April 2025 – Page 17

April 28, 2025

The Bookmonger - Episode 557: Farewell

John J. Miller signs off.

April 28, 2025

NPR's Book of the Day - Emily Henry’s latest novel ‘Great Big Beautiful Life’ explores love beyond romance

Known for books like Beach Read and People We Meet on Vacation, Emily Henry is the patron saint of millennial romance. But for her latest novel, the author says she wanted to challenge herself in a new way. Great Big Beautiful Life is a story within a story about two journalists who are competing to write the biography of a fictional media heiress. There's romance at the center of the novel, but the story also follows a century-long family drama. In today's episode, Henry speaks with NPR's Miles Parks about braiding these two plots together, her interest in mother-daughter relationships, and grief as the flipside of love.

To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

April 28, 2025

Up First from NPR - Continued Crackdown on Illegal Immigration, Canada Votes, Measles Outbreak

The Trump administration continues to crack down on US immigrants without legal status. The Canadian election has been dominated by President Trump's trade war and threatening rhetoric, and a measles outbreak is especially bad in Texas, where two of every three Americans with the virus live.

Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.

Today's episode of Up First was edited by Russell Lewis, Tara Neill, Alfredo Carbajal, Janaya Williams and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from David Greenburg. And our technical director is Zac Coleman.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

April 28, 2025

Headlines From The Times - Measles Risks Rise, E. Coli Lawsuits Mount, Jack in the Box Shutters Stores

Stanford scientists warn that if childhood vaccination rates stay low, measles could become as common as the flu by 2050. A California produce supplier faces lawsuits over a deadly E. coli outbreak that was never publicly disclosed by the FDA, raising serious food safety concerns. Jack in the Box announces plans to close more than 150 locations nationwide as rising costs and debt force a major restructuring. Major budget cuts to LADOT could derail Los Angeles’ Olympic transit plans and jeopardize traffic safety initiatives.

April 28, 2025

Marketplace All-in-One - AI can’t read the room

Leyla Isik, a professor of cognitive science at Johns Hopkins University, is also a senior scientist on a new study looking at how good AI is at reading social cues. She and her research team took short videos of people doing things — two people chatting, two babies on a playmat, two people doing a synchronized skate routine — and showed them to human participants. After, they were asked them questions like, are these two communicating with each other? Are they communicating? Is it a positive or negative interaction? Then, they showed the same videos to over 350 open source AI models. (Which is a lot, though it didn't include all the latest and greatest ones out there.) Isik found that the AI models were a lot worse than humans at understanding what was going on. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes visited Isik at her lab in Johns Hopkins to discuss the findings.

April 28, 2025

The Intelligence from The Economist - Modi behaviour: will India retaliate against Pakistan?

Tensions between India and Pakistan have flared after the terrorist attack in Kashmir last week. Our correspondent explains what Narendra Modi may do next. Why even priests and the clergy need the free market (8:56). And the surprising survival of cassette tapes (15:45).

Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—Subscribe to Economist Podcasts+

For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

April 28, 2025

Start Here - President Trump’s Report Card

An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll reveals historically low approval ratings ahead of President Trump’s 100th day in office. The FBI arrests a sitting judge for allegedly aiding an undocumented immigrant to evade authorities. And a car careens into a Canadian street fair just ahead of the country’s election day.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

April 28, 2025

Start the Week - Advocating for nature

In his new book, Robert Macfarlane takes the reader on a river journey, through history and geography, to posit the idea that rivers are not merely for human use, but living beings. In Is A River Alive? he argues that human fate is interwoven with the natural world, and that it’s time we treated nature not as a resource, but a fellow being.

But does the natural world have legal rights? In A Barrister for the Earth the lawyer Monica Feria-Tinta explains how she’s sought justice for environmental wrongs. Her case against the destruction of cloud forests was the world’s first Rights of Nature case.

In Britain many environmental campaigners argue for the Right to Roam and greater access to private land. But in Uncommon Ground, Patrick Galbraith presents a counterargument on the benefits of restricting access to the countryside, advocating for wildlife’s right to tranquillity.

Producer: Katy Hickman