When Diane Lewis' son, Jovaan, was sentenced to prison, she told him to call her every day. What he didn't know at the time is that those collect calls often meant Diane was unable to pay her other bills. Today on the show, how prison phone calls got so expensive, and the movement to make them free.
A new Fox poll and other bits of data may suggest that Joe Biden's strategy of leaning hard on the "Trump is a convicted felon" message is having some effect. No wonder, then, that liberals are so unnerved by the Supreme Court's literal deliberation in deciding whether the case against Trump for January 6 can proceed. And who will win the "worst ceasefire proposal" award? Give a listen.
If you were to pick a single visible icon to represent the 20th century, it would probably be the skyscraper.
Skyscrapers didn’t really even exist before the 20th century, but by the end of the century, they became ubiquitous in major cities around the world.
The skyscraper didn’t just appear out of nowhere. They wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for multiple technical innovations. Continued innovations have allowed skyscrapers to get taller and taller.
Learn more about skyscrapers, how they were developed and how they kept growing on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Once upon a time, author Porochista Khakpour worked as a shop girl in the luxury stores lining Rodeo Drive. She tells NPR's Ailsa Chang how excited she would get when Iranian-American customers came in — but how poorly those interactions would pan out to be. Her new novel, Tehrangeles, explores the story of one such powerful family in LA on the cusp of getting their own reality TV show. And as Khakpour and Chang discuss, it opens a whole lot of questions about whiteness, assimilation and cultural definitions of success.
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
People who do not want Donald Trump to win the November election seem convinced he is going to do their work for him and get himself defeated, but that is not what his behavior—not to mention theirs—actually seems to suggest will happen. And what's all this nonsense about "cheapfakes"? Give a listen.
Will Conservative policies raise mortgages by ?4800, as Labour claim? Are primary school kids in England the best readers in the (western) world, as the Conservatives claim? Are there more potholes in the UK than craters on the moon?
Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Reporter: Kate Lamble
Producers: Nathan Gower, Simon Tullet
Beth Ashmead-Latham and Debbie Richford
Production coordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound mix: James Beard
Editor: Richard Vadon