Consider This from NPR

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...

Students are using AI tools more than ever.  An Angelo State University professor designed a way to figure out if his students were using artificial intelligence on a recent paper. We speak with Will Teague, who says students are sacrificing their own agency to artificial intelligence. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org . Em...

Fifty years ago, special education in America was born. In 1975, President Gerald Ford signed the landmark law known today as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA. It guaranteed all children with disabilities the right to a "free appropriate public education." Now, amid the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the Department of Education, there's growing concern that pro...

Roughly 80,000 people of Somali descent now live in Minnesota. The vast majority of them are American citizens. This week, President Trump attacked Somali immigrants in racist and xenophobic terms.  “I don't want 'em in our country,” he said at the end of a cabinet meeting. “Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks." The mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul defended their Somali c...

President Trump is purging the immigration court system. About 140 immigration judges have been fired by the administration or resigned. Meanwhile, the case backlog is growing.  What does it mean for immigrants caught in the middle? We speak with one of the judges recently let go. The firings are part of an ongoing effort by the White House to overhaul the U.S. immigration system. Now, those judge...

More than 80 people have now been killed by U.S. strikes on suspected drug boats. There are growing questions about an order to kill two of those people — whether it amounts to a war crime. Here’s what we know: On Sept. 2, the U.S. carried out two strikes on a boat in the Caribbean. The second, subsequent strike killed two remaining survivors. Details of that second strike were first reported by T...

At the recent Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, summit - which was attended by the U.S. Secretary of Health and the Vice President - the agenda showed a shift toward alternative medicine, wellness and nutrition and away from conventional medication. Most of the speakers were not academic researchers or doctors. To discuss what happens when government guidance moves away from scientific consensu...

When the Missouri legislature began to redraw maps mid-decade, it reminded a reporter of a very specific movie scene.  The film was Air Bud , and although the plot focuses on a loophole that allows a dog to play basketball, some in Missouri say there are similarities to the battle over gerrymandering, and the result could have a lasting impact on the state’s government. Miles Parks speaks with St....

No matter how you measure it, there is a lot of parking in the U.S. According to some estimates there are as many as six parking spaces for every car. Put another way, America devotes more square footage to storing cars than housing people. In this episode, originally published in 2023, journalist Henry Grabar walks through how we got here, and what Americans have sacrificed on the altar of parkin...

From building homes to ushering theater-goers to re-enacting medieval history for middle-schoolers – yes, you read that right – acts of volunteerism have remained vital for communities across the country. And not just for people in need. This year, many volunteers have also reported seeing an increased need for food assistance across the country, as a temporary pause on the federal program known a...

By the midpoint of 2025, the U.S. was on track to set a new yearly record in the number of reported data breaches. That’s according to data compiled by the Identity Theft Resource Center. One reason is the proliferation of artificial intelligence, which has made the work of criminal hackers easier, cheaper and scalable. What does that mean for the rest of us? Cooper Katz McKim dove deep into the w...

Facing the threat of a potential military court martial and possible questions from the FBI, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona spoke to NPR's Scott Detrow. This comes after Kelly, a Navy veteran and former astronaut, appeared with five other Democratic lawmakers in a video letting active duty troops know they do not have to follow illegal orders. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sig...

The CDC recently rewrote its vaccine guidance to suggest shots might cause autism, renewing false claims about vaccines and causing anxiety among parents. Physicians often deal with misinformation, but the difference is that it's now coming from the federal government. How do families know what guidance to trust? NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with Dr. James Campbell, a practicing pediatrician and prof...

New York City’s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani built a coalition of voters who were engaged by his charisma and his campaign’s focus on key issues such as affordable transportation, housing and childcare. Mamdani has pointed to Boston mayor Michelle Wu, who was just re-elected in a landslide herself, as inspiration and for being “the most effective Democrat in America.” What can be learned from how pr...

When President Trump nominated Linda McMahon as education secretary, he told her to put herself out of a job. She moved one step closer to that this week when the Trump administration shifted the responsibility of several departments to other federal agencies. NPR's Juana Summers speaks with former Obama education secretary John King about what this could mean for public education in America and s...

Caregiving services for seniors can   easily cost more each year than what the average American makes. And health insurers, both government and private, may not provide the coverage people need.  That leads many people to step in and do the work for free. But caregivers need to take care of themselves, too.  That's something Dawnita Brown knows all too well, as a caregiver to both her parents, and...

Activists in Chicago have been tracking federal immigration enforcement agents' movements, following their cars and alerting neighbors with whistles. This resistance sprang into action in response to Trump's Operation Midway Blitz, but it's nearly a decade in the making.  NPR's Odette Yousef has the story of a strategy that activists hope can be a blueprint. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider T...

President Trump is deepening the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia, despite the government coming under fire for human right abuses, despite the concerns the prince himself ordered the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.  Why is Saudi Arabia such an important ally for the United States?  For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts...

Maine Family Planning clinics treat STDs, bronchitis and tick bites. Because they also provide abortions, they've been hit by a new federal law that cuts them out of Medicaid. Now, they're cutting back on services to try to survive. 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...

It's been six months since a tornado hit St. Louis and damaged more than five thousand buildings and homes.  Residents and local officials say the Trump administration's new policy on federal disaster assistance has meant they have been left to do the work traditionally done by FEMA. Editor's note: After this story aired, the Federal Emergency Management Agency responded to NPR's request for comme...

NPR's concert series Tiny Desk, first launched on a whim in 2008, attracts millions of viewers. We hear from two members of the NPR music team on what they love about producing and sharing Tiny Desk performances with the world.  Host Sacha Pfeiffer speaks with Robin Hilton, host and Senior Producer of Tiny Desk and All Songs Considered and Kara Frame a video producer and director of Tiny Desk conc...