Even if you’re scared of cruise ships, don’t turn away from Quan Barry’s The Unveiling. When film scout and photographer Striker boards an Antarctic cruise in search of locations for a new biopic, things start to go wrong — lots of things. But there’s much to learn from Barry’s quirky cast of characters, with a tech billionaire and a blended queer family among them. In today’s episode, Barry talks with NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe about the power of discovery on and off the ship, and the process of crafting a novel without a single chapter break.
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Short Wave - How Replaceable Are You?
In the 1970’s TV show called Six Million Dollar Man, a test pilot is in a horrible accident. The show’s famous line goes, “We can rebuild him. We have the technology.” Now, in the 2025 book, Replaceable You, science writer Mary Roach explores how people have collectively lived up to the task of rebuilding human bodies when they fail, as well as all the ways we may not quite be there yet. In this episode Regina G. Barber and Mary Roach discuss three chapters of the book, get into everything from iron lungs to private parts and try to answer the question, “How replaceable are you?”
Interested in more science behind the human body? Check out our episodes on synthetic cells and the first pig kidney transplant. Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
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Interested in more science behind the human body? Check out our episodes on synthetic cells and the first pig kidney transplant. Email us your question 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.
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Consider This from NPR - View from Venezuela
Venezuela dominates the headlines, but very little attention is paid to what life is like inside the country.
In September, the Trump administration began a series of strikes targeting what U.S. officials call "narcoterrorists" in small vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean.
Those strikes are ongoing and have killed more than 80 people. Then, in October, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
She's been in hiding since last year, when Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro claimed victory in an election widely seen as fraudulent.
Machado is expected to receive her award on Wednesday, in Oslo. And if she does, she might not be let back into her country.
Machado, who supports the Trump administration’s campaign in the region, says the end of the Maduro regime is imminent.
While the world is focused on Oslo and María Corina Machado's Nobel Peace Prize. We wanted to get the view from inside her country. We speak with a journalist in Venezuela about what daily life is like.
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 Karen Zamora & Matt Ozug with audio engineering by Ted Mebane. It was edited by Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
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State of the World from NPR - The Killing of a Mayor Sparks an Outcry in Mexico
The mayor of a city in the state of Michoacan, Mexico launched a full-frontal assault on organized crime in his community. Last month he was assassinated by a lone gunman. His death has lead to a protests across Mexico and calls for more to be done to combat drug cartels and corruption.
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Up First from NPR - Trump Defends Affordability, SCOTUS & Presidential Power, Indiana Redistricting
President Trump heads to Pennsylvania to defend his record on affordability as polls show voters increasingly blame his policies for high prices.
The Supreme Court appears poised to grant presidents far greater power over independent agencies, signaling a major shift in how the federal government operates.
And Indiana lawmakers move toward a congressional map that could eliminate the state’s last two Democratic seats, intensifying a nationwide battle over mid-cycle redistricting.
Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.
The Supreme Court appears poised to grant presidents far greater power over independent agencies, signaling a major shift in how the federal government operates.
And Indiana lawmakers move toward a congressional map that could eliminate the state’s last two Democratic seats, intensifying a nationwide battle over mid-cycle redistricting.
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 Rebekah Metzler, Krishnadev Calamur, Kelsey Snell, Mohamad ElBardicy and Alice Woelfle.
It was produced by Kaity Kline, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas.
We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
And our Senior Supervising Producer is Vince Pearson.
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NPR's Book of the Day - Deborah Willis on her seminal history of Black photography, reissued 25 years later
Deborah Willis is one of the foremost authorities on Black photography. The MacArthur “genius award” winner has dedicated her career to cataloging and showcasing Black photographers and photos of Black people. And her seminal work – Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present – has been reissued after 25 years. In today’s episode, Michel Martin visits Willis at New York University to talk about the expanded edition of the book and the gallery show inspired by it.
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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 - The Closest Thing To A Cure For Allergies
More than 100 million people in the U.S. have some allergy each year. That’s about every 1 in 3 adults. For many, the fix is a bandaid: over-the-counter allergy medications. But there’s another treatment that works to lessen these reactions rather than just manage people’s symptoms, allergy shots. The treatment has been around for over a century and is still popular today. Patients have to take the shots for a few years, and it’s the closest thing science has to a cure. Host Regina G. Barber speaks with Dr. Gina Dapul-Hidalgo about how this immunotherapy works and how certain guidelines to keep your child from developing common food allergies have changed.
Interested in more science behind allergies? Check out our other episodes:
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Interested in more science behind allergies? Check out our other episodes:
- Having a food allergy? And how your broken skin barrier might be the cause
- Spring Allergies and what to do about them
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The Indicator from Planet Money - How a former Fed vice chair would approach rate cuts
Federal Reserve is meeting to make its interest rate decision after the government shutdown delayed key economic data. Today on the show, we talk to the former Vice Chair of the Fed, Lael Brainard, about what she would do with interest rates in this critical yet foggy economic moment.
Related episodes:
A little doomsday feeling is weighing on the economy
Can ... we still trust the monthly jobs report?
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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Related episodes:
A little doomsday feeling is weighing on the economy
Can ... we still trust the monthly jobs report?
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.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Consider This from NPR - The fight for the future of Warner Bros. just got messier
There's a growing fight in Hollywood over some of the biggest characters on screen, like Tony Soprano, Daenerys Targaryen and Harry Potter. All feature in shows and films owned by Warner Brothers Discovery, and now two companies are fighting to get a piece of the action.
First, on Friday, Netflix struck an $83 billion deal to acquire Warner Brothers Studios and HBO. Then, just days later, Paramount upped the ante with a higher bid of $108 billion for Warner Brothers Discovery – which includes not just the movie studios and HBO, but also WBD’s cable channels, like CNN.
As corporate giants vie to take over Warner Brothers, we ask: What are the stakes for Hollywood and the news business?
Editor’s note: Warner Bros. Discovery is a financial supporter of NPR.
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 Jordan-Marie Smith, Mia Venkat and Karen Zamora. It was edited by Pallavi Gogoi and Christopher Intagliata. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
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State of the World from NPR - Ukraine’s Government is Rocked by a Corruption Scandal
Even as Ukraine is engaged in high stakes peace talks with the U.S. and Russia, the country is dealing with a massive corruption scandal which has reached very high levels of the government. Though President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not been implicated, it has been a challenge for him. We go to Kyiv to get reaction from Ukrainians.
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