Month: March 2025

The AI boom has caused a huge surge in energy consumption, so how is the tech industry thinking about its environmental footprint as it invests in new AI models?

Emily Kwong, host and reporter for NPR’s Short Wave podcast, finds out what solutions are being considered that might meet both consumer demand and address climate concerns.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at [email protected].

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

After reaching historic levels, fatal overdoses from opioids are dropping rapidly.

Today we bring you a reporter’s notebook from NPR’s national addiction correspondent Brian Mann. He tells host Scott Detrow what it’s been like to cover America’s addiction crisis and explains the significance of the recent decline in opioid deaths.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at [email protected].

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Bezalel Smotrich’s views were once fringe in Israel. He’s an ultranationalist West Bank settler, who has repeatedly called for Israel to resettle the Gaza Strip.

Today, as finance minister, he’s a key figure influencing the future of Israel’s war against Hamas.

NPR’s Hadeel Al-Shalchi has the story of Smotrich’s rise to power in Israel politics.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at [email protected].

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Six months ago, Southern Appalachia was devastated by Hurricane Helene.

Now, after a dry spell and a windy March — the region faces wildfires that are feeding on the downed trees and vegetation that the hurricane knocked to the forest floor.

The North Carolina Forest Service has declared one of them “the highest priority fire in the U.S.”

And due to climate change and population growth, the Carolinas must anticipate a future with more fire danger.

Experts and first responders explain the current situation — and the way forward.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at [email protected].

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

In January of 1987, Michel Shehadeh, a Palestinian man who’d lawfully immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager, was taking care of his toddler son at home when federal agents arrived at his door and arrested him at gunpoint. Shehadeh soon learned he was one of eight immigrants arrested on charges relating to their pro-Palestinian activism.

Then, in March of 2025, federal agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate student, and Georgetown professor Badar Khan Suri. Both are in the U.S. legally, being threatened with deportation. And both are targets of the Trump administration’s crackdown on what they describe as anti-Semitic, pro-Hamas speech on college campuses.

We hear from David Cole, who represented the Los Angeles Eight for insight into this moment, and what we can learn from their plight.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at [email protected].

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

In the 24 hours since a bombshell Atlantic article, senators have grilled Trump administration intelligence officials — but there are no signs yet that anyone involved will face any repercussions. The article, by Jeffrey Goldberg, details how he was inadvertently added to a chat on Signal, the encrypted messaging app, where key administration figures were planning a U.S. bombing operation in Yemen.

NPR’s Ryan Lucas followed a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, where CIA Director John Ratcliffe and the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard testified that no classified information was discussed in the chat group. Democrats challenged that assertion.

And Willem Marx reports on reaction in European capitals. The Atlantic article included disparaging comments about European allies from Vice President J.D. Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at [email protected].

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

For weeks, President Trump has been issuing executive orders and memos that levy or threaten sanctions on major law firms.

The moves suspend security clearances, cancel government contracts, bar employees from federal buildings — and other actions that threaten their ability to represent their clients.

While Trump complains the law firms employed “very dishonest people,” legal experts say Trump is retaliating against firms who have represented his political opponents or, in one case, rehired an attorney who had left his position to help prosecute a case against Trump.

We hear from Rachel Cohen, who publicly resigned from her law firm in protest.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at [email protected].

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

In Trump v. United States, the Supreme Court held that the president has “absolute immunity from criminal prosecution” for official acts.

To reach that conclusion, the High Court grappled with this question: how much power a president should have?

And some legal scholars say the ruling draws on the unitary executive theory — which, in its most extreme interpretation, gives the president sole authority over the executive branch.

But did it pave the way for Trump’s second term and the constitutional questions it’s raised: From the dismantling of federal agencies established by Congress to the deportation migrants to third party countries without due process?

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at [email protected].

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Greenland is a lot more than an object of Donald Trump’s territorial ambitions. It’s a place whose small population is facing big questions – about climate change, economic development, and identity.

Today we bring you a reporter’s notebook, traveling with NPR’s Juana Summers and her team through Greenland at a time of huge political uncertainty.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at [email protected].

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Representatives from Russia and Ukraine will be in meetings to try to hammer out details of a ceasefire on Monday. But peace is still a long way off.

For starters it’s only a partial ceasefire—no strikes on energy infrastructure. It’s only for 30 days.

And the Ukrainians and Russians aren’t even meeting with each other. The U.S. will be a go-between.

One of the biggest things working against a new agreement, is what happened after Ukraine’s last agreement with Russia. And the ones before that.

Ukraine says it won’t trust a promise from Russia. It needs security guarantees. To understand why, you’ve got to go back to the birth of independent Ukraine.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at [email protected].

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy