The news that the Biden administration has deliberately chosen to withhold certain armaments from Israel despite the passage of the aid bill last month is a landmark moment not only in the peculiar behavior of the White House toward the Jewish state since October 7 but also in the annals of American warfare. We don't try to win wars any longer; are we now committed to ensuring that other nations can't win wars either? Give a listen.
At the 1862 London International Exhibition, an inventor by the name of Andrew Parkes introduced a new product based on cellulose that he called Parkesine.
Little did he know that this material which could be made elastic when heated and molded into almost any shape imaginable would be the basis for an enormous percentage of the materials in common use in the 21st century.
Learn more about plastics, how they were invented and how they are used in the modern world, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
At the center of author Naima Coster's novel What's Mine & Yours are two struggling mothers. Jade is a Black single mother who is trying to provide a better life for her son, and Lacey May is a white mother who is trying to give her daughters the life she never had. Their stories will intertwine over decades, starting with when Lacey May opposes the integration of her daughters' school – the same school Jade is trying to get her son into. Coster told NPR's Audie Cornish that fiction gives us a window into other people's lives but that does not mean we have to condone their actions.
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
European leaders think very differently than US officials about China, both as a rising economic power and a military threat. Doug Bandow discusses why.
What happens when small town politics collide with the climate crisis? And how do hazard maps—maps that show which homes in your neighborhood are at risk of getting destroyed or damaged by a natural disaster—come into play? On today's episode, how some people—from Indiana to Oregon to Alaska—are facing some very real concerns about insurance and the ability to sell their houses.
Ideological commitments shouldn't harm your ability to receive medical treatment. Erec Smith and Jeff Singer discuss a troubling evolution in how medical education is delivered in the US.
Today we sort through conflicting accounts of the Hamas ceasefire agreement that wasn't and discuss the leverage that Israel will now gain by going into Rafah. We also reflect on the straightforward anti-American fury of pro-Hamas protests and the Kristi Noem trainwreck. Give a listen.
Poet Ocean Vuong's collection,Time Is A Mother, is about his grief after losing family members. Vuong told NPR's Rachel Martin that time is different now that he has lost his mother: "when I look at my life since she died in 2019, I only see two days: Today when she's not here, and the big, big yesterday when I had her."
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
