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With Christmas Day missile strikes on sites linked to the Islamic State group, we hear from a Catholic priest in Nigeria.
Also in the programme: a BBC Persian TV documentary, in which one of Iran’s leading female actors renounces the compulsory hijab, has broken viewing records; and we look ahead to some of the more unusual sports in next year's Winter Olympics.
(Photo: A man standing amid a destroyed building following US strikes in Nigeria's Kwara State. Credit: REUTERS/Abdullahi Dare Akogun)
OA1219 - This year we are celebrating Boxing Day by not doing whatever people are supposed to do on Boxing Day and talking about weed instead. Did Donald Trump really just finish out 2025 by doing something good for US drug policy? We hotbox some Time Machine to revisit Matt’s analysis from last May of Joe “Grandaddy Purple” Biden’s announcement that he was initiating the long process to have the federal government to reclassify OG Kush from its current legal status as Green Crack down to the same category as metabolic steroids. We then return to the present to check in on the weirdly unreported story on how Biden’s efforts went from Blue Dream to Trainwreck in the year after his big announcement before evaluating Trump’s chances of turning cannabis policy Panama Red.
Finally, in a seasonal footnote Matt shares the story of how the city of Boston fired the first shots on the War on Christmas… in 1659.
Biden DOJ's analysis of legal questions around plans to redesignate cannabis to Schedule III
“Increasing Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research,” The White House (12/18/25)
“The Penalty For Keeping Christmas,” Archive.org (Boston, 1659)
Do you remember all of the surprises investors got in 2025? We had tariffs, AI upheaval, and even gold having a great year. We discuss all of it.
Travis Hoium, Lou Whiteman, and Emily Flippen discuss:
- When tariffs shocked the world
- When ChatGPT fell behind Google
- Gold’s ouperformance
- How well do you remember 2025
Companies discussed: Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), NVIDIA (NVDA), Oracle (ORCL). Sandisk (SNDK), Medline (MDLN).
Host: Travis Hoium
Guests: Lou Whiteman, Emily Flippen
Engineer: Dan Boyd
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In 2025, the crack team of intrepid presenters here on CrowdScience have been on some incredible adventures. They’ve wondered whether water is wet, and gone a hunt for a missing tangerine. They’ve wondered why animals swallow rocks, imagined what would happen if the earth spun backwards and pondered whether atoms are immortal.
But, as the year draws to a close, Anand Jagatia is wondering… have they REALLY been paying attention? Time to put them to the test!
In this special programme, Anand gathers the other four presenters into a studio together – Caroline, Alex, Marnie and Chhavi, for an end-of-year quiz – and you can join in at home!
Presenters: Anand Jagatia, Caroline Steel, Alex Lathbridge, Marnie Chesterton and Chhavi Sachdev
Producer: Emily Knight
Editor: Ben Motley
(Photo: CrowdScience presenters in the studio with purple background Credit: BBC)
Plus: Nvidia and Coupang shares jump. And analysts say Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix could benefit from DRAM demand. Julie Chang hosts.
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Hey smarties! We’re taking a short break for the holidays. In the meantime, enjoy this bonus episode on one of Kimberly’s favorite topics: anime!
Anime had a big year in 2025. The animated film “KPop Demon Hunters” broke Netflix’s record for most-watched movie on the streaming platform. And “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle" became the top-grossing international film ever at the North American box office. When “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” debuted in theaters earlier this year, Kimberly spoke with Crunchyroll’s executive vice president of global commerce Mitchel Berger about the strategy behind the film’s release and the future of anime content.
On the night of his inauguration, President Trump signed an executive order that froze almost all international assistance.
What followed was the termination of billions of dollars in aid programs — and the dismantling of the U-S Agency for International Development. Now, the future of U.S. foreign assistance looks very different.
NPR global health correspondents Fatma Tanis and Gabrielle Emanuel have been following this all year and break down the impact of this move both on the ground and for the U.S.
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
This episode was produced by Mallory Yu, with additional reporting by Jonathan Lambert. It was edited by Patrick Jarenwattananon and Rebecca Davis. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
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