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It’s been nearly a year since a major reshaping of the State Department. It was part of the Trump Administration’s goal to overhaul the federal government and to streamline and reduce redundancies. On July 8, 2025 the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Administration’s massive reduction in force plan. Days later, more than 1,350 employees, including foreign services officers were laid off from the State Department.

At the time, the moves were criticized by current and former diplomats. The American Foreign Service Association said, “Losing more diplomatic expertise at this critical global moment is a catastrophic blow to our n...

It's a milestone birthday for the U.S. this weekend. And we're marking the 250th by taking a look back at this year's Sounds of America series.

Every year, the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress selects 25 pieces of sound to add to its collection — songs, speeches, and beyond.

In the past, we’ve partnered with the 14th Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, who oversaw this project for nine years. Each spring, 1A worked with Hayden and the Library of Congress to bring you a look at why those honorees matter to America.

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Throughout history, adulthood has often been defined by clear markers — turning 18, moving out of your parents’ home, or getting married. But most of us know that being an adult by law is very different from being one in real life.

Traditional markers of adulthood like purchasing a home or getting married are happening later and later these days. The average first-time homebuyer in 1981 was just 29 years old. But in 2025, the median age of a first-time homebuyer was 40. That’s a historic high, according to the National Association of Realtors.

People are also hearing wedding bells later in lif...

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

250 years ago, the founding fathers were days away from adopting the Declaration of Independence.

Fast forward to July 4, 2026, two and a half centuries later, has America lived up to those lofty ideals?

Is this anniversary a time for celebration, mourning, reckoning, or something else? We hear from 1A listeners on what Independence Day means to them.

Note: One...

Americans are grappling with a rising cost in healthcare. For the first time in five years, fewer than half of Americans can consistently afford healthcare. That’s according to the latest data from Gallup. The cost of healthcare in the US remains higher than any other large, wealthy country. According to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services, five million fewer people are enrolled in marketplace plans for 2026, compared to last year. That’s as average premium costs rose about 58%.

With health care costs increasingly becoming a stress for Americans, voters are now making the issu...

President Donald Trump has taken an increasingly personal role in the government’s clemency process, wielding pardons aid his allies and advance his own political grievances.

A Reuters investigation found that 96% of Trump’s second-term clemency grants have gone to recipients who didn’t fulfill longstanding DOJ guidelines for such requests. Past presidents on have sidestepped those rules before, but fewer than 1% of those who received clemency during the Biden administration and just 14% of recipients in Trump’s first presidency failed to meet the guidelines.

Pardon applicants once had to comply with longstanding DOJ guidelines, such as a fiv...

This week the Supreme Court sides with President Trump on ending Temporary Protected Status. The decades-long program currently gives legal status in the U.S. to about 350,000 Haitians and more than 6,000 Syrians seeking refuge from crises at home.

The court also ruled to renew a “turn-back” policy at the border with Mexico that prevents migrants from entering the U.S. to seek asylum. A decision on President Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship in the U.S. is expected soon.

Also in Washington, the president creates chaos in his own party, demanding that Republican Senators recons...

Artificial Intelligence is advancing at a dizzying pace. One analysis shows it doubling its abilities every seven months.

And it’s surpassed humans in more than just trivia and Chess. Last year, an AI from Microsoft solved complex medical cases with 85% accuracy, far about the 20% average for experienced physicians. And a recent Stanford report found that some of the newest A-I systems now match or beat the average human expert on PhD-level science questions.

But what happens when A-I is better and smarter than the brightest among us at every task? That’s called superintelligence.

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Black Americans serving in the U.S. military have long lived with a great contradiction. The country they’re fighting to protect is the same one that’s failed to serve and protect them.

Despite this, Black Americans continue to enlist. There are over 350,000 Black active duty and select reserve members and more than 2.4 million Black veterans. That’s according to the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University.

This year, Defense secretary Pete Hegseth has blocked or delayed the promotions of more than a dozen Black and female senior officers. He’s also dismisse...

The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. and Israel’s war in Iran. The Israel-Hamas war.

Each of these conflicts of the last few years is rewriting how war is fought. Cheap drones are doing damage that once required far more expensive weapons. Battlefield information is now available at a distance in real time. And some of the biggest innovations are coming from countries with relatively small defense budgets.

We sit down with a panel of experts and ask what these conflicts are teaching us – and how the U.S. is responding to these less...

How would lawmakers respond to election interference – both foreign and domestic – ahead of the midterm elections?

That was the central question of a summit held earlier this month between top Senate Democrats and election experts. The meeting came weeks after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that gave the U.S. postal service control over who gets to vote by mail. That order is being challenged in court.

Meanwhile, the president continues to spread unfounded claims about the insecurity of U.S. elections. And he’s characterizing his executive orders as a means to shore up tru...

Novels centering on love and sex are among the best-selling books year after year. More and more are challenging the conventions of romance as a genre — and bringing us well beyond fairy tale endings.

Two novels out this summer are pushing some of the boundaries of romance writing and love stories as we know them.

Haili Blassingame’s “They All Fall in Love at the End” follows a young Black writer in D.C. as she explores non-monogamy while her city (and the whole world) deals with the fallout of the 2024 election.

And in Tia Will...

When a couple struggles to conceive, the assumption is often that there is something wrong with the woman. Women are evaluated for infertility far more often than men. 

But male factor infertility accounts for about half of all infertility cases. And when that’s the case, men are less likely to talk about it, seek support, or even get tested in the first place.  

In this installment of our “In Good Health” series, we talk about male infertility — what causes it, what can be done about it, and what it’s like to go through it.

Find...

This week, on the southern shores of Lake Geneva, leaders of the Group of Seven countries gathered for their annual summit.

There are several pressing issues that require attention including the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran, the resulting economic crisis, the state of the Persian Gulf, and long term questions about the future of relations with Iran.

The G7 meeting also notably brought Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy face-to-face with President Donald Trump. Trump told reporters that the war Ukraine was not a priority for the United States, saying that his country had “nothing to do...

It’s a busy time for the Supreme Court – with 20 cases left and only weeks left in its term. The Court has a stacked docket of high-profile cases that could have seismic effects for years to come.

Decisions are expected soon on immigration and Birthright Citizenship, a nearly 160-year legal precedent that says those born in the US are citizens. Plus decisions on mail in ballots, transgender athletes and the president’s ability to fire the heads of independent agencies.

We’ll get into all of it and what these decisions could mean for you.

Find...

President Trump is working fast to remake the nation’s capital in his image.

His major construction projects include demolishing the East Wing of the White House for his proposed ballroom and a planned 250-foot arch that would dwarf the Lincoln Memorial.

As part of the mission to renovate D.C., the White House has bypassed many of the checks put in place for any president seeking major transformations in the city — like firing all six members of the Commission of Fine Arts and installing deputies who align with his policies.

But as the pres...

The latest inflation number are out, and prices are rising fast. Last month, prices soared at the fastest rates seen in three years.

A new $70 billion immigration enforcement bill narrowly passed the Senate on Tuesday. The package funds ICE and Border Patrol through the end of Trump’s second term in office.

And the World Cup began on Thursday, with Mexico taking on South Africa in a replay of the opening match of the 2010 tournament.

And, in global news, early in the week President Donald Trump told reporters the U.S. would hit Iran ha...

In 1966, the United States declared victory over a destructive flesh-eating parasite that devastated livestock. The New World Screwworm is a fly whose larvae burrow into the living flesh of mammals. It was eradicated after a long campaign that involved releasing millions of sterile flies over infested areas.

Last week, that fly came back.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed five cases of larvae contamination in Texas and New Mexico – the first detections in decades. Federal officials say the food supply is safe, but the cattle industry is on high alert. The American cattle supply is al...

104 games. 48 teams. Three host nations. One dream.

The men’s World Cup returns to North America for the first time in 32 years. And fans from all over the world are descending on cities like Dallas, Toronto, and Monterrey, hoping to watch their nations find glory.

But it’s not all grass and glamour. The run-up to this tournament has been plagued by issues around ticket pricing, transportation costs, threats of immigration enforcement, and the consequences of geopolitical conflict.

What does it all mean for the action on the field?

Find more of our...

Across the U.S., cities and communities are celebrating Pride during the month of June.

At the same time, a new poll from Gallup suggests attitudes around LGBTQ issues are shifting. After two decades, support for the community has now dropped. The swing is being largely driven by republicans. Just four years ago, polling data suggested a majority of Republicans supported same sex marriage at 55 percent. That number is now at 37 percent.

Trans issues, specifically, is another story. Only 5 percent of Republicans say changing one’s gender is morally acceptable. That number was at 22 percent five ye...

Last week marked the anniversary of Congress passing the 19th Amendment.

In 1919, that Constitutional amendment gave women the right to vote — although it only applied in practice to white women for decades. Poll taxes, literacy tests, and Jim Crow-era state laws prevented Black women from voting.

Fast forward 107 years, and a growing conservative movement now wants to repeal the 19th Amendment and the other hard-won rights of women and people of color. It’s called “masculinism,” and its goal is to combat what its believers see as a “feminized” U.S. society.

In this edition of “...

The U.S. House of Representatives voted this week to end the war in Iran. While not yet passed into law, it demonstrates a break between the Trump administration and the GOP-majority legislative body.

In light of its recent ruling concerning the Voting Rights Act, the Supreme Court once again cleared the way for Alabama to use its new Congressional map. This comes despite a three-judge panel has blocking the map in late May.

A convicted Jan. 6 rioter was hired at the Pentagon this week. Elias Irizarry will now work in one of the agency’s of...

On Tuesday, a legion of screaming fans packed the Beacon Theatre in New York City – arms outstretched for the glittery, long-haired rock star known as the Vampire Lestat.

Of course, in reality, the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt and his touring band don’t exist. He’s the creation of beloved horror writer Anne Rice. And this version of him, played by actor Sam Reid, is the lead of AMC’s television adaptation of Rice’s books.

But for the fans who packed the Beacon Theatre this week, these distinctions are unimportant. And it speaks to a shared com...

More than 300,000 federal workers have left government service since the start of the second Trump administration.

Some were laid off by the administration. Some took buyouts. Some walked out. The cuts hit every major agency — from the State Department to the Justice Department.

That doesn’t mean things have been easy for those still working for the government. Last week, the Office of Personnel Management proposed requiring all federal employees to sign non-disclosure agreements that would prevent them from sharing internal government information.

We sit down to talk about how those cuts are affecting the...

Smart phones. Smart cars. Smart speakers. Web browsers. Social media. Artificial Intelligence.

Technologies we rely on every day generate a massive amount of information about what we do, where we go, what we like, and who we are. That data can make life very convenient — your rideshare app knows where you want go before you enter an address, you only see ads for products you’re already interested in buying, videos on subjects you enjoy are already auto-populated in your feed.

But at what cost? What’s the tradeoff?

Andrew Guthrie Ferguson is a profes...

Since the start of his second term, President Donald Trump has fashioned the Department of Justice into a tool he can wield against his enemies.

So far, Trump has installed his personal lawyer as the top official. He’s culled the ranks of career prosecutors. And he’s pressured U.S. attorneys into bringing cases against people he considers political enemies.

In recent months, grand juries have acted as the last line of defense against his full weaponization of the justice system — refusing to indict in cases where the government hasn’t proven a crime has been com...

The US and Iran appear to be close to a peace deal. That’s according to US officials, but it’s still awaiting President Trump approval. He’s reviewing the details today.

The deal would reportedly extend the ceasefire for 60 days, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and open talks over the future of Iran’s nuclear program.

We unpack the other big news of the week: Is the U.S ready for the Ebola outbreak? Conflict also erupted outside an ICE detention center in New Jersey, where detainees are on a hunger and labor strike. And major re...

The official start of summer movie season is here. As the temperatures heat up, the box office is already off to a blazing start.

Already in 2026, the film industry is experiencing its strongest theatrical rebound since the pandemic, after years of bad news. That’s thanks to films like The Devil Wears Prada 2 and the Michael Jackson biopic Michael.

We hear from movie critics what films they’ll be watching, in the theater and at the box office.

Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus...

Chronic pelvic and vulvovaginal pain is surprisingly common among women of all ages. In fact, 1 in 3 women will experience a pelvic floor disorder at some point in their lifetimes.

So, why is it so difficult to receive diagnosis and treatment for these conditions? And why don’t we talk about our pain ‘down there’ in general?

In this installment in our series, “In Good Health,” we sit down with a panel of experts to talk about it.

Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/th...

The U.S. is facing a steep healthcare worker shortage. A 2025 federal analysis projected that by 2038, 30 out of 35 physician specialties will be hurting for practitioners, with over 140,000 roles left unfilled. And for nurses, that shortage is projected to be over 108,000.

And last week, 25 states plus the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education over new federal student loan limits on graduate degrees. Those caps apply to programs that could graduate workers into these threatened health care fields.

But Education Secretary Linda McMahon says these worries are overblown and that these new rules...

What does it mean to matter — to loved ones, to your community, at your job?

Feeling like we have value and purpose in life is something humans inherently crave. But recent work on the topic takes this a step further – arguing that it is critical to our very existence. As critical as our need for sleep, food, and air.

Why does it matter if we matter? We sit down with two experts to try and answer that question.

Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus...

Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie lost his state’s GOP primary to a Trump-backed candidate this week. The seven-term congressman became a target for the president over the former’s desire to release the files related to late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Thomas Massie and Bill Cassidy are now lame-duck Republicans after losing their primaries to Trump-backed challengers. Where does that leave razor-thin margins in Congress?

President Donald Trump’s seemingly doomed lawsuit against the IRS has resolved itself in an unprecedented way this week. A settlement in the case includes a clause that precludes the agency...

A war the president promised would last weeks is now in its third month. And the ripple effects are rocking the global economy.

The Strait of Hormuz is still closed to most ships. Iran, the U.S., and Israel don’t look ready for a peace deal. Iran’s air force and navy are severely damaged. But recent intelligence reports say the regime has control of more missiles and weapons systems than the Trump administration has acknowledged, and that it’s taking advantage of the ceasefire to rearm.

Meanwhile, Iranians are living under a blockade. Gulf states...

This week, thousands of Americans attended a day-long conservative prayer gathering. The event was billed as a rededication of the U.S. as “One Nation Under God” for our nation’s 250th birthday.

The gathering was a private-public partnership backed by the White House. Non-Christian voices of faith were notably absent, apart from one Jewish rabbi. Almost all the speakers featured were Christians and most were Evangelicals. Some were Trump cabinet members and lawmakers.

With the separation of church and state and the freedom of religion baked into the founding of our country, what does our nation...

It’s been more than two weeks since the Supreme Court made the decision to weaken a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That piece of the legislation protected minority voters from discrimination in elections. Now, that ruling has invoked a new wave of calls to reform the court.

In the last installment of our “If You Can Keep It” series, we discussed what those reforms might look like, from expanding the size of the bench, to restricting the shadow docket.

Our listeners had so many thoughts on whether and how to reform the court...

Despite assertions by President Donald Trump to the contrary, reporting from The New York Times indicates that Iran’s military is still in fighting shape, regaining access to 30 of its 33 missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz.

The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act has paved the way for Alabama to use a controversial GOP-drawn electoral map in the upcoming midterms.

And FBI Director Kash Patel appeared on Capitol Hill this week to give testimony before Congress. He clashed with Democrats over reporting from The Atlantic that indi...

Mayors are uniquely aware of what’s needed to make their cities run more efficiently. And when it comes to improving city life — from housing, to public safety, to city services — a lack of resources can be a major obstacle.

In February, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced the winners of this year’s mayors’ challenge. A $1 million prize was awarded to 24 winners from 20 countries selected from 630 entries.

1A spoke to some of those winners at Bloomberg’s Citylab conference in Madrid, Spain. The summit was held in April and convened mayors from across the globe to talk about the latest i...

In August 2024, 26-year-old Conor Hylton checked into Bridgeport Hospital in Connecticut. Overnight, he was transferred to critical care, where he died.

It was only after his passing that his family found out that Conor was treated at what’s known as a “tele-ICU.” His story shines a light on a practice that’s been around for decades despite a lack of substantial research about its outcomes.

A tele-ICU is a hospital unit where patient care is handled off-site by remote doctors, nurses, or specialists. Up to a third of ICU beds in the U.S. are in tele...

Last year, when Columbia University found itself embroiled by anti-war protests and fighting with the Trump administration, journalist Jodi Kantor was invited to speak at the school’s commencement.

“My friends actually tried to stop me. Like, ‘Don’t do it. Call in sick,'” remembers Kantor.

The Pulitzer prize-winner did wind up giving that speech. And that experience led her to write a new book about how young people can find their life’s work. We sit down with Kantor to talk about ‘How to Start.’

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Public trust in the Supreme Court is at a 30-year low, according to Pew Research Center. For some, this month marked a turning point in perceptions of its legitimacy.

The court recently ruled in Louisiana v. Callais. Its decision undermined a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that protected minority voters and sought to prevent racial discrimination in elections.

Following the court’s ruling, Tennessee’s GOP-controlled legislature passed a new congressional map, dismantling the state’s majority-Black district. The map gives Republicans a competitive advantage in all nine districts ahead of the state’s midter...