In 1987, a Black 22-year-old named Ben Spencer was convicted of murdering a white man in Texas. In 2021, he was cleared of those charges and released from prison. A new book by former NPR reporter Barbara Bradley Hagerty, Bringing Ben Home, dives into what went wrong within the Texas legal system for Spencer to serve so much time in prison for a crime he has always said he did not commit. In today's episode, Bradley Hagerty speaks with NPR's Ailsa Chang about her own investigation into the case and the kind of criminal justice reform she says is necessary to prevent this from happening again.
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Homelessness is a pervasive issue that cities across the country struggle to address. This led an entrepreneur to team up with researchers and local foundations for an experiment called the Denver Basic Income Project. The goal was to see how different variations of a basic income program would impact the local homeless population. What the researchers found could become a guide for how localities in the United States could address the problem of homelessness.
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There's an app for everything. In Kat Tang's debut novel Five-Star Stranger, there's even one that allows you to hire someone you've never met to play a role in your life, like to be best man at a wedding or pretend to be the father of a child. In today's episode, Tang speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about the titular stranger at the heart of her story, who is going around New York taking on a number of roles, and how he starts to crack as he reexamines his relationship to a woman who's hired him to pretend to be her husband – and to the girl who believes she's his daughter.
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
It's that time of year when we want to lie on a beach and lose ourselves in a good book. Today on the show, three summer reading recs that got our hosts thinking about economics. Remember, anything read on the beach is, in fact, a "beach read."
Books recommended in this episode: • Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (B&N, Bookshop) • Everything Is Predictable: How Bayesian Statistics Explain Our World by Tom Chivers (B&N, Bookshop) • Range: Why Generalist Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein (B&N, Bookshop)
The Vietnam War was perhaps the most significant event that took place in the last half of the 20th century.
It had profound impacts on the American military and foreign policy as well as on its culture.
However, many people have a very simplistic view of the causes of the war. They assume it was just a result of Cold War politics. While that was certainly a cause, the root causes go back much further.
Learn more about the origins of the Vietnam War and how and why it happened on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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John J. Sullivan served as U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2019 to 2022. He was there during Russia's invasion of Ukraine – and he writes about that time frankly in his new memoir, Midnight in Moscow. But in today's episode, he also opens up to NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about some of the other strange, even funny moments during his service, like what it's like to sit across a table from Vladimir Putin or how difficult it is to walk into a store and buy an iPad as a diplomat in Russia.
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
One of the most significant figures in 16th-century Britain was Mary Stuart, aka Mary, Queen of Scots.
Mary’s life was one of the most fascinating of the period. Depending on which historian you consult, she was a schemer, a traitor, a pawn, or a victim. According to some, she was all of these things.
What is certain is that Mary was ultimately responsible for the union of the Scottish and British crowns and the creation of the United Kingdom that we know today.
Learn more about Mary, Queen of Scots, and her incredible story on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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For thousands of years, humans all around the world have coveted gemstones.
Gemstones have been used as symbols of authority by kings, queens, and emperors, have been central to religious ceremonies, and have served as adornments for the wealthy.
While you may have heard of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires, what exactly are they, and where do they come from?
Learn more about gemstones, what they are and how they’ve been used throughout history on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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