Year: 2023

Being Black and an immigrant is an increasingly common phenomenon in the South, where 1 in 10 Black people are immigrants.

Still, despite growing numbers of Black immigrants in the region, their experience is fraught with worries over discrimination and assimilation.

NPR’s Leah Donnella reports on hurdles Black immigrants face in order to drive in Tennessee, a state with one of the fastest growing populations of Black immigrants in the South, and with few options for transportation.

When people speak about God in various religions, the deity is typically referred to using the masculine pronoun “He.”

In Islam, Allah is not depicted as male or female — Allah has no gender. Yet Allah has traditionally been referred to, and imagined by many, as a man.

Some Muslim women have begun to refer to Allah with feminine or gender neutral pronouns.

NPR’s Ari Shapiro speaks with Hafsa Lodi, who wrote about this movement in the religion magazine The Revealer, about what’s driving this.

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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Wars are expensive. And Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had an impact on the economies of both countries.

NPR’s Julian Hayda, in Kyiv, reports that international assistance is allowing Ukraine to stabilize its economy and avoid collapse.

The Russian economy seems to have remained resilient in the face of sanctions and other trade and financial restrictions. But NPR’s Stacey Vanek Smith reports on how that could be changing.

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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While it may seem like Black-focused media is at a high these days, the reality is only 4% of all media in the U.S. is Black-owned.
Moreover, experts say that biased practices from advertisers make it harder for Black-owned media companies to be profitable.
NPR’s Eric Deggans talks to Byron Allen, about his ambitions to grow his media empire, hold advertisers to account, and control the narrative of how Black people are represented in media.
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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Lullabies. We all know one. Whether we were sung one as a baby or now sing one to our own children. Often, they’re used to help babies gently fall asleep. But lullabies can be more than that. They can be used to soothe, to comfort, and to make children feels closer to their parents and vice versa.

We hear from Tiffany Ortiz, director of early-childhood programs at Carnegie Hall, about their Lullaby Project, which pairs parents with professional musicians to write personal lullabies for their babies. Also NPR’s Elissa Nadworny takes a look at a program inside a South Carolina prison that helps incarcerated mothers write lullabies for their kids. And NPR’s Selena Simmons-Duffin examines the science behind a good lullaby.

In the months ahead of the election, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faced criticism for his government’s response to devastating earthquakes and for crushing inflation.

Yet, he still managed to come out ahead in this week’s runoff election, extending his two-decade tenure leading Turkey by another five years.

His victory was a case study in how to use populism, intimidation and division to harness a democracy and stay in power.

NPR’s Fatma Tanis breaks down his victory and what it means for democracy in Turkey and more broadly.

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

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The right to repair movement scored a big victory last week in Minnesota, where it got legislation signed into law that requires manufacturers to let independent shops and consumers buy the parts and tools necessary to repair their own equipment. The new law could make fixing your own devices, gadgets and appliances a lot easier in states across the country.

NPR’s Eric Deggans speaks with Gay Gordon-Byrne the executive director of the Repair Association, about the importance of the new law. And Minnesota State Rep. Peter Fischer talks about how he got involved in the movement and the obstacles he and others faced on the path to getting this law passed.

It’s been five years since the U.S. pulled out of the nuclear deal. What followed: the U-S re-imposed crushing sanctions, over time, Iran stopped adhering to the limits the deal had set and day-by-day its nuclear program crept forward.

So how close is Iran to a bomb? What can the U.S. do to stop Iran, if it chooses to pursue one? And how are regional and global shifts changing the equation?

NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly puts these questions to the U.S. special envoy for Iran, Rob Malley, and to Vali Nasr with the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

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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Back in March, roughly 80 people in Hong Kong marched in opposition to a land reclamation project that protesters say would increase pollution. Police were watching closely. Demonstrators had to wear numbered badges around their necks as they walked in the rain.

It was a different image from the hundreds who protested in 2019. Back then, the people of Hong Kong showed up in unprecedented numbers. They were opposing what they saw as mainland China’s latest efforts to impose authoritarian restrictions to chip away at Hong Kong autonomy.

NPR’s Ailsa Chang speaks with Louisa Lim, author of Indelible City: Dispossession And Defiance In Hong Kong. They discuss the long history of friction between Hong Kong and China, and the state of freedom of expression in Hong Kong today.

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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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign announcement on Twitter did not go as planned. A series of awkward technical glitches delayed the event for about 20 minutes.

Nevertheless, it was still a big moment, not just for DeSantis, but for Twitter, too.

In fact, Desantis’ announcement is just one example of how the social media platform has changed since Elon Musk took over the company.

NPR’s Eric Deggans talks with writer Charlie Warzel, who has covered the platform for 15 years, about his latest piece in The Atlantic, “Twitter is a Far Right Social Network.”

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

Email us at [email protected].