Episodes
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A man accused of killing 10 people in Buffalo, New York was allegedly motivated by a racist doctrine known as 'replacement theory.' It's just a new name for an old set of racial hatreds, Kathleen Belew told NPR. Belew is an assistant professor of history at the University of Chicago and the author of Bring The War Home: The White Power Movement And Paramilitary America.
NPR's Quil Lawrence reports from Buffalo on the aftermath of the shooting, and NPR's Adrian Florido takes a closer look at the supermarket where it took place.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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The United States is experiencing an adolescent mental health crisis. Experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the Surgeon General are stressing the urgent need to address the mental health needs of children and teens.
The pandemic focused attention on this issue as young people dealt with isolation, the uncertainty of lockdown and grief over the death of loved ones. But while the pandemic exacerbated the problem, it has been building for years.
We speak with Judith Warner, a journalist and author, to find out how we got to this point, and what can be done to help kids now. Warner's most recent piece, "We Have Essentially Turned a Blind Eye to Our Own Children for Decades," appears in The Washington Post Magazine.
This episode deals with suicide. If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or the Crisis Text Line by texting "HOME" to 741741.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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Sasa Woodruff loves food—she's been accused of having far too many cookbooks. But in 2019, a phone call from an unknown caller changed her relationship to eating.
A genetic counselor called to tell her that she had a rare genetic mutation which could lead to a lethal form of stomach cancer.
The only way to prevent that cancer was to get her stomach surgically removed.
While she's now grateful for the information that genetic testing gave her, Woodruff's story raises questions about what kind of information patients should have and how they can use it.
Professor of law and philosophy at Duke University, Nita Farahany and professor of law and biosciences at Stanford University, Hank Greely discuss the implications of growing access to genetic testing and how to weigh health decisions.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community. Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
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Inflation dipped slightly in April, but it's still at a historically-high 8.3 percent. Research suggests lower-income families suffer the most when prices rise.
NPR's Scott Horsley explains how people around the country are coping with inflation, and what the Federal Reserve is doing to try to bring it under control.
This episode also includes reporting from NPR's Jennifer Ludden, on eviction rates rising in the face of increased rent and the end of pandemic rent aid in some places.
And it features reporting from NPR's Brittany Cronin, on what's driving rising fuel prices.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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Some countries in Latin America are expanding abortion rights. Other countries, like Poland, have all but outlawed the procedure. Meanwhile, health officials in Canada have signaled Americans would be welcome to seek abortion services across the border if they cannot access care at home.
All of that speaks to the reality that America's abortion debate is not happening in vacuum, and is being watched closely around the world.
Mary Louise Kelly spoke about how abortion laws around the world compare to those in the U.S., with NPR correspondents Mara Liasson in Washington D.C., Philip Reeves in Brazil, and Rob Schmitz in Germany.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia is gaining followers in the U.S. — not Russian immigrants, but American converts drawn to its emphasis on "traditional values."
NPR's Odette Yousef reports some new converts are using the religion to spread white nationalist views. More from her story here.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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Debates about the status of Roe v. Wade continue after the Supreme Court's draft opinion was leaked last week. This week, the Senate is planning to vote on legislation that would codify abortion rights into a federal law, but it's likely to fail given the 50-50 split between Democrats and Republicans. That means abortion access will be left up to states — and some already have restrictive abortion laws.
Reproductive justice advocates are concerned about the disproportionate impact those laws will have on Black and Brown communities if Roe is overturned.
NPR's Sandhya Dirks spoke to some advocates about how women of color are situated in this abortion access debate. And NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin explains how restricting abortion access means restricting health care for people across all demographic backgrounds.
You can also hear more from Dr. Diana Green Foster, who spoke to NPR's science podcast Shortwave, which examined what happened when people had access to abortion and what happened when they were denied.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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Earlier this week, a leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court suggested that after nearly 50 years, the court intends to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
Almost as soon as abortions became legal, opponents began organizing efforts to repeal the law. Eighteen states now have so-called "trigger laws" that will ban abortions the moment that Roe v. Wade is overturned or pre-"Roe" era bans that remain on the books, ready once again, to fall into place.
We'll look back at the longstanding efforts by legal, political and religious groups - on both sides of the debate - that have led to this moment. And we'll discuss what comes next.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
Audio in the podcast from Supreme Court arguments of Roe v. Wade was obtained from Oyez.org multimedia archive. -
For a few months, it looked like COVID-19 was retreating in the United States. But cases are rising across the country again. Still, public health leaders are signaling that the U.S. is turning another corner in this pandemic, and that continued COVID surges might just be part of the new normal.
NPR Science correspondent Michaeleen Doucleff reports on what the new Omicron variant could have in store for the U.S. in coming weeks and months, and what scientists know about Americans' COVID immunity.
Andy Slavitt, former senior advisor to President Joe Biden on COVID, explains what the "endemic phase" could look like.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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Twin babies Lenny and Moishe were born via surrogate in Ukraine, just as Russia invaded the country. Their parents live in Chicago and had been anxiously awaiting the arrival of their new sons.
Rescuers exfiltrated the babies, dodging Russian artillery fire and driving through a snowstorm before finally arriving at a Polish hospital, where new father Alex "Sasha" Spektor met the boys for the first time. But a more difficult journey for the family was just beginning.
NPR's Ari Shapiro followed up with Spektor and his partner, Irma Nuñez, as they navigated the complicated bureaucratic process of getting their twins from Poland to the United States.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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Bipartisan members who serve on state and county boards of canvassers in Michigan have an important job: certifying the results of elections, making them official.
In 2020, Former President Trump and his allies urged them not to certify as part of his campaign to undermine and overturn the presidential election, even though Joe Biden won Michigan by more than 154,000 votes.
Since then, local GOP leaders have replaced many of the Republican canvassers who upheld their oaths and voted to certify the results for Biden.
Michelle Voorheis, a Republican canvasser in Genessee County until last year, is one of them. She says she wasn't re-nominated because she pushed back against false allegations of election fraud.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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The right to an abortion in the United States appears closer than ever to being eliminated, after a draft of a majority opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked. Should it stand, the court's ruling wouldn't ban abortion nationwide, but would leave the decision up to individual states. Many Republican-led states are ready to enact their own bans, should Roe v. Wade be overturned, which could leave tens of millions of people without access to abortions.
NPR congressional correspondent Kelsey Snell, national political correspondent Mara Liasson, and national correspondent Sarah McCammon explain the far-reaching effects this draft could have on abortion-rights advocates, as well as its potential impact on the midterm elections later this year.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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Cases of COVID-19 have been surging throughout China. The country has implemented a stringent "zero-COVID" strategy that includes mass testing, limited travel and large-scale lockdowns. In Shanghai, many residents haven't been able to leave their homes. It's an eerie reminder of the lockdowns in Wuhan during the first year of the pandemic.
NPR's international correspondent Rob Schmitz spoke with two residents of a housing complex in Shanghai about their experiences with the city's lockdown.
There are some people who are leaving their homes – mainly to enforce China's "zero-COVID" plan. China has hired tens of thousands of temporary workers to test, isolate and lock down entire cities.
Beijing correspondent Emily Feng spoke to a few of those workers, many of whom are poorly treated and underpaid.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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Communities of color are the most harshly affected by climate change in the United States. While the importance of environmental justice is becoming more mainstream, too often people in this movement who are Black, Indigenous and people of color are overlooked and left out of conversations about how to solve the crisis.
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a marine biologist, policy expert and writer, wants the broader environmental movement to understand the crucial link between the fight to save the planet and the fight for racial justice.
And we'll hear how the Donors of Color Network is working to increase philanthropic funding for environmental initiatives led by people of color.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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Over the past two years, about 200 journalists across the country have been detained or arrested while on the job. Many were covering the social and racial justice protests that began after the murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis.
NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and NPR producer Marc Rivers look at the growing tension between police and the press through the lens of one March 2021 night at Echo Park Lake, when police detained at least 16 journalists.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's mask mandate on planes, trains and buses ended earlier this month, and it came down, in part, to a judge's interpretation of the word "sanitation." U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle voided the mask requirement, citing a 1944 law that gives the CDC power to stop the spread of communicable diseases through measures like inspection, fumigation, disinfection and sanitation.
Lawrence Gostin is a professor of public health law at Georgetown University. He explains what the 1944 Public Health Service Act did and why he thinks the judge's interpretation could have an impact on the United States' ability to respond to future health crises. Additional reporting by NPR's Pien Huang also appeared in this episode.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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One Palestinian man's struggle to get life-saving medical care while living in the Gaza Strip highlights many lesser-seen victims of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Since the militant group Hamas took over Gaza 15 years ago, Israel's travel restrictions have resulted in many barriers for Palestinians seeking critical health care.
Palestinians can try to get medical treatment both in and outside of Gaza, but need a travel permit to choose the latter. And while Israel grants thousands of travel permits a year, the timeline for securing one can be long. Some doctors have also fled Gaza. All of these factors can pose dangerous delays for vital treatment.
NPR Jerusalem Correspondent Daniel Estrin followed one patient's difficult journey to get heart surgery.
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Stephanie is one of nearly one million Americans who have died of COVID-19. Her family says Stephanie's death was avoidable, but in recent years, she had been drawn into conspiracy theories.
She believed that the coronavirus was a hoax and refused to get vaccinated. When she got COVID-19 last winter, Stephanie refused treatments and eventually died just a few days after Christmas.
While there is no way to know exactly how many people like Stephanie have died because they believed conspiracy theories, the Kaiser Family Foundation recently found that more than 200,000 Americans would be alive today, had they had been vaccinated.
NPR's Geoff Brumfiel reports.
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Between the 1990s and late 2000s, people in Chechnya described Russia's wars there as a nightmare. Its former leader, Akhmad Kadyrov, resisted Russian forces.
But today, the Muslim-majority Chechen Republic is ruled by Kadyrov's son, Ramzan. He's a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is accused of numerous human rights abuses and is also leading his own forces against Ukraine to aid the Kremlin.
Rachel Denber, Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division, explains Ramzan Kadyrov's stake in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
NPR National Security Correspondent Greg Myre, who reported from Chechnya during the wars, also breaks down the republic's evolution over the last 25 years.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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You introduce yourself and then someone mispronounces your name. At that point you have to decide if you correct them or let it slide.
For many people from immigrant communities, this has been a lifelong experience. And sometimes, it's about more than mispronunciation, it can signal exclusion and disrespect. Some people even change their names in order to fit in more easily and not be "othered."
For years, LA Times columnist, Jean Guerrero, let people say her name without rolling their r's, the way it would be said in Spanish. But after becoming the target of MAGA trolls online, she decided to reclaim the proper Spanish pronunciation.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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