Tamara Yajia’s memoir Cry for Me, Argentina describes a chaotic upbringing between Argentine and American cultures. A big focus of the memoir is her “insane” family, who exposed Yajia to a high level of sexual openness, including group excursions to Buenos Aires’ red-light district. In today’s episode, the writer speaks with NPR’s Ailsa Chang about her mixed experience as a childhood performer, a formative moment involving Madonna’s “Like a Prayer,” and the way humor has “kept [her] alive.”
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Short Wave - Sip or Skip? The Truth About Electrolytes
U.S. consumers spend more than $10 billion a year on sports drinks, according to Beverage Industry, a trade publication. And we can’t lie that sometimes a Gatorade or electrolyte tablet sounds really appealing in the quest to hydrate daily – especially since it’s been a very hot, long summer. But the question is: Are we even sweating enough to warrant all these sugary electrolyte-filled drinks? NPR health correspondent Pien Huang has been on the case, and she brings us answers she’s racked up in her reporting today.
Read more of Pien’s reporting on electrolytes and hydration.
Interested in more consumer health or human biology stories? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org – we may feature it in an upcoming episode!
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Read more of Pien’s reporting on electrolytes and hydration.
Interested in more consumer health or human biology stories? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org – we may feature it in an upcoming episode!
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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The Indicator from Planet Money - Teamwork actually does make the dream work
Behavioral scientist Jon Levy’s new book — Team Intelligence: How Brilliant Leaders Unlock Collective Genius — argues that, in the workplace, leadership is overrated and teamwork is underrated. Today on the show: How super chickens and NBA All-Stars demonstrate the perils of individual performance.
Related episodes:
Why women make great bosses
The Virtual Office
The Science of Hoops
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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Consider This from NPR - What happens when democracies use military force to occupy their own territory?
Over the weekend, President Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself as a character from the war film “Apocalypse Now” and, in that same post, seemingly threatened “WAR” in Chicago; later, the president indicated that sending in troops would be to clean up cities, not to go to war. But weeks of talk of sending federal troops into Chicago has set the city on edge.
NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with Dr. Robert Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago who has studied political violence for 30 years, and who worries his city could be a powder keg.
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 Henry Larson and Avery Keatley.
It was edited by Sarah Handel. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
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NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with Dr. Robert Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago who has studied political violence for 30 years, and who worries his city could be a powder keg.
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 Henry Larson and Avery Keatley.
It was edited by Sarah Handel. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
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Up First from NPR - When the Oil Runs Dry
Drilling for oil has been going on in the US for over 150 years. Across the country we have bored millions of holes in the ground to pump the liquid gold that has fueled the country's energy appetite. But those wells don’t last forever. When the oil begins to dry up, wells are supposed to be plugged to prevent toxic, climate-altering chemicals from escaping. So why then is there, by some estimates, more than 2 million unplugged abandoned wells around the country? Today on The Sunday Story, NPR correspondent Camila Domonoske joins to talk about the lingering effects of these old wells and why it's so hard to find a long-term fix.
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Up First from NPR - Feds Eye More Cities, Hyundai Plant Raid, Influential Pastor
The Trump administration is eying more cities even as it builds up a National Guard presence near Chicago and fights a lawsuit by Los Angeles. Federal immigration authorities arrested nearly 500 workers they said were in the U.S. illegally at a South Korean battery maker's Georgia construction site. An Idaho pastor is gaining influence among national Republicans and expanding his presence in Washington, D.C.
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Planet Money - What happens to central banks under pressure?
President Donald Trump has been pressuring the Federal Reserve from a few angles. So we wanted to look at other examples of political pressure on central banks, to see what it might mean for us and for the economy.
Enter the watchers. The people who’ve had their eyes trained on central banks all over the world, for years, notebooks out, scribbling down their observations. They’ve been trying to gauge just how independent of political pressure central banks actually are – and what happens when a central bank loses that independence.
Today on the show, we sidle up next to three of the leading central bank watchers, to watch what they’re watching.
Further reading:
- Carolina Garriga’s: Central bank independence and inflation volatility in developing countries
- Lev Menand’s: A New Measure of Central Bank Independence
- Carola Binder’s: Political Pressure on Central Banks
Further listening:
- Lisa Cook and the fight for the Fed
- A primer on the Federal Reserve's independence
- The case for Fed independence in the Nixon tapes
- A Locked Door, A Secret Meeting And The Birth Of The Fed
Subscribe to Planet Money+
Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.
Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.
This episode was produced by Willa Rubin with help from Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Marianne McCune and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Engineering by Robert Rodriguez and Maggie Luthar. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.
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Enter the watchers. The people who’ve had their eyes trained on central banks all over the world, for years, notebooks out, scribbling down their observations. They’ve been trying to gauge just how independent of political pressure central banks actually are – and what happens when a central bank loses that independence.
Today on the show, we sidle up next to three of the leading central bank watchers, to watch what they’re watching.
Further reading:
- Carolina Garriga’s: Central bank independence and inflation volatility in developing countries
- Lev Menand’s: A New Measure of Central Bank Independence
- Carola Binder’s: Political Pressure on Central Banks
Further listening:
- Lisa Cook and the fight for the Fed
- A primer on the Federal Reserve's independence
- The case for Fed independence in the Nixon tapes
- A Locked Door, A Secret Meeting And The Birth Of The Fed
Subscribe to Planet Money+
Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.
Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.
This episode was produced by Willa Rubin with help from Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Marianne McCune and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Engineering by Robert Rodriguez and Maggie Luthar. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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1A - The News Roundup For September 5, 2025
Jobs numbers are out. They indicate a stalling labor market, with U.S. employers adding just 22,000 jobs in August and unemployment rising to 4.3 percent.
After rumors about the president’s supposedly failing health swirled online last weekend, Donald Trump appeared in public at a press conference this week announcing the relocation of the Space Force headquarters from Colorado to Alabama.
Florida announced this week that it’s set to become the first state in the U.S. to end vaccine mandates in schools, including for young children.
The leaders of China, India, Russia met this week in a display of friendship meant to signal unity to the world. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping convened in China for a summit of powers not aligned with the West.
Meanwhile, Putin told officials in Kyiv he was willing to try and negotiate the end the war in Ukraine should “common sense prevail.” However, he also threatened that he was prepared to continue should he not find terms agreeable.
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After rumors about the president’s supposedly failing health swirled online last weekend, Donald Trump appeared in public at a press conference this week announcing the relocation of the Space Force headquarters from Colorado to Alabama.
Florida announced this week that it’s set to become the first state in the U.S. to end vaccine mandates in schools, including for young children.
The leaders of China, India, Russia met this week in a display of friendship meant to signal unity to the world. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping convened in China for a summit of powers not aligned with the West.
Meanwhile, Putin told officials in Kyiv he was willing to try and negotiate the end the war in Ukraine should “common sense prevail.” However, he also threatened that he was prepared to continue should he not find terms agreeable.
Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.
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Consider This from NPR - Trump wants to change education. What’s that mean for kids?
President Trump has vowed to abolish the Department of Education. He’s pressured schools to end DEI initiatives and protections for transgender students. He's rescinded guidelines that barred immigration enforcement at schools.
So what could Trump’s policies mean for kids in public schools? We get answers from NPR education correspondent Cory Turner and NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro.
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Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
This episode features reporting by Frank Langfitt. It was produced by Tyler Bartlam and Connor Donevan, with audio engineering by Ted Mebane and Hannah Gluvna. It was edited by William Troop, Nicole Cohen, and Kelsey Snell. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
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State of the World from NPR - Trump Administration’s War with International Drug Cartels
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the Trump administration is at war with the drug cartels and a recent deadly strike on a boat from Venezuela was just the beginning. Some countries in Central and South America are expressing unease, while others are willing to partner in the effort- despite questions about the legalities of the administration’s actions.
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