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National

- Kirk's alleged shooter faces death penalty. And, Pritzker concerned for 2026 elections: 2025 Sep 17

- After a wave of horrific shootings, gun violence trends put recent attacks in context: 2025 Sep 17

- When her car ran out of gas, help came from a homeless encampment: 2025 Sep 17

- Beyond 'draining the swamp': How Trump is knocking down checks on presidential power: 2025 Sep 17

- What we know about the accused shooter of Charlie Kirk: 2025 Sep 16

UP FIRST NEWSLETTER | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2025 • 7:09 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Kirk's alleged shooter faces death penalty. And, Pritzker concerned for 2026 elections

By Brittney Melton

Good morning. You're reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day.

Today's top stories

Utah state prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, who was charged yesterday with aggravated murder in the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Authorities also charged Robinson with firearm counts and multiple obstruction-of-justice charges. The suspect is accused of trying to dispose of the clothes he allegedly wore during the shooting, telling his roommate to delete incriminating messages and not cooperate with investigators working on the case.

- 🎧 Before his parents convinced him to turn himself in, Robinson implied to them that he'd rather take his own life than go to jail, according to prosecutors. Robinson wore a suicide prevention smock to his first court appearance since he was taken into custody, which he attended remotely. NPR's Tovia Smith tells Up First that the suspect showed no emotion as the judge read the charges against him. A text exchange between Robinson and his roommate appears to show the accused confessing to the deadly shooting. The roommate doesn't appear to have any advance knowledge of the shooting. Prosecutors say Robinson's parents reported that their son recently shifted politically to the left and began focusing on trans rights after he started dating his roommate, who authorities say is a biological male transitioning to female.

- ➡️ Are politically motivated attacks posing a bigger threat in the U.S.? Experts analyzing gun violence unpack the data and trends.

President Trump is in the U.K. for his second state visit to the country. He is the first U.S. president to receive the honor of a second large ceremonial visit. The trip will include two parts: spending time with the royal family and working on foreign policy. Trump is expected today to take a carriage ride around the Windsor Castle grounds and attend a banquet with the king and queen.

- 🎧 Tomorrow, the policy-focused portion of the trip will begin with a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The meeting isn't completely separate from today's list of events, says NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. A U.K. foreign policy expert informed Kurtzleben that the idea is to use Trump's love of the monarchy to leverage the president on other issues, including U.S. companies investing in the U.K. Starmer and Trump could also talk about how European leaders want the president to give more support to Ukraine in the war against Russia.

FBI Director Kash Patel will face questioning today from the House Judiciary Committee. This comes a day after a combative hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, during which Patel defended his leadership of the nation's premier law enforcement agency. Patel is facing criticism for the usage of his social media account to announce inaccurate information about Kirk's murder, his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case and for the firings of veteran agents.

- 🎧 The Senate hearing lasted more than four hours and had "two starkly different messages," according to NPR's Elena Moore. Democrats spoke on reasons why they feel Patel isn't fit for the job, pointing to his missteps. Republicans mostly stayed in Patel's corner and focused on the issue of political violence. GOP lawmakers alleged that the far left is inciting a broader culture of political violence. However, Democrats opposed the narrative as they have also been targets in recent acts.

Picture show

Temperatures in Europe are increasing at twice the average global rate, speeding up glacial melts and threatening the continent's largest rivers. The glaciers in the Swiss Alps have already lost nearly two-thirds of their ice over the past century. If the current climate continues, it is possible that by 2100 you "wouldn't find any ice anymore," says Swiss glaciologist Daniel Farinotti. The water that glaciers have stored for centuries flows down to Europe's biggest rivers during the hot and dry summer months, replacing rainwater and snowmelt from the spring. A glacier in the Swiss Alps is the source for several rivers, including the Rhône, the Rhine, the Danube and the Po. Without those masses of ice, the rivers will be forever altered. See photos and read more about the important work being done to track the rapid melt.

From our hosts

by Steve Inskeep, Morning Edition and Up First host

Trump on Monday said he intended to send National Guard troops to Memphis as part of what he says is an attack on crime. Trump added that he still hopes to send troops to Chicago, though it's unclear how he can legally do so. The news gives fresh relevance to our recent interview with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who has declined to ask for the military.

This interview with Pritzker was an opportunity to see him respond to an immigration enforcement surge in Chicago — and to hear from one of the governors who is thinking of a run for president.

Democrats have talked of Pritzker as a possible candidate since at least 2022-2023, when he was seen as a possible alternative to President Joe Biden, should Biden drop out. Pritzker was a governor of a big state and a billionaire, which would make it possible for him to jump-start the financing for a campaign.

"Oh, I had no aim or desire. I didn't take it seriously, other than I'm flattered," he told me. When Biden at last did drop out in 2024, it was too late for a primary and Pritzker supported Kamala Harris, the president's choice.

Will the 2028 campaign be different? Pritzker hasn't said, but indicated that he feels ready. "There are things that governors will learn in their executive functions and things that I came into office understanding, having executive positions in the private sector, that are very helpful in running any kind of organization, especially the largest organization that exists in the United States."

He's one of several governors — along with California's Gavin Newsom, Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer, and Kentucky's Andy Beshear — who may see an opening. Democrats and Republicans alike will be scanning interviews like ours for relevant information.

3 things to know before you go

1. Have you ever wanted your coffee drinking experience to be a little more special? NPR's Word of the Week, "zarf," could help. They are devices dating back to the Ottoman Empire that people used to hold the hot drinks.

2. Movie star and film visionary Robert Redford died at his home in Utah yesterday at 89. He was renowned for his roles in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and All The President's Men.

3. The Trump administration has continued to ramp up ICE operations throughout the country. NPR wants to hear from people whose lives have been altered by the change. Fill out this form, and your experience could be featured in Morning Edition.

This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/g-s1-89178

NATIONAL | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2025 • 5:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

After a wave of horrific shootings, gun violence trends put recent attacks in context

By Juliana Kim

On a visceral level, it feels far too common.

A week ago, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated while speaking at a college in Utah. That same day, a student opened fire at a Colorado high school, critically wounding two peers. Just two weeks earlier, a mass shooting at a Minnesota Catholic church killed two children and injured 21 others.

Once again, a series of horrific, high-profile shootings has gripped the country and brought national focus to the issue of gun violence, especially as it relates to school safety and politically motivated attacks.

NPR spoke with experts on mass shootings, political violence and school attacks about the data, trends and context to better understand this moment.

Here's what to know.

Are mass shootings becoming more frequent?

There's no universal definition for a mass shooting, so data can vary based on the number of victims killed or injured, where the shooting took place, and whether it was related to gang activity or terrorism.

For example, the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, a nonpartisan think tank, only tracks shootings that occur in public or populated places, involve at least two victims (injured or killed), and excludes incidents related to gang violence or terrorist activity. By its definition, there have been 12 mass shootings in 2025.

Meanwhile, the Gun Violence Archive — which counts all instances in which four or more people were shot (injuries and deaths), not including the shooter, and regardless of location — reported over 300 mass shootings this year.

Still, by most standards, mass shootings are more frequent now than they were 50 years ago, according to Garen Wintemute, director of the  Centers for Violence Prevention at the University of California, Davis. At the same time, mass shooting deaths represent only a tiny fraction of people killed by gun violence. Wintemute said that most also don't resemble the attacks that dominate national headlines.

" Most mass shootings are not events that generate a lot of publicity," he said. " Most mass shootings have some connection to domestic violence."

Everytown for Gun Safety, an advocacy group that uses data from the Gun Violence Archive, found that in 46% of mass shootings from 2015 through 2022, "the perpetrator shot a current or former intimate partner or family member."

What about school shootings?

Gun-related incidents on school grounds have surged since the pandemic, according to David Riedman, a researcher who tracks all cases in which a gun is fired, brandished or in which a bullet hits K-12 school property. His K-12 School Shooting Database shows that there have been more than 160 incidents so far this year.

Before 2021, the number of instances had not surpassed 124. But by 2023, that figure climbed to 351. While the recent attack at Evergreen High School in Colorado is front of mind, Riedman said most shootings are the result of an escalated dispute.

" That really escalated in the late 2010s and then became an even bigger problem post-COVID during the return of both students and community members to the campuses," he said.

At large, only a small share of K-12 schools report gun-related instances each year, according to Riedman. Among school incidents, part of the issue is that some students live in homes where firearms are easily accessible or not properly secured, he said.

"There are students arrested with guns at schools just about every single day, and they don't have a plan to shoot anyone," Riedman said. "They just carry the gun with them often for either the prestige of having it or for protection because they themselves fear being victimized."

Are politically motivated attacks becoming a bigger threat in the U.S.?

Political violence has been rising over the past decade, according to terrorism and gun violence experts. Joshua Horwitz, the co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, said while the issue has existed throughout American history, the recent surge is significant.

"Just in the last 12 months we've seen terrible, terrible examples of political violence," he said. " We've just seen a lot more intimidation lately."

There are a few ways to measure this, but one indicator comes from the U.S. Capitol Police. In 2024, the agency investigated over 9,400 "concerning statements and direct threats" against members of Congress — more than twice the number in 2017.

In a study published on Monday, Wintemute of UC Davis found that while most Americans reject political violence, those who hold harmful beliefs — such as racism, hostile sexism, homonegativity, transphobia, xenophobia, antisemitism, or Islamophobia — are also more likely than others to believe that political violence is justifiable. Support for political violence was even higher among individuals who harbored multiple hateful phobias, according to his survey of over 9,300 adults.

But Wintemute's research also suggests there are small steps that can help curb political violence. In a survey conducted last year, a small number of respondents said they would participate if a civil war broke out. Yet, of that group, about 45% said they would abandon that position if urged by family members.

"  We just need to make sure that those of us who reject it speak as loudly as do those who support it," he added.

How widespread is the issue of gun violence?

More than 46,000 people died from gun-related injuries in 2023, according to an analysis by Pew Research Center using the latest available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gun homicides have declined since 2021, while suicides continue to make up a majority of gun deaths, Pew Research found. But for many Americans, gun violence may hit closer to home than many people expect.

In 2023, Liz Hamel and her team at KFF, a health research group, conducted a survey of more than 1,200 adults across the country about their experiences with gun-related incidents. The survey found that 1 in 5 respondents said they have personally been threatened with a gun, while nearly 1 in 6 said they have personally witnessed a person get shot. Worries about gun violence also affected Black and Hispanic respondents disproportionately.

"We often see national attention to the issue of gun violence in the wake of high-profile events," Hamel said. "What our polling really shows is that experiences with gun-related incidents are more common than you might think among the U.S. population."

In the survey, 84% of all participants said they have taken at least one precaution to protect themselves against gun violence. The most common step was speaking to loved ones about gun safety. But about a third said they have avoided large crowds or big events. Meanwhile, 3 out of 10 said they have purchased a firearm to protect themselves or their family from gun violence.

Of the people who have a gun in their home, nearly half of participants said a firearm was stored in an unlocked location and more than one-third said a gun was stored loaded. More than half said at least one gun is stored in the same location as the ammunition. Those results suggest the need for more efforts to teach the public about safe gun storage practices, according to Hamel.

"  We do see opportunities for improved awareness around gun safety," she said.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5542241

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HERE TO HELP | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2025 • 5:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

When her car ran out of gas, help came from a homeless encampment

By Laura Kwerel

Heard on All Things Considered

This story is part of the My Unsung Hero series, from the Hidden Brain team. It features stories of people whose kindness left a lasting impression on someone else.

Juli Cobb, a creative arts teacher in Albuquerque, N.M., was driving home from work one day this year when she ran out of gas. Her car sputtered to a stop in the middle of the road near a crowded homeless encampment under the freeway.

"I was sitting there so vulnerable, and I was anxious," Cobb said. "But this man ran up to me from under the bridge and asked me if I needed help."

She explained what had happened. He told her he would try to help, but first he needed to get her car out of the road.

"He single-handedly tried to push me," Cobb recalled. "And I couldn't unlock the steering and it wasn't moving. Then two other men ran over to help and again [asked], 'Can we help you?' and 'What's going on?'"

One man, careful not to alarm her, asked whether he could reach through the window to check the steering column. She agreed, and he managed to unlock it.

As this was happening, cars swerved by, trying not to hit them. At one point, the group directed a tractor trailer to maneuver around her car.

Eventually, the three men were able to move her car out of the road.

The first man — the one who had tried to push her car alone — offered to fetch gas with his fuel can. She gave him some money, and he set off on his bike.

Cobb was grateful but shaken, and she just wanted to get home. Then one of the men introduced himself as Dominic.

"He said, 'This is a dangerous place. There are some people that would take advantage of this situation. Have you called anybody?'" Cobb remembered.

"I said, 'I'm calling my daughter right now.' And he said, 'I will stay here with you.'"

And he did. Cobb never had to step out of her car. Soon the man on his bike returned with gas and poured it into her tank, and she got the car started. Not long after, Cobb was home. But the generosity of the three men has stayed with her.

"That these men — who didn't ask for anything and really are on the street and trying to survive, don't know where their next meal is coming from probably — just ran over to help. So, that was pretty impactful on me."

My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.

Transcript

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Time now for "My Unsung Hero," our series from the team at the Hidden Brain podcast. "My Unsung Hero" tells the stories of people whose kindness left a lasting impression on someone else. Today's story comes from Juli Cobb of Albuquerque, New Mexico. One afternoon, Cobb was driving home from work when she ran out of gas. Her car sputtered to a stop in the middle of the road near a crowded homeless encampment under the freeway.

JULI COBB: I was sitting there so vulnerable, and I was anxious. But this man ran by, ran up to me from under the bridge and asked me if I needed help. And I said, I think I've run out of gas. And he said, well, first, we need to get you out of the road. And so he single-handedly tried to push me. And I couldn't unlock the steering, and it wasn't moving. And so then two other men ran over to help. And again, can we help you? And what's going on? And so the three of them were able to get me off the side of the road. And as they were trying to do that, they had to maneuver a big semi around me, which they did.

And the first man said, I can get you some gas. I have a gas can. And he ran off and he got his bicycle. And one of the men that had run up introduced himself as Dominic (ph), and he said, this is a dangerous place. You know, there are some people that would take advantage of this situation. Have you called anybody? And I said, I'm calling my daughter right now. And he said, I will stay here with you until she gets here. And then the first man came back with his bike and his gas can and put gas in my car. And as that was happening, traffic is going by, and I had this striking realization that these men - who didn't ask for anything and really are on the street and trying to survive, don't know where their next meal is coming from, probably - just ran over to help. So that was pretty impactful on me.

SHAPIRO: Juli Cobb lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. You can find more stories of unsung heroes and learn how to submit your own at hiddenbrain.org.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5542002

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POLITICS | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2025 • 5:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Beyond 'draining the swamp': How Trump is knocking down checks on presidential power

By Andrea Hsu, Carrie Johnson

It was past Cathy Harris' bedtime when an email arrived in her inbox on February 10 from someone in the presidential personnel office. She opened it the following morning. It was brief and to the point.

"Thank you for your service. You know, you're fired, basically," Harris said, summarizing the missive.

President Trump was attempting to remove Harris from her seat on the Merit Systems Protection Board, an independent, quasi-judicial agency that hears federal employees' appeals of personnel actions taken by the government. The email came despite the fact that Harris' term was not set to expire until 2028, and despite a federal law that dictates board members can only be fired for cause, such as inefficiency, malfeasance or neglect of duty.

"It was so obviously against the law," said Harris, an appointee to the board of former President Joe Biden.

She sued the Trump administration and was briefly reinstated — twice. But the Trump administration appealed, and in late May, the Supreme Court handed the administration a win, issuing an emergency order allowing her firing to stand while litigation continues.

Eight months into his second term, it's clear that Trump is not just draining the swamp, firing bureaucrats he sees as problematic. He's upending entire systems and knocking down checks on presidential power.

Along the way, his administration has racked up more than 300 lawsuits, a number of which will end up at the Supreme Court. A decisive legal victory for Trump in a case like Harris' could bring monumental change to government, beyond anything the country has seen in more than a century.

A firing at a 'good government' agency

That Trump chose to fire a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board is significant. The agency, little-known outside the government, was created by Congress as part of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 to ensure that federal employees are protected against abuses by agency management.

"We are one of a few agencies that I call the good government agencies," said Harris, who, prior to serving as a board member, spent more than 20 years at a law firm representing both federal employees and federal agencies before the board.

The board is staffed by administrative judges, who hear cases, and headed by three board members, who act as appellate judges. The board members are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate to serve seven-year terms. No more than two of them can be from the same political party, and they can only be fired for cause, according to rules set by Congress.

Given this setup, the Merit Systems Protection Board has long been referred to as an independent agency, existing within the executive branch but with some degree of independence from the White House. Now that's in question.

Harris said her firing doesn't send a good signal to those bringing cases before the board.

"If you know that the president can fire the board members at any time for no reason at all, is that going to impact the board members' decision-making?" she said. "I hope it wouldn't, but I think it could."

The Supreme Court's views on presidential power

Harris' case is one of a number of cases currently in litigation that pose a key question: How much say does the President have over staffing within the executive branch?

The Supreme Court's conservative majority provided a window into its present thinking on the matter, writing in an emergency order in Harris' case: "Because the Constitution vests the executive power in the President, see Art. II, §1, cl. 1, he may remove without cause executive officers who exercise that power on his behalf, subject to narrow exceptions."

While this decision is not the final word on the matter, lawyers close to the Trump administration are confident the president will prevail.

"There's a, I think, quite a strong Article II argument that the president has the authority to remove anybody who wields basically any modicum of authority," said James Burnham, an attorney who served in the first Trump administration and as general counsel for Trump's Department of Government Efficiency until June.

"Anyone who is wielding his power, who's wielding derivative executive power that comes from the president, needs to be removable at will, because if they have for-cause protections, then they basically cannot be fully and properly supervised," he said.

Harris resoundingly rejected this argument.

"Our country is built on a separation of powers, a balance of powers, and when you give the president unfettered power, you're taking away the power from Congress. Congress put me in this job," she said. "The president can pick his lawyers, but he can't pick who's going to judge cases."

A president willing to exert his authority

Under the logic that the Trump administration is pushing in court, only those who do not exercise federal power over regulating the public in any meaningful way could permissibly have removal protections, said Burnham.

"One example would be very low level people — the receptionist in the U.S. Attorney's Office," he said.

Burnham acknowledged that this view represents a departure from the past.

"I don't know that you've had past presidents that were as willing to exert their authority in this way," he said, including Trump himself in his first term.

Burnham said something changed in the four years after Trump first left the White House: the fact that the Biden administration tried to put Trump in prison.

Federal prosecutors brought two separate criminal cases against Trump, for mishandling classified documents in Florida and trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Washington, D.C.

Both those cases have been dropped, but Trump has not forgotten them.

This year, soon after Trump took office, the Justice Department moved to fire government attorneys and other staff members involved in the prosecutions of the former president.

A question of independence

Trump's firings have also extended to watchdogs known as inspectors general, who investigate reports of waste, fraud and abuse within their agencies, as well as heads of independent agencies beyond the Merit Systems Protection Board, including the Federal Trade Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the National Labor Relations Board.

Asked whether these agencies should no longer be called independent if Trump is allowed to fire their members for any reason, Burnham said he doesn't think they've ever been independent.

"The removal protections have been unconstitutional from the beginning," he said.

This question — whether Trump can in fact remove all these people — is likely going to get a full hearing before the Supreme Court in the coming months. The decisions the court issued so far are emergency stays, meant to be temporary.

But even if the Supreme Court goes another way once it hears arguments in the cases, it's hard to see how you put things back together, now that so many people have been removed, the players on both sides said.

"I think the president would say that that's a virtue," said Burnham. "But I also think that the administration is extremely likely to prevail at the Supreme Court on all the issues where they've issued stays so far."

The Office of Special Counsel is independent no more

Already, even without a Supreme Court decision, one watchdog agency has lost its independence.

The Office of Special Counsel, a role created by Congress nearly 50 years ago alongside the Merit Systems Protection Board, investigates claims about wrongdoing in the government, including whistleblower complaints.

The Office of Special Counsel is a separate entity from the special counsels appointed by the Justice Department.

Hampton Dellinger, who was appointed Special Counsel by Biden and confirmed by the Senate in 2024, was investigating the Trump administration's mass firings of probationary employees when Trump fired him on February 7.

With four years left in his term, Dellinger sued to get his job back and was briefly reinstated by a lower court. Shortly thereafter, an appeals court lifted that reinstatement order, citing a Supreme Court decision that found the president has power over agencies like his that are led by one person rather than a bipartisan board.

Rather than fight on from the sidelines, Dellinger ended his legal battle.

Since then, the office has been led by acting Special Counsels, first the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins and now the U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

"At the end of the day, that office is run by a single person. That was the decision by Congress. And that person now is at the beck and call of the president of the United States," said Dellinger. "So it can no longer be called independent, and I don't believe … it can still be considered a safe place for whistleblowers to go to."

Dellinger said it was never easy to be a whistleblower, and now it's harder than ever.

"It used to be in the past that if you were a federal employee and you broke the law, you would get fired. And now we see federal employees getting fired for following the law," he says. "That's a complete sea change."

His words come as new leaders at the Office of Special Counsel have in recent months dropped some of the cases Dellinger brought. Whistleblower protection groups say they worry their clients will not get a fair hearing.

This month, a group of fired federal workers sued the agency and Greer in his capacity as acting head, arguing he failed to protect thousands of people illegally laid off from their jobs. They say the Special Counsel is now an arm of the White House.

The White House in a statement defended Trump's authority to fire federal employees.

"As the head of the Executive Branch, President Trump has the lawful authority to remove officers exercising executive power and to make the staffing decisions necessary to successfully run the Administration," Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said.

A pivot back to a spoils system?

Over a century ago, the federal government pivoted from a spoils system, where political favoritism ruled the day, into a system that rewards merit, knowledge and experience.

The idea behind the shift is that firefighters who battle wildfires out West, for example, and air traffic controllers who survey the skies, should be hired for their skills, not their political loyalties. Same goes for Justice Department attorneys prosecuting civil rights cases and scientists reviewing new vaccines.

"The federal employee — they take an oath of office," said Raymond Limon, who spent three decades in the federal government, most of that time as an employment attorney and a human resources leader, until he retired in February. "Their loyalty, their fidelity, is to the entire American people."

Now Limon fears that basic idea is under threat, as Trump moves to consolidate his power over the executive branch and hire and fire as he sees fit.

Limon's final post in the government was as a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, where he served alongside Harris. He says what's happened to her, former Special Counsel Dellinger, and the inspectors general, is chilling.

"Authoritarianism 101, you know, is number one, go after the watchdogs," he said.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5475191

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NATIONAL | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 5:46 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

What we know about the accused shooter of Charlie Kirk

By Odette Yousef

Heard on All Things Considered

Transcript

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

We begin this hour in Utah, where authorities announced charges today against the person accused of killing the conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Tyler Robinson has been charged with six felonies, including aggravated murder. The Utah County attorney said he will seek the death penalty. NPR domestic extremism correspondent Odette Yousef has been following all of this closely and joins us now. Hi, Odette.

ODETTE YOUSEF, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.

CHANG: OK, so what more did we learn today from prosecutors?

YOUSEF: Well, Utah County attorney Jeff Gray laid out the charges and the timeline behind the attack and the investigation. And the really new information came from text messages that Robinson allegedly exchanged with his roommate. Authorities say this individual was a male transitioning to female and that they had also been Robinson's romantic partner. Authorities also say this person has been fully cooperating with the investigation.

But Gray shared information about a note that Robinson allegedly left behind for this roommate, saying, quote, "I have the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I'm going to take it." And when his roommate asked after the killing why Robinson had done it, Robinson texted, quote, "I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can't be negotiated out." Kirk, it should be noted, often spoke of his anti-trans views.

CHANG: Well, there has been so much speculation about the motive behind the shooting, so how do you think the information today from prosecutors is further shaping these assessments that people are making?

YOUSEF: So first, we have to remind everyone that right now, these are still charges. You know, Robinson will have an opportunity to defend himself in court. But many had already made up their minds about his motives last week, especially after Utah Governor Spencer Cox shared that Robinson had a romantic partner who was transitioning. Gray's remarks in announcing the charges today suggest that Robinson targeted Kirk because of the conservative activist's anti-trans views. But since the weekend, several prominent Republicans have gone further, making claims about violence in the left that are quite sweeping and without evidence.

CHANG: Like what kind of claims?

YOUSEF: Well, yesterday, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller spoke with Vice President JD Vance, who was guest hosting Charlie Kirk's podcast. And there, Miller said certain left-wing groups were behind attacks on ICE officers or had incited riots. Earlier today, we heard much the same from Republican Senator Ted Cruz in a hearing with FBI Director Kash Patel - Cruz encouraging Patel to quote, "follow the money." He stated - again, without evidence - that he believes certain funders are putting, in his words, significant money that is spreading dissension and spreading violence. He specifically focused on the Antifa movement and said he wants it designated as a terrorist organization. And he said he wants to see RICO laws amended to facilitate those investigations and prosecutions.

CHANG: I have to ask you, Odette, because you've covered political violence and extremism for a long time now, given what we know so far about this shooting of Charlie Kirk, how do you think all of this affects the overall picture in the U.S. right now?

YOUSEF: You know, for many years, it's been the consensus of analysts - and the FBI up until this year - that the most persistent and lethal threat in the U.S. has come from violent white supremacists. The data support this. Far-right actors have been behind deadly mass shootings at synagogues, Black churches, Walmarts, grocery stores and other places. If indeed the allegations bear out here, this would represent a significant escalation in violence from what's perceived as the political left.

CHANG: That is NPR domestic extremism correspondent Odette Yousef. Thank you, Odette.

YOUSEF: Thank you.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5542189

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- Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, a UN inquiry says: 2025 Sep 16

- The U.S. said it would burn $9.7 million of birth control. Its fate is still unclear: 2025 Sep 16

EUROPE | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2025 • 5:18 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Suspect in UK toddler disappearance is released after serving time in unrelated case

By The Associated Press

SEHNDE, Germany — A German national who is under investigation in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann 18 years ago was released from prison Wednesday after serving his sentence in an unrelated case, police said.

The man, who has been identified by media as Christian Brückner, had been serving a seven-year sentence that stemmed from his 2019 conviction for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal.

A car accompanied by several police vans drove out of the prison at Sehnde, near Hannover, in northern Germany, on Wednesday morning. Police confirmed that the man had left.

In June 2020, German prosecutors said the man was being investigated on suspicion of murder in connection with McCann's disappearance on May 3, 2007, from an apartment complex in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz. They said they assumed the girl was dead.

Police have since carried out more searches in Portugal. But the suspect, who has denied any involvement in her disappearance, has not been charged in the case. The investigation is not affected by his release. He also remains a suspect in an investigation into McCann's disappearance being conducted by Britain's Metropolitan Police, who say he refused their request for an interview.

His lawyer, Friedrich Fülscher, has said charges would have been filed against his client long ago if there had been sufficient evidence.

The 48-year-old spent many years in Portugal, including in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine's disappearance.

Investigators in the U.K., Portugal and Germany are still piecing together what happened on the night 3-year-old Madeleine disappeared. She was in the same room as her brother and sister — 2-year-old twins — while their parents, Kate and Gerry, had dinner with friends at a nearby restaurant.

The suspect was tried last year over several unrelated sexual offenses he was alleged to have committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017 and was acquitted in October. The presiding judge said the evidence was insufficient for a conviction, that the court heard from unreliable witnesses and that some had been influenced by media reports on the defendant.

The state court in Hildesheim has said it cannot legally disclose whether he will have to fulfill any conditions after his release. But Fülscher confirmed to regional public broadcaster NDR that his client will be required to wear an electronic foot tag, report regularly to probation services and give up his passport. German weekly Der Spiegel first reported on that decision, without naming sources.

He still faces an Oct. 27 court date in Oldenburg in northwestern Germany in a case in which he is accused of insulting a prison employee. A district court in the city sentenced him to six weeks in prison for that, but the defense has appealed.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5544096

WORD OF THE WEEK | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2025 • 5:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

What to know about zarfs, the fanciest way to drink coffee

By James Doubek

Does your favorite coffee mug have a funny pun or cool art? Or maybe an intricate ceramic design?

How about stepping things up and having some jewelry with your java?

Enter the zarf, a Turkish word meaning "envelope." It refers to decorative devices used especially during the Ottoman era to hold hot cups of coffee.

And more recently it could be a term for those ubiquitous cardboard sleeves that keep your hands from overheating. In this edition of Word of the Week, we delve into coffee's past to understand the role of the zarf.

Coffee is more than just coffee in Turkey

Coffee is a big deal in Turkey and has been for hundreds of years. The Turkish way of serving coffee has been recognized by UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency, for its cultural importance.

Coffee made its way to what is now Turkey during the Ottoman Empire, at least as far back as the 16th century.

"For the Ottomans, coffee serving was a ritual, and it was also an art form. So it wasn't just some kind of a coffee drinking ceremony. Everything from the serving, brewing — everything was part of that ritual," says Gizem Şalcıgil White, the founder of Turkish Coffee Lady coffee shops and foundation and an evangelist for Turkish coffee.

Preparing coffee the Turkish way involves grinding the beans very finely, and slowly cooking the water and coffee in a pot to create a thick layer of foam. It's served in small cups.

That's where the zarf comes in. "The zarf is actually a handle for these tiny little coffee cups," White says. "It's supposed to be functional, but at the same time is the symbol of Ottoman luxury lifestyle. It's more like, you know, a statement of rank or elegance, sophistication, because Turkish coffee is a cultural treasure for the Ottomans."

Zarfs have come in various forms, from stripped down metal to intricate floral designs, colorful enamel and carefully inlaid jewels.

Cenk Girginol, a Turkish coffee consultant and author of the book Coffee: From the Soil to the Cup, says zarfs began to be used at the end of the 17th century and beginning of the 18th century.

Zarfs were often made of metal, while the coffee cup would be made of ceramic or glass, according to the Khalili Collections art collection.

Zarfs could feature silver and gold in their construction, White says. She says Ottomans would break out the fancy zarfs for visiting ambassadors. But ordinary people could also use zarfs in their homes, Girginol says in an email.

By the 19th century, goldsmiths in Geneva were making zarfs to export, according to the Khalili Collections. Recent auctions and museum collections show zarfs that were made in France, Syria, Iran and Switzerland. A zarf in the Louvre's collection, covered in emeralds and diamonds, was owned by Abdul Hamid II, the sultan of the Ottoman Empire in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

In English, the word "zarf" appears in accounts of travelers to the Ottoman Empire in the mid-19th century, says Douglas Harper, editor of Etymonline.com.

"It's an Eastern exotic product that the Europeans don't have, but they're writing about," he says.

(Even though zarfs are often associated with Turkey, the word is of Arabic origin, according to George Berg, a professorial lecturer in Arabic studies at American University, who says "it primarily means container or vessel." Harper notes that many Arabic-speaking areas were at certain points under Ottoman rule.)

Today, you're unlikely to be served coffee in a fancy zarf even in historic coffeehouses in Istanbul, White says.

"The zarfs are considered very prestigious presentation, like you cannot just serve it to your customers as an item on your menu. There has to be a ceremony. There has to be a special occasion."

However, she does have zarfs for serving coffee in her shops in the U.S.

A zarf that's not a zarf

Zarf has never really caught on in English, except for some people "who like to show off their vocabulary," according to Harper, or the occasional crossword puzzle answer.

Still, some definitions on the internet include a disposable coffee cup sleeve under the "zarf" definition.

Jay Sorensen created the Java Jacket in Portland, Ore., in the early 1990s, a version of the now-ubiquitous cardboard coffee cup sleeve. He was the first to widely market this type of product in the U.S.

The idea came after he spilled coffee on himself. Polystyrene cups were banned in Portland, he says, and coffee was being served in paper cups.

"I went through one of the first gourmet drive-throughs in Portland called Coffee People, and they used to hand it to you with napkins. And I was driving a '64 Ford pickup, a three speed on the column, and I dropped the cup of coffee in my lap and burnt myself. It wasn't severe, but that got me thinking," he says.

He originally toyed with the idea of a double-walled cup before settling on the Java Jacket.

The company grew, reaching close to a billion units sold in 2016, he says.

These days they are facing more challenges. Their patent expired a decade ago and companies from Asia and Eastern Europe are now "flooding the market."

And iced coffee is getting more popular.

"It used to be, cold drinks were basically a summertime phenomena," Sorensen says. "But now if you look at the statistics, cold has taken up a pretty big portion of all coffee drinks year-round now. So that hurts."

But back to zarfs. Sorensen says someone mentioned the word to him maybe 30 years ago.

"I didn't pay much attention to it, but then it's popped up many times since then. … I always just thought of it as a word for a coffee holder that, you know, somebody used in Islam hundreds of years ago."

White is on the same page as far as zarfs go. Asked if she would ever call a cardboard sleeve a zarf, she says, "I would not."

"It has a lot of meaning, it's not just, you know, a functional holder," she says. "It's part of the ritual" of Turkish coffee.

Harper says zarf is "an old word, but a very specialized old word. And the transfer of it to a modern sort of commercial product, people who are familiar with the old thing would sort of roll their eyes at that. And people who aren't would say, 'That's cool, we need a word for that.'"

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5541377

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WORLD | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2025 • 4:49 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Horse-drawn carriages and a royal salute for Trump's unprecedented second state visit

By Lauren Frayer, Danielle Kurtzleben

Heard on Morning Edition

WINDSOR, England / LONDON – President Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrived at Windsor Castle on Wednesday for a state visit the British government is using to bolster the trade and security relationship between the two countries.

Prince William and Princess Catherine greeted the president and first lady, joining them on a procession around the Windsor Castle grounds featuring dozens of horses and gilded carriages. Trump and King Charles then inspected the guard of honor.

The spectacle comes ahead of a day to be spent handling policy matters, but the two parts of the trip go hand in hand as the British government leverages Trump's admiration for the monarchy as it tries to influence him on policy around topics including trade and Ukraine.

Talking to reporters ahead of the trip yesterday, Trump expressed excitement about the visit, saying it would be a "beautiful event." He has long been fascinated by the royal family, telling interviewers over the years how his mother loved Queen Elizabeth.

Earlier this year, when Trump met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Scotland, he called King Charles "a great guy – a great person" and said he looked forward to the state visit. "I hate to say, but nobody does it like you people in terms of the pomp and ceremony," Trump said.

On Thursday, Trump is slated to head to Chequers, the prime minister's country residence, to meet with Starmer. They are expected to sign what the countries are calling a Tech Prosperity Deal. The U.K. government announced that several U.S.-based tech companies, including NVIDIA, Microsoft and Google, will be investing more than $40 billion in the U.K.

The leaders are expected to talk about Russia-Ukraine policy. There has been no movement on a peace deal since Starmer and other European leaders visited the White House earlier this year to pressure Trump to assist Ukraine more. In recent days, Trump has said that it's up to NATO allies to first stop buying Russian oil.

Not everyone is giving Trump a warm welcome. Protests began even before Trump arrived in the U.K. and polls show more than 60% of Britons have an unfavorable view of Trump.

Earlier this week, on the lawn outside Windsor Castle, protesters unfurled a giant photo of Trump and the late Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and sex offender. Four people were arrested after videos of Trump and Epstein were projected onto the outer walls of Windsor Castle. Demonstrators were also expected to march in Windsor and London.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5543349

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WORLD | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 5:20 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

The far-right and what it means to be British

By Mary Louise Kelly, Kathryn Fink, Courtney Dorning

Heard on All Things Considered

Transcript

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

One of the many Brits watching that big march here in London over the weekend was Clive Lewis. He is a Labour MP - member of parliament. He's spent a lot of time thinking about what it means to be British, what it means to wave the Union Jack having grown up in Northampton with an English mother and a father from Grenada in the Caribbean. Clive Lewis, welcome.

CLIVE LEWIS: Hello. Lovely to be here.

KELLY: What was top of mind for you as you watched - I don't know, I saw estimates of some 150,000 people on the streets of London for a march organized by the hard-right activist Tommy Robinson?

LEWIS: I think, like many other people, I expected maybe a smaller demonstration of what you would call the hardcore - the kind of hardened Tommy Robinson supporters.

KELLY: And it was not a small crowd at all. It was, as I said...

LEWIS: Oh, it turned out to...

KELLY: ...Many, many thousands of people.

LEWIS: I mean, it was hundreds of - I would say 150,000, maybe more. It was massive. And I think for a lot of people watching that, your immediate response is, is this 200,000 hardened racists and fascists marching in the streets of London? And I sat in my window, and I looked down into the crowd. And there were people who kind of maybe - you know, with the banners they were holding, maybe fit that description. But many of them just seemed to be people that I recognize - people I grew up with, people I live next door to. That actually was more terrifying.

I actually had a friend - a good school friend - who messaged me to say, I'm here. I'm on the march. You know, he's white, English. I'm mixed heritage. And I was like, what are you doing on this march? And he was like, I'm here. I want to be listened to. I want to feel proud of my country again. Now, I know Darren (ph), and he's a great guy. He's one of my best mates. And he's got Black family that look like me. And he was on the march. So that immediately, you know, reinforced the view that, OK, this is a lot more complex. You can't just put all of these people into a box now. There are people who may be on a trajectory towards a harder right-wing kind of perspective, but actually, they're not there yet.

KELLY: Something that may resonate for Americans listening to you - you posted after the march about the extent to which British institutions - and you mentioned railways or the health system, the NHS - how they've been hollowed out, and it leaves people feeling disconnected, feeling powerless. Say more.

LEWIS: So, you know, one of the things that I'm watching - so Nigel Farage is our equivalent of Donald Trump, in some ways, politically.

KELLY: Your fellow British MP?

LEWIS: Yes, he's an MP with me. And I have noticed as of late that this is someone who basically champions, you know, big oil. He champions wealth. He champions low tax. But I've noticed as of late, even he has begun - as did Donald Trump before the last election - started talking about what people would call a kind of far more socialist kind of rhetoric and language about the economy in some areas where things aren't working. Like, for example, in this country we have a privatized water system which isn't working, and vast profits are being made, and the costs to us, the public, are going through the roof. And he's now moved to a kind of public-private partnership position.

So there are areas where he understands that people are angry with the status quo. They're angry with how their economy has been hollowed out, the health care system. All of these things now, people are increasingly skeptical, increasingly saying, I don't trust you. They feel marginalized, and they feel unlistened to. And the first people out of the block to say, we hear you and we're going to change that, are the right.

KELLY: Last thing to ask you, Clive Lewis. I was reading that the rally over the weekend here was organized in part to honor the American conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed last week. As you watch, from this side of the Atlantic, events playing out in America, including the very partisan debate that has followed Kirk's death, anything resonate for you?

LEWIS: Yes, it does. I mean, I obviously took an interest in what Charlie had said after the fact of his killing, and I will admit that I didn't know too much about him before. And he is someone who had some what I would consider to be quite controversial, you know, racist views. And yet, you know, he is entitled to express his opinions within the law, and he shouldn't have been killed for that. But what I am seeing is that it looks like some people are taking it as an opportunity for enhanced political repression. And I think this is the problem. When people talk about freedom of speech, I don't always think they actually mean freedom of speech. I think what they actually mean is freedom for us to speak our values and for those to have greater weight than yours, and actually, we may even shut yours down.

KELLY: And how does that track, or not, with the conversation here in Britain?

LEWIS: I think, you know, it's very similar. We're maybe a few years behind you. I don't think we're as deeply divided as you yet. I think the division of - particularly in wealth and power is starker in the United States, but we're catching up rapidly.

KELLY: Clive Lewis - he's a Labour member of parliament here in Britain, one of many voices we are hearing this week as we cover President Trump's visit to the U.K. Clive Lewis, thank you.

LEWIS: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5543014

WORLD | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 5:14 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, a UN inquiry says

By Ailsa Chang, Jonaki Mehta, Patrick Jarenwattananon

Heard on All Things Considered

Transcript

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Plenty of politicians, scholars, human rights groups and other critics of Israel's war in Gaza have called that war a genocide against Palestinians. Although these have been largely rhetorical accusations, the term genocide does have a specific meaning under international treaty. Today, as the Israeli military launched a ground offensive into Gaza City, a United Nations commission investigating the war in Gaza concluded that Israel has committed genocide under the definition adopted by the U.N. Genocide Convention of 1948.

Israeli government officials have repeatedly rejected this report and other such accusations. Meanwhile, we have reached the chair of the commission that authored the report - the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. Her name is Navi Pillay. Welcome to the program.

NAVI PILLAY: Thank you very much.

CHANG: So first, can you just define for us what is genocide, according to the U.N. Genocide Convention?

PILLAY: Firstly, it's accepted by all that genocide is a monstrous crime, an extremely serious crime, which is the killing and destruction of a people in whole or in part. That's why we say it has a specific overarching intent. So it's a serious crime, and it places a particular obligation on all states that they must prevent genocide and punish genocidaires wherever genocide occurs.

CHANG: Give us an overview of what your commission investigated in order to arrive at the conclusion that Israel has committed genocide under this definition that you just laid out?

PILLAY: You know, this is an 80-page report, so I'll just give you a small idea. For instance, the destruction of cultural, religious and educational structures and facilities. Have nothing to do with Hamas, but all that's been destroyed. The siege, starvation and blocking of humanitarian aid is not keeping Hamas hungry but the whole population. This is now the conflict where the largest number of journalists have been killed. It moved me so much that children have had to endure amputations without anesthetic. That they targeted the only fertility clinic in Gaza - its only one - so now all the embryos are destroyed. And we drew a conclusion from that about destroying the Palestinians' life and their future.

CHANG: And what specific statements by Israeli officials gave you enough confirmation that Israel intended to commit genocide of Palestinian civilians?

PILLAY: There are very many, but let me give you a few.

CHANG: Yes.

PILLAY: As early as 7 October 2023, Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed to inflict, let me quote him, "mighty vengeance" on "all of the places which Hamas is deployed, hiding and operating in, that wicked city, we will turn them into rubble." So although Netanyahu's statement carefully directed the call for vengeance at Hamas locations, his use of the phrase wicked city in the same statement implied that he saw the whole city of Gaza as responsible and a target for vengeance.

He told Palestinians in Gaza to leave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere, making no distinction between combatants and civilians and knowing that Palestinians in Gaza had nowhere to go. Then you have Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. On the 9 October 2023, he announced a complete siege on Gaza, claiming that Israel was fighting human animals and Israel must act accordingly.

CHANG: Well, Israeli government officials continue to reject your report and other accusations of genocide. So - you know, and I want to be specific here - Israel's ambassador to the U.N. called this report a, quote, "libelous rant" that relies on "Hamas falsehoods" in an attempt to "delegitimize and demonize the state of Israel." How do you respond to that?

PILLAY: That was their reaction to every one of our reports - calling us biased and antisemitic and so on. I wish they would look at the facts we set out and point out what is not true. Or open up and let us into the country so we could investigate even more fully and talk to Israeli victims.

CHANG: I want to talk a little bit about the U.S.'s role here. The U.S. is, of course, the major weapons supplier to Israel. The U.S. State Department has repeatedly rejected accusations that Israel is committing genocide. But do you and your commission believe that the U.S. is complicit in genocide?

PILLAY: You know, I've already made a statement out there saying even if you say nothing and do nothing and think you are being neutral, you are not. You're being complicit. Under the Genocide Convention, they would fall into the category - those who are helping with arms, military weapons and other support.

CHANG: You believe that states that continue to help supply arms to Israel...

PILLAY: Yes.

CHANG: ...Are complicit in genocide?

PILLAY: Yes.

CHANG: Navi Pillay chairs the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Thank you very much for joining us today.

PILLAY: Thank you.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5543246

GOATS AND SODA | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 3:57 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

The U.S. said it would burn $9.7 million of birth control. Its fate is still unclear

By Rachel Treisman

For months, $9.7 million worth of birth control meant for women in low-income countries has sat stranded in a Belgian warehouse — apparently destined for destruction — as a result of the Trump administration's freeze on foreign aid.

The State Department said in July that it would spend $167,000 in taxpayer money to incinerate the contraceptives at the end of the month, despite the fact that they are paid for and unexpired. That drew outrage from humanitarian organizations around the world, who offered to buy and distribute the productives themselves.

"Nobody benefits by this product being burned," Sarah Shaw, associate director of advocacy at MSI, told NPR. "It's an environmental disaster, it's a human rights disaster, it's just a catastrophe on every single level. So it's like, why not just hand it over quietly, hand it over to a third party and let them deal with it?"

But the administration's July deadline came and went, without official confirmation of the stockpile's destruction — creating confusion about the status of the contraceptives and cautious optimism about their survival.

Humanitarians' hopes were seemingly dashed last week, when the New York Times, citing a statement from USAID, reported that the contraceptives had been destroyed. But the next day, it later reported, Belgian authorities entered the warehouse and confirmed the contraceptives were still there.

Belgium's foreign ministry referred NPR's questions to the Flemish Minister of Environment and Agriculture, which has not yet responded to questions about the status of the contraceptives. In another sign of the products' survival, the Flemish sexual health organization Sensoa is holding a protest "against the planned incineration of contraceptives stored in Geel and the refusal to sell them to Belgium" outside the American Embassy in Brussels on Thursday.

One nonprofit, PAI, said in a Friday statement that "we hear one thing from one source and another from a different source," blaming the U.S. government for creating "confusion among civil society and the general public."

But aid groups have welcomed the ambiguity, hoping there is still a chance the birth control pills, implants and injectables — with expiration dates ranging from 2027 to 2031 — can make it to their intended recipients.

According to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), 77% of the products were earmarked for five African nations — the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Mali — many of which are already facing contraceptive shortages in light of the Trump administration's dismantling of USAID.

The destruction of this single stockpile could lead to 362,000 unintended pregnancies, 161,000 unplanned births, 110,000 unsafe abortions and 718 preventable maternal deaths, according to the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition (RHSC).

Over 70 U.S.-based and international organizations sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday, urging him to scrap the destruction plans and "do everything you can to ensure lifesaving commodities, including contraception, reach people in need."

"Right now, women and girls around the world are desperately seeking out contraception and facing empty shelves," they wrote. "Meanwhile, this administration is choosing to spend taxpayer dollars to destroy effective health and medical supplies that are wanted and needed and that could save and transform lives."

They added that despite the administration's claims otherwise, the fact that the products have not yet been destroyed means "it is not too late to do the right thing."

NPR sent two emails to the State Department asking for comment, on Monday and again on Tuesday morning, but did not hear back in time for publication.

The contraceptives can still save lives

In their letter to Rubio, the humanitarian groups criticized the U.S. government for rejecting "numerous offers to buy or ship the supplies all while spreading deliberate misinformation about contraception."

They are particularly concerned about the State Department's characterization of the birth control products — which prevent pregnancy from happening in the first place — as "abortifacients," which cause the termination of a pregnancy. There are no methods of abortion included in the stockpile, according to humanitarian groups and an inventory list obtained by NPR.

"If this contraception is destroyed under the blatantly false pretense that they are abortifacients, it would be an outrageous act of cruelty," said Beth Schlachter, MSI Reproductive Choices' director of U.S. External Relations. "It would cost lives, derail progress in global health, and strip millions of people of the basic tools they need to plan their families and protect their health."

The U.S. government has "many responsible options available to them" to prevent the supplies from being destroyed, says Rachel Milkovitch, a global health policy specialist with the humanitarian medical aid group Médecins Sans Frontières USA, or Doctors Without Borders. They could sell them to one or more of the NGOs offering to distribute the products, potentially with help from another European government, or even donate them to African countries' ministries of health directly.

"There is $10 million worth of product that has already been paid for that could just be moved out to countries," says MSI's Shaw. "And local health systems will use this product, it will go to good use."

Shaw says getting the stocks — which she described as the equivalent of ten truckloads — from Belgium to other countries, particularly in Africa, could take as many as six months, considering the logistics of shipping and customs, plus distribution within the country.

And she notes that many of these countries have a policy where they will only accept medicines at least two-years before their sell-by date — which could raise questions about the contraceptives set to expire in 2027. But Shaw also notes that it is possible — and in this case, probable — that they would secure waivers to get around that rule.

"Given the extreme shortages that [health] ministries are experiencing, I imagine that they would be very happy to issue waivers because they know that the product is going to get used," she added.

The stranded stockpile is only part of the problem

The U.S. has long been the largest bilateral donor to family planning — it contributed $600 million each year, making up almost half of global donor funding, according to the RHSC.

But that has changed with the second Trump administration. When the State Department froze foreign aid in January, it specifically halted family planning services because it did not consider them "life-saving" — despite vast evidence showing that these services reduce maternal and newborn deaths.

That freeze, and the administration's dismantling of USAID, has left a huge gap in global family planning resources. Humanitarian groups say that's already causing shortages in many sub-Saharan African countries, which the destruction of the $9.7 million stockpile would severely exacerbate.

One group, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), says that in Kenya — where unsafe abortions are among the five leading causes of maternal deaths — the U.S. funding freeze has left facilities with less than five months' supply of contraceptives, instead of the required 15 months.

IPPF also warned of a shortage of contraceptives, particularly implants, in Tanzania, which has "directly impacted clients' choices regarding family planning uptake." It says the products in the now-stranded stockpile represent "a terrifying 28% of the total annual need of the country."

Shaw, of MSI, says its teams on the ground will have to start turning women away — which will be "life changing" for those women.

"It means girls are going to drop out of school. Women are going to have unsafe abortions. Women are going to die in childbirth," she says. "I mean, this is really a whole generation of women and girls that the trajectory of their life has been changed very quickly because of this."

While aid groups say the contraceptives being held in Belgium are desperately needed, they also acknowledge that their distribution wouldn't fill in the gaping hole left by the U.S.' withdrawal from this space.

The group PAI has said there is an estimated $40 million worth of contraceptives held up at various points in the global supply chain. One example, according to RHSC, is a stockpile worth $1.5 million being held in Dubai.

Milkovitch, of MSF-USA, says it's worth asking questions about all of the contraceptives that are held up — whether in transit, warehouses or elsewhere — and not just the $9.7 million stock in question.

"If we save these supplies, if we prevent their destruction, it doesn't sort of start or end with this," she says. "There's still going to be contraceptive stockouts in the places that previously benefitted from U.S.-supposed family planning and reproductive health programs."

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5511304

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Law

- Utah files murder charges against Tyler Robinson: 2025 Sep 16

- Trump files $15 billion defamation lawsuit against 'New York Times': 2025 Sep 16

- FBI Director Patel defends his leadership, Charlie Kirk probe at Senate hearing: 2025 Sep 16

NATIONAL | UPDATED TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 5:49 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Utah files murder charges against Tyler Robinson

By Bobby Allyn

Tyler Robinson, the man accused of fatally shooting conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, was charged with aggravated murder and other counts, in a case in which prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

"The murder of Charlie Kirk is an American tragedy," said Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray at a news conference on Tuesday. "Charlie Kirk was murdered while engaging in one of our most sacred and cherished American rights."

Authorities have also charged Robinson with firearm counts and multiple obstruction-of-justice charges for allegedly disposing of clothes he wore during the shooting. He is accused of directing his roommate to delete incriminating messages and not speak with investigators after Kirk was killed.

Investigators say surveillance footage showed Robinson walking with a peculiar gait they believe indicates Robinson had a rifle hidden in his pants. The weapon, a bolt-action rifle, is thought to have been a gift from his grandfather. Prosecutors say Robinson wrapped the gun in a towel and placed it in a wooded area after the shooting.

Robinson's mother told investigators that Robinson had in recent months become "more political and had started to lean more to the left – becoming more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented," according to the court papers.

Investigators interviewed Robinson's roommate, who was not identified by name. Authorities say the roommate was a male transitioning to female with whom Robinson had been romantically involved.

The roommate received a text message from Robinson the day of the shooting, according to authorities, that read: "drop what you are doing, look under my keyboard."

When the roommate did so, a note was found that stated: "I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I'm going to take it."

Robinson allegedly told his roommate: "I had enough of his hatred," referring to Kirk. "Some hate can't be negotiated out."

Robinson, 22, made an initial court appearance Tuesday afternoon by video stream from a Utah county jail.

He did not enter a plea, and does not yet have a defense lawyer, but a public defender is expected to represent him.

Judge Tony Graf read the charges against him. Robinson appeared stoic, and did not speak, beyond stating his name to the judge.

Robinson's next court date is slated for Sept. 29.

After a 33-hour manhunt, authorities arrested Robinson, who is being held without bail at the Utah County Jail.

Since Robinson was apprehended, speculation has filled the void of hard information about his exact motive, but officials have suggested he was politically motivated.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said on Sunday that Robinson held beliefs consistent with a "leftist ideology." According to Cox, Robinson was radicalized "in a fairly short amount of time" following dropping out of college after one semester and moving back to his hometown of Washington, Utah, a southwestern pocket of the state known for its red-rock landscape and proximity to Zion National Park.

Robinson, according to Cox, had been living with a romantic partner who, Cox said, was "shocked" upon finding out about the shooting at a campus event where Kirk appeared to debate students at Utah Valley University, about four hours from where Robinson lived.

Cox said the partner has become the subject of intense focus considering Kirk's disdain for transgender rights. But authorities have not zeroed in on what particular political positions are believed to have motivated Robinson to kill.

Investigators say Robinson is what some would call chronically online — a person who spends an inordinate amount of time on messaging platforms, on social media and playing video games.

Speaking on NBC's Meet the Press, Cox said Robinson navigated "that deep dark internet, the Reddit culture and these other dark places of the internet where this person was going deep."

In the rifle believed to be Robinson's, investigators recovered bullet casings that include inscriptions referencing edgy internet memes and jokes in the gaming community that would be indecipherable to anyone not steeped in those subcultures.

Other inscriptions include "hey fascist! CATCH!" and "O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao!" — a famous old Italian anti-fascist anthem.

In text messages in Tuesday's court papers, Robinson allegedly told his roommate the bullet engravings were inspired by memes, writing sarcastically to the roommate that he would "have a stroke" if news organizations, specifically Fox News, had to mention the memes on air.

President Trump is set to attend Kirk's funeral in Arizona on Sunday. Kirk is survived by his wife, Erika Kirk, and their two children, ages 1 and 3.

Turning Point USA, a conservative youth political organization Kirk co-founded that is active on more than 3,000 college campuses, says Kirk's American Comeback Tour will continue, with the next event slated for Colorado State University in Fort Collins on Thursday.

Since Kirk's death, a debate has raged about how best to remember a divisive figure who often pushed extreme views but who was an organizing powerhouse and helped mobilize young voters to the polls for Trump.

Kirk leaned into provocative conservative positions on issues like abortion, the death penalty, race, and gay and transgender rights. Just before a single shot from 140 yards away struck him in the neck, 31-year-old Kirk was answering a question about the prevalence of transgender perpetrators in mass shootings.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5542545

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MEDIA | UPDATED TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 9:50 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Trump files $15 billion defamation lawsuit against 'New York Times'

By David Folkenflik

Heard on All Things Considered

President Trump filed a $15 billion defamation lawsuit late Monday against the New York Times and some of its most prominent reporters for articles and a book making the case that he built his fortune and reputation in part through fraud.

The suit also cites an interview that the Times conducted ahead of last year's elections. Retired U.S. Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly, who served as chief of staff during Trump's first term, warned that he believed Trump met the definition of fascist.

And Trump's legal team also argued that the Times wrongly gave producer Mark Burnett credit for the success of the NBC reality contest show The Apprentice, rather than to Trump, who served as the show's host and star.

"Today, the Times is a full-throated mouthpiece of the Democrat Party," Trump's lawyers argued in the filing.

In a statement released by a spokesperson, the New York Times Co. called the case meritless.

"It lacks any legitimate legal claims and instead is an attempt to stifle and discourage independent reporting" the newspaper company said. "The New York Times will not be deterred by intimidation tactics. We will continue to pursue the facts without fear or favor and stand up for journalists' First Amendment right to ask questions on behalf of the American people."

The case was filed by Trump as a private individual in federal court in Tampa. The filing itself is strewn with praise of Trump as a politician, a president, an entrepreneur and an entertainer. And it was submitted by a team of attorneys who have represented Trump in his other lawsuits against major media companies, including ABC, CBS, and the Wall Street Journal.

On social media, Trump said the suit represents a major expansion of his full-court press against the press.

"The 'Times' has engaged in a decades long method of lying about your Favorite President (ME!), my family, business, the America First Movement, MAGA, and our Nation as a whole," Trump wrote. "I am PROUD to hold this once respected 'rag' responsible, as we are doing with the Fake News Networks such as our successful litigation against George Slopadopoulos/ABC/Disney, and 60 Minutes/CBS/Paramount."

Public figures such as the president must meet a high bar to prove defamation in court. They need to show that the defendants knew what they were publishing was false – or that they had serious doubts about the truth of those statements.

Yet Trump has not had to press his cases in the judicial system. When faced with his lawsuits, other big media players have agreed to settle.

ABC's parent company, the Walt Disney Co., paid $16 million to settle Trump's suit over misstatements by anchor George Stephanopoulos.

CBS's parent company, Paramount Global, paid the same to settle Trump's suit over objections to how the network edited an interview last year with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent in the presidential election. Paramount Global was seeking regulatory approval of its sale to Skydance Media at the time, which it soon secured.

Most recently, Trump has sued the Wall Street Journal for reporting he had sent a bawdy and sexually suggestive birthday message two decades ago to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein died in jail while facing sex trafficking charges involving minors. The Journal – which is owned by Trump's political ally, Rupert Murdoch – has promised to fight the suit in court. It subsequently published a replica of the signed note, which Trump says is a fake.

The Trump administration has used its regulatory powers to wrest concessions from television networks. It has blocked mainstream media access to coverage at the White House and the Pentagon. And, it has convinced the Republican-led Congress to claw back all federal funding for public media – that's $1.1 billion over the next two years that Congress approved earlier in the year and Trump had signed into law.

The lawsuit names veteran investigative reporters Suzanne Craig, Russ Buettner and Michael S. Schmidt and the paper's chief White House correspondent, Peter Baker. Trump is also suing Penguin Random House for printing a book by Craig and Buettner in September 2024 about Trump's financial rise, building on their reporting for the paper. They suggested Trump committed a vast tax fraud on his inheritance from his father, denied family members money they were due, and structured his business fraudulently to avoid taxes.

Trump's suit was filed the same day that his vice president and senior administration officials appeared on the podcast of the late Charlie Kirk to pay tribute to their friend. They swore vengeance against those on the left they blamed for fostering the divisive environment in which the conservative activist was killed.

Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt appears to have been the last president to have sued someone for defamation. He filed suit over a report by the publisher of a small Michigan weekly newspaper that he had been intoxicated repeatedly during his unsuccessful third-party run for a third term in office.

According to a 2023 account in the Washington Post, the publisher was moved by a parade of witnesses who attested that Roosevelt, though boisterous, only drank modestly; on the stand, the newspaperman withdrew his claims.

"In view of the statement by the defendant," Roosevelt said, "I shall ask the court to instruct the jury that I desire only nominal damages. I did not go into this suit for money. I did not go into it with any vindictive purpose. I have achieved my purpose, and I am content."

Transcript

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

The New York Times is the latest news organization to face President Trump's wrath. Trump is seeking $15 billion from the Times in a new defamation lawsuit. He claims the newspaper and four of its reporters have harmed his business and personal reputation. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik is covering this. Hi, David.

DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Hey, Ari.

SHAPIRO: What does the president allege The New York Times has done to him?

FOLKENFLIK: Well, he's exercised over a number of stories and an ensuing book done by New York Times journalists. One was an interview with his former chief of staff in his first term, retired General John Kelly, who said that Trump met the definition of a fascist, in his opinion. Another was that The New York Times, he felt, failed to give him enough appreciation, respect and credit for the success of the "Apprentice" franchise on NBC. It was given, he felt unduly, to producer Mark Burnett.

And then there was this sort of extraordinary reporting the Times did about his business background, his inheritance from his father and other (ph), in which they had presented the idea that fraud and deception was recurring element of Trump's business background, and that he puffed himself up, but also hid information from authorities in ways that didn't redound to his credit but also that deceived the public about how successful he really was.

SHAPIRO: Tell us about that $15 billion figure. That is a pretty high number.

FOLKENFLIK: It's a pretty steep one. And yet, it seems, at least from the - from reading the lawsuit, a little bit pulled from the ether. Let's not forget that when he sued CBS, he initially sued them for 10 billion and then doubled it to be 20.

SHAPIRO: How strong is his case?

FOLKENFLIK: Well, both The New York Times and Penguin Random House, which was also sued in this case for the ensuing book about his business background, say this case is without merit. And they say they intend to fight it vigorously. You know, in reading the lawsuit itself - I'm not a lawyer. I don't play one on TV or on radio, but I've been forced to cover a heck of a lot of defamation lawsuits in recent years. There's a really high legal bar for somebody who's a public official and public figure to be able to successfully kind of pursue a defamation case against anyone in the public or a member of the media. And the legal bar goes like this, as you know - it's a question of, was the claim false and demonstrably false? Was it something that reflects badly on the person you're describing? And should the, in this case, Times and its reporters - did they know or should they have known that the information was false?

In this lawsuit in - that is filed, at least so far, we don't have much in the way of a concrete case being made that this information is untrue. And so that's a pretty powerful inhibition to Trump to be able to prevail. After all, the First Amendment, and the way in which the Supreme Court codified its understanding of it in 1964 - First Amendment is designed to create a lot of space for the press to be free to hold power to account. And that's just what The New York Times and Penguin say they have been doing here.

SHAPIRO: Well, if this doesn't look like a necessarily winning legal case, what else might Trump be trying to achieve here?

FOLKENFLIK: Well, there's no doubt he's been pretty clear-cut that he intends to intimidate the press in a variety of ways. He's using the courts - and again, he's filed this as a private citizen - but to go after those who hold him accountable, who put him in what he feels is unflattering or unfair light. His regulators have been investigating broadcast networks. Trump and Congress, as we've talked about, have stripped public media of all federal funding. And yet, also, you have this president who is seeking to be the boss, to be the owner who gets to define his life and legacy, who he is as an entrepreneur, a politician, a president, and controlling the information.

Let's remember what you and I talked about yesterday, about top administration officials swearing vengeance against left-wing foes. Trump wants to control events, often with a hand - heavy hand - but he wants to control that narrative about it. So ultimately, he wants to make news outlets think real hard about what they put in public.

SHAPIRO: That is NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik. Thank you.

FOLKENFLIK: You bet.

CORRECTION

Sep. 16th, 2025

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly said that John Kelly retired from the Army. In fact, he retired from the Marine Corps.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5543030

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LAW | UPDATED TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 5:37 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

FBI Director Patel defends his leadership, Charlie Kirk probe at Senate hearing

By Ryan Lucas, Elena Moore

In a combative hearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill, FBI Director Kash Patel defended his leadership of the bureau, pushing back against allegations from Democrats that he is hollowing out the nation's premier law enforcement agency and pursuing President Trump's promised campaign of retribution.

Patel's appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled weeks ago, but it comes just days after the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and growing questions about Patel's ability to lead the bureau through high-pressure moments.

The more than four-hour hearing frequently devolved into fiery outbursts from lawmakers and the FBI director. Democrats pressed Patel on a range of issues, including his firing of senior FBI officials and his handling of the investigative files of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Republicans, meanwhile, defended the director and his leadership and made sweeping allegations against the political left in America of conducting a campaign of violence.

In his opening statement, Patel defended his tenure.

"I'm not going anywhere," he said. "If you want to criticize my 16 years of service, please bring it on."

In recent days, he has received pushback for his social media posts and actions during the manhunt for the shooter who killed Kirk. He's also been sued by three former senior FBI officials who allege that he fired them for political reasons.

While Republican lawmakers largely praised Patel's work, Democrats were quick to highlight what they see as recent missteps as examples of why they say that he is unfit to lead the FBI.

Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the committee, argued that with Patel at the helm, "the result of that incompetence is staggering."

"The men and women who serve at the FBI and the American people deserve a director who has the ability and the character to restore the bureau to its place as the preeminent law enforcement agency," he added.

Patel, who was confirmed as FBI director in February by a 51-49 vote, appears to enjoy — at least for now — the backing of Trump, who over the weekend expressed support for him.

"I am very proud of the FBI," Trump told Fox News, referring to the capture of the suspected Kirk gunman. "Kash — and everyone else — they have done a great job."

The FBI and Utah law enforcement took the suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, into custody on Thursday night after his family contacted authorities. The arrest took place roughly 33 hours after Kirk's shooting — a fact that Patel has trumpeted in his public remarks.

Political violence

In the wake of Kirk's assassination, Republicans on the panel spent their allotted time speculating on the potential motivation behind the attack and making broad claims that left-leaning forces are to blame for a culture of political violence.

"The vast majority of Americans are against political violence, but there is a vocal, active minority that encourages and celebrates it, and that minority is overwhelmingly on the left," said Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.

Schmitt went on to reference a recent YouGov poll conducted last week that found that among individuals who identify as very liberal, a quarter said that political violence can sometimes be justified, compared to just 3% of those who say they are very conservative. However, majorities across the ideological spectrum disagreed and said it was never justified.

"We are lying if we think that this is a both sides thing, it's not," he said.

Democrats have also been the subject of political violence, including in recent months. Notably, in June, Minnesota state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her spouse were murdered in their own home by a man who authorities said had been targeting a list of 45 Democratic elected officials.

Senate Democrats pushed back on the characterization by GOP lawmakers that the root cause stems from the left.

"Democrats are not responsible for the murder of Charlie Kirk, and Republicans are not responsible for the murder of Melissa Hortman," said Durbin. "Our political opponents are not our enemies."

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., also highlighted that he's observed some right-wing media personalities use violent rhetoric in response to Kirk's death, referencing statements from Alex Jones and Steve Bannon claiming to be "at war."

"There are people out here on our side of the aisle that still need to look in the mirror. Even if you agree that it's a lower number, bad is bad," he said.

Scrutiny of social media posts

During the hearing, lawmakers criticized Patel's handling of the investigation into Kirk's death, particularly his social media posts early on in the probe.

Just hours after Kirk had been shot and killed last Wednesday, Patel had posted on X that "the subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody." Roughly 90 minutes later, he reversed course in a second post, saying "the subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement. Our investigation continues and we will continue to release information in interest of transparency."

In an exchange with Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., Patel said he didn't see that reversal as a mistake.

"Could I have been more careful in my verbiage and included an 'a subject' instead of 'subject'? Sure, in the heat of the moment," he said. "But I was doing the best I could."

However, former FBI officials say this is not the way social media platforms are typically used by law enforcement professionals.

"There is a process, and information is always sketchy in the beginning. You take your time, collect the evidence, whatever facts you have, conduct interviews, then see where it will lead. You don't rush out and say the person of interest is the person who did the shooting," said Stephen Laycock, a retired former senior FBI agent.

"You typically send out social media notes to help gather information about an investigation. When the investigation leads to having someone in custody who has been identified through the investigative process, and it is a multi-agency effort, you let the unified command put the messaging out together," he said, meaning the various law enforcement agencies conducting the investigation put the information out together.

Lawsuit from senior FBI officials

Kirk's killing put a spotlight on Patel's leadership at the bureau, the same day that three former senior FBI officials sued him.

Their lawsuit contains details of their interactions with Patel and his deputy, former U.S. Secret Service agent-turned-conservative commentator Dan Bongino. It describes the leadership at the bureau and the Justice Department as partisan and inept, scrambling to stay in the White House's good graces and willing to fire anyone who crossed the president.

Patel vowed at his confirmation hearing that no one at the FBI would be fired for political reasons. But once in the job, the lawsuit says, Patel opted to follow marching orders from the White House instead of federal law.

Throughout the hours-long hearing on Tuesday, Democratic lawmakers repeatedly brought up the lawsuit.

"I believe you have made our country weaker and less safe," said Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. "You've gutted the bureau of institutional knowledge and expertise. You've fired or pushed out seasoned FBI officials, many with more than 20 years of experience."

Booker went on to say that in the months since Patel took the job, he has "assaulted the institutional integrity of the FBI."

"As much as you supplicate yourself to the will of Donald Trump and not the Constitution of the United States of America, Donald Trump has shown us in his first term and in this term, he is not loyal to people like you," he added. "He will cut you loose. This may be the last time I have a hearing with you because I don't think you're long for your job."

"That rant of false information does not bring this country together," Patel said before the two erupted into a shouting match over allotted time.

Patel was also pressed by lawmakers on the FBI's handling of the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, and insisted there is "no credible information" that Epstein trafficked young women to anyone but himself. The FBI has been complying with subpoena requests for files by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Patel said the FBI would "release whatever we are legally permitted" to make public.

"I strongly encourage you to do that, Kash," said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. "This issue is not going to go away."

The issue has dogged the Trump administration since the summer, when it faced pressure from supporters to release more files.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/g-s1-88926

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MEDIA | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2025 • 12:17 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

NPR to trim $5 million this year as public radio stations struggle to pay bills

By David Folkenflik

NPR executives are scanning the horizon for storm clouds even as they are planning a stand-pat budget for the upcoming fiscal year: They don't yet know how badly NPR local member stations have been hurt by the July vote by Congress to cease all federal funding for public media.

NPR CEO Katherine Maher told the board of directors in an open session Friday that the network's $300 million annual budget would be balanced. Like that of the federal government, NPR's fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

At NPR and many member stations, listener contributions have spiked up significantly. They are helping to make up for the cuts, at least in the short term.

But the dynamics are so volatile that officials privately say it's hard to know where the public radio system's finances will land, or how long that generosity will last. Programming fees that member stations pay to carry NPR shows make up about one-third of the network's revenue.

NPR News spoke to seven people with direct knowledge of events for this story. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about internal network matters.

So NPR has not yet revealed its larger strategy or much detail about the budget that addresses the new financial circumstances. NPR officials declined several requests to comment for this story. Maher and her leadership team are holding an all-staff meeting with employees Wednesday.

According to three of the people with direct knowledge, NPR plans to make trims totaling more than $5 million over the course of the coming fiscal year to bring its annual budget into balance. It does not plan layoffs or major programming shifts.

Public radio stations seek more help

Maher is offering $8 million in relief to stations hardest hit by the cost of paying for NPR's programs. She says that figure has not required cuts; NPR appears to have anticipated giving that level of relief and is already doing so this year, according to testimony from a top network official in its lawsuit against the Trump administration.

Some local NPR station officials say their applications have been received and processed promptly. Many, however, argue that they will need more help from the network. A tracker set up by a public radio consultant has identified 332 layoffs in public media since July 18, when the Republican-led Congress, at President Trump's urging, defunded public media.

As first reported by Ben Mullin of The New York Times, an association of two dozen NPR and PBS stations in Florida wrote to Maher and the NPR board asking for greater relief and more transparency around NPR's efforts to raise more money.

"Simply put, the fee relief plan NPR has proposed is not sufficient to keep many NPR programs on the air in much of Florida," the association's members wrote. "We understand NPR plans to revisit the fee model for [fiscal year 2027], but none of us can wait that long. The state and federal funding cuts are already impacting us, and we are making decisions now about our ... budgets and program schedules."

In June, Florida eliminated nearly $6 million in state funding for NPR and PBS stations.

NPR has invested funds and effort in new collaborative reporting endeavors allowing stations to coordinate their efforts. It has emphasized efforts to raise money in ways that would share donations locally. And it has sought new revenues as well.

NPR Music has placed an experimental "donate now" button on Tiny Desk Concerts, including last Friday's session with Ed Sheeran. (Funds are to be shared with local stations.) And on Tuesday, NPR named Sonali Mehta — who got her start in the music business at YouTube — as NPR Music's executive director.

At WNIN Tri-State Public Media, owner of a small public radio and television station based in Evansville, Ind., officials were confronted by the loss of state funding from the Indiana legislature in April even before Congress made its move. Donors responded swiftly, doubling the level of contributions received from April to August compared to the same period in the previous year.

That hasn't completely covered the station's combined loss of $1.5 million from federal and state coffers, but it has kept the station from having to tap its rainy day fund so far. Instead, WNIN President and CEO Tim Black announced Tuesday it is cutting five positions, or about a fifth of his workforce.

Black says NPR and PBS made "generous" reductions in the cost to the station to run their programs; other public radio syndicators, including those behind This American Life and Hidden Brain, offered to waive costs for the upcoming year to continue broadcasting their shows.

"We were never going to get away from our core PBS and NPR shows," Black says. "The fee reductions helped to cement that decision."

Three stations pull back from the NPR network

The public radio network currently has 244 member stations. That figure is down by two from last year, as stations in Alabama, Oregon and Florida have dropped their affiliation with NPR, while one in Baltimore has signed up.

The number of stations that may shutter could reach 70 to 80, according to Maher and outside consultants.

Outgoing NPR board Chairperson Jennifer Ferro said that people interested in public media trust it deeply, even at a time when trust in major institutions, including the media, has hit all-time lows.

"This is going to require us to work differently," Ferro said at an open session of Friday's board meeting, "to trade in an old business model for new collaborations, shared services, and a new way for us to do what we're here to do — which is to serve our communities."

Ferro also delivered a vote of support for Maher.

"She believes in the power of our system, and she knows that for NPR to succeed, stations must succeed," Ferro said.

The NPR member station in Huntsville, Ala., announced last week it would drop its affiliation with the network and stop broadcasting its shows on Oct. 1. WLRH, which is formatted as a classical music station when it is not airing major shows from NPR, said it would devote more resources to local programming.

"WLRH staff will be working together to get back to the station's roots of focusing more on our long-standing existing local programs, as well as developing new programming to better reflect our community," the station said in an announcement. "The WLRH audience will hear more local news, arts, culture, classical music and music of all genres, and original storytelling."

Stations in coastal Oregon and in Panama City, Fla., are also dropping their affiliation with NPR.

Such moves are not all in one direction: NPR's executive in charge of station relations informed the board at an open session Friday that classical station WBJC in Baltimore, owned by a community college, would affiliate with NPR.

Yet the closures are hard to predict.

After the finance committee of Penn State University's board of directors declined to transfer the public radio station it owns to WHYY in Philadelphia, the university decided to shut it down by the end of next June. The transfer proposal included a plan to pay $17 million over five years to help WHYY absorb the costs. Trustees cited the loss of federal funding in making the decision to shut down WPSU.

CPB and NPR financial relationship about to end

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which Congress set up more than a half-century ago to distribute federal money to public television and radio stations, is to effectively shut down on Sept. 30. A bare-bones staff will remain for several months to wind it down.

Until now, PBS (like local PBS stations) has typically received about 15% of revenues from federal sources. PBS has lost money for educational projects for children from the U.S. Education Department as well as its CPB funding; PBS officials announced earlier this month that PBS was cutting 15% of its jobs.

NPR received far less money directly from the federal government — about 1% to 2% of its budget in a typical year.

CPB last year committed to award NPR a $1.96 million grant toward a new initiative designed to assure fairness in the network's coverage and to bolster public trust after a veteran editor accused NPR of ideological bias. That claim had helped fuel a public outcry and a clamor among congressional Republicans to kill taxpayer funding for the network's programs.

According to the CPB, it has so far paid just $550,000 — or a bit more than a quarter of the promised amount. It says it is working to fulfill payments on the editorial review and other contractual obligations.

The initiative includes a new editorial review desk in which senior editors scrutinize almost all NPR news coverage before it is broadcast, streamed or posted. NPR is hoping to receive the money in CPB's waning days but is unsure if it will.

Disclosure: This story was written and reported by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik. It was edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editor Gerry Holmes. Under NPR's protocol for covering itself, no news executive or corporate official reviewed the story before it was posted publicly.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5539164

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POLITICS | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 5:14 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

On Capitol Hill, FBI Director Patel faces questions over his leadership

By Ryan Lucas

Heard on All Things Considered

Transcript

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

FBI Director Kash Patel was on Capitol Hill today. His appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee was previously scheduled, but it comes after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated amid questions about Patel's leadership of the bureau. NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is covering this. Hi, Ryan.

RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Hi there.

SHAPIRO: Democrats have had a lot of concerns about Patel's leadership of the FBI, and this hearing gave them a chance to question him on what he's done since he was confirmed. What did they press him on?

LUCAS: Well, you're right. Democrats - and, it has to be said, FBI and Justice Department veterans as well - have had a lot of concerns about Patel, his character, his ability to handle this big job. At the hearing, Democrats pushed him on a bunch of things, but the main thing that they hit on again and again was the firings and forced resignations that Patel has overseen since he's been FBI director. Some of the people pushed out were among the most senior and lauded agents at the bureau. Three of them recently, in fact, sued him saying that they were pushed out for improper political reasons. Here's how New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker summed things up.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

CORY BOOKER: I believe you have made our country weaker and less safe. I believe that we are more vulnerable to a major event, and I pray to God it doesn't happen. You've gutted the bureau of institutional knowledge and expertise. You've fired or pushed out seasoned FBI officials, many with more than 20 years of experience.

LUCAS: Now, Booker said quite bluntly at the end that he believes Patel is failing as FBI director.

SHAPIRO: How did Patel respond?

LUCAS: Well, things turned combative several times during the more than four-hour hearing, and includes the exchange that Patel had with Booker. Here's how Patel responded.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

KASH PATEL: That rant of false information does not bring this country together. If you want to work on bringing this country - it's my time, not yours. If you...

BOOKER: My God. My God. You're going to lecture me...

PATEL: If you want to talk about...

BOOKER: ...About dividing this country?

PATEL: It is my time.

BOOKER: I follow you on your social media posts...

(SOUNDBITE OF GAVEL BANGING)

BOOKER: ...That tear this country apart.

PATEL: It is my time to...

BOOKER: You should be a unifying...

PATEL: ...Address your falsehoods.

LUCAS: Now, Patel had a similar shouting match with California Democrat Adam Schiff when he pressed Patel about his handling of the files of Jeffrey Epstein. Now, Patel did try several times to highlight what he said were major accomplishments for the FBI under his leadership, including fighting violent crime, going after drug cartels. And he also denied that he had fired anyone for improper political reasons. He said employees are only fired if they fail to uphold the bureau's standards and their oaths to the Constitution.

SHAPIRO: Of course, this hearing is just days after Charlie Kirk's killing on the campus of a Utah college. Did Patel say anything new about that investigation?

LUCAS: Nothing huge, no. Although he did say the FBI is investigating whether anyone else was involved in the shooting, which is curious because officials in Utah had previously said they believe that the suspect acted alone. Now, the broader problem of political violence came up again and again. It was a point of division. Some lawmakers agree that it's a problem across the political spectrum. But some Republicans - chief among them, Missouri Republican Eric Schmitt - placed blame purely on the left, seemingly ignoring examples of Democrats who have been attacked and even killed in recent months.

Several Republicans urged Patel to investigate what they describe as networks that they allege are encouraging and funding political violence. Patel largely tried to stay above the left/right blame game, but he did say the FBI was already following the money, although he didn't offer details on whom exactly the bureau was scrutinizing.

SHAPIRO: That is NPR's Ryan Lucas. Thanks, Ryan.

LUCAS: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF SAVANA FUNK'S "GHIBLI")

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5543252

TECHNOLOGY | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 4:10 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Trump extends TikTok reprieve as deal nears

By Geoff Brumfiel

President Trump is holding off enforcement of a nationwide ban on TikTok until mid-December according to an executive order issued on Tuesday. It's the fourth time that Trump has delayed enforcement of a law banning the social media app in the United States, and it comes just as U.S. officials say they've reached a framework for a deal with China over control of the short-form video platform.

TikTok dominates the market when it comes to social media video apps. According to surveys from the Pew Research Center, roughly one in three Americans use the app, and about half of adult users say they regularly get their news there.

The company's Chinese ownership has made it a target for U.S. politicians for years. In 2024, Congress passed a law banning the app with bipartisan support. The law said that TikTok would be banned in the U.S. within a year unless it was transferred to a U.S.-owned entity. Lawmakers said they had concerns that the data collected by the app could be used to spy on Americans, and so the legislation was designed to compel TikTok's Beijing-based owner, ByteDance, to sell off the U.S. version of the app to American owners.

The law banning TikTok went into effect on the eve of Trump's inauguration in January. The app briefly went dark but Trump issued an executive order pausing enforcement of the ban for 90 days in order to give time for negotiations. While legally questionable, Trump has since extended that limit several times, and the latest executive order issued provides for another 90-day extension.

The extension comes just as it appears China and the U.S. may finally have a deal on TikTok's fate. On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced they had a "framework" for a deal with China. Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are expected to speak on Friday to complete the deal, he said.

As he left the White House for a state visit to the United Kingdom, Trump told reporters about the potential agreement, "We'll be announcing that we have a group of very big companies that want to buy it."

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5543413

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POLITICS | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 4:02 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

'People are scared': Congress grapples with increasing political violence

By Barbara Sprunt

House Republicans are proposing increasing security funding by $30 million in the wake of growing concerns about political violence in the country.

The funding is included in a stopgap bill to fund the government that Republican leaders hope to approve this week ahead of a Sept. 29 deadline. It is unclear if the legislation has enough votes to pass.

House Administration Chair Bryan Steil, R-Wis., briefed House Republicans about existing safety resources for members during a closed-door weekly conference meeting Tuesday morning. Safety concerns among lawmakers have grown in the days following the murder of conservative activist and political commentator Charlie Kirk at an event last week at Utah Valley University.

"What we have seen is a broad uptick over the course of the past year of members utilizing the [security] programs," Steil said as he left the meeting.

The $30 million is in addition to $58 million in security funding for people in the judicial and executive branches recently requested by the White House. The congressional allotment would be added to a longstanding mutual aid program, which allows for the reimbursement of local law enforcement that help secure lawmakers, particularly when in their home districts. The funding would last until the Nov. 21 end date of the proposed stopgap bill.

Political violence on the rise

Concerns about rising political violence have been brewing for some time. In the last 14 months alone, there were targeted attacks of state lawmakers and their spouses in Minnesota, two assassination attempts of President Trump, and arson at the residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

The recent assassination of Kirk, who was a counselor and friend to many Republicans on Capitol Hill, has hit Congress hard.

"The tragedy has also initiated a number of uncomfortable but necessary conversations about important issues like the safety and security of our members," House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

Amid various vigils for Kirk, members have reflected on security concerns.

"I found myself over the past couple of days, you know, looking around a little bit more and being a little more careful than I normally would," said Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., who was one of a handful of House Democrats to join their GOP colleagues at a vigil for Kirk at the Capitol Monday evening.

"People are scared," Suozzi said. "I'm on several different text chains with members, and I just see a lot of comments back and forth about – 'what should we do? How should we spend the money that's been allocated for this? What ideas do you have?'"

In the wake of Kirk's murder, members on both sides of the aisle said they would be adjusting their behavior.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who's long faced death threats, told reporters last week she was postponing a planned public event.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who is running for governor, said she was canceling outdoor and public events for the foreseeable future.

"This is a terrifying time," she said. "I will be locked and loaded with one in the chamber because it's unsafe."

Security guidance sent in July to members was shared again late last week. It includes details of a residential security program and explanations of how local law enforcement can be utilized if threats arise.

Following the targeted violence of state lawmakers in Minnesota, the House also launched a pilot program that increased lawmakers' security monitoring and maintenance allotment from $150 to $5,000 a month for the remainder of fiscal year 2025. Members may use that money for personal security while traveling in their district or to protect their home.

"Members that have used the pilot program have seen great success," Steil told reporters. "And it's something I think we have a real opportunity to build on."

That program is set to expire at the end of the month.

The U.S. Capitol Police told NPR its agents are on track to work through roughly 14,000 threat assessment cases by the end of the year.

House Democrats held security briefing

Over the weekend, House Democrats held a virtual briefing with the House sergeant at arms and Capitol police, reviewing existing security programs available to members.

"I don't think there's any question that people are very concerned," said Rep. Joe Morelle, D,N.Y., who serves as the ranking member on House Administration. "I think what happened in Minnesota was a wakeup call for folks. This shortly on the heels of that with another public figure I think just lets members know that this can happen to anyone at any moment."

He said he doesn't think the $5,000 a month allotted via the pilot program is sufficient.

"We need to do more," he said, acknowledging lawmakers must remain sensitive to how much the program costs.

"I'm sure people back home are thinking, well, do we need to really do more for members of Congress in this moment?" Morelle said. "But I think it's really just to ensure the integrity of the democracy and the need for people to communicate and talk to their members of Congress. If we get to a point where constituents can't engage with their members because the members don't feel comfortable in town halls or highly attended events, I can't imagine how you'd do your job effectively."

Full article: https://www.npr.org/g-s1-89053

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POLITICS | UPDATED TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 1:49 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Republicans release 7-week spending bill as Democrats warn of a potential shutdown

By Deirdre Walsh, Claudia Grisales, Barbara Sprunt

Two weeks before a possible government shutdown, House Republicans are unveiling legislation to fund the government through Nov. 21 and add security resources for government officials. It's unclear they have the votes to pass it as Democrats call for further negotiations.

The stopgap bill extends current funding levels for federal agencies for seven weeks and adds $58 million to boost security for the federal judiciary and for executive branch officials, following a request from the White House. Republican leaders in the House added another $30 million to increase resources that lawmakers can use for their own security.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters on Tuesday the bill allows more time to come to agreement on year-long spending bills.

"We need responsible options to keep the government open while all this work continues and Republicans are committed to making that happen," House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday.

In recent days, President Trump used social media to urge Republicans in the House and Senate to unite around a so-called "clean" continuing resolution and accused Democrats of pressing for a shutdown. "In times like these, Republicans have to stick TOGETHER to fight back against the Radical Left Democrat demands, and vote 'YES!'" the president posted on his platform, Truth Social.

Democrats have pressed Republicans for bipartisan talks on a short-term bill and are demanding that any spending extension should address expiring health care subsidies that are due to expire at the end of the year. Some Democrats are also demanding that a bill roll back the changes to the Medicaid program that were part of the GOP tax bill that was signed into law in July.

Speaker Johnson told reporters on Tuesday that there is "zero chance" Republicans will reverse any Medicaid provisions at this time. Instead, he said the debate over the Affordable Care Act subsidies is "a December policy issue, not a September funding issue."

But, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., warned that while the GOP may be able to pass a bill with GOP votes in the House, he needs 60 votes in the Senate to advance a funding measure. He said that Democrats want input in return for their support.

"If Donald Trump says no negotiations at all, then it's Donald Trump's shutdown," Schumer said on the Senate floor on Tuesday.

The top Democrats on the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., issued a statement on Tuesday saying they have been working closely with their GOP counterparts on a bipartisan plan. They called on Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., to join those talks in order to avoid a shutdown threat.

"House Republican Leadership has decided they would rather take us to the brink of a shutdown instead of working with Democrats on a bipartisan continuing resolution to keep the government funded, protect Congress' power of the purse, and improve health care," DeLauro and Murray wrote.

Thune focused Tuesday on bipartisan support for a clean government funding extension that would allow Congress to work in regular order to move forward with individual spending bills this fall.

Thune said it's Schumer's right to oppose the bill, "but I would hope there would be Democrat Senators who would give us the requisite number of votes to get to 60  in order to keep the government open."

House GOP leaders hold a narrow majority and they can only afford to lose two votes. Reps. Tom Massie, R-Ky., and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, have indicated they oppose the GOP proposal. GOP leaders regularly rely on pressure to back the president among the party's base to get bills through and may need to do that again.

The House is expected to vote by Friday. If the measure passes, the Senate will take it up ahead of the September 30 deadline.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5543189

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INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS | UPDATED TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 7:00 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Sen. Chris Murphy warns Trump is exploiting Kirk's death to squash dissent

By Michel Martin

Heard on Morning Edition

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut calls efforts to target or silence left-leaning or progressive groups after the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk "straight out of the totalitarian playbook."

Senior members of the Trump administration, including Vice President Vance and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, pledged to use the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to disrupt networks they say are responsible for provoking violence.

Speaking to Morning Edition, Murphy said it could be "a really dark time for this country if mainstream progressive organizations are just labeled as terrorists or as inciters of violence simply because they are working to undermine the president's political agenda."

Murphy's comments came as at least 30 people across the country have already been fired or investigated over social media posts about Kirk's death and amid calls from Republican officials and right-wing influencers for more crackdowns.

Kirk, 31, founder of the conservative youth group Turning Point USA, died after being shot in the neck on Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem. He was a leading figure in mobilizing young voters for Republican politics. A 22-year-old Utah resident named Tyler Robinson was arrested on Friday following a two-day manhunt. On Tuesday, he was charged with seven counts, including aggravated murder.

Kirk's death has sparked fierce debate over whether and how he should be honored. Critics point to his incendiary remarks — such as calling Martin Luther King Jr. "awful" and demanding Nuremberg-style trials for doctors who provide gender-affirming care. Others, meanwhile, are demanding consequences for those they believe are justifying the murder.

Murphy, speaking to NPR's Michel Martin, warned about the risks of political violence, efforts to silence dissent and the dangers of heated rhetoric across the political spectrum.

This interview is edited for length and clarity.

Interview highlights

Michel Martin: You posted a message on X over the weekend saying, "Pay attention. Something dark might be coming." What did you mean by that?

Sen. Chris Murphy: As we are all reeling over the assassination of Charlie Kirk and this broader increase in political violence, this was an opportunity, in the wake of the assassination, for the President to try to bring the country together around the work we need to do to try to make sure that violence is unacceptable in any circumstance. But he seems to be doing the opposite. As your reporter noted, they are readying what may be a dizzying, high-volume attack on the President's political opponents, essentially exploiting the death of Charlie Kirk to try to eliminate those who are trying to politically stand in opposition to the President's agenda. And I think that that could be a really dark time for this country if mainstream progressive organizations are just labeled as terrorists or as inciters of violence simply because they are working to undermine the President's political agenda. This has been ongoing work for the administration for the last nine months. They've been doing it at a smaller scale, but they now may be readying to ramp up and attempt to really, truly do significant damage to our democracy, and we have to be watchful for it.

Martin: Is it possible that this is the heat of the moment, that, as our colleagues have been pointing out in the reporting, Charlie Kirk is somebody who had some very close relationships with some of the people in this White House? Is it possible that this is the emotion of the moment?

Murphy: I think that may be true, but I think it's also straight out of the totalitarian's playbook. If you look at other societies where you had an elected leader that decided that they wanted to rule forever, they end up trying to cast and label their political opposition as instigators of violence. So you have, I think, seen all of the ways in which the Trump administration has watched what's happened in places like Turkey and Hungary and copied it, their attacks on the legal profession, their attacks on higher education. This would be a tactic that is not new or unique. It's another mechanism that other would-be autocrats have tried to use to destroy and shut down their political opposition groups.

Martin: How are you advising people to prepare for that? What do you think people should do?

Murphy: First, it is important for us to recognize and say that political violence is unacceptable. We don't yet know the full motives of this shooter, but there have been political assassinations and political assassination attempts that are due to right-wing radicalism and left-wing radicalism, and there should be no one in this country and no one on the left that is celebrating what happened here. But second, it's just a moment where we have to show the President and his team that we are not going to be bullied into submission. That means that, you know, this is a moment for Americans who haven't signed up to join one of these protest groups to do it, for them to support groups that are trying to save our democracy. What the President is going to try to do by going after either the Soros-funded groups or attacking more high-profile politicians that oppose him is to try to convince people to stay on the sidelines, and we've got to show him that that tactic is not going to work.

Martin: Before Charlie Kirk was killed, a White House spokesperson, Abigail Jackson, pointed to how you said in an interview that Democrats were essentially "at a war to save this country." She was making the point that she thinks Democrats have contributed to this environment of heightened tensions. Do you think Democrats should change the way they talk about some of these issues as well?

Murphy: If you look at the question I was being asked, it was a question about the Republicans' effort to destroy bipartisan redistricting. And I said, yeah, we have a fight on our hands right now to make sure that we can have fair elections in this country. So it is true that politicians on both sides use heated rhetoric when talking about policy.

Martin: But in fairness, do you think there's something you need to do differently when you express yourself on issues like this, to lower the temperature?

Murphy: Well, none of us, including what I said during that interview, comes close to an endorsement or an incitement of violence. And I think this is an attempt by Republicans to try to distract this country from the campaign that they are readying to try to undermine legitimate dissent.

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Charlie Kirk's assassination has ignited a fierce debate over how he should be honored, but also whether he should be honored at all. Some say, even as the nation deplores the violence that took Kirk's life, that Kirk's public statements still merit public critique - statements such as calling Martin Luther King Jr., quote, "awful" or calling for a Nuremberg-style trial for every gender-affirming clinic doctor or broadly questioning the, quote, "brain processing power" of a number of prominent and accomplished Black women.

But others are seeking serious consequences for people who they think seem to justify the murder in some way. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the government is working to revoke visas for people, quote, "celebrating" Kirk's death. The Florida Department of Education said it would investigate teachers who make, quote, "disgusting comments" about it. And Republican lawmakers have singled out people to lose their jobs over social media posts about Kirk's death, claiming the political left is broadly celebrating it. All this has some asking whether the murder of Kirk, as horrifying as it is, is being used to undermine political discourse and political dissent. Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat from Connecticut, is among those who's concerned. He's with us now. Good morning, Senator.

CHRIS MURPHY: Good morning.

MARTIN: You posted a message on X over the weekend saying, quote, "pay attention. Something dark might be coming," unquote. What did you mean by that?

MURPHY: Well, as we are all reeling over the assassination of Charlie Kirk and this broader increase in political violence, this was an opportunity in the wake of the assassination for the president to try to bring the country together around the work we need to do to try to make sure that violence is unacceptable in any circumstance, but he seems to be doing the opposite, as your reporter noted. They are readying what may be a dizzying, high-volume attack on the president's political opponents, essentially exploiting the death of Charlie Kirk to try to eliminate those who are trying to politically stand in opposition to the president's agenda.

And I think that that could be a really dark time for this country if mainstream progressive organizations are, you know, just labeled as terrorists or as inciters of violence simply because they are working to undermine the president's political agenda. You know, this has been ongoing work for the administration for the last nine months. They've been doing it at smaller scale, but they now may be readying to ramp up and attempt to really, truly do significant damage to our democracy, and we have to be watchful for it.

MARTIN: Is it possible that this - the heat of the moment, that as our colleagues have been pointing out in their reporting, Charlie Kirk is somebody who had some very close relationships with some of the people in this White House - is it possible that this is the emotion of the moment?

MURPHY: I mean, that may be true, but I think it's also straight out of the totalitarian's playbook. If you look at other societies where you had an elected leader that decided that they wanted to rule forever, they end up trying to cast and label their political opposition as instigators of violence. So you have, I think, seen all of the ways in which the Trump administration has watched what's happened in places like Turkey and Hungary and copied it - their attacks on the legal profession, their attacks on higher education. This would be a tactic that is not new or unique. It's another mechanism that other would-be autocrats have tried to use to destroy and shut down their political opposition groups.

MARTIN: So how are you advising people to prepare for that? What do you think people should do?

MURPHY: Well, I mean, listen; first, it is important for us to recognize and say that political violence is unacceptable. We don't yet know the full motives of this shooter, but there have been political assassination and political assassination attempts that are due to right-wing radicalism and left-wing radicalism, and there should be no one in this country and no one on the left, that is celebrating what happened here. But second, it's just a moment where we have to show the president and his team that we are not going to be bullied into submission. That means that, you know, this is a moment for Americans who haven't signed up to join one of these protest groups to do it, for them to support groups that are trying to save our democracy. What the president is going to try to do by going after either the Soros-funded groups or attacking more high-profile politicians that oppose him is to, you know, try to convince people to stay on the sidelines, and we've got to show him that that tactic is not going to work.

MARTIN: Before Charlie Kirk was killed, a White House spokesperson, Abigail Jackson, pointed to how you said in an interview that Democrats were essentially, quote, at a war "to save this country." She was making the point that she thinks that Democrats have contributed to this environment of heightened tensions. Do you think Democrats should change the way they talk about some of these issues as well? Does she have a point, basically?

MURPHY: Well, if you look at the question I was being asked, it was a question about the Republicans' effort to destroy bipartisan redistricting. And I said, yeah, we have a fight on our hands right now to make sure that we can have fair elections in this country. So it is true that politicians on both sides use heated rhetoric when talking about policy fights.

MARTIN: OK, but in fairness...

MURPHY: But none of us...

MARTIN: ...Do you think there's something you need to do differently when you expressed yourself on issues like this to lower the temperature?

MURPHY: Well, none of us, including what I said during that interview, comes close to an endorsement or an incitement of violence. And I think this is an attempt by Republicans to try to distract this country from the campaign that they are readying to try to undermine legitimate dissent.

MARTIN: That is Senator Chris Murphy. He's a Democrat of Connecticut. Senator Murphy, thanks so much for sharing some insights with us.

MURPHY: Appreciate it.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5542190

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POLICY-ISH | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 5:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

On Texas border, uninsured people stress the health system. It's set to get worse

By Sam Whitehead, Renuka Rayasam

RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas — Dr. Jake Margo Jr. stood in the triage room at Starr County Memorial Hospital explaining why a person with persistent fever who could be treated with over-the-counter medication didn't need to be admitted to the emergency room.

"We're going to take care of the sickest patients first," Margo, a family medicine physician, said.

It's not like there was space on that June afternoon anyway. A small monitor on the wall pulsed with the vitals of current patients, who filled the ER. An ambulance idled outside in the South Texas heat with a patient waiting for a bed to open up.

"Everybody shows up here," Margo said. "When you're overwhelmed and you're overrun, there's only so much you can do."

Trump voters and a new Trump law

Starr County, a largely rural, Hispanic community on the southern U.S. border, made headlines in 2024 when it voted Republican in a presidential election for the first time in more than a century. Immigration and the economy drove the flip in this community, where roughly a third of the population falls below the poverty line.

Now, recent actions by the Trump administration and the GOP-controlled Congress have triggered a new concern: the inability of doctors, hospitals and other health providers to continue to care for uninsured patients. It's a fear not only in Starr County, which has one of the highest uninsured rates in the nation. Communities across the U.S. with similarly high proportions of uninsured people could struggle as additional residents lose health coverage.

About 14 million fewer Americans are expected to have health insurance in a decade due to President Trump's new tax-and-spending law, which Republicans dubbed the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, or OBBBA, and the pending expiration of enhanced subsidies that slashed the price of Affordable Care Act plans for millions of people. The new law also limits programs that send billions of dollars to help those who care for uninsured people stay afloat.

The safety net may fail

"You can't disinsure this many people and not have, in many communities, just a collapse of the health care system," said Sara Rosenbaum, founding chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health.

"The future is South Texas," she said.

KFF Health News is examining the impact of national health care policy changes on uninsured people and their communities. Though the Trump administration told KFF Health News it is making "a historic investment in rural health care," people who treat low-income patients, as well as researchers and consumer advocates, say recent policy decisions will make it harder for people to stay healthy. Doctors, hospitals, and clinics that make up the health care safety net could lose so much money they must close their doors, some of them warn.

"Because the patient's bill is not going to get paid," said Dr. Joseph Alpert, editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Medicine and a professor of medicine at the University of Arizona. "Uninsured patients stress the health care system."

Starr County shows how this dynamic unfolds. Primary care doctors in the county serve an average of just under 3,900 people each, nearly three times the U.S. average.

Margo, the family physician, said because so many people lack insurance and there are so few places to seek care, many residents treat the ER as their first stop when they're sick.

In many cases, they have neglected their health, making them sicker and more expensive to treat. And federal law requires ERs at hospitals in the Medicare program to stabilize or transfer patients, regardless of their ability to pay.

That leaves Margo and his team to practice what he described as "disaster medicine."

"They come in with chest pain or they stop breathing. They collapse. They've never seen a doctor," Margo said. "They're literally dying."

Health systems in 'survival mode'

When people are uninsured or on Medicaid, they tend to rely on a safety net of doctors, hospitals, clinics, and community health centers, which offer services free of charge or absorb getting reimbursed at lower rates than they do treating patients on commercial insurance.

Those providers' financial situations can often be precarious, leading them to rely on myriad federal supports. The Trump administration's cuts to health care and Medicaid in the name of eliminating "waste, fraud and abuse" has many concerned they won't weather the additional financial strain.

Trump's new law funds his priorities, like extending tax cuts that mainly benefit wealthier Americans and expanding immigration enforcement. Those costs are covered in part by a nearly $1 trillion reduction in federal health spending for Medicaid within the next decade and changes to the ACA, such as requiring additional paperwork and shortening the time for people to sign up.

Many Republicans have argued Medicaid has gotten too large and strayed from the state-federal program's core mission of covering those with low incomes and disabilities. And the GOP has fought to roll back the ACA since its passage.

Kush Desai, a spokesperson for the White House, said projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office about how many people could lose health insurance are an "overestimate." He did not provide an estimate the administration sees as more accurate.

Supporters of OBBBA say those who need health coverage can still get it if they meet new requirements such as working in exchange for Medicaid coverage.

And Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said even with the legislation, Medicaid spending will grow, just not as quickly.

The budget law won't cause "the sky to fall," Cannon said. "The inefficient providers should be shutting down."

Layoffs starting, more anticipated

A recent survey from AMGA, formerly the American Medical Group Association, which represents health systems across the country, found nearly half of rural facilities could close or restructure due to Medicaid cuts. Nearly three-quarters of respondents said they anticipated layoffs or furloughs, including of front-line clinicians.

Public health departments, which often fill gaps in care, also face federal funding cuts that have reduced their capacity. In South Texas' Cameron County, the health department has eliminated nearly a dozen positions, said agency head Esmer Guajardo. In neighboring Hidalgo County, the health department has laid off more than 30 people, said Dr. Ivan Melendez, who helps oversee its operations.

In July, the Texas Department of State Health Services canceled Operation Border Health, a massive annual event that last year provided free health services to nearly 6,000 South Texas residents.

Gateway Community Health Center in Laredo, a border city north of the Rio Grande Valley, is in "survival mode," with about a third of patients already lacking insurance and even more who will struggle to afford health care if the ACA subsides aren't renewed, said David Vasquez, its director of communications and public affairs. The center is looking for other forms of funding to avoid layoffs or cuts to services, and its expansion and hiring plans are on hold, Vasquez said.

That downsizing is happening as more people lose health insurance and need free or reduced-cost care.

Esther Rodriguez, 39, of McAllen has been out of work for two years and her husband makes $600 a week working in construction. Neither of them has health insurance.

Medicaid covered the bills for the births of her five children. Now, she depends on a mobile health clinic run by a local medical school, where she can pay out-of-pocket for routine checkups and drugs to control her Type 2 diabetes. If she needed more care, Rodriguez said, she would go to the ER.

"You have to adapt," she said in Spanish.

"Death by a thousand cuts"

People's inability to pay results in uncompensated care, or services that hospitals, doctors, and clinics don't get paid for, which, under an earlier version of the megabill, was projected to increase by $204 billion over the next decade, according to the Urban Institute, a nonprofit think tank.

But the Trump administration is also cutting other support that helped offset the cost of care for people who can't pay. The new law caps federal programs that many health providers for low-income people have come to depend on, especially in rural areas, to shore up their budgets. These include taxes on hospitals, health plans, and other providers that states use to help fund their Medicaid programs. Such provider taxes are a "financial gimmick," Desai said.

While the law creates a temporary $50 billion fund to support rural doctors and hospitals, that's a little over a third of estimated Medicaid funding losses in rural areas, according to KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News. Desai called the analysis "flawed."

Any loss in revenue could spell financial ruin, especially for small rural hospitals, said Quang Ngo, president of the Texas Organization of Rural & Community Hospitals Foundation.

"It's kind of like death by a thousand cuts," he said. "Some will probably not make it."

Additional cuts to rural health

And more cuts could keep coming. The Trump administration's budget request for the coming fiscal year calls for cuts to multiple rural health programs operated through the Health Resources and Services Administration. Desai said the spending law's investment in rural health "dwarfs" the cuts.

In February, the Trump administration announced funding cuts of 90% to the ACA navigator program, which helps people find health insurance. That program has been "historically inefficient," Desai said.

In December 2023, nearly 3 million of Texas' uninsured were eligible for ACA subsidies, Medicaid, or the Children's Health Insurance Program, according to Texas 2036, a public policy think tank.

Maria Salgado spends her workdays tabling at community events, dropping off flyers at doctors' offices, and holding one-on-one meetings with clients of MHP Salud, a nonprofit that connects residents to Medicaid and ACA coverage.

She worried funding cuts would really set the organization's efforts back: "A lot of community members here, they're going to be left behind," said Salgado, a community health worker, or promotora.

Dr. Chris Casso, a primary care physician who grew up in McAllen and now practices there, held back tears as she described treating patients who have put off seeing a doctor because of an inability to pay, only to have their preventable conditions deteriorate.

She worries about the future of her community as physician shortages worsen, potentially leaving few providers to treat uninsured people.

"It's heartbreaking," she said, sitting in a small back room in her office in a suburban strip mall, wedged between a Kohl's and a Shoe Carnival. "These are hardworking people," she said. "They try their best to take care of themselves."

Casso said her own sister, who worked as a medical biller in a physician's office, couldn't afford health insurance. She delayed care and died at age 45 of complications from diabetes and heart disease. Casso worries the future will find more people in similar situations.

"Our population is going to suffer," she said. "It's going to be devastating."

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF .

Transcript

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

The Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas has some of the highest uninsured rates in the country. In some counties, one in three people do not have health insurance, and that is expected to get much worse as President Trump's spending cuts hit. Millions of Americans are set to lose their coverage over the next decade because of the federal policy changes. Sam Whitehead from our partner KFF Health News has more.

SAM WHITEHEAD, BYLINE: It's early June and flirting with 100 degrees when Maria Salgado rolls her wheeled backpack into the air-conditioned refuge of the Roma Public Library. In a small back room, she flicks on a tower fan...

(SOUNDBITE OF SWITCH FLICKING)

WHITEHEAD: ...And pulls out the tools of her trade - laptop, scanner, printer.

MARIA SALGADO: Also, we have, you know, the documents that they need to complete their application, so I have everything in here.

WHITEHEAD: Salgado is a community health worker, a promotora. She traverses the largely Hispanic counties that hug the Southern U.S. border and helps people sign up for - and keep - Affordable Care Act and Medicaid health coverage. Today, she's meeting with a man and his wife who are afraid they've missed his Medicaid renewal deadline.

SALGADO: And we reviewed his account, but it's not time to renew. He's good until November of this year.

WHITEHEAD: Salgado says lots of people in this largely low-income community need this kind of help, and more could soon. President Trump's budget law will dramatically reduce spending on Medicaid and the ACA, programs Republicans say have gotten too large. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says it will cause 10 million fewer Americans to have health coverage within the next decade.

SARA ROSENBAUM: You can't disinsure this many people and not have, in many communities, just a collapse of the health care system.

WHITEHEAD: Sara Rosenbaum is a retired health policy expert from George Washington University. A growing body of research shows having health insurance makes you healthier. Rosenbaum says even more people could lose coverage if stepped up federal help to pay for ACA plans expires at the end of the year.

ROSENBAUM: Are going to start losing their coverage very quickly.

WHITEHEAD: Growing up in the Rio Grande Valley, sometimes Chris Casso's family could afford insurance. Sometimes they couldn't. Now she's a doctor there. Casso says it's common for her patients with preventable conditions like diabetes to delay treatment until they develop complications like kidney disease.

CHRIS CASSO: Sometimes it's heartbreaking, you know, personally. I mean - sorry. Getting a little emotional?

WHITEHEAD: Her sister died at age 45. Casso says she couldn't afford insurance and was unable to manage her diabetes and heart disease. Casso worries more could face that fate.

CASSO: Our economy is going to suffer. Our population is going to suffer. It's going to be devastating.

WHITEHEAD: Eating more costs for people who can't pay will strain many hospital budgets. At the same time, the budget law reduces federal financial programs that many rural hospitals have come to rely on.

QUANG NGO: We often say it's kind of like death by a thousand cuts, you know?

WHITEHEAD: Quang Ngo works with Texas' Rural Hospital Association. Some facilities, he says, might not make it.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: He's already been seen.

WHITEHEAD: Star County Memorial Hospital is just down the street from a brand-new McDonald's. The border wall hulks beyond the drive through. It's late afternoon, and every bed in this emergency room is full. Dr. Jake Margo Jr. says traffic picks up here when nearby health clinics close for the day.

JAKE MARGO JR: So they all come here, and we're the only ER.

WHITEHEAD: They take all comers. Federal law says if hospitals want to participate in Medicare, their emergency rooms have to stabilize everyone seeking care - insured or not.

MARGO: You know, we're very efficient, and yet, when you're overwhelmed, when you're overrun, there's only so much you can do.

WHITEHEAD: Margo says resources like bed space and his staff's attention can only stretch so far before patients begin to notice. In the Rio Grande Valley, I'm Sam Whitehead.

MARTÍNEZ: Sam is with our partner KFF Health News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5542408

Health

- RFK Jr. wants to end mental health screenings in schools. Experts say it's a bad idea: 2025 Sep 16

- From heart to skin to hair, 'Replaceable You' dives into the science of transplant: 2025 Sep 16

- Is telehealth a good idea, or should I see my regular doctor?: 2025 Sep 16

- Kennedy's vaccine panel expected to recommend delaying hepatitis B shot in children: 2025 Sep 16

- 5 new members added to CDC vaccine advisory panel ahead of key meeting: 2025 Sep 15

PUBLIC HEALTH | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 3:08 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

RFK Jr. wants to end mental health screenings in schools. Experts say it's a bad idea

By Rhitu Chatterjee

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and Education Secretary Linda McMahon want schools to do away with mental health screenings and therapy. Instead, they argue in a Washington Post opinion piece that schools "must return to the natural sources of mental well-being: strong families, nutrition and fitness, and hope for the future."

In the op-ed, the two secretaries mention a recent bill signed by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, which requires all schools in the state to offer mental health screening tests, starting with third graders. The screenings are standardized questionnaires that ask children about their feelings and well-being.

Kennedy and McMahon posit that such screens "medicalize the unique and sometimes unpredictable behavior of young children," creating "new stigmas that students might carry with them for life. We must make American children healthy again without treating them all like patients."

NPR spoke to mental health experts who say the op-ed is misleading about school-based mental health screenings and therapy. Here are three points they say are important to know about the issue.

1. Mental health screenings reduce stigma, rather than create it.

Mental health screenings open up a conversation about mental health.

"They are awareness and conversation-starters," says psychologist Mary Alvord, founder of Alvord Baker and Associates, who also works with schools in the Washington, D.C. metro area to improve student well-being and resilience.

"Stigma is when you don't talk about it and you hide it," Alvord says. "And then you make it so people don't want to talk about it and they don't want to then deal with it."

As research has shown, stigma prevents people with mental health conditions from seeking help.

Also, these school-based screenings are meant to be universal, says Alvord, and they normalize conversations around mental health, raise awareness and encourage help seeking.

School-based mental health screenings also provide important insight into the kinds of things that kids are struggling with, things that can be addressed by schools, not by sending individual kids to therapy, but by addressing bigger issues schools might be facing. Most schools doing school-wide mental health screens usually aren't screening for a specific mental health condition.

Instead, they're aiming for a wider lens into students' well-being and struggles, says Dr. Vera Feuer, director of child psychiatry at Northwell Health. She also works with several school districts in Long Island, NY, to improve student mental health.

"They might be called a wellness survey or a school climate survey or, you know, something along those lines," says Feuer.

It gives schools a window into how children are faring and coping, Feuer says. These screenings help schools bring in programs that can boost student mental health.

For example, many schools work with mental health care clinicians to provide evidence-based strategies to improve emotional resilience in kids, or to improve connectedness among students.

2. Screeners screen, they don't diagnose.

"One of the things that I felt was really misguided in the [op-ed] article [is] it said things like, we're treating everybody as patients," says Feuer.

As she and other mental health experts noted, mental health screenings don't end in a clinical diagnosis.

"Screeners are brief assessments that identify this population at risk," says psychologist Benjamin Miller. "They're not diagnostic, and they require us to take an additional step to know, to find out more information and the most appropriate course of action."

The next step might be for a student whose mental health symptoms are identified in the screening test to see a school counselor, or a school nurse, who can do a further assessment to understand what is going on in the student's life and evaluate them for a referral to a mental health care provider.

Most students taking a screening will not need that referral, but for those who do, it's a way to catch their symptoms early so they can get connected to care before things escalate into a crisis.

"The prevalence of mental health disorders is high," says Feuer. "A lot of the disorders do start before age 15. We know that the rates have increased [in recent years]."

School-based mental health screenings help in early detection of symptoms, Feuer says.

And if schools have a plan in place to connect students to care, she notes, schools can also help in bridging the gap for access. They are no different than screenings for physical health problems, notes Miller, who is on the board of advisers for Inseparable, a mental health advocacy group.

"We screen all the time in schools for things like vision and hearing," he says. "So it makes a lot of sense that we would just continue to screen for things that are equally as important, like our mental health."

3. A positive screen doesn't always lead to a therapy appointment.

Access to mental health care remains a huge challenge for all Americans, especially children, primarily because there just aren't enough providers to meet the demand.

And even when a child sees a therapist, or a psychiatrist, it doesn't necessarily result in a mental health diagnosis.

When Feuer evaluates a kid, she also assesses their physical health to make sure it isn't what is causing the mental health symptoms.

"We often do diagnose other medical conditions, including diabetes or other things that may be present," says Feuer. "Somebody looking like they're distracted in the classroom, falling asleep, not being engaged, can look like they're depressed."

But further examination by a physician might reveal, for example, that the child had diabetes causing those symptoms, she says. However, even in cases when  a child is diagnosed with a mental health condition, it might take a long time for that child to connect to a therapist, adds Feuer.

"The biggest barrier continues to be even when things are diagnosed, the actual access to care is still very, very difficult in most places in this country."

Kennedy and McMahon also argued in favor of "natural sources of mental well-being," which are well accepted by the mental health community.

Factors like good nutrition, social interactions, sleep, and family support are key to better mental health for kids, says Feuer. "They're actually part of a really important mental health promotion plan."

"But it's not everything," says Alvord. "You can be eating and sleeping well and still have mental health challenges."

And that's why regular school-based mental health screens are so important, say Alvord and others. They help catch symptoms early and connect vulnerable kids to care before there is a crisis.

NPR reached out to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with a request to interview Kennedy or another official to elaborate on plans for addressing kids' mental health, but we did not receive a response by deadline.

Transcript

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Education Secretary Linda McMahon are calling for an end to school-based mental health screening and therapy. Instead, they argue in a Washington Post op-ed that kids need, quote, "natural sources of mental health." NPR health correspondent Rhitu Chatterjee is here to tell us more. Hi, Rhitu.

RHITU CHATTERJEE, BYLINE: Hey, Ari.

SHAPIRO: Why do they oppose school-based mental health screenings?

CHATTERJEE: So here's what they've written in the op-ed. They argue that these screenings - which are basically standardized questionnaires that kids can answer about their mood and mental health - they say these screenings are - they medicalize, quote, "the unique and sometimes unpredictable behavior of young children," unquote. And that instead of removing stigmas, they say screenings create new stigmas, and they write that it can lead to treating all kids like patients and overzealous use of therapy.

SHAPIRO: How do mental health experts respond to that?

CHATTERJEE: So all the experts that I spoke to thought that the op-ed was misleading about mental health screenings and therapy.

SHAPIRO: In what way?

CHATTERJEE: So let's start with the argument that these school-based mental health screeners cause more stigma and treat all kids like patients. Here's psychologist Mary Alvord, who works in schools and sees children and adolescents in private practice.

MARY ALVORD: Screeners are meant to be more universal - so not targeting a few kids but really screening everyone. And they are awareness and conversation starters.

CHATTERJEE: And she said that, you know, stigma comes from not talking about something, and it's a big reason why people don't seek care for mental health. So she says screeners don't create stigma, they reduce it just by normalizing conversations about mental health. Another important point is that mental health screeners don't diagnose. You know, it's no different than getting a hearing or a vision screen. They're just brief assessments to find the people at risk and then refer the kids for follow-up - maybe to a school counselor or school nurse - to see if they need to go see a therapist or a psychiatrist.

SHAPIRO: So do the kids whose screenings come out testing positive for mental health problems all get access to therapy if it's needed?

CHATTERJEE: No. I remember that access to therapy is a huge challenge for all Americans, but especially for children, primarily because there just aren't enough providers to meet the demand. But take, for example, even when a child sees a therapist or a psychiatrist - right? - it doesn't necessarily mean that the child will have a mental health diagnosis. Here's Dr. Vera Feuer, who heads the children's psychiatry department at Northwell Health in New York. She says when she evaluates a child, she also assesses their physical health.

VERA FEUER: We often do diagnose other medical conditions, including diabetes or other things that may present. You know, somebody looking like they're distracted in the classroom, falling asleep, not being engaged can look like they're depressed.

CHATTERJEE: But in reality, Feuer says it might be that the child's sugar levels are really high because of underlying diabetes, and this is a scenario she's dealt with in her clinic.

SHAPIRO: What do the experts you've been talking to say about what McMahon and Kennedy called the natural sources of well-being?

CHATTERJEE: So the natural sources of well-being that they're advocating for are, quote, "strong families, nutrition and fitness and hope for the future," close quote. And they also argue for less social media and screens. Now, these aren't controversial at all. In fact, many schools - especially since the pandemic - are already working on these things. But even with doing all those things, they can still have students who need care for a mental health condition, and screening can help identify them. I should add that I reached out to the federal Health Department with a request to interview the health secretary or anyone else who can clarify or elaborate these points, but I did not get a response by deadline.

SHAPIRO: That's NPR's Rhitu Chatterjee. Thank you.

CHATTERJEE: My pleasure.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5543271

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AUTHOR INTERVIEWS | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 2:59 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

From heart to skin to hair, 'Replaceable You' dives into the science of transplant

By Terry Gross

Heard on Fresh Air

Science writer Mary Roach is fascinated by the human body, especially, she says, the "gooey bits and pieces of us that are performing miracles on a daily basis."

Take the human heart, for instance. If we're lucky, Roach says, our hearts might continue beating for 80+ years. "What thing that you buy at Best Buy keeps going that long?" she asks.

Roach is known for her books about what makes the human body so remarkable. She's done deep dives on human cadavers, the digestive system and the science of sex. Now, in Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy, she chronicles both the history of body part replacement (including prosthetic noses that date back to the 1500s), as well as more recent medical breakthroughs.

The book was inspired by a woman Roach knows with spina bifida, whose gait was impeded by a twisted foot. The woman was seeking to have her foot surgically amputated and replaced with a prosthetic limb, when she encountered an unexpected impediment: Surgeons were reluctant to remove what they considered a healthy limb — even though the patient could not walk on it.

"And I thought that was interesting, the reluctance of the surgeons to remove a foot because it is an act with some finality to remove a foot," Roach says.

Roach's book describes how advancements in gene editing and 3D printing technology might further make our anatomy "replaceable." She profiles scientists in lab at Carnegie Mellon University who used a 3D printer to create a tiny ventricle, which was used to pump the heart of a mouse. But, she adds, the Trump administration's cuts to medical research threaten to interrupt the "pipeline of innovation and discovery."

"That's going to have terrible effects further down the line," Roach says. "Just looking forward to the future of innovation and medical care, it's very depressing."

Interview highlights

On why pigs became the animal used in organ transplants

You can, to a certain extent, blame Hormel, the pork company. What happened in the '40s, '50s, '60s, there was a project, it was a collaboration between the Mayo Clinic, the Mayo Foundation, which was the research arm of the Mayo clinic, and the Hormel Institute, which was the research arm of pork. The goal here was to create a smaller pig, a pig that would be a good match in terms of not just the size of human organs, but the functions. There were all these studies were done looking at do pigs get coronary artery disease? And it turns out they do. In fact, the pig was described in one of their papers as a caricature of an obese human. In other words, gets heart disease, has heart issues, doesn't get enough exercise. …

If you are going to use the pig as your model, as your stand-in for a human, then you want to be sure that these organs ... behave similarly, that they have a similar size. So this research, once it got rolling, and there were dozens and dozens of papers, three volumes of papers looking at kidney function, liver function. There was one on orthodontia where they had put braces onto pigs. So it was all toward the goal of creating an analog, a stand-in for a human being for trying out surgical techniques or not so much pharmaceuticals, but techniques and replacements. So the pig became the go-to creature. … I mean who knows, a goat might've been equally useful, but nobody started using goats.

On preventing the body from rejecting a pig organ

With an organ that's coming from another species, the reaction is quite severe. It's called a hyperacute rejection, where, within minutes, the body starts to attack, the organ starts to turn black. You don't want to put a pig organ into somebody without it having been genetically edited. So one of the things that's edited is something called the alpha-gal protein. And this is a surface protein that the body, if you can knock that out, you're basically just making the pig organ seem a little less pig-like and a little more human-like. So now you're dealing with a level of rejection that you would get with a human transplant. In other words, taking some other human's organ and transplanting it. So the person is still on an immunosuppressive regimen, taking drugs to suppress the immune system. But on about the same level as they would with a human.

On if a pig transplant is kosher

I asked the surgeon who was involved in the first pig transplant … and he said, yeah, there are a lot of folks both in the Jewish religion and the Muslim religion who really wish we'd chosen a different species, because I had been asking him, why pigs? And he says, I get that question all the time. The thing is, he said, we're not eating them, we are saving lives. So it's OK to get a pig organ if you're keeping kosher. ... There were interviews with various religious thought leaders and there was consensus that it is indeed OK to have a pig organ implanted. Just don't eat it.

On experiments 3D printing muscle and tissue

I spent a day at the Feinberg lab at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, and what people were working on there was trying to print muscle in a way that the alignment of the cells would create muscle that had the specific function that muscle needed. In other words, a heart, the heart needs to move in a kind of a twisting motion. It twists as it pumps, so you've got to print the cells. They have to be in a helix shape, which is different from, say, the hamstring, where it'd be kind of parallel. Or the shoulder muscle, they're in a fan-like shape, which gives you a lot of the versatility of the movement of the shoulder. So you're not just printing generic muscle. You have to print it in a very specific way to achieve the function that you want it to be doing, which I found kind of amazing. No one is printing whole organs. That's way off in the future.

On the tediousness of tissue recovery for organ donations

When I arrived in the room where they were doing the tissue recovery, where they would be extracting the bone and the tendon and the skin, etc., one of the people doing it said to me, this is the worst part of the job. And I kind of assumed I had preconceived notions of what the worst of that job might be, but she was talking about handwriting on labels the same ID number over and over, double checking, cross checking, the amount of paperwork and labeling, and then at the end, packing and shipping was the tedious and unpleasant part of her job, not the opening up of a leg and the extracting of bone or ligament. I guess I just wasn't expecting that.

On how knowing too much about how our bodies work can get in your head

When I wrote Gulp ... I became really aware of what's going on in your mouth when you chew, the process of bolus formation, where you're taking a piece of meat, say, and you're breaking it down and then you're putting it back together in a bolus that's a shape that can slide down the throat. And I visited somebody who studies chewing and this process and what the jaws do, and I remember for a while after that going to restaurants and thinking, looking around at people chewing and swallowing and thinking this is disgusting. People should have sex in public and eat in private! It's absolutely disgusting.

Sam Briger and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Carmel Wroth adapted it for the web.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5530048

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REAL TALK WITH A DOC | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 6:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Is telehealth a good idea, or should I see my regular doctor?

By Mara Gordon

Q: I see tons of ads for telehealth. Is that a good idea, or should I stick to my regular doctor?

Lots of my friends have been asking me lately: Is telehealth sketchy?

I'm a primary care doctor — one who practices in a "regular" brick-and-mortar office — and people in my life have lots of questions about the ads they see for online doctors offering everything from mental health care to Viagra.

The services seem so easy to use, my friends say, but they're not sure that they're safe.

Nobody can deny the ease of telehealth. You can schedule appointments within hours — sometimes minutes — of realizing you need care and see a doctor from your couch, in your pajamas.

Do you have a medical question you’d like an honest answer on? Write us at thrive@npr.org, and we’ll consider your question for the column.

But there can also be some serious drawbacks. For one, you might get hit with unexpected costs. And for medical conditions that aren't straightforward, there can be real benefits from building a relationship with a doctor IRL.

Here are some things to keep in mind if you're considering trying telehealth:

1. Different telehealth methods work better, depending on your health concern

If you're confused by the huge variety of online health care companies that have cropped up in recent years, welcome to the club. I can't keep up!

The field has been rapidly evolving in the U.S. since Medicare started paying doctors for virtual visits during the COVID-19 pandemic, and many other health insurers followed suit.

Telehealth can be delivered via video chat or phone or by filling out an online form. In the latter case, a doctor reviews the form and provides a treatment plan without talking to you at all.

Erectile dysfunction and hair loss medications — some of the first and most heavily advertised treatments available via telehealth — are pretty safe to access this way. Answer a few questions through a form, type in your credit card information, and the medications are in the mail. Companies that offer these treatments often deal with only one condition at a time and follow simple algorithms to make a diagnosis and offer a treatment plan.

If you have a mystery rash, on the other hand, you might try a video visit so your doctor can get eyes on it. Video visits are also helpful for evaluating sick kids and skin and nail infections.

Logging in to the right app for a video visit can be tricky for folks who have a hard time navigating technology, however, which is why I offer phone call appointments for my patients. A voice-only call is often the easiest way to discuss test results or check in about how a new medication is working.

Telehealth can be especially helpful for people in rural areas without close access to doctors.

2. Telehealth can't reach out and touch you

Telehealth simply doesn't work for conditions that require a physical exam (like gynecologic exams or joint pain) or for procedures like vaccines, steroid injections or biopsies.

And if your condition is complicated or you don't have a clear diagnosis — say, you're having abdominal pain but don't know why — it's often worth your while to meet a provider in person. Real-life visits tend to be more thorough, and doctors can learn a lot about your condition by observation and physical exam.

If you aren't sure whether a telehealth appointment is appropriate, ask your doctor.

3. You can get specialized care for some sensitive issues, but it might leave out something important

A lot of telehealth companies promote specialized care, like hormone therapy for menopause or mental health care. Not every primary care doctor is experienced treating every single issue — although we try! — and telehealth can get you quick access to an expert if your regular doctor isn't comfortable treating the problem.

But remember that if you sign up for menopause care online, you'll get only menopause care. Expect to follow up with your primary care doc for any other issues. You should also consider where you'll turn if things go wrong. If you have a complication or follow-up questions, is it easy to get an appointment with the telehealth company, or are you expected to return to your primary care doctor?

4. It may save you money — or not

There's some research to suggest that telehealth might be cheaper, overall, than in-person care. That makes sense: A quick virtual visit might prevent a costly and time-consuming emergency room visit, and that can decrease unnecessary testing. You also save on travel costs.

But again, it depends on whether you're seeing a doctor you already know. Online appointments with a provider who has to start from square one might end up costing you more, both in emergency department costs if you get sent for further testing and in fees associated with the platform.

Many telehealth platforms don't take health insurance at all and charge your credit card directly. When in doubt, read the fine print.

5. Online or off, it's your relationship with your doctor that matters

Telehealth's promise of convenience can backfire. There's some research to suggest that a virtual visit with a doctor you've never met before might make it more likely you'll end up in the emergency room later. The same study showed that a virtual visit with a family doctor who already knows you made it less likely that you'd go to the ER.

Researchers didn't know why, but I've got a theory: When doctors don't know their patients very well, they tend to be more cautious.

If you have, say, a cough, and you meet a new doctor on a video visit, the doctor might send you for further in-person evaluation to make sure it isn't pneumonia. But a doctor who knows you well — and knows, for example, that you don't have asthma and don't smoke — could more comfortably say, "Drink some tea, take a day off work, and call me if it isn't getting better."

And, of course, getting to know a long-term primary care doctor can be good for your health. (I'm a bit biased, of course, but the research is pretty clear on this one.)

So rather than asking, "Should I use telehealth or see my regular doctor?" a better question might be, "How can I use telehealth with my regular doctor?" Lots of primary care doctors are happy to use telehealth as a supplement to in-person care.

So bottom line: Before you make an appointment with a company that promises a lot but also charges a lot, it's worth checking in with your primary care doctor.

There's a lot to gain from getting to know a health care provider in your community. That provider might also be willing to see you for a telehealth appointment too. And honestly, they probably don't care whether you wear your pajamas to the virtual visit — or your IRL visit too.

Mara Gordon is a family physician at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden, New Jersey. She writes the Substack newsletter Your Doctor Friend.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5500317

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POLICY-ISH | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 5:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Kennedy's vaccine panel expected to recommend delaying hepatitis B shot in children

By Jackie Fortiér

A key federal vaccine advisory panel whose members were recently replaced by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to vote to recommend delaying, until age 4, the hepatitis B vaccine that's currently given to newborns, according to two former senior officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"There is going to likely be a discussion about hepatitis B vaccine, very specifically trying to dislodge the birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine and to push it later in life," said Demetre Daskalakis, the former director for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. "Apparently this is a priority of the Secretary's."

The vote is expected to take place Thursday during the next meeting of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP. The meeting is scheduled for September 18-19 at a CDC office in Atlanta, Georgia.

For more than 30 years, the CDC has advised that infants get the first of three shots of the hepatitis B vaccine at birth. In that time, the potentially fatal disease has been virtually eradicated among American children. Between 1990 and 2022, case rates plummeted 99 percent among people age 19 and younger.

Pediatricians warn that waiting until age 4 to begin vaccination opens the door to more children contracting the virus.

"Age four makes zero sense," said pediatrician Eric Ball, who practices in Orange County, California. "We recommend a universal approach to prevent those cases where a test might be incorrect or a mother might have unknowingly contracted hepatitis. It's really the best way to keep our entire population healthy."

In addition to the hepatitis B vaccine, the panel will also discuss and vote on recommendations for the combined measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella vaccine, and COVID vaccines.

Pediatricians worry changes to the schedules of these vaccines will limit access for many families, because ACIP's recommendations generally determine whether insurance plans and federal programs pay for the vaccines.

Typically, ACIP would undertake an analysis of the data before recommending a change to vaccine guidelines. As of the end of August, this process had not begun for the hepatitis B vaccines, Daskalakis and another former official said.

"This is an atypical situation. There's been no work group to discuss it," Daskalakis said.

The second former official spoke to NPR and KFF Health News on condition of anonymity.

In an email, a Health and Human Services spokesman, Andrew Nixon, wrote, "ACIP exists to ensure that vaccine policy is guided by the best available evidence and open scientific deliberation. Any updates to recommendations will be made transparently with gold standard science."

The draft agenda for the upcoming ACIP meeting was released to the public Sunday, only a few days before the meetings are scheduled to begin.

At the last ACIP meeting in June, chairman Martin Kulldorff, one of the new members handpicked by Kennedy, questioned the need to vaccinate every newborn, citing only two of the many ways the virus can spread.

Kulldorff is a former Harvard Medical School professor who became known for opposing some public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Unless the mother is hepatitis B positive, an argument could be made to delay the vaccine for this infection, which is primarily spread by sexual activity and intravenous drug use," Kulldorff said.

The infection requires direct exposure to infected bodily fluids like blood and semen. The disease has no cure and can lead to serious conditions like cirrhosis and liver cancer later in life. The CDC advisory panel may maintain the recommendation to inoculate newborns whose mothers are considered at high risk of the disease, the former officials said.

Protection From Birth

In 1991, federal health officials determined it was advisable for newborns to receive their first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth, which blocks the virus from taking hold if transmitted during delivery.

While parents may opt out of the shots, many daycare centers and school districts require proof of hepatitis B vaccination for enrollment.

The prospect of altering the recommendation has left some people living with the virus deeply unsettled.

"I am goddamn frustrated," said Wendy Lo, 52, who lives in the San Francisco Bay area. Lo says she has probably had hepatitis B since birth. Years of navigating the psychological, monetary, medical and social aspects of chronic hepatitis B has impacted almost every aspect of her life.

"I would not want anyone to have to experience that if it can be prevented," she said.

Lo only learned she had the disease due to a routine screening in order to study abroad in college as a young adult.

Lo credits the vaccines with protecting all the members of her close family from infection.

"I shared with my partner, 'if you get vaccinated, we can be together,'" she said. He got the vaccine, which protects him from infection, "so I'm grateful for that," she said.

The CDC estimates half of people with hepatitis B do not know they are infected. It can range from an acute, mild infection to a chronic infection, often with few or no symptoms.

Most people with chronic hepatitis B were born outside of the U.S. Asians and Pacific Islanders, followed by Black people, have the highest rates of newly reported chronic infections.

When her children were born, Lo was adamant that they receive the newborn dose, a decision she says prevented them from contracting the virus.

The earlier an infection occurs, the worse the lifetime consequences, according to the CDC. When contracted in infancy or early childhood, hepatitis B is far more likely to become a chronic infection, silently damaging the liver over decades.

Those who become chronic carriers can also unknowingly spread the virus to others and face an increased risk of long-term complications including cirrhosis and liver cancer, which may not become evident until much later in life.

Treatments like the antivirals Lo now takes weren't available until the 1990s. Decades of the virus replicating unchecked damaged her liver. Every six months she gets scared of what her blood tests may reveal.

"Now I'm in my 50s, one of my big concerns is liver cancer. The vaccine is safe and effective, it's life-saving, and it protects you against cancer. How many vaccines do that?" Lo said.

Thirty Years of Universal Vaccination

After a vaccine was approved in the 1980s, public health officials initially focused vaccination efforts on so-called "high-risk" adults.

"I, and every other doctor, had been trained in medical school to think of hepatitis B as an infection you acquired as an adult. It was the pimps, the prostitutes, the prisoners, and the healthcare practitioners who got hepatitis B infection. But we've learned so much more," said William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and a former voting member of ACIP.

As hepatitis B rates remained stubbornly high in the 1980s, scientists realized an entire vulnerable group was missing from the vaccination regime – newborns. The virus is often spread from an infected mother to baby in late pregnancy or during birth.

"We may soon hear 'let's just do a blood test on all pregnant women.' We tried that. That doesn't work perfectly either," Shaffner said.

Some doctors didn't test, he said, and some pregnant women falsely tested negative, while others acquired hepatitis B later in pregnancy, after they had already been tested. In 1991, Schaffner was a liaison member to the ACIP group that voted to recommend universal vaccination for hepatitis B before an infant leaves the hospital.

"We want no babies infected. Therefore, we'll just vaccinate every mom and every baby at birth. Problem solved. It has been brilliantly successful in virtually eliminating hepatitis B in children," he said.

In 1990, there were 3.03 cases of hepatitis B per 100,000 in those 19 years old and under in the U.S., according to the CDC.

Since the federal recommendation to vaccinate all infants, cases have dramatically decreased. CDC data shows that in 2022, the rate of cases among those ages 19 was less than 0.1 per 100,000.

While hepatitis B is often associated with high-risk behaviors such as injected drug use or multiple sexual partners, health experts caution that it is possible for the virus to be transmitted in ordinary situations, especially among young children.

The virus can survive for up to seven days outside the body. During that time, even microscopic traces of infected blood on a school desk or playground equipment can pose a risk.

If the virus comes into contact with an open wound or the mucous membranes of the eyes, an infection can occur. This means that unvaccinated children who are not considered "high risk" can still be exposed in everyday environments.

Future Access Uncertain

If the CDC significantly alters its recommendation, health insurers would no longer be required to cover the cost of the shot if given before the new recommended age. That could leave parents to pay out of pocket for a vaccine that has long been provided at no charge.

Children who get immunizations through the federal Vaccines for Children program would lose free access to the shot as soon as any new ACIP recommendations get approved by the acting CDC director.

The two former CDC officials said that plans were underway to push back the official recommendation for the vaccine as of August, when they both left the agency, but may have changed.

Schaffner is still a liaison member of ACIP, and hopes to express his support for universal newborn vaccination at the next meeting.

"The liaisons have now been excluded from the vaccine work groups. They are still permitted to attend the full meetings," he said.

He intends to speak up if he can, because he's worried about the next generation of babies and the doctors who care for them.

"We'll see cases of hepatitis B once again occur. We'll see transmission into the next generation," he said. "And the next generation of people who wear white coats will have to deal with hepatitis B, when we could have cut it off at the pass."

This story was produced in partnership with KFF Health News, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF.

NPR Health Correspondent Will Stone contributed to this story.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5542405

PUBLIC HEALTH | MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2025 • 5:04 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

5 new members added to CDC vaccine advisory panel ahead of key meeting

By Pien Huang

Just days before vaccine advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention meet to weigh who should get COVID vaccines this season, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has selected five more members to the committee he purged of Biden administration appointees in June.

The new members of the influential Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices are:

- Hilary Blackburn, a pharmacist at AscensionRx, who also hosts a podcast,

- Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist and an affiliate of the Independent Medical Alliance,

- Dr. Evelyn Griffin, an ob/gyn and functional medicine practitioner,

- Dr. Raymond Pollak, a semi-retired transplant surgeon, and

- Catherine Stein, an epidemiology professor at Case Western Reserve University, who has claimed the government overstated COVID risks.

"The new ACIP members bring a wealth of real-world public health experience to the job of making immunization recommendations," said Jim O'Neill, Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services and Acting Director of the CDC in a media statement. "We are grateful for their service in helping restore the public confidence in vaccines that was lost during the Biden era."

The advisory group – now numbering 12 members – makes recommendations that help determine which vaccines are offered free through the Vaccines for Children program, and what health insurers typically cover. They also influence state and local laws around vaccine requirements.

The appointments expand the committee just before it meets this week in Atlanta. On Thursday and Friday, the members will be considering policies such as who should get the fall COVID-19 booster shot, and whether all babies should get the hepatitis B vaccine at birth.

Short list of members leaked in early September

The new members were among seven that appeared on a list that was first reported by the "Inside Medicine" newsletter on Sept. 3. Two others who were named then — Dr. Joseph Fraiman, an emergency medical physician, and Dr. John Gaitanis, a pediatric neurologist at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Rhode Island — were not appointed to the committee by HHS.

NPR reached out to each of the new members of the committee earlier this month, when their names first appeared in media reports. Only one responded.

Dr. Raymond Pollak, a semi-retired transplant surgeon, was still in the midst of the vetting process on Sept. 5. "I think I'd be an ideal choice for a committee like this," he told NPR. "I have expertise in clinical trial management and ethics, and my background in transplant biology allows me to understand the science of what is being proposed."

Pollak says he had not paid much attention to ACIP before he joined the committee, but he sees having non-vaccine experts on the panel as a plus. "I think it's a value to have broad representation of the community at large, both with and without the necessary expertise in order to formulate policy that makes sense to everybody," he says.

And while Pollack considers COVID vaccines "safe to administer and provided a benefit in that it kept down the severity of the illness and prevented hospitalization," he says the vaccine rollout was "poorly managed," contributing to hysteria and conspiracy theories that the government covered up harms and injuries related to the vaccine. "The notion that the government tried to 'cover it up' is false," Pollak says. "All of the information on adverse effects is readily available in the medical literature. The problem is it tends to stay within the profession and doesn't get disseminated widely amongst the public."

Kennedy's imprint on vaccine panel grows

The new members join the seven others Kennedy named to the panel in June, replacements he handpicked after firing all 17 of the panel's previously seated members. The replacements, who met for the first time at the CDC in June, include Dr. Robert Malone, who has spread misinformation about COVID and opposed vaccine mandates, and Retsef Levi, an MIT professor of operations management who gained prominence during the pandemic for criticizing COVID vaccines.

The members Kennedy fired had been chosen for their medical expertise and understanding of vaccine policy, and had been formally vetted to ensure that they would not directly financially benefit from any ACIP votes. They had been serving in overlapping rotations over several years to ensure continuity of expertise and process.

"There are large gaps in the new ACIP's composition in terms of their missing expertise on vaccinology, their missing expertise on primary care, their missing expertise on cost effectiveness and clinical trials," says Noel Brewer, a former ACIP member who had served on the committee for a year before being dismissed by Kennedy in June. "These are folks who fundamentally do not understand vaccines in a deep way. I wouldn't take medical advice from them, and I certainly don't think they should be setting policy for the United States."

Since Kennedy overhauled the panel, the ACIP has seen major changes to how it operates, for instance voting to effectively ban flu vaccines with the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal in their June meeting. The change was based on debunked claims without new scientific evidence of harms. This move, among others, has led top medical organizations and public health groups to question the integrity of the group's advice.

"Misinformation, politicization of commonsense public health efforts, and sudden changes to federal vaccine guidance is creating mass confusion and diminishing trust in public health. As we head into another fall season sure to be marked by cases of flu, Covid-19, and RSV as well as the alarming reappearance of measles and pertussis, the stakes could not be higher," the presidents of five professional medical groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Physicians wrote, in a June op-ed in Stat News.

Many state vaccine laws are tied to ACIP guidance. Some states led by Democratic governors are starting to reduce their reliance on the committee over concerns that future recommendations may be based on "ideology and not science," says Dennis Worsham, health secretary for the Washington State Department of Health, which has formed a vaccine policy alliance with California, Oregon and Hawaii.

Rob Stein contributed to this report

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5542390

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- Movie star and visionary Robert Redford has died at age 89: 2025 Sep 16

- On 9/16/25, celebrate a date of mathematical beauty: 2025 Sep 16

OBITUARIES | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 9:14 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Movie star and visionary Robert Redford has died at age 89

By Neda Ulaby

Heard on All Things Considered

Movie star and film visionary Robert Redford died at his home in Utah on Tuesday. He was 89 years old.

Inevitably, one word comes up when discussing Robert Redford: golden. Redford gleamed through more than 80 movies, many of them classics. His life included decades of activism and founding the Sundance Institute that profoundly shaped decades of independent film.

Fittingly, Redford's history started in Los Angeles. His working-class family was the only white one on their mostly Mexican block. As a kid, Redford often misbehaved in school.

"I was constantly at the blackboard, either being punished for things I'd done wrong, and having to do repetitions of math up on the board, or I was drawing, telling a story," he told NPR in 2003.

Redford dreamed of becoming an artist. He attended the University of Colorado, Boulder, on a baseball scholarship. He then worked on an oil rig to save up enough money to study painting in Europe for a year. When he came back to the U.S. to enroll in art school, at the Pratt Institute in New York, it was Redford's own beauty that took up all the air in the room, says film critic Carrie Rickey.

"They said when he walked into the cafeteria, you could drop a pin because everyone was looking at him," she says, recalling her interviews with people who knew Redford as a student. "I think he was profoundly ambivalent about his looks and wanted to communicate that."

Redford found his way into the theater through an interest in set design, and he was soon starring on Broadway in Neil Simon's hit Barefoot in the Park, alongside actress Elizabeth Ashley. He reprised his role in the 1967 movie, this time alongside Jane Fonda. Along the way, Redford appeared in a number of the era's best television shows, such as Playhouse 90, Route 66 and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and he memorably played Death in a classic episode of The Twilight Zone. But Redford got his big break when Paul Newman and writer William Goldman campaigned for Redford to co-star in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, over the studio's objections. (Executives found Redford's looks generic, according to Goldman, and attempted to cast better-known actors, such as Marlon Brando, Steve McQueen and Warren Beatty.)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid turned out to be the most successful film of 1969, and it led to a string of other hits: The Sting, The Way We Were, All The President's Men and Jeremiah Johnson, which remained one of the actor's personal favorites. But Redford longed for a career behind the camera. He experimented with distributing documentaries directly to college film societies in the early 1970s. His debut film as a director in 1980, Ordinary People, won Redford an Oscar for best director and best picture (infamously beating Martin Scorsese and Raging Bull).

Throughout the 1980s, Redford remained one of Hollywood's most popular and bankable actors. He starred in some of the era's lushest period pictures, such as The Natural and Out of Africa, one of the films he made with Meryl Streep. But unlike Streep, Redford never won a single Oscar for acting, noted critic Carrie Rickey.

"He tended to be a minimalist on screen, often interrupting himself to make it sound like actual speech," Rickey observed. "Even as he continued starring in movies, with his inimitable blend of shadowed sunshine, Redford's offscreen ambitions found their apotheosis with the Sundance Institute. He transformed the industry by founding it in 1981. It became a launchpad for generations of film artists, too many to name, including directors Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, Kevin Smith and Robert Rodriguez.

"He changed so many lives," Rickey observed. "And he changed movies, both as a director and as the head of Sundance. Who else can say that?"

Over the years, Sundance evolved into an independent powerhouse, with prestigious programs for theater, music, Native American film and documentaries that helped produce Oscar honorees from American Dream to When We Were Kings, Summer of Soul, Citizenfour and Crip Camp.

"All the films I've made are about the country I live in and grew up in," Redford told NPR in 2013. He was not interested in America as black and white or blue or red, he said. "I was interested in the gray part, where complexity lies."

Redford said he thought celebrity led to cultural oversimplification. "It's got a dangerous side to it," he said. "I think that people should be paying a lot more attention to issues, rather than who's the Top 10 this, or the Top 5, or who's the sexiest or most beautiful or this or that."

The things Redford cared about included the environment and Indigenous rights. A passionate and private man, he was ultimately what he always strove to be — an artist.

Transcript

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

One of the great movie stars of his era has died. Robert Redford died early this morning at his home in Utah, according to his representative, Cindi Berger. He was 89 years old. Redford starred in more than 80 movies, many of them classics. NPR's Neda Ulaby has this remembrance.

NEDA ULABY, BYLINE: One word comes up with Robert Redford over and over and over. That word is golden.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE GREAT GATSBY")

ROBERT REDFORD: (As Jay Gatsby) How do you do, old sport? I'm Gatsby.

ULABY: He gleaned in "The Great Gatsby" and radiated as an investigative reporter in "All The President's Men."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN")

REDFORD: (As Bob Woodward) If you're going to do it, do it right. Here's my notes. If you're going to hype it, hype it with the facts. I don't mind what you did. I mind the way you did it.

ULABY: And he brought glamour to outdoorsy films like "The Horse Whisperer."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE HORSE WHISPERER")

REDFORD: (As Tom Booker) When I work with a horse, I like to know its history.

ULABY: Robert Redford's history started, fittingly, in Los Angeles. His working-class family were the only Anglos on a mostly Mexican block. As a kid, Redford often misbehaved in school, as he told NPR in 2003.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)

REDFORD: I was constantly up at the blackboard, either being punished for things I'd done wrong and having to do repetitions of math on the board, or I was drawing telling a story.

ULABY: Redford wanted to be an artist. In his late teens, he worked on an oil rig to afford a year to study painting in Europe. But when he came back to the U.S. for college, says film critic Carrie Rickey, it was Redford's beauty that took up all the air in the room.

CARRIE RICKEY: They said when he walked into the cafeteria, you could drop a pin because everyone was looking at him. I think he was profoundly ambivalent about his looks and wanted to communicate that.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

REDFORD: (As Paul Bratter) I've been walking barefoot in the park.

ULABY: Redford's breakthrough was on Broadway in Neil Simon's play "Barefoot In The Park." The movie version came out in 1967 with Jane Fonda.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BAREFOOT IN THE PARK")

JANE FONDA: (As Corie Bratter) You're drunk.

REDFORD: (As Paul Bratter, laughter) You finally noticed.

ULABY: You know who else noticed Robert Redford? Paul Newman.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID")

REDFORD: (As The Sundance Kid) Ready?

PAUL NEWMAN: (As Butch Cassidy) No, we'll jump.

ULABY: He helped Redford get cast as his costar in 1969's "Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid." With its famous cliff-jumping scene, the movie made Redford a generational icon.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID")

REDFORD: (As The Sundance Kid) Come on. Just one clear shot. That's all I want.

NEWMAN: (As Butch Cassidy) Come on.

REDFORD: (As The Sundance Kid) Uh-uh.

NEWMAN: (As Butch Cassidy) We got to.

REDFORD: (As The Sundance Kid) Get away from me.

NEWMAN: (As Butch Cassidy) Why?

REDFORD: (As The Sundance Kid) I want to fight 'em.

ULABY: The most successful film of the year led to other hits - "The Sting," "Jeremiah Johnson," "The Way We Were." When Robert Redford made his first film as a director in 1980, "Ordinary People" beat Martin Scorsese and "Raging Bull" for best director and best picture at the Oscars.

(SOUNDBITE 53RD ACADEMY AWARDS BROADCAST)

REDFORD: Well, I just didn't think I was going to see this.

ULABY: Redford went on to star in some of the era's luscious period blockbusters, such as "The Natural" and "Out Of Africa," 1 of 7 films he made with Meryl Streep. What could be more dreamy than Robert Redford quoting poetry while washing Streep's hair?

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "OUT OF AFRICA")

REDFORD: (As Denys) He prayeth well who loveth well, both man and bird and beast.

ULABY: But Redford never won a single Oscar for acting.

RICKEY: He tended to be a minimalist on screen, often interrupting himself to make it sound like actual speech.

ULABY: Critic Carrie Rickey says Redford kept starring in movies, including much later as a Marvel movie villain. But the actor found freedom off screen. He transformed the industry itself by founding the Sundance Institute in 1981.

RICKEY: Sundance was the way he supported film artists to do what they loved.

ULABY: The film artists who broke through at Sundance are too many to name, but they include the directors Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh and Robert Rodriguez with his 1992 film "El Mariachi."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "EL MARIACHI")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character, speaking Spanish).

ULABY: Over the years, Sundance evolved into an independent powerhouse with prestigious programs for theater, music, Native American film and documentaries that helped produce numerous Oscar winners, such as "Crip Camp."

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "CRIP CAMP")

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: There is no (inaudible).

RICKEY: I mean, he changed so many lives, and he changed movies both as a director and as the head of Sundance. I mean, God, who else can say that?

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)

REDFORD: All the films that I've made are about the country I live in and grew up in.

ULABY: Robert Redford told NPR in 2013 he was not interested in America as Black and white or blue and red.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)

REDFORD: I was interested in the gray part where complexity lies.

ULABY: Redford believed that complexity was the enemy of celebrity. And as a celebrity himself, he believed stardom contributed to cultural simplification.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)

REDFORD: It's got a dangerous side to it. I think that the people should be paying a lot more attention to other issues rather than who's the Top 10 this or who's the Top 5 or who's the sexiest or the most beautiful or this or that.

ULABY: The things Robert Redford cared about included the environment and Indigenous rights. A passionate and private man, he was ultimately what he always strove to be - an artist.

Neda Ulaby, NPR News.

CORRECTION

Sep. 16th, 2025

An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Jane Fonda appeared on Broadway in Barefoot in the Park. Actress Elizabeth Ashley starred in the original Broadway production with Redford, and Jane Fonda appeared alongside Redford in the film version.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/1068370058

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SCIENCE | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 6:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

On 9/16/25, celebrate a date of mathematical beauty

By Ari Daniel

Heard on All Things Considered

Once a century, a very special day comes along. That day is today — 9/16/25.

Pi Day (3/14) often comes with sweet treats; Square Root Day (4/4/16 or 5/5/25, for example) has a certain numerical rhyme. But the particular string of numbers in today's date may be especially delightful to the brains of mathematicians and the casual nerds among us.

First, "all three of the entries in that date are perfect squares — and what I mean by that is 9 is equal to 3^2, 16 is equal to 4^2, and 25 is equal to 5^2," says Colin Adams, a mathematician at Williams College who was first tipped off about today's special qualities during a meeting with his former student, Jake Malarkey.

Next, those perfect squares come from consecutive numbers — three, four, and five.

But perhaps most special of all is that three, four, and five are an example of what's called a Pythagorean triple.

"And what that means," explains Adams, "is that if I take the sum of the squares of the first two numbers, 3^2 + 4^2, which is 9 + 16… is equal to 25, which is 5^2, so 3^2 + 4^2 = 5^2."

This is the Pythagorean Theorem: a^2 + b^2 = c^2. "And that in fact is the most famous theorem in all of mathematics," says Adams.

It's a theorem that means something geometrically, too. Any Pythagorean triple — including 3, 4, and 5 — also gives the lengths of the three sides of a right triangle. That is, the squares of the two shorter lengths add up to the square of the final, longer side (the hypotenuse).

There are no other dates this century that meet all these conditions, so most of us will experience it just once in our lifetime.

(Fun bonus: It turns out the full year, 2025, is also a perfect square: 45 times 45.)

In any case, Adams says that if it were up to him, he'd call the day Pythagorean Triple Square Day. And he plans on celebrating with a rectangular cake cut along the diagonal to yield two right triangles.

"If I have any luck at all, if I can find a cake with the right dimensions, it'll look like a 3, 4, 5 cake, namely edge length 3, edge length 4, and edge length 5," he says. In the middle, he intends to have the date inscribed in icing.

"This date is hiding one of the most beautiful coincidences we will ever encounter," says Terrence Blackman, chair of the mathematics department at Medgar Evers College in the City University of New York. "Those numbers, they tell a story that goes back to ancient Greece."

Blackman says the Pythagorean Theorem is used frequently by carpenters and architects. But for him, as a mathematician, today's date captures a special elegance.

"It reveals some kind of hidden mathematical poetry that is sitting there — just like walking and coming upon a beautiful flower," he says.

In a world that can feel chaotic, Blackman feels that a day like today shows that math can provide a source of comfort.

"It reminds us that beauty and meaning can be found anywhere and everywhere," he says. "We just have to continue to look for it."

Transcript

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Today is a pretty remarkable day if you are into math, like reporter Ari Daniel is - who says we only get a day like this once every hundred years. Well, we made him show his work.

ARI DANIEL, BYLINE: Colin Adams is a mathematician at Williams College, who first told me of the multiple reasons that make today - 9/16/25 - so special.

COLIN ADAMS: The first is that all three of the entries in that date are perfect squares. And what I mean by that is nine is just equal to three squared, 16 is equal to four squared, and 25 is equal to five squared.

DANIEL: Plus, those perfect squares come from consecutive numbers - three, four and five.

ADAMS: And that's more special.

DANIEL: But perhaps most special of all is that three, four and five are an example of a Pythagorean triple.

ADAMS: And what that means is that if I take the sum of the squares of the first two numbers - three squared plus four squared, which is nine, plus 16, is equal to 25, which is five squared. So three squared plus four squared equals five squared.

DANIEL: Sound familiar? This is the Pythagorean theorem - A squared plus B squared equals C squared.

ADAMS: The most famous theorem in all of mathematics.

DANIEL: It's a theorem that also means something geometrically. Any Pythagorean triple, including three, four and five, also gives you the lengths of three sides of a right triangle. There are no other dates this century that meet all these conditions, so most of us will experience it just once in our lifetime.

ADAMS: If it were me making it up, I would call it Pythagorean Triple Square Day.

DANIEL: Adams plans on celebrating with a rectangular cake cut along the diagonal to yield two right triangles.

ADAMS: Probably in the middle we'll put the date - 9/16/25.

TERRENCE BLACKMAN: This date is hiding one of the most beautiful coincidences we will ever encounter. Those numbers, they tell a story that goes back to ancient Greece.

DANIEL: Terrence Blackman chairs the math department at Medgar Evers College. He says the Pythagorean theorem is used all the time by carpenters and architects. But for him, as a mathematician, today's date captures a special elegance.

BLACKMAN: It reveals some kind of hidden mathematical poetry that is sitting there. Just like walking and coming upon a beautiful flower.

DANIEL: Blackman says that in a world that can feel chaotic, a day like today reminds us that math can be a source of comfort.

BLACKMAN: It reminds us that beauty and meaning can be found anywhere and everywhere, and we just have to continue to look for it.

DANIEL: For NPR News, I'm Ari Daniel.

(SOUNDBITE OF ALCYNOOS & ALBERTO DROGUETT'S "ATARAXIA")

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5535545

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Race

- Telling stories of gun violence deaths almost cost this reporter his life: 2025 Sep 15

AUTHOR INTERVIEWS | MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2025 • 1:22 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Telling stories of gun violence deaths almost cost this reporter his life

By Tonya Mosley

Heard on Fresh Air

When Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Trymaine Lee was 38, he suffered a sudden heart attack that nearly killed him. The incident made him reconsider the years he had spent reporting on the lives cut short by gun violence — and the stress it had put on his body.

"For the first time really, I had to look deep and engage with what was truly bearing down on my heart," he says. "And for me that had been more than a decade of telling stories of Black death and survival."

As a reporter in Trenton, Philadelphia and New Orleans, Lee covered the deaths of young men who looked like him. The victims were "wearing my same sneakers, same haircut," he says. "And you have to wrestle with seeing yourself in some ways, repeatedly gunned down, your body repeatedly falling. Tears for your death over and over and again."

Lee's new memoir, A Thousand Ways to Die: The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America, is part history, and part personal turning point. He traces the bloody history Black Americans have with firearms, recalls gun violence in his own youth and follows his ancestors' path back to Ghana.

The book reads like a plea for people to see the humanity of those lost to gun violence — and for this country to care enough to act.

"We have an opportunity and we still have this opportunity to be the great nation that we've professed," Lee says. "I'm not a policy maker. I don't profess to be an expert in gun policy. But what I do believe is that until we break our lust for these guns, nothing will change."

Interview highlights

On President Trump's comments about the violence in majority-Black cities

Hearing the president talk about Chicago and Baltimore and other cities, and he goes on to talk about how people in these communities were "born to be criminal[s]." The violence is innate, right? There's something in these people that makes them inherently violent, and the gun is just their tool.

But I think one of the biggest things that people miss or don't fully understand is that there is a direct pipeline from a slew of places with super lax gun laws that are poured right into Chicago. And that every one of these guns starts legally. And so along the pipeline, from the factory to the wholesale market, to the retail market, to stores, to gun shows, there are all these places where guns are siphoned off by the so-called good guys with guns. And so while there is violence in Chicago and there is criminality in Chicago, there's criminality that happens long before then to allow these guns to pour into these cities in ecosystems and environments already [twisted] and bound by so much systemic violence and so much lack and so much hunger, and so much trauma that folks are carrying.

On speaking to the mothers of Black men and boys who were shot and killed

There was this string of killings, starting with like Trayvon Martin, and I got close enough to the families where they trusted me to tell their stories. In the middle of all the noise, I had a direct line to most of these families. And the look in a mother's eyes in particular who has lost a son to murder or violence, it's like nothing you've ever seen. And I still see those eyes. I've never been able to remove those eyes, right? The pain that you see in them, the ocean of emotion welling up in them. And that no matter what we do, all the humanizing, all of the, you know, making sense of the systems and the police and the law and all those things will not bring their child back.

On the importance of showing respect to the victims of violence

And the actual process of gathering the information for your report is also tough because you have ask dumb questions. "What did you see? What did you hear? What was it like the last time you talked to them?" Questions that are intrusive and at the worst moment in someone's life. And then you're asking for a picture, right? And then, you're over there talking to the police.

There's something exploitative by nature: I'm getting so much more out of this than you are. But I always wanted to do it humanely and with great respect. And then you have to take that back to the newsroom. And I literally had an editor once — it was after a shooting and one young person was killed and I think another one was wounded — and he said, "Oh, that's just a garden-variety killing." He described the killing of a young teenager. And mind you, we don't have any context to the situation. ... We don't know how, why, who. We don't anything. But this was so routine that it wasn't worth covering. "Don't worry about it, it's garden variety."

On struggling with the notion of "objectivity"

The kind of objectivity that we're so often taught in this practice is a blindness. It's like a convenient ignoring of what you actually see. I think what's more appropriate is fairness. And that objectivity in that notion, it's an arm's length from your subject matter. And I never fully believed in that part. I think you have to have your facts right. I think that you have to be fair to people on as many sides as there are. But the notion of objectivity never rang solid for me.

What I managed to do, and I hope I continue to do in putting shape to the experiences of people, is going to the people and telling their story as openly and honestly as possible, and painting the picture, and bringing people into their experiences. And even when it's painful, giving a little bit of that pain for everybody to hold. Hold a little of this. If she has to hold some; you have to hold some too.

On tracing a gun from manufacturer to use

It was so important, I think, to connect the dots between what's happening in factory towns in Massachusetts where these guns are produced, to the communities where these are so easily bought and sold with very little regulation, in the South mostly, to how they end up in Northern cities like Chicago and Detroit and Philadelphia … to show that there is no disconnect, that it's one long string, and that no one is left off of the broad ripple of impact here.

Therese Madden and Anna Bauman produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Meghan Sullivan adapted it for the web.

Transcript

TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Tonya Mosley. When Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Trymaine Lee was 38, his body gave out. He suffered a sudden heart attack, a moment that forced him to stop and confront what he'd been carrying for years. Lee had reported on lives cut short by America's gun violence epidemic. And in facing his own mortality, he realized the toll those stories had taken on his own body.

His new memoir, "A Thousand Ways To Die," is part history, part reporting and part personal turning point. The book reads like a plea for people to see the humanity of those lost to gun violence and for this country to finally care enough to act. Lee takes us into communities like New Orleans, Philadelphia and Chicago, where he spent years documenting gun violence and its ripple effects. He traces the bloody history and relationships Black Americans have with firearms and recalls the near misses in his own youth, also following his ancestors' path back to Ghana to the legacy of the Middle Passage. Lee and his colleagues won the Pulitzer Prize for The Times-Picayune's coverage of Hurricane Katrina. He's also an Emmy-winning journalist, a contributor to MSNBC and has written for The New York Times and Huff Post. Trymaine Lee, welcome to FRESH AIR.

TRYMAINE LEE: Tonya, thank you so much for having me.

MOSLEY: So you start this book with this vivid description of the day you almost died. And it's the summer 2017. You're at home with your wife and your 6-year-old daughter, Nola, and kids that age, they ask oftentimes profound questions. And her questions made you consider things you had never faced before, like the weight of witnessing so much death as a reporter.

LEE: Yeah. You know, I think back to her little curious self and asking the most honest - the question that we all had, how did this happen? And, like, my answer of, you know, some soft plaque broke off and it got clogged by a blood clot just wasn't sufficient for any of us. And so for the first time, really, I had to look deep and engage with what was truly bearing down on my heart. And for me, that had been more than a decade of telling stories of Black death and survival. And along those years, I was gathering little ribbons, little pieces, little pictures of every single story that I covered. And especially during those younger years when I was a police reporter in Trenton and Philly and New Orleans, I was at the crime scenes - often, I'd find young men who looked just like me - right? - wearing my same sneakers, same haircut, dead from gunshot wounds. And I'd see family members who I could imagine - who looked like mine. And I was carrying all of that.

And what I didn't recognize as some of the early warning signs of what it was that was bearing down on me were my sleepless nights. You know, I thought it was just stress. You know, my stress lives in my sleep. It doesn't change the way I act or respond to friends or my general feeling, right? But I couldn't sleep properly. And so that was the first sign. And engaging with that, what I was really carrying, understanding just how heavy that weight was - and not just the weight of the stories that I told as a journalist of Black death but also a family history that's been marked by a lot of the same stuff.

You know, growing up, I always heard the story of Grandpa Horace, a big man with salt-and-pepper hair and a baritone voice, and his CB buddies called him Big Daddy. And everybody loved him. He was shot and killed in 1976. And so I was raised with the enormity of that gap. Two years before I was born, he was killed. But I felt like I knew him, in a sense, or I knew what it was like to miss him. I knew his figure. The figure that was cut out of our family, like a picture, and it's cut out, and you still see the outline, I could see that. And I...

MOSLEY: How old were you - yeah. How old were you when you found out about him and you found out about the way he died?

LEE: I must have been Nola's age. I was old enough to understand what death was but not fully old enough to understand what it means to have someone taken from you - right? - 'cause I hadn't lost anyone up to that point. And the way they talked about him was so glowing. He was this heroic figure - you know, this superheroic figure that everybody loved, never heard a bad word about him. And early on, it was just that he was - that somebody shot him. And then it was that he was killed. And then it was murdered.

And then I started hearing stories in my teenage years from my mother, especially, who would talk about the pain that she felt going into that courtroom every single day for the man who killed her father and seeing the pictures of my grandfather's body. And they had these lines or markers or something showing where he was shot - in his mouth, in his chest and stomach. And she said she can never shake that. And at that point, I was a teenager, so I was - you know, I had the context. I understood to a degree, you know, death and violence. But to hear her talking about what those days were like, you know, gave me, you know, a little bit of an indication of, you know, what my father's - grandfather's loss meant to everybody and how it still haunted them.

MOSLEY: You described a little bit what it was like as a Black man covering crime, especially on the local level. I mean, first off, can you describe what it's like to cover crime as a Black journalist in these cities and towns where almost every day, depending on what part of the country you're in, you could be covering a death that was caused by guns?

LEE: Being a Black reporter covering what can feel like an endless stream of Black death, you know, it's a lot of pressure because on one hand, you know, you want to do a good job, especially as a young reporter trying to, like, you know, prove yourself, that you've got what it takes to do this - very tough work, very stressful work. But then you get to these crime scenes, and oftentimes you're in communities that look like yours, or you're seeing people that look like people you know. And you have to wrestle with seeing yourself, in some ways, repeatedly gunned down, your body repeatedly falling, tears for your death over and over and over again. And the actual process of gathering, you know, the information for your report is also tough because you have to ask dumb questions, you know?

MOSLEY: Like what?

LEE: What did you see? What did you hear? You know, what was it like the last time you talked to him? - questions that are intrusive and at the worst moment in someone's life. And so then you're asking for a picture, right? And then you're over there talking to the police. And there's something exploitive, by nature, right? I'm getting so much more out of this than you are, right? But I always wanted to do it humanely and with great respect. And then you have to take that back to the newsroom.

And I literally had an editor once. It was after a shooting, and one young person was killed, and I think another one was wounded. And he said, oh, that's just a garden-variety killing. He described the killing of a young - a teenager. And, mind you, we don't have any context of the situation. We don't have any facts. We don't know how, why, who. We don't know anything. But this was so routine that it wasn't worth covering. Nothing to worry about it. It's garden-variety.

MOSLEY: I mean, hearing that story, it just makes me think about how as journalists, we're taught to be objective, but objectivity, as it's often defined, asks us to almost be anthropological about the communities we cover. And I wanted to know how you navigated the tension around that, around what objectivity is supposed to look like, especially as a Black man covering gun violence - a subject that you had already intimately known through your own family experience.

LEE: The kind of objectivity that we're so often taught in this practice is a blindness. It's like a convenient ignoring of what you actually see. I think what's more appropriate is fairness, right? And that objectivity in that notion, it's an arm's length from your subject matter. And I never fully believed in that part. I think that you have to have your facts right. I think you have to be fair to people on as many sides as there are. But the notion of objectivity never rang solid for me.

What I managed to do - and I hope I continue to do - in putting shape to the experiences of people is going to the people and telling their story as openly and honestly as possible, and painting the picture and bringing people into their experiences and, even when it's painful, giving a little bit of that pain to every -- for everybody to hold. Hold a little of this. If she has to hold some, you have to hold some too. And that's always how I moved. And so I was able to maneuver and navigate some of this by always going to the people first.

I was a community-first reporter, right? Because the police will tell you one thing and they have their interest. The politicians will have their interest. But the people's interest - right? - that's often ignored. And so for me, in, you know, illuminating these stories and in some ways, illuminating my own - right? - it was to go in there and just paint the picture and center them, center the people first.

And then everything else, I think, can feel more virtuous, even when it's a dirty game, even when you have to go back to the newsroom and hear the comments and - or people ask - I can remember so many times when people would come to me asking me if I recognize a particular gang sign or that kind of fool - like, what do I know about a gang? What do I know, right? So you have to deal with all those micro- and macro-aggressions or people who are willfully, conveniently ignorant or those who look at Black people and Black communities and low-income communities derisively anyway. And so sometimes these communities are either hyper covered for the sensationalism around the violence or totally ignored.

MOSLEY: Let's take a short break. If you're just joining us, my guest is Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Trymaine Lee. His new book, "A Thousand Ways To Die" explores the devastating toll of gun violence in America through the stories of those most affected, including himself and his family. We'll continue our conversation after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF SOLANGE'S SONG, "WEARY")

MOSLEY: This is FRESH AIR. Today we're talking to journalist Trymaine Lee, a contributor for MSNBC and host of the podcast "Into America." His new book, "A Thousand Ways To Die," combines reporting and personal stories to reveal how communities live with the trauma and aftermath of gun violence.

There is this thing that can happen when you're a Black reporter covering communities of color. You talked about the process of covering crime being extractive, but for the families that you write about, they can sometimes express a kind of relief in being able to share their stories to you because they feel seen, because they felt ignored by law enforcement or mischaracterized by the media in the past. And so there's this expectation that you might actually tell the truth. So there's this intimacy there. Can you talk a little bit about that? You touched on it a bit, about the ways that you relate to the people that you cover. But that added expectation, it's part of the work that is an added - I don't want to say burden - but it's an added truth to the work that you do.

LEE: Even in the toughest moments and the toughest stories, there's nothing like - to your point - that moment when, you know, a subject, someone you're talking to and getting their story, kind of exhales because they feel safe, right? In me, they know they have someone that will - again, it's not put your hand on the scale, but will portray them honestly, because they see that I care about them. And I do. And I don't think that makes me biased. I care about the way people are portrayed and the way they experience our world and our communities and all the systems that guide us. And so there is this special thing.

But that closeness also is part of, I think, the heft of what I think was bearing down on me. There was this string of killings, starting with like, Trayvon Martin on, and I got close enough to the families where they trusted me to tell their stories. In the middle of all the noise, I had a direct line to most of these families. And the look in a mother's eyes, in particular, who has lost a son to murder or violence, it's like nothing you've ever seen.

And I still see those eyes. And I've never been able to remove those eyes - right? - the pain that you see in them, the ocean of emotion welling up in them. And that, no matter what we do, all the humanizing, all of the, you know, making sense of the systems and the police and the law and about all those things, will not bring their child back.

MOSLEY: It's so indescribable that you kind of write in the book that you avoid it. Like, you try to avoid the gaze. If you're with a mom and a dad that has lost a child to gun violence, you kind of gravitate towards the father.

LEE: I've tried, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. But with the fathers, you know what? As men, we're great at hiding pain. We're great at numbing pain, and we're great at pretending. It's not that - especially as Black men, that we don't feel the pain, but we know that any chip in our armor, any bit of weakness can sink you. And so we're good. And also, we want to be strong and solid and sturdy for everyone else. And I would see that time and again with these fathers - fathers who often would be erased from the entire picture. But I was talking to these guys. And so I knew the pain that they were going through. I knew the pressure they were trying to apply to the police departments or whatever body was investigating their child's death. I saw it. And so part of me wanted to make sure that as Black men - we're so often marginalized and so often invisible, rendered invisible in these spaces that it also felt like, let me also show you that Black men are here in our communities and do care about our children. Again, hating to have to do it, but show them that we are also, like any other man, any other father, that we're there, too.

MOSLEY: When you say intentionally erased, what do you mean? Can you give me an example of that?

LEE: I think a lot of the storylines, especially with some of the killings by police, is that these kids were just products of these single mother households, just like the rest of them, in these places that have fostered a culture of violence, who have no respect for authority or law or themselves. And it all starts in the home, right? But Black men, as many of us know, as the reports show, over index in participation in their children's lives, right? And so I think it's a convenient narrative that these boys came from this place, so allowing people to make some assumptions about how they might be behaving and also accepting that this is a product of those circumstances. And I think that's what, you know, the pretending comes into play, or intentional erasure comes into play.

MOSLEY: One of the things that you do in the book, Trymaine, is focus on many major cities, including Chicago. And as we know, President Trump has so often used Chicago as a symbol. He's even threatened to send in the National Guard to make this broader political point about crime in America. What do you think gets lost when talking about the gun violence in Chicago?

LEE: Hearing the president talk about Chicago and Baltimore and other cities. And he goes on to talk about how, you know, people in these communities were born to be criminal. The violence is innate, right? There's something in these people that makes them inherently violent, and the gun is just their tool. But I think one of the biggest things that people miss or don't fully understand is that there is a direct pipeline from a slew of places with super lax gun laws that are poured right into Chicago, and that every one of these guns starts legally. And so along the pipeline from the factory to the wholesale market, to the retail market, to stores, to, you know, gun shows, there are all these places where guns are siphoned off by the so-called good guys with guns.

And so, while there is violence in Chicago and there is criminality in Chicago, there's criminality that happens long before then to allow these guns to pour into these cities in ecosystems and environments already twist and bound by so much systemic violence and so much lack and so much hunger, right? And so much trauma that folks are carrying. And so I think that's the part, understanding that none of these guns are coming from these places. None of these guns are coming from these communities in Chicago. I think that's the big one.

MOSLEY: You know, I was thinking about how in many ways this book is almost an answer to that unspoken or problematic term Black on Black crime. You know, it's kind of often used politically to deflect from these larger systemic issues that you're talking about. And I wonder your relationship to that term, Black on Black crime. And also, like, when you first started reporting, how did you navigate that within newsrooms? Because I'm pretty sure you heard it, you know, within newsrooms.

LEE: The most logical response to this fallacy of Black on Black crime is that people lash out, and people commit crimes against those they're close to, they're in proximity to geographically. And so when you look at the numbers of white people who kill other white people, it's upward of 80%, 90%, right? And white people make up about 45% of the homicides in this country, and most of them are killed by white people. And so it's a fallacy, the idea of a special kind of, you know, Black violence or crime.

Now, that being said, because of the conditions that we have lived in - and you think about where these, you know, Black homicides are happening - it is, I believe, a response to the systemic pressures put on people. People cordoned off in some of these neighborhoods long ago, through segregation, through redlining. And so I think the easiest way that we've been able to talk about this in media is pointing to the fact that, you know, people kill who they're close to.

MOSLEY: Our guest today is Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Trymaine Lee. And we're talking about his new book, "A Thousand Ways To Die." We'll be right back after a short break. I'm Tonya Mosley and this is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF RON CARTER'S "LIGHT BLUE")

MOSLEY: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Tonya Mosley. And my guest is Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Trymaine Lee. He's the host of the podcast "Into America" and has reported for various publications, including The New York Times and HuffPost. His new book, "A Thousand Ways To Die," looks at the epidemic of gun violence in America, not just through statistics, but through the lives of people and communities who endure its impact every day.

You try to put a monetary cost on this as well. One of the surprising or maybe not surprising costs are medical costs. You found this out by covering this case of a young victim of gun violence. His name was Kevin. I think you actually say that the story of Kevin is actually embedded in you now. What is it about that story that really sticks with you?

LEE: When I was just an intern in Philly at the Philadelphia Daily News back in 2003, I heard of a young man who was shot in southwest Philly. A group of teenagers was trying to rob him for his Allen Iverson Jersey, and in doing so, they shot him in the back of the neck. And when I finally made it to this young man, whose name was Kevin, Kevin Johnson, I made it to his hospital room and I expected to find a young man completely broken by that bullet, completely shattered. And what I found was partly true.

He was rendered a quadriplegic, so his body, his spine was shattered. But there was this buoyancy about Kevin. And he had this huge smile. And I love the front-page picture that we used was his big ole smile. And it was just like it'd bring joy to your face seeing the smile. But what he told me was even brighter than that, brighter than his smile. He talked about his dreams of walking one day and that he would make it through this, and his literal dreams of him playing basketball and that he could feel every single sensation of playing basketball. And he believed it.

And I looked across his bed and found his mother's eyes, those mothers' eyes again, filled with the harshest reality that she and I both knew, that he would never walk again. He would never feel any of those sensations again. But after that - and this is the part that really stuck with me and made me think about violence in a completely different way, in terms of the cost. She started going through this list of costs that it would take to get him home, not to keep him alive, just to get him home.

And it was a super expensive special wheelchair. It was a new van to move that wheelchair around. It was a new ramp on their north Philly row home to get the wheelchair into the house. It was a widening of the doors to get him in and out. It was a new outlet and receptacles for his breathing machine to keep him alive. And then there was the medication. And then there were all these costs that that family had to pay for that one single bullet, a bullet that cost cents to make.

MOSLEY: He passed away.

LEE: Yes.

MOSLEY: And the family was left with tremendous debt.

LEE: Yeah. So I've never forgot. The story changed as I widened, you know, the aperture on what violence is. But Kevin's story and his face and that big ole smile has never left me. And it's the true reason this book exists.

MOSLEY: You spent a significant part of your childhood - what was it, six years? - at the Milton Hershey School. And for those who don't know, it's a boarding school known for providing children from low-income backgrounds with a fully funded education. How did you end up there? And can you describe it?

LEE: Yeah, I have a lot of love for the Milton Hershey School. So I went in seventh grade in 1990. And it was a time where my stepfather had been incarcerated. And I was just starting to get into a little trouble - again, fighting - and always a good student, right? Gifted and talented, great grades. But I was quick to fight, you know, if the situation called for it. I was more than willing to engage.

But my mom saw in me the great promise. And she didn't want to lose me. And she wanted to make sure that I was in position to experience the fullness of my dreams and whatever was possible. That's how she'd - she always tells me, like, when I was born, she's like, you're the one, you're the one. And she raised me to see myself as somebody. And for me as a latchkey kid - meaning, I came home, and I was by myself. Usually, there's food on the oven because my mom worked the late shift. And my stepfather was, you know, a working addict. So he was either working or somewhere doing what he did and having older siblings who were gone, I spent a lot of time by myself.

And so getting to the Milton Hershey School, it was a culture shock. But it was amazing that, like, everything was free from medical to dental, to your clothes. And it was just like, everywhere you turned, there was an opportunity to grow and learn. And I remember being in seventh grade, and now I'm part of the model airplane club. And we're building model airplanes and flying them. And it's like...

MOSLEY: (Laughter).

LEE: It was an amazing experience.

MOSLEY: An amazing experience, but you did a really foolish thing while you were there. And I'm going to have you tell the story, but I'm going to set it up. So one day during a trip to Walmart, you bought some silver toy handguns and brought them back to school.

LEE: Hearing it now, it doesn't sound like a great idea (laughter).

MOSLEY: Well, the mother in me was screaming, like, what were you thinking?

LEE: Oh, it was...

MOSLEY: So what grade were you in about this time?

LEE: So I would've been in tenth grade. And so I'm, you know, 13, 14, somewhere around that age. And so I go to the store, and I see these chrome toy handguns. And they're, like, heavy little 22s. And this is the time of, you know, gangster rap. And we had our hoodies. And it was just a time, (laughter) a time. And they looked really cool. And so me and a bunch of my buddies, you know, say, why don't we get these guns? We'll get some Jason masks from the "Friday The 13th" movies, the hockey mask, some hoodies. And we'll just be, like, these menacing figures for Halloween. The Halloween dance was coming up. And so we get these guns. And soon after we get them, like, the trouble begins.

There's people complaining in the hallways that people had these guns. One kid, you know, took some money from another kid in the bathroom with the gun. It was just, like, getting out of hand. We had a football game, and I was on the football team. And a buddy of mine who had one of these fake guns, the principal, the coach came in, quickly ushered him out. And he was suspended indefinitely. My gun happened to be back at my student home, and one of my best friends to this day, big shout to Bernard (ph), my brother to this day, went and tossed it out of the window before they searched my room. We had a game against a neighboring team in a city, Harrisburg, and their concern was, what if someone sees this fake gun and mistakes it for a real one?

MOSLEY: Yes.

LEE: Makes total sense. That makes total sense.

MOSLEY: Do you think about what might have happened if that had been found in your room?

LEE: I think, one, if it had been found in my room, and I would have - could have been kicked out of the school, which would have been earth-shattering. What if things didn't get out of control early and we'd taken the gun somewhere, been playing around and got shot? And I can't help but think about how Tamir Rice's life was taken with a toy gun and zealous police officers who gunned the little boy down. And so I think about it often. It's a silly close call that could have just changed the entire course of my life.

MOSLEY: Am I right in that you covered Tamir Rice?

LEE: I did cover Tamir Rice.

MOSLEY: I can only imagine that this story came up for you, this memory of your own close call, how that could have been you.

LEE: You know, honestly, it really didn't.

MOSLEY: It didn't?

LEE: It wasn't the gun incident back in school - it was his chubby face that reminded me of my chubby face in seventh grade when I was 12 years old. And I saw in him myself, and he never had the opportunity to grow tall and lean out and fill in his young manhood and have the fun that I did and fall into my studies the way I did and get a career that I love and tell stories of community and be proud to do that and see the pride in other people as I'm doing that. He never got the chance to do that. And when I saw his face, he's such a boy. And so often, Black boys are mistaken for men because of the fear that others have of us. There's no - you look at that boy or you look at Trayvon Martin, his narrow shoulders. That's no man, but they're treated like men, and Black men aren't treated kindly. And so that's what I saw in covering that case. For a moment, I forgot all the little minutia of my own life. I saw the big picture of, like, man, look at his face. Look at him. And now that boy is dead.

MOSLEY: Let's take a short break. If you're just joining us, my guest is journalist Trymaine Lee. We're talking about his new book, "A Thousand Ways To Die," which examines the human cost of gun violence. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE ROOTS SONG, "ADRENALINE!")

MOSLEY: This is FRESH AIR. Today we're talking to Trymaine Lee. He's the author of the new book, "A Thousand Ways To Die," which blends reporting and personal narrative to reveal how the gun violence crisis in America has reshaped lives and the country at large.

You know, Trymaine, you've probably covered thousands of these daily counts of violence throughout your career, you know, the day-to-day stories, and then you've covered some of the big stories that made national headlines - Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin. You're actually credited with bringing national attention to that case, Michael Brown in Ferguson, the Buffalo supermarket shooting, where several people were shot and killed for being Black. And there was that time period, 2019, 2020, you know, after George Floyd was murdered, where there seemed to be an acknowledgment to the problem of gun violence, of continued racism in our country. And five years later, we're here. We're in a very different time. And as a journalist, as a Black person, how are you processing this moment?

LEE: In the last few years, in consecutive years, each year, there have been more police killings than ever recorded in this country. We're setting records still of the most people across the country killed by police. There was that moment after George Floyd was killed and we saw this worldwide movement. And finally, a coalition that looked like America standing up to say, enough is enough, right? Enough was enough of the violence of the killing and the disparities and the ways in which we are killed and in which we die. And then time went on, and slowly, the crowd started looking less like that diverse American body, and it's back to Black women and Black men and Black queer people, you know, doing what they always have - standing up when no one else was there around. And I think part of the problem is, and the way I try to make sense of this, if there is any making sense of this, is the idea that systems are bigger than individuals. It's bigger than movements, the systems, because as folks are marching, Black men still weren't getting employed at equal rates. They still weren't getting into colleges at equal rates. The school-to-prison pipeline was still functioning.

What we got was corporations pledging money that they never delivered. Some perhaps never intended to. And the moment that there's this new administration and they have the opportunity to do away with any effort, regardless of what you put - whatever name you want to put on it, the moment they had the opportunity to not fulfill those promises, they did so. And now many of those corporations, their leaders are lining up to kiss the ring, right? As there's this attack on not just the Black history, not just the programs aimed at alleviating somebody inequity - right? - but people themselves. And it's terribly sad because we have an opportunity - and we still have this opportunity - to be the great nation that we've professed to be, right? A great nation would say, look how far we've come. Look what we used to do, and look how we treat each other now. Look how we've created opportunities for all of us to stand on equal footing. Instead, what we see is the convulsing of an insecure nation. That's what we're seeing, an insecure, racist nation. That's what we're seeing. But there's an opportunity because there are good people in this country.

MOSLEY: I wouldn't be true if I didn't say so much of what you wrote here, I understand and experience. I was a crime and courts reporter for many, many years, and I carry those stories with me. I carry my own stories about gun violence growing up in Detroit. And so this is deeply meaningful for me to read - for you to put these words on paper. And what a time for this book to come out. What do you want people to take away from this book?

LEE: I want Black people, in particular, to walk away from this book knowing that there ain't nothing wrong with you, right? There's nothing violent within you. That the true violence are the systems that have guided us to this moment. And I want white people and I want general readers to understand that there are systems that collude against our livelihoods. And it's not - we can't project this criminality, this violence, on groups of people. We can't. This was kind of - trying to understand, but in this moment where people are looking for answers and people don't understand how we got here, I hope this book helps. Because if we can illuminate some of the issues and some of the systems, then maybe we can tinker at the edges, and then we can get to the root, and then we can start dismantling some of these violent systems that end so much life. I hope that's what folks walk away from.

MOSLEY: Trymaine Lee, thank you so much for this conversation, and thank you for this book.

LEE: Thank you, Tonya, for having me. It means a lot.

MOSLEY: Trymaine Lee's new book is "A Thousand Ways To Die: The True Cost Of Violence On Black Life In America."

Coming up, our jazz historian Kevin Whitehead reviews a new anthology from Joni Mitchell. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHARLIE HADEN'S "EL CIEGO (THE BLIND)")

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5539315

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Religion

- In first interview, Pope Leo XIV takes on billionaires, polarization and war: 2025 Sep 15

RELIGION | MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2025 • 10:01 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

In first interview, Pope Leo XIV takes on billionaires, polarization and war

By Claire Giangrave

VATICAN CITY – In his first interview as leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV talked about his concerns about income inequality, polarization and the need for peace.

"We have to continue to remind ourselves of the potential that humanity has to overcome the violence and the hatred that is just dividing us more and more," Leo said in the interview. "We live in times when polarization seems to be one of the words of the day, but it's not helping anybody. Or if it's helping anyone, it's very few when everyone else is suffering."

The interview, conducted over two sessions in recent weeks and published by the Catholic news site Crux on the his 70th birthday, offer a first glimpse into Leo's personality and priorities.

In his conversation with Crux's senior Vatican correspondent, Elise Ann Allen, Leo signaled continuity with his predecessor Pope Francis and the late pontiff's vision for dialogue and full participation in the church, known as synodality.

Already positioning himself as a pope of reconciliation, Leo reflected on the reasons behind the deep polarization in society and the church today. He pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic, but also a sense of loss of the value of human life as partly responsible for sectarianism and division.

"Add on top of that a couple of other factors, one which I think is very significant is the continuously wider gap between the income levels of the working class and the money that the wealthiest receive," he said.

Shortly after his election on May 8, the pope said he took the name Leo because he was inspired by Pope Leo XIII, who addressed the stresses put on society by the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century. Leo XIII's encyclical "Rerum Novarum" (On Revolutions) laid out the reasons for the church's support of the working class, fair wages and the right to unionize, while opposing communism and unbridled capitalism.

In the Crux interview, Leo XIV questioned the disproportionate difference in the incomes of modern CEOs and those of their workers, and challenged the extreme wealth of billionaires – and trillionaires such as Elon Musk. "What does that mean and what's that about? If that is the only thing that has value anymore, then we're in big trouble."

The pope called synodality, whose its roots are in Latin American church, the "antidote" to the deep divisions in the church and society, describing it as "an attitude, an openness, a willingness to understand." He said that some church leaders feel "threatened" by synodality, because of what Leo called a mistaken understanding of their authority. He said a synodal church allows each member to play and role and contribute based on their respective vocations as bishop, priest, missionary, lay person or family member.

"It's an attitude which I think can teach a lot to the world today," Leo said, "I think this is a way of addressing some of the greatest challenges that we have in the world today. If we listen to the gospel, and if we reflect upon it together, and if we strive to walk forward together, listening to one another, trying to discover what God is saying to us today, there is a lot to be gained for us there."

Leo said he hoped to continue the process of instilling synodality in the church to build a church that is both united within and engaged with the world. He clarified, as Francis had, that synodality is not synonymous with democracy, "which if we look at many countries around the world today, democracy is not necessarily a perfect solution to everything."

Leo XIV's also spoke about the importance of peace in Ukraine. He praised the Holy See's diplomacy efforts to remain above the fray and offer itself as a bridge for dialogue with all parties involved in conflicts, but he also said that the likelihood of the Vatican hosting peace-talks between Russia and Ukraine is "not as realistic."

"I think a number of different actors have to push hard enough to make the parties that are at war say, enough is enough, and let's look for another way to solve our differences," he said, adding that he has "high hopes for human nature" and the chance for peace.

Leo recognized that the United Nations "has lost its ability to bring people together on multilateral issues" and said that the key to "building bridges is primarily through dialogue."

In a more personal portion of the interview, Leo talked about his experience in the first months of his papacy. "There's still a huge learning curve ahead of me," he said. "The totally new aspect to this job is being thrown onto the level of world leader," he said.

He said that "the most fundamental role" of the pope is to "confirm others in their faith."

Asked whether he feels more like a citizen of the United States, where he was born, or Peruvian, where he spent most of his life as a priest and missionary, Leo answered by saying "both/and." He said his appreciation for the life of the church in Latin America allowed him to understand some of the vision that Francis had for the church.

While he confirmed that he is a fan of the Chicago White Sox baseball team, he said that "as pope, I'm a fan of all teams." He underlined the importance of being open and friendly even in sports, while adding that when Peru and the United States play against each other in the World Cup he will likely back Peru, "just because of affective bonds."

The entire interview will appear in Allen's biography of the pope, "Leo XIV: Citizen of the World, Missionary of the XXI Century," which will be published in Spanish on Sep. 18 and will available in Portuguese and English in early 2026.

This story was produced through a collaboration between NPR and Religion News Service.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5542092

Culture

- What to watch this fall: Here are 12 TV shows we're looking forward to: 2025 Sep 17

- Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter go on a new excellent adventure: 'Waiting for Godot': 2025 Sep 17

- Robert Redford knew how to make a thriller: 2025 Sep 16

- Terry Gross reflects on 50 years of hosting 'Fresh Air': 2025 Sep 16

- New books this week: The case for the Constitution, and a celebration of chosen family: 2025 Sep 16

- Ed Sheeran talks about his new album 'Play': 2025 Sep 16

WHAT TO WATCH | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2025 • 6:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

What to watch this fall: Here are 12 TV shows we're looking forward to

By Eric Deggans, Aisha Harris, Linda Holmes, Glen Weldon

The Emmys have come and gone and fall TV season is already underway. From returning shows like Stranger Things to mysterious new series like Apple TV+'s Pluribus, we're taking stock of the shows airing as the weather cools down.

Youtube Video

The Paper, Sept. 4 (out now), Peacock

A loose follow-up to the U.S. version of The Office, The Paper tracks a new industry full of frustrations and petty grievances: journalism. Domhnall Gleeson plays Ned, the brand-new editor-in-chief of the Toledo Truth-Teller, a once-great newspaper that has withered in a changing media environment. Other than Oscar Nuňez, who returns as accountant Oscar Martinez, this is a whole new cast, although the shooting style and the mood will remind you very much of the happenings at Dunder Mifflin. — Linda Holmes

Youtube Video

Task, started Sept. 7, HBO Max

Yeah, it sounds predictable on paper: Mark Ruffalo as an aging, mediocre FBI agent leading a task force chasing a goofy guy played by Tom Pelphrey running a backwoods stickup crew outside Philadelphia. But the story is elevated by both men's struggle to handle devastating tragedies that damaged them and those they love. Add in spot-on accents that put Mare of Eastown to shame — Eastown creator Brad Ingelsby made this one, too — and you've got a subversively compelling series. — Eric Deggans

Youtube Video

The Girlfriend, Sept. 10 (out now), Prime Video

Based on author Michelle Frances' psychological thriller, Robin Wright plays an uber-wealthy woman whose son brings home a new girlfriend, played by Olivia Cooke. Mom suspects the girlfriend's motivations are less than genuine, and maybe they're not … or maybe mom's just being paranoid? Whatever's really going on here, it looks like no one is going to end up unscathed. Juicy! — Aisha Harris

Youtube Video

The Morning Show, Season 4, Sept. 17, Apple TV+

After previous seasons enduring her co-anchor's #MeToo scandal and death, surviving COVID on-camera and outwitting a scheming billionaire boyfriend, Jennifer Aniston's character Alex Levy is starting to look like TV's version of Job. In truth, this show often plays like a glitzy soap opera. And there's lots more coming for Levy, now a top executive at her network, from trouble with the FBI to fights with a Joe Rogan-style podcaster played by Boyd Holbrook. — Eric Deggans

Youtube Video

The Lowdown, Sept. 23, FX, Hulu

Sterlin Harjo (Reservoir Dogs) created this series starring Ethan Hawke as a Tulsa "citizen journalist" who works out of a bookstore and gets tangled up in a mystery about a powerful family. The cast includes Jeanne Tripplehorn, Kyle MacLachlan, Keith David and Tim Blake Nelson. Harjo has an offbeat sensibility that seems like it would be well-suited to Hawke's, and it's exciting to think the surging interest in Westerns will extend to a project like this. — Linda Holmes

Youtube Video

Slow Horses, Season 5, Sept. 24, Apple TV+

You'd think a 5th season of a show centered on under-achieving British intelligence agents led by a flatulent, annoyingly canny boss would get tiresome eventually. But Gary Oldman's over-it-all leader Jackson Lamb keeps viewers — and his fumbling staff — off-balance as his team stumbles into a new plot by terrorists to turn the country's intelligence tactics against itself. Showrunner Will Smith keeps us guessing as MI5's worst intelligence agents tackle Britain's most serious threat yet. — Eric Deggans

Youtube Video

The Last Frontier, Oct. 10, Apple TV+

It sounds like the plot of Con Air 2: A plane filled with inmates crashes in Alaska, forcing local law enforcement and the CIA to join forces to find them. But what makes this story soar — pun intended — is Australian actor Jason Clarke deploying his trademark take on a hard charging American, this time playing U.S. Marshal Frank Remnick. He's chasing a super dangerous, CIA-trained fugitive played by British actor Dominic Cooper, who the agency might not be all that anxious to capture. — Eric Deggans

Youtube Video

Talamasca: The Secret Order, Oct. 26, AMC

Ok, this one's a total crap shoot. Talamasca focuses on the secret society that researches and monitors the supernatural elements of Anne Rice's fictional world. It's been featured on both Interview with the Vampire, one of the best series on television, and The Mayfair Witches, one of the worst. Will the team behind Talamasca be content to flatly adapt Rice's work (Witches) or will they reimagine it, finding exciting new resonances and deepening characters (Vampire)? I'm curious to find out. — Glen Weldon

Youtube Video

Pluribus, Nov. 7, Apple TV+

It's enough that this is Vince Gilligan's first new show since the end of Better Call Saul, and it's enough that it stars Rhea Seehorn, whose work as Kim was one of Saul's most potent weapons. And that's good, because they are not saying much about what this show is about. The tagline: "The most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness." The art: a Q-tip carving a happy face into the contents of a petri dish. A few equally mysterious teasers. Still can't wait. — Linda Holmes

Youtube Video

The Mighty Nein, Nov. 19, Prime Video

The second animated series from the folks at Critical Role — one of several web series wherein you watch people play Dungeons & Dragons around a table — is a follow-up to The Legend of Vox Machina. Like that series, The Mighty Nein collapses hundreds of hours of gameplay into a more digestible and propulsive streaming series that brings the story to vivid life — one that's set in the same world, and that features the same cast, though they're playing a different set of characters. — Glen Weldon

Youtube Video

The American Revolution, Nov. 16, PBS

Documentarian Ken Burns has already sounded alarms about the fate of documentary film, now that the federal government has defunded public media. So fans should show up for his six-part, 12-hour documentary series examining how America's fight to free itself from British rule turned the world upside down. He's said that his own projects will likely survive cuts to public media, but as a critic, I still worry Burns may have to scale down his future visions. This series stands as a stark reminder of how much America gains from the work of artists like him — and the projects from other filmmakers that could go unmade in the years ahead. — Eric Deggans

Youtube Video

Stranger Things, Season 5, Nov. 26, Netflix

The beginning of the end for Netflix's 1980s-set horror drama starts with a batch of episodes in November, another clutch on Christmas Day and a New Year's Eve finale. It's a fittingly drawn-out send off for a series that redefined TV, made stars of its cast and broke viewership records for Netflix. Press materials say the kids of Hawkins, Ind., will face off against bad guy Vecna once again; but with Terminator co-star Linda Hamilton onboard, anything's possible. — Eric Deggans

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5534152

THEATER | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2025 • 5:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter go on a new excellent adventure: 'Waiting for Godot'

By Phil Harrell

Heard on Morning Edition

Let's go back in time — to 1989 — when movie-goers first met the dopey but adorable time-traveling headbangers in "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure."

The film put actors Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter on the map — and began a friendship.

Around three and a half years ago, Reeves had an idea. "I was in a hotel room," he told Morning Edition host Michel Martin. "I was thinking about what Alex and I could work on again. And then it just struck me: Waiting for Godot."

Whether a stroke of madness or brilliance, their pitch found an enthusiastic partner in director Jamie Lloyd. On September 13, Reeves and Winter began preview performances at New York's Hudson Theater.

In case you weren't a theater kid in school, "Waiting for Godot" is a more-than-70 year old surrealist play by Samuel Beckett about faith, patience and the mysteries of existence — as two friends, Vladimir (played by Winter) and Estragon (Reeves) wait for Godot, who may never show up.

Winter has some Broadway experience under his belt, but for Reeves, this is his first time appearing on The Great White Way. Reeves admitted to feeling "terror, anxiety, hope" before generating a little forced bravado as he bellowed, "Looking forward to it… said the person who has no idea what he's talking about!"

Winter says the two actors are approaching the themes of "Godot" very differently in their 60's than they would have as younger men.

"Having experienced a lot of highs and lows and loss, the play is a lot more personal to me now," he said. "That's what the play is about in some ways, running away from that pain. The whole joke of 'Waiting for Godot' is this constant distraction, distraction, distraction from the immediate present."

Waiting for Godot is scheduled to run through Jan. 4, 2026.

The audio version of this story was produced by Mansee Khurana.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5364661

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MOVIES | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 4:15 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Robert Redford knew how to make a thriller

By Linda Holmes

Robert Redford's death will bring many examinations of his legacy, all deserved: Robert Redford, dramatic and romantic and comedic actor. Robert Redford, accomplished director. Robert Redford, champion of independent cinema.

I want to talk about another thing: Robert Redford, titan of the afternoon thriller.

What is an afternoon thriller? It is a thriller you watch on a Saturday afternoon, especially in fall or winter. Maybe you pull a blanket over your legs, maybe you have a beverage of some kind, maybe you're with someone else and maybe it's just you. And you stream a thriller with exactly the right mix of tension and charm and maybe a little bit of sexy intrigue.

And you know who was really good at that? Robert Redford.

All The President's Men (1976)

Youtube Video

In the special features of the 1976 Alan Pakula film, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and Redford all talk about the fact that Woodward and Bernstein were still working on their 1974 book, framing it as a straightforward piece of reporting about Watergate, when they started talking to Redford about a possible movie. As they all tell it, he was the one who said it should be a story about them, a story about reporting on Watergate, and not just a story of Watergate itself.

That's really what makes the film that followed a thriller, is following these two guys who work on The Washington Post's metro desk who start digging and digging into a weird local burglary and end up tangling with the whole government. The film draws tension not only from the journalists' experiences with big players like Deep Throat (later revealed to be FBI Deputy Director Mark Felt), but also from tentative discussions with sources who are very nervous and need a lot of careful coaxing to tell the truth. Perhaps the most influential journalism movie of all time, it also tells a pretty entertaining tale.

Three Days of the Condor (1975)

Youtube Video

When people talk about '70s paranoid thrillers, they usually have a handful of films in mind, and one of those is 1975's Three Days of the Condor. It starts out quite devastating, as Redford's CIA researcher goes out to lunch only to find when he returns that everybody in the office is dead. What's even worse is that when he tries to get the CIA to bring him in safely from whatever threat is out there, it becomes clear that the threat is deeply embedded in the agency and he can, you guessed it, trust no one.

Guns! Keys! Assassins! Great outfits! If you're ready to spend the afternoon growing ever more cynical about the machinery of government, and you want to do so with a great cast that also includes Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson and Max von Sydow, the movie you're looking for is Three Days of the Condor.

Sneakers (1992)

Youtube Video

Three Days of the Condor and All The President's Men might be more likely to come up in the most serious considerations of Robert Redford's body of work than is Sneakers, a preposterously pleasurable light thriller that came out in 1992. Redford plays the leader of a team of security testers who specialize in infiltrating various systems to find vulnerabilities. When one of these jobs turns out to be not what it appears, a cat-and-mouse game is on between the scrappy team and the forces of the NSA. The films of the 1990s about hackers and computers and surveillance are all over the place in terms of quality, but Sneakers is an enormous amount of fun. The cast is stacked: Redford, Sidney Poitier, River Phoenix (wonderful in one of his last movie roles), David Strathairn, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley and Mary McDonnell, plus terrific character actors including Stephen Tobolowsky and Timothy Busfield.

So yes, watch The Sting, watch Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, watch The Candidate, watch his directorial debut, Ordinary People. But also: Treat yourself to an afternoon thriller, maybe even this weekend. You will not be sorry.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5543257

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CULTURE | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 2:58 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Terry Gross reflects on 50 years of hosting 'Fresh Air'

By Sam Fragoso

Heard on Fresh Air

In an excerpt of her interview with Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso, Gross shares her life motto and tells a story about writing song lyrics in high school. The full episode explores the origins of Fresh Air and its legacy.

Transcript

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. This month marks my 50th anniversary hosting the show. Is that long enough to get me in the Guinness Book of Records? We're fact-checking that right now. When I started hosting in 1975, FRESH AIR was a local show - three hours a day, five days a week, heard only by listeners to WHYY in Philadelphia. We didn't become a daily NPR show until 1987.

In recognition of my anniversary, I was invited to be a guest on a podcast that I like a lot called "Talk Easy," hosted by a terrific interviewer, Sam Fragoso. In a special collaboration between FRESH AIR and "Talk Easy," my interview with Sam - or, I should say, his interview with me - is now available on both podcast feeds. To give you some sense of what it's like, we're sharing a short excerpt. It comes in a part of the interview about my upbringing in Brooklyn. One of my answers was kind of embarrassing. You'll know when you get to it because I preface the answer with, I'm too embarrassed to reveal that. So here it is - a preview of my interview on "Talk Easy With Sam Fragoso."

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "TALK EASY WITH SAM FRAGOSO")

SAM FRAGOSO: You said once that you were, quote, "brought up believing that there's some positive value in thinking negatively."

GROSS: Oh, yes. It's - I - it - I think it's a very Kinahara Jewish thing. It's if you think something is going to turn out badly, then you won't be disappointed when it turns out badly.

FRAGOSO: Sounds a little bit like a Mel Brooks quote.

GROSS: Hope for the best, expect the worst, is a quote. It's a quote from one of his lyrics. And that's - like, when asked for, do you have a motto? - that's what I opt for.

FRAGOSO: That's your motto.

GROSS: But also, it was, like, if you expect good things to happen, they're not going to.

FRAGOSO: (Laughter).

GROSS: You know? It went along with my father's, you know, expression - no one ever said life was about pleasure.

FRAGOSO: (Laughter).

GROSS: You know, like, weekends, you get some time off where you're allotted a certain amount of pleasure. But during the week, it's like...

FRAGOSO: What was your mother's motto?

GROSS: She didn't really have one.

FRAGOSO: Yeah. Most people don't have mottos.

GROSS: Yeah. I mean, it wasn't literally his motto. But it's something that I heard and certainly that I probably internalized.

FRAGOSO: Taking this maybe too literally, but, like, what did that inner monologue of thinking negatively sound like for a young Terry Gross?

GROSS: Frustrating. A little annoying. But I think I internalized it anyway.

FRAGOSO: What part was frustrating?

GROSS: Well, you know, you want some time for pleasure. And, you know - and, like, when I was a little child - this was more when I was a teenager.

FRAGOSO: Right.

GROSS: When I was a teenager, I was still a really good student doing really well in school. But hanging out, I wouldn't exactly call myself a theater kid. But we had something called Sing in Brooklyn schools, where you write a long sketch, take Broadway melodies and write lyrics to those melodies. So I was one of the lyricists.

FRAGOSO: For all four years, you were one of the lyricists, right?

GROSS: For at least three of them. But anyways, yeah, I want a pleasure in my life.

FRAGOSO: Being a lyricist sounds pleasurable.

GROSS: Oh, it was. It was great. I loved it.

FRAGOSO: When you were writing those songs in high school, it's my understanding that you once overheard basketball players sing your lyrics. Now, you remember what those lyrics are, don't you?

GROSS: I'm too embarrassed...

FRAGOSO: Now...

GROSS: ...To reveal them.

FRAGOSO: ...Hold on. You've said in the past that you won't say them. What if we sang them together?

GROSS: We're not going to do that (laughter). There's no way we're going to do that.

FRAGOSO: (Laughter).

GROSS: You don't even know the lyrics.

FRAGOSO: Well, that's why, if you teach me, just give me...

GROSS: No, no.

FRAGOSO: Imagine yourself as Stephen Sondheim. Give me one line.

GROSS: OK. I may live to regret this.

FRAGOSO: That was the alternate title of your book, right?

GROSS: (Laughter) The alternate title of a lot of my life (laughter). OK.

(LAUGHTER)

GROSS: So the premise, it was kind of like a rip-off of "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying" where the main character finds, like, a rule book for success, like, a self-help book for success called "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying." We kind of used the same premise. And the premise was that we wanted to be, like, cool. And we didn't know how to be cool. We needed a handbook.

FRAGOSO: I wish I had that in high school.

GROSS: Or that we were going to create the handbook. I think we needed the handbook. And so the melody was to "L'chaim" from "Fiddler On The Roof." And the opening lyric was, the book will be our mentor, our noteworthy source of the rules. It will teach us explicitly, in sheer simplicity, step by step, to be cool. The school will marvel at how cool and groovy we look.

(LAUGHTER)

GROSS: They won't suspect that the gimmick is that we are mimickers of a 16-page book or something, 60-page book.

FRAGOSO: Excellent.

GROSS: I'm done.

FRAGOSO: Excellent.

GROSS: I'm totally done.

FRAGOSO: With the interview?

GROSS: No, no.

FRAGOSO: (Laughter).

GROSS: I'm not going to pull a Mamet (laughter).

FRAGOSO: Or a Bill O'Reilly?

GROSS: Or a Bill O'Reilly, or several other people I can think of.

FRAGOSO: Or a Faye Dunaway?

GROSS: Or a Faye Dunaway.

FRAGOSO: Or a Monica Lewinsky?

GROSS: Or a Monica.

FRAGOSO: Or a Lou Reed after 6 minutes in 1996?

GROSS: Yes.

FRAGOSO: I can keep going of...

(LAUGHTER)

FRAGOSO: ...FRESH AIR walkouts.

GROSS: It's an illustrious roster, I have to say.

FRAGOSO: It's a really great roster.

GROSS: Yeah.

(LAUGHTER)

GROSS: Yeah.

FRAGOSO: That was fantastic.

GROSS: Listen, if I really live to regret it, you're going to know about it (laughter).

FRAGOSO: I believe it. And as will our listeners. That was amazing. There's no...

GROSS: I don't hear the compliments. I don't hear, like...

FRAGOSO: I said that was amazing.

GROSS: No, you think it's amazing that I revealed it.

FRAGOSO: Yeah, you're right. You caught me on that.

GROSS: I know.

(LAUGHTER)

FRAGOSO: When you were sharing the lyrics, I was like, God, how am I going to remember to sing all these? This is...

GROSS: Of course.

FRAGOSO: This is very long. Was it satisfying to hear your fellow classmates singing your words?

GROSS: Oh, it was great. I felt so affirmed because I wasn't in with, like, the basketball crowd, even though (laughter) I was what was called a booster. Not a cheerleader, but somebody who just kind of screamed loud and got to wear, like, a special jacket with the team's name on it. But I didn't really know the guys. And they were, like, the cool guys in school. So a couple of those guys singing a lyric that I'd written, that was like wow.

That was an excerpt of my interview on Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso. You can find this episode in the FRESH AIR podcast feed as a special extra episode. And of course, you can also find it on the Talk Easy podcast and online at talkeasypod.com. A video version of this interview will be on YouTube later this week.

Tomorrow on FRESH AIR, we'll talk about how Charlie Kirk became a leader of the conservative youth movement and a close associate of President Trump and Don Jr. We'll talk with Robert Draper, who wrote a profile of Kirk in The New York Times Magazine earlier this year, stayed in touch with him and continued writing about him. Draper covers the political dynamics of the right. I hope you'll join us.

To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at @nprfreshair. FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our managing producer is Sam Briger. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Roberta Shorrock, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Susan Nyakundi and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Our consulting visual producer is Hope Wilson. Thea Chaloner directed today's show. Our cohost is Tonya Mosley. I'm Terry Gross.

(SOUNDBITE OF ALLEN TOUSSAINT'S "VIPER'S DRAG")

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5543245

THE BOOK AHEAD | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 2:40 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

New books this week: The case for the Constitution, and a celebration of chosen family

By Colin Dwyer

During news cycles that feel especially vicious, dispiriting or relentless — or worse, all three at once — it can be helpful to temper the ol' doomscrolling by cracking a book now and then.

Now, that's not to say that books are only good for a hit of escapism — though to be clear, they can be terrific at that, as well. This week sees the release of several works of fiction that challenge or outright shrug off the hard rigors of the day-to-day, in pursuit of something far more out there: proof, at least in concept, that other worlds are possible.

But this week's publishing calendar also offers help for readers seeking to understand, or simply cope with, this one. Because even if it isn't an escape, there's still value in applying a different, more deliberate lens to the — world, national, even personal — history that we can't help but live and breathe while we're around.

The Book of Guilt, by Catherine Chidgey

Few historical forks in the road seem as consequential, or as seductive to speculative fiction, as the outcome of World War II. Only, the thought experiment is typically framed as a simple either-or, with the Axis powers subbed in as victors — as in Philip K. Dick's paragon of the form, The Man in the High Castle. Here, though, Chidgey imagines an outcome in which a treaty leaves no clear victor, and in which the U.K. carries on with the caveat that Nazi crimes have become useful scientific precedent. The New Zealand novelist centers the perspectives of teenage British triplets, caught several decades later in a turbid world where the line between political and scientific subject has become disturbingly unclear.

Dealing with the Dead: A Novel, by Alain Mabanckou, translated by Helen Stevenson

For years, fairly or unfairly, Mabanckou has gamely shouldered the mantle of "African Samuel Beckett." Born in what's now the Republic of Congo, now based in the U.S., the francophone's nickname comes from his philosophical bent and keen sense of the absurd. In his new novel, translated from the original French by Stevenson, the decorated author returns to his hometown of Pointe-Noire for a lively dance between the permeable worlds of the living and the recently dead, and the present and the inescapable past.

Good and Evil and Other Stories, by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell

It makes sense that Schweblin brought up David Lynch during her 2022 chat with NPR's Weekend Edition. Sure, the Argentine expat (now based in Berlin) works in a different medium and language, but Schweblin's fiction bears an undeniable resemblance to the late American director's films. Even when they're not outright fever dreams, her worlds tend to be inescapably off — disconcertingly akimbo and bathed in unplaceable menace. Best not to let your guard down with her new short story collection, brought into English by McDowell, a veteran translator of Schweblin's work.

Tomorrow Is Yesterday: Life, Death, and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine, by Hussein Agha and Robert Malley

Thirty-two years since Israeli and Palestinian leaders gathered at the White House to celebrate a historic framework for peace, that promise today is farther out of reach than even its fiercest skeptics could have feared. Here, two longtime negotiators — Malley for the U.S., and Agha for the Palestinians — reflect on this painful road to ruin. To them it's clear the catastrophe in Gaza is unfolding not despite those peace efforts, but rather because of them — and all the "illusions, delusions, lies, noise, missteps, misreadings" that plague both sides and their American mediators, as Agha told NPR's Weekend Edition. "Hopefully people who read the book, people who are going to think about this issue, will come up with a prescription and better ideas," Malley added. "But at a minimum, they won't keep their head in the sand and continue trying what has been done so long and led to the disaster we're in today."

We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution, by Jill Lepore

To build a durable foundation for a house, you'll want to use the kinds of materials that resist change — concrete, say, or steel rebar. But a foundation for a country is another beast entirely. In Lepore's latest book, a hefty volume heavy on historical detail, the Harvard professor and New Yorker staff writer makes the timely case that the strength and stability of America's founding document, particularly in times of great stress, reside first and foremost in its capacity for adaptation.

The Wilderness: A Novel, by Angela Flournoy

Flournoy's debut, The Turner House, drew plaudits from a slew of prize committees, including a spot on the National Book Award shortlist. She has spent a decade crafting her sophomore effort, a novel that swaps the multigenerational family drama of that book for a focus on chosen family. Interlinked narratives tell the story of five young Black women whose complex friendship animates this slim and trim novel, and whose personal trials weave in and out of the familiar historical landmarks of our tumultuous 21st century.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5522365

MUSIC | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025 • 4:12 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Ed Sheeran talks about his new album 'Play'

By A Martínez

Heard on Morning Edition

Youtube Video

Ed Sheeran sets his sights well beyond the U.S. pop charts with Play, his eighth studio album.

Drawing on Indian and Persian influences, the new record released this month marks a shift from the darker, more subdued projects that reflected a dark chapter in his life.

One of the singles, "Sapphire," was finished in Goa, India, and went to No. 1 there.

That choice reflects his decision not to chase the U.S. market. "I can't base my career on what America's gonna think about it," Sheeran said in an interview with Morning Edition after performing at NPR's Tiny Desk.

The album's first single, "Azizam," takes its name from the Persian word for "my dear." Though considered a risk for Western-leaning markets, Sheeran said he wanted to lead to take the "approach that might work globally, and it did work globally."

A lighter tone

Play follows Subtract and Autumn Variations, albums Sheeran described as outcomes of a "really dark period" in his life.

This time, he said, the goal was simple: "Having fun."

Those earlier records were less commercially oriented and promoted on a smaller scale. For Sheeran, the point was never just sales.

"It depends how you measure success," he said. "I toured it, and my fans really liked it."

Now, he's exploring the full breadth of an artist's career.

"Artists aren't one-dimensional," he said. "Artists are allowed to do different things at different times in their careers. I feel like that's the most interesting part of any artist's career."

When asked if artistry is like a restaurant changing the recipe on a popular dish and upsetting fans, he replied:

"I go to the same pizza place every week and usually order the same thing, but sometimes I'll try something new. There should always be the pizza on the record. On all my albums I've got heartfelt love songs. And every now and then, you throw in something with jalapeños on it."

One of the spicier songs on Play is called "A Little More," which he described as a departure in tone but not in feeling.

"I used to love you. Now every day I hate you just a little more," he sings. The track is musically upbeat, even though the lyrics are sad.

Sheeran said the track reflects his full range of emotions: anger, love, frustration and sadness. He credited producer Blake Slatkin for suggesting they frame it in a more upbeat way. The contrast, he added, made the song work as "a juxtaposition."

Growing up alongside his audience

Sheeran's confidence rests on his U.S. track record. Divide (2017) topped the Billboard 200 for weeks, powered by "Shape of You," one of the most streamed songs ever on Apple Music. "+" (pronounced equals) also debuted at No. 1. Even his earlier albums gave him a near-permanent presence on the Hot 100.

And it has been 14 years since Sheeran's breakthrough album '+' (Plus). He was 19 then. Today, he is 34 and the father of two.

Still, he says fans will recognize his trademarks on Play, particularly in "The Vow," one of the record's centerpiece songs.

This interview was edited for radio by Adam Bearne and adapted for digital by Majd Al-Waheidi.

Transcript

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

Ed Sheeran has a new album that's bursting with international flavor.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SAPPHIRE")

ED SHEERAN: (Singing) Sapphire. Touching on your body while you're pushing on me. Don't you end the party. I could do this all week. We'll be dancing till the morning. Go to bed, we won't sleep. Cham cham chamke sitare wargi. Sapphire.

MARTÍNEZ: That's "Sapphire," one of the singles from "Play." It's Sheeran's eighth studio album. We sat down after Sheeran played NPR's Tiny Desk. And for the first time in a long time, the show was livestreamed, and has since been watched hundreds of thousands of times.

(SOUNDBITE OF TINY DESK CONCERT)

SHEERAN: (Singing) Sapphire.

MARTÍNEZ: Sheeran used a looping pedal on the floor to layer sound upon sound...

(SOUNDBITE OF TINY DESK CONCERT)

SHEERAN: (Singing) Sapphire.

MARTÍNEZ: ...Until he was ready to launch into the track.

(SOUNDBITE OF TINY DESK CONCERT)

SHEERAN: (Singing) You're glowing. You color and fracture the light. You can't help but shine.

MARTÍNEZ: The track is inspired by music half a world away from Sheeran's native England.

SHEERAN: I tour in India a lot. I always hang out with musicians when I go to India, and I just eventually lent into it. And we finished the record in Goa and it was super fun.

MARTÍNEZ: "Sapphire" went to No. 1 in India. And it's clear that Sheeran does not feel like he has to appeal solely to the American market.

SHEERAN: I can't base my career on what America's going to think about it. I do tour America, but I tour globally, and I'm British. So, like, I kind of go on what the song means to me, how it made me feel making it. And, like, I've had hits in America that weren't hits in Europe.

MARTÍNEZ: Sheeran also feels that way about the first single from the album, "Azizam." It means my dear or my beloved in Persian.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AZIZAM")

SHEERAN: (Singing) Azizam, meet me on the floor tonight. Show me how to move like the water in between the dancing lights. Be mine, mine, Azizam.

MARTÍNEZ: Why lead off with that one? I mean, I think you have to be, like, made out of stone not to move to that song.

SHEERAN: Thank you. I feel like always with my first singles, like, you have to take a big swing. To really get a big hit, you have to take a big swing. I'd say that that song worked in a lot of markets. I wouldn't say it necessarily worked in the U.S. market. But again, going into that, they said, you know, that this is a big risk in the U.S. market because it's not a very Western-leaning song. And I sort of took the approach that it's a song that might work globally, and it did work globally.

MARTÍNEZ: I mean, it seems like when we were upstairs, all the crowd was just into it. They were dancing around.

SHEERAN: But that's the thing as well. I mean, that song slaps in the live show. That song slaps in the live show in places it wasn't even a hit. And we're touring here next year. We're going to do a summer of stadiums, and I know that that song is going to work within the people who buy tickets to my show. They will know that song by the time we do the stadium.

(SOUNDBITE OF TINY DESK CONCERT)

SHEERAN: (Singing) I don't care what they say. We can do it our way. And if love's just a game, then come and play. Azizam.

MARTÍNEZ: "Play" comes on the heels of two albums, "Subtract" and "Autumn Variations" - very different from the Ed Sheeran we've grown used to hearing. So I asked him what the game plan was for this one.

SHEERAN: Having fun. I think the last two records I did came out of a really dark period of my life. Therefore, the promotion reflected that. So, yeah, I think just coming out of that, being like, I want to make a really fun album that's upbeat, celebratory and - yeah.

MARTÍNEZ: Because in those albums, you kind of bared your soul a bit. I mean, you put yourself out there. I'm going to use the word that maybe you might not like, but people rejected it. As an artist who obviously puts things out there for people to purchase, did that hurt your feelings at all?

SHEERAN: Well, it depends how you measure success. Because I feel like it did exactly what I thought the record would do. I toured it, and my fans really liked it. So it depends how you measure success.

MARTÍNEZ: How do you measure it?

SHEERAN: Well, I think with an album like "Divide," I wanted to make a record that was really big. And it was really big. Like, I know that people will get ready to go out and have fun at a club or whatever by playing "Shape Of You." They're not going to do that with "Subtract." With an album like "Autumn Variations," I put that out on my own record label. We didn't service any songs or radio. We didn't do any music videos. I know how that's going to be perceived.

Like, commercial numbers in terms of sales with both those records, I knew that they would be like that, so I don't think that that made me feel any type of way at all. Artists aren't one-dimensional. Artists are allowed to do different things at different times in their careers, and I feel like that's the most interesting part of any artist's career.

MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. So artistry, then, for you is then different than, say, like, a restaurant that changes the recipe on a very popular dish. They just want to try something new, and fans get all upset, so...

SHEERAN: Well, I think with the restaurant analogy, yeah. I think - like, I go to the same pizza place pretty much week in, week out, and I have the same pizza, but sometimes I'll try new things. So I think that there should be the pizza on the record. I think on all my records, I have heartfelt love songs, and every now and then you chuck in something with jalapenos on. Like, do you know what I mean? Like, you want the thing you're familiar with...

MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.

SHEERAN: ...But if you do the thing that you're familiar with 100% all the time, it gets boring.

MARTÍNEZ: One song that brings the spice on the new record is called "A Little More."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "A LITTLE MORE")

SHEERAN: (Singing) I used to love you. Now every day I hate you just a little more. Life got better when I lost you. But every day I hate you just a little more and more and more.

MARTÍNEZ: I read the lyrics, then I heard you sing it. And I thought, my gosh, how can someone say the words in this song and still have a friendly, approachable nature to the actual song itself? I mean, it was fun to hear, but it was kind of an angry song.

SHEERAN: Yeah. Oh, well, I feel like - I feel all the emotions. I'm not a robot. Like, I do get angry in my day. I do feel love in my day. I do feel frustrated in my day. I do feel sad in my day. Like, I'm a human being. And I think, like, making that song - I've made that song lots of times, and some of the times it just felt too angry. And it was Blake, the producer that I was working with, who suggested maybe making it sound feel-good. And I think it really worked as, like, a juxtaposition.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "A LITTLE MORE")

SHEERAN: (Singing) For your dad's sake, please move out your dads' place. Stop bringing drama there with your mates. Your sister's got enough to manage on her plate to worry about you controlling your rage.

MARTÍNEZ: It's been 14 years since Sheeran's breakthrough album, "Plus." And like anyone, he's changed a lot since then.

SHEERAN: I'm a hugely different human being than I was when I was 19 - hugely - because you grow up and you learn different things. And so, yeah, I think that my music has reflected that. I'm a 34-year-old father of two, so I'm a different person than I was at 19 on my first album and going for it like that.

MARTÍNEZ: But his fans can rest assured that their favorite pizza toppings are all here, especially in "The Vow."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE VOW")

SHEERAN: (Singing) Words are just words, but I need you to know that beyond to have and hold, that my vow to you is to love you and never let go.

MARTÍNEZ: "Play" by Ed Sheeran is out now.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE VOW")

SHEERAN: (Singing) But I thank the broken road that led me into your arms.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5389874

Table of Contents

National Public Radio: 2025 Sep 17

National

Kirk's alleged shooter faces death penalty. And, Pritzker concerned for 2026 elections: 2025 Sep 17

After a wave of horrific shootings, gun violence trends put recent attacks in context: 2025 Sep 17

When her car ran out of gas, help came from a homeless encampment: 2025 Sep 17

Beyond 'draining the swamp': How Trump is knocking down checks on presidential power: 2025 Sep 17

What we know about the accused shooter of Charlie Kirk: 2025 Sep 16

World

Suspect in UK toddler disappearance is released after serving time in unrelated case: 2025 Sep 17

What to know about zarfs, the fanciest way to drink coffee: 2025 Sep 17

Horse-drawn carriages and a royal salute for Trump's unprecedented second state visit: 2025 Sep 17

The far-right and what it means to be British: 2025 Sep 16

Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, a UN inquiry says: 2025 Sep 16

The U.S. said it would burn $9.7 million of birth control. Its fate is still unclear: 2025 Sep 16

Law

Utah files murder charges against Tyler Robinson: 2025 Sep 16

Trump files $15 billion defamation lawsuit against 'New York Times': 2025 Sep 16

FBI Director Patel defends his leadership, Charlie Kirk probe at Senate hearing: 2025 Sep 16

Politics

NPR to trim $5 million this year as public radio stations struggle to pay bills: 2025 Sep 17

On Capitol Hill, FBI Director Patel faces questions over his leadership: 2025 Sep 16

Trump extends TikTok reprieve as deal nears: 2025 Sep 16

'People are scared': Congress grapples with increasing political violence: 2025 Sep 16

Republicans release 7-week spending bill as Democrats warn of a potential shutdown: 2025 Sep 16

Sen. Chris Murphy warns Trump is exploiting Kirk's death to squash dissent: 2025 Sep 16

On Texas border, uninsured people stress the health system. It's set to get worse: 2025 Sep 16

Health

RFK Jr. wants to end mental health screenings in schools. Experts say it's a bad idea: 2025 Sep 16

From heart to skin to hair, 'Replaceable You' dives into the science of transplant: 2025 Sep 16

Is telehealth a good idea, or should I see my regular doctor?: 2025 Sep 16

Kennedy's vaccine panel expected to recommend delaying hepatitis B shot in children: 2025 Sep 16

5 new members added to CDC vaccine advisory panel ahead of key meeting: 2025 Sep 15

Science

Movie star and visionary Robert Redford has died at age 89: 2025 Sep 16

On 9/16/25, celebrate a date of mathematical beauty: 2025 Sep 16

Race

Telling stories of gun violence deaths almost cost this reporter his life: 2025 Sep 15

Religion

In first interview, Pope Leo XIV takes on billionaires, polarization and war: 2025 Sep 15

Culture

What to watch this fall: Here are 12 TV shows we're looking forward to: 2025 Sep 17

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter go on a new excellent adventure: 'Waiting for Godot': 2025 Sep 17

Robert Redford knew how to make a thriller: 2025 Sep 16

Terry Gross reflects on 50 years of hosting 'Fresh Air': 2025 Sep 16

New books this week: The case for the Constitution, and a celebration of chosen family: 2025 Sep 16

Ed Sheeran talks about his new album 'Play': 2025 Sep 16