 coverage...

Over 210,000 federal workers left their jobs this year because of the Trump administration. That’s according to the Partnership for Public Service Harms Tracker. For many, it’s meant walking away from, or being pushed out of, a decades-long commitment to public service. And one trend that’s emerging? Fired or laid-off former federal employees and contractors are running for public office. We featu...

Have you ever fantasized about going back in time to relive a moment — or change it? Maybe you’re more interested in traveling to the future where cars fly and the code to immortality has been cracked. If the idea of time travel resonates with you, you’re far from alone — particularly during a year of political upheaval. Scientists moved one step closer to understanding time travel, at least hypot...

Headaches are one of the most common neurological conditions in the world. They’re also one of the most debilitating, mysterious, and misunderstood. According to the World Health Organization, 3 billion people worldwide suffer from headache disorders. And one in six Americans suffers from headaches that are so severe they limit their ability to work, sleep, or otherwise function. We discuss headac...

The Democratic party has been plagued by infighting over everything from its aging leadership to the war in Gaza. We talked about those divisions on the program earlier this month. Now, we’re turning our attention to the cracks in the GOP, which over the last few weeks, have only grown wider. Shortly after President Donald Trump won the 2024 election, the Republican party appeared to be in lockste...

Congress voted overwhelmingly to authorize the release of the Epstein files. President Donald Trump welcomed the decision, signing the bill on Wednesday. ICE activity in Charlotte, North Carolina, ramped up this week; authorities reportedly made some 250 arrests . The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the economy added 119,000 jobs in September, while the unemployment rate edged up to 4.4%. It is th...

Groundbreaking. Transformative. A new way to unlock human creativity and productivity. Tech CEOs have promised artificial intelligence will do many things for us. They’ve used these promises to justify billions of dollars of investment in building the language models and data centers needed to power AI. Four of the world’s biggest tech companies – Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google – have promise...

The typical American supermarket carries more than 30,000 products. There are nearly as many opinions about what items you should buy to maintain a healthy diet. Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says changing how Americans eat is key to improving our public health — but some of his advice has nutritionists scratching their heads. Throw in the influence of a mult...

The last two weeks have highlighted fractures within both the Republican and Democratic parties. The fight over releasing the Epstein files has shaken the GOP, causing some of President Donald Trump’s staunchest allies – like Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene – to call him out. And recent incidents of antisemitism within the MAGA movement have prompted infighting about how (and whether) to root...

The longest government shutdown in history is now over after a group of Senate Democrats broke with the party to vote for a bill that funds the federal government. Meanwhile, House Democrats facilitated the release of emails from the Epstein files that reference President Donald Trump and suggest that he knew about former financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sex crimes. Shots were fired at ICE agents in Ch...

The civil war in Sudan has claimed the lives of some 150,000 people. From the outside looking in, the story of the war is one of two competing generals, foreign involvement complicating matters, and mass casualties among the innocent. Now, following a massacre in the city of El Fasher, the rebels have agreed to a humanitarian ceasefire proposed by the Quad — a group of group of four countries incl...

In-home elder care costs are rising more than three times faster than inflation. AARP estimates that caregivers in the U.S. spend an average of $7,242 out of pocket each year. Cuts to federal spending have gutted programs that support them. And amidst the longest government shutdown in history, what little help was left is quickly drying up. Why is the cost of care going up? What can be done to co...

Late Sunday, while most eyes were on the Senate’s shutdown negotiations, the Trump administration was busy rewriting the history of the 2020 election. Just before midnight, a Justice Department lawyer posted a list on X of dozens of the president’s top allies and former aides who’d received pardons related to their efforts to overturn that election. Among them are Trump’s former lawyer, Rudy Giuli...