STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: The economy may be strong, but many Americans' finances are not. That's especially true in many rural areas. In a poll of rural Americans by NPR last fall, 55% of those surveyed said their local economy was only poor or fair. A f...
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: The U.S. job market sounds amazing right now, with unemployment around 3.6%. But what's it feel like to be in that market? All this week, we're asking what this economy means for people looking for a job, or looking for a better...
NOEL KING, HOST: Hit your thumb with a hammer and you feel physical pain, but the pain is also emotional. That ouch feeling might trigger anger, sadness or even fear. The brain shapes our perception of pain, and learning to control that process may h...
NOEL KING, HOST: All right. Elsewhere in economics, President Trump has complicated the relationship between the U.S. and many of its biggest trading partners - he put tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, he renegotiated NAFTA, he started a trade w...
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Here's another change the Trump administration wants - adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the matter last month, and a decision in the case is expected by summer. Some crit...
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST: Imagine spending 40 years and a billion dollars on a gamble, a scientific gamble. That's what one government agency did thanks, in large part, to a staffer there who saw a chance to cultivate some stunning research. As NPR'...
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Here's a puzzle for you. Do the qualities that allow a man to block 300-pound bodies every day have anything to do with the qualities that allow the same person to solve three-body problems late into the night? Stumped? John Ursc...
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST: If you've gotten your nails done, chances are you probably had them done at a Vietnamese nail salon. They're everywhere, in virtually every city, state and strip mall across the United States. So how did Vietnamese entrepre...
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST: Star-crossed teens falling in love are always in fashion, in print and on the big screen. This weekend the film The Sun Is Also A Star opened. It's based on the bestselling book by the same name by Nicola Yoon. The film and...
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Back to the ongoing trade conflict with China. The list of Chinese imports to the U.S. subject to increased tariffs runs 194 pages long. It includes things like frozen fish filets and bamboo furniture parts. The U.S. companies th...
SCOTT SIMON, HOST: The next time anyone reports the results of a poll or survey, even us, remember - a new survey says 51% of the adults in America splash around in swimming pools instead of showering or bathing. Further results get even yuckier. For...
SCOTT SIMON, HOST: Before television, before the Internet, there were radio soap operas. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Cuba exported more radio serials than any other nation in the Spanish-speaking world. Even Fidel Castro was a fan. After his revolut...
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Pulitzer Prize-winning author Herman Wouk has died. He was famous for sprawling novels about World War II, like The Winds Of War and War And Remembrance. He'll also be remembered for his portrayals of Jewish Americans. Wouk died to...
SCOTT SIMON, HOST: Many female fishermen say that sexual harassment is part of the job. Women make up roughly 15% of Alaska's commercial fishing industry, and they say that being on a boat for weeks or months at a time makes harassment hard to escape...
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: Deaths by suicide in the United States have been rising, and that includes among young people. A new study shows that the rate of suicide among teenage girls has been rising faster than boys. NPR's Rhitu Chatterjee reports. RHITU...
