A couple years ago, Chris Andrews, a senior at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, realized he was addicted to his smartphone. “It was something I was using as a crutch,” he explains. “Something that I was using in moments of boredom, moments of anxiety, or a moment of silence in a group of friends – we’d all reach for our phones.”

Michael Moore has hired Joe Beyer as the new executive director for his Traverse City Film Festival. Joe replaces Deb Lake, who resigned last December. “It’s like we found our long-lost soul brother here for Traverse City in the being of Joe Beyer,” says Michael. Joe Beyer returns home to Michigan after working for the Sundance Institute for over 14 years.

For the last 10 years, Karen Anderson has been writing weekly essays heard on Interlochen Public Radio. The essays are vivid, personal, and relatable. Karen takes time to notice the little details and experiences of everyday life.

In the early 1800’s, American painter Edward Hicks began painting “Peaceable Kingdom," a series of 62 paintings inspired by a verse in the book of Isaiah. The verse says, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.” In Traverse City, two different art galleries are bringing that concept to the art world.

Spencer McQueen says looking at his art isn’t enough. He wants you to feel his paintings. “It’s just this little extra ability that you can give someone to connect with you and the things that you created,” he says.

This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with actors Meera Rohit Kumbhani (pictured, left) and Avanthika Srinivasan (right), cast members of the world premiere of Testmatch , which runs at A.C.T.’s Strand Theater through December 8.

This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with cellist and singer Amanda Zidow (pictured), who plays the role of the Island Queen Prospera, in Cirque du Soleil’s production Amaluna , currently visiting the Bay Area.

This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with Rinabeth Apostol (pictured, right) and Ryan Drummond (left), who are the lead actors in the San Francisco Playhouse production of Groundhog Day the Musical , which runs through January 18, 2020 at SF Playhouse (450 Post Street) in San Francisco.

This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, guest host Noah Griffin talks with actors John Skelley and Benjamin Papac (pictured) about the exclusive West Coast production of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child , in which they play the parts of Harry Potter, and his son, Albus Potter. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child runs at San Francisco’s Curran Theater (445 Geary St.) in San Francisco, through June 20, 2020.

This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the performing arts, guest host Leah Garchik talks about the African-American Shakespeare Company's unique annual holiday offering of Cinderella , with AASC founder and executive director Sherri Young and lead actress Funmi Lola (pictured). Cinderella, the often told tale of a scullery maid determined to take her life into her own hands and make it better, runs for 4 performances, December 20-22 at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco.

This week on Open Air, KALW's weekly radio magazine of the performing arts, host David Latulippe will be talking with choreographer/performer Kathleen Hermesdorf about San Francisco’s 11th annual FRESH Festival of Experimental Dance, Music + Performance , held over three weekends from January 6 - 26 at the Joe Goode Annex (401 Alabama St.) in San Francisco.

This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with multilingual playwright and actor Ana Bayat , about her one-woman show, Mimi's Suitcase , an autobiographical story about identity, immigration, women’s rights, and involuntary displacement.

This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with concert pianist, actor, and author Mona Golabek, about her one-woman show The Pianist of Willesden Lane , presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts (500 Castro St.) in Mountain View, through February 16.

This week, on another web-exclusive edition of Open Air, KALW’s weekly radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with co-founder and director Vinita Sud Belani from theatre company EnActe Arts, about The Case of the Vanishing Firefish , a fantasy fiction voyage inspired by both Harry Potter and The Da Vinci Code .

This week on Open Air, KALW’s weekly radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with Susi Damilano (pictured, left), star of the new production of Tiny Beautiful Things at SF Playhouse - and also the company’s producing director. Performances are through March 7 at SF Playhouse (450 Post St.) in San Francisco.

This week on Open Air, KALW’s weekly radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with actors Lorenzo Pugliese and Daria Pilar Redus (pictured), who play the parts of SpongeBob SquarePants and his squirrel girlfriend Sandy Cheeks, in The SpongeBob Musical , which is in town through February 16.

This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with composer, singer-songwriter, actor, author, activist, international rock star, and 17-time Grammy Award-winner Sting (pictured, center), who is in town to star in his own new musical, The Last Ship , playing at the Golden Gate Theatre (1 Taylor St.) in San Francisco, through March 22.

This week, you'll hear about the 2020 Pacific Musical Competition, whose finalists perform at the Live Finals and Winners Showcase, which will be held on March 8, 2020 in the Main Hall at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco from 10am to 7pm. For over a century, the Pacific Musical Society & Foundation has nurtured the growth of gifted musicians by awarding merit-based scholarships to promising students in the Bay Area and surrounding regions. Each year they hold a competition for instrumentalists, pianists, vocalists, chamber groups, and composers in various age categories. --- A talk with two-time Grammy Award-winning violinist Mads Tolling , about his upcoming show at Yoshi’s in Oakland (510 Embarcadero West), together with his Mads Men (Colin Hogan on keys, Daniel Lucca Parenti on bass and Eric Garland on drums). Featured guest artists are vocalists Kim Nalley and Kenny Washington. ---- From the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble , a talk with flutist Stacey Pelinka and artistic

This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts in times of Coronavirus , host David Latulippe talks with AJ Baker, founder and executive artistic director of 3Girls Theatre Company , about their 8th New Works Festival, titled Hindsight is 2020: Reimagining Women’s History . The festival runs from runs from March 20-29 at Z Below (470 Florida St.) in San Francisco.

On this week's Open Air, a talk (by phone) about what the cancellation of virtually all performing arts venues have on various artists, including a talk with conductor Martin West about the San Francisco Ballet, with Bill English, co-founder of San Francisco Playhouse, and with freelance musicians Mads Tolling and Matt Szemela. Plus regular contributor Peter Robinson shares possible home and outdoor activities during "shelter in place". RESOURCES and diversions: The San Francisco Symphony's award winning "Keeping Score" video series The Metropolitan Opera streaming archive The Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall From our friends at KQED: "Emergency Funds for Freelancers, Creatives..." The Actors' Fund The Santa Cruz Symphony Musician Relief Fund Listen to the March 19, 2020 broadcast of Open Air with David Latulippe anytime!

Open Air, KALW’s weekly radio magazine about the Bay Area Performing Arts, is back!

This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks, appropriately socially distant, with Mark Streshinsky, general director of West Edge Opera , about the annual summer festival, thus far going full steam ahead from July 25th through August 9 th at The Bridge Yard in Oakland.

This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area Performing Arts in Times of Corona, host David Latulippe talks, appropriately socially distant, with Eric Zivian and Tanya Tomkins (pictured), directors of Valley of the Moon Music Festival (VMMF), about how they are coping with the current crisis.

Regular contributor and critic at large Peter Robinson explores how My Fair Lady turned Shaw’s Pygmalion into a fine musical. ===================== his week on Open Air, KALW’s live radio magazine for the Bay Area Performing Arts in Times of Corona, we raise the virtual curtain for the first installment of Open Air’s Corona Radio Theater . Featuring this week is theater company Word for Word ; renowned for bringing short stories from the page to the stage, fully theatricalized; and their reading - on Zoom - of Tobias Wolff's story, Firelight .

This week on Open Air, KALW’s live radio magazine for the Bay Area Performing Arts in Times of Corona, the virtual stage of Open Air’s Corona Radio Theater features San Francisco Playhouse , and their production of one of the most celebrated plays in the history of American radio, Lucille Fletcher’s Noir thriller Sorry Wrong Number .

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent telegrams on Friday to US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson suggesting the need to rekindle their nations' cooperation during World War II to solve today's problems. Putin's overture was the latest in a series of contacts with Washington with which Moscow is keen to rebuild relations frayed over everything from election hacking allegations to Syria. Ties with London remain badly strained over the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in England. The telegrams were among many Putin dispatched to the Soviet Union's World War II allies on the 75th anniversary of the end of the conflict in Europe. Related:   Coronavirus postponed Russia's Victory Day. For Putin, it's a problem. Russia, which marks the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany on May 9, the day after "Victory in Europe" Day, has been forced to scale back commemorations due to the coronavirus. Fiona Hill served as the senior director for European

President Donald Trump wants the Catholic vote. Recently, Trump was on a conference call with several hundred Catholic educators — and many prominent bishops. Trump reportedly described himself as the “best [president] in the history of the Catholic Church.”  In reality, though, there’s a growing rift within the church on support for the president. A number of prominent Catholics are criticizing Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic — and many have been vocal on Twitter. Related:  Coronavirus postponed Russia’s Victory Day. That could be a problem for Putin. Rev. Robert Ballecer, an American priest stationed in the Vatican, has been particularly outspoken. Before he moved to Rome, Ballecer had been living at St. Ignatius College Prep , a Jesuit high school in San Francisco. The Jesuits allowed Ballecer to pursue his Catholic ministry as a host at “ TWiT ,” a podcast network focused on technology . It seemed like a good fit, as Ballecer is a self-described mechanic, engineer and

A slickly produced 26-minute video called Plandemic has exploded on social media in recent days, claiming to present a view of COVID-19 that differs from the "official" narrative. The video has been viewed millions of times on YouTube via links that are replaced as quickly as the video-sharing service can remove them for violating its policy against "COVID-19 misinformation." In it, filmmaker Mikki Willis conducts an uncritical interview with Judy Mikovits, who he says has been called "one of the most accomplished scientists of her generation." Never heard of her? You're not alone. Two prominent scientists with backgrounds in AIDS research and infectious diseases, who asked not to be identified over concerns of facing a backlash on social media, told NPR that they did not know who she was. If you were aware of Mikovits before this week, it is probably for two books she published with co-author Kent Heckenlively, one in 2017 and another last month. Heckenlively has also written a book

The Census Bureau says it is continuing the gradual relaunch of limited field operations for the 2020 census next week in nine states where the coronavirus pandemic forced the hand-delivery of paper forms in rural areas to be suspended in mid-March. On May 13, some local census offices in Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington are scheduled to restart that fieldwork, according to an updated schedule the bureau published on its website Friday. All workers are expected to be trained in CDC guidance in preventing the spread of COVID-19, and besides a new reusable face mask for every 10 days worked and a pair of gloves for each work day, the bureau has ordered 2 ounces of hand sanitizer for each census worker conducting field operations, the bureau tells NPR in an email. The announcement means more households that receive their mail at post office boxes or drop points are expected to find paper questionnaires left outside their

This is part of a series looking at pressing coronavirus questions of the week. We'd like to hear what you're curious about. Email us at goatsandsoda@npr.org with the subject line: "Weekly Coronavirus Questions." More than 76,000 people in the U.S. have died because of COVID-19, and there have been 1.27 million confirmed cases across the country — and nearly 4 million worldwide. Though the virus continues to spread and sicken people, some states and countries are starting to reopen businesses and lift stay-at-home requirements. This week, we look at some of your questions as summer nears and restrictions are eased. Is it safe to swim in pools or lakes? Does the virus spread through the water? People are asking whether they should be concerned about being exposed to the coronavirus while swimming. Experts say water needn't be a cause for concern. The CDC says there is no evidence the virus that causes COVID-19 can be spread to people through the water in pools, hot tubs, spas or water

The Pan American Health Organization this week warned of an impending humanitarian crisis in Haiti due to the coronavirus pandemic. Haiti has reported relatively few cases of COVID-19 but it shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, which is experiencing one of the worst outbreaks in the hemisphere. With the Dominican Republic under lockdown, thousands of laid off migrant workers have headed home to Haiti and presumably some of them are carrying the virus with them. "There is real danger of a large-scale outbreak followed by a humanitarian crisis in Haiti," said Carissa Etienne, the head of PAHO, in a briefing this week with reporters. She said Haiti's health-care system is ill-equipped to deal with an outbreak of a highly-infectious, potentially-fatal respiratory disease. And the measures used elsewhere to stem the spread of COVID-19 are impractical or impossible in Haiti. "It is extremely difficult to institute proper social distancing in Haiti," she said —

A meat-packing plant in Waterloo, Iowa, where a coronavirus outbreak exploded a few weeks ago, resumed operations on Thursday after a two-week closure. The reopening of Tyson Foods' largest U.S. pork plant came the same day that health officials in Black Hawk County, where the plant is located, announced that 1,031 of the plant's estimated 2,800 employees have tested positive for the virus. That's higher than previous estimates by state officials. Tony Thompson, sheriff of Black Hawk County, was among the public officials who called for the Waterloo facility to shut down temporarily. His call to close the plant came after he first toured the facility on April 10. Thompson says that when he toured the plant then, he "fully expected" to see barriers, masks and other personal protective equipment in place. That wasn't the case. "What I saw when we went into that plant was an absolute free-for-all," he says. "Some people were wearing bandannas. Some people were wearing surgical masks. ....

Eighth grader Abby Pike is putting her Christmas present to good use. She received a sewing machine for the holiday last year. And amidst the COVID-19 global pandemic she and her family have spent their days and evenings sewing. So far, they’ve sewed about 700 masks. They’ve used social media to help distribute them to people who need them through donations and sold some as well. “It just brightens my day to see that I’m making an impact,” Pike said. Pike is involved in Edmond’s Cheyenne Middle School’s Family, Career and Community Leaders of America student organization. And she said many of her friends know a little about sewing, however most students her age and even many adults don’t know even how to sew a button on, her teacher Kendall Wildman said. Wildman teaches family and consumer sciences at Cheyenne. Family and Consumer Science teachers have seen a sudden spike in a need for the skills they teach during the COVID-19 pandemic. The need for teaching the subject, which has

Magician and animal trainer Roy Horn, of the legendary Las Vegas duo Siegfied and Roy, died Friday from complications related to COVID-19. Horn tested positive last week. He was 75. "The world has lost one of the greats of magic, but I have lost my best friend," Siegfried Fischbacher said of his partner in a statement. "Roy was a fighter his whole life including during these final days. I give my heartfelt appreciation to the team of doctors, nurses and staff at Mountain View Hospital who worked heroically against this insidious virus that ultimately took Roy's life." Roy Horn was born in Germany in 1944. He and Siegfried began their act in Las Vegas in 1967. In 1989 they began a 14-year run at the Mirage Resort performing illusions with exotic animals, making tigers, lions, even elephants vanish and reappear. In October of 2003, Roy Horn was performing with a 400-pound white tiger named Mantecore when the great cat grabbed him by the throat before a stunned audience and dragged him

Protests over stay-at-home orders because of COVID-19 have become more common around the country. In California, a surprising group is behind some of them: those who oppose mandatory vaccinations. On Thursday, a mash-up of people mingled on the sidewalk in front of California's state Capitol in Sacramento. There were Trump supporters wearing MAGA hats and waving American flags. There were Christians, singing along to religious rock songs and raising their hands in prayer. The event's MC. urged Gov. Gavin Newsom to tune into their event. "Everybody up at the Capitol, tell Gavin Newsom [to tune in to] 107.9 FM, if he wants to hear what we have to say," the MC told the crowd over loudspeakers. "It could be kind of good for him!" There were also mothers with their children at the rally. Many people were not wearing face masks or observing social distancing protocols. They'd all come out to protest California's stay-at-home order, put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19. This week's

President Trump wants states to begin relaxing stay-at-home orders and reopen businesses after the spread of the coronavirus pummeled the global economy and killed millions of jobs. The White House coronavirus task force released guidelines on April 16 to encourage state governors to adopt a phased approach to lifting restrictions across the country. Some states have moved ahead without meeting the criteria . The task force rejected a set of additional detailed draft recommendations for schools, restaurants, churches and mass transit systems from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that it considered " overly prescriptive ." A number of states have already begun to lift restrictions, allowing for businesses including hair salons, diners and tattoo parlors to once again begin accepting customers. Health experts have warned that reopening too quickly could result in a potential rebound in cases. States are supposed to wait to begin lifting any restrictions until they have a 14

As of Friday in Texas, you can go to a tanning salon. In Indiana, houses of worship are being allowed to open with no cap on attendance. Places like Pennsylvania are taking a more cautious approach, only starting to ease restrictions in some counties based on the number of COVID-19 cases. By Monday, at least 31 states will have partially reopened after seven weeks of restrictions. The moves come as President Trump pushes for the country to get back to work despite public health experts warning that it's too soon. "The early lesson that was learned, really, we learned from the island of Hokkaido in Japan, where they did a really good job of controlling the initial phase of the outbreak," said Bob Bednarczyk, assistant professor of global health and epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta. Because of that success, many of the restrictions on the island were lifted. But cases and deaths surged in a second wave of infections. Twenty-six days later

For the first time in its 231-year history, the Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments remotely by phone and made the audio available live. The new setup went off largely without difficulties, but produced some memorable moments, including one justice forgetting to unmute and an ill-timed bathroom break. Here are the top five can't-miss moments from this week's history-making oral arguments. A second week of arguments begin on Monday at 10 a.m. ET. Here's a rundown of the cases and how to listen. 1. Justice Clarence Thomas speaks ... a lot Supreme Court oral arguments are verbal jousting matches. The justices pepper the lawyers with questions, interrupting counsel repeatedly and sometimes even interrupting each other. Justice Clarence Thomas, who has sat on the bench for nearly 30 years, has made his dislike of the chaotic process well known, at one point not asking a question for a full decade. But with no line of sight, the telephone arguments have to be rigidly organized, and

As the COVID-19 pandemic began to pick up in Alaska, Dr. Anne Zink, the state's chief medical officer, faced a difficult choice. Should she continue in-person meetings and nightly briefings with Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy? Or should she opt for a more socially distant form of engagement? Zink chose the latter, saying she wanted to model the behavior that she has been appealing to residents to follow. She now appears at Dunleavy's briefings by video. And over the past two months, she has become a trusted voice as she urges Alaskans to follow the strict social distancing and other public health guidelines adopted by the state administration — which doctors groups have credited with keeping the state's COVID-19 numbers among the lowest in the country. Zink, who has a Facebook fan club and a #ThinkLikeZink hashtag , isn't the only public health official to acquire a cultlike following during the pandemic: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal infectious disease expert, has inspired a Saturday

Dr. Grace Farris is chief of hospital medicine at Mount Sinai West in Manhattan. She also writes a monthly comics column in the Annals of Internal Medicine called "Dr Mom." You can find her on Instagram @coupdegracefarris . Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Very briefly, at the end of 2019 and the start of 2020, there were slightly more women on American nonfarm payrolls than men. That's no longer true. The historically disastrous April jobs report shows that the brunt of job losses fell on women. Women now account for around just under half — 49% — of American workers, and they accounted for 55% of the increase in job losses last month. One way of looking at why that matters that is to look at the gap that opened up between women's and men's unemployment last month. The below chart shows women's unemployment rate minus men's unemployment rate since 2007. Usually, the line bumps around near or just below zero — meaning men's unemployment is usually near or slightly higher than women's. But that spike on the far right shows how women's unemployment leapt to be 2.7 points higher than men's in April. Women had an unemployment rate of 16.2% to men's 13.5% last month. That's uncommon for a recession. The below chart is a longer view, and the

Updated at 9:44 a.m. ET As a young woman growing up in a poor farming community in Virginia in the 1940 and '50s, with little information about sex or contraception, sexuality was a frightening thing for Carole Cato and her female friends. "We lived in constant fear, I mean all of us," she said. "It was like a tightrope. always wondering, is this going to be the time [I get pregnant]?" Cato, 78, now lives in Columbia, S.C. She grew up in the years before the birth control pill was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, on May 9, 1960. She said teenage girls in her community were told very little about how their bodies worked. "I was very fortunate; I did not get pregnant, but a lot of my friends did. And of course, they just got married and went into their little farmhouses," she said. "But I just felt I just had to get out." At 23, Cato married a widower who already had seven children. They decided seven was enough. By that time, Cato said, the pill allowed the couple to

Updated at 2:24 p.m. ET Little Richard, the self-described "king and queen" of rock and roll and an outsize influence on everyone from David Bowie to Prince, died Saturday in Tullahoma, Tenn. He was 87 years old. Bill Sobel, a lawyer for Little Richard, tells NPR that the cause of death was bone cancer. Rolling Stone was the first to report on Little Richard's death. With his ferocious piano playing, growling and gospel-strong vocals, pancake makeup and outlandish costumes, Little Richard tore down barriers starting in the 1950s. That is no small feat for any artist — let alone a black, openly gay man who grew up in the South. He was a force of nature who outlived many of the musicians he inspired, from Otis Redding to the late Prince and Michael Jackson. His peers James Brown and Otis Redding idolized him. Jimi Hendrix, who once played in Little Richard's band, said he wanted his guitar to sound like Richard's voice. The late David Bowie was 9 years old when he first saw Little

Airlines and airport operators in the United Kingdom are not waiting for the British government to publicly confirm their fears. Already, the groups representing major players in the U.K.'s air travel industry are pushing back on a proposal that would require travelers to quarantine after arriving from outside the country. A spokesperson for Airlines UK — a trade body with British Airways, EasyJet and Ryanair as members — says the group understands from government officials that plans for a quarantine are in the works, but that details remain scarce at the moment. "We need to see the detail of what they are proposing. Public health must of course be the priority and we will continue to be guided by Sage advice," the group said in a statement emailed to NPR, noting that support measures will be necessary to ensure "that we still have a UK aviation sector once the quarantine period is lifted." "We will be asking for assurances that this decision has been led by the science and that

A special episode from Inflection Point with Lauren Schiller.

"To change the story, you have to change the storyteller."

With over 300 mass shootings so far this year, you'd think we'd be having a new conversation about guns and gun control.

Refugees literally sacrifice everything to keep their families safe. Christina Psarra, head of mission for Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian aid organization, bears witness to their sacrifice and resourcefulness, giving everything she has to help them. Along the way, she's discovered that refugees are not victims--they are survivors and it's her job to help them survive.

There are girls all around the globe addressing tough issues that no young person should have to deal with--but must,