Even in self-isolation, we can learn something new every day.

Updated at 4:12 p.m. ET Special counsel Robert Mueller shut down his Russia investigation on Wednesday in an unusual appearance in which he restated his findings and made clear that he never considered it an option to charge President Trump. "We are formally closing the special counsel's office," Mueller told reporters at the Justice Department on Wednesday morning. In his 10-minute statement, Mueller highlighted a few portions of his roughly 400-page report , including the section on whether President Trump obstructed justice. "If we had had confidence that the president did not commit a crime, we would have said so," he said. "We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime." Mueller emphasized that Justice Department regulations do not permit the indictment of a sitting president. Accordingly, Mueller said, he never considered it an option to seek one no matter what he had uncovered. If Americans or members of Congress want to hold a

Updated Saturday at 10:30 a.m. ET A day after U.S. and Mexico officials announced an agreement to avert tariffs — set to begin on Monday — affecting billions of dollars in imports from Mexico, President Trump took a victory lap on Twitter. Under a joint agreement released by State Department officials, Mexico will assist the United States in curbing migration across the border by deploying its national guard troops through the country, especially its southern border. The deal also expands a new program called Migrant Protection Protocols, allowing U.S. immigration enforcement officials to send Central American migrants to Mexico as their asylum claims are pending Mexico says those migrants will be offered jobs, health care and education, though critics question how safe migrants will be as they await the conclusion of their claims. In addition, the agreement says Mexican authorities will work to dismantle human smuggling operations. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador praised

This year, NPR held its first Student Podcast Challenge — a podcast contest for students in grades 5 through 12. As we listened to the almost 6,000 entries , we smiled, laughed, and even cried. Students opened their lives to us with stories about their families, their schools and communities and their hopes for the future. We named our winners last month — the eighth graders of Bronx Prep Middle School in New York, and the eleventh graders of Elizabethton High School in Tennessee. But lots of other students blew us away. Here, for your listening pleasure, are just some of the many podcast entries that made us smile — and reminded us what it's like to be in middle and high school. A divisive subject: Tater tots How did tater tots come to rule the lunchroom? LA Johnson / NPR The title of this finalist was enough to get our judges' attention. In "Tater Tots and their Lasting Impact on Society," fifth-graders Jack Lazzarone and Kalvin Martinez interviewed their classmates in teacher Ryan

This story ran on Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Gloria Vanderbilt was an artist, heiress, designer and philanthropist who, for many Americans, may be best remembered for her blue jeans . She died at the age of 95. Vanderbilt's son, Anderson Cooper, announced her death Monday, airing an obituary for her on CNN. Vanderbilt had cancer, he said. "Earlier this month, we had to take her to the hospital. That's where she learned she had very advanced cancer in her stomach, and that it had spread," Cooper said. "What an extraordinary life. What an extraordinary mom. And what an incredible woman," he said, his voice quavering a bit at the end of the remembrance. Vanderbilt had full lips, eyes that turned up at the corners and a patrician bearing. She was, in fact, descended from shipping and railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the richest men in American history. She was born in 1924, and her father died shortly thereafter. Vanderbilt was raised by a beloved nurse because

Updated at 7:40 p.m. ET A House panel heard at times emotional testimony about conditions at facilities run by the Department of Homeland Security. The hearing of the House oversight committee grew heated as Democrats and Republicans on the panel argued over who bore responsibility for the overcrowded and unsanitary conditions at detention centers on the southern border. Republican lawmakers who represent border districts and Democratic lawmakers who have recently traveled to the border each testified. Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., disputed charges that some of those being held at a Border Patrol facility in Texas were forced to drink water from toilets. "Please, American public," Lesko said, "there is no one asking people to drink out of toilets." She referred to a video from the Arizona Border Patrol showing an agent touring a facility and drinking water from a sink above a toilet unit. But Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who made that accusation in a news conference after

Updated at 7:05 p.m. ET The House of Representatives approved a resolution Tuesday evening condemning the president for a series of racist tweets about four Democratic lawmakers. The vote was mostly along party lines, as the House split 240-187, with four Republicans supporting the nonbinding measure. Republican Reps. Fred Upton of Michigan, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Susan Brooks of Indiana and Will Hurd of Texas joined with Democrats to rebuke the president, as did Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, who recently left the Republican Party to become an independent. The House was paralyzed for a substantial portion of the afternoon over legislative procedure. Republicans sought a ruling on the question: Does calling the president's tweets "racist" violate the rules of decorum established in the House? So an already heated debate turned to farce as the House voted on whether to sanction House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for characterizing the president's remarks as "racist," as part of a

Police have identified 24-year-old white male Connor Betts from Bellbrook, Ohio, as the shooter who claimed nine lives and injured 27 others in Dayton, Ohio, early on Sunday morning. Among the nine dead was the shooter's sister, Megan Betts, 22, said Lt. Col. Matt Carper at a news conference Sunday. In addition to Betts' sister, Carper offered a complete list of the people who were among those killed in the brief but brutal shooting: Lois L. Oglesby, 27; Saeed Saleh, 38; Derrick R. Fudge, 57; Logan M. Turner, 30; Nicholas P. Cumer, 25; Thomas J. McNichols, 25; Beatrice N. Warren-Curtis, 36; Monica E. Brickhouse, 39. Carper denied suggestions that the victims were targeted. "Due to the very short timeline of violence, it's hard to imagine that there was much discrimination in the shooting," he said. "It happened in a very short amount of time." Carper offered no other details about the shooter; however, a LinkedIn profile belonging to someone of the same name and who is listed as living

Editor's note: This is an updated version of a story that was published on Nov. 9, 2018. The United States has the 28th-highest rate of deaths from gun violence in the world: 4.43 deaths per 100,000 people in 2017 — far greater than what is seen in other wealthy countries. On a state-by-state calculation, the rates can be even higher. In the District of Columbia, the rate is 16.34 per 100,000 — the highest in the United States. In Louisiana, the rate is 10.68 per 100,000. In Texas and Ohio — the scene of two mass shootings at the beginning of August — the rates are close to the national average: 4.74 per 100,000 in Texas and 4.60 in Ohio. And the national rate of gun violence in the U.S. is higher than in many low-income countries. Those findings are part of the latest version of an annual report on gun violence from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation , which tracks lives lost in every country, in every year, by every possible cause of death. The

Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders have the stage to themselves for Sunday night's Democratic primary debate. The debate, hosted by CNN and Univision in Washington, D.C., will not have a live audience amid coronavirus concerns. Follow NPR's live coverage of the debate. Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit Loading...

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 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 —

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

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

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

This is Sample Size, our weekly new music feature with KOSU's Ryan LaCroix and LOOKatOKC music critic Matt Carney. Today, Matt plays new music from Japandroids , Spoon , and Thundercat . Follow Matt & Ryan on Twitter at @mdotcarney & @KOSUryan .

This is Sample Size, our weekly new music feature with KOSU's Ryan LaCroix and LOOKatOKC music critic Matt Carney. Today, Matt explains the results of the Grammys and focuses on two winners—Adele and Chance the Rapper. Plus, a new song from Colin Stetson . Follow Matt & Ryan on Twitter at @mdotcarney & @KOSUryan .

They’re slimy, gray, hungry and love to eat holes in the leaves of your hostas. On this edition of Talk of Iowa , host Charity Nebbe speaks with Entomologist Donald Lewis, Horticulturist Richard Jauron and Forester Mark Vitosh about slugs and their fellow gastropods – snails. Listeners also get their questions answered about plants and trees. Guests: Mark Vitosh , Iowa DNR Forester Donald Lewis , professor of entomology at Iowa State University Richard Jauron , Iowa State University Extension Horticulture Specialist

Educators, parents and students are all struggling to find their way through distance learning, but the challenges can be even greater for special education students.

For the past 20 years, Iowa Public Radio’s Rob Dillard has been working hard to keep Iowans informed and share some of Iowa’s unique voices.

Gardening isn’t limited to sprawling backyards and hand-built raised beds. With just a few buckets, pails or pots you can transform even the smallest balcony or patio into a healthy and diverse container garden bursting with spring flavor.

In her book Eligible , author Curtis Sittenfeld retells the Jane Austen classic Pride and Prejudice with a modern, Midwestern twist. The Bennet family lives in Cincinnati, Liz Bennet is a journalist in her late 30’s and the bachelors Bingley and Darcy are wealthy doctors with coastal ties.

A special episode from Inflection Point with Lauren Schiller.

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

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.

Nancy Niemi, Director of Faculty Teaching Initiatives at Yale questions the conventional wisdom that college is a path to gender equality.

Click here for a PDF of the Spring 2018 program guide.

Sarah McBride made history as the first transgender person to speak at a national political convention in 2016.

Can you find compassion in your heart for the haters in your life?

At age 35, Stitch Fix founder Katrina Lake became the youngest female founder and CEO to take a company public in 2017.

Can an all-woman board move beyond empowerment, and get to actual power?

Organizational psychologist Dr. Barbara Adams says there is transformational power for everyone in diversity and inclusivity.

Buried deep in Stanford Hospital is a network that’s a little more Jules Verne than Silicon Valley.

Second Fridays at the Legionnaire Saloon in downtown Oakland are not just any bar night. It feels more like a backyard party or a family reunion.

It’s Friday night on the corner of 16th and Valencia in San Francisco’s Mission District. Shops are closing up and folks that live out here are settling into vacant doorways. The traffic on the street sounds frustrated; revving, waiting, and beeping as the last of the commuters surface from the BART station and breeze by. Most of them don’t even notice a man in a poofy red and white mushroom hat, sorting through a tangled web of colored wires and extension cords.

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 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 —

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

In this time of fear and uncertainty, people are going back to the land — more or less. Gardening might just be overtaking sourdough baking, TV binging and playing Animal Crossing as our favorite pandemic coping mechanism So here I am in my back yard, where I've got this lovely four foot by eight food raised garden bed — brand new this year, because yes, I'm one of those people who are trying their hand at gardening. I've got tomatoes, I've got cucumbers, I've got radishes, I've got beets sprouting up, I've got what I think might be a zucchini and a spaghetti squash, but the markers washed away in a storm. And I had some watermelon seedlings, but they died in the last cold snap. So that's why I'm out here today — driving in stakes and draping plastic wrap for the next cold snap. I have to be extra careful now, because I couldn't actually replace my watermelon seedlings — garden centers and hardware stores have been picked clean. Jennifer Atkinson is a senior lecturer in environmental

Updated at 1:55 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. He was 87 years old. Wayne Chaney, his longtime bandleader and tour manager, tells NPR that Little Richard died at his brother's home in Tullahoma, Tenn., after a battle with cancer. Rolling Stone was the first to report on his 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

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

*This program originally aired on March 6, 2018. The human brain has substantially different dietary needs than other organs, and new research suggests that diet may play a large role in the development of dementia, obesity, and even ability to sleep. On this edition of River to River , Ben Kieffer talks with neuroscientist and nutritionist Lisa Mosconi, whose new book, Brain Food: The Surprising Science of Eating for Cognitive Power , explains how diet affects brain power and health. Mosconi says that if she had to pick one food that’s best for brain health, she would say caviar. “I understand it’s expensive and I understand it’s not practical, but from a scientific perspective, the nutritional composition of caviar is a fantastic complement to whatever nutrients your brain needs for health and cognitive fitness.” In lieu of caviar, she says that some fish are rich in a certain type of fat that the brain needs. Those fish include salmon, trout, herring, and anchovies. And for those

Many childcare centers across the state have been forced to shut their doors because of COVID-19. For those who are still open, declining enrollment numbers, staff layoffs and difficulties in acquiring and affording necessary supplies has left providers facing tough decisions about the future of their childcare businesses, just as some Iowans begin returning to work.

For Democrats, flipping the Senate seat held by Republican Joni Ernst is likely to be an uphill battle. On this Newsbuzz edition of River to River , we take a look at the democratic challengers and the week's coronavirus news.

Continuum targets regulated industries like banking, healthcare, and government, while Engage is designed for HR and other managers to keep employees engaged wherever they are

As business professionals, educators, and others around the globe rely on web conferencing solutions like Zoom to communicate under current conditions, post houses, broadcasters, and video rights holders are either acquainting themselves with cloud video editing solutions like the popular Blackbird platform, or moving once-peripheral distributed production workflows to the center of their operations.