Now Playing

Loading streams...

WFAE Voices

Ben Bradford
Ben Bradford
Reporter
Greg Collard
Greg Collard
News Director
Mike Collins
Mike Collins
Charlotte Talks Host
Briana Duggan
Briana Duggan
CAJA Fellow
Duncan McFadyen
Duncan McFadyen
Weekend Edition Saturday Host/Reporter
Lisa Miller
Lisa Miller
Reporter
Julie Rose
Julie Rose
Reporter
Mark Rumsey
Mark Rumsey
Community Engagement Coordinator/All Things Considered Host
Tasnim Shamma
Tasnim Shamma
Reporter
Marshall Terry
Marshall Terry
Reporter/Newscaster
Michael Tomsic
Michael Tomsic
Reporter

Podcasts & RSS Feeds

All ContentRSS
View all podcasts & RSS feeds

NPR News

Pages

Poetry
6:45 am
Sun October 14, 2012

'A Thousand Mornings' With Poet Mary Oliver

Credit Rachel Giese Brown
Mary Oliver has won a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
Share
E-mail
Comments
By editor

Originally published on Sun October 14, 2012 2:14 pm

Mary Oliver is a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet whose body of work is largely filled with imagery of the natural world — cats, opossums crossing the street, sunflowers and black oaks in the sunshine. Her most recent collection is entitled A Thousand Mornings.

Read more
Sports
6:45 am
Sun October 14, 2012

Week In Sports: Big Surprises In Baseball Playoffs

Share
E-mail
Comments
By editor

Originally published on Sun October 14, 2012 2:14 pm

Transcript

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LIFE IS A BALL GAME")

SISTER WINONA CARR: Life is a ball game being played each day. Life is a ball game...

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Baseball playoffs moved into the league championships last night and the New York Yankees suffered a 6-4 loss. Yankees captain Derek Jeter suffered a broken ankle. NPR's Mike Pesca hasn't missed a minute of the postseason drama. He joins us now. Hey, Mike.

MIKE PESCA, BYLINE: There have been a lot of games. I think I'll cop to missing a couple of minutes but yeah, yeah.

Read more
Sunday Puzzle
4:32 am
Sun October 14, 2012

Where, 'O' Where Shall I Put You?

Credit NPR Graphic
Share
E-mail
Comments
By

Originally published on Sun October 14, 2012 2:14 pm

On-air challenge: Every answer is a two-word phrase in which the letter "O" is added at the end of the first word to make the second word. For example, given the clue "pack animal owned by Thomas Jefferson's first vice president," the answer would be "Burr burro."

Last week's challenge: Draw a regular hexagon and connect every pair of vertices except one. The pair you don't connect are not on opposite sides of the hexagon but along a shorter diagonal. How many triangles of any size are in this figure?

Answer: 82 triangles

Read more
Sports
6:15 pm
Sat October 13, 2012

A Shifting Playing Field: Coming Out As A Gay Athlete

Next imagePrevious image
Credit Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo / AP
Boxer Orlando Cruz hits a speed bag at a public gym in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Oct. 4. He said publicly that he is gay earlier this month.
Credit Frazer Harrison / Getty Images
Former professional baseball player Billy Bean speaks on Variety's Gay Hollywood Panel in West Hollywood in 2004. As a pro athlete, Bean kept his sexual orientation a secret.
Share
E-mail
Comments
By editor

Originally published on Sun October 14, 2012 11:07 am

These days, we're more likely to see professional athletes on products than protest lines. But it wasn't always this way. In the 1960s, sports stars were often as famous for what they believed as for their home runs.

Back then, many athletes spoke out about civil rights. Muhammad Ali was stripped of his heavyweight title and threatened with imprisonment for refusing to fight in Vietnam, on the grounds of racial discrimination.

Read more
The Two-Way
5:41 pm
Sat October 13, 2012

Throngs Follow Space Shuttle Endeavour On Its Final Journey

Next imagePrevious image
Credit Jeff Gritchen / AFP/Getty Images
Space shuttle Endeavour travels through Los Angeles on Saturday.
Credit Jeff Gritchen / AFP/Getty Images
In an instant, the shuttle crossings became part of history.
Credit Wally Skalij / AFP/Getty Images
Having escaped out of Earth's atmosphere two dozen times, Endeavour's slow-speed trek Saturday to its retirement center took it through the working-class streets of southern Los Angeles.
Credit Jeff Gritchen / AP
After trundling out of the Los Angeles International Airport on Friday, Endeavour hit the pavement before dawn again on Saturday on a remote-controlled 160-wheel carrier past diamond-shaped "Shuttle Xing" signs.
Credit Chris Carlson / AP
On Friday, the shuttle made a late-morning pit stop at the Forum, where it was greeted in the arena's parking lot by a throng of cheering spectators.
Credit Wally Skalij / AP
The 170,000-pound shuttle traveled at no more than 2 mph along a 12-mile route from LAX to its final home at the California Science Center.
Credit Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images
Along the 12-mile course, people marveled at the engineering. Some rooted for Endeavour when it appeared it might clip a lightpost. Others wondered if it could just hurry up to its destination.
Credit Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images
As it wound through South Los Angeles, residents welcomed its presence. Before the move, some lamented over the loss of shade as trees were chopped down to provide clearance.
Credit Wally Skalij / AFP/Getty Images
There were bumps in the road. Several hundred Inglewood residents suffered hours-long outages when power lines were temporarily snipped.
Credit LUCY NICHOLSON / AP
It took nearly a year to plan the Endeavour's laborious shuffle through city streets.
Credit Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images
The shuttle could not be taken apart without damaging the delicate tiles. Airlifting it was out of the question, so was driving on freeways since it's too massive to fit through underpasses.
Credit Lucy Nicholson / AP
So for most of the way, Endeavour straddled wide boulevards — Manchester, Crenshaw, Martin Luther King Jr.
Credit Jae C. Hong / AP
The one exception was when the shuttle poked through a slightly curved residential street lined with apartment buildings on both sides. It was such a squeeze that its 78-foot wingspan towered over driveways.
Credit Patrick T. Fallon / AP
Such a move is not cheap. The crosstown transport was estimated at $10 million, to be paid for by the science center and private donations.
Credit Rick Loomis / AP
Endeavour was scheduled to inch into the California Science Center late Saturday to spend the rest of its years as a museum piece.
Credit Jeff Gritchen / AFP/Getty Images
At every turn of Endeavour's stop-and-go commute through urban streets, a constellation of spectators trailed along as the space shuttle ploddingly nosed past stores, schools, churches and front yards.
Credit Patrick T. Fallon / AP
The giant doughnut in Inglewood dwarfs even the space shuttle Endeavour.
Share
E-mail
Comments
By editor

Originally published on Sun October 14, 2012 10:20 am

The space shuttle Endeavour picked its way through the streets of Los Angeles today, creeping slowly toward its final resting place at the California Science Center.

As NPR's Alison Keyes told our Newscast desk, folks in L.A. are used to celebrities, but today's star got an over-the-top welcome:

"People — cameras and children in tow — are lining the streets as the five-story-tall Endeavour with its 78-foot wingspan winds along its journey at a top speed of 2 miles an hour."

Read more
Around the Nation
5:40 pm
Sat October 13, 2012

Detroit Snob? Of Course I Am.

Credit Spencer Platt / Getty Images
Some Detroiters think their city has gotten a bad rap.
Share
E-mail
Comments
By editor

Originally published on Tue October 23, 2012 3:22 pm

In the past few years, the news from Detroit has been fairly bleak so it's no surprise comedians like Stephen Colbert have taken shots at the downtrodden city.

"Maybe someone could attempt the unthinkable: walk through downtown Detroit."

But many positive changes are taking place. Desiree Cooper, who started a company called Detroit Snob, says residents have a lot to be snobby about.

Read more
U.S.
5:01 pm
Sat October 13, 2012

Family Fights For Honor Of 'Rogue' Vietnam General

Next imagePrevious image
Credit AP
Gen. John D. Lavelle was accused of authorizing illegal bombing raids in North Vietnam. Stripped of two stars, he was forced into retirement in 1972.
Credit Paul Hays
Even though Lavelle was officially retired in disgrace as a two-star general, his widow ordered a gravestone displaying four. No one has ever protested.
Credit AP
President Nixon meets with Ellsworth Bunker, U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam, and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger at the White House on June 16, 1971. Lavelle would be mentioned in their recorded conversations a year later.
Share
E-mail
Comments
By editor

Originally published on Sun October 14, 2012 12:42 pm

Gen. John D. Lavelle commanded the Seventh Air Force during the Vietnam War. He served five steps down the chain of command from President Nixon. In his oral history — recorded by an Air Force history officer in 1978 — he explained how, six years earlier, his life changed forever.

It started with a meeting with a Thai general, Dawee Chullasapya, who had charged Lavelle with overseeing an operation to destroy anti-aircraft guns in North Vietnam. It was a mission necessary to keep Thailand in the war.

Read more
From Our Listeners
4:58 pm
Sat October 13, 2012

Three-Minute Fiction: 'A Day In The Sun'

Share
E-mail
Comments
By editor

Originally published on Sun October 14, 2012 11:07 am

Transcript

CELESTE HEADLEE, HOST:

This is WEEKENDS on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Celeste Headlee, in for Guy Raz.

(SOUNDBITE OF CLOCK TICKING)

HEADLEE: You know what that means. It's time for Three-Minute Fiction, our contest where listeners come up with original stories in under 600 words. The challenge this round was to write a story that revolves around a U.S. president - fictional or real. Our judge, the writer Brad Meltzer, will be deciding the winner in just a few weeks. Until then, here's an excerpt from one standout story.

Read more
Movies I've Seen A Million Times
3:23 pm
Sat October 13, 2012

The Movie Callie Khouri Has 'Seen A Million Times'

Next imagePrevious image
Credit Warner Brothers / Getty Images
Andy Griffith playing guitar as Patricia Neal watches in a scene from the Elia Kazan's A Face In The Crowd.
Credit Jason LaVeris / FilmMagic
Callie Khouri is the creator of the new ABC TV show Nashville.
Share
E-mail
Comments
By editor

Originally published on Sun October 14, 2012 11:07 am

The weekends on All Things Considered series Movies I've Seen A Million Times features filmmakers, actors, writers and directors talking about the movies that they never get tired of watching.

Read more
Author Interviews
3:17 pm
Sat October 13, 2012

How Lincoln's Fiercest Rival Became His Close Ally

Next imagePrevious image
Credit Henry Guttmann / Getty Images
President Lincoln appointed William Henry Seward secretary of state in 1861. He served until 1869.
Credit Courtesy of Simon & Schuster
Walter Stahr began writing his first book, John Jay, while working as a lawyer in Hong Kong.
Share
E-mail
Comments
By editor

Originally published on Sun October 14, 2012 11:07 am

The race for the Republican nomination of 1860 was one of the great political contests of American history. It was Abraham Lincoln versus Salmon Chase, versus William Seward.

Author Walter Stahr spoke with Weekends All Things Considered host Guy Raz about his new biography, Seward: Lincoln's Indispensable Man. He describes how a man who was Lincoln's fiercest and most critical opponent eventually became his most loyal and trusted adviser.

Interview Highlights

On Seward losing the election

Read more

Pages