Zach Williams' collection of short stories, Beautiful Days, has earned high praise for the unsettling way it examines mundane, everyday life. In today's episode, Williams tells NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer how becoming a dad inspired the anxiety and wonder of parenthood that shows up throughout Beautiful Days, and the two get to talking about why he chose to focus on the "quickness and musicality" of short stories over writing a novel.
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
In the early 1960s, the United States was always a step behind the Soviet Union in the space race.
By the mid-1960s, the Americans had caught up. They didn’t have many glamorous firsts, but they were doing increasingly difficult things in space.
All of that came crashing to a halt on January 27, 1967, when three astronauts died in what was a seemingly routine training exercise.
Learn more about the Apollo 1 Disaster, how it happened, and how it influenced the future of the Apollo program on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
In the mid-18th century, excavations in the ancient town of Herculaneum, just outside the city of Pompeii and destroyed by the same volcano, discovered something….interesting.
They found a villa that contained 1800 ancient scrolls. Unfortunately, the volcano's heat carbonized them, making them illegible and incredibly fragile. Still, for over 250 years, scholars have hoped that techniques would eventually be developed to allow these scrolls to be read.
That day may have finally arrived.
Learn more about the Herculaneum Papyri and the attempts to read and preserve their ancient knowledge on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
On Indicators of the Week, we cover the numbers in the news that you should know about. This week, we cover an encouraging trend for global wealth, closing Mexico's tariff loophole and the European nation bucking the trend of shorter work weeks.
Related episodes: Why tariffs are SO back (Apple / Spotify)
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
In the early 19th century, the most abundant bird in North America, and perhaps the entire world, was the passenger pigeon. An estimated three billion of them would fly in flocks so large that they could blot out the sun.
However, within a century, the entire species had gone extinct.
It was one of the fastest and most disastrous turnarounds for any species in recorded history.
Learn more about the passenger pigeon and how they went extinct on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Today's episode is about two emblematic musicians who take us to very different parts of the globe, from the London punk scene to the Laurel Canyon utopia of the 1960s and 70s. First, Stewart Copeland speaks to NPR's Leila Fadel about his memoir, Stewart Copeland's Police Diaries, which chronicles his time as a drummer for the legendary band. Then, Here & Now's Robin Young is joined by NPR Music's Ann Powers, who's written a biography of Joni Mitchell's expansive career called Traveling.
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
There are currently just under 65,000 migrants in New York City's shelter system, stretching the city's outworn social service systems. Today on the show, we follow one asylum seeker's journey from Venezuela to New York and explore why the process is lengthy and complicated.
Related episodes: Is the 'border crisis' actually a labor market crisis? (Apple / Spotify) 'Welcome to the USA! Now get to work.' (Apple / Spotify) The migrant match game (Apple / Spotify)
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Many Irish immigrants settled in Chicago in the late 1800s, and opened up pubs to make a living, but for a sense of community. We explore the history and why there are so many Irish pubs today.
Gone are the days of the Old West with sheriffs sitting astride their horses and star shaped badges gleaming in the dusty sunshine. But the idea of police on horseback isn't a total relic. San Francisco, with the country's second oldest mounted police force, still has a few hooved officers left. This week on the show, producer Katrina Schwartz heads to the stables to meet this four-legged squad.
This story was reported by Katrina Schwartz. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz, Amanda Font and Christopher Beale. Additional support from Kevin Stark, Chris Egusa, Paul Lancour, Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Jasmine Garnett, Carly Severn, Joshua Ling, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED family.
Depending on how you define it, there were somewhere between 70 to 100 Roman emperors between the ascension of Augustus to the fall of the western empire in 476. A period of about 500 years.
Some of them managed to be just and competent rulers who ruled for extended periods of peace and prosperity.
Others….were not.
Learn more about the worst Roman emperors who ran the gamut from insane to incompetent on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.