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O.J. Simpson was more than a football star. More than a pop culture icon or a defendant acquitted of murder.

He became a symbol of America’s complicated relationship to race, celebrity, and justice. His family announced that he died of cancer Wednesday at age 76.

The murder trial of O.J. Simpson became not only about one man and two victims, but the entire country. Coming up, we assess the legacy of a case, and a verdict, that put race in America on the stand.

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In recent years, the body positivity movement has raised it’s profile, especially on social media largely through self-described anti-diet and body positivity influencers.

These influencers and others like them represent a pivot away from the diet and fitness culture embodied by companies like weight watchers, which focuses on losing weight as a path to healthier living.

Today there is a broad “anti-diet” movement that posits that bodies can be healthy at any size. But some are trying to co-opt this movement.

An investigation by The Washington Post and the Examination found that large food companies are recruiting these influencers to promote sugary cereals and processed snacks.

As people who are part of the anti-diet movement saw an opportunity to practice and spread a message of self-love and acceptance, big food companies saw an opportunity to make money.

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Many of us don’t have the opportunity to handpick our neighbors. We buy or rent a place in a neighborhood with good schools or an easy commute.

Some of us become friends with those who live nearby, others of us never talk to our neighbors at all. For most though, we co-exist.

In the midst of a brutal civil war, neighbors killed their neighbors simply because of who they were.

Thirty years ago this month, that wasn’t the case in Rwanda.

We visit a Rwandan village where how neighbors live alongside one another is deliberate, and complicated.

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Researchers are finding that the impact of relationships with siblings —for better or worse — can be important, and endure well beyond childhood.

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Tomorrow, the Great American Eclipse will sweep across North America, and millions will experience total darkness.

It’s an eerie and mysterious experience even though at this point, we know exactly what’s happening: the moon passes in front of the sun, casting a shadow over earth.

But imagine you lived in the ancient world, with no warning that an eclipse was about to happen, as the sun’s disk suddenly disappeared and the day fell dark and cool. Unsurprisingly, eclipses were often seen as bad omens.

That was true in Mesopotamia, the region that today includes Iraq, Syria, Kuwait and Turkey. But even then, ancient Mesopotamian astronomers were looking for other explanations.

Watching an eclipse is one of humanity’s oldest rituals, and it’s been inspiration to scientists since the beginning of time.

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The American response to Israel’s war with Hamas could be a major factor in the upcoming Congressional elections.

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Bird flu has spread to cows. And now a human has contracted the virus from an infected cow. What kind of risk does this virus pose to people, and are we prepared to treat it?

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The recent transplant of a genetically modified pig kidney into a living human raises hopes that lives will no longer depend on the availability of human donor organs.

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One week after a massive container ship crashed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing it to collapse, a massive effort is underway to clear the wreckage. But it’s still unclear how long the cleanup will take.

Meanwhile, with much of the Port of Baltimore shut down, the economic impact is being felt locally, regionally and in the broad economy.

Host Mary Louise Kelly gets the latest from NPR’s Laurel Wamsley, on the ground in Baltimore, and Camila Domonoske, who covers the auto industry for NPR. Baltimore is a major national hub for the import and export of vehicles.

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When news outlets shut down in a city, that creates what’s often called a news desert. But in Richmond, California, NPR’s media correspondent David Folkenflik says the situation is more like a news mirage.

Energy giant Chevron is the biggest employer – and the biggest polluter in the California city. Chevron also owns the local news site. How does that impact the community there?

NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Folkenflik and Miranda Green, director of investigations for the news site Floodlight – about what happens when a major corporation owns the local news.

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