Year: 2023

Tina Turner, one of Rock and Roll’s greatest stars, died this week in her home in Switzerland at the age of 83, after a long period of illness.

In a career that spanned six decades, Turner left behind an indelible legacy in music, on the stage and on screen. Host Eric Deggans looks back on her tumultuous, and triumphant, life. Also we answer whether the “Queen of Rock and Roll” was somehow still underappreciated.

Since its relaunch in the 1980s, Jeopardy! has had thousands of contestants. For some of the its most memorable champions, the gameshow has been a launchpad for wider success.
However, the disappearance of one of the earliest champions from the show left fans mystified for decades.
NPR’s Sacha Pfeiffer talks with Claire McNear, a staff writer with The Ringer, about the 40-year-long mystery behind one of Jeopardy’s most enigmatic champions.
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It’s been one year since an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 students and 2 teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. The tragedy reignited debates around gun safety in America and has haunted a community still seeking to fully understand how law enforcement was so slow to take down the shooter.

About a month after the shooting, Congress passed the most significant gun legislation since the Federal Assault Weapons ban of 1994, but many Republican led-states, including Texas, have resisted gun safety legislation, even loosening gun restrictions.

Uvalde, too, is divided — between those who want stricter gun laws and those who oppose them, between those who want to mark a year since the massacre, and those who want to move on. And for the families who lost loved ones, they’re still searching for justice, accountability, and healing. NPR’s Adrian Florido reports from Uvalde. And we hear from Texas Tribune reporter Zach Despart about the police response to the shooting.

The United States has 27 years to reach its net-zero emissions goal. And among other initiatives to move towards that goal, the Biden administration is offering incentives for carbon capture and storage.

Carbon capture is a way to suck up carbon dioxide pollution from ethanol plants, power plants and steel factories, and store it deep underground.

While the companies that build the pipelines say the technology will help the U.S. meet its greenhouse gas emissions goals, they have also run into problems.

In Iowa, farmers are pushing back against the pipelines crossing their land. And for a town in Mississippi, a CO2 pipeline endangered lives.

NPR’s Julia Simon reports from Satartia, Mississippi on the aftermath of a pipeline rupture. The Climate Investigations Center obtained recordings of the 911 calls from Satartia and shared them with NPR.

Harvest Public Media’s Katie Peikes also provided reporting in this episode.

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The Hollywood writers’ strike has meant three weeks of late-night comedy and soap opera reruns for television fans. And for some fans, it might feel familiar. 15 years ago a Writers Guild strike lasted 100 days. And the effect of that strike was felt on shows from Saturday Night Live to Friday Night Lights.

NPR’s Ari Shapiro talks with veteran TV writer David Simon about the strike and the changing business practices in the entertainment industry.

And writer and cultural critic Emily St. James explains how the 2007 WGA strike may have saved the life of an iconic character in Breaking Bad.

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A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recently recommended allowing birth control pills to be sold without a prescription.

While more than 100 countries currently allow access to birth control pills over the counter, the U.S. is not one of them.

Washington Senator Patty Murray says it’s important that the pill is easily available – but also affordable.

When – and if – that day comes and the pill is available over the counter, Murray wants to require insurance companies to cover the cost, free of charge.

NPR’s Sarah McCammon speaks with Senator Murray on the proposed legislation.

And we hear the latest on the legal challenge to the abortion medication mifepristone, as attorneys gather in New Orleans at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to argue whether it should be removed from the market.

NPR’s Becky Sullivan and Selena Simmons-Duffin contributed reporting on the real-life experiences of individuals taking mifepristone.

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Across the country, members of the class of COVID are graduating: students who started high school before the pandemic, then spent the end of their freshman year and subsequent years navigating a new reality.

And it was a very difficult path.

According to many studies there has been considerable learning loss for K-12 students throughout the pandemic. And a recent study from researchers at Harvard and Stanford shows that the pandemic exacerbated existing inequalities.

NPR’s Sarah McCammon talks with three graduating high school seniors about how they made it through remote learning and coped with social isolation, and what they learned about themselves.

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Few stars shined brighter in the 80’s than Michael J Fox, and when the ’90s rolled around, he was still one of the top names in show biz.
But in 1991, after a night of heavy drinking, Fox noticed a tremor developing in his right pinky, an early symptom symptom of Parkinson’s Disease, a diagnosis that would change the course of his life.
Fox speaks to NPR’s Sacha Pfeiffer, about his new documentary “Still”, and how he found meaning in sharing his disease with the world.
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At least fourteen states in the US have passed laws or policies that limit or restrict gender-affirming care for young people. Republican lawmakers claim the bills are meant to protect kids, but most medical groups say the treatment is safe, effective and potentially live-saving.

Even so, Republican leaders like Texas governor Greg Abbot compare gender-affirming care to child abuse. Meanwhile trans people, parents, and their supporters have protested outside of Republican controlled statehouses across the country.

Florida has targeted gender-affirming care more than most other states. And on Wednesday, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed the latest such bill into law. It’s gotten to the point where some trans youth are leaving the state, rather than living under the ban.

With reporting from WUFS’s Stephanie Columbini and WFSU’s Regan McCarthy.

The state of Israel turned 75 this week. For many Israeli Jews, it’s a moment of celebration – the nation was established as a homeland and refuge from the persecution they have faced throughout history.
But in the war surrounding Israel’s founding, the majority of Palestinian Arabs were permanently displaced from their homeland.
Palestinians call the anniversary of Israel’s founding “The Nakba”, an Arabic word that translates to “the catastrophe.” And many say the catastrophe is not history, it is ever present with the Israeli military occupation.
NPR’s Daniel Estrin tells the story of how one Palestinian family stays connected to their home village, decades after it was destroyed.
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