Consider This from NPR

Consider This from NPR

Six days a week, from Monday through Saturday, the hosts of NPR's All Things Considered help you make sense of a major news story and what it means for you, in 15 minutes. In participating regions on weekdays, you'll also hear from local journalists about what's happening in your community.

Episodes

September 21, 2023 10 mins
New York City has become an unlikely battleground for migrant rights.

The city, like others, has struggled to deal with the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants - bussed in from Republican-led states like Texas and Florida.

Amid rising pressure to do something to alleviate this problem, the Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it was granting Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, to nearly a half mi...
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On Tuesday, five Americans detained for years in Iran stepped off a plane back onto US soil.

They were released in the US-Iran prisoner swap that also saw five Iranians freed and the US agreeing to 6 billion dollars of Iranian oil money being unfrozen. Per the deal, Iran is supposed to spend the money only on humanitarian goods like food and medicine.

Among the five freed Americans: Siamak Namazi. The longest-hel...
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The state of California has filed a massive lawsuit against oil companies.

The charge is that oil companies knew they were causing climate change, and lied to cover it up. And now, California is suing for damages.

The state is suing to force fossil fuel companies to help fund recovery efforts related to California's extreme weather related events — floods, fire, dangerous heat --which have been made more common...
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On Monday, five Americans who were imprisoned in Iran, stepped off a plane in Doha, Qatar. They were freed as part of a prisoner exchange deal between the U.S. and Iran.

Despite the happy news, the Biden administration is facing a lot of criticism for this deal, which also gave Iran access to about $6 billion of its oil revenue - money that had been frozen under sanctions targeting the government in Tehran.

The d...
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September 17, 2023 13 mins
Since becoming Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy has faced the constant threat that members of the right wing of his own Republican Party could move to oust him from power.

And now, many view his launch of an impeachment inquiry into President Biden as a political move to protect his flank.

Host Scott Detrow speaks with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich about McCarthy's political dile...
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If you're over a certain age and you love movies, when you think "movie critic", you probably picture Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert and their popular TV shows. Their iconic "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" move made it clear what each of them thought about a film.

In some ways, the movie review website Rotten Tomatoes is the opposite of Siskel and Ebert. Their viewers depended on the insights of two individuals that they trus...
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It can be hard to see how big government policies have a direct effect on an individual's experience. But it was easy to measure the difference made by the expanded child tax credit.

Giving more money to low-income families with children had a big impact. After the expanded child tax credit took effect, child poverty hit a record low of 5.2% a year ago.

But less than a year later, Congress let it expire. New ce...
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The president of the United Auto Workers says the union is planning to carry out sudden, strategic and partial strikes at plants should contract talks with Detroit's Big Three automakers fail ahead of a contract deadline on Thursday night.

UAW President Shawn Fain also held out the possibility of an all-out strike in the future of the nearly 150,000 union members.

In addition to concerns over pay, workers are worr...
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September 12, 2023 10 mins
Right now it seems like people all around us are testing positive for COVID. But for the most part, they are not getting seriously ill.

The Food and Drug Administration just approved a new booster.

And on Tuesday advisers to the CDC recommended it for everyone six months and older.

With a new variant and a new booster, how should we think about the pandemic in this moment?

Email us at consider...
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When North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2019, both countries were in a different position. Russia had yet to invade Ukraine.

Four years later, Russia is trying to secure weapons from North Korea. The two leaders are expected to meet this month to discuss a deal.

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Jean Lee, the former Pyongyang bureau chief for the Associated Press, and Georgeto...
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The National Football League's regular season is finally underway. And for loyal fans who have been devouring all the news of their favorite teams, it couldn't have come soon enough.

But even if you're just a casual viewer of football, or really any network television program, you've probably seen the star-studded ads for a related business: sports betting.

The league's partnership with major sports betting sites ...
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The Endangered Species Act turns 50 this year.

The landmark law has been successful for decades at stopping extinctions of several plants and animals.

Recovering endangered or threatened species to the point where they no longer need federal protection has been more difficult because of climate change.

NPR's Nathan Rott speaks with Martha Williams, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about the...
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The writers and actors strikes have been grinding on for months with no end in sight. Many on the picket lines are struggling to pay for basics.

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks to Fran Drescher about what it's going to take to end the strikes. Drescher's the president of SAG-AFTRA, which represents the actors on strike.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
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Giant machines sucking carbon dioxide out of the air to fight climate change sounds like science fiction, but it's close to becoming a reality, with billions of dollars of support from the U.S. government.

And a key player in this growing industry is a U.S. oil company, Occidental Petroleum.

With a major petroleum company deploying this technology, it begs the question, is it meant to save the planet or the oil i...
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September 5, 2023 10 mins
Google was founded 25 years ago by two Stanford PhD students, Larry Page and Sergei Brin.

The company went on to shape the internet and now, after a quarter century, finds itself at a turning point. With the rise of AI and social media platforms like TikTok, its continued dominance is not assured.

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks to Nilay Patel, editor-in-chief of The Verge, about Google's legacy and what the future hold...
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September 4, 2023 9 mins
It's been over three years since the pandemic started and changed the way millions of Americans work.

The possibilities of remote work gave a new kind of freedom to many workers. But as more and more companies demand employees return to the office, is the work from home era coming to an end?

Host Scott Detrow speaks with Anne Helen Petersen, culture writer and the author of Out of Office, about the future of remo...
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September 3, 2023 11 mins
After three and a half years, the pause on federal student loan payments is coming to an end. Getting more than 40 million borrowers back into repayment will be an enormous challenge, especially because many students who graduated when the pause was already in place have never made a payment.

We put borrowers' questions to two experts: NPR Education correspondent Cory Turner, and Carolina Rodriguez, director of the Educati...
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September 1, 2023 13 mins
Hundreds of towns, cities and counties across the country impose curfews on young people.

On September 1st a curfew went into effect in seven neighborhoods across the District of Columbia that will affect those aged 17 and under.

Like many other cities, the nation's capital has seen an increase in violent crime. And some of the most shocking crimes have been committed by young people.

Teens as young as...
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For the second time this summer the top Republican in the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, abruptly went silent at a news conference.

He was about to answer a question from a reporter when he suddenly froze up. He seemed unable to speak. An aide then stepped in, trying to keep things moving along.

The senator's silences have raised concerns about his mental fitness – and larger questions about an aging C...
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When people find themselves in the path of a hurricane they are faced with the question: should they evacuate or not? Who makes that call and how?

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with former FEMA administrator Craig Fugate about the decision-making process behind evacuation orders and why people should heed them ahead of hurricanes making landfall.
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