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All Things Considered-Weekend

Saturdays and Sundays, 4pm - 5pm
with Debbie Elliot

Since its debut in 1971, this afternoon radio newsmagazine has delivered in-depth reporting and transformed the way listeners understand current events and view the world.  Every weekday, hosts Melissa Block, Michele Norris and Robert Siegel bring listeners breaking news mixed with compelling analysis, insightful commentaries, interviews, and special - sometimes quirky - features.  Guy Raz hosts a one-hour edition of the program on Saturday and Sunday.

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News/Talk
Composer ID: 
51828ca2e1c8b3cb7bb7c9a2|51828b60e1c8b3cb7bb7c8f7

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China: Change Or Crisis
11:36 am
Tue October 30, 2012

In China, A Ceaseless Quest To Silence Dissent

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Credit Carlos Barria / Reuters/Landov
A bloodied woman is helped by demonstrators after clashes with police in a protest against an industrial waste pipeline in Qidong, Jiangsu province, on July 28. The Chinese government devotes enormous resources to suppressing dissent, but opposition to government policies is increasingly common.
Credit Louisa Lim / NPR
Cui Weiping, a soft-spoken, retired film professor, has been monitored by state security agents for the past nine years. The surveillance began after she wrote a letter sympathizing with mothers whose children were killed in the 1989 student protests.
Credit Louisa Lim / NPR
Filmmaker Zhang Zanbo made a documentary showing how local officials go to great lengths to prevent citizens from lodging protests in Beijing. The local officials sometimes pay bribes to have complaints erased from government records.
Credit Louisa Lim / NPR
Police stand on watch on the streets of Shaxi, China, following three days of riots in June.
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Originally published on Tue October 30, 2012 10:06 pm

China is about to get new leaders for the first time in a decade, and it comes at a crucial moment for the world's most populous nation. Economic growth, which surged for decades, has slowed. Demands for political reform have increased and the Communist Party has been hit by scandal. In a series of stories this week, NPR is examining the multiple challenges facing China. In this story, Louisa Lim looks at China's pervasive efforts to maintain order.

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Around the Nation
8:39 pm
Mon October 29, 2012

Parts Of Manhattan Go Dark As Sandy Rolls Through

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New York City has seen some of the worst damage from Sandy. Large parts of Manhattan were without power on Monday night, a building crane was knocked loose, and there were reports of flooding in the city's subway system.

Around the Nation
7:35 pm
Mon October 29, 2012

Sandy Makes Landfall Near Atlantic City

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Robert Siegel talks with Associated Press correspondent Katie Zezima, who was in Atlantic City, N.J., close to where Sandy made landfall.

Around the Nation
6:55 pm
Mon October 29, 2012

Millions Without Power As Sandy Makes Landfall

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Sandy hit the East Coast on Monday and knocked out power for millions of people. Utility companies face major challenges to get power back online after the massive storm.

It's All Politics
3:38 pm
Mon October 29, 2012

Pew Poll: Race Evens Up, But Romney Holds Turnout Advantage

Credit Tony Dejak / AP
Mitt Romney speaks Monday at a campaign event at Avon Lake High School in Avon Lake, Ohio.
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Originally published on Mon October 29, 2012 5:02 pm

A poll released Monday by the Pew Research Center shows that President Obama has failed to regain much of the support he lost in the days after the first presidential debate.

The poll shows that among likely voters, the race is now a statistical dead heat with both Obama and Mitt Romney receiving 47 percent support. Among registered voters there is what Pew calls a "statistically insignificant two-point edge" of 47 percent to 45 percent for Obama.

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Around the Nation
3:27 pm
Mon October 29, 2012

Want To Be Rich? Be Lucky, Know Right People

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Credit Art Silverman / NPR
Michael and Amy Tiemann estimate their personal wealth at about $25 million — and say luck played no small part in their financial success.
Credit Art Sliverman / NPR
Bob Hatley's parents struggled to make ends meet when he was a boy. He says his competitiveness and his drive to emulate successful people eventually enabled him to open his own bank.
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Originally published on Tue October 30, 2012 10:42 am

As the presidential campaign has unfolded, the candidates have traded polemics about wealth, class warfare, dependency and the role of government.

And while it may be uncomfortable to admit, some Americans are simply more financially successful than others. But why do some achieve wealth, while others struggle? And what do we think explains our prosperity — or lack thereof?

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Law
3:24 pm
Mon October 29, 2012

Despite Hurricane, Justices Hear Surveillance Case

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Originally published on Mon October 29, 2012 5:22 pm

The rest of the government may have been shut down for the hurricane, but not the U.S. Supreme Court.

The justices were in court Monday to consider a challenge to the 2008 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA. The new law broadly expanded the government's ability to conduct large-scale monitoring of international phone calls and emails to and from people in the United States.

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The Two-Way
11:01 am
Mon October 29, 2012

The Science Of Why Sandy Is Such A Dangerous Storm

Credit Gerry Broome / AP
A Dare County utility worker checks on conditions along a flooded Ride Lane in Kitty Hawk, N.C., Monday, Oct. 29, 2012.
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Originally published on Tue October 30, 2012 10:33 am

Here are a few reasons government forecasters at the National Hurricane Center and emergency management officials are so concerned about Sandy:

1. Sandy is one of the largest hurricanes ever to strike the U.S. Sandy's winds cover an area of more than 1,000 miles in diameter. That's enormous by hurricane standards. So instead of affecting an area a couple of hundred miles across, Sandy will cut a huge swath. That means many millions of people are probably going to be exposed to high winds, heavy rains, and, for those on the coast, powerful storm surge.

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China: Change Or Crisis
10:34 am
Mon October 29, 2012

China's New Leaders Inherit Country At A Crossroads

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Credit Louisa Lim / NPR
"The Defense of Yan'an" re-enacts a 1947 battle to protect Mao Zedong's Communist stronghold during the Chinese Civil War from the Nationalists, who fled to Taiwan.
Credit Louisa Lim / NPR
A new attraction at Yan'an is a blockbuster stage show called "Nursery School of the Red Capital." It tells the story of an orphanage the Communist Party set up in Yan'an, and it cost $5.5 million to produce.
Credit Louisa Lim / NPR
Tourists can dress up and take part in "The Defense of Yan'an," a re-enactment of a 1947 Chinese Civil War battle to protect the revolutionary base from the Nationalists, who fled to Taiwan.
Credit Louisa Lim / NPR
Other tourists wear the mustard-colored uniforms of the Nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek, the Chinese Communists' opponents in the country's civil war.
Credit Louisa Lim / NPR
Traditional Shaanxi folk dances also lighten the mood during "The Defense of Yan'an," which ends with a rendition of "Socialism is Good" that the audience joins.
Credit Louisa Lim / NPR
"The Defense of Yan'an" is a whizbang performance that includes lots of fighting, an antique tank and a plane zooming down a zip wire.
Credit Angie Quan / NPR
When a Chairman Mao lookalike appears (on left), the crowd of tourists applauds loudly.
Credit Louisa Lim / NPR
The former revolutionary stronghold of China's Mao Zedong has become a tourist spot exalting the communist cause. This "Red Army" is actually a team of top Chinese salespeople from Amway, the U.S.-based direct sales company. They have earned a three-day trip to Yan'an, the "Revolutionary Holy Land," as a reward for hitting sales targets.
Credit Louisa Lim / NPR
A statue of Mao — who spent 13 years in Yan'an building up support for the communist revolution — stands in front of the Yan'an Revolutionary Memorial Hall, which cost $80 million to build and opened in 2009.
Credit Louisa Lim / NPR
At the Yan'an Revolutionary Museum's huge gift shop, a bevy of Mao statues await the party faithful. Tourist numbers in Yan'an have tripled in five years, exceeding 20 million in 2011.
Credit Louisa Lim / NPR
A tourist with a passing resemblance to Chairman Mao put another visitor in a stress position known as the "airplane," which was often used on "class enemies" during the mass upheaval of China's Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1976.
Credit Louisa Lim / NPR
A tourist models communist chic.
Credit Louisa Lim / NPR
As a tribute to Mao, enthusiastic tourists have thrown cigarettes onto the bed in his former cave dwelling.
Credit Louisa Lim / NPR
Guo Haiyun, 46, and his wife in their cave home, not far from the revolutionary stronghold of Yan'an. He says he probably only has two or three yuan in cash at home, while he has taken out bank debts he can't return to pay for his daughter's university education.
Credit Louisa Lim / NPR
He Fang, 90, is a former revolutionary who wonders where the Communist Party went wrong. "Our purpose was to achieve freedom and democracy," he says. "But now there is neither freedom nor democracy."
Credit Louisa Lim / NPR
Guo limps across the yard of his cave home, which has no running water. He says he is a big supporter of the Communist Party, but admits he envies city folk, who "live and eat and do everything better than us" country folk.
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Originally published on Tue October 30, 2012 9:53 am

China is about to get new leaders for the first time in a decade, and it comes at a sensitive moment for the world's most populous nation. Economic growth, which surged for decades, has slowed. Demands for political reform have increased and the Communist Party has been hit by scandal. In a series of stories this week, NPR is examining the multiple challenges facing China. In our first story, Louisa Lim looks at how the Chinese view the Communist Party in the place where it took shape.

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NPR Story
5:33 pm
Sun October 28, 2012

Three-Minute Fiction: 'Speechless,' 'Harding'

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Transcript

(SOUNDBITE OF CLOCK TICKING)

JACKI LYDEN, HOST:

You know what the ticking means. It's time for Three-Minute Fiction, our contest where we ask you for original stories that can be read in about three minutes. Our judge in this round, the thriller writer Brad Meltzer, the challenge: to write a story that revolves around a U.S. president who could be fictional or real. And, of course, the story had to be 600 words or less. We received nearly 4,000 entries, and here are two that stood out.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

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