Podcasts about sunday story

A lot has changed in higher education since President Trump took office. This week on The Sunday Story, Ayesha reflects on her own college graduation, and she sits down with three graduating college seniors. They talk about how funding cuts have upended their postgrad plans and how the last semester has made them think differently about what college is all about.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hundreds of U.S.-based scholars say the United States is swiftly heading away from liberal democracy and towards some form of authoritarianism. In this episode of The Sunday Story, NPR's Frank Langfitt speaks to people who have fled authoritarian regimes for America. They say some of the Trump administration's tactics remind them of home.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In Syria during the 14-year civil war, many children were detained with their mothers. Then, security forces separated them. Thousands of these children have never been found.Since the fall of the Assad regime, parents of disappeared children have continued to search for answers. In this episode of The Sunday Story, NPR correspondent Diaa Hadid investigates: what happened to the disappeared children of Syria?This episode includes mentions of rape and torture.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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NPR's cybersecurity correspondent Jenna McLaughlin recently broke a story about a whistleblower inside the federal government who says DOGE representatives appear to have taken sensitive data, then covered their tracks. Daniel Berulis works for the National Labor Relations Board and he has shared evidence that DOGE engineers disabled security protocols, exported reams of sensitive data and used a "hacker's toolkit" to hide their activities. And he thinks his agency is not alone. Today on The Sunday Story, what this possible breach could mean for the private data of millions of Americans.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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Recently, the White House announced its plans to ask Congress to rescind funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. If the plan passes, there could be serious consequences for the public media ecosystem.Rather than tell you why we think public media is important, we are sharing this piece from NPR's Up First. This story is one of the best things we've listened to this year, so we think you'll enjoy it, just because. We also think it'll show you, a thousand times better than we can tell you, about why public media is essential. Kudos to The Sunday Story team at NPR for this magnificent piece. For more info, visit NPR.org. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Before Roe v. Wade, when a young, unmarried girl got pregnant, she was often sent away – to a place called a maternity home. There, she would give birth in secret, surrender her baby, and return to her life as if nothing had happened. That shadowed history is the setting of Grady Hendrix's latest horror novel, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls. Today on The Sunday Story from Up First, Ayesha Rascoe talks with Hendrix about the truth that inspired his timely fiction — and what happens when people with little choice, discover a new kind of power.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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The first amendment is a cornerstone of American democracy. This week on The Sunday Story, we hear from people who feel their right to free speech might be changing under the Trump Administration. NPR's Morning Edition co-host Leila Fadel joins Ayesha Rascoe to share what she learned when she talked to teachers and students, pastors and scientists, and others about whether they feel emboldened or silenced in America today.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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Fear is consuming many immigrant communities since the nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration. This week on The Sunday Story, NPR Immigration Correspondent Jasmine Garsd travels from Florida to a meatpacking town in Nebraska to a food bank near Chicago and finally to North Carolina to find out how immigrants are coping with the current situation.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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What do Moo Deng the pygmy hippo, social media sensation Hawk Tuah, and the President of the United States all have in common? They've all inspired highly valuable, highly volatile memecoins. The memecoin began as a sort of joke cryptocurrency, but it soon became very real.On today's episode of The Sunday Story, we turn to our friends at NPR's Planet Money to help us understand the phenomenon of memecoins. What are they, and how did they go from a one-off joke to a speculative frenzy worth tens of billions of dollars? Who are the winners and losers in this brazen new market?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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With the recent arrest of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte for crimes against humanity, a spotlight is again on actions taken during his presidency. Even years after Duterte declared his war on drugs, the reverberations continue to tear through the country. The loved ones of those killed are still left seeking justice and the extra-judicial killings, commonly called EJKs, that defined Duterte's war continue to sow fear amongst the people.Today on The Sunday Story, we share an episode that originally aired last year with reporter Emily Feng. She traveled to the Philippines to understand the aftermath of Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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Anas Baba is NPR's eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza. He's also one of the only Palestinian journalists working full time for an American news organization in Gaza. Israel has banned international journalists from independent access to the territory throughout this war. But Baba is from Gaza City, and he chose to stay and report when the war began. Today on The Sunday Story, what it's like to cover the war while also living through it.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

On the first day of his second term as President, Donald Trump signed an executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. whose parents are in the country illegally. The Trump Administration asserts that the children of noncitizens are not "subject to the jurisdiction of the United States" and therefore are not entitled to citizenship. But birthright citizenship is a Constitutional guarantee, explicitly laid out in the 14th Amendment. On this episode of The Sunday Story, we look at the origins of this right through a 1898 court case that would transform the life of one Chinese immigrant and generations to follow. You can listen to the full episode from NPR's Throughline here or wherever you listen to podcasts.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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Conspiracy theories are all over social media. For some, that's as far as they go. But for reporter Zach Mack, conspiracy theories have infiltrated his family. After Mack's father became obsessed with conspiracy thinking, family relationships began to fray. Today on The Sunday Story, a look at what happens to a family when the people in it can't agree on what's true and what isn't. To hear more of Mack's story about the impact conspiracy theories have had on his family check out his three-part series called Alternate Realities on NPR's Embedded podcast.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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Thirty years ago, housing activists began an unusual experiment to help people struggling with homelessness and chronic addiction. They decided to get people into housing first and then try to help their clients with their addictions. This idea, called "Housing First," is now the central strategy guiding homeless services in America. But the concept is facing new scrutiny and growing criticism from conservative lawmakers. Today on The Sunday Story, we look at the controversy around Housing First and consider if the strategy is working as it was designed.You can listen to Will James's full documentary on KUOW's Soundside podcast.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Increasingly, tech companies like Meta and Character.AI are giving human qualities to chatbots. Many have faces, names and distinct personalities. Some industry watchers say these bots are a way for big tech companies to boost engagement and extract increasing amounts of information from users. But what's good for a tech company's bottom line might not be good for you. Today on The Sunday Story from Up First, we consider the potential risks to real humans of forming "relationships" and sharing data with tech creations that are not human.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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The recent wildfires around Los Angeles are just the most recent example of how extreme weather driven by climate change is affecting housing across the country. Millions of homes are at risk of flooding, fire or drought. Increasingly, local municipalities are facing hard decisions about whether to tear homes down or ban new construction altogether. Today on The Sunday Story, we share an episode that originally aired last year in which reporters Rebecca Hersher and Lauren Sommer visit three communities in the US trying to balance the need for housing with the threat of climate-driven disaster.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The fall of Syria's leader in December opened the doors to a vast network of detention centers and prisons across the country, uncovering further evidence of the true scale of killings under former president Bashar al-Assad. On this episode of The Sunday Story, NPR's Ruth Sherlock takes us to a notorious prison where thousands were detained and killed, and she visits a suspected mass gravesite outside Damascus. She meets former prisoners and those forced to play a role in what has been called the regime's "machinery of death."Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

If you've been following the news over the last year, you've likely heard about the rise of the Christian nationalism movement. Today on The Sunday Story, Ayesha Rascoe sits down with journalist Heath Druzin, creator of the Extremely American podcast series, to take a closer look at one group of Christian nationalists. Druzin interviewed leaders of an influential far-right church in the small town of Moscow, Idaho: Christ Church. There, Pastor Doug Wilson has been building what Druzin and his co-reporter James Dawson call a "Christian industrial complex." And its influence reaches far beyond the boundaries of Moscow, Idaho.You can listen to the latest season of Extremely American here, or download the full series wherever you listen to podcasts.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

As Congress meets tomorrow to certify the results of the 2024 election, it also marks the 4-year anniversary of the attack on the Capitol. The participants of the riot on January 6, 2021 intended to disrupt the certification process of the 2020 election results. When it was all over four people were dead, 140 law enforcement officers were wounded and there was nearly $3 million in damage.There were people from all walks of life at the Capitol that day, but one thing that many of them had in common? Military ties. That reality is something that the military is still grappling with today. On this episode of The Sunday Story from Up First, we are joined by NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman and producer Lauren Hodges, who were both at the Capitol reporting that day. Last year they released a new investigation with NPR's Embedded podcast called "A Good Guy," about an active duty Marine who participated in the Capitol riot.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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In our last episode of 2024, we go for a walk.Earlier this year, NPR's immigration reporter Jasmine Garsd and Code Switch producer Xavier Lopez spent a day in one of their favorite places in the world: Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, New York.It's a place they share with one of the most diverse communities in the world, a place where immigrants from around the globe gather to relax, recharge, and reconnect.Today on The Sunday Story, you'll hear an excerpt of an episode from NPR's Code Switch podcast. You can listen to the full episode here.And finally, we have a question for you. What's a place that you visit regularly–a place that lifts you up? We'd love to hear you tell us about it. You can send us a 2-3 minute voice memo at upfirstsunday@npr.org. Bonus points if you include sounds from the space you're in.Make sure to tell us your name and where you're speaking to us from, and we might share it in an episode in 2025.Thanks for spending your Sundays with us this year.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In 1987, Ben Spencer, a young black man from Dallas, Texas was convicted in the killing of a white businessman. He was sentenced to life in prison by an all-white jury. There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime and he had an alibi. Over the years, eyewitnesses recanted their testimony and a judge, after reviewing all the prior evidence, declared Spencer to be an innocent man. Nonetheless, Spencer remained in prison for more than three decades. For seven of those years, former NPR correspondent Barbara Bradley Hagerty follows and followed the twists and turns of this case. Her dissection of wrongful convictions and the criminal justice system is at the heart of her new book, Bringing Ben Home: A Murder, A Conviction And The Fight to Redeem American Justice. Today on The Sunday Story from Up First, part one of a two-part series looking at why it is so hard to get a conviction overturned even when evidence of innocence is overwhelming. Part two is also available now on the Up First podcast feed.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In part two of our story about Ben Spencer, a man sentenced to life in prison for a crime he said he didn't commit, former NPR correspondent Barbara Bradley Hagerty begins her own investigation. She returns to the scene of the crime and reinterviews witnesses. Hagerty finds new evidence of Spencer's innocence. And yet, the courts refuse to release him. In this episode of The Sunday Story from Up First, a look at what finally happens to a man who pinned his hopes on the idea that the truth would eventually set him free.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In 1972, the federal government launched a program to support the poorest disabled and elderly Americans. Supplemental Security Income, run by the Social Security Administration, provides monthly checks that are a lifeline for some of the most vulnerable people in this country.SSI was intended to serve as a powerful safety net and a tool for fighting poverty. But a recent NPR Investigation led by correspondent Joseph Shapiro has discovered a very different reality today.In today's episode of The Sunday Story, Shapiro explains how SSI's outdated rules have made the system difficult to run and almost impossible for its beneficiaries to navigate. Impoverished disabled and elderly people say they have been penalized for trying to improve their lives—for saving money, getting married, and even daring to have careers.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Since its inception in 1973, the Endangered Species Act has been credited with helping to bring numerous species back from the brink of extinction. But as the country has continued to grow and develop it has also forced us to grapple with balancing the needs of endangered wildlife with the needs of humans. Today on The Sunday Story from Up First, host Ayesha Rascoe is joined by Montana Public Radio's Nick Mott to talk about his reporting on the Endangered Species Act, in a new podcast called The Wide Open, and how we navigate our complicated relationship with nature.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Deep, deep down on the floor of the world's oceans, rare and precious minerals exist in abundance. Mining companies have long had their eyes on this treasure but haven't had the technology to access it. Now they do and the race to mine the sea floor seems poised to begin. Today on The Sunday Story, we head to the Bismark Sea off the coast of Papua New Guinea. It's here that a massive mining ship was recently hauling up chunks of the sea floor from a mile down, trying to gauge the mineral wealth and the possible damage extraction might cause.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Author Ta-Nehisi Coates is no stranger to controversy. Over a decade ago Coates wrote his thought provoking article in The Atlantic magazine titled The Case for Reparations. The article sparked a global conversation and led to Coates testifying in front of congress about reparations. Now Coates is back with a new book of essays, one of which takes on the conflict in the West Bank. Today on The Sunday Story host Ayesha Rascoe talks to author Ta-Nehisi Coates about his new book, The Message and why some people fear books so much they lead efforts to have them banned.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the last few years, more than a dozen states have enacted laws that ban almost all abortions. Some include exceptions for rape, incest, and to protect the life of the mother. But a small, vocal group of anti-abortion activists say even these exceptions are morally wrong. They want to see a ban not only on all abortions but also on some fertility treatments, including IVF. They believe an embryo deserves the same rights as any human.On this episode of The Sunday Story from Up First, NPR's Sarah McCammon takes us to a protest outside an IVF clinic and talks to activists who call themselves "abortion abolitionists." These activists say their goal is to turn their beliefs into policy and are heartened by the progress they've made.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Today on The Sunday Story we feature an episode from the NPR podcast Planet Money about the inner workings of the residential solar industry and how the business practices of some companies have soured customers on the promise of this renewable energy. And the team looks into where the residential solar industry is headed in the future.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In Central Asia, the world's youngest desert occupies a basin that once held a vast saline lake. The Aral Sea. Up until the 1960s, the sea spanned more than 26 thousand square miles across two countries. It supported thriving fishing communities along its shores. But then, in the name of progress and development, much of the river water that fed the sea was diverted for agriculture. Now the Aral Sea has all but disappeared, shrunk to about tenth of its original size. The UN Environment Programme has called the Aral Sea's destruction quote "one of the most staggering disasters of the 20th century." On this episode of The Sunday Story, Above The Fray Fellow Valerie Kipnis takes us to the Aral Sea to try to understand what went wrong and whether anything can be done to save the little water that's left.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

By the time he was in middle school, writer Gabino Iglesias gravitated toward stories that unsettled him. Stories that scared him enough that he needed to turn on a light. Now a Bram Stoker Award-winning author, Iglesias writes this type of fiction himself. Today on The Sunday Story, Iglesias talks to host Ayesha Rascoe about his new novel, House of Bone and Rain, which centers on a group of friends determined to avenge a murder. Iglesias describes how he uses supernatural elements to make a story more powerful, the redeeming parts of toxic masculinity, and the beauty and perils of unwavering loyalty.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the Xinjiang region of western China, the government has rounded up and detained at least hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups. Many haven't been heard from in years, and others are still desperately searching for their families. Western governments have called this crackdown a cultural genocide and a possible crime against humanity. NPR Correspondent Emily Feng has been reporting on Uyghurs inside and outside of China for years. In this episode, she profiles two Uyghur men who have found themselves sometimes unwilling actors within the Chinese state's systems of control over Uyghurs. As they work to silence others, they sometimes find themselves silenced as well. Additional Context: Listen to Emily Feng's 2022 reporting, "The Black Gate: A Uyghur Family's Story" part one and part two. For more on the history of the Uyghur people, listen to the episode "Five Fingers Crush The Land" from NPR's Throughline podcast.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the U.S., many kids in trouble with the law are sentenced to juvenile detention facilities. In New Hampshire, the largest such facility is a place commonly known as the Youth Detention Center, or YDC (recently renamed the Sununu Youth Services Center). YDC was founded with good intentions: keep kids out of adult jails and prisons and care for them. But now, nearly 1,300 former residents of YDC have come forward, filing lawsuits over alleged abuse at the facility. The allegations include hundreds of cases of assault and rape that span over six decades. It's become one of the biggest youth detention scandals in American history.New Hampshire Public Radio's Jason Moon and his colleagues on the Document team spent the last year investigating the Youth Development Center. They combed through the cases, worked around legal roadblocks, and spoke with residents and staff who'd never before told their stories.This week on The Sunday Story, host Ayesha Roscoe and Moon discuss what may have happened inside YDC and how the allegations stayed under wraps for so long.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Who gets to compete? Since the beginning of women's sports, there has been a struggle over who qualifies for the women's category. A Martinez speaks with Rose Eveleth, the host of a new podcast series called Tested from NPR's Embedded and CBC in Canada, which traces the surprising, 100-year history of sex testing in elite sports. The series follows the unfolding story of elite female runners who have been told they can no longer race as women, because of their biology. They face hard choices: take drugs to lower their natural testosterone levels, give up their sport entirely, or fight.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The U.S. is the largest exporter of natural gas in the world. And Louisiana's Gulf Coast is where much of America's natural gas is piped in to be liquified for export.Over the last twenty years, liquified natural gas (LNG) has been heralded as a clean and efficient "bridge fuel" for nations transitioning away from coal and oil, towards a future of renewable energy. But the promise of LNG has not reflected reality. In today's episode of The Sunday Story, WWNO reporters Halle Parker and Carlyle Calhoun talk about the impact of the LNG export industry on Louisiana's Gulf Coast. And they follow the supply chain of LNG all the way to Germany and Japan.To hear more of Halle and Carlyle's reporting on LNG, listen to their three-part series, "All Gassed Up," on the podcast Sea Change from member stations WWNO and WRKF.Part One: The Carbon CoastPart Two: The German ConnectionPart Three: The Sugar Daddy of LNGLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This past spring, in the east African nation of Uganda, the country's highest court upheld The Anti-Homosexuality act. It calls for tough sentences-sometimes even the death penalty - for LGBTQ+ people. On this episode of The Sunday Story, the tale of a trans woman in Uganda who calls herself Rihanna Mukasa. Rihanna was one of the first to be brought to court under the Anti-Homosexuality Act. As she fought a convoluted legal battle, she was brutalized in prison for nine months. After her release, Rihanna found an unexpected ally in her deeply traditional and religious mother. Together, they've become outspoken critics of the government, risking their lives to stand up for LGBTQ+ rights in the country that considers them criminals.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Fear can be a powerful weapon. Gao Zhi, a 44-year-old Chinese man, knows this well. In 2020, after criticizing the Communist Party on social media, he left China and gained asylum in the Netherlands. But after Wang Jingyu, a Chinese celebrity dissident, moves into Gao's home, things start to go terribly wrong. Gao fears he and his family are now in the crosshairs of the Chinese Communist Party. On this episode of The Sunday Story, NPR's Global Democracy Correspondent Frank Langfitt and a reporting partner bring us the story of Gao and Wang. It's a tale of how the fear authoritarian regimes sow can be used to create a world of lies, betrayal, and manipulation.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Whoopi Goldberg is an icon of entertainment. She's played many roles in Hollywood, and she has perhaps been most inspirational for the way she has shown up as herself. But before the acclaim, Whoopi Goldberg was known as Caryn Johnson and in her own words, "A little bit different.. and out there."In her new memoir, "Bits and Pieces," she dives into her upbringing with her mother, Emma, and brother, Clyde, and how her relationships with them shaped her sense of herself. In this episode of The Sunday Story, Goldberg sits down with host Ayesha Rascoe to talk about the previously untold stories that made her who she is today. They discuss family, love, and coping with loss.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy