Year: 2021

Two years ago, a massive protest movement swept through Iraq. People were angry about corruption and a lack of basic services like electricity and health care in a country that brings in billions of dollars in oil revenue each year. That protest movement culminated in a parliamentary election, held earlier this month.

NPR international correspondent Ruth Sherlock reported on the election closely from inside Iraq. Through her reporting, and in conversation with host Ari Shapiro, Ruth explains why Iraq’s election failed to deliver on hopes for reform — and what it revealed about America’s long and costly investment in the country’s democracy.

This episode contains excerpts from multiple stories Ruth Sherlock reported over the course of weeks inside Iraq. You can find more of her work here.

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Last summer, when former President Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen sat down to tape their podcast, the country was facing a pandemic, joblessness and a contentious election.

And their conversations, they say, were an effort to offer some perspective and an attempt to try and find a unifying story for the country. The two talked about their dads, race, and the future of the country.

Those conversations have now become a book, titled Renegades: Born in the U.S.A. — and they spoke to Audie Cornish about it’s publication.

You can watch a video of this interview and see images from the book here.

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The CDC has now released booster guidance for all three vaccines available in the U.S. — making tens of millions of people eligible for another shot. And on Tuesday, an FDA panel met to review data from Pfizer on their vaccine for children ages 5 – 11.

NPR’s Alison Aubrey explains what those data say about the vaccine — and how it might be rolled out.

Pediatrician Dr. Reah Boyd tells NPR how she’s talking to parents about vaccinating their young children.

Additional reporting in this episode from NPR’s Pien Huang, Rob Stein, and Selena Simmons-Duffin.

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School board members across the country are being intimidated and threatened. Now the National School Boards Association wants the federal government to step in. The group said in a recent letter to President Biden that acts of school board harassment and confrontations seem to be coordinated.

The online newsletter Popular Information has written about national groups targeting school boards.

NPR Ed correspondent Anya Kamenetz travelled to Gwinnett County, Georgia, where school board members have been targeted with threats. Read more in her story, What it’s like to be on the front lines of the school board culture war.

NPR White House Correspondent Tamara Keith has also reported on why school board elections will be an early test of what issues motivate voters.

Anya and Tamara recently discussed their reporting on school boards on the NPR Politics Podcast. Listen via Apple, Spotify, or Google.

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This episode is from our friends at Wisdom From The Top.

From the creator of How I Built This, host Guy Raz invites you to listen in as he talks to leadership experts and the visionary leaders of some of the world’s biggest brands. Along the way, you’ll hear accounts of crisis, failure, turnaround, and triumph, as the leaders reveal their secrets on their way to the top. These are stories that didn’t make it into their company bios, and valuable lessons for anyone trying to make it in business.

In this episode: As a child growing up in Ibadan, Nigeria, Dara Treseder was often told to get her head out of the clouds. But her mother encouraged her to dream big and to follow her ambition if it would lead her to contentment. For Treseder, that meant moving across the world to attend both Harvard and Stanford, and chasing a deeply-held desire to make a positive impact on the world. Her career in marketing began with stints at Apple and Goldman Sachs, then, in 2020, she became SVP, Head of Global Marketing and Communications at Peloton. Today, she is one of the most influential marketing leaders of her generation.

Listen to more Wisdom From The Top via Apple, Spotify, or Google.

A record 4.3 million workers in America quit their jobs in August.

Anthony Klotz coined this ongoing phenomenon “The Great Resignation.”

Klotz is an organizational psychologist at Texas A&M University.

In part, he says, the pandemic has made workers reevaluate what they are actually getting out of their jobs.

“During the pandemic, because there was a lot of death and illness and lockdowns, we really had the time and the motivation to sit back and say, do I like the trajectory of my life? Am I pursuing a life that brings me well-being?” Klotz said.

Employers are also having to rethink what their employees really need.

NPR’s Audie Cornish spoke with Laszlo Bock, co-founder and CEO of the human resources company Humu, about the basic human need for respect.

“You know, in the pandemic, people have talked a lot about essential workers, but we actually treat them as essential jobs,” said Bock. “We treat the workers as quite replaceable.”

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Last week the White House announced a plan to help move the port of Los Angeles into 24/7 operating status. But that will only “open the gates” of the clogged global supply chain, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told NPR on the NPR Politics Podcast.

Another crucial supply chain link is the trucking industry, which is short tens of thousands of drivers. Bruce Basada, President of the Diesel Driving Academy in Shreveport, Louisiana, explains why.

The clogged supply chain is leading to delays and shortage on all kinds of products. NPR coverage in this episode includes excerpts from Scott Horsley‘s report on a shortage of glass bottles, Petra Mayer‘s story on the slowdown in book production, and Alina Selyukh‘s look at shipping delays for children’s toys. Special thanks to Scott, Petra, and Alina for editing help on this episode.

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Since 2016, a number of U.S. diplomats and federal employees have reported symptoms of a mysterious illness, the so-called Havana Syndrome.

The list of symptoms include hearing loud sounds, nausea fatigue, and dizzying migraines, among others.

The cause of this mystery illness is a source of curiosity, but it remains unknown.

Last year the State Department commissioned a study by the National Academies of Sciences for researchers to investigate Havana Syndrome.

NPR’s Sarah McCammon spoke to Dr. David Relman, a Stanford professor who headed the investigation.

One possible cause their group came to was a form of microwave radiation that occurs in a pulsed or intermittent form.

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Colin Powell’s life was marked by public service, first as a soldier in Vietnam and then eventually as President George W. Bush’s secretary of state. By that time he had already held many prominent positions in government, including national security adviser and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was the first African American to hold each of these roles.

But Powell’s story will always be entwined with the Iraq War. Although he argued against the invasion in private White House meetings, he did see it through. And he famously defended the strategy on a national stage before the United Nations.

NPR National Correspondent Don Gonyea reports on Powell’s enormous and complicated legacy.

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One of the killings that sparked racial justice protests last year is again in the national spotlight, with a trial that begins this week in Brunswick, Ga. Three white men are accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man shot and killed as he was jogging down a residential street.

NPR correspondent Debbie Elliott reports on the defendants’ expected arguments and the evidence stacked against them in a trial that serves as yet another test case for racial justice.

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