For two hours every weekday, All Things Considered hosts Robert Siegel, Michele Norris and Melissa Block present the program's trademark mix of news, interviews, commentaries, reviews, and offbeat features.
Recent Stories
When the Marines of "America's Battalion" first arrived in Afghanistan, they were eager to get into the fight against the Taliban. Now, as they wrap up their seven-month deployment — and after the loss of a dozen comrades — they see warfare in a different light.
As it gets more difficult to see a primary care doctor, walk-in medical centers are picking up the slack. And if Congress succeeds in passing a nationwide health insurance mandate, the urgent care industry expects even more growth.
This week two panels of medical experts recommended fewer screening tests for breast and cervical cancer. The idea of evidence-based medicine is that the decisions made between doctors and patients should be based on studies that sometimes conflict with previous wisdom on treatment options.
Senate Democrats hoped to have enough votes this week to pass a health care bill, Obama Cabinet officials faced hostile lawmakers on Capitol Hill and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's much-awaited book hit bookstores. Political analysts E.J. Dionne, of The Washington Post, and David Brooks, of The New York Times, offer their insight.
Oprah Winfrey told her audience today that her talk show will end in 2011. Maureen Ryan, TV critic for the Chicago Tribune, discusses Winfrey's decision and if her power of network TV can translate to cable.
Two Asian carp species that could devastate the Great Lakes ecosystem may be a few miles from Lake Michigan. To halt their migration, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built an underwater electric fence on a canal 20 miles south of the lake. But tests conducted by David Lodge at Notre Dame indicate that they have gotten close to the lake despite the barrier.
The Washington Times has long thought to be immune from the economic forces challenging the rest of newspaper industry because of the deep pockets of its founder and owner, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, head of the Unification Church. But the recession has taken a toll on the paper and now an apparent power struggle among Moon's sons is adding to the paper's challenges.
The public option looms large in the minds of voters and certain lawmakers, but not so much in the Senate health care bill. There it limits eligibility, kicks in late, includes an opt-out provision for states, and is expected to cost more than private plans. Leaders say they had to weaken it to round up the 60 votes they need to move the bill forward. Still, its inclusion continues to jeopardize needed support for passage, because several members of the Democratic caucus adamantly oppose any public option.
Prices for brand-name prescription drugs are on the rise. In some cases, they are up by more than 8 percent despite a decline in generic drug prices. Uwe Reinhardt, a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, offers his insight.
Boeing has moved to South Carolina from its ancestral home in the Pacific Northwest to build the 787 Dreamliner. The company will spend less on labor and receive more than $175 million in state incentives. But it will have to train a new workforce, which Boeing's Seattle unions predict may be the undoing of the Southern operation.
Listeners responded to the interview about the late U.S. Sen. Carl Hayden of Arizona, to the story about the closing of a Boston-area housewares chain, and the interview about Santas and the swine flu vaccine. Robert Siegel reads from listeners' letters.
News from Yemen has been dominated recently by an escalating rebellion along the border with Saudi Arabia. But the country has been making news for decades because of its severe overuse of a rapidly disappearing water supply, the result of natural and political causes.
Bon Jovi is at the top of the album charts this week, riding an unprecedented publicity push. His record label struck a deal with the conglomerate NBC Universal for an exclusive presence on their many TV networks, including appearances on Today, Inside the Actors Studio and The Tonight Show.
The Ohio school has a 20,000-seat stadium, a $3 million indoor practice facility and a live tiger for a mascot. Massillon teams have won 22 state championships and they're in the running for another one. It's football "sunup to sundown," the head coach says.
Michael Scott was found shot in the head Monday, his body partially submerged in the Chicago River. The medical examiner ruled the death a suicide, but so far police have not reached that conclusion, and there's widespread disbelief among the mayor and others that Scott would have killed himself.
