Irene Victims Getting Help From OKC

An Oklahoma City organization is helping the people on the East Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene.

On Perry’s Turf, Romney Aims Jab At ‘Career Politicians’

Deep in the heart of Texas, home to one of his toughest rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney declared today that: “I have spent most of my life outside of politics, dealing with real problems in the real economy. Career politicians got us into this mess and they simply don’t [...]

Your Friends Are Not Your Audience: A Disturbing Internet Lesson In Perspective

It’s a piece of necessary wisdom that will be shared with countless college students this fall by nervous parents: Tell a story at a party, and it’s heard by a handful of people, whose reactions you perhaps have some ability to predict. Tell it on the internet, and it will be heard by the people [...]

Polygamist Leader Warren Jeffs Has Pneumonia, Is Not In Coma

Jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs is suffering from pneumonia and is not in a medically-induced coma, as has been widely reported, a source familiar with Jeffs’ condition tells NPR. According to the source, the 55-year-old leader of the nation’s largest polygamist group was sedated, pharmacologically paralyzed and placed on a ventilator as part of his [...]

Photographer Diane Arbus: A ‘Slow Motion’ Analysis

There has not been a Diane Arbus biography in nearly three decades — which is a startling fact. Like Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock or Tennessee Williams, Arbus is the kind of complex, ambitious, taboo-smashing artist whose life and work — and the connection between the two — are endlessly fascinating. Her photographs — particularly those [...]

Bananas: The Uncertain Future Of A Favorite Fruit

This interview was originally broadcast on February 18, 2008. Americans consume more bananas than apples and oranges combined. Dan Koeppel, author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World, gives us a primer on the expansive history — and the endangered future — of this seedless, sexless fruit. Koeppel traces the ubiquitous [...]

Tube Burgers: The World Of In Vitro Meat

This interview was originally broadcast on May 18, 2011. Imagine picking up a nice juicy burger and taking a bite, only to find out that the meaty burger you’re biting into didn’t come from an animal — it was grown in a lab. Sound far-fetched? The reality of test-tube burgers in supermarkets may be close [...]

Consumer Confidence ‘Plummeted In August’

Blunt words from The Conference Board in its just-released report on how consumers are feeling: “The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, which had improved slightly in July, plummeted in August.” The widely watched index now stands at 44.5, its lowest point in more than two years, vs. 59.2 in July. In good times, the index [...]

The Housing Market Has Stopped Getting Worse. For Now.

The housing market is stabilizing, at least for the moment. Home prices were basically flat between May and June, according to the latest Case-Shiller numbers. (Prices rose by 1.1 percent if you look at the raw data, graphed above, and fell by 0.1 percent after adjusting for seasonal factors.) Also in the could-be-worse bucket: Prices [...]

Lung Cancer Pill Holds Promise For Those Who Pass Test

From Pfizer, a drugmaker known best for medicines to treat millions, there is now a twice-a-day pill to treat lung cancer that will be prescribed for only a few thousand people each year. The Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer’s Xalkori to treat patients with a particular form of non-small cell lung cancer, one that [...]