As 2025 comes to a close, we're revisiting interviews with this year's nominees and winners of some of the biggest prizes in literature. Megha Majumdar’s novel A Guardian and a Thief, a finalist for the 2025 National Book Award, takes place in a near-future Kolkata struck by climate change. There, one family’s possibility of escape is put in jeopardy when their passports are stolen. In this conversation with Here & Now, Majumdar tells Jane Clayson that hope isn’t always noble in situations of crisis.
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1A - Best Of: Birding To Help Revitalize Conservation Efforts
Some of the best songs you can hear this spring aren't on the radio.
Hundreds of millions of birds make their annual migration back into North America in early March. Despite their return to our neighborhoods and backyards to wake us up bright and early, a new report reveals they're numbering fewer and fewer.
The 2025 State of the Birds report is a joint effort spearheaded by a coalition of science and conservation organizations. It found widespread population decline across nearly all habitats and that over one third of species require conservation help.
But it's not all bad news. The report also finds that an increased interest in birding has led to more volunteer data that helped shaped the report. What can we learn about our feathered friends and our environment while watching?
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Hundreds of millions of birds make their annual migration back into North America in early March. Despite their return to our neighborhoods and backyards to wake us up bright and early, a new report reveals they're numbering fewer and fewer.
The 2025 State of the Birds report is a joint effort spearheaded by a coalition of science and conservation organizations. It found widespread population decline across nearly all habitats and that over one third of species require conservation help.
But it's not all bad news. The report also finds that an increased interest in birding has led to more volunteer data that helped shaped the report. What can we learn about our feathered friends and our environment while watching?
Find more of our programs online. 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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Consider This from NPR - Our picks for the 2025 movies you should watch this holiday season
Hollywood had another quiet year at cinemas. Box office income hasn’t bounced back to pre-pandemic highs. But ticket sales aren’t always an indication of quality. As proof, critic Bob Mondello shares his top movies that are worth the watch.
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 Chloee Weiner, Marc Rivers and Karen Zamora, with audio engineering by Zo vanGinhoven and Ted Mebane.
It was edited by Clare Lombardo and Sarah Handel. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
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State of the World from NPR - Looking Back: What a Long Lost Typewriter Says About Chinese Culture
As we look back at our international reporters' most memorable stories of the last year, we revisit the story of an important typewriter. It was recently discovered in a basement in upstate New York and it holds important clues about the origins of Chinese computing. The discovery also raises questions about language and culture.
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Up First from NPR - Trump Pushes Hamas Disarmament, Ukraine Peace Talks, A Year Of DOGE
President Trump doubles down on demanding Hamas disarm after meeting with Israel’s prime minister, and warned Iran not to rebuild its nuclear program.
Ukraine’s president presses the White House for decades-long U.S. security guarantees as part of a proposed peace deal with Russia.
And a year after DOGE’s push to shrink government, agencies are smaller, spending is higher, and millions of Americans’ data remains in play.
Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.
Ukraine’s president presses the White House for decades-long U.S. security guarantees as part of a proposed peace deal with Russia.
And a year after DOGE’s push to shrink government, agencies are smaller, spending is higher, and millions of Americans’ data remains in play.
Want more 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 Ruth Sherlock, Anna Yukhananov, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Alice Woelfle.
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.
Our Supervising Senior Producer is Vince Pearson.
(0:00) Introduction
(03:13) Trump Pushes Hamas Disarmament
(07:25) Ukraine Peace Talks
(10:45) A Year Of DOGE
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The Indicator from Planet Money - Gilded Age 2.0? (Encore)
To hear President Trump tell it, the late 1800s, i.e. the Gilded Age, were a period of unparalleled wealth and prosperity in the U.S. But this era was also marked by corruption and wealth inequality. Sound familiar? On today's show, is history repeating itself?
This episode originally aired June 5, 2025.
Related:
Trump's tariff role model For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.
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NPR's Book of the Day - A new novel from Karen Russell is a sprawling story set during the Dust Bowl
As 2025 comes to a close, we're revisiting interviews with this year's nominees and winners of some of the biggest prizes in literature. Karen Russell’s novel The Antidote is set during the Dust Bowl – a period when poor farming practices and drought led to a wave of severe and damaging dust storms. In this bleak setting, we’re introduced to a cast of characters, including a woman who stores other people’s memories and a photographer tasked with documenting the crisis. In today’s episode, Russell speaks with NPR’s Scott Simon about the inspiration behind The Antitode’s core characters, including the work of photographer Gordon Parks and an image that came to Russell as she finished her first novel.
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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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Short Wave - Climate Anxiety Is Altering Family Planning
Gen Z and younger millennials are generally the most climate literate generations. As an age cohort that started learning about climate change in school, they're worried about how to plan for their future jobs, houses and, yes, kids. With climate-related disasters and global warming likely to worsen, climate anxiety is giving way to reproductive anxiety. So, what do experts say about how to navigate the kid question?
On this encore episode of Nature Quest, Short Wave speaks to Alessandra Ram, a journalist covering climate change, who just had a kid. We get into the future she sees for her newborn daughter and ask, how do we raise the next generation in a way that's good for the planet?
Here are the resources recommended by the experts we interviewed for this story:
Action Tools and Community Resources
Got a question about changes in your local environment? Send a voice memo to shortwave@npr.org with your name, where you live and your question. You might make it into our next Nature Quest episode!
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On this encore episode of Nature Quest, Short Wave speaks to Alessandra Ram, a journalist covering climate change, who just had a kid. We get into the future she sees for her newborn daughter and ask, how do we raise the next generation in a way that's good for the planet?
Here are the resources recommended by the experts we interviewed for this story:
Action Tools and Community Resources
- The High-Impact Climate Action Guide by Kimberly A. Nicholas
- The Climate Mental Health Network and Climate Emotions Wheel
- The Climate Café® Hub - for finding a local group
- Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question: Deciding Whether to Have Children in an Uncertain Future, by Jade S. Sasser
- Parenting in a Changing Climate: Tools for cultivating resilience, taking action, and practicing hope in the face of climate change, by Elizabeth Bechard
- Under the Sky We Make: How to Be Human in a Warming World, by Kimberly A. Nicholas
- The role of high-socioeconomic-status people in locking in or rapidly reducing energy-driven greenhouse gas emissions, Nielsen, K.S., Nicholas, K.A., Creutzig, F. et al.
Got a question about changes in your local environment? Send a voice memo to shortwave@npr.org with your name, where you live and your question. You might make it into our next Nature Quest episode!
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Planet Money - Why economists got free trade with China so wrong
With the year coming to a close, we're sharing our most popular Planet Money bonus episode of 2025!
As U.S. trade with China exploded in the early 2000's, American manufacturing began to shrivel. Those workers struggled to adapt and find new jobs. It ran counter to how mainstream economics at the time viewed free trade ... that it would be a clear win for the U.S. Greg Rosalsky talks with David Autor about why economists got free trade with China so wrong.
Autor, an MIT economics professor, and his colleagues published a series of eye-opening studies over the last 15 years or so that brought to light the costs of U.S. trade with China. We also hear Autor's thoughts on the role of tariffs and get an update on his research. With better, more precise data, Autor says we have a more nuanced and "bleaker" picture of what happened to these manufacturing workers.
You can read about Autor's research and sign up for The Planet Money Newsletter here.
To hear more bonus content like this and support NPR and public media, sign up for Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney. Regular episodes remain free to listen!
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As U.S. trade with China exploded in the early 2000's, American manufacturing began to shrivel. Those workers struggled to adapt and find new jobs. It ran counter to how mainstream economics at the time viewed free trade ... that it would be a clear win for the U.S. Greg Rosalsky talks with David Autor about why economists got free trade with China so wrong.
Autor, an MIT economics professor, and his colleagues published a series of eye-opening studies over the last 15 years or so that brought to light the costs of U.S. trade with China. We also hear Autor's thoughts on the role of tariffs and get an update on his research. With better, more precise data, Autor says we have a more nuanced and "bleaker" picture of what happened to these manufacturing workers.
You can read about Autor's research and sign up for The Planet Money Newsletter here.
To hear more bonus content like this and support NPR and public media, sign up for Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney. Regular episodes remain free to listen!
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Consider This from NPR - Daniel Day-Lewis was retired. His son is just getting started
Eight years ago, Daniel Day-Lewis announced he was retired from acting. He offered no further comment. Retirement notwithstanding, in October, Daniel Day-Lewis appeared in a new movie. He plays a man who long ago left the world he once knew – and then is contacted by a family member to come back.
It was written with and directed by his son, Ronan Day-Lewis. Father and son spoke with host Mary Louise Kelly about their film, Anemone.
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Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
This episode was produced by Kathryn Fink and Connor Donevan, with audio engineering by Jimmy Keeley and Neisha Heinis. It was edited by Patrick Jarenwattananon. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
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