An occasional series of essays for NPR.org written by NPR correspondents and other contributors.
An electric vehicle is seen at NIO battery swap station on March 9, 2025 in Yantai, Shandong Province of China.Chinese car company NIO is putting up EV battery swapping stations all around the world. NPR took a ride in one car for the experience.
March 22, 2022 In the extraordinary new age of subtitled streaming and globalized filmmaking, the Oscar category is becoming a caricature of itself as a relic of the past.With the new 2021 movie, director Denis Villeneuve turns the novel's meditations on race, culture and colonialism into riveting and undeniable cinema.Howard Berkes covered the 1980 eruptions of Mount St. Helens for NPR and has returned to the volcano for multiple stories over the years. He recalls the massive blast and its aftermath.Aleksandr Purgayev and Aleksandr Selyukh grew up together, and both played for their town's soccer team in the 1970s. Purgayev is now the team's coach.Millions of Russian adults and children play soccer on various levels. In one small town, three generations of soccer players take on the meaning of the game and the World Cup.On Oct. 15, 1969, hundreds of thousands marched in Washington to protest the Vietnam War. But it was also Game 4 of the World Series, and NPR's Brian Naylor, then 14, knew where he had to be. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird, greet Tom Fletcher's family in Inez, Ky., in 1964. Fletcher was an unemployed saw mill worker with eight children.NPR's Pam Fessler was told that Eastern Kentuckians would be reluctant to talk because they were tired of being depicted as the poster children of the War on Poverty. Instead, she got an earful.As the U.S. recovers from the Great Recession, one fact that's emerging is that while jobs are coming back, most of these jobs are either high- or low-paying jobs. Middle-class jobs are not coming back, and it's evident in towns across the Midwest like Lincoln, Ill.Steve Lambert's art installation asks people to vote in an effort to open up the discussion about capitalism. That word can be a red flag for many, Lambert says."Starting a conversation about capitalism is like walking up to a stranger and asking, 'Can I talk to you about Jesus?'" says artist Steve Lambert. The best way to talk about the C-word, he says, is to make it personal. His giant art installation in New York challenges passers-by to weigh in.NPR's Andrea Hsu paid $75 for her midcentury modern table and chairs, shown here in a 1963 Drexel Declaration catalog. She quickly realized it was a steal.. Today, midcentury modern furniture is"blazing hot," as one dealer puts it. One explanation is that people often like what their grandparents liked.When Margot Adler learned that a cousin had hidden from the Nazis in Amsterdam, she was stunned. Adler started digging around and discovered that like Anne Frank, 25,000 Dutch Jews hid, and two-thirds of them survived. Her cousin was one of them.People generally don't associate trees with New York City, and if they do, they tend to think only of Central and Prospect parks. But the city is filled with old, beloved trees, some dating back more than 200 years, many of them located in the unsung outer boroughs.Main Street in Webster City, Iowa, has so far survived the 2011 closure of an Electrolux factory. But retraining funds and unemployment are running out for former workers, leaving businesses worried that a serious downturn is ahead.Appliance manufacturer Electrolux closed its Webster City, Iowa, plant in 2011. Now, the retraining programs for former workers are wrapping up, and the town of 8,000 is bracing for the true impact of the closure. It's a familiar story for many former manufacturing towns across the Midwest. President Obama greets law enforcement officers after speaking on ideas to reduce gun violence at the Minneapolis Police Department Special Operations on Monday.Earlier this week, President Obama was in Minneapolis advocating new limits on guns; no law or set of laws, he said, can keep children completely safe. NPR's David Welna sent this reporter's notebook about what he heard from some of those engaged in the gun debate in his home state.The legendary rapper is responsible for some of Latin hip-hop's most danceable music. His lyrics also advocate for the Puerto Rican independence movement.A Washington showcase of work by the Chinese dissident artist reveals his preoccupation with the tragic 2008 Sichuan earthquake: To create one of the pieces, Ai ran afoul of Chinese authorities, asking for help collecting the names of children who died when their schools collapsed.Despite the well-publicized dangers and laws against it in many states, texting or emailing while driving remains a huge problem.Despite the danger, millions of people continue to text or email while driving. The desire to stay connected is often hard to resist, so here are a few tips to help keep your hands on the wheel. Fitness advocate Richard Simmons, wearing his signature shorts and tank top, leads Capitol Hill staff and visitors through an exercise routine July 24, 2008, in Washington, D.C.Richard Simmons opened his first aerobics studio in Beverly Hills nearly 40 years ago. Since then, he has become an international celebrity, selling millions of fitness videos and writing best-selling books. But all along the way, Simmons never stopped teaching aerobics classes at that Beverly Hills studio. NPR's Sam Sanders stopped in for a session.U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee greet each other before a meeting in Kolkata, India, on May 7.Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she plans to get off the"high-wire" of politics after she wraps up her tenure as secretary of state, but she's still questioned about her political future wherever she goes. NPR's Michele Kelemen gives a behind-the-scenes account of Clinton's most recent swing through Asia.Twenty years ago Sunday, Los Angeles erupted into destructive riots after the verdict in the Rodney King trial. The violence lasted six days and left more than 50 dead and over $1 billion in damage. NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates remembers; she lived in the one of the neighborhoods that went up in flames.Last weekend, English soccer fans were looking forward to a sporting feast. They ended up taking part in a nationwide communal vigil, focused on an African-born player's fight for life. Retired high school science teacher — and adrenaline junkie — Andy Sajor rides his ice boat on a frozen Lake Champlain in New York. Perfect ice sailing conditions call for cold temperatures, a strong breeze and a thick sheet of ice — but not too much snow.Imagine racing over a frozen lake on a wind-powered sled, hitting speeds that top 40 miles an hour. That's what ice sailors all around the world do just about anywhere water freezes. In the U.S., Lake Champlain has emerged as one of the country's best ice sailing venues.
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