Consider This from NPR

A new report from U.S. government watchdog SIGAR gives us the fullest accounting yet of U.S. efforts to rebuild Afghanistan.

In short, they call it "a two-decade long effort fraught with waste.”

Each week, Consider This hosts interview newsmakers, experts, and artists for NPR — conversations we don’t always have time to share fully in the podcast or on the radio. So every other wee...

2025 has proved that artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping online reality and that the “slop” is here to stay. 

NPR’s Geoff Brumfiel and Shannon Bond have spent much of the year rolling around in that slop and join host Scott Detrow to break down some of the highlights and how to sort the real from the fake.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Co...

Rob Reiner spent his life trying to fix what he saw as America’s shortcomings. In an interview shortly before his death he explained why he was optimistic America could be better.

The actor and director was found dead on Sunday along with his wife Michelle Singer Reiner.

Their son has been charged with their murders.

And those tributes – they’ve centered on Reiner's ...

The Trump administration is ramping up pressure on Venezuela and its leader.  What is the ultimate goal?

President Trump says he’s imposing a ban on all ‘sanctioned’ oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.

Venezuela’s government is calling this an ‘outrageous threat’ intended to rob the country of its oil wealth. For sponsor-free episode...

Tensions between Venezuela and the U.S. have been growing over the past few months. And last Wednesday, the pressure point was oil. 

The U.S. government seized a tanker it says was filled with illegal oil headed to the black market, in violation of sanctions.

The seizure was an unprecedented move. And it represents an escalation in the standoff between the two countries. In rece...

On Sunday, during a celebration for the first day of Hanukkah, a father and son opened fire on Bondi Beach near Sydney. Killing or wounding dozens of people. 

Officials are calling it a terrorist incident. Even though the Jewish community in Australia is small, with just over 115,000 people in a country of more than 25 million, antisemitism is a ...

Venezuelan leader and activist Maria Corina Machado’s perilous journey to Oslo made headlines this week, but that was just the start of a new phase of international campaign to bring pressure on the Nicolas Maduro regime in her home country. NPR’s Miles Parks speaks with Ana Corina Sosa, Machado’s daughter, who accepted the Nobel Peace prize on her mother’s behalf, and talked about the future of Venezuela.

The Trump administration is leaning into the once fringe idea of "reverse migration." 

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

This episode was produced by Kathryn Fink and Brianna Scott.

It was edited by Andrew Sussman, Justine Kenin and Courtney Dornin...

The Catholic Church is wading into a deeply partisan issue. The Archbishop of Chicago weighs in.

This fall, the Trump administration launched Operation Midway Blitz – an aggressive immigration crackdown campaign in Chicago.

It was met with outcry from many communities around the city including the Catholic Church, and that sentiment goes all the way to the very top of the Church with Pope Leo calli...

In September, the Trump administration began a series of strikes targeting what U.S. officials call "narcoterrorists" in small vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. 

Those strikes are ongoing and have killed more than 80 people. Then, in October, Venezuelan opposition leader M...

There's a growing fight in Hollywood over some of the biggest characters on screen, like Tony Soprano, Daenerys Targaryen and Harry Potter. All feature in shows and films owned by Warner Brothers Discovery, and now two companies are fighting to get a piece of the action. 

First, on Friday, Netflix struck an $83 billion deal to acquire Warner Brothers Studios and HBO. Then, just days later, Paramou...

New research from the Aspen Economic Strategy Group argues that the subsidies-or-no-subsidies approach to the Affordable Care Act debate is too narrow. Co-author of the paper 'Coverage isn't Care: An Abundance Agenda for Medicaid' Professor Craig Garthwaite tells NPR’s Miles Parks that solutions to make healthcare both more efficient and more affordable at scale are right in front of us.