Episodes

  • Three years into his war on Ukraine, what does Putin really want?

    Three years into his war on Ukraine, what does Putin really want?
    Jun 1 2025
    President Trump wants to make a deal with Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine. Putin says Russia wants to engage in peace talks, but Putin has also been ordering the most widespread and violent aerial attacks on Ukraine in years. This has led Trump to criticize Putin more and more in public — a step that's been rare over the course of Trump's two terms in office.

    Three years into his war on Ukraine, what does Putin really want? It's a question leaders around the world are trying to figure out.

    To learn more, NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with Angela Stent, Professor Emeritus at Georgetown University, Senior Fellow at the Brookings institution — a nonpartisan policy organization in Washington DC — and author of the book "Putin's World: Russia Against the West and With the Rest.

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    12 mins
  • What's behind Trump's crackdown on universities — and why it matters

    What's behind Trump's crackdown on universities — and why it matters
    May 30 2025
    The Trump administration has thrown so many curveballs at colleges and universities, it can be hard to keep track. But there's logic behind the many efforts, from cutting research grants to detaining international students involved in activism.

    NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben and education correspondent Elissa Nadworny about what's at stake in the federal government's multi-pronged assault on higher education and what the administration hopes to accomplish.

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    11 mins
  • The CDC changed its COVID vaccine guidance. What does that mean for you?

    The CDC changed its COVID vaccine guidance. What does that mean for you?
    May 29 2025
    When Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced new COVID recommendations this week, it raised questions among clinicians and patients:

    Will those shots still be available to people who want them — and will insurance cover it?

    NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, about the CDC's new guidelines for healthy children and pregnant women — and whether they could make it more difficult for these patients to get shots if they want them.

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    8 mins
  • Children of ISIS fighter find new life in Minnesota

    Children of ISIS fighter find new life in Minnesota
    May 28 2025
    When ISIS was at its height, its ranks included several hundred Americans. They were often young men radicalized online by savvy marketing that promised free housing and the chance to meet a wife.

    When the Islamic State collapsed, some of them ended up in huge detention camps in Syria, and the U.S. has been trying to bring them home.

    NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer reports on one American family coping with the aftermath of the child they lost, and the children they found.

    What happened to the families of the Americans who joined ISIS? Not just the families they left behind in the U.S., but the ones they formed overseas?

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    22 mins
  • NPR takes Trump to court

    NPR takes Trump to court
    May 27 2025
    NPR and three public radio stations in Colorado sued President Trump on Tuesday over his executive order that seeks to end federal funding for NPR and PBS.

    NPR's media correspondent David Folkenflik breaks down the suit, and NPR CEO Katherine Maher answers Mary Louise Kelly's answers about the lawsuit, potential fall out, and future of NPR and public media.

    And a reminder about how NPR covers news about NPR: All Things Considered host Kelly and media correspondent Folkenflik, as well as the editors and other journalists working on stories about NPR all operate without involvement from corporate officials or news executives.

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    13 mins
  • What Trump's cuts to intelligence could mean for national security

    What Trump's cuts to intelligence could mean for national security
    May 26 2025
    It's a classic Washington power move — the late-on-Friday news dump.

    This past Friday, at 4:30pm, start of a long holiday weekend, about half the staff of the National Security Council got emails asking them to leave by 5pm. Dozens of people abruptly dismissed.

    The restructuring of the NSC as Secretary of State and National Security advisor Marco Rubio has characterized it — continues a trend in this second term for President Trump, of radical downsizing.

    The Trump administration plans to cut thousands of intelligence and national security jobs across the government.

    The US Government has long relied on scores of intelligence officials across the government to keep America safe. Trump wants many of them gone – what could that mean for security at home and abroad?

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    12 mins
  • Misinformation channels to the Oval Office

    Misinformation channels to the Oval Office
    May 25 2025
    President Trump's spreading of the false claim that South Africa is perpetrating a genocide against its white inhabitants is just the latest example of misinformation making its way from corners of the internet into presidential statements or even policy.

    This isn't the first time that a falsehood that began on the fringes of the right-wing made its way to the Trump White House. NPR's Scott Detrow and Lisa Hagen examine how these beliefs have been able to reach the Oval Office.

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    9 mins
  • The Supreme Court's Trump Dilemma

    The Supreme Court's Trump Dilemma
    May 24 2025
    The Supreme Court has become the focal point of the legal battle over President Donald Trump's executive authority – and presidential power more broadly.

    Few reporters are as prepared as NPR's Nina Totenberg to report on this unique moment.

    Over the last fifty years, Totenberg established herself as the preeminent Supreme Court reporter in America. She's broken countless stories – including allegations of sexual harassment by Clarence Thomas during the justice's 1991 confirmation hearings.

    For this week's Reporter's Notebook host Scott Detrow speaks with Totenberg about this crucial moment in the court's history and consequential cases she has covered over the years.

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    13 mins
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