Year: 2022

Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of Al Qaeda, was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan over the weekend. For years, al-Zawahiri was Osama Bin Laden’s deputy — and was known as the mastermind behind the 9-11 attacks.

NPR’s Greg Myre and Diaa Hadid discuss the implications of al-Zawahiri’s death for the U.S., Afghanistan, and America’s decades-long war on terror.

This episode also features reporting from NPR’s Steve Inskeep.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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Dee Davis remembers watching his grandmother float by in a canoe during the 1957 flood that hit Whitesburg, Ky. The water crested at nearly 15 feet back then–a record that stood for over half a century, until it was obliterated last week.

The water was more than six feet higher than the 1957 mark when floodwater destroyed the gauge.

The flooding took out bridges and knocked houses off their foundations. It had claimed at least 35 lives as of Monday afternoon.

And it was just the latest record-breaking flooding event to hit the U.S. this summer.

NPR’s Rebecca Hersher explains that climate change is making extreme floods more frequent. A warming atmosphere can hold more moisture, which means, when it rains, it rains harder.

This episode also features reporting from NPR’s Kirk Siegler, KJZZ’s Michel Marizco and St. Louis Public Radio’s Sarah Fentem.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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You may have never heard the phrase abortion doula, but for years they have been working to support people navigating the process and experience of ending a pregnancy.

With Roe overturned, depending on where you live, figuring out how to obtain an abortion has gotten much harder. This could make the role of abortion doulas more critical than ever — and more risky.

NPR’s Michel Martin speaks with Vicki Bloom. She refers to herself as a full service doula and provides a range of reproductive health support services, from helping clients create a birth plan, to being present at abortions, to providing information and emotional support.

We discuss what a abortion doula does and how that role might change in a post-Roe world.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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This week, Pope Francis has been in Canada, on what he calls a “Pilgrimage of Penance”. He’s been going around the country to apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s residential school system.

These schools – funded by the Canadian government and administered by the Catholic Church – were aimed at erasing the culture and language of indigenous people.

The apology from Pope Francis this week comes after years of allegations detailing abuse and neglect at these residential boarding schools. Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established in 2008 to document what happened at these schools – and the lasting trauma that has followed.

Stephanie Scott is a member of the Anishinaabe from Roseau River First Nation. She’s executive director of the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation – and has been part of a years-long effort to gather the testimony of survivors. She shares with us the mixed feelings about the Pope’s apology, and the work that still has to be done towards reconciliation.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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A heads up to listeners: we recorded this episode Thursday afternoon, before the Biden administration announced that it will hold off on offering boosters for people under 50 this summer.

The BA.5 variant is the most dominant strain of COVID-19 in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s highly transmissible and it’s driving up COVID cases and hospitalizations.

This week NPR learned that the Biden administration may scrap plans to let more younger adults get second COVID-19 boosters this summer. Instead, officials are trying to speed up availability of the next generation of boosters in the fall — boosters that specifically target the new subvariant.

We talk to Dr. Robert Wachter, the chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, about the administration’s booster strategy and how people can protect themselves in the midst of the latest surge.

This episode also features reporting from NPR’s Rob Stein.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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Residential hotels used to play a huge role in the American housing landscape, providing flexible accommodation for anyone who needed it, from the rich and famous to the barely scraping by. Slate staff writer Henry Grabar argues that a return of extended-stay hotels could help solve some of today’s housing market dysfunction.

KNKX’s Will James reports on what happened after tenants of a residential hotel in Tacoma, Wash., were forced out—into a housing market with very few affordable options.

You can read his entire series on the Merkle Hotel here, and Henry Grabar’s article on extended stay hotels here.

This episode also features reporting on the US housing shortage from NPR’s Chris Arnold.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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The James Webb Space Telescope has captured images of the universe that have stunned both scientists and the public. But for more than twenty years before its launch, the mission faced multiple delays, cost overruns, technical difficulties and threats from Congress to kill it altogether.

We’ll speak with some of the leaders of the Webb telescope mission who fought to keep it alive — and hear from astronomers whose work is now changed forever by its images.

This episode also features reporting from NPR’s Nell Greenfieldboyce.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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Food, gas, rent — prices are climbing across the board. As inflation hit a 40-year high last month, millions of Americans are adjusting their spending and looking for ways to stretch their budgets.

The Federal Reserve is taking action, too. Policy makers are meeting this week to consider whether and how much to raise interest rates in an effort to curb inflation.

We talk to NPR’s chief economics correspondent Scott Horsley and business correspondent David Gura.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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This week dozens of family members of victims of the Uvalde Texas school shooting showed up at the town’s first school board meeting since a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers in May.

The atmosphere became tense and emotional as families confronted board members, demanding assurances that students and staff would be safe in the coming school year.

The school board meeting followed the release of surveillance footage from the day of the shooting and an investigative report released by the Texas House of Representatives.

The investigation found that a total of 376 local, state, and federal officers converged on the scene. But due to “systemic failures and egregiously poor decision making” on the part of the police, more than an hour passed before anyone confronted the gunman.

Many Americans feel that the police stand between order and chaos. Yet the massive failure by law enforcement in Uvalde may change how the public views police and how police view themselves.

NPR’s Michel Martin speaks with Seth Stoughton, a professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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This week the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol wrapped up its first set of public hearings. The final hearing focused on former President Trump’s actions – or lack of action – as rioters breached the Capitol.

As the hearings continue, the Department of Justice is conducting its own investigation. And Attorney General Merrick Garland is under pressure from the left to bring criminal charges against Trump.

We spoke to former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann about the evidence that the House Select Committee has presented and what the attorney general may be considering. Weissmann was a senior prosecutor on Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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