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It's been 17 years since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, permanently changing life for many people across the country. Over a thousand were killed, and many more were displaced. The city suffered billions of dollars of damage. New Orleans has slowly recovered over the years, but for many, the trauma of the natural disaster lingers on. NPR's Juana Summers talks with filmmaker Edward Buckl...

Serena Williams dominated tennis for the better part of two decades. Her athleticism and aggressive style changed the way the women's game is played. And she inspired a generation of young Black players who followed in her footsteps. Coco Gauff was one of them. At 18 years old, she was born five years after Williams' first Grand Slam singles title. Today, she's ranked 12th in the WTA rankings. "Gr...

This summer, just weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the story of a 10-year-old girl in Ohio became a flashpoint in the national abortion debate. The girl had become pregnant as a result of rape and had to travel across state lines to Indiana to get an abortion. For one rape survivor, the case reminded her of what she lived through long ago, before Roe was the law the of the lan...

Across the country, some teachers are deciding not to return to the classroom this September. The pandemic didn't create the problem of teacher burnout, but it made a bad situation worse. Fed up with low pay, hampered by partisan politics intruding in the classroom, and shaken by the recent Uvalde shooting, many say they have reached their breaking point. Teacher vacancies have left school distric...

President Biden's plan to forgive federal student loan debt – up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients and up to $10,000 for others who qualify – leaves millions of borrowers with unanswered questions. NPR's Sequoia Carrillo and Carolina Rodriguez of the Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program in New York, examine the new plan and help answer some of the frequently asked questions about how it w...

For nearly four decades, Dr. Anthony Fauci has been leading the fight against infectious diseases in America - including AIDS and COVID-19. Now, he's stepping away. Earlier this week, Dr. Fauci announced he would retire as the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the end of the year. In this episode, we'll talk with Dr. Fauci about his decision to leave, and take a...

The soldiers known as the Azovstal defenders are heroes in Ukraine. They held out for months against the Russians, fighting from a bombed-out steel plant in the southern port city of Mariupol. When the city fell, the Ukrainian soldiers were taken captive by Russia. Last month, the prison where they were being held was rocked by an explosion. More than 50 people died according to Russian sources, a...

Gas prices are down. Inflation is dropping ever so slightly. But the cost of food is going up. The price of food in America rose more in the past year than it has at any time since 1979. We'll explore the ways that high food prices are affecting consumers and small businesses alike, and see what inflation means for those who are most vulnerable to food insecurity. This episode features reporting f...

One year after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, the lives of women and girls have changed dramatically. Girls are no longer permitted to attend secondary school. Women are blocked from working in most sectors. And they are under orders to cover themselves in public. Rangina Hamidi was the acting minister of education when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. We hear about her decision to...

It's the kind of captivating, complex story that's hard to forget once you hear it. In 2012, star Notre Dame linebacker Manti T'eo's grandmother died. Just hours later, his girlfriend died of leukemia. Rising above the tragedy he seemed unstoppable on the field as Notre Dame went on to a winning season. But the girlfriend was a hoax. Te'o was the victim of catfishing. He had fallen in love with a...

President Biden had the narrowest possible Democratic Majority in the Senate when he took office. Yet the Biden administration's legislative successes continue to pile up. He signed the American Rescue Plan just a couple months after taking office, followed by a major infrastructure bill last fall. Most recently, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law. These three legislative packages t...

75 years ago this week, British colonial rule ended in India. Two new nations emerged - Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India. But that freedom was followed by chaos and bloodshed. Partition triggered a mass migration across a shared border, as millions of Muslims fled to Pakistan and millions of Hindus and Sikhs fled to India. Violent attacks happened on both sides of the border. An e...

A key primary this week in Wyoming re-affirmed Donald Trump's hold on the Republican party. As expected, Republican Representative Liz Cheney lost her race in a landslide, defeated by attorney Harriet Hageman, a Trump-endorsed political newcomer. Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, came to office five years ago as a Republican darling. But everything shifted when she voted to im...

In 2018, more than 5,500 children of immigrants were separated from their parents at the border. The Trump administration's "Zero Tolerance" policy, better known as family separation, was short-lived, ending in June of 2018 after facing condemnation from the public and members of Congress. For some families, it took years to reunite, and hundreds of families still have not been brought back togeth...

One year ago, on August 15, 2021, the Taliban swept into power in Kabul. It's a day that many remember, as videos and images showed a chaotic scene at the Kabul airport, with thousands of Afghans desperately trying to flee the country. Lt. Col. Chris Richardella was one of the officers leading the U.S. Marine Corps at the airport when the Taliban took over. In a conversation with NPR's Mary Louise...

At one point, over 90% of African Americans with a college degree obtained it from an HBCU. But in the decades following the legal dismantling of segregation, enrollment declined at HBCUs. Recently, some HBCUs have seen a significant rise in applications. The boost could be due to more funding, celebrity students, or famous HBCU grads like Vice President Kamala Harris. But informal conversations w...

Former President Donald Trump is dominating headlines yet again. Earlier this week, the FBI took several boxes of secret and top secret documents from Mar-a-Lago during a search of Trump's home. And on Friday, a federal judge unsealed the warrant for the search – plus a list of what was taken from the property. NPR's Carrie Johnson explains what the unsealed warrant reveals, and what comes next. B...

Up until a few weeks ago, meaningful climate legislation was sidelined in the U.S. Senate. But after months of wrangling votes — and adding concessions to oil and gas companies — Democrats in the Senate have finally passed the Inflation Reduction Act. The bill includes more than $300 billion in climate investments — the highest amount ever allocated by the federal government to tackle climate chan...

In Republican politics, one of the biggest issues in the 2022 election is the 2020 election. In at least 8 states so far, Republicans have picked candidates for Secretary of State who deny the results of the last presidential election. This is despite the fact that not a shred of evidence calls President Biden's victory into question. If elected, they would become the chief elections officer in th...

Researchers at an American national laboratory spent years developing cutting-edge vanadium redox flow batteries. But now, a Chinese company is making those batteries in a factory in northeastern China. An investigation from NPR's Laura Sullivan and Northwest News Network's Courtney Flatt shows how the U.S. federal government gave away American-made technology to China. In participating regions, y...

All eyes are on Kherson. In Ukraine's first major offensive of the war, soldiers are pushing towards the city, trying to retake it from Russian troops. It's a transport hub and key river crossing, and reclaiming it would be a huge victory for Ukraine. NPR's Kat Lonsdorf brings us the story of Vitaly, a 22-year-old college student in Kherson. Since the city first fell, he has sent NPR voice memos d...

Bashar Murad's danceable riffs and live concerts and videos - filled with bubbles, enormous hats, and layers and layers of veils - have earned him the nickname "Palestinian Lady Gaga" from his fans. And much like Born This Way is an anthem of equality, Murad's songs challenge conservative social norms and push for LGBTQ rights while also challenging the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Earlier...

This week the Biden administration declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency. And as the number of cases in the U.S. continues to climb, there's a lot of confusion about the disease, how it spreads and who's most at-risk. NPR health correspondents Pien Huang and Michaeleen Doucleff join us to discuss the current outbreak. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segm...

With House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, the U.S. airstrike that killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine, there's a lot to talk about with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan these days. He weighs in on all three in a sit-down interview with NPR. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going...

Since the fall of Roe v. Wade, a dozen states have implemented laws banning or severely restricting abortion. Those laws have consequences for wanted pregnancies, too. NPR's Carrie Feibel brings us the story of a woman in Texas whose pregnancy took a sudden turn. Because of the state's abortion law, her case became a medical crisis. This episode also includes reporting from NPR's Sarah McCammon an...