When you picture a dinosaur, what does it look like? For Jingmai O'Connor, paleobiologist and associate curator of reptiles at the Field Museum of Chicago, the dinosaurs she studies look a lot more like birds.
"If you looked at an artist's reconstruction of something like Velociraptor or Microraptor ... you would see that it pretty much looks the same as a bird," Jingmai says. "In terms of the plumage, the soft tissues covering the body, it would have looked very, very birdlike."
In this episode, Short Wave delves into the dinosaur-avian connection. Which dinosaurs had feathers? Were they using them to fly? And once and for all – what are those ancient dinosaurs' relationship to birds today?
Have other dinosaur questions you want us to unravel? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we'd love to hear from you!
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State of the World from NPR - How the War is Straining Ukraine’s Military and Shaping its Children
The city of Kherson in southern Ukraine is a key objective for Russia. Its military shells the city's neighborhoods daily and sends drones buzzing over the streets. We go out with a Ukrainian military unit that seeks to disrupt the Russians under the cover of darkness. And we also take a look at how three years of war have shaped Ukraine's children.
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Consider This from NPR - Keeping America Safe: CIA Director Burns reflects
On a shelf in his office at CIA headquarters, Director Bill Burns keeps a tiny scaled model of a house. It's the house in Kabul, Afghanistan, where Al Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2022.
When NPR went out to interview him last week, Burns pointed to the exact balcony on which Zawahiri was standing. There was pride in his voice. The CIA had never stopped looking for the guy even more than two decades after 9/11.
But it was also a reminder of challenges, of adversaries that will outlast any single CIA director.
Now, as Burns wraps up four years running the Central Intelligence Agency, the challenges have multiplied and intensified.
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When NPR went out to interview him last week, Burns pointed to the exact balcony on which Zawahiri was standing. There was pride in his voice. The CIA had never stopped looking for the guy even more than two decades after 9/11.
But it was also a reminder of challenges, of adversaries that will outlast any single CIA director.
Now, as Burns wraps up four years running the Central Intelligence Agency, the challenges have multiplied and intensified.
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
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Consider This from NPR - Keeping America Safe: CIA Director Burns reflects
On a shelf in his office at CIA headquarters, Director Bill Burns keeps a tiny scaled model of a house. It's the house in Kabul, Afghanistan, where Al Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2022.
When NPR went out to interview him last week, Burns pointed to the exact balcony on which Zawahiri was standing. There was pride in his voice. The CIA had never stopped looking for the guy even more than two decades after 9/11.
But it was also a reminder of challenges, of adversaries that will outlast any single CIA director.
Now, as Burns wraps up four years running the Central Intelligence Agency, the challenges have multiplied and intensified.
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
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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When NPR went out to interview him last week, Burns pointed to the exact balcony on which Zawahiri was standing. There was pride in his voice. The CIA had never stopped looking for the guy even more than two decades after 9/11.
But it was also a reminder of challenges, of adversaries that will outlast any single CIA director.
Now, as Burns wraps up four years running the Central Intelligence Agency, the challenges have multiplied and intensified.
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
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Consider This from NPR - Keeping America Safe: CIA Director Burns reflects
On a shelf in his office at CIA headquarters, Director Bill Burns keeps a tiny scaled model of a house. It's the house in Kabul, Afghanistan, where Al Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2022.
When NPR went out to interview him last week, Burns pointed to the exact balcony on which Zawahiri was standing. There was pride in his voice. The CIA had never stopped looking for the guy even more than two decades after 9/11.
But it was also a reminder of challenges, of adversaries that will outlast any single CIA director.
Now, as Burns wraps up four years running the Central Intelligence Agency, the challenges have multiplied and intensified.
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
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
When NPR went out to interview him last week, Burns pointed to the exact balcony on which Zawahiri was standing. There was pride in his voice. The CIA had never stopped looking for the guy even more than two decades after 9/11.
But it was also a reminder of challenges, of adversaries that will outlast any single CIA director.
Now, as Burns wraps up four years running the Central Intelligence Agency, the challenges have multiplied and intensified.
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
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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1A - (dot) Gov: The Treasury, The IRS, And America’s Money
It's the country's least favorite federal agency. Especially around this time of year.
The Internal Revenue Service is responsible for collecting America's taxes and administering tax laws. Which means it draws a lot of ire from our nation's citizens. But the work it does is vital to funding federal agencies, services, programs, and much more.
In the same vein, the Department of the Treasury is responsible for managing federal finances. The public probably best knows it for its influence on interest rates.
We discuss how the agencies work together and how their employees work for the country.
Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Connect with us. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.
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The Internal Revenue Service is responsible for collecting America's taxes and administering tax laws. Which means it draws a lot of ire from our nation's citizens. But the work it does is vital to funding federal agencies, services, programs, and much more.
In the same vein, the Department of the Treasury is responsible for managing federal finances. The public probably best knows it for its influence on interest rates.
We discuss how the agencies work together and how their employees work for the country.
Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Connect with us. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Up First from NPR - Election Interference Report Goes Public, Wildfires and Mental Health, Pete Hegseth
A report on Special Counsel Jack Smith's doomed investigation into Donald Trump's election interference is now in the hands of Congress. Many people affected by L.A.'s wildfires will need long-term emotional support, a health provider says. Pete Hegseth, Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon, gets a public job interview on Capitol Hill this week.
For 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 Emily Kopp, Diane Webber, Eric Whitney, Anna Yukhananov, Ally Schweitzer and Lisa Thomson. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas, Iman Ma'ani and Lilly Quiroz. We get engineering support from David Greenburg, and our technical director is Stacey Abbott.
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For 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 Emily Kopp, Diane Webber, Eric Whitney, Anna Yukhananov, Ally Schweitzer and Lisa Thomson. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas, Iman Ma'ani and Lilly Quiroz. We get engineering support from David Greenburg, and our technical director is Stacey Abbott.
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NPR's Book of the Day - ‘The Rest Is Memory’ is a novel inspired by photos taken at Auschwitz
About 10 years ago, author Lily Tuck was reading obituaries in The New York Times when she came across photos of Czesława Kwoka, a young prisoner at Auschwitz concentration camp. Tuck didn't know much about Kwoka besides her name and age, but decided to try to write about her. The result is her new novel, The Rest Is Memory, which imagines Kwoka's life at Auschwitz. In today's episode, Tuck speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about how she approaches narrating a story through Kwoka's eyes, the careful attention she pays to language, and the Polish people who lost their lives in the Holocaust.
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
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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
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The Indicator from Planet Money - How batteries are riding the free market rodeo in Texas
If you want to build a grid-scale battery project in Texas, be prepared to ride the free-market rodeo. On our second episode of this week's battery series, we visit the state that has the second-most battery storage capacity to understand whether large-scale batteries can help prevent blackouts.
Related episodes:
How batteries are already changing the grid (Apple / Spotify)
Texas' new power grid problem (Apple / Spotify)
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
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Related episodes:
How batteries are already changing the grid (Apple / Spotify)
Texas' new power grid problem (Apple / Spotify)
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
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Short Wave - Bone Marrow Cells: Key To Vaccine Longevity?
The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine generates enough of an antibody response to protect against severe disease for six months. But other vaccines offer years-long — even lifelong — immunity, such as the measles or yellow fever vaccines. Is there a way for scientists to tell how long a person's immunity will last? A team at Stanford Medicine might have found a way to do just that — with the help of some of the cells found in our bone marrow.
Questions about vaccines or the respiratory season? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we'd love to hear from you!
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Questions about vaccines or the respiratory season? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we'd love to hear from you!
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy