Since 1988 when frontloading a significant number of states on a single day became popularized in the GOP primary, it has been decisive in determining the nominee.
Gillis didn't spend much time joking about the controversy that got him fired from the show. Instead, his opening monologue felt like an attempt to insulate himself from criticism and avoid backlash.
Tucker Carlson did not ask Putin about how so many of his opponents wind up imprisoned and murdered, or the warrant the International Criminal Court has out for his arrest for war crimes in Ukraine.
Brian Mann covers the U-S opioid and fentanyl crisis for NPR. That means he talks to a lot of people struggling with addiction. Again and again, he's heard stories of people who have succumbed to their addiction — last year 112, 000 — more than ever in history.
But when Mann traveled to Portugal to report on that country's model for dealing with the opioid crisis, he heard a very different story. Overdose deaths in Portugal are extremely rare.
The country has taken a radically different approach to drugs – decriminalizing small amounts and publicly funding addiction services – including sites where people can use drugs like crack and heroin.
Portugal treats addiction as an illness rather than a crime. No one has to pay for addiction care, and no one scrambles to navigate a poorly regulated recovery system. Could Portugal's approach help the U-S fight its opioid epidemic?
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
What's ahead for the TV industry in 2024? Original series are down 14% but it still feels like too much TV. Executives and streaming services are feeling the squeeze post strikes. Race issues persist.
Much of the world has spent the weekend mourning Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. And asking why he chose to return to Russia, after he'd been poisoned, and when it was clear he was in danger.
Filmmaker Daniel Roher, who interviewed Navalny for the Oscar-winning documentary "Navalny," says the Russian opposition leader was an incredibly optimistic and certain about himself and his mission. And that Navalny believed he could usher in a brighter future for Russia.
So what happens to that future now? Aleksei Miniailo an opposition activist and researcher in Moscow weighs in on how the Russian opposition sustains its movement after the death of its most prominent figure.
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
About two years ago, New Jersey's Democratic Governor Phil Murphy said that the state would be partnering with the Danish company Orsted, the largest developer of offshore wind projects in the world.
The company had agreed to build Ocean Wind 1, the state's first offshore wind farm, powering half a million homes and creating thousands of jobs in the process.
The following year, Orsted inked another deal with the state for Ocean Wind 2, a second offshore wind farm with similar capacity. After years of review, the projects were approved in summer 2023. Construction of the first turbines was slated to begin in the fall.
And then Orsted backed out, cancelling the contracts full stop.
Despite the setbacks, Murphy is still all-in on wind. A month after Orsted dropped out, Murphy directed the state's Board of Public Utilities to seek new bids from offshore wind developers. And the state just approved two new offshore wind contracts.
After several setbacks, could this mean a second wind for offshore wind?
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
For a time, the phrase "America First" seemed an artifact of the prewar world. But the idea that the U.S. would do better by holding the rest of the world at arm's length never entirely disappeared.
Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley has recently been directing attacks at Vice President Kamala Harris as she highlights concerns about President Biden's age.
Rent has skyrocketed in the United States. That means Americans are handing over a bigger portion of their paycheck to their housing costs. They have less money for things like food, electricity, and commuting.
The pandemic and inflation have both played a role in pushing rents higher.
Whitney Airgood-Obrycki a Senior Research Associate at Harvard's Joint Center on Housing Studies says rents are actually going down, but that increases have been so large it's going to take time for the market to even out.
We look at how rent prices got so high and what it might take to bring them down.
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Recently, conversation about the age of the 2024 presidential candidates has risen to a fever pitch. That's the sign of a deeper problem with how our culture views aging.
Keith's death shined a new spotlight on his music, particularly political anthem "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue," best known for its lyric: "We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way."
For half a century, during the Cold War, every U-S president painted Russia as the dominant threat. America's ideological opposite, a hostile and nuclear-armed power. Ronald Reagan went so far as to call the Soviet Union an Evil Empire.
So the events of recent days have been noteworthy. On top of a holdup of U-S aid for Ukraine, former President Trump said he might NOT come to the defense of a NATO ally who hadn't spent enough on defense.
And Tucker Carlson, the erstwhile Fox news host, flew to Moscow to sit down with Vladimir Putin for more than two hours of mostly softball questions.
Afterward, he pronounced Putin "impressive" on stage at the World Government Summit.
So what gives? Why the romance between the American right and Russia?
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Tuesday's special election was a sort of test for Republicans' and Democrats' campaign messaging in 2024, particularly around immigration and abortion.