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Social media platforms have helped fuel political polarization and incitements to violence across the globe, from the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar to the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. This is because algorithms consistently select content that evokes anger and outrage from its users to maximize engagement. And sometimes, those extreme emotions turn into extreme actions. New York Time...

A lot of mobile homes aren't actually that mobile. They're brought in trucks in big pieces, then screwed together and put up on foundations. At that point they're basically just houses, with one major exception: the people who own those houses, if they live in a mobile home park, often don't own the land underneath them. That can leave them at the mercy of the big companies that own and manage the...

Even if you have never walked the red carpet at the Met Gala, or sat in the front row of a Fashion Week runway, the notion of fashion is hard to escape. For some of us, what we wear – whether it's Gucci or the GAP–is about more than just the clothes on our bodies. Fashion is often about who we are - our ideas, identity, and culture. For those who cover and create fashion, it can be a way to challe...

Quiet quitting. It's a buzzy topic in the workplace and on social media, sparked by a viral TikTok video earlier this summer. So what does it mean? For some workers, it's simply doing what's in your job description and nothing more. For others, it's about setting boundaries and focusing on work-life balance. Quiet quitting doesn't actually involve quitting a job. But as workplace culture has chang...

Queen Elizabeth II, the monarch of Britain since 1952, died on Thursday at the age of 96. She reigned for longer than any other ruler of the United Kingdom, spanning seventy years and fifteen prime ministers. NPR's Frank Langfitt brings us the story of her life and reign, including the ups and downs of the royal family during her tenure. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segm...

For more than a month, residents of Jackson, Mississippi, have not had access to safe drinking water. The city is under a boil water advisory after problems with the pumps at the city's main water treatment plant. It's the latest emergency in a city that has had problems with its water system for decades. We talk to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan about efforts to fix J...

Traffic fatalities have surged since the early days of the pandemic, reversing a persistent decline since the 1970s. Roads in the U.S. are now more dangerous than they've been in 20 years. Vox's Marin Cogan tells us about the deadliest road in the country, a stretch of US-19 in Pasco County, Fla. And we speak to Ryan Sharp, director of transportation and planning in Hoboken, N.J. That city has man...

When Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in 2017, she was in the midst of reporting on corruption within the island's government. After her death, a small team of reporters picked up her work where she left off, determined to find the people behind her assassination. In this episode, we'll talk with one of those reporters — Stephen Grey from Reuters — about their investigation, wh...

After decades of scandals over horrible conditions, many states are reimagining prisons and jails and reusing those properties to benefit the community. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

After the 2016 election – and Russian hacking attempts targeted at local election offices – hundreds of local governments across the country made changes. Among them, installing something called an Albert sensor. It's designed to warn of hacking attempts. But in Washington State, this cybersecurity tool has become the subject of suspicion on the political right. It's part of a trend that one votin...

Students in Uvalde, Texas are going back to school for the first time since a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School back in May. But parents and kids are still worried about security in the district — and some families are opting to homeschool instead of going back in-person. NPR's Juana Summers spent a week in Uvalde speaking with families about how the community is...

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...