Now, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is back in the U.S. for more talks. His last visit to the White House was disastrous, to say the least. This time, he’s bringing key European leaders with him to meet with Trump.
President Trump plots his next steps to broker an end to Russia's war on Ukraine after White House meetings. We look at the Kremlin's view on the peace talks. And California lawmakers seek to overhaul the state's congressional map to counter a Trump-backed move in Texas to gain an edge in the 2026 midterms.
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 Roberta Rampton, Ryland Barton, Acacia Squires, Olivia Hampton and Adriana Gallardo. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
Alexis Okeowo grew up in Alabama. But it wasn’t until they left for college that Okeowo realized the strong stereotypes outsiders held about their home state. With their new book Blessings and Disasters, the New Yorker staff writer blends memoir and reporting to tell an alternate history of Alabama. In today’s episode, Okeowo speaks with NPR’s Emily Kwong about those who are often excluded from the state’s history, including the Poarch Creek Indians and Alabama’s West African communities.
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
Imagine, you’re a toxic toad hanging around South America. No other animals are gonna mess with you, right? After all, you’re ~toxic~! So if anyone tries to eat you, they’ll be exposed to something called a cardiotonic steroid — and may die of a heart attack. Well, unfortunately, for you, some animals have developed adaptations to these toxic steroids. Evolutionary biologist Shabnam Mohammadi has spent her career studying how these adaptations work — and says even humans have used these toxins to their advantage since ancient Egypt. So today on Short Wave, we get a little… toxic (cue Brittney Spears). Host Regina G. Barber talks to Shabnam about how some predators can get away with eating toxic prey.
Curious about biology? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.
Social media has birthed an entire lexicon replicated by millions online — even if these words don’t actually mean skibidi. On today’s show, we talk to author Adam Aleksic about how TikTok and Instagram's engagement metrics, and viral memes, are rewiring our brains and transforming language at warp speed.
In the last few days, President Donald Trump has met separately with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine, in an attempt to break the deadlock and end the war.
Today’s meeting at the White House between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy seemed to go much better than last time, when Zelenskyy left early after a heated argument in the Oval Office. In fact, Zelenskyy hailed today’s meeting as “the best one” yet.
Even so, the next steps to ending the war are unclear. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy still haven’t met face-to-face to negotiate, and it’s not certain whether they will be able to find common ground.
NPR White House Correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben gives an update on the day’s events, and former national security advisor Susan Rice gives her perspective on the likelihood of a deal.
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
A long lasting drought and severe heat this summer, compounded with government mismanagement of the country’s dams have led to an impending water crisis in Iran. Officials are warning that Iran’s ten million residents might run out of water in a matter of weeks. We hear how this has happened and what it means for Iranians.
In a letter sent Aug. 12, three White House officials told the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Lonnie G. Bunch III, that the administration would conduct a review at certain Smithsonian museums.
In this installment of our politics series, “If You Can Keep It,” we talk about how the administration is injecting itself into the affairs – and the exhibits – of the Smithsonian Institution and what that means for our understanding of our shared history.
In Emily Hunt Kivel’s new novel Dwelling, a mass eviction in New York City throws a young woman’s life into chaos. Suddenly homeless, Evie relocates to Gulluck, Texas, where she moves into a giant cowboy boot, the only rental property she can afford. In today’s episode, Kivel joins NPR’s Adrian Ma for a discussion about how she approached American capitalism through the lens of fairy tales.
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
Scientists have mapped less than 30% of the world's seafloor. Experts say that getting that number up to 100% would improve everything from tsunami warnings to the Internet and renewable energy. That's why there's currently a global effort to create a full, detailed map of the seabed by 2030. On today's Sea Camp episode, we talk to Dawn
Wright, a marine geographer and chief scientist at the Environmental
Systems Research Institute about this effort.
We have a newsletter that lets you go even deeper with the marine research each week of Sea Camp. You can sign up here!