Consider This from NPR

Who doesn't love a lush, perfectly manicured grass lawn? It turns out, a lot of people are actively trying to get rid of their lawns, ripping out grass in favor of native plants, vegetables, and flowers to attract pollinators. As the realities of climate change become starker, more and more people are looking for ways to create environmentally friendly spaces. NPR's Scott Detrow talks with researc...

In the 1980s the U.S. Army launched a recruiting drive around the slogan, "Be all you can be." They've relaunched the slogan now as the push is on to make up for a drop off in recruitment. The Army is having a hard time convincing potential recruits that the military is the best place to reach their full potential. Last year, the Army was 15,000 soldiers short of its recruiting goal. Army surveys...

It took just eight Republicans, voting with Democrats, to oust Kevin McCarthy from the House speakership. His removal may have been unprecedented, but for several years now the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives has been marked by chaos and unruliness. The job to lead them seems increasingly impossible. NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Rep. Matt Rosendale, of Montana, who was one of th...

The Supreme Court heard a case Tuesday that threatened the existence of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. NPR's Nina Totenberg reports on the legal arguments in a case brought by payday lenders against the watchdog agency. And NPR's Scott Horsley walks through the track record of the CFPB since its founding in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Email us at considerthis@npr.org . See pc...

Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had a tenure marked by a relentless series of challenges. He served through the U.S. withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and rising tensions with China. He also served under an American president with little regard for the norms that have historically separated politics from the U.S. military: Donald T...

Not too long ago, crypto was being trumpeted as the next big thing. Celebrities were getting in on it, including Kim Kardashian, Matt Damon and Tom Brady. Now the former face of crypto, Sam Bankman-Fried, who ran the FTX exchange, is going on trial. He's accused of orchestrating one of the largest frauds in history. As his case gets underway it's as if the whole crypto industry is on trial. NPR's...

When the video game Mortal Kombat released in 1992, it took arcades — and later the American home — by storm. Thirty years on, the franchise is still going strong. NPR's Scott Detrow faces off against co-host Juana Summers in the latest version of the game, Mortal Kombat 1, and speaks with co-creator Ed Boon. Email us at considerthis@npr.org . See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collecti...

The federal government will shut down on October 1st if Congress doesn't pass funding legislation for the next fiscal year before then. That looks increasingly likely as House Republicans continue to hold out for deep spending cuts before agreeing to any deal to keep the government running. A shutdown could potentially affect millions of Americans, among them some of the country's most vulnerable...

The U.S. government and 17 states sued Amazon on Tuesday in a landmark case that could take down the tech giant. The Federal Trade Commission and a bipartisan group of state attorneys general say that Amazon is a monopolist that chokes competitors and raises costs for both sellers and shoppers. Lina Khan, the head of the Federal Trade Commission, has spent years arguing that a few big companies ha...

President Biden made history on Tuesday when he joined members of the United Auto Workers union on a picket line outside Detroit as they strike for better pay and benefits from the Big Three automakers. Biden is walking a political tightrope. He wants a better contract for workers–and to win union members' votes in battleground states. He also wants to support carmakers as they transition to a fut...

146 days. That's how long it took for the WGA to reach a tentative agreement with major Hollywood studios. WGA leadership is scheduled to vote Tuesday on accepting the new three-year deal. They'll pass it on to the guild's entire membership for ratification. It will take longer for the WGA membership to learn the details and vote. While this is happening, actors are still on the picket line. SAG-A...

As president Joe Biden's campaign for a second term gets underway, a slew of recent polls show that voters have concerns about his age. At the end of a second term, he would be 86 years old. The Republican frontrunner, former president Donald Trump, is just a few years younger. We wanted to check in with some voters who have first-hand experience with aging: seniors. So we headed to Pittsburgh and...

Close to five thousand people have died in federal prison since 2009. There are 100 federal prisons across the U.S. An NPR investigation found that a quarter of those deaths happened at one federal prison. Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina. Inmates have a constitutional right to health care. Being denied care is considered cruel and unusual punishment. But many of the sick inma...

New York City has become an unlikely battleground for migrant rights. The city, like others, has struggled to deal with the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants - bussed in from Republican-led states like Texas and Florida. Amid rising pressure to do something to alleviate this problem, the Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it was granting Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, to...

On Tuesday, five Americans detained for years in Iran stepped off a plane back onto US soil. They were released in the US-Iran prisoner swap that also saw five Iranians freed and the US agreeing to 6 billion dollars of Iranian oil money being unfrozen. Per the deal, Iran is supposed to spend the money only on humanitarian goods like food and medicine. Among the five freed Americans: Siamak Namazi....

The state of California has filed a massive lawsuit against oil companies. The charge is that oil companies knew they were causing climate change, and lied to cover it up. And now, California is suing for damages. The state is suing to force fossil fuel companies to help fund recovery efforts related to California's extreme weather related events — floods, fire, dangerous heat --which have been ma...

On Monday, five Americans who were imprisoned in Iran, stepped off a plane in Doha, Qatar. They were freed as part of a prisoner exchange deal between the U.S. and Iran. Despite the happy news, the Biden administration is facing a lot of criticism for this deal, which also gave Iran access to about $6 billion of its oil revenue - money that had been frozen under sanctions targeting the government...

Since becoming Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy has faced the constant threat that members of the right wing of his own Republican Party could move to oust him from power. And now, many view his launch of an impeachment inquiry into President Biden as a political move to protect his flank. Host Scott Detrow speaks with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich about McCarthy'...

If you're over a certain age and you love movies, when you think "movie critic", you probably picture Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert and their popular TV shows. Their iconic "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" move made it clear what each of them thought about a film. In some ways, the movie review website Rotten Tomatoes is the opposite of Siskel and Ebert. Their viewers depended on the insights of two ind...

It can be hard to see how big government policies have a direct effect on an individual's experience. But it was easy to measure the difference made by the expanded child tax credit. Giving more money to low-income families with children had a big impact. After the expanded child tax credit took effect, child poverty hit a record low of 5.2% a year ago. But less than a year later, Congress let it...

The president of the United Auto Workers says the union is planning to carry out sudden, strategic and partial strikes at plants should contract talks with Detroit's Big Three automakers fail ahead of a contract deadline on Thursday night. UAW President Shawn Fain also held out the possibility of an all-out strike in the future of the nearly 150,000 union members. In addition to concerns over pay,...

Right now it seems like people all around us are testing positive for COVID. But for the most part, they are not getting seriously ill. The Food and Drug Administration just approved a new booster. And on Tuesday advisers to the CDC recommended it for everyone six months and older. With a new variant and a new booster, how should we think about the pandemic in this moment? Email us at considerthis...

When North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2019, both countries were in a different position. Russia had yet to invade Ukraine. Four years later, Russia is trying to secure weapons from North Korea. The two leaders are expected to meet this month to discuss a deal. NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Jean Lee, the former Pyongyang bureau chief for the Associated Pres...

The National Football League's regular season is finally underway. And for loyal fans who have been devouring all the news of their favorite teams, it couldn't have come soon enough. But even if you're just a casual viewer of football, or really any network television program, you've probably seen the star-studded ads for a related business: sports betting. The league's partnership with major spor...

The Endangered Species Act turns 50 this year. The landmark law has been successful for decades at stopping extinctions of several plants and animals. Recovering endangered or threatened species to the point where they no longer need federal protection has been more difficult because of climate change. NPR's Nathan Rott speaks with Martha Williams, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ab...