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More than a decade ago, Ron Klain helped orchestrate the U.S. response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, as the White House Ebola response coordinator under President Obama. 

Now, with a fast-growing outbreak of a different strain of Ebola, in a different part of Africa, the public health infrastructure to address an outbreak has vastly changed, following the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID. 

In this episode, Klain talks about the role USAID played in responding to the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic, and assesses whether today’s outbreak poses more or less of a risk to people in the United States.

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This episode was produced by Christopher Harland-Dunaway, Kathryn Fink and Karen Zamora. 

It was edited by Christopher Intagliata and Gisele Grayson. 

Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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Is Kennedy heir Jack Schlossberg ready to lead? We ask him.

Schlossberg seems to be trying to follow the path his grandfather John F. Kennedy took when he was elected to Congress almost eight decades ago.

And his campaign has momentum. Lots of attention, favorable press and the endorsement of Speaker of the House emeritus Nancy Pelosi.

But now after the New York Times article – he’s speaking out – a lot.  

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This episode was produced by Mia Venkat, with audio engineering by Ted Mebane.

It was edited by Courtney Dorning.

Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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A prayer festival on the National Mall in Washington, DC was partially organized and funded by the federal government. Its evangelical Christian messaging and call for more religion in politics not less, aligns with the Trump administration’s fusion of faith and governance. NPR’s Emily Feng went to the event to understand the audience for this approach, and she spoke with author Eric Metaxas, a speaker at the Rededicate 250 festival.

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This episode was produced by Henry Larson, with audio engineering by 

It was edited by Sarah Robbins and Daniel Burke.

Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro has spent years covering elections and parsing through voter data. With the midterm elections approaching Montanaro talks about how he relies on both polling and stories from voters to report as accurately as possible on the current political moment.

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This episode was produced by Gabriel Sanchez and Michael Levitt. 

It was edited by Adam Raney. 

Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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The Trump administration hasn’t been talking much about its mass deportation policy, but that doesn’t mean efforts have stopped.

Back in February, support for President Trump’s mass deportation policy had plummeted. Two thirds of Americans polled by NPR said immigration enforcement had gone too far after agency officers killed two American citizens in Minneapolis.

The Trump administration has spent the past several months trying to regain public support ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.

But what has actually changed about the policy?

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This episode was produced by Tyler Bartlam. 

It was edited by Kelsey Snell, Tinbete Ermyas and Courtney Dorning. 

Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is butting heads with Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona again — this time, over Kelly’s recent statements that the U.S. is depleting its weapons supply in this war with Iran.

Secretary Hegseth says that in discussing information from Pentagon briefings, Senator Kelly violated protocol. 

But the back-and-forth does raise the question: What’s the status of the Pentagon’s weapons stockpile amid the war with Iran? 

Barbara Starr, former CNN Pentagon correspondent and current senior fellow at the The USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy, provides insight.

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Email us at considerthis@npr.org. 

This episode was produced by Lauren Hodges, with audio engineering by Hannah Gluvna.

It was edited by Courtney Dorning and Tinbete Ermyas.

Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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Flying discs, metallic orbs, and a mysterious cylinder tumbling past the Apollo spacecraft. Those are just a few of the unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP, contained in a batch of government files the Department of Defense released this month. 

The DoD report, coming on President Trump’s orders, is another step towards the federal government taking the question of UAPs more seriously. But how much of this is really new – and what more can we learn from the files?

Astrophysicist Adam Frank of the University of Rochester, who’s involved in the search for intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, weighs in on this new trove of ‘alien files.’

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Email us at considerthis@npr.org. 

This episode was produced by Gabe Sanchez and Jordan-Marie Smith, with audio engineering by Damian Herring. 

It was edited by Christopher Intagliata and Courtney Dorning. 

Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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President Trump promised Americans, fair, equal and impartial justice…is that what he’s delivering?

President Trump campaigned on a promise to undo the levers of the justice system that he said were weaponized against him.

His administration has gutted the Justice Department unit that investigates and prosecutes public corruption.

But since the beginning of Trump’s second term investigations into corrupt public officials have dropped nearly 90 percent.

Meanwhile, pardons of officials convicted of corruption have risen. 

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It was edited by Kelsey Snell, Jeanette Woods and Courtney Dorning. 

Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

  

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Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year, for her work to promote democracy in her country.

Many Venezuelans expected Machado would eventually become their president once authoritarian ruler Nicolas Maduro was ousted from power. But Maduro has been out of power and in a U.S. prison since January, and Machado is still on the outside looking in. Host Mary Louise Kelly spoke with Maria Corina Machado about her plans to return to Venezuela, her relationship with President Trump and the burden Machado’s political career has placed on her own family.

This conversation is part of NPR’s Newsmakers video podcast series. For more, follow or subscribe to Newsmakers on Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you watch or listen. You can also find the show in the NPR app. 

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This episode was produced by Alejandra Marquez Janse, with
audio engineering by Tiffany Vera Castro, David Greenburg, and Robert Rodriguez. It was edited by William Troop and Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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China’s nuclear weapons capabilities are small compared to that of Russia and the U.S. However, China has been expanding its nuclear arsenal under the leadership of Xi Jinping, doubling in size in just the last decade. 

NPR’s Emily Feng explains the current state of China’s nuclear program and why the country is seeking to further develop it. 

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Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

This episode was produced by Daniel Ofman.

It was edited by Hannah Bloch, Sarah Robbins and Michael Levitt.

Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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