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If you’ve been on the internet lately, you’ve probably been fooled by AI at least once. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. One poll by the data security company, All About Cookies, found that 77 percent of Americans have been duped by artificial intelligence at some point. Sometimes it can seem harmless – like that viral TikTok video of bunnies jumping on a trampoline, which raked in over 25 million l...

Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard died today in a motorcycle crash in Ireland at the age of 56. We sat down with him in April to talk about his storied career and his final album, "Don+t Settle – Transmissions East and West." Here's what we wrote about that conversation at the time. – The song “Falling Slowly” first debuted in the 2007 indie romance film “Once” starring Irish singer-songwriter...

Navigating a challenging moment in a friendship. Weighing a new job or changing your career. Seeing news about instability in our politics. A confusing diagnosis at the doctor’s office. Tending to a loved one in the hospital or in hospice. Uncertainty strikes us in every part of our lives, big and small. And about three quarters of the world’s more than 8 billion people turn to faith. In this edit...

At least 18 American service members have been killed and hundreds more wounded since the start of the Iran war. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump spoke little of the troops who’d recently been killed before giving updates on the war: We feel very badly, but you know those great people, those great patriots who are out there fighting that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Iran has been very, ver...

Nearly 100 U.S. service members have been injured since the resumption of hostilities between Iran and the U.S. The American death toll now stands at 18. In Maine, Democrats have chosen their replacement candidate to challenge Sen. Susan Collins. Troy Jackson is a former state lawmaker and is stepping in to fill the void left by Graham Platner. Platner stepped aside after allegations of sexual ass...

Extreme heat isn’t just an inconvenience. It’s a growing public health threat. More than 40 million people across the U.S. have remained under heat alerts this month. Heat remains the deadliest extreme weather event in the United States. At least 44 people have died as a result of July heatwaves. And in Europe, heatwaves killed more than 10,000 people in June, according to health data published th...

How did you celebrate July 4 this year? What did the country’s landmark 250th anniversary, in honor of the founding of the United States, mean to you? The next 50 years likely hold a lot of change for our country where democracy, economic uncertainty, technology, and our social fabric are concerned. What do we want that change to look like? We opened the phones so that you, our listeners, can tell...

You may have heard of a parasite that’s causing some gastrointestinal distress. Cyclospora has sickened thousands of people across 34 states this summer – more than six times the number reported at this point last year. The CDC has linked a major cluster to shredded iceberg lettuce at Taco Bell in some states. And Taylor Farms de Mexico has now pulled all of its iceberg lettuce from the U.S. marke...

One of the most critical parts of a democracy is the right to dissent. But if democratic norms weaken, that right can become harder to exercise. And when authoritarianism creeps into a government, dissent can get dangerous. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison for resisting Apartheid before becoming South Africa’s first Black president. Before becoming president of Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel...

As ICE ramps up its operations in and around American communities, its agents were involved in the deaths of three men in the last week. Trump Director of National Intelligence nominee Jay Clayton refused to answer Georgia Sen. John Ossoff’s question about the results of the 2020 presidential election during a confirmation hearing. After weeks of silence, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell confirmed on...

Israel is expanding its command of Gaza and now controls almost 70 percent of the tiny enclave that’s home to more than two million people. More than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas nearly a year ago. Some 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in total since Israel’s military offensive began after Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023. M...

An Alzheimer’s diagnosis can have a real impact on a person and their family. There’s a lot to consider — what the future will hold, what symptoms they’ll experience, and on what timeline. About 7.5 million people in the U.S. currently suffer from Alzheimer’s. Every year, around half a million more are diagnosed with the disease or another form of dementia. As the population gets older, that figur...

What do gyms, TV shows, pet food, and smart doorbells all have in common? Nowadays, you might use a monthly subscription or other recurring membership to access these goods or services. The average American spends $219 every month on subscriptions. That’s more than $2,600 a year. Those recurring payments mean predictable profits for companies. That is, unless you cancel. Enter: subscription traps....

The Trump administration is threatening top election officials with criminal prosecution if any ballot is cast by noncitizens in their state. That’s according to a letter from the Justice Department sent last week to all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The president’s threats raise the specter of noncitizen voting. In Michigan, for example, officials found that only 16 noncitizens voted in...

Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner dropped out of the race for Maine Sen. Susan Collins’ seat in Congress, after sexual assault allegations made by a former partner surfaced. Democrats are searching for a replacement. Calls for answers on Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell’s whereabouts and wellbeing are growing. The former Senate majority leader has not been seen in three weeks, leading to spe...

Humans like to know what’s coming next. How to plan for the future. And what the consequences of our actions might be. But the modern world is only becoming less certain — war abroad and political conflict at home, technological breakthroughs once only seen in science fiction, a volatile economy and labor market with the careers of billions at risk. And of course, the climate crisis, which rages o...

At the end of June, the Supreme Court ruled six to three that the federal government can end Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for more than 300,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians currently residing legally in the United States. TPS is a program that allows people from designated countries currently experiencing crises, like natural disasters or civil war, to live and work in the U.S. Some Haitian T...

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. 250 years on, are these words still guiding us? The Declaration of Independence marked the start of our American Experiment. Does that document still hold central tenets of who we are as a nation? Deep political polarization has made that question murkier than perhaps ever before. We reflect on what a shared civic gospel look...

It’s been nearly a year since a major reshaping of the State Department. It was part of the Trump Administration’s goal to overhaul the federal government and to streamline and reduce redundancies. On July 8, 2025 the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Administration’s massive reduction in force plan. Days later, more than 1,350 employees, including foreign services officers were laid off from...

It's a milestone birthday for the U.S. this weekend. And we're marking the 250th by taking a look back at this year's Sounds of America series. Every year, the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress selects 25 pieces of sound to add to its collection — songs, speeches, and beyond. In the past, we’ve partnered with the 14th Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, who oversaw this proje...

Throughout history, adulthood has often been defined by clear markers — turning 18, moving out of your parents’ home, or getting married. But most of us know that being an adult by law is very different from being one in real life. Traditional markers of adulthood like purchasing a home or getting married are happening later and later these days. The average first-time homebuyer in 1981 was just 2...

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” 250 years ago, the founding fathers were days away from adopting the Declaration of Independence. Fast forward to July 4, 2026, two and a half centuries later, has America lived up to thos...

Americans are grappling with a rising cost in healthcare. For the first time in five years, fewer than half of Americans can consistently afford healthcare. That’s according to the latest data from Gallup. The cost of healthcare in the US remains higher than any other large, wealthy country. According to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services, five million fewer people are enrol...

President Donald Trump has taken an increasingly personal role in the government’s clemency process, wielding pardons aid his allies and advance his own political grievances. A Reuters investigation found tha t 96% of Trump’s second-term clemency grants have gone to recipients who didn’t fulfill longstanding DOJ guidelines for such requests. Past presidents on have sidestepped those rules before ,...

This week the Supreme Court sides with President Trump on ending Temporary Protected Status . The decades-long program currently gives legal status in the U.S. to about 350,000 Haitians and more than 6,000 Syrians seeking refuge from crises at home. The court also ruled to renew a “turn-back” policy at the border with Mexico that prevents migrants from entering the U.S. to seek asylum. A decision...