Category: DailyShorts

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NPR's Book of the Day - Murder! Space! James Bond! Chris Hadfield and Anthony Horowitz talk thrillers

This Friday, we're featuring two thrillers. First, astronaut Chris Hadfield talked with former NPR host Lulu Garcia-Navarro about his novel The Apollo Murders, which is set in the 70's around, you guessed it, the Apollo missions. It's got Soviet spies and secret space stations with machine guns mounted to the top. What more could a book need? Then a 2015 interview with NPR's Robert Siegel and author Anthony Horowitz about his James Bond novel Trigger Mortis, and what it's like giving a classic a 21st century twist.
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39 Ways to Save the Planet - Hydrogen Revolution

It could be the clean fuel of the near future- for homes and for heavy machinery. Lord Bamford, head of JCB, is betting that it will power the next generation of emission-free tractors, diggers and loaders. Tom Heap meets the JCB team and discusses the pros and cons of hydrogen with climate scientist, Tamsin Edwards of King's College, London.

Producer: Alasdair Cross

Researcher: Sarah Goodman

Produced in association with the Royal Geographical Society. Special thanks for this episode to Mickella Dawkins at Loughborough University and from the University of Edinburgh, Dr Katriona Edlmann, Dr Romain Viguier and Dr Ali Hassanpouryouzband.

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Everything Everywhere Daily - Episode 500!

Back in July of 2020, a man in the middle of a pandemic decided to launch a new podcast. It would be a daily podcast that would cover, well, everything. It was an ambitious project that everyone told him was crazy to do, but it pushed ahead and did it anyhow. Today, 16 months later, that podcast is celebrating its 500th episode. Learn more about Everything Everywhere Daily on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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NPR's Book of the Day - ‘Misfire’ takes an inside look at the corruption at the heart of the NRA

The National Rifle Association is being sued. The nonprofit at the heart of the gun lobby is accused of diverting money from its charitable mission. NPR investigative journalist Tim Mak has been following the paper trail, much of it tracing back to Wayne LaPierre, longtime leader of the NRA. NPR's Steve Inskeep talked with Mak about his new book, Misfire, detailing congressional investigations, and what the New York state attorney general has identified as tens of millions of dollars of corrupt spending on private jets and six figure suits.
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Curious City - Chicago Movie Locations

Chicago has served as the backdrop for blockbuster films like “The Blues Brothers,” “The Dark Knight,” and “The Break-Up.” But just when did Chicago, sometimes referred to as the “Hollywood of the Midwest,” first become a go-to location for film and TV producers? The answer goes all the way back to the silent film era of the early 1900s when the Essanay Film Manufacturing Co. produced thousands of films from 1907 to 1917 and William Foster debuted “The Railroad Porter” in 1913. Productions shot on location in Chicago ebbed and flowed in the years that followed as Hollywood became a film and television hub. But as of September 2021, a record 15 TV shows were filming here. And with so many things being filmed here, we get asked a lot of questions about what makes certain locations popular for movie shoots? Matt Sigur tracks down some answers for us.
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Everything Everywhere Daily - Inflation

If you’ve been around long enough, you might have noticed that things are more expensive than they used to be. If you’ve really been around long enough you know that things are a lot more expensive than they used to be. This is of course known as inflation. It is an economic condition that has been around throughout history, almost everywhere on Earth. In a few cases, it has gotten so bad that it strained the limits of imagination.

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NPR's Book of the Day - ‘Beautiful Country’ looks back on a young Chinese girl’s undocumented childhood

Living as an undocumented immigrant means living in the shadows, says Qian Julie Wang. Her memoir Beautiful Country tells the story of her family's life in New York after fleeing China in 1994. Her mother worked menial jobs in terrible conditions. Her father struggled with his status as a man in a country that equated being Asian with weakness. They couldn't even seek out regular medical care for fear of being deported. Wang joins NPR's Scott Simon in today's episode to talk about how those experiences shaped and shamed her, even as she became a Yale Law graduate and successful attorney.
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Everything Everywhere Daily - Operation Paperclip

After World War II, the American forces in Germany implemented a program of de-Nazification in the parts of the country which they administered. The goal was to remove anyone who was a member of the Nazi party from any position of authority. However, some of those Nazis were considered valuable, and the Americans wanted them all to themselves. So they implement a secret program to bring them to the United States. Learn more about Operation Paperclip on this episode of Everything Everywhere.

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NPR's Book of the Day - SJ Sindu makes and unmakes a god in her new novel ‘Blue Skinned Gods’

Questioning religion can be a pretty common identity crisis. But what if your faith is based on... yourself? When Kalki is born with blue skin and black blood, he is believed to be the reincarnation of Vishnu. But when he fails to heal a girl brought to him in distress, he questions his divinity, which means questioning everything. In today's episode, SJ Sindu talks to NPR's Scott Simon about how her novel Blue Skinned Gods was an attempt to better understand her own family's urge to believe.
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Everything Everywhere Daily - Gold! Gold! Gold!

Believe it or not, one of the most valuable elements on the Periodic Table was also the first one that was discovered by humans. Since then it has held a prominent spot in almost every culture on Earth. We use it to signify first place, we use it as a metaphor for important rules, and for thousands of years, it was the basis of money. It was even the obsession of James Bond’s greatest villain.

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