Consider This from NPR

This summer, the island of Puerto Rico was under the thrall of Bad Bunny. His 31-concert residency at a stadium in San Juan was a homecoming for the global superstar. It's also a homecoming for many thousands of people who left home – but are flocking back for the shows. NPR’s Adrian Florido reports on how the concerts resonated with Puerto Ricans on and off the island. For sponsor-free episodes o...

Hollywood had another quiet year at cinemas. Box office income hasn’t bounced back to pre-pandemic highs. But ticket sales aren’t always an indication of quality. As proof, critic Bob Mondello shares his top movies that are worth the watch. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at  plus.npr.org . Email us at  considerthis@npr.org . This episod...

Eight years ago, Daniel Day-Lewis announced he was retired from acting. He offered no further comment. Retirement notwithstanding, in October, Daniel Day-Lewis appeared in a new movie. He plays a man who long ago left the world he once knew – and then is contacted by a family member to come back. It was written with and directed by his son, Ronan Day-Lewis. Father and son spoke with host Mary Loui...

President Trump is using his position to access sporting events across the country and embed himself with teams and fans. And he’s leveraging sports and American sports culture to build up and amplify his political brand. NPR’s Tamara Keith speak with Christine Brennan, a longtime sports columnist and author, about the president and the significance of his strong ties to sports. For sponsor-free e...

Day in and day out - it’s NPR’s Newscast team delivering the most immediate news to our audience more than anyone else. NPR's Tamara Keith talks to Korva Coleman about what it takes to get the story and get it right every hour of every day. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. This episode wa...

On the night of his inauguration, President Trump signed an executive order that froze almost all international assistance. What followed was the termination of billions of dollars in aid programs — and the dismantling of the U-S Agency for International Development. Now, the future of U.S. foreign assistance looks very different. NPR global health correspondents Fatma Tanis and Gabrielle Emanuel...

In the months after World War I erupted, young men in Europe were killing each other by the tens of thousands. Yet on a frozen Christmas Eve in 1914, the guns briefly fell silent.  On the 100th anniversary of the truce, former All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro set out to reconstruct the events of that day using the accounts of the people who were there.  We bring you that story. For sponsor-f...

Singer Brenda Lee reflects on the enduring power of her Christmas classic "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree."  For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org . Email us at considerthis@npr.org . This episode was produced by Connor Donevan and Brianna Scott. It was edited by Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun. See...

2025 was a hard year for science. The Trump administration upended federal funding for all kinds of scientific pursuits, slashing budgets across agencies like NASA, NIH and NOAA.  NPR's Rob Stein and Katia Riddle spoke to scientists and officials who worry that those cuts could cause the United States to lose its competitive edge as a global hub for research and innovation, and steer future genera...

The Trump administration has removed over 600,000 people without legal status from the U.S. through deportation this year, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The Trump administration has also been busy revoking legal status for immigrants who entered the country through legal pathways -- affecting at least 1.6 million people -- by canceling programs and protections like CBP One, Tem...

Entrepreneur, political strategist and philanthropist Bradley Tusk argues his new online voting tech could revolutionize participation in American elections. He is hellbent on making online voting a reality - even at a time when much of the election establishment thinks that is a very bad idea. NPR's Miles Parks speaks with Tusk about how Tusk's organization, the Mobile Voting Project, is pushing...

A new report from U.S. government watchdog SIGAR gives us the fullest accounting yet of U.S. efforts to rebuild Afghanistan. In short, they call it "a two-decade long effort fraught with waste.” Each week, Consider This hosts interview newsmakers, experts, and artists for NPR — conversations we don’t always have time to share fully in the podcast or on the radio. So every other week we share one h...

2025 has proved that artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping online reality and that the “slop” is here to stay.  NPR’s Geoff Brumfiel and Shannon Bond have spent much of the year rolling around in that slop and join host Scott Detrow to break down some of the highlights and how to sort the real from the fake. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Po...

Rob Reiner spent his life trying to fix what he saw as America’s shortcomings. In an interview shortly before his death he explained why he was optimistic America could be better. The actor and director was found dead on Sunday along with his wife Michelle Singer Reiner. Their son has been charged with their murders. And those tributes – they’ve centered on Reiner's acting, the movies he’s directe...

The Trump administration is ramping up pressure on Venezuela and its leader.  What is the ultimate goal? President Trump says he’s imposing a ban on all ‘sanctioned’ oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. Venezuela’s government is calling this an ‘outrageous threat’ intended to rob the country of its oil wealth.  For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple...

Tensions between Venezuela and the U.S. have been growing over the past few months. And last Wednesday, the pressure point was oil.  The U.S. government seized a tanker it says was filled with illegal oil headed to the black market, in violation of sanctions. The seizure was an unprecedented move. And it represents an escalation in the standoff between the two countries. In recent months, the U.S....

On Sunday, during a celebration for the first day of Hanukkah, a father and son opened fire on Bondi Beach near Sydney. Killing or wounding dozens of people.  Officials are calling it a terrorist incident. Even though the Jewish community in Australia is small, with just over 115,000 people in a country of more than 25 million, antisemitism is a persistent and rising threat. The spike in Australia...

Venezuelan leader and activist Maria Corina Machado’s perilous journey to Oslo made headlines this week, but that was just the start of a new phase of international campaign to bring pressure on the Nicolas Maduro regime in her home country. NPR’s Miles Parks speaks with Ana Corina Sosa, Machado’s daughter, who accepted the Nobel Peace prize on her mother’s behalf, and talked about the future of V...

Trump’s SAVE tool is looking for noncitizen voters. But it’s flagging U.S. citizens too. Host Miles Parks speaks with NPR reporter Jude Joffe-Block about tracking down citizens who are now having to prove they have a right to vote. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org .  Email us at considerthis@npr.org . This episode was prod...

They survived some of the Afghanistan war's most grueling and treacherous missions.  But once they evacuated to the U.S., many Afghan fighters who served in "Zero Units" found themselves spiraling. Among their ranks was Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the man charged with killing one National Guard member and seriously injuring a second after opening fire on them in Washington, D.C., on Thanksgiving Eve. NP...

The Trump administration is leaning into the once fringe idea of "reverse migration."  For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org . Email us at considerthis@npr.org . This episode was produced by Kathryn Fink and Brianna Scott. It was edited by Andrew Sussman, Justine Kenin and Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigu...

The Catholic Church is wading into a deeply partisan issue. The Archbishop of Chicago weighs in. This fall, the Trump administration launched Operation Midway Blitz – an aggressive immigration crackdown campaign in Chicago. It was met with outcry from many communities around the city including the Catholic Church, and that sentiment goes all the way to the very top of the Church with Pope Leo call...

Venezuela dominates the headlines, but very little attention is paid to what life is like inside the country. In September, the Trump administration began a series of strikes targeting what U.S. officials call "narcoterrorists" in small vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean.  Those strikes are ongoing and have killed more than 80 people. Then, in October, Venezuelan opposition leader Marí...

There's a growing fight in Hollywood over some of the biggest characters on screen, like Tony Soprano, Daenerys Targaryen and Harry Potter. All feature in shows and films owned by Warner Brothers Discovery, and now two companies are fighting to get a piece of the action.  First, on Friday, Netflix struck an $83 billion deal to acquire Warner Brothers Studios and HBO. Then, just days later, Paramou...

New research from the Aspen Economic Strategy Group argues that the subsidies-or-no-subsidies approach to the Affordable Care Act debate is too narrow. Co-author of the paper 'Coverage isn't Care: An Abundance Agenda for Medicaid' Professor Craig Garthwaite tells NPR’s Miles Parks that solutions to make healthcare both more efficient and more affordable at scale are right in front of us. For spons...