Blog

The people of Monterey Park, California, would normally be celebrating Lunar New Year right now, one of the biggest holidays of the year in a community that is two-thirds Asian. Instead, the city is mourning a terrible loss.

Ailsa Chang went to the site of Saturday night’s mass shooting in Monterey Park to speak to people there about the tragedy’s impact on their community, which is often described as the “first suburban Chinatown” in America.

We also hear from Min Zhou, a professor of sociology and Asian American studies at UCLA, about Monterey Park’s history and significance as a safe space for Asians and Asian Americans.

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 considerthis@npr.org.

Admit it – you’ve fantasized about what you would do if you hit the lottery and exactly how you would spend your millions – or billions.

Spending a few dollars for a chance at a massive jackpot seems irresistible. Roughly half of all Americans buy at least one lottery ticket per year, despite the nearly impossible odds of winning. But some people take it much further.

Unlike casino games and sports betting, messaging around playing the lottery can make it seem much less like actual gambling and more like a fun way to chase a dream of luxury and wealth.

But some critics feel that the lottery uses predatory practices to disproportionately target low-income communities and people of color.

Host Michel Martin talks to Jonathan D. Cohen, author of For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries In Modern America.

NPR reporter Jonathan Franklin contributed to this episode.

In China, huge numbers of people are expected to travel and gather with family this weekend for the start of the Lunar New Year, just as the country experiences a major surge in COVID infections.

NPR’s Emily Feng reports that the holiday may be bittersweet for some. We also hear reporting from NPR’s Wynne Davis, who collected recipes to help ring in the Lunar New Year.

And in Ukraine, many Orthodox Christians marked the feast of the Epiphany on Thursday by plunging into the frigid waters of the Dnipro River. NPR’s Elissa Nadworny talked to some of the brave swimmers, who said that this year the ritual felt like a needed respite from the ongoing war.

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 considerthis@npr.org.

The Justice Department is investigating the mishandling of classified documents linked to President Biden and to his predecessor, former President Trump. Both cases raise questions about how classified information should be handled.
NPR’s Greg Myre explains how classified material is handled at the White House, and how that compares to other government agencies.
And we speak to Yale law professor and former special counsel at the Pentagon Oona Hathaway, about the issue of “overclassification” of documents.
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 considerthis@npr.org.

The U.S. will hit its borrowing limit on Thursday, according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and her department will need to take “extraordinary measures” to avoid default.

That means the clock is ticking for Congress to take action to raise the debt ceiling. For the moment, though, Democrats and Republicans are in a staring match.

House Republicans say they won’t raise the limit without significant spending cuts. The White House says it won’t negotiate over it.

Juana Summers talks with two people who’ve been here before: Jason Furman, who was an economic advisor to then-President Obama during the 2011 debt ceiling stalemate, and Rohit Kumar, who was then a top aide to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

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 considerthis@npr.org.

If you could change one thing in your life to become a happier person — like your income, a job, your relationships or your health — what would make the biggest difference?

That’s the question Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Robert Waldinger has been attempting to answer through decades of research. He’s the director of “the world’s longest-running scientific study of happiness,” and he spoke with Ari Shapiro about the factor that appears to make the biggest difference in people’s lives.

Waldinger is a co-author of The Good Life: Lessons from the world’s longest scientific study of happiness.

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 considerthis@npr.org.

The soccer world was shocked by the death of renowned U.S. soccer journalist Grant Wahl at the World Cup in Qatar. Then came the conspiracy theories claiming his death was caused by the COVID vaccine.

Wahl died from an aortic aneurysm. His wife, epidemiologist Dr. Céline Gounder, gave multiple interviews and released Wahl’s autopsy results to combat the disinformation.

We ask Gounder about her decision to speak out about her husband’s death, and about his legacy.

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 considerthis@npr.org.

The start of a new year can push us to think about how we take care of ourselves – our bodies or our minds. And for some people that can mean seeking help for mental health issues like depression and anxiety.

In some ways, being open about pursuing treatment for mental health concerns is becoming more commonplace. But for men who are socialized not to express vulnerability and keep emotions in check, seeking therapy may feel taboo.

Black men must also contend with the long history of neglect and abuse that has influenced how generations of African-Americans feel about health services, a lack of Black mental health professionals, and the understanding that shielding emotions are a way to face the pressures and dangers of racism.

Host Michel Martins talks with writer Damon Young, author of What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays, and psychologist Earl Turner of Pepperdine University, on making therapy more accessible for Black men.

This is a pivotal moment in the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian forces continue to have the upper hand on the battlefield, but there are real questions about what comes next and what an acceptable end to this war could look like.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmyrto Kuleba provides his assessment on the state of the war and the path ahead.
And former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice argues for a dramatic increase in military aid to Ukraine.
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 considerthis@npr.org.

People sometimes object when Aubrey Gordon describes herself as fat. It’s not that they’re disputing her size, she says. Rather, they’re acting out on their assumptions about what it means to be a fat person.

Gordon is the author of “‘You Just Need To Lose Weight’ and 19 other Myths about Fat People.” In the book, she explores and debunks pervasive societal myths about fat people.

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 considerthis@npr.org.