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Wed, 14 Oct 2026
For those experiencing hearing loss, being able to discern the speech of other people in noisy environments can be frustrating. And hearing aids often don’t convey sound in every situation.
Hearing loss affects 37.5 million adults in this country. And rates of hearing loss increase with age. Some 10 percent of those over the age of 55 have hearing loss that qualifies as a disability. And just over half of all people over the age of 75 have disabling hearing loss.
In this edition of “In Good Health,” we talk about the health issues that most affect us and put your questions to the experts. This time, we tackle hearing loss.
Here are some resources shared by our experts during this discussion:
- HearAdvisor.com – a hearing aid comparison and review site
- Hear & Beyond by Shari Eberts and Gael Hannan – a guide to navigating hearing loss
- Hearing Number app – a free smartphone app by Johns Hopkins University for measuring how much sound you can hear
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Tue, 13 Oct 2026
The U.S. Military educates, and trains some of the best and brightest across the U.S.
The Pentagon is a complex, big, and bureaucratic machine. It moves slowly. But it has evolved over time, reflecting changes in our society and politics. From the integration of the military in the late-1940’s to women finally being admitted to military academies, in the mid-1970s.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is on a mission to change what he calls a “woke” and “weak” military. He says he wants to bring back a “warrior ethos” and “lethality” to the military.
His strategy? Rolling back inclusive policies, firing high level officials, and overhauling military education. He’s been explicit about the kind of Pentagon he envisions, using vulgarities and slurs to make his point.
What do Hegseth’s reforms mean for service members, cadets, military families, and the next generation of recruits?
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Mon, 12 Oct 2026
Polls play a major role in U.S. politics. And in the months leading up to an election, they’re everywhere.
Polling doesn’t just indicate which party has a competitive advantage in a race. They also tell us about the issues that are most concerning to voters. And how these concerns break down by race, gender, education, age, and political affiliation. They also tell us the level of trust people have in the institutions tasked with carrying out our democratic processes.
In this installment of our weekly series, “If You Can Keep It,” we break down the purpose of polls and their place in our elections, politics, and democracy.
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Fri, 09 Oct 2026
With less than one month to go until the midterms, Donald Trump is in Texascampaigning on behalf of Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton.
Senate Democrats scuppered a plan championed by their Republican colleagues that would havesought to lower surging energy prices driven by data center construction.
And New York has declareda state of emergency due to a surge in measles cases.
In global news, following the police response to student protesters in France, the government hasbanned the use of stun grenades as lawmakers work to quell the demonstrations.
On President Vladimir Putin’s birthday, Russian forces unleashed a wave of attacks across Ukraine killing 12 and injuring more than 40.
And in Brazil, the son of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, Flávio,won a key election victory this week, bringing his family one step closer to retaking the country’s top office.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 08 Oct 2026
It’s been a successful summer for Robert Prevost — one of Chicago’s most distinguished citizens.
His essay on artificial intelligence was released in paperback to enthusiastic reviews. It was described by one prominent commentator as “beautifully written, hugely significant, speaks truth to power.” His three-city tour of France exceeded all expectations, drawing huge crowds. An estimated 800,000 people packed the Champs-Elysees to see him. And his beloved Chicago White Sox went from woeful to winners and made the World Series playoffs.
Prevost, of course, is better known these days by another name: Pope Leo XIV. He’s the first ever American head of the Catholic church.
So, how’s he doing? We sit down with a panel of experts to find out.
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Wed, 07 Oct 2026
Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in American men — and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths. One in eight men will be diagnosed in their lifetime. And Black men are more than twice as likely to die from it.
Between the social stigma and misconceptions about diagnostic methods, it’s not something many men want to talk about. Some 99 percent of people diagnosed early with prostate cancer live at least 5 more years. And treatment options and guidelines are evolving rapidly.
Our “In Good Health” series continues. We gather a group of doctors from three of the disciplines involved in the treatment of prostate cancer.
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Tue, 06 Oct 2026
Last week, a key stretch of the Pacific Ocean hit its highest temperature on record. And it’s still climbing.
It’s a warning sign of the so-called Super El Niño, expected to bring floods, droughts, and heat waves. And higher prices for staples like coffee.
What to expect from the super El Niño — and how states are preparing.
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Mon, 05 Oct 2026
A veteran journalist covered the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol. That experience got her exploring the connection between stress, trauma, and our political choices.
Our mental health might affect our politics. But our politics also definitely affect our mental health.
In this edition of “If You Can Keep It,” we examine that intersection.
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Fri, 02 Oct 2026
The Department of Homeland Security has allocated$20 million to pay for pro-Trump ads glorifying the president, which have drawn criticism from both Republicans and Democrats.
The pay-to-play allegations plaguing Maine Sen. Susan Collins haveswing voters in her state re-thinking their support for the five-term GOP incumbent.
And top AI executives descended upon Washington this week for a meeting at the White House. They agreed toself-police their industry following several high-profile mishaps and dire warnings from their colleagues about the dangers of their product.
And, in global news, asthe value of Iran’s currency hits a record low, Qatari mediators are working to find a deal for peace that would be acceptable to leaders in both Washington and Tehran.
The Gaza Health Ministry reports that thePalestinian death toll for the war in Gaza has surpassed 74,000.
And Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered an increase to the size of his country’s armyfor the fourth time this year.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 01 Oct 2026
In five weeks, more than 100 million people will vote as part of the 2026 midterm elections.
In New Hampshire and across the country, that means that voters will go to the polls to choose representatives, senators, governors, state legislators, city councilors, school board members, and more.
So, what do we know about the basic nuts and bolts of our elections? Do we know who’s on our ballot and understand the positions we’re being asked to vote on? Do we understand how our election system works — especially since that system is the target of baseless allegations from the president?
What’s the connection between a good civics education and a functioning political system?
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Wed, 30 Sep 2026
Gas. Groceries. Housing. Almost everywhere you look in the U.S. economy right now, prices are up – and people are feeling the squeeze.
As of July, six in ten Americans say Trump’s economic policies have worsened economic conditions in the country, according to a survey from Pew Research. That’s up from roughly 53 percent who said the same last fall.
While the U.S. economy is strong on paper — with relatively low unemployment and shrinking inflation — voter concerns about affordability are expected to factor heavily into the midterm elections.
So, how should you manage your money right now? And what financial decisions are you weighing that you’d like a second opinion on? We put your questions to a panel of experts.
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Tue, 29 Sep 2026
Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests reached record highs this summer. And the full scope is just coming into focus. Some 43,000 people were arrested in June, more than 49,000 in July, and almost 51,000 in August —an agency record.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives last June passed a $70 billion package tofund ICE and the Border Patrol through the end of President Donald Trump’s second term. As ICE became the best funded law enforcement agency in the country, its tactics changed. Instead of high-profile operations centralized in one location – like the operations in Minnesota, Chicago, and Los Angeles last year – they’re focusing on quieter, everyday arrests throughout the country.
And more details are being released about a record number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests of pregnant women last fall.A September report by The Guardian revealed that ICE placed more pregnant immigrants in detention last fall and winter than at any time over the previous year.
ICE data from February reveals that 86 pregnant women were in ICE custody — more than 10 percent were detained in their third trimester. Nearly 400 women who were pregnant, postpartum, or nursing were deported from January 2025 to February 2026, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
We sit down and get into how pregnant women are being affected by the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.
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Mon, 28 Sep 2026
The midterms are just five weeks away. Ballots are already in the mail and in person voting is underway in some states. Meanwhile, the federal government’s role in this election is still being hashed out in the courts.
This month, the Supreme Court blocked President Donald Trump’s attempt to give the U.S. Postal Service greater control over mail in ballots. Then on Friday, it revived a federal citizenship-check system that a lower court had found illegal. And three separate lawsuits have been filed in recent weeks to keep armed federal agents away from polling places.
The White House says its push to federalize elections is about protecting the integrity of the vote. But a new NPR, PBS News, and Marist poll found that 75 percent of voters trust their state or local government to run a fair and accurate election.
Amid all the false claims and efforts to confuse, how are elections running for the midterms?
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Fri, 25 Sep 2026
President Donald Trumpbanned television networks he deemed adversarial from the White House press pool this week. Following a lawsuit, a judge issued a 14-day stay, temporarily restoring White House access to CNN, MSNow, and POLITICO.
New reporting indicates that the ICE agent who shot a Venezuelan man in Austin, Texas, last Sunday was issued a body camera for use in the field,but wasn’t wearing it at the time of the encounter.
And a poll finds that President Trump’s approval ratings have sunk to another low —diving to 32 percent.
And, in global news, The81st United Nations General Assembly opened in New York City this week. President Donald Trump threatened to annihilate Iran, the Israeli delegation walked out during a speech by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the leader of the Palestinian Authorityaddressed the assembly via video after being denied a U.S. visa.
Pomp, pageantry and grand displays of friendship. But was there substancein the Trump – Xi Summit in Washington?
Leaders in the Tigray region of Ethiopiasay they’re mobilizing their military against the country’s federal government and a 2022 ceasefire falls apart. And as the Ebola virus continues to surge in Congo, the World Health Organization iswarning that there may be a shortage of aid workers to staff treatment centers.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 24 Sep 2026
World leaders have descended upon New York City for this year’s edition of the United Nations General Assembly. And a lot is happening.
So far, we’ve seen some most pointed criticism of Israel’s conduct heard at the U.N. in years. This led to the Israeli delegation walking out during the Turkish president’s address.
It’s been nearly three years since Oct. 7. And the Palestinian Authority’s president isn’t in the room — the United States denied him a visa. Mahmoud Abbas will instead address the assembly on Thursday by video.
What is being said about Gaza at this General Assembly? And what does it tell us about the limits of the U.N.’s power when America isn’t on board?
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Wed, 23 Sep 2026
For decades, U.S. colleges and universities have been regarded as among the best in the world. From the Ivy League to state research institutions, thousands of students and professors from around the globe flocked to America year after year to study, teach, and innovate.
International students represented about 6 percent of all higher education students – that’s about 1.1 million. But last year, international student enrollment fell by a fifth compared to the year before. That’s the largest percentage change since the pandemic, according to federal data.
And early data suggest that drop in enrollment continued this school year.
How did the U.S. begin losing dominance in higher education? And what does this decline mean for students, faculty, and innovation in this country?
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Tue, 22 Sep 2026
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to meet this week in a highly anticipated sit down as the U.N. summit continues in New York.
This conference comes amid stark warnings over AI safety, U.S.-China trade anxiety, and the ongoing war in Iran.
What‘s on the agenda and what do each of these superpowers want?
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Mon, 21 Sep 2026
No two words defined President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign more than “America first.”
The name of this country has been at the center of President Trump’s rhetoric. But his administration’s approach to foreign policy tells a different story. The Trump administration has done everything from leveraging tariffs, to canceling visas, to sanctioning foreign leaders trying to influence elections abroad for personal gain.
In her new Atlantic essay, “Empire of Grift,” Anne Applebaum outlines in painstaking detail the ways Trump and his allies are only ‘America first’ in talk while lining their pockets in practice.
In this installment of our weekly democracy series, “If You Can Keep It,” we discuss how the president is deploying the tools of U.S. diplomacy to make the world safer for corruption and authoritarianism.
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Fri, 18 Sep 2026
This week the nation woke up to the potential danger of runaway tech — that AI is behaving in ways its creators don’t intend and can’t control. And that we might be as little as six months to a year away from AI being capable of acting on its own.
The midterm election is coming. Prices are high. And a new Congressional Budget Office report out this week says the main reason for relentless inflation is the Iran war.
And President Donald Trump has made mail-in-voting a major part of his campaign to sow doubt in the voting process. But on Monday, the Supreme Court blocked his executive order to change how mail-in ballots are sent to voters across the country.
And, in global news, this week, Yemeni Houthis militia members seized the Red Sea port of Mokha and several islands inside the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key shipping passage.
Reporting from The Washington Post revealed the details of a $2.8 billion arms package the Trump administration will send to Israel. The sale includes 2,000-pound bombs, the largest single sale of the controversial munition in recent years.
And next week, is the U.N. General Assembly will stage its annual meeting in New York.Then, Chinese President Xi Jinping heads to Washington for a much-anticipated meeting with President Donald Trump.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 17 Sep 2026
Between 2020 and 2025, nearly 200 women have died from ectopic pregnancies. That’s almost double the number of deaths in the previous six years.
Ectopic pregnancies happen when an embryo implants outside the uterus and can’t develop properly. If left untreated, the embryo can rupture, causing deadly bleeding. The treatment for ectopic pregnancies – which are almost never viable – is termination. But since the reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, terminating a pregnancy has become more complicated in states with abortion restrictions.
We sit down to talk about a new investigation from ProPublica that explores the role these state abortion bans could be playing in the rise in deaths related to ectopic pregnancies.
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Wed, 16 Sep 2026
Last week, a researcher at the artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced his resignation on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Jacob Coxon wrote that his former company — along with Open AI, where he also recently worked — are acting irresponsibly and “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.”
That post went viral — it’s now been viewed nearly 200 million times. Then, on Saturday, Anthropic’s own CEO, Dario Amodei, published an essay calling on the entire industry to deliberately slow down. He also shared some ideas about how to do it. The head of Open AI, Sam Altman, replied by saying, “I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier.”
Should we slow down AI innovation — and is that even possible? What’s at risk if we don’t?
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Tue, 15 Sep 2026
The administration is expanding its third-country deportation campaign.
Since President Donald Trump took office last year, more than 25,000 people have been sent to over 29 countries they’re not from. That includes places like Liberia, Guatemala, South Sudan, Guyana, Ghana, and Honduras.
Now, more than 30 countries have agreed to accept deportees from the U.S. What does that mean for the people sent to a place they’ve never been? And for the relationship between accepting countries and the U.S.?
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Mon, 14 Sep 2026
At least a billion dollars of untraceable cash is flowing into this year’s midterm elections.
That’s according to an analysis by The New York Times from late last month. These funds – referred to as dark money by campaign finance experts – are coming from super PACs, non-profits, and wealthy donors.
Tracing exactly how much dark money is flowing through campaigns is difficult. Money spent to hire influencers online, direct mail campaigns, and employ door knockers isn’t always publicly disclosed as campaign spending.
In this edition of “If you Can Keep it,” we tackle the role of dark money in our midterm elections.
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Fri, 11 Sep 2026
Despite President Donald Trump’s historic unpopularity, Republicans are betting on him big ahead of this year’s midterms. The partystaged a first midterm convention in Dallas, Texas this week.
Following renewed hostilities between the U.S. and Iran, the price of crude oil has risen to over $100 per barrel, meaning American drivers are in for more pain at the pump.
And this week New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the release of a public portal allowing access to records relating to 9/11.
And, in global news, a new book alleges that Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu was warned of the Hamas offensive,just days before the October 7, 2023 attack.
This week, President Donald Trump announced he would institute bans on some Canadian goods, including dairy products, alcohol, and motorcycles.
And the far-right AfD German political party made historic gains in a state election this week.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 10 Sep 2026
The Lindsay Clancy murder trial captivated the American public for weeks.
Prosecutors charged Clancy with murdering her three children. They say she then tried to take her own life and that her injuries left her paralyzed from the waist down. Clancy’s lawyers say she was experiencing postpartum psychosis and should not be held criminally responsible. But prosecutors say she planned the deaths.
After seven days of deliberation, the jury remained deadlocked and the case ended in a mistrial.
The trial has divided the nation and sparked conversations over about maternal mental health, raising questions over gaps in care for parents after giving birth. About one in five expecting or postpartum women in the U.S. experience mental health disorders. And according to a 2025 study, overall maternal mental health has dramatically dropped in the past seven years, with only 25 percent of moms reporting excellent mental health.
What do we know – and don’t know – about maternal mental health care? And how can our systems be bolstered to help those who need it most after giving birth?
If you are experiencing a mental health crisis or thinking of harming yourself, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7 by phone and text. The National Maternal Mental Health Hotline is also available 24/7. You can text, call or chat at 1-833-TLC-MAMA. The Postpartum Support International also offers a helpline at 1-800-944-4773 or you can visit postpartum.net.
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Wed, 09 Sep 2026
The way we work has changed dramatically over the last decade. Using AI is quickly becoming the norm in many workplaces when, just a few years ago, it felt closer to science fiction. And the hybrid work model that began during the pandemic has made remote work much more common.
We’ve also seen shifts around what it means to be an “essential worker.” It’s a term that emerged during the pandemic, but has largely fallen out of our vocabulary. This category included nurses and doctors, government workers, those in transportation, food and agriculture, water, and waste management.
But there’s a different name for a growing segment of the work population that includes those we once deemed essential — the “disposable” worker. Unlike their “essential” counterparts, the disposable workforce isn’t defined by the services they offer, but by the weakening contract between them and their employers.
In honor of Labor Day week, we discuss what it means to be disposable in today’s labor market — and what happens when people abandon traditional work arrangements altogether.
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Tue, 08 Sep 2026
A quarter century after 9/11, the health of those who responded to the attacks continues to be affected.
Some 3,000 people died across three locations that day. An estimated 400,000 people were exposed to toxic contaminants and risked physical injury in the hours and days that followed. That’s according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Since the dust and debris have settled, more than 96,000 have been diagnosed with physical and mental health conditions related to 9/11.
In 2010, President Barack Obama signed the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, establishing the World Trade Center Health Program and reopening the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund. Today, more than 150,000 people are enrolled in the program.
But that program wouldn’t exist without the advocacy of survivors and first responders who put their bodies and lives on the line following the attacks. How did that fight for care unfold?
For more information about the Rutgers WTC Health Program, click here. And to learn more about applying, click here.
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Mon, 07 Sep 2026
How did you celebrate July 4 this year? What did the country’s landmark 250th anniversary, in honor of the founding of the United States, mean to you?
The next 50 years likely hold a lot of change for our country where democracy, economic uncertainty, technology, and our social fabric are concerned.
What do we want that change to look like? In this previously-aired episode, we opened the phones so that you, our listeners, could tell us.
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Sat, 05 Sep 2026
Following months of a tenuous ceasefire and several rounds of failed negotiations, the U.S. and Iran traded military strikes this week threatening to once again plunge the surrounding region into conflict.
A whistleblower inside the United States Postal Service is warning that the agency is rushing to implement a system to deal with mail-in ballots that, due to its untested nature, could disenfranchise millions of voters in the U.S.
Months after the beginning of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in U.S. cities, and after several fatal shootings, ICE now says it has enough body cameras for its agents.
And, in global news, following renewed violence between Washington and Tehran, Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged support for Iran this week in its conflict with the U.S. and encouraged other world leaders to do the same.
The U.S. is working with interim President Delcy Rodriguez on a plan to take control of roughly one fifth of Venezuela’s oil supply.
And voters in Iceland struck down a referendum on restarting talks to join the European Union.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 03 Sep 2026
If you’ve driven on any road in the U.S. lately, chances are your license plate has been captured by a Flock camera.
Flock lets police around the country track your car. The company’s cameras can even help determine whether you’ve committed a crime. Now, it’s is facing big time backlash for what critics call excessive surveillance.
What does widespread deployment of license plate readers on U.S. roads means for our privacy?
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Wed, 02 Sep 2026
Imagine a small town in rural Tennessee — a town square, a yellow brick courthouse, a family-owned restaurant, a café, and beautiful sunrises and sunsets across the Appalachian foothills.
Now, imagine a group of far-right real estate developers — backed by Silicon Valley venture capital and with powerful ties to Washington — move into town. They have a vision to build a new kind of community and turn it into a haven for like-minded white Christians.
That’s what’s happening in Gainesboro, Tennessee. And it’s part of a growing movement by some far-right Christian nationalists to relocate to red states and turn small towns into white enclaves.
Locals in Gainesboro are alarmed. They call it a “takeover.” And they are pushing back. That’s the story of “Our Town,” a new Bloomberg investigative podcast series. We sit down with its hosts to talk about this takeover in Tennessee.
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Tue, 01 Sep 2026
For some of you, it’s still a week away. For others — the doors are already open.
It’s back to school. But in this edition of 1A, it’s all about the teachers. They’ve been called heroes. They’ve fought for better salaries and benefits. They‘ve been asked to do more with less. They’ve started go-fund-me campaigns to pay for your classroom supplies when the funding just isn’t there.
Last year, we asked teachers what excited and worried them before the school year. And this year, we’re doing it again.What are teachers in the U.S. feeling ahead of a school year sure to be filled with triumphs and perils?
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Mon, 31 Aug 2026
Between 1950 and 1975, an estimated 1.5 million women were sent to homes for unwed mothers across the United States. There, most were hidden away from their families and communities until they gave birth and placed their babies for adoption. Some of those adoptions were involuntary.
That type of experience is hard to forget. For one family, a past that had been buried for decades finally came to light after a DNA test connected two long-lost sisters. We hear from both of them, as part of the new book, “My Mother’s Daughter: Finding Myself in My Family’s Fractured Past.”
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Fri, 28 Aug 2026
Following a Supreme Court decision that cleared the way, a federal judge lifted a nationwide block on President Donald Trump’s executive order that limited mail-in voting ahead of the midterm elections.
A historic drought in the northwestern United States is supercharging what’s on track to already be a historic wildfire season.
And reporting from The Wall Street Journal indicated that Trump intervened at the Department of Justice as the agency was preparing to sue Live Nation, the world’s largest concert promoter.
And, in global news, this week, President Donald Trump imposed 50% tariffs on Canadian imports, prompting Ottawa to retaliate with tariffs of its own. Canada and the U.S. exchanged about 872 billion dollars in goods and services in 2025.
Friday marks six months since the start of the U.S. war with Iran. This week Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issued a warning to foreign governments and companies saying they could lose access to the U.S. financial system if they continue doing business with Tehran. President Trump said he’s not in a hurry to return to the negotiating table.
And a catastrophic flood at the border between Nepal and China killed at least 400 people, with thousands more still missing.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 27 Aug 2026
Four years after the fall of Roe v. Wade upended federal protections for abortion access, abortion opponents have set their sights on a new target in the world of fertility: surrogacy.
A gestational surrogate is a woman who carries an embryo that was formed using the egg of another woman. Before the pregnancy, the surrogate also agrees to return the baby to its intended parents once born.
At its core, surrogacy is a contractual agreement. But because there’s no federal law regulating surrogacy agreements, it’s left up to state to decide how they can be enforced. That’s the issue at the heart of a high-profile legal dispute between an Alaska surrogate and a California couple.
Why are some abortion opponents looking to ban surrogacy? And could they succeed? And how does the patchwork of regulations that govern surrogacy agreements complicate the process?
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Wed, 26 Aug 2026
On Tuesday, August 25th, American country musician, philanthropist, and icon Dolly Parton died at the age of 80 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Years before her death, she asked her nephew and head of security, Bryan Seaver, to make a video announcing her passing. In the video posted to social media yesterday, he shared this exchange with his aunt:
“Dolly called me and said she wants to rest on a beautiful bed of plush cotton because after a life of wearing heavy rhinestones, she finally deserves to be comfortable, and have some rest.”
In 2023, we celebrated the queen of rhinestone’s achievements and music here on 1A. Please enjoy this replay of that show in honor of Dolly Parton’s legacy. Here's what we wrote about that conversation at the time.
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Dolly Parton’s resume is as big as her hair. And at age 77 she’s adding another title to it: “Rockstar.”
Her new album was released on Nov. 17. It’s a mix of covers of classic rock songs, featuring collaborations with a whopping list of who’s who in Rock-n-Roll. And there are almost 30 tracks – give or take a few – depending on the version of the album that you buy. With 9 new singles, “Rockstar” is Dolly’s most significant foray into Rock and Roll music.
While Dolly has fully embraced a new “Rockstar” persona – down to the black studded outfits – glimmers of rockstar have existed in Dolly’s previous eras. And over the past fifty years, Dolly has won plenty of awards and accolades for her songwriting, becoming one of music’s most prolific songwriters.
Sit back and grab yourself a cup of ambition. For this edition of the 1A Record Club – Dolly Parton’s new album “Rockstar” and what her latest musical evolution represents.
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Wed, 26 Aug 2026
Throughout history, people have been fascinated by automation, technological progress, and how it can change our lives.
In 1956, General Motors made a film about the distant future of 1976, when cars would drive themselves with the help of traffic-control towers. In 1993, AT&T envisioned what sounds a lot like today’s smart home and smart watch technology.
Much of what the companies behind these advertisements promised has come true. The idea, running through all of it, was that technology will set you free. It will connect you. It will give you power over your own life. It will make things better.
We sit down to talk with historian Jill Lepore about whether or not that’s true.
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Tue, 25 Aug 2026
The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the deadliest in the country’s history.
With over 2,500 deaths and more than 5,000 confirmed cases, it’s now the second largest ever worldwide. And it’s spreading at record speed. It’s even outpacing the West Africa outbreak that killed more than 11,000 people between 2014 and 2016.
What do we know about why this outbreak is moving so quickly?
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Mon, 24 Aug 2026
Imagine that the U.S. isn’t a democracy. Instead, it;s run like a corporation. The nation’s leader acts as a CEO and always has the final say.
This would be a world of unchecked capitalism. It’s a world where countries are replaced with privately-owned startups, and technology renders democracy obsolete. It sounds like a setup to a dystopian sci-fi movie.
But it’s a world that some of the biggest leaders in the tech industry are trying to make a reality.
In this installment of “If You Can Keep It,” we dig into the motivations of America’s real-life tech billionaires, what they really want with our system of governance, and what it all means for us.
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Fri, 21 Aug 2026
The United States’ national debt has now surpassed $40 trillion, a milestone that forecasters thought the country wouldn’t reach for months.
President Donald Trump drew the ire of many military families, lawmakers, and the public when he was asked if the deployment of the USS Lincoln to the Middle East had gone on too long. He responded by saying, “No no no no…not nearly long enough.”
Florida State Rep. Angie Nixon pulled off one of the biggest upsets of this year’s primary season. The Democratic Socialist beat former Army intelligence officer Alexander Vindman by more than 12 points in the state’s Democratic Senate primary.
And, in global news, President Donald Trump started this week by threatening Canada with drastic new tariffs, some as high as 50 percent, if negotiators from both countries didn’t reach a new trade deal.
Reporting from The New York Times indicates that the U.S. Navy is helping tankers sneak through the Strait of Hormuz by turning their ship transponders off. American Officials say around 10 million barrels of oil are now making their way to global markets.
And Trump is also pushing for another meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, potentially as soon as this fall. The two last met in 2019 during the president’s first term.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 20 Aug 2026
On the night of Sept. 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene dropped a historic wall of rain on the southern Appalachian mountains.
Some 31 inches of water fell in three days. The Swannanoa River rose 27 feet. Roads, bridges, and entire communities – very little was left in the storm’s aftermath.
More than 250 people died across the Southeast. More than a hundred of them in North Carolina alone. It was the deadliest hurricane to hit the continental United States since Katrina.
We check in on how much western North Carolina has rebuilt in the nearly two years since the storm. And how far it still has to go.
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Wed, 19 Aug 2026
If you have a favorite wellness podcaster or influencer, you’ve probably heard about peptides. These injectable compounds are comprised of a string of amino acids and promise effects like weight loss, better sleep, muscle growth and more.
Given the potential benefits, it comes as no surprise that interest has exploded. The market is ready to provide. It’s already valued around $140 billion and by 2033 is projected to reach over $290 billion in value.
Last month, an FDA advisory panel voted to make six peptides more accessible to the public. But scientists warned against this decision, saying there’s not enough data concerning their safety and effectiveness.
Many people are already getting their hands on peptides through what’s been called the gray market. What does the FDA’s decision mean for access? And how safe are they really?
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Tue, 18 Aug 2026
When was the last time you went to the doctor?
Not necessarily for something big, not for a broken finger or the flu. Just a checkup. A regular annual visit to make sure everything is ok with your health.
For about a third of Americans, it’s probably been too long. In 2024, more than 100 million people did not have a regular primary doctor at all, according to the National Association of Community Health Centers.
The outlook is particularly bleak for young people. More than a quarter of people aged 18 to 29 polled in a national survey this summer said they didn’t have a primary care doctor. And over half of them who did have a doctor said they skipped or didn’t schedule an annual wellness check up in the past year.
But the blame shouldn’t fall solely on the patients. Primary care doctors are getting squeezed by the current healthcare system. There’s a growing shortage of primary care physicians. That can mean wait times of months just to get an appointment.
For today’s installment of our series, “In Good Health,” we’re unpacking the state of primary care—and what to do if you don’t have access to it.
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Mon, 17 Aug 2026
Donald Trump is adding billions of dollars to his personal fortune while he serves as president.
In 2024, the president made about $600 million. In his first year of his second term in office, that number jumped to more than $2.2 billion. The latest White House disclosures show most of those earnings came from cryptocurrency and crypto-related businesses.
He also continues to make millions from real estate and golf deals, many in foreign countries negotiating with the U.S. government he controls. And he’s received $117 million in legal settlements.
In this edition of our series, “If You Can Keep It,” we take a look at the scale of President Trump’s personal enrichment during his second term. What happens when the line blurs between the president’s personal wealth and the interests of the country?
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Fri, 14 Aug 2026
Haitians that used to have Temporary Protected Status are facing a new reality in the United States. Immigration operations targeting members of this community are currently underway at the direction of the Department of Homeland Security.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced this week she would be leaving her post within the Trump administration.
And new reporting indicates that members of Congress are relying on AI chatbots to legislate more than ever before.
And, in global news, despite President Donald Trump promising to keep the Strait of Hormuz open for boat traffic, the number of ships traversing the waterway has fallen to a new three-month low.
As his country’s October elections approach, Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to find the balance between appeasing Trump as he pushes for a solution in Gaza and keeping the Israeli right-wing happy.
And this Saturday marks the five-year anniversary of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 13 Aug 2026
When Head Start was founded, the idea was simple: give low-income kids a running start before kindergarten — not just with preschool classes and childcare, but with health screenings and support for their families.
Some 60 years later, it serves more than 750,000 children — and their families — every year.
But the Trump administration thinks the program is too costly and inefficient. Last week, it proposed the most significant changes to Head Start in decades. The proposed rules would eliminate many of the federal standards for how programs are run and hand those decisions to the states. They would also cap how much programs can spend on administrative costs.
Officials say the changes would save money and open up new slots for hundreds of thousands of kids. Critics say stripping these standards is the first step towards dismantling the program entirely.
What does the evidence say about whether Head Start works? And what happens if those federal standards go away?
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Wed, 12 Aug 2026
Nationwide, students, teachers, and parents are gearing up for the school year.
And measles is spreading. The U.S. has already logged more cases this year than in all of 2025. It’s the highest count in 35 years. That’s in large part because measles vaccination rates have slipped below 95 percent – the threshold public health experts say is needed to stop community spread.
Last week on CNN, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said children should be vaccinated for measles after being pressed on-camera, even as he used the same interview to push a debunked claim about respiratory syncytial virus.
And on Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at upending the childhood vaccine schedule, including changes to the measles vaccine and others. But what will actually change at the doctor’s office?
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Tue, 11 Aug 2026
Journalists often say, “Follow the money.” But what if we said, “Follow billions of dollars to understand who controls this country’s political policy, technology and culture” instead?
Tesla CEO, Elon Musk dropped $200 million on the 2024 election and later headed up the now defunct Department of Government Efficiency.Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos’s company paid $48 million to license and distribute first lady Melania Trump’s documentary. And Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg donated $1 million to the president’s inaugural fund and was appointed to the Trump’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology to help shape national innovation and AI policy.
Could the key to understanding the economic and political tides in the U.S. today come down to understanding the wealthiest among us?
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Mon, 10 Aug 2026
From school board officials and city council members, to decisions over roads and disaster relief budgets, local elections make a direct impact on your day-to-day life.
But state and local elections get less attention, less media coverage, and lower voter turnout. In November’s municipal elections in Dallas, Texas, some 14 council seats were up for the vote but turnout was just 8 percent. And average voter turnout for mayoral elections in the U.S. is 20 percent or less.
What can voters do to stay more informed on a local level?
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Fri, 07 Aug 2026
Progressive Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed won his Michigan primary this week, sending a strong message to the Democratic party establishment that backed his opponent.
Dr. Anthony Fauci was found in contempt of Congress on Thursday. The vote by the Senate Homeland Security Committee came after Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right over 100 times during a recent hearing.
And reports indicate the U.S. missile stockpile is running low. President Trump and the Pentagon have denied the story.
And, in global news, illegal settler activity is expanding across the occupied West Bank. And this week Israeli prosecutors charged a Jewish settler over the killing of a Palestinian community leader – the first such indictment in nearly three years.
Following a rush of migrants from Morocco into the Spanish territory of Ceuta, the Spanish prime minister is facing criticism from other European Union leaders over his country’s immigration policy.
And Russia is overhauling its military strategy, taking advantage of Ukraine’s current lack of missile interceptors.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 06 Aug 2026
Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how we work, live, and engage with the world. Whether that’s using ChatGPT to do our taxes or spending hours sifting through AI generated images on social media.
It’s also reshaping our education system. Roughly half of U.S. students said they used AI in some way for school, according to a 2025 survey from the Rand Corporation. But some students aren’t on board.
So, how are students and teachers around the country using this new tool? And what does this mean for the future of school, and how we define what it’s actually for?
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Wed, 05 Aug 2026
Affording groceries is becoming a struggle for many Americans.
Food prices are up 33 percent since 2019. That’s according to federal data analyzed by the Associated Press. It’s led some people to change their diets or where they shop. Others are taking more drastic measures by dipping into their savings or going into credit card debt.
A 2025 survey from the Urban Institute found that one in four people using credit cards to buy food had trouble paying those bills.
What’s behind the jump in grocery prices? How is it affecting Americans’ financial stability? And how is all of this affecting our economy as a whole?
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Tue, 04 Aug 2026
Data centers.
They’ve been all over the news. Last month, protesters showed up in 125 cities across the country on a single Saturday to demonstrate against these structures, either proposed or completed.
But are the politicians listening? We sit down for the second part of our data center deep dive. This time, we talk politics. Why have data centers become a political flashpoint so quickly? And who is calling the shots at the local, state, and federal level?
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Tue, 04 Aug 2026
Should judges be elected?
That’s the question Kansas voters are answering on the ballot this month. A constitutional amendment aims to change how judges are chosen in the state – abandoning the 68-year-old system of appointing judges.
Proponents of the change say elections put the choice back in voters’ hands. And their arguments aren’t new: Republicans in Kansas have long argued for judicial elections.
Critics of the amendment say elections politicize the process of picking judges. More than $10 million has been spent in total campaigning in Kansas – and those against the amendment are outspending those for it by huge margins.
As part of our weekly series “If You Can Keep It,” we take closer look at how judges are picked in this country and what it means for the rulings they issue.
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Fri, 31 Jul 2026
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington this week for his first visit to the White House since the war in Iran began.
Former CDC head Anthony Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment rights as he sat in before Congress during a hearing led by Sen. Rand Paul concerning the doctor’s COVID diaries.
And Temporary Protected Status lapsed for hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in the U.S. this week.
We cover the most important stories from around the nation in the domestic hour of the News Roundup.
And, in global news, reports suggest that Russia is assisting Iran target U.S. troops as the war between the United States and Iran rages. There are few if any signs of diplomacy from either Washington or Tehran.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Washington to meet with President Donald Trump.
And in what could be a new normal, wildfires are raging across Spain and France.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 30 Jul 2026
If you’ve been on the internet lately, you’ve probably been fooled by AI at least once. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. One poll by the data security company, All About Cookies, found that 77 percent of Americans have been duped by artificial intelligence at some point.
Sometimes it can seem harmless – like that viral TikTok video of bunnies jumping on a trampoline, which raked in over 25 million likes. But AI has also been used maliciously, creating misinformation in the realm of politics, health, and breaking news events.
The use of AI has also duped people within the creative fields – from music to visual art. And it’s being used within education as teachers raising concerns over widespread cheating.
How can detection tools keep up with all the fast-changing technology and its varied uses?
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Wed, 29 Jul 2026
Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard died today in a motorcycle crash in Ireland at the age of 56. We sat down with him in April to talk about his storied career and his final album, "Don+t Settle – Transmissions East and West." Here's what we wrote about that conversation at the time.
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The song “Falling Slowly” first debuted in the 2007 indie romance film “Once” starring Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard and Czech-Islandic singer-songwriter Markéta Irglová. It tells the story of a dramatized version of their own musical partnership.
That song won an Oscar for best original song and the musical duo became a hit in the U.S. when they recorded and toured as The Swell Season.
But long before any success stateside, Hansard was a fixture of the Irish music scene, first busking on Dublin streets at age 13. And in 1990 he formed the Irish rock group The Frames.
Today, Hansard is reflecting on his decades of music-making and looking ahead. His new two-part album is called “Don+t Settle – Transmissions East and West.” He sits down with us to talk about the first part.
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Tue, 28 Jul 2026
Navigating a challenging moment in a friendship. Weighing a new job or changing your career. Seeing news about instability in our politics. A confusing diagnosis at the doctor’s office. Tending to a loved one in the hospital or in hospice.
Uncertainty strikes us in every part of our lives, big and small. And about three quarters of the world’s more than 8 billion people turn to faith.
In this edition of our series, “Pending,” we look at faith. When can it help with uncertainty? And how can we use it, whatever that means for us, in the face of problems we think we can’t solve?
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Mon, 27 Jul 2026
At least 18 American service members have been killed and hundreds more wounded since the start of the Iran war.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump spoke little of the troops who’d recently been killed before giving updates on the war:
We feel very badly, but you know those great people, those great patriots who are out there fighting that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Iran has been very, very badly damaged. They’ve lost everything almost militarily. They’ve got very little left. They’ve got some missiles. They’ve got some drones. They’ve got some manufacturing ability, not much. We control the strait. They don’t control anything, so we’ll see what happens.
We get into funding – whether Congress will exercise its powers over the flow of money and the president’s war powers.
The Pentagon is shutting out the free press and even downplaying troop deaths. Those four service members killed in Jordan and Iraq last weekend? The Pentagon scrubbed them from the war casualty record less than a week later. The Trump administration said their deaths don’t count toward the official Iran war death toll because they were killed after the president declared a ceasefire in April.
Over the weekend, after facing backlash from veterans and military families, the Pentagon restored those four soldiers killed in Iranian strikes last weekend to their casualty database and added more than 140 new wounded soldiers.
Today on 1A, what responsibility does the Pentagon have to communicate transparently with the media and the American public?
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Fri, 24 Jul 2026
Nearly 100 U.S. service members have been injured since the resumption of hostilities between Iran and the U.S. The American death toll now stands at 18.
In Maine, Democrats have chosen their replacement candidate to challenge Sen. Susan Collins. Troy Jackson is a former state lawmaker and is stepping in to fill the void left by Graham Platner. Platner stepped aside after allegations of sexual assault.
And a Florida pastor is suing OpenAI over dangerous health advice he received from ChatGPT.
We cover the most important stories from around the country in the domestic hour of the News Roundup.
And, in global news, after the resumption of the war with Iran, both Washington and Tehran are digging their heels in over the Strait of Hormuz. This week President Donald Trump promising vengeance if Iran continues killing American service members.
Ukraine sent more than 400 drones to Moscow after Russia targeted Kyiv with ballistic missiles.
And French lawmakers approve a blanket social media ban for children under 15.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 23 Jul 2026
Extreme heat isn’t just an inconvenience. It’s a growing public health threat.
More than 40 million people across the U.S. have remained under heat alerts this month. Heat remains the deadliest extreme weather event in the United States. At least 44 people have died as a result of July heatwaves. And in Europe, heatwaves killed more than 10,000 people in June, according to health data published this month.
Climate change is making heatwaves hotter and more frequent. And high temps aren’t just being reported in daytime. Nighttime temperatures are higher than ever. And scientists say that’s raising the risk of heat exhaustion and heatstroke – and taking away crucial time for you and the planet to recover.
What do you need to know about the effects of heat on your health? And how you can stay safe?
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Wed, 22 Jul 2026
How did you celebrate July 4 this year? What did the country’s landmark 250th anniversary, in honor of the founding of the United States, mean to you?
The next 50 years likely hold a lot of change for our country where democracy, economic uncertainty, technology, and our social fabric are concerned.
What do we want that change to look like? We opened the phones so that you, our listeners, can tell us.
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Tue, 21 Jul 2026
You may have heard of a parasite that’s causing some gastrointestinal distress.
Cyclospora has sickened thousands of people across 34 states this summer – more than six times the number reported at this point last year. The CDC has linked a major cluster to shredded iceberg lettuce at Taco Bell in some states. And Taylor Farms de Mexico has now pulled all of its iceberg lettuce from the U.S. market despite an FDA finding that reports that its product contained the parasite were a false positive.
We answer your questions about what cyclosporiasis is, how you get it, and why investigators have had such a hard time finding the source.
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Mon, 20 Jul 2026
One of the most critical parts of a democracy is the right to dissent. But if democratic norms weaken, that right can become harder to exercise. And when authoritarianism creeps into a government, dissent can get dangerous.
Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison for resisting Apartheid before becoming South Africa’s first Black president. Before becoming president of Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel was jailed for his dissident writing under Communist rule.
But there are also dissidents everywhere around us here at home. Protesters demonstrated against ICE in cities across the U.S. last week. And an estimated 8 million people turned up worldwide for “No Kings” protests in March.
So, what does it actually take to stand up to a government that’s stopped playing by the rules? And when does it make a difference? We speak with the authors of the new book “On Courage: How To Be A Dissident in an Age of Fear.”
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Fri, 17 Jul 2026
As ICE ramps up its operations in and around American communities, its agents were involved in the deaths of three men in the last week.
Trump Director of National Intelligence nominee Jay Clayton refused to answer Georgia Sen. John Ossoff’s question about the results of the 2020 presidential election during a confirmation hearing.
After weeks of silence, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell confirmed on Sunday that he was on the mend after suffering a fall and pneumonia. The 84-year-old posted a photo from the hospital this week to put an end to rampant speculation on his health.
And, in global news, questions about the operational status of the Strait of Hormuz continue to echo around the globe. And President Donald Trump and Iranian leaders traded barbs following the lapse of the ceasefire and renewed strikes between the two combatants.
Following devastating Russian attacks, June was the deadliest month for civilians in Ukraine since 2022.
And U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that the U.S. will attempt to diplomatically dismantle the International Criminal Court.
We cover the most important stories from around the globe on the weekly News Roundup.
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Thu, 16 Jul 2026
Israel is expanding its command of Gaza and now controls almost 70 percent of the tiny enclave that’s home to more than two million people.
More than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas nearly a year ago. Some 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in total since Israel’s military offensive began after Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023. Meanwhile, dozens of aid groups have been barred from operating in Gaza.
Almost every Gazan is dealing with hunger, with 77 percent of the population facing high levels of food insecurity, according to the World Food Programme.
So, what do these shifting lines of control mean for those in need? And how could changing political tides affect the situation?
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Wed, 15 Jul 2026
An Alzheimer’s diagnosis can have a real impact on a person and their family. There’s a lot to consider — what the future will hold, what symptoms they’ll experience, and on what timeline.
About 7.5 million people in the U.S. currently suffer from Alzheimer’s. Every year, around half a million more are diagnosed with the disease or another form of dementia. As the population gets older, that figure will continue to rise.
For decades, researchers have struggled to understand these kinds of diseases. But when it comes to testing and treatment, particularly for Alzheimer’s, there have been significant advances in the past few years.
In this installment of our series, “In Good Health,” we tackle the revolution in dementia research. What will that mean for patients?
For more information on dementia research, find Pam Belluck’s latest reporting at the New York Times. And Dr. Karlawish’s “Neurotransmissions” column at STAT News, covering dementia care and research.
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Tue, 14 Jul 2026
What do gyms, TV shows, pet food, and smart doorbells all have in common?
Nowadays, you might use a monthly subscription or other recurring membership to access these goods or services. The average American spends $219 every month on subscriptions. That’s more than $2,600 a year. Those recurring payments mean predictable profits for companies. That is, unless you cancel.
Enter: subscription traps. That’s when companies make it easy for customers to sign up but difficult to be done. Some also use deceptive tactics to automatically enroll customers into a subscription after a free trial ends without making the terms clear. In recent years, cities and states have moved to crack down on subscription traps.
They’re also taking steps to regulate junk fees that companies can add to goods and services. That’s caused prices to soar far beyond what’s advertised. One of those leading the way is New York City, where authorities announced a ban on abusive subscription practices on Friday.
How are regulators around the country working to protect consumers?
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Mon, 13 Jul 2026
The Trump administration is threatening top election officials with criminal prosecution if any ballot is cast by noncitizens in their state. That’s according to a letter from the Justice Department sent last week to all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The president’s threats raise the specter of noncitizen voting. In Michigan, for example, officials found that only 16 noncitizens voted in the 2024 election. That’s 0.00028 percent of the state’s total votes. And in Texas, their state investigation found about 100 potential noncitizen voters in 2024, though Gov. Greg Abbot initially suggested that there were over 1,900 potential noncitizen voters in the state.
The Trump administration’s efforts to sow doubt in elections doesn’t stop there. Last Thursday, President Trump fired the remaining members of the bipartisan federal Election Assistance Commission, just months ahead of this year’s midterms. And the Federal Emergency Management Agency warned states it will withhold a percentage of antiterrorism preparedness funds if states don’t change the way they conduct elections, including implementing paper ballots, verifying citizenship, and running costly audits.
In this installment of our weekly politics series, “If You Can Keep It,” we look at the administration’s attacks on the election process. How is it affecting the way that Americans’ perceive their elections — and what that all means for freedom and fairness of our elections.
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Fri, 10 Jul 2026
Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner dropped out of the race for Maine Sen. Susan Collins’ seat in Congress, after sexual assault allegations made by a former partner surfaced. Democrats are searching for a replacement.
Calls for answers on Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell’s whereabouts and wellbeing are growing. The former Senate majority leader has not been seen in three weeks, leading to speculation about his health.
And the United States was knocked out of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup this week following a 4-1 defeat to Belgium.
And, in global news, President Donald Trump said the MOU between the U.S. and Iran is over, calling Iranian leaders “scum.”
At the annual NATO summit, Danish leaders underlined their commitment to Greenland after Trump claimed the territory would be better suited to American control.
Brexit champion Nigel Farage abruptly resigned from his position in Parliament this week. He will run for office again. Critics say the situation is a ploy to avoid a formal inquiry over his finances.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 09 Jul 2026
Humans like to know what’s coming next. How to plan for the future. And what the consequences of our actions might be.
But the modern world is only becoming less certain — war abroad and political conflict at home, technological breakthroughs once only seen in science fiction, a volatile economy and labor market with the careers of billions at risk. And of course, the climate crisis, which rages on in the background, and now in the foreground of our lives?
What exactly is uncertainty? And is it always a bad thing?
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Wed, 08 Jul 2026
At the end of June, the Supreme Court ruled six to three that the federal government can end Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for more than 300,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians currently residing legally in the United States.
TPS is a program that allows people from designated countries currently experiencing crises, like natural disasters or civil war, to live and work in the U.S.
Some Haitian TPS recipients have been in the U.S. for 16 years. They work in hospitals, warehouses, and factories nationwide. In Springfield, Ohio, they make up nearly a fifth of the city’s population.
But their time in America could come to an end as soon as late July.
What does the future hold for TPS holders and their families? And what does it mean for the communities and jobs they leave behind?
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Tue, 07 Jul 2026
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. 250 years on, are these words still guiding us?
The Declaration of Independence marked the start of our American Experiment. Does that document still hold central tenets of who we are as a nation? Deep political polarization has made that question murkier than perhaps ever before.
We reflect on what a shared civic gospel looks like for America today and what role faith plays in that search.
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Mon, 06 Jul 2026
It’s been nearly a year since a major reshaping of the State Department. It was part of the Trump Administration’s goal to overhaul the federal government and to streamline and reduce redundancies. On July 8, 2025 the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Administration’s massive reduction in force plan. Days later, more than 1,350 employees, including foreign services officers were laid off from the State Department.
At the time, the moves were criticized by current and former diplomats. The American Foreign Service Association said, “Losing more diplomatic expertise at this critical global moment is a catastrophic blow to our national interests.”
As part of our If You Can Keep it series we ask what this reshaping has meant for U.S. global power, aid, and diplomacy. Also: how is the agency operating today and what happened to all those former employees?
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Fri, 03 Jul 2026
It's a milestone birthday for the U.S. this weekend. And we're marking the 250th by taking a look back at this year's Sounds of America series.
Every year, the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress selects 25 pieces of sound to add to its collection — songs, speeches, and beyond.
In the past, we’ve partnered with the 14th Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, who oversaw this project for nine years. Each spring, 1A worked with Hayden and the Library of Congress to bring you a look at why those honorees matter to America.
This year, the Library of Congress looks a little different. President Donald Trump fired Hayden in 2025. The White House cited her “pursuit of DEI” as reason for her dismissal.
But we continued our annual series this year with a look at the 2026 inductees. And we'll continue to ask you: What are the sounds of America? Highlights have included Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, Tracy Chapman singing “Fast Car," The Giants’ “shot heard round the world” walk-off home run in 1951. And the theme song from Super Mario. You can nominate your favorite piece of sound through the Library of Congress.
Now to the class of 2026: First, we sit down with Rachael Stoeltje. She’s the head of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, which houses and preserves the Library of Congress’ audio and video artifacts. Then, we get the backstory on "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," by the Charlie Daniels Band. We bop along to "Beauty and the Beat" by The Go-Go's and meet members of the all-women rock band. And close it out with the radio broadcast of "The Fight of the Century" between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.
The Sounds of America series is produced by Jennie Cataldo of Accompany Studios.
You can hear all our past Sounds of America interviews with Carla Hayden here.
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Thu, 02 Jul 2026
Throughout history, adulthood has often been defined by clear markers — turning 18, moving out of your parents’ home, or getting married. But most of us know that being an adult by law is very different from being one in real life.
Traditional markers of adulthood like purchasing a home or getting married are happening later and later these days. The average first-time homebuyer in 1981 was just 29 years old. But in 2025, the median age of a first-time homebuyer was 40. That’s a historic high, according to the National Association of Realtors.
People are also hearing wedding bells later in life. One and ten adults are now marrying for the first time between the ages of 40 and 59, according to the Wall Street Journal.
What does it mean to be an adult, especially when our definition of adulthood has evolved? And what if you never really feel like a grown-up, even well into old age?
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Wed, 01 Jul 2026
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
250 years ago, the founding fathers were days away from adopting the Declaration of Independence.
Fast forward to July 4, 2026, two and a half centuries later, has America lived up to those lofty ideals?
Is this anniversary a time for celebration, mourning, reckoning, or something else? We hear from 1A listeners on what Independence Day means to them.
Note: One of our callers referenced the Frederick Douglass speech ‘What to the Slave is the Fourth of July.’ You can read that here.
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Tue, 30 Jun 2026
Americans are grappling with a rising cost in healthcare. For the first time in five years, fewer than half of Americans can consistently afford healthcare. That’s according to the latest data from Gallup. The cost of healthcare in the US remains higher than any other large, wealthy country. According to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services, five million fewer people are enrolled in marketplace plans for 2026, compared to last year. That’s as average premium costs rose about 58%.
With health care costs increasingly becoming a stress for Americans, voters are now making the issue a top priority at the ballot box. And it’s an issue that crosses party and geographic lines. According to new polling from The Century Foundation, 71% of Democrats, 66% of Republicans and 75% of rural voters agree that reigning in hospital costs should be a top priority for lawmakers. While new polling from Ipsos and Axios suggests that a majority of Americans say they’re more likely to vote for candidates in November who will lower their health costs.
How will the issue of healthcare shape the midterms? And how are Americans grappling with the cost of their health?
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Mon, 29 Jun 2026
President Donald Trump has taken an increasingly personal role in the government’s clemency process, wielding pardons aid his allies and advance his own political grievances.
A Reuters investigation found that 96% of Trump’s second-term clemency grants have gone to recipients who didn’t fulfill longstanding DOJ guidelines for such requests. Past presidents on have sidestepped those rules before, but fewer than 1% of those who received clemency during the Biden administration and just 14% of recipients in Trump’s first presidency failed to meet the guidelines.
Pardon applicants once had to comply with longstanding DOJ guidelines, such as a five-year wait after conviction or demonstrated remorse for their crimes. But a Reuters’ analysis shows that under Trump, clemency now is far more dependent upon access to his inner circle. They also found that “access is enhanced when an applicant can craft a narrative that resonates with the president’s own sense of victimization.”
During his first administration, Trump granted just 238 pardons and commutations, most of which came amid his frantic final days in office. But this term the White House has made clemencies a key part of its agenda.
As part of our weekly series “If You Can Keep it,” we discuss pardons in the second Trump Administration.
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Fri, 26 Jun 2026
This week the Supreme Court sides with President Trump on ending Temporary Protected Status. The decades-long program currently gives legal status in the U.S. to about 350,000 Haitians and more than 6,000 Syrians seeking refuge from crises at home.
The court also ruled to renew a “turn-back” policy at the border with Mexico that prevents migrants from entering the U.S. to seek asylum. A decision on President Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship in the U.S. is expected soon.
Also in Washington, the president creates chaos in his own party, demanding that Republican Senators reconsider their support for a war powers resolution on Iran. A vote to limit war powers passed on Tuesday with support from four Republicans. A similar resolution failed on Wednesday. President Trump also on Wednesday refused to sign a bipartisan housing bill that had passed the House 358-32.
And in New York, three candidates backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani win their primaries for Congressional seats against establishment Democrats.
And, in global news, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President J.D. Vance were overseas this week, selling and negotiating an end to the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran.
But Iran’s chief negotiator calls the deal an “American declaration of defeat” and it marks the end of any remaining joint Iran-strategy between the U.S. and Israel.
Delegations from Israel and Lebanon meet in Washington to extend a ceasefire in a conflict that’s killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon and displaced 20% of the population of under 6 million. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to continue fighting in Lebanon as he faces pressure at home and isolation from U.S. leaders.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer resigns in the U.K., but analysts say his likely successor Andy Burnham will face the same deep challenges that have knocked out six leaders in the 10 years since Brexit.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 25 Jun 2026
Artificial Intelligence is advancing at a dizzying pace. One analysis shows it doubling its abilities every seven months.
And it’s surpassed humans in more than just trivia and Chess. Last year, an AI from Microsoft solved complex medical cases with 85% accuracy, far about the 20% average for experienced physicians. And a recent Stanford report found that some of the newest A-I systems now match or beat the average human expert on PhD-level science questions.
But what happens when A-I is better and smarter than the brightest among us at every task? That’s called superintelligence.
Researchers disagree about how close we are to that sci-fi goal: is it years, or decades—or possible at all? And what happens if that genie-in-a-bottle is let loose? Some say the risk is as existential as total human extinction.
We’ll discuss the biggest promise – and peril – of AI’s advancement beyond humans.
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Wed, 24 Jun 2026
Black Americans serving in the U.S. military have long lived with a great contradiction. The country they’re fighting to protect is the same one that’s failed to serve and protect them.
Despite this, Black Americans continue to enlist. There are over 350,000 Black active duty and select reserve members and more than 2.4 million Black veterans. That’s according to the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University.
This year, Defense secretary Pete Hegseth has blocked or delayed the promotions of more than a dozen Black and female senior officers. He’s also dismissed several high-ranking Black and female officers, according to The Atlantic. This comes amid the second Trump administration’s aggressive rollback of programs and policies connected to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Black military members have always battled discrimination. But for some, this is a step too far in the wrong direction. So, what does their future hold? And what does it mean for the U.S. military?
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Tue, 23 Jun 2026
The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. and Israel’s war in Iran. The Israel-Hamas war.
Each of these conflicts of the last few years is rewriting how war is fought. Cheap drones are doing damage that once required far more expensive weapons. Battlefield information is now available at a distance in real time. And some of the biggest innovations are coming from countries with relatively small defense budgets.
We sit down with a panel of experts and ask what these conflicts are teaching us – and how the U.S. is responding to these lessons.
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Mon, 22 Jun 2026
How would lawmakers respond to election interference – both foreign and domestic – ahead of the midterm elections?
That was the central question of a summit held earlier this month between top Senate Democrats and election experts. The meeting came weeks after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that gave the U.S. postal service control over who gets to vote by mail. That order is being challenged in court.
Meanwhile, the president continues to spread unfounded claims about the insecurity of U.S. elections. And he’s characterizing his executive orders as a means to shore up trust in voting.
How is the president using his power to undermine the midterms and the electoral process? And what’s at stake for our democracy if election interference succeeds?
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Fri, 19 Jun 2026
Novels centering on love and sex are among the best-selling books year after year. More and more are challenging the conventions of romance as a genre — and bringing us well beyond fairy tale endings.
Two novels out this summer are pushing some of the boundaries of romance writing and love stories as we know them.
Haili Blassingame’s “They All Fall in Love at the End” follows a young Black writer in D.C. as she explores non-monogamy while her city (and the whole world) deals with the fallout of the 2024 election.
And in Tia Williams’ “The Missed Connection,” a casting agent tries to find the handsome stranger who sat next to her on a flight while navigating past trauma and a shaky work-life balance.
We ask these new authors about writing complex love stories.
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Thu, 18 Jun 2026
When a couple struggles to conceive, the assumption is often that there is something wrong with the woman. Women are evaluated for infertility far more often than men.
But male factor infertility accounts for about half of all infertility cases. And when that’s the case, men are less likely to talk about it, seek support, or even get tested in the first place.
In this installment of our “In Good Health” series, we talk about male infertility — what causes it, what can be done about it, and what it’s like to go through it.
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Wed, 17 Jun 2026
This week, on the southern shores of Lake Geneva, leaders of the Group of Seven countries gathered for their annual summit.
There are several pressing issues that require attention including the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran, the resulting economic crisis, the state of the Persian Gulf, and long term questions about the future of relations with Iran.
The G7 meeting also notably brought Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy face-to-face with President Donald Trump. Trump told reporters that the war Ukraine was not a priority for the United States, saying that his country had “nothing to do” with a war that was “thousands of miles away.”
We discuss what this 2026 G7 meeting reveals about the state of the U.S. relationship with its most important allies, especially after months of a war of choice with Iran.
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Tue, 16 Jun 2026
It’s a busy time for the Supreme Court – with 20 cases left and only weeks left in its term. The Court has a stacked docket of high-profile cases that could have seismic effects for years to come.
Decisions are expected soon on immigration and Birthright Citizenship, a nearly 160-year legal precedent that says those born in the US are citizens. Plus decisions on mail in ballots, transgender athletes and the president’s ability to fire the heads of independent agencies.
We’ll get into all of it and what these decisions could mean for you.
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Mon, 15 Jun 2026
President Trump is working fast to remake the nation’s capital in his image.
His major construction projects include demolishing the East Wing of the White House for his proposed ballroom and a planned 250-foot arch that would dwarf the Lincoln Memorial.
As part of the mission to renovate D.C., the White House has bypassed many of the checks put in place for any president seeking major transformations in the city — like firing all six members of the Commission of Fine Arts and installing deputies who align with his policies.
But as the president moves to transform D.C., what does the lack of oversight say about how transparent the administration is being with its plans? And where is the money from these projects coming from?
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Fri, 12 Jun 2026
The latest inflation number are out, and prices are rising fast. Last month, prices soared at the fastest rates seen in three years.
A new $70 billion immigration enforcement bill narrowly passed the Senate on Tuesday. The package funds ICE and Border Patrol through the end of Trump’s second term in office.
And the World Cup began on Thursday, with Mexico taking on South Africa in a replay of the opening match of the 2010 tournament.
And, in global news, early in the week President Donald Trump told reporters the U.S. would hit Iran hard after Iranian forces attacked a helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz this week. He also threatened to “assume total control” of Iran’s oil and gas industries. On Thursday, he canceled plans for those attacks.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are going through a rough patch. When the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, they appeared to be shoulder to shoulder. But over the past 100 days, things have changed. Reports of expletive filled calls and defiance on the part of each leader continue to grow.
And on Tuesday, anti-immigrant riots broke out in Belfast after a Sudanese asylum seeker was charged with attempted murder in a stabbing attack that left a man with serious face and neck wounds.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 11 Jun 2026
In 1966, the United States declared victory over a destructive flesh-eating parasite that devastated livestock. The New World Screwworm is a fly whose larvae burrow into the living flesh of mammals. It was eradicated after a long campaign that involved releasing millions of sterile flies over infested areas.
Last week, that fly came back.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed five cases of larvae contamination in Texas and New Mexico – the first detections in decades. Federal officials say the food supply is safe, but the cattle industry is on high alert. The American cattle supply is already at a 75-year low. Beef prices are high. And a screwworm outbreak could make it worse.
Outside farms and ranches, the tick population is growing and spreading in new parts of the country. Emergency room visits for tick bites hit a 10-year seasonal high in April. And a growing number of Americans are discovering they’ve developed an allergy to red meat triggered by tick bites.
We sit down with a panel of experts to talk about it.
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Wed, 10 Jun 2026
104 games. 48 teams. Three host nations. One dream.
The men’s World Cup returns to North America for the first time in 32 years. And fans from all over the world are descending on cities like Dallas, Toronto, and Monterrey, hoping to watch their nations find glory.
But it’s not all grass and glamour. The run-up to this tournament has been plagued by issues around ticket pricing, transportation costs, threats of immigration enforcement, and the consequences of geopolitical conflict.
What does it all mean for the action on the field?
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Tue, 09 Jun 2026
Across the U.S., cities and communities are celebrating Pride during the month of June.
At the same time, a new poll from Gallup suggests attitudes around LGBTQ issues are shifting. After two decades, support for the community has now dropped. The swing is being largely driven by republicans. Just four years ago, polling data suggested a majority of Republicans supported same sex marriage at 55 percent. That number is now at 37 percent.
Trans issues, specifically, is another story. Only 5 percent of Republicans say changing one’s gender is morally acceptable. That number was at 22 percent five years ago.
Trans rights in the U.S. are a hot button issue among conservative politicians and voters. President Donald Trump campaigned on it, spending millions of dollars on anti-trans ads. Since then, the administration has rolled back protections for and access to gender-affirming care.
What is the state of LGBTQ+ rights in the U.S. today? And what does this reported dip in acceptance mean for the community?
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Mon, 08 Jun 2026
Last week marked the anniversary of Congress passing the 19th Amendment.
In 1919, that Constitutional amendment gave women the right to vote — although it only applied in practice to white women for decades. Poll taxes, literacy tests, and Jim Crow-era state laws prevented Black women from voting.
Fast forward 107 years, and a growing conservative movement now wants to repeal the 19th Amendment and the other hard-won rights of women and people of color. It’s called “masculinism,” and its goal is to combat what its believers see as a “feminized” U.S. society.
In this edition of “If You Can Keep It,” we explore how a fringe movement on the right is gaining momentum thanks to its connections to the Trump administration. What do followers of this movement want? And what does it mean for our democracy if a growing movement in conservative politics wants to re-institute patriarchy?
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Fri, 05 Jun 2026
The U.S. House of Representatives voted this week to end the war in Iran. While not yet passed into law, it demonstrates a break between the Trump administration and the GOP-majority legislative body.
In light of its recent ruling concerning the Voting Rights Act, the Supreme Court once again cleared the way for Alabama to use its new Congressional map. This comes despite a three-judge panel has blocking the map in late May.
A convicted Jan. 6 rioter was hired at the Pentagon this week. Elias Irizarry will now work in one of the agency’s offices that handles highly-classified military information.
And, in global news, talks between Washington and Tehran are hanging by a thread. Now, Iranian officials say they have yet to deploy the full power of their military and they are prepared for any scenario, even a direct confrontation.
Ukrainian missiles hit the Russian city of St. Petersburg this week as Vladimir Putin’s premiere economic forum begins.
And during testimony on Capitol Hill, Marco Rubio told lawmakers that Greenland remains a part of Denmark “for now.”
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 04 Jun 2026
On Tuesday, a legion of screaming fans packed the Beacon Theatre in New York City – arms outstretched for the glittery, long-haired rock star known as the Vampire Lestat.
Of course, in reality, the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt and his touring band don’t exist. He’s the creation of beloved horror writer Anne Rice. And this version of him, played by actor Sam Reid, is the lead of AMC’s television adaptation of Rice’s books.
But for the fans who packed the Beacon Theatre this week, these distinctions are unimportant. And it speaks to a shared commitment between the fans of Rice’s vampiric world and the actors and creators behind the series who strive to honor it.
The third season of “Interview with the Vampire’s” begins airing Sunday. It’s a departure from the first two – which focused on Louis de Point du Lac, played by actor Jacob Anderson, his transformation into a vampire, and his rocky relationship with his maker.
The third season puts Lestat in the driver’s seat – his perspective, his music, and a peak into his 200-year backstory. We sit down with the series showrunner and the actors to discuss the show’s third season, honoring Rice’s vision, and rocking out as a vampire.
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Wed, 03 Jun 2026
More than 300,000 federal workers have left government service since the start of the second Trump administration.
Some were laid off by the administration. Some took buyouts. Some walked out. The cuts hit every major agency — from the State Department to the Justice Department.
That doesn’t mean things have been easy for those still working for the government. Last week, the Office of Personnel Management proposed requiring all federal employees to sign non-disclosure agreements that would prevent them from sharing internal government information.
We sit down to talk about how those cuts are affecting the workers who remained.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Tue, 02 Jun 2026
Smart phones. Smart cars. Smart speakers. Web browsers. Social media. Artificial Intelligence.
Technologies we rely on every day generate a massive amount of information about what we do, where we go, what we like, and who we are. That data can make life very convenient — your rideshare app knows where you want go before you enter an address, you only see ads for products you’re already interested in buying, videos on subjects you enjoy are already auto-populated in your feed.
But at what cost? What’s the tradeoff?
Andrew Guthrie Ferguson is a professor of law at the George Washington University School of Law and a national surveillance expert. He says that the rise of the self-surveillance state has big ramifications for Americans’ personal freedoms and America’s democratic values.
We sit down with him to talk about how are data is being used against us and about his books, “Your Data Will Be Used Against You: Policing in the Age of Self-Surveillance.”
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Mon, 01 Jun 2026
Since the start of his second term, President Donald Trump has fashioned the Department of Justice into a tool he can wield against his enemies.
So far, Trump has installed his personal lawyer as the top official. He’s culled the ranks of career prosecutors. And he’s pressured U.S. attorneys into bringing cases against people he considers political enemies.
In recent months, grand juries have acted as the last line of defense against his full weaponization of the justice system — refusing to indict in cases where the government hasn’t proven a crime has been committed.
In this latest installment of our weekly politics series, “If You Can Keep It,” what do recent high-profile grand jury proceedings tell us about accountability at the Justice Department?
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Fri, 29 May 2026
The US and Iran appear to be close to a peace deal. That’s according to US officials, but it’s still awaiting President Trump approval. He’s reviewing the details today.
The deal would reportedly extend the ceasefire for 60 days, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and open talks over the future of Iran’s nuclear program.
We unpack the other big news of the week: Is the U.S ready for the Ebola outbreak? Conflict also erupted outside an ICE detention center in New Jersey, where detainees are on a hunger and labor strike. And major results out of the Texas runoff election.
And for this week’s global news, we have some special guests from the BBC and The Global Story podcast from the BBC to take us through some international news.
The Trump administration is continuing to squeeze Cuba’s communist regime with sanctions as it prepares for the possible collapse of the island’s totalitarian government as early as this summer, according to U.S officials.
And in another week of whiplash in the negotiations between the US and Iran, the countries appear on the cusp of a peace deal. The agreement would reportedly extend the ceasefire for 60 days, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and commit to negotiating Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. Though it still needs President Trump’s approval.
We also talk Europe, and how the E.U is dealing with multiple diplomatic challenges from the far right to Russia to the Trump administration.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 28 May 2026
The official start of summer movie season is here. As the temperatures heat up, the box office is already off to a blazing start.
Already in 2026, the film industry is experiencing its strongest theatrical rebound since the pandemic, after years of bad news. That’s thanks to films like The Devil Wears Prada 2 and the Michael Jackson biopic Michael.
We hear from movie critics what films they’ll be watching, in the theater and at the box office.
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Wed, 27 May 2026
Chronic pelvic and vulvovaginal pain is surprisingly common among women of all ages. In fact, 1 in 3 women will experience a pelvic floor disorder at some point in their lifetimes.
So, why is it so difficult to receive diagnosis and treatment for these conditions? And why don’t we talk about our pain ‘down there’ in general?
In this installment in our series, “In Good Health,” we sit down with a panel of experts to talk about it.
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Tue, 26 May 2026
The U.S. is facing a steep healthcare worker shortage. A 2025 federal analysis projected that by 2038, 30 out of 35 physician specialties will be hurting for practitioners, with over 140,000 roles left unfilled. And for nurses, that shortage is projected to be over 108,000.
And last week, 25 states plus the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education over new federal student loan limits on graduate degrees. Those caps apply to programs that could graduate workers into these threatened health care fields.
But Education Secretary Linda McMahon says these worries are overblown and that these new rules aim to force colleges to lower tuition rates.
So, what do these changes really mean for the future of our healthcare workforce in the U.S.?
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Mon, 25 May 2026
What does it mean to matter — to loved ones, to your community, at your job?
Feeling like we have value and purpose in life is something humans inherently crave. But recent work on the topic takes this a step further – arguing that it is critical to our very existence. As critical as our need for sleep, food, and air.
Why does it matter if we matter? We sit down with two experts to try and answer that question.
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Fri, 22 May 2026
Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie lost his state’s GOP primary to a Trump-backed candidate this week. The seven-term congressman became a target for the president over the former’s desire to release the files related to late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Thomas Massie and Bill Cassidy are now lame-duck Republicans after losing their primaries to Trump-backed challengers. Where does that leave razor-thin margins in Congress?
President Donald Trump’s seemingly doomed lawsuit against the IRS has resolved itself in an unprecedented way this week. A settlement in the case includes a clause that precludes the agency from investigating the president, his family, and his businesses ever again.
And Trump allies get a $1.8 billion boost in the form of a new so-called Anti-Weaponization Fund paid for by taxpayers. That money could be giving pardoned January 6 insurrectionists payouts – and is drawing bipartisan ire.
And, in global news, Iranian officials are accusing the U.S. of getting ready to start a new war as the American military makes moves in the Middle East. Both parties mull a new proposal, and familiar messaging from the White House. Also this week, Iran formalizes a plan to make money on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finds himself in a precarious political situation this week as Knesset, votes to dissolve itself ahead of another election. Now, Netanyahu must find a way to keep his right-wing coalition from collapsing amid pressure from his nation’s ultra-orthodox parties.
And Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to China to meet with its president, Xi Jinping, a week after President Donald Trump made the same trip.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Wed, 20 May 2026
A war the president promised would last weeks is now in its third month. And the ripple effects are rocking the global economy.
The Strait of Hormuz is still closed to most ships. Iran, the U.S., and Israel don’t look ready for a peace deal. Iran’s air force and navy are severely damaged. But recent intelligence reports say the regime has control of more missiles and weapons systems than the Trump administration has acknowledged, and that it’s taking advantage of the ceasefire to rearm.
Meanwhile, Iranians are living under a blockade. Gulf states are absorbing the shock of Iranian missiles and of economic uncertainty.
What does the Middle East look like now? Who wins, who loses, and what happens to American influence in a region it just turned upside down? Luckily, we know just the man to ask.
Gregg Carlstrom’s is a name that might be familiar to listeners of the News Roundup. He’s been The Economist’s Middle East correspondent since 2010. He’s also the author of the book, “How long will Israel survive? The threat from within.” We sit down with him to talk through the latest in the region.
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Tue, 19 May 2026
This week, thousands of Americans attended a day-long conservative prayer gathering. The event was billed as a rededication of the U.S. as “One Nation Under God” for our nation’s 250th birthday.
The gathering was a private-public partnership backed by the White House. Non-Christian voices of faith were notably absent, apart from one Jewish rabbi. Almost all the speakers featured were Christians and most were Evangelicals. Some were Trump cabinet members and lawmakers.
With the separation of church and state and the freedom of religion baked into the founding of our country, what does our nation’s relationship with faith look like today? Does the America of 2026 represent what our founding fathers intended?
In this special broadcast of 1A in partnership with Religion News Service, we leave our studio and head to American University in Washington D.C. where we sit down with a panel of experts in front of a live audience.
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Mon, 18 May 2026
It’s been more than two weeks since the Supreme Court made the decision to weaken a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That piece of the legislation protected minority voters from discrimination in elections. Now, that ruling has invoked a new wave of calls to reform the court.
In the last installment of our “If You Can Keep It” series, we discussed what those reforms might look like, from expanding the size of the bench, to restricting the shadow docket.
Our listeners had so many thoughts on whether and how to reform the court that we decided to return to that conversation to talk more about what’s possible and answer more questions.
So, what happens when the Supreme Court loses credibility among a large swath of the country? And how can the court get it back when partisanship on the bench has become the expectation.
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Fri, 15 May 2026
Despite assertions by President Donald Trump to the contrary, reporting from The New York Times indicates that Iran’s military is still in fighting shape, regaining access to 30 of its 33 missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz.
The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act has paved the way for Alabama to use a controversial GOP-drawn electoral map in the upcoming midterms.
And FBI Director Kash Patel appeared on Capitol Hill this week to give testimony before Congress. He clashed with Democrats over reporting from The Atlantic that indicated that the Trump official’s alcohol use was impeding him from completing his duties.
We cover the most important stories from around the country in the domestic hour of the News Roundup.
And, in global news, President Donald Trump traveled to China this week to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Taiwan, the war in Iran, and trade are all up for discussion between the two leaders of the world’s largest economies.
The price tag of the war with Iran has now topped $29 billion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week that he believes his country’s invasion of Ukraine is “coming to an end.”
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 14 May 2026
Mayors are uniquely aware of what’s needed to make their cities run more efficiently. And when it comes to improving city life — from housing, to public safety, to city services — a lack of resources can be a major obstacle.
In February, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced the winners of this year’s mayors’ challenge. A $1 million prize was awarded to 24 winners from 20 countries selected from 630 entries.
1A spoke to some of those winners at Bloomberg’s Citylab conference in Madrid, Spain. The summit was held in April and convened mayors from across the globe to talk about the latest in city planning.
We sit down with Vico Sotto, mayor of Pasig in the Philippines; Lauren McLean, the Democratic mayor of Boise, Idaho; and Geordin Hill-Lewis, the Mayor of Cape Town, South Africa, to talk about how they’re navigating the challenges facing them and their neighbors.
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Wed, 13 May 2026
In August 2024, 26-year-old Conor Hylton checked into Bridgeport Hospital in Connecticut. Overnight, he was transferred to critical care, where he died.
It was only after his passing that his family found out that Conor was treated at what’s known as a “tele-ICU.” His story shines a light on a practice that’s been around for decades despite a lack of substantial research about its outcomes.
A tele-ICU is a hospital unit where patient care is handled off-site by remote doctors, nurses, or specialists. Up to a third of ICU beds in the U.S. are in tele-ICUs. That’s according to a study from the American Hospital Association.
In Wisconsin, as of May 1, critical care physicians are no longer physically present in the ICUs of a few Ascension satellite hospitals. They remain available via video call to help bedside nurses and on-site hospital medicine doctors, known as hospitalists, who do not specialize in critical care.
These facilities do present an opportunity to expand and improve the health care people receive. But what are the risks of replacing in-person care in the most critical, life or death moments?
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Tue, 12 May 2026
Last year, when Columbia University found itself embroiled by anti-war protests and fighting with the Trump administration, journalist Jodi Kantor was invited to speak at the school’s commencement.
“My friends actually tried to stop me. Like, ‘Don’t do it. Call in sick,'” remembers Kantor.
The Pulitzer prize-winner did wind up giving that speech. And that experience led her to write a new book about how young people can find their life’s work. We sit down with Kantor to talk about ‘How to Start.’
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Mon, 11 May 2026
Public trust in the Supreme Court is at a 30-year low, according to Pew Research Center. For some, this month marked a turning point in perceptions of its legitimacy.
The court recently ruled in Louisiana v. Callais. Its decision undermined a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that protected minority voters and sought to prevent racial discrimination in elections.
Following the court’s ruling, Tennessee’s GOP-controlled legislature passed a new congressional map, dismantling the state’s majority-Black district. The map gives Republicans a competitive advantage in all nine districts ahead of the state’s midterms. Other red states are now scrambling to redraw their congressional maps as well.
Justice Samuel Alito justified the court’s ruling by claiming that Black voter turnout, both nationwide and in Louisiana, exceeded white voter turnout in two of the five recent presidential elections, writing that the kind of discrimination the Voting Rights Act was designed to prevent no longer exists.
However, reporting from The Guardian found that Alito’s claim was based on misleading data from the Justice Department.
As trust in the Supreme Court continues to remain low, calls for reform grow. In this installment of our weekly politics series, “If You Can Keep It,” we unpack what that reform might actually look like and what’s at stake for our democracy if it doesn’t happen.
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Fri, 08 May 2026
President Donald Trump told PBS News this week that his offensive in the Middle East has a “very good chance of ending.” Just days later though, the U.S. traded fire with Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, threatening an already fragile ceasefire. The U.S. is still hoping for a “serious offer” from Iran on a proposal to end the war, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, even as the threat of escalation looms.
Donald Trump isn’t on the ballot in the upcoming Indiana primary. But his agenda certainly is. In late 2025, GOP state lawmakers resisted efforts by the White House to redraw Indiana’s congressional map. Now, Trump allies are running to unseat them.
The Trump administration has opened an investigation into Smith College, a women-only institution of higher education, over its 2015 decision to admit trans women as students.
And, in global news, the fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran was tested this week when American forces launched “self-defense strikes” in the Strait of Hormuz after Iranian forces targeted three Navy destroyers, though none were struck.
These strikes come as Iran reviews the latest U.S. proposal to end the war which American officials hope will result in a “serious offer” from Iran, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
President Donald Trump claimed this week that the U.S. will be taking over Cuba “almost immediately.” The backlash from the island nation was swift, with Cuban leader Miguel Diaz-Canel calling the American administration fascist.
On Monday, and despite the ceasefire, Israeli attacks killed 17 people in southern Lebanon.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 07 May 2026
One drug is at the center of the current legal battle over abortion: mifepristone.
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, mifepristone has become the dominant method of abortion in the United States, filling the gap left by clinic closures in states with abortion bans. And the number of abortions has actually risen nationally as a result.
That’s a problem for abortion access opponents. Now, they’re taking aim at one of the main ways it’s prescribed – via telehealth. And last week, they scored their first big win.
A federal appeals court blocked remote prescription of mifepristone. Louisiana sued the FDA, arguing that mail access undermines the state’s near-total ban on abortion. But two days later, the drug’s manufacturers went to the Supreme Court and it temporarily restored telehealth access while it considers the case. But that stay is set to expire soon.
So, what’s next in this legal battle? And what does it mean for patients and reproductive health providers?
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Wed, 06 May 2026
Last November, Calvin Duncan won an election to serve as the chief records keeper for the criminal courts of the parish that covers New Orleans.
He received 68 percent of the vote, beating out a powerful incumbent. He has some personal experience with Louisiana courts. He was incarcerated for a murder conviction for 28 years. He studied criminal law to advocate for himself, and a judge eventually found him innocent. He was freed in 2011.
But now, the Louisiana state legislature has moved to eliminate his position. State officials voted to combine his office with another in a move that state senators said was meant to save money. Duncan is taking legal action and a lawsuit over his role is now making its way through the courts. This situation is part of a larger trend across the nation where state legislatures are more and more often undoing decisions made by local officials.
“State preemption” describes steps a state government can take to tell a local city or town council it can’t do something. Legislators in states like Florida, Missouri, California, West Virginia, Michigan, and Louisiana have been using it to influence events and regulations in their communities.
What’s leading to more frequent, and public, fights between state legislatures and local governments? And what could defuse these fights?
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Tue, 05 May 2026
Power is at the center of Americans’ lives. It lets us cool our homes, keeps them lit, and charges our electronics.
But the more things we plug into our aging power grid, the more strained it becomes. And electricity use in the U.S. is rising for the first time in more than a decade.
What happens when our grid can’t keep up? We sit down with a panel of experts to find out.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Mon, 04 May 2026
Last week, in a six-to-three ruling along ideological lines, the Supreme Court dealt a major blow to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
That’s the landmark Civil Rights era law designed to prevent racial discrimination in an election. The law was passed to unravel Jim Crow era policies that limited or blocked Black Americans’ access to the ballot.
The decision in Louisiana v. Callais struck down Louisiana’s congressional map as an “unconstitutional gerrymander.”
But the ruling goes further. It effectively rewrites the rules for how the Voting Rights Act can be used to challenge discriminatory maps, making it much harder to do so going forward. It’s the latest in a string of rulings making the last all but moot.
We tackle the race to redistrict across America and we talk about how this hugely consequential ruling changes an election season already in full swing.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Fri, 01 May 2026
The Supreme Court this week struck down a voting map in Louisiana that created a second majority-Black district, ruling it an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. In doing so, the majority also struck an enormous blow to the landmark Voting Rights Act, and fueled GOP redistricting efforts before the midterms.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth headed to Congress, where things got testy as lawmakers grilled him over the war with Iran. Pentagon officials put a price tag on the conflict so far: $25 billion. And gas prices hit a four year high, with a national average of $4.30 a gallon.
Federal prosecutors formally charged the alleged gunman at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner with attempting to assassinate the president. He will remain in custody despite an appeal for a pre-trial release.
We cover the most important stories from around the country in the domestic hour of the News Roundup.
And, in global news, the United States and Iran extend their dueling blockades in the Strait of Hormuz as President Trump rejects the Islamic Republic’s proposal to reopen the critical waterway.
Israel ramps up attacks on southern Lebanon, while claiming it did not break a temporary U-S brokered ceasefire.
And uncertainty over the global oil supply causes markets to spike once again, the same week energy companies report massive profits.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Thu, 30 Apr 2026
American farmers are being squeezed. Tariffs are raising the cost of equipment and services. And now the war in Iran is driving up the cost of fertilizer and fuel.
And the Farm bill — the sweeping, traditionally bipartisan legislation that shapes everything from crop insurance to food aid – hasn’t been reauthorized since 2018.
Next week, the House will try again.
What’s in the bill and why the coalition that supported it for years seems to be falling apart.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Wed, 29 Apr 2026
In 2024, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was a presidential hopeful running under the banner of “making America healthy again.”
Among his most fervent supporters: vaccine skeptics and cynics, nutrition-focused parents and anti-pesticide activists.
After dropping out of the presidential contest and endorsing Donald Trump, Kennedy emerged as the president’s foremost pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Now, many in the so-called “MAHA coalition” are disappointed with Secretary Kennedy for what they describe as a failure to deliver key reforms to the nation’s health and food systems.
And, we discuss what the rise in measles and other infectious diseases means about the state of our public health. Secretary Kennedy has repeatedly downplayed recent measles outbreaks and given deeply mixed messages on vaccination.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Tue, 28 Apr 2026
Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing how we run cities. It has the potential to make life more affordable, efficient, and safe. But with little oversight and policy, what are the risks to residents?
As tech changes our communities, it’s often mayors who are leading the way. More than 500 of them are meeting in Madrid to share their best ideas as part of this year’s Bloomberg CityLab, a global cities summit from Bloomberg Philanthropies in partnership with the Aspen Institute … and 1A is there.
The mayors of San Antonio, Texas, Nairobi, Kenya and Bogotá, Colombia join us for a discussion about how local leaders are using artificial intelligence to aid them in running their cities — and how they are balancing residents’ concerns about privacy, the environmental impact, and what an increased use of AI could mean for the job market.
They’re among 10 founding mayors of the Mayors AI Forum launched Tuesday in Madrid by Bloomberg Philanthropies and Johns Hopkins University.
“Mayors have often been early leaders on global challenges – even as national and international responses lagged,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg L.P., and three-term mayor of New York City. “Now, the Mayors AI Forum will help put them – and the communities they serve – at the forefront of conversations about the future of AI.”
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NPR Privacy Policy
Mon, 27 Apr 2026
A growing number of states are looking at implementing a wealth tax to fund social services.
California is among them, with a billionaire tax set to be included on its November ballot. And this month, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, and Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul introduced a proposed tax on luxury second homes in the city. In March, Washington passed its first ever income tax – which has already been met with a legal challenge.
All this comes as the wealth gap in the U.S. grows to its widest point in three decades – and only looks set to keep increasing. In this installment of “If You Can Keep It,” we look at how tax codes have contributed to a growing inequality in the country, how to fix it, and what this wealth gap means for the health of our democracy.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Fri, 24 Apr 2026
President Donald Trump is giving Iran a short window to unify behind an offer for peace in the Middle East after negotiations between Tehran and Washington recently broke down — or the ceasefire he extended Tuesday ends.
Donald Trump’s labor secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, is leaving the agency amidst accusations of misconduct. She’s now the third cabinet member to leave during the second Trump administration.
Elsewhere, Virginia voters approved a new congressional map on Tuesday that could help Democrats pick up seats in the House during the midterms later this year. But a state judge blocked the map from being certified just a day after its passage.
And, in global news, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected to arrive in Islamabad, Pakistan, tonight for another round of peace talks with the U.S.
A top Trump administration envoy floated the idea to FIFA this week to replace Iran with Italy at this summer’s World Cup. The swap was likely suggested as an effort to repair ties between President Donald Trump and Italy Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni amid rumors they’ve fallen out over the presidents attack on Pope Leo XIV.
The Trump administration is reportedly in talks with the Democratic Republic of Congo to send as many as eleven hundred Afghan refugees there, including more than 400 children.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Thu, 23 Apr 2026
Just a few decades ago, human immunodeficiency virus, also known as HIV, was a death sentence for those who contracted it.
However, over the past 35 years, more effective medication and widespread access to AIDS drug assistance programs have helped those with the virus live longer and healthier lives.
But in the coming months, tens of thousands of people living with HIV in the U.S. could lose access to that medication. That’s because states around the country are trying to save money by making cuts to programs that pay for HIV meds and care.
In March, more than 16,000 people lost coverage when Florida slashed ADAP eligibility overnight. Weeks later, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law allocating $31 million to keep thousands of those who lost coverage on their meds.
But that money is only slated to last through June. And this isn’t just a problem happening in Florida. Some 23 states and Washington, D.C. have implemented or are considering implementing cuts to their own HIV medication and care programs to help balance their budgets.
We sit down with a panel of experts to discuss.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Wed, 22 Apr 2026
More than 70 million Americans live with a disability. That’s roughly one in four adults. And any of us can join that number at any point in our lives. Through an injury, illness, or simply getting older.
Disabled people are one of the largest minorities in this country. Yet there’s one part of their lives that almost never gets discussed: sex.
Today, that silence is being challenged – by disabled people themselves – online, in film and television, and in conversations happening in bedrooms and doctors’ offices across the country.
In February, we brought you 1A’s first sex week – about sex across our lifespans. And you told us you wanted more about sex and disability.
How do we express our needs in the bedroom, especially when the sex we want doesn’t match common ideas of what sex – and the people who have it – can look like?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Tue, 21 Apr 2026
Towns across the U.S. are now grappling with what it means to have ICE detention centers in their backyard — even communities that overwhelmingly voted for President Donald Trump and support his deportation efforts.
Last week, hundreds of protestors showed up outside a Maryland courtroom while a federal judge temporarily blocked the construction of a detention center in the state. That pause will remain in place as a lawsuit from the the state’s attorney general plays out. And last month, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro blocked ICE’s access to water and sewage systems in two different counties where warehouses were bought. Local leaders argue these warehouses would overwhelm city resources.
So, what are conditions like in these facilities? And what does the future hold for this new wave of detention centers?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Mon, 20 Apr 2026
Most of us would agree that access to foreign intelligence is important to national security. But whose private data gets swept up in the process?
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was first established in 1978 following Watergate. It’s a key U.S. surveillance tool. Section 702 was added to the act in 2008 allowing the government to collect the communications of more than 300,000 foreign nationals outside of the U.S. without a warrant every year. And the Trump administration would like to keep it that way even though lawmakers on both sides of the aisle worry that the act violates American citizens’ right to privacy.
That section was set to expire today. But last Friday, the House voted to extend the expiration to April 30th. That’s after House Speaker Mike Johnson failed to corral his party’s support behind a long-term extension. The Senate also passed that short-term extension.
So, as its future hangs in the balance, what’s at risk if we lose this tool? And what are the dangers of failing to reform it?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Fri, 17 Apr 2026
We start with the U.S.-Israel war with Iran — a war that President Donald Trump said would end in two to three weeks. Now, in its seventh week, the Pentagon is sending 10,000 more troops to the Middle East to pressure Iran into making a peace deal.
On Sunday, Trump posted a long rant on Truth Social calling Pope Leo XIV “weak on crime, and terrible for foreign policy.” Then, later that night, Trump posted an AI-generated photo that appeared to depict him as Jesus Christ.
Rep. Eric Swalwell was a front-runner for the seat of California governor just weeks ago. Now, he’s out of the race and out of Congress after numerous sexual assault allegations were leveled against him.
And, in global news, Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz completely open to commercial vessels. This move is expected to lessen severity of the growing global energy crisis and bring the possibility of a peace agreement between Iran and the U.S. closer to becoming a reality.
New reporting from Axios indicates that U.S. and Iranian negotiators made progress in new peace talks on Tuesday. On Thursday, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said a second round of talks between the U.S. and Iran will be held in Islamabad. But no date has been announced yet.
And it’s the dawn of a new era in Hungary this week. For the first time in 16 years, Viktor Orbán will no longer lead the nation from Budapest, having lost the election for his position as prime minister to conservative rival Peter Magyar.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Thu, 16 Apr 2026
For over 75 years, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has bolstered American power and shaped the world order as we know it. But under President Donald Trump, its future is uncertain.
The United States has spent the better part of a year telling its allies they’re on their own. Trump has threatened to annex Greenland – the sovereign territory of NATO ally, Denmark. He skipped the Munich Security Conference. And he launched the war in Iran without consulting NATO allies.
Now, the president is asking for help securing the Strait of Hormuz. And European countries are saying no.
How is the war in Iran testing the alliance? And how would a U.S. withdrawal from NATO reshape global power dynamics?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Wed, 15 Apr 2026
Imagine you’re in a bookstore and you wander over to the fiction section. There, you find two shelves: one for human-written novels… and one for novels written by AI.
That future may not be as far off as you think. Roughly 4 million books were published in the U.S. in 2025. That’s a more than a 32 percent increase from 2024, according to the trade magazine Publisher’s Weekly.
It’s unclear how many of those books were written by AI, in part because software used to detect it can be ineffective. And the literary waters were made even murkier by the fact that at least 3 million of those 4 million books were self-published. That makes it even more difficult to know if they were written by human hands (er, minds).
That’s not to say the self-published portion of the industry is the only part where this tech is showing up. Hachette, one the largest publishers in the U.S., canceled one of its novels, “SHY GIRL,” after allegations that its author used AI to write it.
All this is marking a turning point for the publishing industry. How can authors ethically use this technology? And do readers really need new AI-authored books in a market already saturated with options?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Tue, 14 Apr 2026
It’s that time of the year again. Have you finished filing your return?
Doing taxes this season has been particularly fraught – for both taxpayers and the Internal Revenue Service. It’s been a year since DOGE slashed federal funding and cut droves of federal employees. Those departures hit the IRS hard. Its leadership has largely turned over.
Also, Republicans in Congress took back billions of dollars the agency had received to improve its systems. Then, they gave the IRS even more tax code changes to enforce.
Can the IRS handle it all? And what do taxes – and a functional tax agency – have to do with the strength of U.S. democracy? We sit down with a panel of experts to find out.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Mon, 13 Apr 2026
The Democrats are having a moment. They’ve enjoyed massive turnout for recent primaries, special elections, and local races. And voter data shows they’re also gaining support among Republican and independent voters.
In Wisconsin, liberal judge Chris Taylor recently won a spot on the state Supreme Court by nearly 20 points. That’s nearly double the margin of victory another liberal candidate in 2025.
Some Republicans are worried about what wins like these mean for the GOP’s performance in the midterms. And as a shrinking job market, high inflation, and a costly war in Iran drag down the economy, Democrats are seizing the moment to capture voters.
In this installment of our weekly politics series, “If You Can Keep It,” we go deep on the Democrats’ recent successes. How are voters responding to a Republican party struggling to deliver on its promises?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Fri, 10 Apr 2026
The U.S. and Iran have agreed to a two-week ceasefire after President Donald Trump threatened that “a whole civilization will die” in a social media post this week. Iranian officials are temporarily reopening the Strait of Hormuz as long as the truce remains unbroken.
Trump also signed an executive order this week that restricts mail-in voting, a practice he’s long criticized due to his belief that it leads to fraud. There is no evidence for the president’s claim.
Meanwhile, the president’s former attorney general, Pam Bondi, has signaled she will not appear for a scheduled Congressional deposition over the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.
And, in global news, despite the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran, Israel is continuing its offensive in Lebanon meant to target the terrorist group Hezbollah.
Now that the Strait of Hormuz has temporarily reopened, analysts are expecting that it will take weeks for global energy supplies to rebound.
JD Vance was in Europe this week for a visit to Hungary where he repeatedly praised its president, Victor Orban, and attacked the European Union.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Thu, 09 Apr 2026
In 2019, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, the first openly gay governor elected in the U.S., signed a bill banning conversion therapy in the state. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that ban may be unconstitutional.
Conversion therapy seeks to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The practice has been deemed unethical and ineffective by most major mental health groups. And a study from the Trevor Project found that young people who go through conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to have reported attempting suicide compared to those who did not.
Only one Supreme Court justice dissented in this case. Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that this decision “opens a dangerous can of worms” and “threatens to impair states’ ability to regulate the provision of medical care in any respect.”
What’s behind the Supreme Court’s decision that will likely overturn this ban? And how might this decision affect nearly two dozen other states that have similar bans?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Wed, 08 Apr 2026
After threatening massive attacks on civilian and energy infrastructure, Donald Trump is agreeing to a ceasefire to end the war in Iran.
On Tuesday morning, the president posted on social media that “an entire civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” referring to his Tuesday night deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz for trade.
Tuesday evening, the president extended that deadline and agreed to a two-week pause in fighting, writing in a social media post that his decision is based on conversations with Pakistan army chief and its prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said ships will be able to pass through the strait for the next two weeks in compliance with the ceasefire. Araghchi also said Iran will stop military attacks as long as it is not attacked.
Plus – hiring in most of the country is at a virtual standstill. That’s according to the most recent labor market figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The hiring rate fell to 3.1 percent in February. That’s the lowest since April 2020, when the pandemic shuttered many businesses. Job openings also dropped over by the hundreds of thousands compared to January.
Those losses are being felt most by young people. According to an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the unemployment rate for college grads reached 5.6 percent last year, outpacing the national rate of 4.2. And a November report by the Stanford Digital Economy Lab shows a “substantial decline” in job openings for early career workers in fields most vulnerable to artificial intelligence.
So, how are Americans feeling about the current job market? And how could U.S. and Israel’s war in Iran make a chilly jobs market even colder?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Tue, 07 Apr 2026
More than 80 million people rely on Medicaid. It’s the single largest source of funding for health coverage for low-income Americans. But President Donald Trump’s massive 2025 spending bill is expected to cut the program by nearly a trillion dollars over the next decade.
Hospitals could be among the hardest hit. Medicaid covers about a fifth of all their spending, according to KFF Health News.
And a new report from progressive think tank Public Citizen shows that more than 440 hospitals are at risk of closing or reducing services in the years ahead. More than a quarter of hospitals in states like Connecticut, California, New York, Massachusetts, and Washington are at risk of closing or cutting services.
Obstetrics care could be hit especially hard. It’s one of the most expensive categories of service provided by hospitals. And Medicaid funds nearly 40 percent of all births in the U.S.
What does the potential loss of hundreds of hospitals mean for the quality and availability of health care in this country?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Mon, 06 Apr 2026
Both Iran and the U.S. have been accused of committing or planning war crimes since “Operation Epic Fury” began in late February.
Targeting electricity-generating stations, schools, and water-purifying plants is illegal under international law. Pretty much any civilian infrastructure is supposed to be off limits.
But what does it actually mean to label military action a war crime in today’s conflicts? We sit down with a panel of experts to talk about it.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Fri, 03 Apr 2026
President Donald Trump told the nation during a presidential address that he expected the war in Iran to come to a close soon, saying that it was “nearly complete.” Meanwhile, the Pentagon is preparing for a weeks of ground operations in the Middle East.
The House rejected a Senate-approved bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security this week. Now, the Senate is scrambling to get another version of its plan back to the House before the week is over.
And a federal judge struck down a Trump executive order that pulled funding from National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, citing free speech violations.
And, in global news, President Donald Trump told aides this week that he would consider ending the war in Iran without securing the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. It’s a strategy that’s left some American allies a little nervous about their energy supplies, leading the president to tell them to “go get your own oil.”
Meanwhile, Israel passed a law legalizing the death penalty for any Palestinian caught perpetrating a terrorist attack.
Now, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he and his forces are planning on widening their invasion of southern Lebanon.
We cover the most important stories from around the globe on the News Roundup.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Thu, 02 Apr 2026
It’s been nearly four years since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Since then, abortion access across the U.S. has been in flux – and the fight around that care continues today. Now, 13 states have a total ban. And five have restricted abortion after six weeks of gestation. The latest state to do so is Wyoming.
But legal challenges to such bans are swift and constant, leading to confusion and uncertainty for both those seeking abortions and those who provide them.
And despite these partial or total bans, new data from the Guttmacher Institute found that the number of abortions has remained relatively unchanged from 2024 to 2025.
We sit down with a panel of experts to talk about the state of abortion access in 2026.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Wed, 01 Apr 2026
In 2024, many voters were frustrated with the state of the southern U.S. border.
A growing share of the electorate thought the Biden administration was being too lax on illegal immigration. And Pew Research said roughly one in 10 Democrats were in favor of a national deportation effort.
Over the past 14 months, President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has launched a strict and oftentimes violent crackdown on illegal immigration.
While popular at first, especially among the MAGA base, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have also detained legal residents and others with protected status as part of their efforts. Now, polls suggest most U.S. adults think the deployment of federal immigration agents into American cities has gone too far.
What do we know about where voters stand on Trump’s immigration enforcement? And how are Republicans and independents responding to this administration’s tactics?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Tue, 31 Mar 2026
If you’re born in the United States – with a few exceptions – you’re a U.S. citizen. That principle is called birthright citizenship and it’s existed since the end of the Civil War.
Some 160 years later, President Donald Trump wants to change that. On his first day back in office in 2025, he signed an executive order that tries to narrow the category of who is eligible.
The Supreme Court is set to weigh in. It hears the case on Wednesday. What could the outcomes of this case mean for U.S. citizenship – for new immigrants, for their children, and for native born citizens?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Mon, 30 Mar 2026
Is the Trump administration creating a centralized database that tracks the activities Americans? Americans who are not suspected of committing a crime?
That’s the question at the heart of a new lawsuit filed against the administration by the Freedom of the Press Foundation. That’s an organization advocating for press freedoms.
These allegations stem from an executive order signed by Donald Trump last year encouraging data sharing between federal agencies and the elimination of “information silos.” In the last year, the Trump administration has loosened restrictions around the Central Intelligence Agency’s access law enforcement data. It has also allowed Immigration and Customs Enforcement to access Medicaid data and given ICE access to data from the Internal Revenue Service.
These instances of data sharing between agencies have led to court battles and raised concerns over the amount of access the federal government has to our personal data and what they’re doing with it.
We discuss the erosion of privacy protections under the Trump administration and what it means for you.
A statement from Flock…
“Flock does not share data on behalf of customers – agencies own and control their data and decide how it’s shared. As is made clear in our Terms & Conditions, “all right, title, and interest in and to Customer Data belong to and are retained by Customer.” Agencies can opt to share 1:1, within a geographic radius, across statewide or nationwide networks, or not at all. All searches on the platform are logged in an unalterable audit trail.
Any sharing with federal law enforcement must be done on a 1:1 basis; federal agencies are not part of statewide or nationwide networks. In order for an agency to establish a sharing relationship with federal law enforcement, the local agency must explicitly allow federal law enforcement to discover that they exist within the Flock system (a setting that is opt-in only and off by default); federal law enforcement must then request access to that system; and the local agency must then accept federal law enforcement’s share request.
Flock does not have any contracts with ICE or any DHS subagency. You can read more here.On contract renewals: law enforcement agencies nationwide use Flock to help solve serious crimes. When a tool that is actively helping solve violent crimes is removed, public safety moves backward. That has real consequences: cases will take longer to solve, organized retail theft crews will operate with fewer obstacles, an Amber Alert may not be returned home, and victims may wait longer, or indefinitely, for justice. You can read more here.”
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NPR Privacy Policy
Fri, 27 Mar 2026
The Pentagon is planning on putting boots back on the ground in the Middle East. Some 2,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division have received orders to deploy to the region despite President Donald Trump signaling last week that he was interested in ending his war in Iran via diplomatic means.
As Democrats and Republicans continue to find themselves in a stand off over DHS funding, security lines at airports around the country continue to grow.
Tech giants Meta and YouTube were found negligent in a landmark case concerning the companies’ creation of addictive online platforms that harm users’ mental health and wellbeing.
And, in global news, Iranian officials confirmed this week they received a 15-point plan from the U.S. to end the war that’s killed thousands of Iranians and several American service members. Tehran, however, is signaling its found the demands contained within “extremely maximalist and unreasonable.”
Meanwhile, Tehran-backed Hezbollah leaders are rejecting any notion that they’re seeking an end to their conflict with Israel.
And the world’s attention swinging to Iran seems to have emboldened Russia, as Vladimir Putin’s forces gear up for a spring offensive in their campaign against Ukraine.
We cover the most important stories from around the globe on the News Roundup.
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Thu, 26 Mar 2026
The morning after major airstrikes by Israel on Iran’s oil facilities, black rain fell in Tehran. The city of nearly 10 million people was engulfed in thick black smoke.
The World Health Organization is warning that “the conflict in the Middle East poses serious threats to public health.” A new report from the Climate and Community Institute finds that the war unleashed over 5 million tons of carbon in just two weeks. That’s more climate pollution than Iceland generates in a year.
As the death toll grows, so does the environmental cost. We break it down with a panel of experts.
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Wed, 25 Mar 2026
The United States Postal Service has delivered mail for 250 years, from the busiest cities to the most remote parts of the country. But decades of money troubles have left the USPS billions of dollars in debt.
Now, the postmaster general warns that the agency could run out of money by October – and is urging Congress to save it.
We explore the uncertain future of USPS with a panel of experts.
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Tue, 24 Mar 2026
Owning a house appears further and further out of reach for many people in the U.S. The problem is a national one. The median price for an American home is now just over $400,000. On average, houses cost five years of the median salary for someone working in the U.S. In some cities on the West Coast and in parts of Florida, that ratio is now eight years of salary to buy a home.
Rents have also gone up significantly. Since 2020, the nation’s average rent is 27 percent higher. Some cities have seen much bigger gains – Miami’s average rent is up 51 percent. Housing policy advocates point to one big cause: the U.S. has not built enough housing for a growing population. But “build more housing” is a complex problem, not a single policy fix.
Congress recently turned its attention to the problem of housing affordability. The Senate passed a bill with a basket of different policies, aiming to bring down the cost of housing and encourage more building.
What’s in the bill specifically? And how could those policies make a dent in the housing crisis? And how has the housing crisis evolved in the past few years?
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Mon, 23 Mar 2026
The U.S. has a long history of getting rid of foreign leaders it doesn’t like. But a new pattern has emerged in the Trump administration’s dealings with its foreign adversaries.
In January, the president ordered a precision military operation that seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and brought him to the U.S. The next month, the administration launched a high-powered bombing campaign against Iran, killing the country’s supreme leader and dozens of its top officials.
In both cases, Trump said the countries’ fates were ultimately up to the citizens — a striking change from the nation building during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Now, the commander-in-chief has his eyes set on Cuba, telling its president his time in office is coming to a close.
Our series, “If You Can Keep It,” continues with a look at what Trump’s military actions in Venezuela and Iran mean for how we fight wars and what comes after.
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Fri, 20 Mar 2026
As Israel and the U.S. continue to fire missiles at targets within Iran, the American military and President Donald Trump are weighing the costs and benefits of putting U.S. boots on the ground in the Middle East once again.
Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s Department of Homeland Security confirmation hearing saw him clash with his fellow congresspeople. Despite the meeting’s testy tone, the committee cleared Mullin by a single vote, sending his confirmation to the full Senate.
A federal judge ruled this week that Voice of America must reinstate more than 1,000 employees after the Trump administration placed them on leave last year.
And, in global news, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, announced this week that the Strait of Hormuz wasn’t technically closed to all traffic, just to ships controlled by the country’s enemies. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is leaning on Japan to send warships to the passageway, to counteract Iran’s efforts to control the flow of trade.
New reporting from The Guardian indicates that before the U.S. began bombing Iran, security officials from U.S. allies judged that, as talks between Washington and Tehran progressed, a peace deal was in reach.
The U.S. eased sanction on Russia and Venezuela this week to unlock more viable sources of oil as energy prices rise and the war with Iran continues.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 19 Mar 2026
Cases of colorectal cancer in young people have risen nearly 60 percent since the early 2000s. That’s according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and the National Cancer Institute. And a new study out this month by the American Cancer Society found that colorectal cancer is now the deadliest kind for those younger than 50.
But this rise isn’t being felt across all generations in the same way. People born around 1990 are four times more likely to develop rectal cancer than those born around 1950. And for those 65 and older, colorectal cancer rates have actually decreased.
So, what’s going on? And what can you do to protect yourself and your gut health? For those answers and more, we turn to a panel of experts.
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Wed, 18 Mar 2026
Big changes are coming to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
With Kristi Noem out at the Department of Homeland Security, all eyes are on FEMA to roll out millions of dollars in stalled federal funding for disaster responses. That’s especially true in North Carolina, where the western part of the state is still grappling with the effects of Hurricane Helene.
We sit down with a panel of experts to find out what the future holds for FEMA in the Tar Heel state.
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Tue, 17 Mar 2026
Wars are fought by militaries — but they’re usually ended by diplomats. So, what happens when diplomacy is sidelined?
Officials from Washington and Tehran engaged in talks for weeks, trying to avoid war before the U.S. and Israel fired missiles targeting Iran weeks ago. Now, as President Donald Trump publicly muses about why the military is engaged in another conflict in the Middle East, experts are wondering why talks were abandoned in the first place. And about the off ramps for all sides involved.
We look at the role diplomacy plays once a war is already raging — and what happens when negotiations, expertise, and international alliances are weakened.
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Mon, 16 Mar 2026
President Donald Trump and his administration and allies have sent mixed messages about the war with Iran in the first two weeks of the operation. The Secretary of Defense called it war. Now, the Speaker of the House said thus conflict with Iran is not a war.
Whatever the president decides to call the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign – it’s cost the lives of 13 American troops and more than 2,000 people in the Middle East, both civilians and military personnel.
Congress has voted on a resolution to limit the president’s power to continue this campaign – but that effort failed. And the president hasn’t indicated he wants Congress to weigh in. Many Republican members appear unbothered by that fact. At least in public.
What does Trump owe Congress as far as buy-in on war? And how have past presidents involved the legislative branch when deploying the military?
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Fri, 13 Mar 2026
Two weeks into the war with Iran, the United States has spent more than $10 billion dollars. The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 Iranians and seven American service members. Those numbers are likely to grow if there are boots on the ground, a possibility that Trump Administration officials refuse to rule out.
The president traveled to Kentucky and Ohio this week where he went on the defensive, justifying the increase in gas prices and touting the drop in drug prices.
Americans’ faith in the future of fair elections is at an all time low, according to new PBS/NPR/Marist poll.
And, in global news, early findings from a Pentagon investigation indicate that the U.S. may be at fault for a missile strike on an Iranian school. That attack killed at least 175 children, teachers, and other staff.
Israel is widening strikes into Lebanon and threatening to invade the southern portion of the country. The Tehran-backed Hezbollah group has been sending missiles into Israel since the attacks on Iran began nearly two weeks ago. Lebanon is appealing to Israel’s allies to stop the campaign.
And as the world’s attention swings to Iran, how is Hamas regrouping in Gaza?
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 12 Mar 2026
Waging war is not cheap. Experts estimate that the U.S. has already spent more than $10 billion launching missiles at Iran in the past few weeks.
Meanwhile, thanks to fighting in the Strait of Hormuz disrupting the global energy supply trade, the price of oil is rising sharply worldwide. With no clear end in sight, how will Congress wrangle the high price tag of the war – economically and politically?
We try and make sense of the cost of war, especially as more and more Americans feel the squeeze in their budgets at home.
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Wed, 11 Mar 2026
Religion keeps coming up when Trump administration officials discuss their joint military operation with Israel against Iran.
This kind of rhetoric comes as concerns grow over the crumbling of the separation between church and state in the Trump administration’s military. Now, more than two dozen democratic congresspeople are requesting an investigation into a report that some military leaders are using apocalyptic theology in briefings about the conflict – saying that Trump is anointed by Jesus to cause Armageddon.
How is religion showing up in the war against Iran?
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Tue, 10 Mar 2026
Donald Trump made a clear promise on the campaign trail.
“I will tell you you’re not going to have a war with me and you’re not going to have a third world war with me, that I can tell you,” he said.
And the president doubled down in his inaugural address last year. These have been key promises for much of his MAGA base who’ve applauded his domestic policy focus.
But since taking office, President Donald Trump has ordered military action in Venezuela, Nigeria, Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, and now Iran. So what does this change mean for Trump supporters and GOP lawmakers who’ve stood by his side?
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Mon, 09 Mar 2026
Days before the United States dropped its first bombs on Iran, FBI Director Kash Patel fired members of a team that monitored threats from the Islamic Republic. The reason? They had investigated President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents.
That move came amid a year of layoffs, budget cuts, resignations, and shifting priorities across America’s national security agencies — including the FBI, the CIA, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Now, as U.S. officials warn that Iran could retaliate with cyber attacks or terror attacks on U.S. soil, some experts are asking if the United States still has the capacity to defend itself.
That’s the question we try to answer in this edition of “If You Can Keep It,” our series exploring the biggest stories of the day and what they mean for our democracy.
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Fri, 06 Mar 2026
President Donald Trump announced Thursday that Kristi Noem, his pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, was leaving the agency amidst serious questions surrounding funding and the conduct of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in cities around the country.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s war with Iran has now claimed the lives of six American. And Iran’s Red Crescent society is saying the death toll in Tehran is well above 1,000.
All politically-inclined eyes were on Texas this week as the state conducted its primaries ahead of the general election. In the Democratic contest, state Rep. James Talerico defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett to earn the left’s Senate nomination. For the Republicans, a stalemate. Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton are going to a runoff — a result that has some GOP strategists wringing their hands.
And, in global news, the world is still searching for answers in the wake of the U.S. and Israeli air strikes that hit Iran last weekend. New satellite images show the bombing of an Iranian elementary school hit more targets than initially believed, killing 165 people. And global leaders are wondering if the federal government’s meetings with Tehran officials ever had any hope of succeeding.
Now, the U.S. is in talks with the Kurdish opposition in Iran in a bid to arm them and spark an uprising against the country’s current government.
Retaliatory Iranian missiles appeared to target Turkey this week, leading to speculation about whether or not European nations might be forced to involve themselves in America’s war with Iran thanks to NATO Article 5.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 05 Mar 2026
It’s been a month since the Justice Department released more than 3 million documents related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In that time, dozens of people were scrutinized for their close ties to Epstein, who died by suicide while in prison in 2019.
Among those named in the documents is Donald Trump. The president has long denied any crimes related to Epstein. And there’s no public evidence that the allegations against him are credible.
But a new NPR investigation reveals that the Justice Department withheld some of the Epstein files related to allegations that Trump sexually abused a minor in the ‘80s.
In this installment of our weekly politics series, “If You Can Keep It,” what did the DOJ remove exactly? And what does accountability look like for those connected to Epstein’s crimes?
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Wed, 04 Mar 2026
Over the past year, the United States government has deported hundreds of people using a rare method of removal: putting them on a plane and sending them to a country to which they have no connection. It’s called a “third country deportation.”
When the deported immigrants arrive, the “third” country detains them. Or it ships them right back out to their country of origin. And the U.S. foots the bill.
Why is the Trump administration relying on this policy as part of its immigration crackdown? And what could a recent ruling by a federal judge mean for the future of these kinds of deportations?
A statement from DHS…
The Supreme Court previously issued two separate emergency stays against Judge Brian Murphy in this case, and we are confident we will be vindicated again. The Biden Administration allowed millions of illegal aliens to flood our country, and the Trump Administration has the constitutional authority to remove these criminal illegal aliens and clean up this national security nightmare. If these activists judges had their way, aliens who are so uniquely barbaric that their own countries won’t take them back, including convicted murderers, child rapists and drug traffickers, would walk free on American streets. DHS must be allowed to execute its lawful authority and remove illegal aliens to a country willing to accept them.
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Tue, 03 Mar 2026
For months, the Department of Homeland Security has been plagued by allegations of chaos. Meanwhile, the funding fight over DHS and a partial government shutdown continues.
Now, U.S. and Israeli airstrikes in Iran over the weekend are adding pressure for Congress to reach a funding agreement for the agency amid national security concerns.
What’s happening at DHS? We sit down with a panel of experts to find out.
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Mon, 02 Mar 2026
The United States is once again at war in the Middle East.
The Trump administration, with support from Israel, made targeted air strikes against high-profile targets in Iran this weekend. Tehran responded by firing its own missiles at nearby Israeli and American military bases. This all comes after weeks of talks between Washington and Tehran over the latter’s nuclear program and a major military buildup on the part of the U.S. in the Middle East. Several U.S. service members have been reported dead as a result of Iran’s retaliation.
President Donald Trump explained his rationale for the attacks in an eight-minute video posted on Truth Social Saturday morning, saying he hoped to destroy Iran’s nuclear program and cripple its military.
Now, leaders, analysts, and the world are wondering what yet another conflict in the region means for the futures of those who live there, the future of the global energy market, the midterm elections, and much more. We sit down with a panel of experts to unpack it all.
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Fri, 27 Feb 2026
President Donald Trump delivered the first State of the Union address of his second term in office, lauding the strength of American economy. But even though wealthier Americans are benefiting financially from the positive economic trends, lower-income households are increasingly finding themselves left behind.
Meanwhile, Democrats are holding government firm over funding the Department of Homeland Security as they demand reforms to ICE.
And Vice President JD Vance announced that the Trump administration is going to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid funding from Minnesota over fraud concerns.
And, in global news, Trump officials sat down with Iranian leaders in Geneva for a third round of indirect talks. They come as the U.S. military amasses in the Middle East ahead of a potential strike on Iran.
The Trump Administration is on damage control after U.S Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee says Israel is entitled to more land in the Middle East than it currently holds.
And Cuba announces its military has destroyed a boat that entered Cuban waters on Wednesday, killing four. Cuba’s country’s interior minister called the incident “a foiled armed infiltration.”
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the international hour of the News Roundup.
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Thu, 26 Feb 2026
Millions of people struggle to become pregnant in the U.S. And in 2024, fertility rates reached a new low, according to CDC data. Women are also waiting longer to have kids, while a growing number are deciding to opt out entirely.
That’s part of the reason the Trump administration is pushing for a baby boom and promising to make in-vitro fertilization more accessible. Earlier this month, the administration’s new discounted prescription drug website, TrumpRx, went live.
But fertility treatments continue to be prohibitively expensive for many, with the average cumulative cost of IVF treatments reaching up to $60,000. That’s according to FertilityIQ.
Beyond the eye-popping price tag, the journey itself can be emotionally taxing. The stress is so great it’s been compared to a cancer diagnosis and can bring feelings of shame and guilt. It can also be confusing trying to decipher the many doctors’ appointments and medical jargon.
We sit down with an expert panel to talk through the latest in fertility treatments, debunk some persistent myths, and answer your questions.
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Wed, 25 Feb 2026
On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump delivered the first State of the Union address of his second term.
It comes at a pivotal moment in Trump’s presidency. Approval of his performance – and policies – have hit new lows among the American people.
Add to that last week’s Supreme Court ruling that overturned the administration’s tariffs — a centerpiece of Trump’s agenda — and all of a sudden, the pressure was on Trump to reset the narrative of his presidency. Especially in the face of looming fears that Democrats could take back the House in the midterm elections.
So, what did we hear from the preside
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Tue, 24 Feb 2026
Despite a supposed personnel drawdown, the Department of Homeland Security is calling its ICE rollout in Minnesota the largest immigration operation ever.
Now that thousands of federal agents are leaving, how are the state and its communities faring?
We check in with the neighbors, school leaders, and small business owners keeping Minnesota running.
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Mon, 23 Feb 2026
President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has real human costs. Some 13 people have been shot by ICE and federal agents since September, two of which were fatal. The number of people held in detention centers increased by nearly 75 percent in 2025. Around 68,000 people are currently detained in these facilities, according to the latest ICE data.
And those arrested with no criminal record rose by over 2,000 percent since Trump took office. That’s according to a report last month from the American Immigration Council. That’s a non-partisan non-profit focused on immigrant rights.
But for private companies invested in the administration’s agenda, that human cost has meant a hefty pay check. The private prison companies CoreCivic and The GEO Group have both reported $2 billion, or a 13 percent increase, in revenue in 2025. The two contractors opened nine new detention centers for ICE use.
In this installment of our weekly politics series, “If You Can Keep It,” the private companies profiting from President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
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Fri, 20 Feb 2026
The Department of Homeland Security issued a memo this week advising federal agents they should detain refugees and migrants who have not yet obtained a green card for an indefinite period of time for rescreening. This puts many people admitted to the U.S. during the Biden administration at risk.
Across the U.S., the mayors of major cities like Chicago and Los Angeles are taking steps to limit ICE’s ability to operate within their limits, vowing to prosecute agents who violate local laws.
And representatives for Meta and Google, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, went to court this week over social media addiction.
And, in global news, the Board of Peace met for the first time this week in Washington, with big pledges, but not a lot of details.
President Donald Trump says the world will find out “over the next, probably, 10 days” whether the US will reach a deal with Iran or take military action. In recent days, the U.S. has surged military forces to the region while progress was reported at talks between American and Iranian negotiators in Geneva, Switzerland.
Also this week, England’s former prince Andrew was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office in connection to his time spent with Jeffrey Epstein.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 19 Feb 2026
Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket have seen explosive growth over the last year. These platforms allow people to put money on the outcomes of everything from local elections to the Super Bowl.
But an epic battle is underway between state regulators and these companies. At least 20 federal lawsuits have been filed against these companies. The cases claim these markets are simply gambling by another name and should be regulated like betting platforms.
Now, the federal government is putting its thumb on the scale, arguing prediction markets should be looked as as a financial exchange, not a betting platform. This paves the way for their further expansion, not regulation. What does the future hold for companies like these?
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Wed, 18 Feb 2026
European leaders, national security policymakers, and reporters convened at a historic hotel in Munich, Germany, over the weekend for the annual national security pilgrimage known as the Munich Security Conference.
The summit – normally a wonkish affair – made more headlines than usual last year. That’s when newly inaugurated Vice President J.D. Vance delivered a brow-beating speech to his European counterparts. But in 2026, the message from American officials at least sounded more pleasant.
What should we make of this year’s conference?
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Tue, 17 Feb 2026
Most Americans know who the president is. Many people also know the names of their senators and representatives in Congress. But what about the people who run the local school board?
Most school board members are elected by people living in their communities. That board then works together to set the goals and performance standards for public schools in its local district.
But make no mistake, school boards aren’t apolitical. Since 2021, board races have been dominated by culture war issues like trans students’ access to bathrooms, book bans, and critical race theory.
But that tide is shifting. In politically-mixed communities across the country, progressive candidates are winning school board elections, unseating more conservative opponents who made gains during the Biden era.
So, what does a shift in local politics mean for students and parents? And what can school boards – and the issues they prioritize – tell us about the state of our democracy?
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Mon, 16 Feb 2026
Most Americans now get at least some of their news from social media. But these days, the internet can seem less a place for humans to connect and more a playground for AI-powered bots.
One estimate found around 20 percent of accounts on social media are automated, while another study found that, for controversial topics, nearly half of the posts could be bot–generated.
Experts are sounding the alarm. Large-scale automated social media campaigns could threaten our democracy and the next presidential election.
We know conversations we have online can influence how we experience this political moment, but what happens when bad actors fan the flames with AI-generated photos, bot campaigns, and misinformation?
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Fri, 13 Feb 2026
Border czar Tom Homan announced the end of the ICE operation in Minnesota in the coming days following weeks of operations by federal law enforcement in the state.
Customs and Border Patrol officials closed airspace around the El Paso airport this week after firing an anti-drone laser, and failing to coordinate with the Federal Aviation Administration.
And President Donald Trump ordered pride flags at New York City’s Stonewall National Monument, a prominent site in LGBTQ history, removed as part of a larger campaign to change displays at national parks around the country.
And, in global news, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington this week meeting with President Donald Trump. Items on the agenda were Iran, its ballistic missiles, and Iranian nuclear capabilities.
Meanwhile, European leaders gathered in Belgium to counter economic pressure from China and military threats from Russia.
And the Trump Administration threatened to block the opening of the Gordie Howe Memorial Bridge over disputes with the Canadian government. The structure, which connects Michigan and Ontario, took several years and billions of dollars to build.
We cover the most important stories from around the globe on the News Roundup.
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Thu, 12 Feb 2026
In his latest round of verbal attacks against Canada, Donald Trump says the country is trying to “take advantage of America.”
The comments come as the president threatens to block the opening of a bridge between Michigan and Ontario. The Gordie Howe International Bridge cost about $4.7 billion dollars to build and has been under construction since 2018. The bridge is due to open this year. That’s according to the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, the Canadian government entity behind its construction.
But in a post on his social media on Monday, Trump said he won’t allow the bridge to open, saying the U.S. won’t benefit. While the bridge is financed by the Canadian government, it’s publicly owned by the governments of Canada and Michigan.
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Thu, 12 Feb 2026
Thousands of people protested the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota last month, including hundreds of religious leaders. At least a hundred clergy were arrested during a demonstration at Minnesota’s largest airport.
Meanwhile in Maine, local religious leaders have been lining up outside of businesses targeted by ICE to form a “spiritual shield” to protect immigrant workers. But the actions of these faith leaders is a stark contrast to the conservative Christianity touted by the Trump administration.
The relationship between religion and social activism is far from new. But how is that relationship evolving in the current political moment?
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Wed, 11 Feb 2026
Northwest Georgia is a picturesque place, with rolling hills and open farmland. Its creeks and rivers have sustained families for generations. On the surface, the environment looks pristine.
But something toxic lurks within the lush landscape that you can’t see, smell, or taste. For many years, locals weren’t aware of its presence.
PFAS are a group of synthetic chemicals used to repel water and stains. Many of them don’t break down in nature, which is why they’re often called ‘forever chemicals.’ They can build up in the environment and our bodies over time.
These chemicals were used for years in the production of carpets in northwest Georgia. And the long-term environmental and human cost in the region is high.
In this installment of our Local Spotlight series, we head to the “carpet capital” of the world to examine its chemical problems.
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Mon, 09 Feb 2026
We’re just a few weeks out from the very first state primary elections of the year. And President Donald Trump and the GOP are, at the moment, unpopular.
As people around the country prepare to head to the polls to decide who will run in this year’s midterms, the president is once again trying to undermine the most basic functions of elections. He’s still spreading lies about past elections he lost and is now sowing seeds of doubt in the local elections process. There is no evidence to support Trump’s repeated, false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
In late January, the FBI seized boxes of 2020 election ballots and other voting records in Fulton County, Georgia, which for years has been the focus of his baseless conspiracy theory that the election was rigged.
In this installment of our weekly politics series, “If You Can Keep It,” we explore what the president’s latest attacks on election integrity mean for the future of our democracy.
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Fri, 06 Feb 2026
The Trump administration now says a “softer touch” might be required when it comes to their immigration agenda in Minnesota. Tom Homan, President Donald Trump’s border head, says that 700 ICE agents will leave the state.
In another warning sign for Republicans in Washington, a Democratic candidate won an upset in a special election for a Texas State Senate seat.
And the Department of Justice released another round of Epstein emails on Friday, revealing communications between the late New York financier and several public figures, from Bill Gates to Elon Musk.
Talks between the U.S. and Iran got off to a stuttering start this week, one moment being tabled, and the next moment being back on. Arab leaders lobbied the White House on Wednesday to not walk away from the table entirely.
The Trump administration revealed a plan to create a critical mineral reserve and a new trade alliance, aimed at taking away China’s ability to use its near monopoly of the rare metals as leverage in trade negotiations.
Spain is set to follow Australia’s lead and implement a ban on social media use for minors.
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Thu, 05 Feb 2026
Immigration enforcement is arresting a growing number of refugees and detaining them in Texas.
It’s a strategy immigration lawyers call a conveyor belt. The number of children in ICE detention has also grown sixfold under the Trump administration – with most being held in Texas.
The ICE detention budget grew by billions last year. What’s the effect on refugees?
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Wed, 04 Feb 2026
This week, 330,000 Haitian immigrants who’ve lived and worked in the U.S. legally, sometimes for decades, were set to lose their immigration protections.
That’s after the Trump administration announced it would end Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for Haitians on Feb. 3. After a federal court order on Monday, the program remains in place for now, but could still be undone. The administration says it will appeal the ruling, potentially to the U.S. Supreme Court.
What does it mean for Haitians who rely on TPS, who could go from integral parts of their community to undocumented immigrants? Even if they never crossed a border illegally or overstayed a visa?
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Tue, 03 Feb 2026
Thousands of people have signed up to document and protest the actions of immigration agents in Minnesota.
They say they are legal observers, exercising their constitutional rights. The government claims they’re impeding the lawful work of a federal agency.
Where is the line between observer and disrupter? And what are the limits to how federal agents can respond?
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Mon, 02 Feb 2026
The biggest news stories, the ones that shape our democracy, don’t just play out in Washington. They unfold in neighborhoods, on street corners, and around the country.
In many cases, the first images and explanations of what’s happening don’t come from national news outlets, but the people who are there with cellphones and cameras in hand. That includes local journalists who are out in their communities. Journalists are trained to confirm and contextualize, but what does that look like in today’s shifting media landscape?
Local reporters on the ground are crucial. But nearly 40 percent of local newspapers in the U.S. have disappeared since the early 2000s. Even the largest newspapers — providing national coverage out of major cities — are on shaky ground. Layoffs are expected at The Washington Post in the coming weeks.
What does it all mean for how news gets made and who gets heard? What’s at stake for our democracy? And who is trying to chart a new path forward?
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Fri, 30 Jan 2026
A man rushed towards Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar during an event in her home state on Tuesday, spraying the congresswoman with a liquid authorities later identified as vinegar. President Donald Trump told reporters later that evening he thought there was a chance that Omar had staged the attack herself as a stunt.
Another deadline for a government shutdown is fast approaching. And questions are mounting about whether Democrats will continue to dig their heels in over the Trump administration’s immigration agenda.
And more acts are pulling out of scheduled performances at the Kennedy Center. Composer Phillip Glass announced his decision to not debut a symphony he wrote in honor of Abraham Lincoln written for the Center’s 50th anniversary.
And, in global news, President Donald Trump said this week that Iran needed to give into a list of demands related to its nuclear disarmament and that “time was running out.” The military is now moving Navy and Air Force assets to the Middle East.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he couldn’t rule out further military intervention in Venezuela during testimony before the Senate.
And traditional U.S. allies are looking elsewhere for aid and trade deals, as the president continues to demolish the old world order in favor of one that centers himself.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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Mon, 26 Jan 2026
On Saturday, Border Patrol and ICE agents deployed to Minneapolis wrestled a member of the public to the ground and then shot him multiple times. Alex Pretti, 37, died as a result.
Pretti was a Minneapolis resident and an ICU nurse at a local VA hospital. It’s the second killing by federal agents in the state this month, and the third shooting.
The message from elected officials in Minneapolis and in Minnesota was simple: enough.
We look at how this operation, one the Trump administration says is about immigration enforcement, transformed into something else. Then, we turn to Congress and its lack of oversight of the Trump’s agenda. And we hear from a Democratic member of Congress about what she wants her colleagues to do in this moment.
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Fri, 23 Jan 2026
ICE is continuing its Minnesota crackdown. This week, agents were reportedly targeting members of the public based on race. Now, state officials are asking federal judges to end the agency’s campaign in their communities, despite the administration asking those same judges to let them keep going.
The Department of Justice said in a recent court filing that Elon Musk’s DOGE team may have accessed private and off-limits social security data.
And the House Oversight Committee voted to hold Bill and Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress after the pair ignored a summons to appear before a panel, saying it was politically-motivated.
And, in global news, President Donald Trump claims he has the framework of a deal in place with NATO for control of Greenland.
Despite that possibility, the president heavily criticized European leaders in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week. Now, America’s traditional allies are reportedly grappling with what the future might hold for the West.
President Trump also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, touted the progress his team has made with Russian leaders in finding a solution to the war in Ukraine.
We cover the most important stories from around the globe on the News Roundup.
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Thu, 22 Jan 2026
What's your most vivid school memory? Do you remember it as a time of exploration? Was it a place where you could figure out who you were and what you wanted to become?
Or did it feel like it wasn't made for you? Did it feel constricting, or like a place with lots of rules about how you had to act and what you couldn't do?
Your experience of schools likely depended on the administrators, who your teachers were, how your city or state set up the curriculum, and the resources your school received. Writer Eve L. Ewing argues that experience could also be shaped by who you are.
We sit down with Ewing to talk about her new book, "Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism."
What has school meant for students, and who influenced how schools function the way they do? And what are alternatives for how school could work for students?
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Wed, 21 Jan 2026
Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD, affects tens of millions of people in the U.S.
About one in nine children and one in 16 adults have ADHD. That’s according to an analysis from the nonprofit Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, or CHADD.
As researchers learn more about the brain and its complexities, they’re also gaining new insights into what the condition looks like across different ages, genders, and races.
In recent years, more adults — especially women — are being diagnosed than ever before.
In this installment of our series “In Good Health,” we focus on ADHD – from symptoms, to diagnoses, to treatments.
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Wed, 21 Jan 2026
On Dec. 22, 1984, Bernard Goetz, a white man, shot and seriously wounded four Black teenagers in a New York City subway car.
Their names were were Barry Allen, Darrell Cabey, Troy Canty, and James Ramseur. Goetz fled the scene resulting in a manhunt. In the meantime, New Yorkers dubbed him the “subway vigilante.”
The city was experiencing a crime wave and some residents championed the man who took matters into his own hands. The case sparked a conversation about race, vigilantism, and public safety that still has reverberates through our country today.
It’s also the subject of Elliot Williams' new book, “Five Bullets: The Story of Bernie Goetz, New York’s Explosive 80s, and the Subway Vigilante that Divided the Nation.” Williams is a CNN legal analyst and 1A guest host. He joins us to talk discuss the book.
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Sat, 17 Jan 2026
The Trump administration sent hundreds more ICE agents to Minnesota this week as protests continue. President Donald Trump referred to the demonstrators as “professional agitators” and threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act.
Diplomats from Denmark and Greenland traveled to the White House to meet with Vice President JD Vance after President Trump once again threatened to annex Greenland following major foreign intervention in Venezuela.
Meanwhile, protesters in Iran are attempting to keep up their demonstrations against the country’s theocracy after a week of bloody crackdowns by authorities.
In an interview with Reuters this week, Donald Trump says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the one holding up peace negotiations for the war in Ukraine, not Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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Thu, 15 Jan 2026
Life can bring major, unexpected changes without warning. How can we adapt when our best-laid plans are suddenly upended?
Maya Shankar is a cognitive scientist. Her latest book, “The Other Side of Change,” attempts to answer this question by looking at how change affects the brain and our identities.
She joins us to talk about the neuroscience behind how we deal with different circumstances.
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Wed, 14 Jan 2026
The Trump administration’s recent evisceration of Venezuela’s government has leaders in Washington wondering where else they can meddle. And President Donald Trump’s eyes have wandered back to a familiar target: Greenland.
Trump has said he wants to buy the island or control it. Now, he could look to follow through on that threat.
This renewed focus caused Denmark and Greenland to send their foreign ministers to Washington D.C. on Wednesday for a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance.
What could a takeover of Greenland mean for its people, NATO, and the U.S.? And what’s in store for the future of the Arctic as it continues to warm faster than anywhere else in the world?
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Wed, 14 Jan 2026
Minnesota officials sued the Trump administration on Monday in order to end the surge of immigration enforcement officers in the state. A thousand more ICE officers are being deployed to the city in the coming days. That’s on top of 2,000 federal agents reportedly in the area already.
These moves follow days of protests in response to the fatal shooting of Renee Macklin Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis last Wednesday. Since then, the agency’s officers have continued to ramp up raids and use increasingly aggressive tactics.
What are people on the ground in Minneapolis seeing in their city? What might the way forward look like?
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Mon, 12 Jan 2026
In the space of just one week, President Donald Trump ordered the seizure and arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, asserted control over the country’s government, and took over its crude oil industry.
According to Venezuela’s interior minister, 100 people died during the U.S. abduction of Maduro. Since September, the administration has killed at least 115 people in 30 boat strikes in the Caribbean and the Pacific.
These military actions in the region are raising questions about the nature of U.S. intervention abroad. Last week, the Senate advanced a measure limiting Trump’s power to take further military action in Venezuela.
Now, the president is threatening intervention in Iran amid crackdowns on protests across the country. And here in the U.S., federal agents shot three civilians last week, injuring a man and woman in Portland and killing a woman in Minneapolis.
What does President Trump’s military intervention abroad mean for issues at home? And for our allies and enemies abroad?
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Sat, 10 Jan 2026
We start the week in Minneapolis where a 37-year-old woman was shot and killed by an ICE officer on Wednesday. Authorities claim the woman attacked officers while they were digging their car out of the snow, but video from the scene and the municipal officials heavily dispute that claim.
This week GOP lawmakers from Minnesota testified at a hastily-scheduled House Oversight Committee hearing about welfare fraud scandal allegations in their state. And on Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services froze $10 billion in five states including Minnesota, New York, California, Illinois and Colorado. That funding covers childcare subsidies, cash support for low-income families, and other social services.
Meanwhile, its been nearly one week since Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were captured by U.S. forces and brought to face charges of narco-terrorism on American soil.
And the Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela are having ripple effects across the globe. Europe is on edge as the U.S president this week suggested the territory could be in his crosshairs next, raising questions about America’s relationship with NATO.
Also this week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order suspending U.S. support for global 66 organizations, agencies, and commissions, following his administration’s review of participation in and funding for all international organizations.
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Thu, 08 Jan 2026
In the first year of President Donald Trump’s new term, he issued hundreds of executive actions and his administration implemented sweeping changes to the federal government.
Changes to federal grant funding, DEI policies, the federal workforce were all met with fierce resistance and legal challenges, totaling more than 350 lawsuits so far. Judges across the country are also mulling whether Trump’s attempt to change birthright citizenship and his deployment of ICE agents for mass deportations are legal.
The administration has spent a lot of time defending its policy actions in court. We get up to speed on their record over the past year.
How successful has the administration been in the courts? And what cases from 2025 remain up in the air?
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Wed, 07 Jan 2026
Last night, President Donald Trump announced that Venezuela would start sending the U.S. oil. He’s voiced his desire to exploit the country’s vast reserves since ousting Nicolás Maduro in a midnight raid over the weekend.
The Venezuelan government hasn’t yet confirmed the move. And the country’s leaders continue to condemn U.S. actions in their country as they crack down on anti-Maduro sentiment.
This begs the question – who is in charge of Venezuela? And what does the relationship between the Trump administration and the Delcy Rodriguez, their pick to lead the nation, look like?
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Tue, 06 Jan 2026
Five years ago today, thousands of rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
A number of them assaulted police officers with weapons and even looted the building. They called for war, revolution, and political executions. That’s according to thousands of videos presented in court reviewed by NPR. One former federal prosecutor who led the Justice Department’s investigation into Jan. 6 called it the “most televised crime in American history, if not world history.”
But the narrative around what happened that day continues to shift. President Donald Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of nearly every Jan. 6 defendant, ending the largest criminal prosecution in American history.
What are we still learning about Jan. 6 five years later? And how is that day still shaping our politics — and the country?
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Mon, 05 Jan 2026
After a year of new leadership, court fights, dramatic change to the federal government, and deep political division, where does American democracy stand as we move into 2026?
And what does it mean for you?
This is our first “If You Can Keep It” conversation of the new year. We take your calls and hear from you about your wants and concerns for American democracy in the days ahead.
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Fri, 02 Jan 2026
Have you ever fantasized about going back in time to relive a moment — or change it?
Maybe you’re more interested in traveling to the future where cars fly and the code to immortality has been cracked.If the idea of time travel resonates with you, you’re far from alone — particularly during a year of political upheaval.
Scientists moved one step closer to understanding time travel, at least hypothetically, this year. Two physicists at the University of Queensland in Australia created a model for studying the phenomenon
We’re not there yet. But when it comes to books, movies and TV shows, that’s a different story. We’ve been thinking about hurtling through history for a very, very long time.
Why do we return time and time again to stories about time travel? Will it ever become a reality?
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Wed, 31 Dec 2025
If you've been following the news lately — including with 1A — it can be a lot to take in.
We've heard from many of you about how the news makes you feel. But what can we do in chaotic moments of history to build a sense of control in our lives? Maybe it's organizing in your community, starting a new hobby, or picking up that TV show from 10 years ago that you promised you'd get around to watching.
What can finding agency in the chaos look like? Why should we actively focus on something rather than simply react to what's happening?
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Tue, 30 Dec 2025
Some of the best songs you can hear this spring aren't on the radio.
Hundreds of millions of birds make their annual migration back into North America in early March. Despite their return to our neighborhoods and backyards to wake us up bright and early, a new report reveals they're numbering fewer and fewer.
The 2025 State of the Birds report is a joint effort spearheaded by a coalition of science and conservation organizations. It found widespread population decline across nearly all habitats and that over one third of species require conservation help.
But it's not all bad news. The report also finds that an increased interest in birding has led to more volunteer data that helped shaped the report. What can we learn about our feathered friends and our environment while watching?
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Mon, 29 Dec 2025
Many of us know that being outside feels good.
Maybe it’s for a short walk to the store. Maybe for a hike at a nearby mountain. Or maybe spending time at the beach with loved ones for a holiday.
But did you know that a short walk in nature can improve your attention span by 20 percent? And that even fake plants have been shown to deliver health benefits?
There are real benefits to surrounding yourself with the natural world.
We sit down with the pioneer of environmental neuroscience, Marc Berman. He’s out with a new book all about the science behind the benefits spending time outside called “Nature and the Mind.”
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Fri, 26 Dec 2025
Last year, Americans spent more than 300 billion minutes on navigation apps, like Waze or Google Maps.
The GPS systems in our pockets have come a long way from the first known map, carved into a mammoth tusk 30,000 years ago.
But even with satellites tracking us and the ever-changing Earth from the skies – digital maps aren’t fact. Errors can show up and are sometimes as old as maps themselves. The phantom island of Sandy Island appeared on Google Maps until 2012, when Australian scientists sailed to its supposed location and found only open ocean.
Mistakes on maps were sometimes intentional, sometimes not – but every single one tells a bigger story.
How and why did it get there? What does it reveal about the creator of the map and the world around them?
We sit down with Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones, better known as the Map Men on YouTube, to talk through these questions and more.
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Wed, 24 Dec 2025
In-home elder care costs are rising more than three times faster than inflation.
AARP estimates that caregivers in the U.S. spend an average of $7,242 out of pocket each year.
Cuts to federal spending have gutted programs that support them. And amidst the longest government shutdown in history, what little help was left is quickly drying up.
Why is the cost of care going up? What can be done to combat those costs?
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Mon, 22 Dec 2025
Abraham Lincoln was the first U.S. president to sport a beard. For the next 50 years, whiskers were commonplace in the White House. But then, they went out of style.
Now, Vice President JD Vance is the first executive branch leader in more than a century with a furry face.
And others are following suit. From the Senate to the campaign trail, more and more men in politics are letting their facial hair grow free. But what does that tell us about masculinity, power, and how we see each other?
Why did our politicians remain bare faced for so long? And what does the reemergence of whiskers in the White House represent?
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Fri, 19 Dec 2025
President Donald Trump delivered a national address on Wednesday in an attempt to set the record straight on his economic record.
Gun violence dominated the news this week. Two people were killed in a shooting at Brown University. Six teenagers were injured in a shooting outside of a birthday party in Brooklyn. And an MIT professor was shot and killed inside of his home Tuesday.
And an appeals court signals it will allow the National Guard to continue in Washington D.C. while litigation continues.
And, in global news, two shooters opened fire on a Hanukkah gathering at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia on Sunday. It was the country’s deadliest shooting in 30 years.
President Donald Trump continues to escalate tensions between Washington and Caracas. This week Trump ordered the blockade of sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers.
And Russian President Vladimir Putin is warning that his country will extend its gains of Ukrainian territory if peace talks aren’t successful.
We cover the most important stories from around the globe in the News Roundup.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Fri, 19 Dec 2025
The modern world is a noisy, chaotic place. News about what’s happening in the world is constantly available on a device in your pocket. The internet offers more content than any person could consume in their lifetime, or in 10 lifetimes.
Politics can feel unstable, with elected officials changing the norms and rules of our political system. AI is upending our ideas about what work will look like in the next few decades. And social media, designed by technology companies to monetize attention, offers up millions of rabbit holes in which to lose yourself — self improvement hacks, niche interests, impossible beauty standards.
Taking all of that in can feel like an insurmountable task most days. So try doing it with a brain and a body that are changing dramatically at the same time.
How do young people — adolescents going through puberty — experience the world today? How is the adolescent experience changing? And how can adults make their journey easier?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Thu, 18 Dec 2025
It’s a stressful day at the office. You want to get away from work. The sounds of notifications, meeting alerts, and Zoom calls ring through your ears. You step outside for your lunch break. No matter where you are in the world, you’re likely to hear the same thing: the sounds of birds.
They’re everywhere, after all.Despite their constant presence in our lives and our world, there’s still a lot left to understand about our clawed compatriots. What if we could learn more about them with a bit of intentional observation? And in watching birds, maybe learn something about ourselves?
We sit down with University of Colorado Boulder professor Scott Taylor to talk about his new podcast, “Okay, But… Birds.”
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Mon, 15 Dec 2025
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants to tightly control the news that comes out of the Pentagon — even as he deals with the fallout over strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.
In October, nearly all mainstream media outlets left the Pentagon press pool after refusing to comply with restrictive rules from the Trump administration. The exodus included the Associated Press, NPR, and The New York Times along with conservative outlets like Newsmax and Fox News.
Two weeks ago, the Pentagon held its first press conference with a new hand-picked press corps, now mostly made up of right-wing outlets and Trump allies including former Rep. Matt Gaetz and right-wing media influencer Laura Loomer.
Now, The New York Times is suing the Pentagon over violating the first amendment rights of journalists.
As more questions arise over the Venezuela boat strikes and the contentious relationship between the Trump administration and the press heats up, what does the absence of traditional press at the Pentagon mean for accountability for the U.S. military, press freedom, and our democracy?
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Fri, 12 Dec 2025
Democrats were on the receiving end of some midterm election momentum this week. In Indiana, Republicans lawmakers defied intense pressure from President Donald Trump rejecting his demands for a newly gerrymandered Congressional map.
In Miami, residents elected Eileen Higgins as mayor, the first woman to hold the job in the city’s history. She’s also the first Democrat to hold the office in 28 years. And a Georgia state House seat flipped in a district Trump won by double digits.
And Congress is considering limiting the Pentagon’s travel budget after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refused to release footage of a “double-tap” strike he ordered on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, can the United States legally seize a Venezuelan oil tanker or is it an act of “international piracy.”? What does this latest move by the Trump Administration towards Nicolas Maduro mean for escalating the ongoing pressure campaign? President Donald Trump says the vessel was taken “for a very good reason.”
Under the terms of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, 600 trucks per day carrying aid must be allowed into Gaza. This week, an analysis by the Associated Press showed an average of only 459 are crossing into the territory daily. This comes as torrential rain from Storm Byron swept across the Strip flooding overcrowded tents sheltering tens of thousands of families displaced by the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is sounding the alarm about the role China is playing in helping Russia beef up its military industry.
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Fri, 12 Dec 2025
What would you sacrifice to push efforts forward on eliminating diseases? What about to make sure our products and medicines are safe, especially for our most vulnerable?
These questions lead us to ethical quagmire and, oftentimes, to the use of animals for research, testing, and experimentation. We’ve long heard the term “lab rat.” Its popularity in conversation belies an understanding that these creatures are popular subjects for experimentation. But they’re far from the only ones.
Around 40,000 dogs were used as test subjects in labs last year, according to a leading advocacy group. The most common breed used are beagles.
Journalist Melanie Kaplan adopted Hammie in 2013, a lab beagle who had been used for research for nearly four years. It led her down a years-long rabbit hole to find out more about her companion’s past. It took her to a sanctuary farm for former research animals in Wyoming, a naked mole rat lab at Boston University, and the homes of former researchers.
We discuss her book, “Lab Dog: A Beagle and His Human Investigate the Surprising World of Animal Research.”
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Thu, 11 Dec 2025
On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel voted to end a recommendation that all newborns be immunized at birth against hepatitis B. That guidance had been in place for more than 30 years. Hepatitis B is a highly infectious virus that can cause severe liver damage, including cirrhosis and cancer.
The members of this panel, known as ACIP, were handpicked by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Junior. That’s after he abruptly fired all the previous 17 members of the panel earlier this year. That which led top officials at the CDC to resign in protest.
His new members have publicly stated they want to revisit the entire childhood vaccine schedule. And after the panel’s recent meeting, President Donald Trump expressed support for such a review.
How will ending the recommended Hepatitis B shot for newborns affect public health? And what’s next for childhood vaccinations?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Mon, 08 Dec 2025
As of Thursday, the Pentagon says it’s attacked 23 boats and killed at least 87 people as part of the Trump administration’s campaign against drug trafficking in the Caribbean.
In the months since the first strike on Sept. 2, one question has emerged that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cannot seem to shake: Are these boat strikes legal?
The White House says yes. But several members of Congress, legal experts, and former defense and intelligence officials have their doubts. Questions also remain about whether it’s legal for President Donald Trump to deploy the National Guard in cities across the country.
In this installment of our weekly politics series, “If You Can Keep It,” we convene a panel of experts on military law to help us find answers.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Sat, 06 Dec 2025
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was under the spotlight this week. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are demanding video and audio of a “double-tap” strike he ordered on a boat allegedly carrying drugs into the U.S.
The Trump administration has halted immigration applications from 19 countries. This comes after the shooting of two National Guard members by an Afghan national in Washington D.C.
The city of San Francisco filed a lawsuit against food manufacturers over ultra processed products. It’s the first of its kind and argues that cities and states have been burdened with treating the diseases the food causes.
Meanwhile, graphic depictions of at least two survivors being killed by a second U.S. military strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat sparked outrage on Capitol Hill. This comes as tensions between Caracas and Washington reach a fever pitch.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro confirmed that he did speak with President Donald Trump in a phone call that he described as “cordial.”
An American delegation attended talks in Moscow, hoping to end the war in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin declined to compromise during negotiations.
And the Israeli government announces it will reopen the Rafah border crossing, but only to for Palestinians to leave Gaza.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Thu, 04 Dec 2025
Between 2010 and 2022, pedestrian deaths in the U.S. jumped nearly 80 percent.
Since then, the number of walkers struck and killed by cars has remained stubbornly high – with pedestrian deaths in some cities continuing to rise.
What’s made our streets so dangerous and what can we do about it?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Wed, 03 Dec 2025
No matter where you live in the U.S., you’ve probably heard stories — or have your own — about not being able to afford to live. The couple in their 30s that can’t buy a home. The 20-something who can’t afford rent without living with several roommates. The family of five who feel pinched every time they visit the grocery store. The retiree struggling to pay their health insurance premium.
Whatever the situation, these stories are becoming central to how Americans are experiencing the economy. And this feeling is shaping politics.
A CBS poll from October suggests inflation and the economy are now the top concern among Americans. According to the Urban Institute, 52 percent of U.S. families don’t have the resources to cover what it costs to live. The average monthly cost of groceries has also risen 32 percent since 2019.
What do when we mean when we say something is “affordable?” And how do we achieve that goal when the target keeps moving?
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Tue, 02 Dec 2025
The longest government shutdown in U.S. history ended a little over two weeks ago. Federal workers are back on the job. But one of the biggest fights that helped fuel that shutdown remains unresolved.
The enhanced subsidies that help millions of people afford health plans on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces are set to expire at the end of this year. Meanwhile, open enrollment for 2026 coverage is underway.
As part of the shutdown deal, Republican Senate leaders promised Democrats a vote on extending health care tax credits by mid-December. But the politics haven’t changed. It remains unlikely that the extension will get through the Senate, clear the House, or get to President Donald Trump’s desk.
What's in store for the future of the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplaces? What kind of policy discussions are currently taking place?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Mon, 01 Dec 2025
Over 210,000 federal workers left their jobs this year because of the Trump administration.
That’s according to the Partnership for Public Service Harms Tracker. For many, it’s meant walking away from, or being pushed out of, a decades-long commitment to public service.
And one trend that’s emerging? Fired or laid-off former federal employees and contractors are running for public office.
We feature the voices of several former federal workers to hear why they see politics as the next step, especially after being forced out of jobs that were always meant to stay apolitical. What does it mean for the future health of our democracy?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Thu, 27 Nov 2025
Have you ever fantasized about going back in time to relive a moment — or change it?
Maybe you’re more interested in traveling to the future where cars fly and the code to immortality has been cracked.If the idea of time travel resonates with you, you’re far from alone — particularly during a year of political upheaval.
Scientists moved one step closer to understanding time travel, at least hypothetically, this year. Two physicists at the University of Queensland in Australia created a model for studying the phenomenon.
We’re not there yet. But when it comes to books, movies and TV shows, that’s a different story. We’ve been thinking about hurtling through history for a very, very long time.
Why do we return time and time again to stories about time travel? Will it ever become a reality?
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Wed, 26 Nov 2025
Headaches are one of the most common neurological conditions in the world. They’re also one of the most debilitating, mysterious, and misunderstood.
According to the World Health Organization, 3 billion people worldwide suffer from headache disorders. And one in six Americans suffers from headaches that are so severe they limit their ability to work, sleep, or otherwise function.
We discuss headaches as a part of our series “In Good Health,” where we talk about the bodily issues that most affect us.
What do we know about headaches and who they affect? What works when it comes to treating headaches?
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Mon, 24 Nov 2025
The Democratic party has been plagued by infighting over everything from its aging leadership to the war in Gaza. We talked about those divisions on the program earlier this month.
Now, we’re turning our attention to the cracks in the GOP, which over the last few weeks, have only grown wider.
Shortly after President Donald Trump won the 2024 election, the Republican party appeared to be in lockstep. Nearly a year later, a lot has changed.
Internal divisions within the GOP include backlash over antisemitism and the release of the Epstein files. President Trump finally signed the order to release said files last week.
In this installment of our weekly politics series, “If You Can Keep It,” we discuss what these divisions in the Republican party mean for the midterm elections and for its future.
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Fri, 21 Nov 2025
Congress voted overwhelmingly to authorize the release of the Epstein files. President Donald Trump welcomed the decision, signing the bill on Wednesday.
ICE activity in Charlotte, North Carolina, ramped up this week; authorities reportedly made some 250 arrests.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the economy added 119,000 jobs in September, while the unemployment rate edged up to 4.4%. It is the only jobs report the BLS will release until December. On Wednesday, the agency canceled the October jobs report for the first time in 77 years.
And, in global news, US President Donald Trump said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman “knew nothing” about the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in direct contradiction of U.S. intelligence. The president welcomed the kingdom’s de facto ruler to the Oval Office where they announced military and investment deals between the two nations.
In Gaza this week, some of the deadliest Israeli airstrikes since the U.S. brokered ceasefire took effect on October 10. On Monday, the UN Security Council endorsed Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza, including the deployment of an international stabilisation force.
And the war of words between Trump and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is heating up. However, both sides have indicated they’d be willing to meet face to face.
We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Wed, 19 Nov 2025
Groundbreaking. Transformative. A new way to unlock human creativity and productivity.
Tech CEOs have promised artificial intelligence will do many things for us. They’ve used these promises to justify billions of dollars of investment in building the language models and data centers needed to power AI.
Four of the world’s biggest tech companies – Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google – have promised to collectively spend $380 billion this year in the AI space.
That spending has led to huge rallies in these companies’ stock prices. There are now hundreds of private AI companies with values – on paper – of over a billion dollars. And in October, the AI boom created the world’s first company worth $5 trillion – Nvidia.
So, is this spending justified? Do these companies’ stock values hint at a financial bubble in AI? Or is this situation different?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Tue, 18 Nov 2025
The typical American supermarket carries more than 30,000 products.
There are nearly as many opinions about what items you should buy to maintain a healthy diet.
Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says changing how Americans eat is key to improving our public health — but some of his advice has nutritionists scratching their heads.
Throw in the influence of a multi trillion-dollar food industry, and the grocery aisles can become a very confusing place.
That’s where Marion Nestle comes in. She is one of our country’s foremost nutrition experts — not only on what we should eat, but about the invisible forces that shape our options.
Her new book is titled “What to Eat Now: The Indispensable Guide to Good Food, How to Find It, and Why It Matters." We discuss her new book.
Why do we have so many choices when it comes to groceries? How can we cut through the noise of fad diets and get the nutrition we need each day?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Mon, 17 Nov 2025
The last two weeks have highlighted fractures within both the Republican and Democratic parties.
The fight over releasing the Epstein files has shaken the GOP, causing some of President Donald Trump’s staunchest allies – like Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene – to call him out. And recent incidents of antisemitism within the MAGA movement have prompted infighting about how (and whether) to root it out.
Despite that, the party in the country’s crosshairs is on the left.
The longest government shutdown in American history ended last week after 43 days. And it ended with eight senators breaking with the Democratic caucus to pass a spending bill – without securing the health insurance provisions they had demanded.
Many Democrats across the country — from Washington strategists to local activists — called the move a surrender. They say the defectors gave up a winning hand right when public opinion was on their side. The loudest criticism came from younger Democrats who called for new party leadership.
In this latest installment of “If You Can Keep It,” our weekly series on the state of democracy, we look at the fractures the shutdown exposed on the left and how a new generation of lawmakers thinks the party should govern in the years ahead.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Fri, 14 Nov 2025
The longest government shutdown in history is now over after a group of Senate Democrats broke with the party to vote for a bill that funds the federal government.
Meanwhile, House Democrats facilitated the release of emails from the Epstein files that reference President Donald Trump and suggest that he knew about former financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sex crimes.
Shots were fired at ICE agents in Chicago this week amid chaotic immigration enforcement operations.
And, in global news, in the face of the growing U.S. presence around his country, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is mobilizing his army, ordering the deployment of some 200,000 soldiers.
Donald Trump sent a letter to Israeli President Isaac Herzog asking him to pardon Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over corruption charges the latter is facing in his country.
Following explosions in Islamabad and New Delhi, both India and Pakistan and on edge. It remains unclear who is responsible for the attacks.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Thu, 13 Nov 2025
The civil war in Sudan has claimed the lives of some 150,000 people.
From the outside looking in, the story of the war is one of two competing generals, foreign involvement complicating matters, and mass casualties among the innocent.
Now, following a massacre in the city of El Fasher, the rebels have agreed to a humanitarian ceasefire proposed by the Quad — a group of group of four countries including the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. But for how long will it hold?
We discuss the latest on the conflict in Sudan and the humanitarian crisis. What is the international community doing to help (or hurt) the situation?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Thu, 13 Nov 2025
In-home elder care costs are rising more than three times faster than inflation.
AARP estimates that caregivers in the U.S. spend an average of $7,242 out of pocket each year.
Cuts to federal spending have gutted programs that support them. And amidst the longest government shutdown in history, what little help was left is quickly drying up.
Why is the cost of care going up? What can be done to combat those costs?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Tue, 11 Nov 2025
Late Sunday, while most eyes were on the Senate’s shutdown negotiations, the Trump administration was busy rewriting the history of the 2020 election.
Just before midnight, a Justice Department lawyer posted a list on X of dozens of the president’s top allies and former aides who’d received pardons related to their efforts to overturn that election.
Among them are Trump’s former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani; Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows; and Sidney Powell, a former federal prosecutor who tried to overturn election results in key swing states and spread false claims of widespread voting machine fraud.
What do these pardons do? And how is the president using the Justice Department to shield those closest to him from future legal consequences?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Mon, 10 Nov 2025
In the first general election since the beginning of Donald Trump’s second term, Democrats won big. But they might also be set to kill a lot of that momentum.
Exit polls have found that in major races across the country — in states like Virginia, New Jersey, New York, and California — the economy and affordability were the biggest issues that drove voters to the polls.
An NPB News poll from October suggests that 63 percent of registered voters believe the Trump administration has fallen short when it comes to the economy.
As part of our weekly series on the state of democracy, If You Can Keep It, we dive into some of the biggest local races and what they tell us about the issues that matter most to you – and what Democrats and Republicans can take away from this year’s results.
But first, we dive into a potential deal to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history that has some critics claiming Senate Democrats are caving to President Trump.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Fri, 07 Nov 2025
Democrats swept on election night this week, winning several key gubernatorial races, state legislature positions, and the New York City mayoral election.
As the government shutdown continues, airports are struggling to run at maximum capacity. The Federal Aviation Administration is looking to cut 10 percent of flights at high traffic airports as they struggle with delays and staffing shortages.
The Supreme Court began hearing arguments over whether or not Donald Trump’s tariffs on America’s trading partners are legal.
Meanwhile, a top Israeli military lawyer was incarcerated this week after she leaked footage of Israeli soldiers allegedly sexually assaulting a Palestinian prisoner. Now, Benjamin Netanyahu and his government are working to combat what he calls the “most severe public relations attack that the state of Israel has experienced.”
U.S. officials are mulling possible regime change in Venezuela. The federal government’s operations in and around Caribbean and South American waters have intensified in recent weeks.
Donald Trump is also threatening to take action in Nigeria if the country’s government doesn’t take action to protect Christians within its borders.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Thu, 06 Nov 2025
It’s open enrollment season. And for the 20 million Americans who buy their own health insurance, prices are through the roof.
Rates are up an average of 30 percent for a typical plan in the 30 states where the federal government manages markets. In states that run their own markets, rates are up an average of 17 percent. That’s according to an analysis from the health policy research group KFF.
Meanwhile, the longest government shutdown continues in Washington. Lawmakers still can’t agree over whether to extend subsidies that would make health insurance more affordable. Without those subsidies, experts estimate that more than 4 million people could lose access to insurance.
How did health insurance get so expensive in the first place? And who stands to benefit from higher costs?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Thu, 06 Nov 2025
Virginia Giuffre’s memoir, “Nobody’s Girl,” is again shining a light on justice for the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
The Department of Justice says Epstein died by suicide in his jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking. Over the summer, she was moved to a minimum security prison in Texas after meeting privately with Trump administration officials.
In the book, Giuffre recounts how she was lured into Epstein’s world after meeting Maxwell at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago spa at the age of 16. She was then subjected to years of abuse where she was sex trafficked, including to England’s former Prince Andrew, whose title was revoked last week in part due to these allegations.
Giuffre took her own life earlier this year. Even before her memoir was released posthumously, she was one of Epstein’s most outspoken accusers. We sit down with Giuffre’s brother and sister-in-law about her story and their call for justice. We also speak with Marijke Chartouni, another Epstein survivor who says she was recruited in 2000 and was sexually assaulted by Epstein.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Tue, 04 Nov 2025
Tariffs are getting their day in court.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in two cases about the legality of President Donald Trump’s favorite policy tool.
Shortly after he took office, Trump started signing executive orders imposing tariffs on America’s trading partners. He declared April 2 “Liberation Day,” and enacted a broad package of import duties from Canada to China and way beyond, upending U.S. economic policy and reshaping global trade.
He did it all without input from Congress. And that might, or might not, have violated presidential power under the Constitution.
So, are the Trump administration’s tariffs legal?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Tue, 04 Nov 2025
Farmers are being hit hard by President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The cost of fertilizer and machinery is up, while the market for certain crops is nearly gone.
But last week’s trade deal with China could provide relief. And the administration says it’s readying a $12 billion farm aid package to pay out post-shutdown.
What kind of impact have Trump’s economic policies had on the American farmer?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Mon, 03 Nov 2025
As it’s filled election security roles at the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice, the Trump administration has elevated people who are known election deniers — activists who’ve pushed unproven claims about fraud in the 2020 election or in American election systems more generally.
And the administration has asked states to turn over voter roll data that includes private information. It’s even sued eight of them for some of that data in an unprecedented push for federal control of voter information.
How are the systems and processes behind the 2026 midterm faring in 2025? Especially as the federal government pushes to have more control over what’s traditionally been the jurisdiction of state and local officials? We hear one of those officials as well as a panel of experts.
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Sat, 01 Nov 2025
The government shutdown has gone on for longer than one month.
Now, Republicans are considering ending the Senate filibuster to reopen the government.
The Supreme Court requested more information as it heard arguments about whether President Donald Trump is within his rights to deploy the National Guard to Chicago.
Two prosecutors who went after January 6 rioters were put on leave this week for filing a sentencing memo in the case of a man who showed up armed outside of the Obama residence.
Amidst a brutal trade dispute, President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping sat down for a face-to-face meeting in South Korea.
Despite recent Israeli strikes killing more than 100 people in Gaza, the Trump Administration says the ceasefire with Hamas is still on.
Following a snub by President Trump and a successful nuclear weapons test, intelligence officials say Russian President Vladimir Putin is showing no signs of seeking a compromise to end the war Ukraine.
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Thu, 30 Oct 2025
Bruce Springsteen is an American music legend. Songs like “Born to Run” and “Born in the USA” have echoed through ballparks, dive bars, TV shows, and politics for decades.
That’s why his new biopic, “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,” is unique. Instead of reckoning with The Boss’ glittering legacy, it focuses on a darker period of his career starting in 1981.
Played by Jeremy Allen White, Springsteen finishes touring his album “The River,” rents a house in New Jersey by himself, and turns his focus inward to grapple with his past and write a new album, “Nebraska.”
The 1A Movie Club convenes to talk about the film.
What has audience reception been to the movie? And what did "The Boss" have to say?
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Wed, 29 Oct 2025
More than 400 bills challenging longstanding public health practices, including vaccines and milk safety, are making their way through statehouses across the country.
According to an Associated Press investigation that tracked said legislation, these bills would do everything from ban certain types of immunizations to making the sale and consumption of unpasteurized milk more accessible.
Anti-vaccine bills are by far the most common. At least 350 of the 420 bills were related to vaccines. Some 11 states have already adopted more than two dozen laws restricting vaccine access.
Who are the highly organized groups behind this wave of anti-science legislation? And how do these bills fit into the broader dismantling of the country’s public health system?
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Tue, 28 Oct 2025
Hurricane Melissa is on track to make a direct hit on Jamaica today, with rains and winds already lashing the island.
Melissa is a category five storm, with winds clocked at up to 175 miles per hour. It’s the strongest storm on the planet this year and one of the most devastating on record.
Authorities in Jamaica and Cuba have issued evacuation orders for tens of thousands of people.
For years, scientists have been telling us that climate change will make hurricanes more dangerous.
What does this mean for the people of Jamaica? And what does a climate-change fueled future of hurricanes look like?
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Mon, 27 Oct 2025
A Hitler-praising group chat. A government official with a self-proclaimed “Nazi-streak.” A swastika flag in a sitting U.S. representative’s office.
Those are a few of the racist, antisemitic forms of speech and expression tied to notable Republicans in recent weeks. Vice President JD Vance downplayed outrage over some of these incidents as “pearl clutching.”
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump signed a memo designating groups like “Antifa” and Black Lives Matter as terrorist organizations. It’s part of the administration’s larger effort to crack down on what it calls a widespread left-wing conspiracy to carry out acts of political violence.
In this installment of “If You Can Keep It,” our weekly series on the state of our democracy, we talk about the Trump administration and the fine lines between hate speech, violence, and political dissent.
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Fri, 24 Oct 2025
The government shutdown is now the second longest in the nation’s history, and federal workers missed their first full paycheck this week. Negotiations between Republicans and Democrats seem to be going nowhere.
Following a federal court’s approval, the Trump administration is one legal hurdle away from getting the green light to send National Guard troops into Portland, Oregon. And Trump reversed his decision to send troops to San Francisco after a conversation with the city’s mayor.
Plus, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson continues to refuse to swear in newly-elected Arizona congresswoman Adelita Grijalva.
And, in global news, Israel returned the bodies of several hundred Palestinian prisoners this week. And the fragile ceasefire holds between Israel and Hamas holds; despite Israel killing more than 100 Palestinians and injuring at least 230 over the last two weeks.
Donald Trump says a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine has been called off.
And, days before President Trump is set to visit the country, Japan swears in its first-ever female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi.
We cover the most important stories from around the world on the News Roundup.
Find more of our programs online.
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Thu, 23 Oct 2025
A stroll down the supplement aisle is a walk filled with hope.
One pill offers stronger hair and nails. Another promises better memory (which will help when you have to remember to take all these pills). And if you added just one more, you might be able to finally recapture the energy of your teenage years.
But how true are these claims? Currently, the Food and Drug Administration does not approve the contents or the labeling dietary supplements before they hit the shelves.
Around 75 percent of Americans take a supplement, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He once said he took so many vitamins he couldn’t remember them all. But RFK Jr., who champions supplements and other alternative medicines, is now pushing the FDA for stronger regulations.
What could that mean for the supplement industry? And why are so many Americans turning to health alternatives today?
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Wed, 22 Oct 2025
The ISS has been in low orbit above the earth for almost 25 years.
It’s played host to astronauts from around the world. But that’s about to come to an end.
NASA is gearing up to deorbit the ISS in 2030 and it’s working with private companies to begin development of commercial space stations to take its place.
What will that transition look like? And what does the commercialization of space hold for humanity in the near and far futures?
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Tue, 21 Oct 2025
Last year, Americans spent more than 300 billion minutes on navigation apps, like Waze or Google Maps.
The GPS systems in our pockets have come a long way from the first known map, carved into a mammoth tusk 30,000 years ago.
But even with satellites tracking us and the ever-changing Earth from the skies – digital maps aren’t fact. Errors can show up and are sometimes as old as maps themselves. The phantom island of Sandy Island appeared on Google Maps until 2012, when Australian scientists sailed to its supposed location and found only open ocean.
Mistakes on maps were sometimes intentional, sometimes not – but every single one tells a bigger story.
How and why did it get there? What does it reveal about the creator of the map and the world around them?
We sit down with Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones, better known as the Map Men on YouTube, to talk through these questions and more.
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Mon, 20 Oct 2025
The Trump administration has cut federal funding to colleges and universities it says don’t align with conservative priorities. And now, the White House says it will reward schools that follow in its ideological footsteps.
Earlier this month, the administration sent a list of demands to nine schools. Officials are calling it the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” Its stipulations include ending considerations of race and sex in admissions and hiring, capping international student enrollment, and limiting what faculty can say about certain issues.
Five institutions — Brown University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Southern California, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Virginia — have rejected the proposal. The others have yet to comment.
Trump’s compact is the latest chapter in the story of how his administration is trying to exert influence over higher education. In March, the White House canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University over allegations of antisemitism.
In this edition of “If You Can Keep It,” our weekly series on the state of democracy, we talk about higher education and what’s at stake if academic freedom is compromised.
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Fri, 17 Oct 2025
John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s former national security advisor, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Maryland this week.
Also, a federal judge in San Francisco halted the mass layoffs of federal workers by the Trump administration.
The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is now in its second week, as both sides hand over hostages and return the bodies of those captured during the conflict.
The United States continues to destroy boats off the coast of Venezuela as part of a supposed campaign against drug cartels.
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Thu, 16 Oct 2025
The Trump administration has decimated the Department of Education with staffing cuts.
Now, the latest round of layoffs all but wipes out the Office of Special Education Programs. So, what does that mean for the millions of kids who rely on these services?
We sit down to talk about how Education Department cuts will affect children with disabilities.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Wed, 15 Oct 2025
Last month, the Trump administration started blowing up boats off the coast of Venezuela, calling it part of an “armed conflict” with drug cartels. The White House’s so-called “war on cartels” is increasingly centered on Venezuela, not Mexico or Haiti, where most of these organizations actually operate.
The president is linking these cartels to the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The South American strong man has indicated he’s ready to declare a state of emergency in his country if things progress much further.
So, are these actions about drugs, or are they really about regime change?
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Tue, 14 Oct 2025
As part of a special issue this November, The Atlantic tasked writers and historians with looking at the country’s founding era to find out what America’s political thinkers valued at its beginning.
The goal is to remind people in the U.S. about the abstract ideas enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and other important revolutionary documents. And, how reconnecting with those ideals might help us as we struggle to keep American democracy together 250 years later.
We discuss this edition of The Atlantic with two of its contributing writers, hear about why the founding of the country is relevant today, and where we might be going next.
And we want to hear from you. How would you fill in the blanks for these four statements?
1. “At the founding of the United States, some of the country’s most important political values were BLANK.”
2. “After 250 years of U.S. history, I would describe the country’s *track record* of following through on those values and ideals as BLANK.”
3. “Right now, an outside observer would likely look at our politics and say we value BLANK.”
4. “When it comes to the United States as a country over the next decade or the next century, I want to see BLANK.”
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Mon, 13 Oct 2025
President Donald Trump promised to crackdown on immigration in Democratic-led cities using aggressive tactics like detaining people based on their race and deploying the National Guard to support Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
He deployed the National Guard in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. this summer. He launched an ICE operation in Boston.
Now, he’s escalating his crackdowns in Chicago and Portland.ICE has made more than 1,000 arrests in Chicago according to the Department of Homeland Security since it began what it’s calling “Operation Midway Blitz” last month.
Nearly half of the FBI agents working in major U.S. offices have been reassigned to immigration enforcement, according to newly released bureau data. What does this radical shift in law enforcement priorities mean for the cities at the center of the president’s crackdown — and for the country more broadly?
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Fri, 10 Oct 2025
President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act this week.
He continues to clash with state and municipal authorities over the limits of his abilities to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into American cities.
Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are eyeing their Democratic counterparts, looking for someone from the opposition to join them in voting for a bill that would reopen the government, more than a week into a shutdown.
Former FBI Director James Comey was arraigned this week, pleading not guilty on Wednesday to charges that he lied to Congress, and saying he would move to have a court dismiss the case.
Meanwhile, the first phase of a peace deal between Israel and Hamas was agreed to this week. But questions remain over how both parties will move forward with the details of the agreement.
Despite a friendly summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump in Alaska in August, the Russian government is claiming that any headway made during that meeting has largely been undone.
And after just 28 days, Sébastien Lecornu’s time as France’s prime minister came to an end this week. He’s President Macron’s fifth government leader to head for the exit in less than two years.
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Wed, 08 Oct 2025
It’s been two years since Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people and seized more than 250 hostages from inside Israel.
More than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory war. On Monday, Israeli and Hamas negotiators met in Egypt to discuss President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza.
Over the weekend, thousands of Israeli citizens took to the streets in Tel Aviv in support of a deal to release the hostages and end the war in Gaza.
What do we know about the U.S.-backed plan to end the war in Gaza? And what does this plan mean for Israelis and Palestinians two years into this conflict?
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Tue, 07 Oct 2025
The Supreme Court begins its new term this week.
It’s agreed to hear cases on several hot button issues like tariffs, trans athletes in sports, and the use of presidential power.
The rulings could change constitutional precedent as we know it. What’s at stake in these cases?
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Mon, 06 Oct 2025
President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth outlined some stark changes to the U.S. military’s policies and norms at last week’s gathering of its top brass.
From new standards that question the fitness of women in combat roles, to deploying the military to U.S. cities, the White House is outlining a new vision for the armed forces.
It’s also looking to eliminate existing channels to report abuse and harassment within the ranks and implement random polygraph tests.
We talk through all these changes, how they affect our troops, and what they mean for civilians.
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Sat, 04 Oct 2025
After Congress failed to reach an agreement to keep the doors in Washington open, the government has shut down.
This comes as tens of thousands of federal workers are set to exit the federal payroll due to firings and deferred buyout agreements.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called all military generals to Quantico, Virginia, to listen to an address about his vision for the armed forces.
President Donald Trump said he plans on sending troops to Portland, Oregon, to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents working there.
Meanwhile, overseas, President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled a 20-point plan to end Israel’s war in Gaza.
Following multiple Russian incursions into NATO airspace, the alliance has stepped up its drone defense, with Ukraine sharing its expertise with Denmark.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is ready to declare a state of emergency, as the U.S. military builds up presence in the Caribbean.
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Thu, 02 Oct 2025
How does hatred towards women relate to violence?
We’ve seen more than a few incidents of political extremism and mass violence in the U.S. over the last few years.
In the days, weeks, and months after acts like these, we seek motives. We try to understand why violence is perpetrated in hopes of preventing it in the future.
One expert argues that in that search for answers – we’re missing something crucial. Something that keeps us from addressing this violence and extremism head on. That blind spot is misogyny.
We sit down with Cynthia Miller-Idriss. She is a sociologist and founding director of the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab, or PERIL at American University. She’s also the author of “Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism.” She joins us to talk about her book and latest research.
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NPR Privacy Policy
Wed, 01 Oct 2025
The White House is continuing its mission to hollow out the federal workforce.
The Trump administration has signaled that it will use the government shutdown to prompt and encourage mass resignations and layoffs.
More than 150,000 federal employees plan to leave the U.S. government payroll this week. It’s the largest single-year exodus of federal workers since World War II.
For workers who opted into the deferred exit program, those resignations began on Tuesday. Workers who didn’t take the buyouts were recently threatened with dismissal.
We check in on the state of the federal workforce.
What happens now that tens of thousands of these employees are leaving? And what’s life like for those who remain?
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Tue, 30 Sep 2025
Many of us know that being outside feels good.
Maybe it’s for a short walk to the store. Maybe for a hike at a nearby mountain. Or maybe spending time at the beach with loved ones for a holiday.
But did you know that a short walk in nature can improve your attention span by 20 percent? And that even fake plants have been shown to deliver health benefits?
There are real benefits to surrounding yourself with the natural world.
We sit down with the pioneer of environmental neuroscience, Marc Berman. He’s out with a new book all about the science behind the benefits spending time outside called “Nature and the Mind.”
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NPR Privacy Policy
Tue, 30 Sep 2025
NATO’s airspace is busy these days. And not in a good way. That’s especially true for member nations on the alliance’s eastern flank.
It’s not supposed to be that way. In recent weeks, states like Poland, Estonia, Romania, and Denmark have seen drones or other aircraft violate their airspace. In some cases, these airborne craft clearly identify they’re Russian in origin.
Multiple countries have called on NATO to consult about what to do next. So, what’s going on? What is Russia up to?
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Mon, 29 Sep 2025
President Donald Trump has, according to many legal experts, crossed the Rubicon.
After years of railing against his perceived enemies and publicly threatening to use the government for revenge, he’s pressured the Justice Department to bring charges against someone he hates despite warnings from top prosecutors.
Late last week, a grand jury narrowly indicted former FBI Director James Comey on allegations that he lied to Congress in 2020. The 5-year statute of limitations was set to expire on Tuesday.
So, how independent is the DOJ? And how much independence should it have? We talk about how the Justice Department is treating Trump’s enemies and also how it’s treated his friends.
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Fri, 26 Sep 2025
A gunman opened fire at an ICE detention facility in Dallas leaving one person dead and two more injured.
All three of the victims were detainees and no ICE agents were hurt. The shooter was found dead according to senior law enforcement officials.
Late night host Jimmy Kimmel returned to the air on ABC this week. He was suspended after he made comments concerning the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The deadline to pass the government funding bill is fast approaching. The Trump White House is threatening mass firings if the government does shuts down.
And, in global news, President Donald Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly this week. In a nearly hour-long speech, he attacked the U.N., criticized the immigration policies of its member states, and called climate awareness the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”
Spanish and Italian frigates were sent to protect the Global Sumud Flotilla. The boats carrying aid were attacked by drones on Tuesday.
And in a meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, Donald Trump said Ukraine could win back all its territory taken by Russia with NATO assistance.
We cover the most important stories here and around the globe in the News Roundup.
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Thu, 25 Sep 2025
More than 50 years ago, President Richard Nixon declared war on cancer when he signed the National Cancer Act in 1971.
Since then, the United States has emerged as a juggernaut in cancer research, funded largely by the government.
But since President Donald Trump took office in January, the administration’s sweeping cuts to the federal workforce and government funding are upending the country’s research system.
So, how are these funding and staffing cuts affecting cancer research and treatment? And how could they impact our progress towards scientific breakthroughs?
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NPR Privacy Policy
Wed, 24 Sep 2025
A record number of people are being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
And the conditions they’re reporting have been described as cruel and inhumane.Last month, 60,000 people were detained by ICE, breaking a record set by the previous Trump administration.
A Los Angeles Times analysis of public data found that more than a third of detainees have spent time in a dedicated facility that is over capacity.
And now, county jails and ICE field offices are being transformed to fill those gaps.
Jails held an average of about 10 percent of all detainees (7,100 people) each day in July, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.
So, what fallout is the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown having on ICE detention centers? What are the conditions in these centers like? And what legal options do detainees have?
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Mon, 22 Sep 2025
It happens every year — sometimes even more frequently than that.
A fight is brewing over funding the government before a deadline at the end of September. On Friday, Republicans in the House of Representatives, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, passed a stop-gap measure to fund the government through Nov. 21.
This is all happening against the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s summer of immigration raids, the deployment of the National Guard to Washington D.C., and the claw back of approved federal funding.
In this installment of 1A‘s weekly politics series, we talk about how this month’s government funding fight could turn into a shutdown, and what Democrats could demand in exchange for keeping the government open.
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Fri, 19 Sep 2025
In a blow to free speech, TV host Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show was suspended from ABC’s lineup after the comedian made jokes about President Donald Trump’s relationship with the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The 22-year-old suspect in Kirk’s killing was charged on Tuesday in Utah County with aggravated murder. The state is seeking the death penalty.
This week the president announced the National Guard will be deployed to Memphis, Tennessee.
Meanwhile, a United Nations commission concluded that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza against the Palestinian people.
The UK rolled out the red carpet for President Trump during his visit with the royal family and Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In a press conference at the conclusion of the trip Trump said the two governments were making ties “closer than ever before.”
Following recent Russian drone incursions in its own airspace, Poland suggests the European Union should set up a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
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Fri, 19 Sep 2025
Fourteen people are dead after the U.S. military launched strikes on two Venezuelan boats this month in international waters. President Donald Trump says they were heading towards the U.S.
That’s despite reports from several agencies saying the boat attacked two weeks ago was headed away from the U.S. when it was hit. Trump is also accusing the boats of being connected to Venezuelan drug trafficking cartels that he says posed a threat to the U.S.
Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, says the U.S. is trying to start a war.
We discuss the stakes and what we know about the situation.
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Thu, 18 Sep 2025
FBI Director Kash Patel appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday for a second day of questioning by lawmakers.
He faced questions about his leadership of the bureau including the firing of dozens of FBI agents and officials, the release of investigative files related to alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and the shooting of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk.
Patel began his hearings on Wednesday by defending the agency under his leadership.
What were some of the biggest takeaways from the the hearing?
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Wed, 17 Sep 2025
Various states in the U.S. are locked in a fight over redistricting.
It’s all centered on which party will keep the House next year. Republicans now have a slim majority, 219 seats to 213.
It started this summer when President Donald Trump asked Republicans in Texas to redraw the state’s congressional maps early. The goal he said, was to improve Republicans’ shot at winning five more seats in the House of Representatives during the 2026 midterm elections. After a standoff with Democrats in the state legislature, Republicans passed a map that did just that.
Democrats in California, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, responded with their own map. It’s a redraw aimed at giving Democrats five more seats in the House. Newsom signed that bill into law in late August, saying it would “neutralize” what happened in Texas. Unlike Texas, California’s map goes to the voters this November for approval. It would last through the 2030 elections.
But the redistricting fights don’t end there. Another GOP effort is nearing the finish line in Missouri. Republicans pushed a new map that will set them up to win seven seats instead of the usual six. Democrats currently hold two House seats in Missouri.
Missouri Senate Republicans passed their redistricting bill on Friday. Now, it’s at the desk of Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe for his signature. So, what does this mean for the state, the Democrats, and the midterms?
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Tue, 16 Sep 2025
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer broke the norm when he handed President Donald Trump an invitation for a second state visit.
The pomp begins on Wednesday, and leadership across the pond is making no secret of its intention to woo President Trump. But there’s more on the docket than making nice – and more at stake, too.
What does the visit mean for both the U.S. And the UK?
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Mon, 15 Sep 2025
On Friday, law enforcement authorities announced the arrest of a 22-year-old for the shooting death of Charlie Kirk.
Kirk, a Trump ally and the co-founder of Turning Point USA, died after being shot at an event at Utah Valley University. He was speaking to a large crowd at an outdoor “Prove Me Wrong” debate, where he invited students to challenge his political and cultural views.
At a press conference, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox asked Americans to consider what happens from here – an escalation or an off ramp.
Kirk’s killing is the latest in a spate of rising political violence across the country. A Minnesota state legislator was murdered in her home in June. The Pennsylvania governor’s house was set on fire in April. And last year on the campaign trail, Donald Trump faced two assassination attempts.
Experts who study political violence say the frequency and seriousness is increasing significantly. So, how did we get here. And is it possible to pull back? We examine the effect political violence has on the health of our democracy.
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Fri, 12 Sep 2025
Republican provocateur and online personality Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while hosting an event at Utah Valley University this week. Despite authorities searching for the person responsible, no suspects are in custody.
Donald Trump’s takeover of the Washington D.C. police department expired Thursday evening. Trump signaled that he would seek an extension, but that desire has reportedly cooled.
Meanwhile, in an attempt to harm Hamas, Israel bombed the Qatari capital of Doha this week. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled that he and his forces are prepared to do so again despite a rare condemnation of Israeli military strategy by the U.S.
Poland invoked NATO’s Article 4 this week after Russian drones entered its airspace, leading to consultations between representatives of the alliances member nations.
France’s government has collapsed again. Now, President Emmanuel Macron has appointed outgoing defense minister Sébastien Lecornu as the country’s next prime minister.
We get into all this and more during this week’s News Roundup.
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Thu, 11 Sep 2025
The nation’s patchwork system of abortion laws is once again being challenged.
This time, opponents are targeting telehealth abortions. That’s when a provider in a state where abortion is legal meets virtually with a patient and sends them pills to take at home.
Those patients come from states all over the country – even those with abortion bans. A quarter of all abortions in the U.S. are done via telehealth. That’s according to a June report from the Society of Family Planning.
Now, attorneys general in Texas and Louisiana are suing a doctor in New York for prescribing pills to patients in their states, where abortion is almost completely banned. New York is one of several states that’s enacted shield laws after Roe was overturned. These statutes ban cooperation with other states’ attempts to enforce abortion bans.
Now that this has evolved into a battle between states, the Supreme Court is expected to weigh in soon. Their decision could drastically change access to abortion nationwide.
So, what’s at stake in this case? And how did states’ rights become the latest flashpoint in the battle over abortion access?
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Wed, 10 Sep 2025
What’s behind Donald Trump’s ongoing battle with the Federal Reserve? That’s the question on some analysts minds as the White House proposes staff shakeups at the historically independent central bank.
Trump has been attempting to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook since Aug. 25. Cook was nominated by Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate in 2022.
The administration is attempting to fire her based on allegations that she committed mortgage fraud before joining the Fed – that’s despite the fact that she hasn’t been convicted or charged with any crime.
On Tuesday night, a federal judge temporarily blocked the president from removing Cook from the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors. She’ll continue to serve as she contests her dismissal.
The Fed has operated independently since its inception more than a century ago. How do the Trump administration’s proposed changes threaten that independence? And what effect could changes at the Fed have on the U.S. economy?
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Tue, 09 Sep 2025
President Donald Trump has tested the limits of the law since the day he took office at the start his second term.
This includes signing an executive order to end birthright citizenship, terminating or freezing billions of dollars in federal funding, and enacting sweeping tariffs on foreign goods without congressional approval.
But these actions have not been met with silence.
Over the last eight months, hundreds of lawsuits have been filed by state attorneys, physicians, media organizations, international students, and others to challenge the Trump administration’s policies.
We check in on major lawsuits against the administration. Where do they stand now? What do they mean for our country’s system of checks and balances?
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Mon, 08 Sep 2025
In recent weeks, we’ve seen a seismic shakeup inside the Department of Health and Human Services and unprecedented discord between the agency, scientists, and doctors.
HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. is bucking the science-backed guidance of physicians on vaccines. That’s angered some Democrats. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren went after Kennedy over his pseudoscientific approach to running the agency during a Senate hearing Thursday.
So, what happens when political ideology outweighs medical consensus?
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Fri, 05 Sep 2025
Jobs numbers are out. They indicate a stalling labor market, with U.S. employers adding just 22,000 jobs in August and unemployment rising to 4.3 percent.
After rumors about the president’s supposedly failing health swirled online last weekend, Donald Trump appeared in public at a press conference this week announcing the relocation of the Space Force headquarters from Colorado to Alabama.
Florida announced this week that it’s set to become the first state in the U.S. to end vaccine mandates in schools, including for young children.
The leaders of China, India, Russia met this week in a display of friendship meant to signal unity to the world. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping convened in China for a summit of powers not aligned with the West.
Meanwhile, Putin told officials in Kyiv he was willing to try and negotiate the end the war in Ukraine should “common sense prevail.” However, he also threatened that he was prepared to continue should he not find terms agreeable.
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Thu, 04 Sep 2025
Every August, New York City becomes the headquarters for all things tennis thanks to the U.S. Open.And a lot has happened for the sport in the Big Apple.
This year marks 75 since Althea Gibson broke the tennis color barrier at the tournament.
So, ahead of the finals this weekend, we sit down with a panel of experts to talk about the biggest takeaways from this year’s event and the future of the sport.
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Wed, 03 Sep 2025
A 6.0 earthquake hit Afghanistan on Sunday night leaving more than 1,400 dead and at least 3,000 injured.
Rescue crews struggled to reach affected villages in remote areas of the country’s Kunar Province as powerful aftershocks continued to rattle the area.
All of this is happening in a country already reeling from deep cuts to aid funding, a struggling economy, and an influx of millions of Afghans forcibly returned from Iran and Pakistan.
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Wed, 03 Sep 2025
Congress returned to the Capitol on Tuesday after their month-long summer break. They’re already in a time crunch.
Lawmakers have around four weeks – or around just 14 legislative days – to pass a spending measure and avoid a government shutdown before Sept. 30.
Tensions between Republicans and Democrats are high. After the passages of President Donald Trump’s spending and rescission bills, Democrats say they are ready for a fight. But the potential for being blamed for a government shutdown also puts them in a tough spot.
On Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said the ball is in the Democrats’ court, but will Republicans play ball at all?
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Tue, 02 Sep 2025
Donald Trump says the office of the president gives him the right to deploy the National Guard to U.S. states. But does it? And who decides?
The president signed an executive order last week calling for a restructuring of the National Guard. It also asks the nation’s defense secretary to create a rapid response force to be deployed to states for “quelling civil disturbances and ensuring public safety.”
Meanwhile, Trump says the city of Chicago is in need of National Guard presence due to a rise in crime. But the president has declined to say how the federal government can intervene outside of D.C., a federal enclave.
Violent crime in Chicago is on a decline. In the first half of 2025, gun violence is down 25 percent compared to last year and down 41 percent from the average reported between 2020 and 2024. That data is from the CBS News Chicago Gun Violence Tracker.
What could that deployment look like? And what has the response been from city officials?
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Sun, 31 Aug 2025
We love talking about food at 1A. From the latest cookbooks to answering your questions about your favorite foods.
As a holiday weekend treat and a fond look back at summer, we bring you highlights from an episode of Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio Podcast. The team discusses grilling and answer listener questions.
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Fri, 29 Aug 2025
A shooter opened fire in a Minneapolis church on Wednesday, injuring 17 people and killing two children. Parishioners and students were gathered at a Mass marking the first week of school
A federal grand jury in the nation’s capital this week declined to indict a man who threw a sandwich at a federal officer in Washington DC.
Emails between top Florida officials show that they expect the state’s newest immigration detention facility, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” to be emptied in the coming weeks. The White House is fighting a judge’s order to shut it down.
Israeli and U.S. officials met this week in Washington to discuss plans for post-war Gaza. This comes as the Israeli military expands the offensive in Gaza City and they come under fire for a “double-tap” bombing of a hospital.
In the war in Ukraine, both sides are attacking energy resources. In Europe, leaders sit down to try and negotiate peace in the region.
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Thu, 28 Aug 2025
It’s been two decades since Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, making landfall in the city as a Category 3 storm. The massive storm surge broke through levees and the flood walls.
Some 80 percent of New Orleans flooded. Entire neighborhoods were wiped out. The official death toll totaled nearly 1,400 people. And what happened in the storm’s wake changed the face of emergency response in this country forever.
We mark 20 years since Hurricane Katrina hit. We take you back to that time, look at what rebuilding has meant for New Orleans, and what lessons were learned.
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Wed, 27 Aug 2025
President Donald Trump is ramping up his attacks on the Federal Reserve.
On Monday, the president posted orders on Truth Social to remove Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook – effective immediately. The president claims she committed mortgage fraud, an allegation first raised by a Trump loyalist and housing official.
Cook, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, responded in a statement saying that Trump has no authority to remove her and that she will continue her duties. Cook has not been charged with a crime.
It’s an unprecedented move that puts into question the independence of the central bank. So, what comes next and what does this mean for the Fed?
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Mon, 25 Aug 2025
Another Friday, another move against a perceived enemy of the president.
Last week, the FBI searched the Maryland home and Washington office of President Trump’s former national security advisor, John Bolton.
Since he was fired from the administration during Trump’s first term, Bolton has turned into one of the president’s most vocal critics.
Vice President JD Vance confirmed in an interview that aired this weekend that this raid was in part connected to a criminal investigation over Bolton’s handling of classified documents and information.
What does this investigation say about the priorities of the Justice Department in Trump’s second term?
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Mon, 25 Aug 2025
"Corrupt" is the word President Trump is using, without evidence, to describe mail-in voting. It's how almost one third of Americans cast their ballots in the last election.
States including Florida and Pennsylvania also saw recent jumps in GOP mail-in ballots, after President Trump in his campaign called for votes by any means possible, including by mail.
And while mail-in voting has historically favored Democrats, there is no evidence of the fraud Trump is claiming. But his push to end it fits a pattern: our President wants to change how elections are run in the United States.
In this installment of our weekly series, “If You Can Keep It,” we get to the issue right at the very heart of U.S. democracy: the ability to cast a ballot in free and fair elections.
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Fri, 22 Aug 2025
President Donald Trump is continuing his efforts to influence the Federal Reserve.
He’s calling on one of its governors to resign, publicly criticized Chair Jerome Powell, and is trying to fast-track a close ally onto the board.
The White House continued its campaign against the Smithsonian Institution this week. Its given museums 120 days to adjust any content that the administration finds problematic in “tone, historical framing and alignment with American ideals.”
In a break from the federal guidance under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the American Academy of Pediatrics released updated recommendations this week that urge COVID-19 vaccinations for infants and young children.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov questioned whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy even has the authority to sign a “peace deal” for the war in his country at all.
Israel’s military says they’ve taken the first steps in their planned operation to take over and occupy Gaza City. On Thursday, they ramped up their attacks in a move that could displace close to one million Palestinians.
Haitian police are deploying drones armed with explosives in an attempt to fight back against gangs that control the majority of the capital city of Port-au-Prince.
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Fri, 22 Aug 2025
ChatGPT has at least 500 million weekly users. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says that number is growing extraordinarily fast.
When the chatbot went through an update a couple weeks ago, it brought to light how many users were relying on AI for their emotional wellbeing and even as a companion.
People using AI for intimate, personal reasons is a phenomenon that we are only beginning to understand.
There are reports of AI inducing delusional thinking and even psychosis. One survey by Sentio University found that 63 percent of people involved said AI improved their mental health.
With such a powerful tool being privy to our deepest secrets, what guardrails exist to protect users’ wellbeing and privacy? Why are so many people leaning on artificial intelligence for connection in the first place?
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Thu, 21 Aug 2025
Nearly 43 million Americans have federal student loan debt. Their borrowing totals more than $1.8 trillion. That’s according to the Education Data Initiative.
Now, the federal student loan system is facing significant changes under the Trump administration.
One of the biggest differences is the end of the Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE plan, started by President Joe Biden. The income-driven program offers low monthly payments and an expedited path to loan forgiveness.
Republicans challenged the plan in court where it’s still tied up, leaving the 7.7 million enrollees in limbo.
How is the Trump administration overhauling the federal student loan system? And what does this mean for the tens of millions of current and future borrowers?
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Tue, 19 Aug 2025
President Donald Trump gave Vladimir Putin what the Russian leader wanted during their meeting in Alaska last week.
Now, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is back in the U.S. for more talks. His last visit to the White House was disastrous, to say the least. This time, he’s bringing key European leaders with him to meet with Trump.
What does the future of the conflict in his country look like? And what’s changed for Trump since his meeting with Putin?
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Mon, 18 Aug 2025
President Donald Trump and his administration want control over exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution.
In a letter sent Aug. 12, three White House officials told the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Lonnie G. Bunch III, that the administration would conduct a review at certain Smithsonian museums.
The goal? To “celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”
In this installment of our politics series, “If You Can Keep It,” we talk about how the administration is injecting itself into the affairs – and the exhibits – of the Smithsonian Institution and what that means for our understanding of our shared history.
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Fri, 15 Aug 2025
President Donald Trump put the police force in Washington D.C. under federal control.
He also called in the National Guard and ICE to patrol the streets. The Justice Department says last year violent crime in the District of Columbia hit a 30-year low.
Cuts to the social safety net are set to leave some 2.4 million Americans without access to the food stamps they were entitled to before the passage of the spending bill earlier this year.
And, in global news, Israel killed four journalists working for Al Jazeera in a targeted strike on the tent in which they were staying in Gaza. Also this week, Israeli soldiers shot 25 people seeking aid in Gaza as Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu claims he’ll “allow” Palestinians to leave during an upcoming offensive in the Strip.
A sit down takes place this week between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that he will not exchange land for peace.
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Thu, 14 Aug 2025
President Donald Trump has taken over Washington D.C.’s police force and deployed the National Guard in the capital.
The president took over the city’s police department for 30 days, and says he wants Congress to grant him “long-term” control of the force.
All this in the name of public safety, despite the fact that D.C.'s violent crime rate is at a 30-year low.
He says he might do the same in places like Los Angeles, Chicago and Baltimore.
We get into what it all means for our nation’s capital and beyond.
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Wed, 13 Aug 2025
The U.S. undertakes the census every 10 years. Hundreds of thousands of Census workers set out to count everyone living in the U.S., regardless of their citizenship status.
That data is used to reallocate seats in the House of Representatives, redraw voting districts on the local level, and decide how federal funds should be allocated in each state.
The next one is 5 years away, and President Donald Trump wants to make big changes to the 2030 count – by excluding noncitizens.
Why does it matter who’s counted in the Census? How would making changes to it influence the life of every person living in the U.S.?
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Tue, 12 Aug 2025
Commander and Astronaut James A. Lovell, Jr. – died Thursday at the age of 97. He was one of the three-man Apollo 13 spacecraft crew that set for the moon in April 1970.
In 1970, the Apollo 13 spacecraft launched from the Kennedy Space Center. It captured the world's attention as America's third attempt to get to the moon. But after only two days, an explosion crippled the spacecraft and changed its mission: Get home safely.
The three astronauts onboard, and dozens of flight controllers on Earth, labored for days to solve one challenge after another.
Captain Jim Lovell commanded that mission—after a series of historical firsts with his flights on Gemini 7, Gemini 12, and Apollo 8.
In 2020, 1A's Todd Zwillich spoke to the captain about that historic flight on its 50th anniversary. We revisit the conversation.
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Mon, 11 Aug 2025
An extraordinary fight is underway in Texas over redistricting.
And it’s turning into a showdown that has nationwide implications for the House of Representatives. The situation paints another stroke in a portrait of a president who hasn’t been shy about his desire to consolidate power and shore up GOP prospects ahead of the 2026 midterms.
So, what kicked this off? Last week more than 50 Democratic lawmakers fled the state to break quorum and prevent their state House vote on new redrawn congressional maps. The Democrats’ revolt, threats of retaliation, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s threats have intensified the fight and sparked a national conversation.
In this installment of our politics series, “If You Can Keep It,” we discuss the fight over redistricting in Texas what it means for the state of our democracy.
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Fri, 08 Aug 2025
After months of delays, President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs went into effect on Thursday.
A planned strategy meeting among top Trump administration officials whether to release the transcript from the Department of Justice interview with Ghislaine Maxwell was cancelled.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government considers a total takeover of the Gaza strip. The UN warns the move could risk "catastrophic consequences."
Trump administration special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of Donald Trump's Friday deadline for peace in Ukraine.
And Rwanda has agreed to accept 250 migrants from the United States becoming the latest nation to strike a deal to take in Trump administration deportees.
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Thu, 07 Aug 2025
The president of the United States fired the head of the government's main economic statistics agency after a recent report showed a less than positive picture of U.S. employment.
The civil servant President Donald Trump fired was former Commissioner of Labor Statistics Erika McEntarfer, a labor economist nominated to the role in 2023 by President Joe Biden. The Senate overwhelmingly confirmed her in 2024. Commissioners often serve under multiple presidents.
The president defended his reasoning for the firing on social media – though he didn't provide evidence to back up his claims.
We discuss the consequences when the president fires the person at the head of the government's main agency for economic statistics.
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