Consider This from NPR

The writers and actors strikes have been grinding on for months with no end in sight. Many on the picket lines are struggling to pay for basics. NPR's Ailsa Chang talks to Fran Drescher about what it's going to take to end the strikes. Drescher's the president of SAG-AFTRA, which represents the actors on strike. Email us at considerthis@npr.org . See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our colle...

Giant machines sucking carbon dioxide out of the air to fight climate change sounds like science fiction, but it's close to becoming a reality, with billions of dollars of support from the U.S. government. And a key player in this growing industry is a U.S. oil company, Occidental Petroleum. With a major petroleum company deploying this technology, it begs the question, is it meant to save the pla...

Google was founded 25 years ago by two Stanford PhD students, Larry Page and Sergei Brin. The company went on to shape the internet and now, after a quarter century, finds itself at a turning point. With the rise of AI and social media platforms like TikTok, its continued dominance is not assured. NPR's Ari Shapiro talks to Nilay Patel , editor-in-chief of The Verge, about Google's legacy and what...

It's been over three years since the pandemic started and changed the way millions of Americans work. The possibilities of remote work gave a new kind of freedom to many workers. But as more and more companies demand employees return to the office, is the work from home era coming to an end? Host Scott Detrow speaks with Anne Helen Petersen, culture writer and the author of Out of Office, about th...

After three and a half years, the pause on federal student loan payments is coming to an end. Getting more than 40 million borrowers back into repayment will be an enormous challenge, especially because many students who graduated when the pause was already in place have never made a payment. We put borrowers' questions to two experts: NPR Education correspondent Cory Turner , and Carolina Rodrigu...

Hundreds of towns, cities and counties across the country impose curfews on young people. On September 1st a curfew went into effect in seven neighborhoods across the District of Columbia that will affect those aged 17 and under. Like many other cities, the nation's capital has seen an increase in violent crime. And some of the most shocking crimes have been committed by young people. Teens as you...

For the second time this summer the top Republican in the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, abruptly went silent at a news conference. He was about to answer a question from a reporter when he suddenly froze up. He seemed unable to speak. An aide then stepped in, trying to keep things moving along. The senator's silences have raised concerns about his mental fitness – and larger questions a...

When people find themselves in the path of a hurricane they are faced with the question: should they evacuate or not? Who makes that call and how? NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with former FEMA administrator Craig Fugate about the decision-making process behind evacuation orders and why people should heed them ahead of hurricanes making landfall. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our coll...

On Tuesday, the Biden administration released a list of 10 medications that it's planning to negotiate prices for Medicare in an effort to bring down the costs of some of the most expensive drugs. It's part of a reform included in the Inflation Reduction Act. Many on the list are life-saving drugs that treat diabetes, cancer and other major health problems.| The new prices that the federal governm...

The latest mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida left three people dead. All of the victims were Black and the white gunman left behind racist, hate-filled letters. The Justice Department is now investigating this shooting as a hate crime. A big part of the conversation now is what role state politics play in crimes like this. Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has loosened gun laws in rece...

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry is preparing for the next major climate summit, in Dubai. He's calling for an end to permitting new, unabated coal-fired power anywhere in the world. We ask him about whether the U.S. has lived up to its climate commitments. We also talk to Vox climate reporter Rebecca Leber about Biden's signature climate legislation, which was passed a year ago this month. Email us...

The South Pole of the Moon is the coolest place to be. And nearly every country with a space program is vying for a spot there - for a chance to explore the shadowy, polar craters in hopes of finding usable quantities of water ice. On Wednesday, the Indian Space Research Organisation successfully landed its Chandrayaan-3 probe near the moon's south pole. It was the first time India had landed a sp...

With the wildfires in Maui contained, the recovery process has begun. The focus has also turned to how the island can prepare for similar disasters in the future Officials and experts hope to address Hawaii's emergency alert system, as well as the construction of more fire-resistant homes. But what of the fires themselves? We often hear about forest fires, but the deadliest fire in the US in more...

Russia's state news agency Tass reported that the country's most famous mercenary, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was on the passenger list for a flight that crashed on its way from Moscow to St. Petersburg on Wednesday, killing all ten people on board. Despite being on the passenger list, it's not clear Prigozhin was on the flight. As head of the Wagner Group, Prigozhin led an unsuccessful mutiny against the...

Former president Donald Trump is the frontrunner in the Republican presidential primary. And with a healthy lead in the polls, he's skipping the first Republican presidential debate on Wednesday. So how do you prep for a big, televised debate when your biggest opponent decides not to show up? That's been the question facing the eight Republicans who will be on stage in Milwaukee on Wednesday night...

Puerto Rico has seen a string of natural disasters in the past few years – hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and landslides. When COVID-19 hit in 2020, things got even worse. These disasters have taken a heavy toll on student mental health. They've disrupted everyday life - including school. That disruption has seriously impacted educational outcomes for kids and teens on the island. The Nation's R...

The last few elections have brought a wave of self-styled progressive prosecutors into office. They've won elections by campaigning on issues like bail reform and alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders. Now, Republican-controlled state legislatures and governors are taking steps to curtail their power, or strip them of it altogether. We talk to Monique Worrell, who was elected sta...

A growing body of research makes it clear that noise pollution can have severely harmful impacts on our health. It has been tied to heart disease and thousands of premature deaths around the world. Still, our communities seem to get louder and louder. Some people are fighting back - pushing for more regulation and quieter cities. NPR's Pien Huang takes a sonic tour of Providence, Rhode Island with...

The Biden administration is under intense political pressure from Republicans over immigration, who accuse the president of being too lenient toward migrants. Now, the administration is locking up more unauthorized immigrants and asylum-seekers in detention facilities, and NPR has exclusively obtained more than 1,600 pages of confidential inspection reports examining conditions inside those facili...

The CDC says that a new omicron variant called EG.5 is causing a summer wave of COVID cases. Yet, COVID is nowhere near the threat that it was more than three years ago at the beginning of the pandemic. And that might be one of the reasons that people are cruising again on big ships following a COVID-19 decline. WLRN reporter Tom Hudson tells us how one of the hardest hit industries during the pea...

A grand jury in Georgia has indicted Donald Trump for his role in failed efforts to overturn the state's 2020 presidential election results, implicating the former president as the head of a sweeping conspiracy to subvert his defeat. The indictment also includes charges against former Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John Eastman and Jenna Ellis, and former White House chief of staff...

It's been two years since the Taliban entered Kabul, throwing the final days of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan into chaos. Crowds of people desperate to leave the country surrounded the airport. Tens of thousands of Afghans were airlifted out before American troops pulled out. Many more are still trying to reach the U.S. Some are risking their lives to cross the border from Mexico. NPR's Tom...

For the past few months, President Biden's top foreign policy advisors have been working as intermediaries between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Eventually they want to get the two countries to agree on a deal to finally establish formal diplomatic relations. It would be a breakthrough for Israel to get that recognition, after decades of Arab hostility stemming from the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Sa...

As the battle over book bans in schools and libraries continues to play out in various states across the U.S., the toll it's taking on librarians is coming at a great cost — personally and financially. Many librarians are speaking up about fearing for their jobs and safety. Yet some conservative activists see the current fight playing out as necessary to protect children. NPR's Tovia Smith travele...

Hawaii may be a tourist attraction to many Americans, but for over a million people, it's their home. And like any state in the US, it is not immune to the effects of climate change. This week brought a devastating reminder, as wildfires stoked by Hurricane Dora spread across the island of Maui. Dozens have been killed in the fires and thousands have been evacuated. Much of the historical town of...