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Large parts of the West have been hot and dry for so long that reservoirs are running low and some communities are mandating conservation. California is talking about a statewide mandate, too. Meanwhile, farmers are preparing to flood their fields to replenish aquifers, while ranchers are selling off parts of their herds and worried about feeding the rest. NPR's Dan Charles reports from California...

Patricia Maginnis, who was 93 when she died on August 30, may have been the first person to publicly call for abortion to be completely decriminalized in America. Despite her insistence on direct action on abortion-rights at a time when many were uncomfortable even saying the word "abortion," Maginnis is not a bold letter name of the movement. That may be because she didn't seek the limelight and...

Hate and division on Facebook are not just a problem in the U.S. That's one of the messages whistleblower Frances Haugen took to Congress last week, where she accused Facebook's algorithms of quote, "literally fanning ethnic violence in Ethiopia," a country that's endured nearly a year of civil war. Freelance reporter Zecharias Zelalem has been keeping track of how inflammatory posts on Facebook h...

In many parts of the U.S., China remains a huge business opportunity despite recent friction. That's the country where Apple makes its phones and Nike stitches its shoes. Yet inside the Washington Beltway, China is a security threat. Full stop. It's one of the few things Democrats, Republicans and most everyone else in the capital agree on. NPR correspondents Greg Myre and John Ruwitch report on t...

After decades of Indigenous stories told by non-Natives, two shows from this past year signal a change. Reservation Dogs from FX on Hulu was created by and stars Native people. It follows four Indigenous teenagers growing up on a reservation in rural Oklahoma, with dreams of adventuring to California. Vincent Schilling , a Native journalist and critic for Rotten Tomatoes, calls Reservation Dogs 'a...

Thirty-five years ago, Janet Jackson released an album that changed the course of her career, and of pop music. Control took over radio, reinvented the playbook for Black artists crossing over into pop and ushered in a whole new sound for R&B. But after the wardrobe malfunction at the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, Janet's reputation took a hit, and she's yet to receive the flowers she deserves. I...

Last month, R&B singer R. Kelly was found guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking. Days later, a judge suspended Jamie Spears as the conservator of his daughter Britney Spears' estate. While these cases are completely unrelated, they do have one crucial thing in common: a massive online following, and an ecosystem of think pieces and documentaries that fuel conversation online. NPR's TV critic...

One day after a worldwide outage on multiple of its platforms, Facebook was accused by a whistleblower of hiding concerns about its products from the public and its shareholders. Both crises reveal the same thing: just how powerful Facebook is on a global scale. Ayman El Tarabishy of George Washington University explains what Monday's outage meant to small businesses around the world. In participa...

Meth-related overdoses have tripled in recent years. In the west, 70 percent of police departments identify meth as their biggest problem. Now one state — California — is on the brink of implementing a major new treatment program that would pay drug users to stay clean. KQED 's April Dembosky reports. The meth surge has hit some Black and Native American communities the hardest. NPR's addiction co...

Children being born now will experience extreme climate events at a rate that is two to seven times higher than people born in 1960, according to a new study in the journal Science. The researchers compared a person born in 1960 with a child who was six years old in 2020. That six-year-old will experience twice as many cyclones and wildfires, three times as many river floods, four times as many cr...

Cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are all on the decline in the U.S. — with September marking a turning point in the delta surge. Vaccination rates continue to tick up and will be helped along by more workplace vaccine rules, including one from the Department of Labor. That rule, which has yet to be released, will be enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. NPR's Andrea Hsu...

People are likely to be confused by climate change terms like "mitigation" and "carbon neutral," according to a recent study . Yet, these terms are ubiquitous in climate research and reports that are meant to be accessible to a general audience. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR...

Michelle Zauner is best known as the frontwoman of indie rock band Japanese Breakfast and like most musicians, she's trying to tell a personal story through her music. But she's spent the last couple of years composing music that has nothing to do with her — for a video game soundtrack. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage...

Like lawmakers across the country, the Republican majority in Texas is getting ready to redraw the lines that define state and congressional voting districts. Those lines cement the shape of political power in the state for the next decade — and it's perfectly legal for the party in power to draw them to its own advantage. Texas Tribune reporter James Barragán and Michael Li of the Brennan Center...

Thousands of Haitian migrants who had gathered on the southern border were deported back to their home country last week, even though some of them haven't lived there for a decade. They'd been living in Chile. But increasingly, Haitians in that country are fleeing, in response to a pandemic-battered economy, rising anti-immigrant sentiment, and new government policies. All those factors are not di...

Retail experts are already warning of delays, shortages, and price hikes this holiday shopping season as the pandemic continues to disrupt global supply chains. NPR's Scott Horsley reports on the interconnected nature of those chains — and what happens when a single part delays manufacturing by months at a time. University of Michigan economist Betsey Stevenson explains why labor-related delays an...

Some city and state workers around the country have already begun to resist workplace vaccination rules on religious grounds. Soon those rules will be the norm in the private sector too, with the Biden administration's announcement this month that businesses with 100 or more employees must require those employees to be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing. NPR correspondents Andrea Hsu and Shannon...

It's one of the most common and perplexing friend mysteries out there - when friends ghost friends. In this episode of NPR's Invisibilia , they examine a contemporary real-life ghost story to see why we're so haunted. Also, a listener attempts to find the friend who got away. And finally, we offer a new way to think about friendship endings. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection...

Every generation has its musical "boogeyman." The Rolling Stones, N.W.A., Madonna. And the latest musician to be inducted into this notorious list is Lil Nas X. Not only has he broken Billboard records , he's breaking barriers. 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

Thousands of Haitan migrants who were camping out under a bridge in a Texas border town seeking to cross the Rio Grande and find refuge in the US are now being forced back to their home country. 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

The infrastructure bill moving through Congress includes billions to replace lead pipes. In Flint, Mich., NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with residents on how governments can tackle a water crisis equitably. 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

The FDA Advisory Committee decided not to approve boosters for people sixteen and up. Instead, they made a recommendation for those 65 and up, or younger people at high risk to get a booster shot right now from Pfizer-Biontech. 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

10 years ago, when the Syrian regime sent tanks and warplanes to stop a an uprising, it sparked a bloody civil war that is still ongoing. 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

Twenty years ago, during the dog days of summer, a fledgling journalist named Shereen Marisol Meraji — maybe you've heard of her? — headed to Durban, South Africa. Her mission: to report on the meeting of thousands of organizers and ambassadors at the United Nations Conference Against Racism. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to m...

After a year away, Broadway's lights are back on. Some of the biggest productions have returned for vaccinated and masked audiences. From "Wicked" to "Chicago" to "Hamilton," theaters in New York are open at 100 percent capacity. 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