Consider This from NPR - Hurricane Katrina helped change New Orleans’ public defender system

In 2006, Ari Shapiro reported on how Hurricane Katrina made an already broken public defender system in New Orleans worse. The court system collapsed in the aftermath of the storm.

Katrina caused horrific destruction in New Orleans. It threw incarcerated people into a sort of purgatory - some were lost in prisons for more than a year.

But the storm also cleared the way for changes that the city's public defender system had needed for decades.

Two decades later, Shapiro returns to New Orleans and finds a system vastly improved.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

The Commentary Magazine Podcast - It’s Howard Stern’s World

News of the possible retirement/firing of Howard Stern, the most important voice in radio of the past 50 years and one of the most transformative figures in American culture (and the culture of business), has us reflecting on his impact and how he laid the groundwork for Donald Trump. Give a listen.


Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More or Less: Behind the Stats - Are abortion numbers rising in the US?

In June 2022 the United States Supreme Court passed what became known as ‘the Dobbs decision’. In doing so they overturned the long standing constitutional right for women to access abortion in the US. Since then a number of states have banned abortion completely with many others having highly prohibitive rules. You’d expect the numbers of abortions to go down. They haven’t. How is it possible that more people are accessing abortions in a post Dobbs society and why is it not true that states which have total bans have zero abortions per year? Presenter: Lizzy McNeill Producer: Lizzy McNeill Series Producer: Tom Colls Production Co-ordinator: Rosie Strawbridge Studio Manager: Neil Churchill Editor: Richard Vadon, Bridget Harney.

More or Less: Behind the Stats - Does a single AI query use a bottle of water?

We’re living through boom-times for Artificial Intelligence, with more and more of us using AI assistants like ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Grok and Copilot to do basic research and writing tasks.

But what is the environmental impact of these technologies?

Many listeners have got in touch with More or Less to ask us to investigate various claims about the energy and water use of AI.

One claim in particular has caught your attention - the idea that the equivalent of a small bottle of drinking water is consumed by computer processors every time you ask an AI a question, or get it to write a simple email.

So, where does that claim come from, and is it true?

Reporter: Paul Connolly Producer: Tom Colls Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown Sound mix: Donald McDonald Editor: Richard Vadon

Audio Mises Wire - America’s War on Arab Christians

The recent attack by Israeli setters on the village of Taybeh in the West Bank has brought attention to the conflicts between Israel and the Christian population in Palestine. American Christians who uncritically support Israel should take a harder look at what is happening.

Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/americas-war-arab-christians

More or Less: Behind the Stats - Are abortion numbers rising in the US?

In June 2022 the United States Supreme Court passed what became known as ‘the Dobbs decision’. In doing so they overturned the long standing constitutional right for women to access abortion in the US. Since then a number of states have banned abortion completely with many others having highly prohibitive rules. You’d expect the numbers of abortions to go down. They haven’t. How is it possible that more people are accessing abortions in a post Dobbs society and why is it not true that states which have total bans have zero abortions per year? Presenter: Lizzy McNeill Producer: Lizzy McNeill Series Producer: Tom Colls Production Co-ordinator: Rosie Strawbridge Studio Manager: Neil Churchill Editor: Richard Vadon, Bridget Harney.

The Indicator from Planet Money - What you need to know about the jobs report revisions

Why do revisions to the jobs report happen? Today on the show, we speak with a former Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics about why revisions occur and how we should interpret the monthly report's actual message.

Related episodes:
Can we still trust the monthly jobs report? (Update)
What really goes on at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (Update)
​​How you're using AI at work

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Fact-checking by
Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy