Consider This from NPR

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year, for her work to promote democracy in her country. Many Venezuelans expected Machado would eventually become their president once authoritarian ruler Nicolas Maduro was ousted from power. But Maduro has been out of power and in a U.S. prison since January, and Machado is still on the outside looking in. H...

China’s nuclear weapons capabilities are small compared to that of Russia and the U.S. However, China has been expanding its nuclear arsenal under the leadership of Xi Jinping, doubling in size in just the last decade.  NPR's Emily Feng explains the current state of China's nuclear program and why the country is seeking to further develop it.  For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up fo...

Skiing star Lindsey Vonn was on the cusp of capping off one of the most remarkable career comebacks the Olympics has ever seen. Then it all changed.   It had been six years since she stepped away from competitive skiing due to injuries and made her triumphant return at the 2026 Winter Olympics. But then it came all tumbling down. Millions watched as the 41-year-old had the worst crash of her caree...

The number of antisemitic incidents is on the rise in the UK.  What is driving it, and – how is the British government trying to combat it?  The United Kingdom faces an antisemitism emergency. That’s according to the government there. This week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said there is a plan to fight it. Brendan McGeever co-director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism in Lond...

When the U.S. and Israel bomb Iran and start a war, we know about it moments after it’s started — sometimes even moments before. When Russian tanks cross the border into Ukraine, we watch as it’s happening. This access to immediacy — our ability to be there as history is unfolding — much of that is possible, thanks to the vision of CNN founder Ted Turner. Turner transformed the media industry and...

There already was an affordability crisis in the U.S. How the war with Iran is making life more expensive.  President Trump says the economy is “roaring.”  That as Americans are paying an average price of $4.48 a gallon for gas on Tuesday.  A year ago it was $3.17.   The reason for that increase — the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, which resulted in the closing of the Strait of Hormuz. Gas prices are...

Trump is once again threatening NATO allies. What would a reduction of U.S. troops in Germany mean for security and the U.S. military? Today, about 36,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Germany, and they’re a key part of the U.S. military ecosystem and the NATO alliance. Now, President Trump plans to reduce that number. Trump has grown increasingly and publicly frustrated with NATO allies.  This tim...

The war with Iran is in a deadlock. Despite a back and forth of peace plans, there is no permanent ceasefire.  President Trump has oscillated between a willingness to engage in diplomacy and threats to resume the American bombing campaign if he doesn’t get a deal. All this has complicated negotiations, which the U.S. and Iran are holding through intermediaries. So, how do leaders try to negotiate...

Covering a war isn’t easy and it takes a whole team working both on the air and behind the scenes to bring you accurate, independent reporting from the frontlines.  For this week’s Reporter’s Notebook we speak with two journalists about the challenges of covering the war in the Middle East. Durrie Bouscaren has been reporting from the Turkish-Iranian border and NPR reporter Kat Lonsdorf has been c...

The Trump administration has paused immigration applications for people from 39 countries, and for those already living in the U.S. the impact has been catastrophic. The lives of hundreds of thousands of people living in the country were thrown into limbo after the Trump administration paused their immigration applications in recent months. They were students, engineers, teachers and others living...

HHS Secretary RFK Jr. thinks he has the answer to addiction treatment. The experts say otherwise. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. thinks he’s cracked the code for addiction treatment.  Kennedy, who used heroin for more than a decade, believes wellness, work and abstinence like the methods practiced in a rural Italian facility are the keys to sobriety.  But Kennedy is faci...

A New Hampshire Republican. A German Holocaust denier. A suspicious bottle of baby oil. An NPR investigation reveals how the alarming rise of antisemitic conspiracy theories reached a state capitol. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for C onsider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org . Email us at considerthis@npr.org . This episode was reported and produced by Tom Dreisbac...

The Illinois state government has been investigating the United States government. Specifically, a panel called the Illinois Accountability Commission has been conducting interviews and reviewing footage from last year's federal immigration enforcement crackdown in Chicago, known as Operation Midway Blitz. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker established the commission late last year to create a public r...

Within minutes of the news of a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, people claimed on social media that the incident was “STAGED." To be clear — these were conspiracy theories, not supported by what we know about the suspect.  The most common of these theories claim the shooting was orchestrated in an effort to boost President Trump’s plans for a new White House ballroom. It isn’t...

Hours after a gunman attempted to breach the White House Correspondents' Dinner, details are slowly emerging about who he is, and how he was able to get into the Washington Hilton where the dinner was held. Two sources familiar with the matter say Cole Allen has been identified as the alleged gunman, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity bec...

Tucker Carlson was one of President Trump’s biggest defenders. Now, he's one of his loudest critics.  Tucker Carlson now says he is “tormented” by his previous support for President Trump. The conservative media personality has criticized the president over the U.S. war with Iran, among other issues.   New Yorker writer Jason Zengerle has followed Tucker Carlson for years. He’s the author of a boo...

More than a million Lebanese residents have found themselves without a place to call home since the war reignited in early March. Now with a shaky temporary ceasefire in place – people are trying to return home - if there is a home to return to. NPR went to southern Lebanon to assess what life is like in the Israeli-occupied region. For sponsor-free episodes of  Consider This,  sign up for C onsid...

Virginia voters delivered a major win to Democrats on Tuesday. A narrow majority voted to allow lawmakers to bypass the state's bipartisan redistricting commission. That means the Democratic-led legislature will create a map that’s more favorable to them in the midterms. It's the latest chapter in a redistricting saga that President Trump started last year, but is the tit-for-tat redistricting bat...

The U.S. estimates that Iran possesses nearly 1,000 pounds of highly-enriched uranium. It’s not quite enriched to weapons-grade, but it’s not far off. As part of its attempt to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, the U.S. is attempting to negotiate with Iran to give up this cache. How would that even work? We hear from Scott Roecker, vice president of the Nuclear Materials Security Progr...

PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, has saved 26 million lives since President George W. Bush launched the program in 2003.  But the Trump administration has made major changes to the way the U.S. distributes foreign aid, disrupting HIV care — and leaving many health workers uncertain about the future of PEPFAR. What do those changes to foreign assistance mean for the fight aga...

The FIFA 2026 World Cup kicks off in June and 11 American host cities are getting ready for an influx of fans. Juliette Kayyem, a national security expert and former DHS official, examines how the partial government shutdown has impacted preparedness for the mega event. For sponsor-free episodes of  Consider This,  sign up for C onsider This+  via Apple Podcasts or at  plus.npr.org . Email us at ...

President Trump has called the affordability crisis a hoax, but the data shows the burden of rising costs really matters to Americans. NPR's Jennifer Ludden talks about covering affordability issues and meeting people who struggle to find secure housing - or enough food to eat.  For sponsor-free episodes of  Consider This,  sign up for C onsider This+  via Apple Podcasts or at  plus.npr.org . Emai...

The Strait of Hormuz is one of the global economy’s major arteries. It had been closed to most commercial traffic for about 6 weeks up to today. The reopening is good news for hundreds of ships that have been stuck.  But questions remain about the safety of the passage. Questions, like how many underwater mines are still out there? Or what happens if the ceasefire falls apart?  And those questions...

Almost a decade after the height of the #MeToo movement, intimacy coordinators are a fixture on film sets. As of this year, the job is now covered by SAG-AFTRA, the labor union that represents actors. Their growing presence on set has led to more demand for intimacy coordinator training programs. NPR visited one of those programs in downtown Los Angeles, and met an assistant director  and a porn a...

Unease is growing in the ranks of the US military. Since President Trump began his second term, his controversial use of the armed forces both at home and abroad has left some service members unsettled and demoralized.  The Iran war made those feelings worse.  For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for C onsider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org . Email us at considerthis@np...