All Things Considered

Weekdays, 3pm - 5:30pm
Michele Norris, Robert Siegel and Melissa Block

NPR's All Things Considered paints the bigger picture with reports on the day's news, analysis of world events, and thoughtful commentary.

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Books
2:02 pm
Tue July 17, 2012

Encyclopedia Brown: The Great Sleuth From My Youth

Originally published on Wed July 18, 2012 10:35 am

Donald Sobol, the creator of the beloved character Encyclopedia Brown, died last week of natural causes, his family says. He was 87. The first in the Encyclopedia Brown series book was published in 1963, and the series has never gone out of print.

Crime novelist and forensic pathologist Jonathan Hayes has this appreciation of the character Sobol gave young readers.

While other boys got hooked on books about sports legends and race car drivers, there was something about Donald Sobol's boy detective Encyclopedia Brown that spoke to me right away.

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NPR News Investigations
11:48 am
Tue July 17, 2012

Calculating The Value Of Human Tissue Donation

Originally published on Wed July 18, 2012 8:11 pm

Part 1 of a four-part series

The story of how Chris Truitt went from being a tissue industry insider to an industry skeptic starts with a family tragedy.

In 1999, his 2-year-old daughter, Alyssa, died of a sudden health complication. Truitt and his wife, Holly, donated their daughter's organs and tissue, which saved the life of another young girl, Kaylin Arrowood.

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Afghanistan
11:22 am
Tue July 17, 2012

Old Mines Bring New Casualties In Afghanistan

Originally published on Tue July 17, 2012 9:01 pm

Windblown villages of mud houses surround the huge Bagram Airfield north of Kabul. These poor villagers make a living in ways that can also kill them: They graze their animals or forage for scrap metal — often on a NATO firing range.

The East River Range dates to the 1980s, when the Soviet army occupied Afghanistan. It's full of mines, grenades and other ordnance that should have detonated during training exercises over the years. It sprawls along a mountainside and grazing areas. It's poorly marked, and only small sections are clearly identified by signs and concrete barriers.

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The Record
5:22 pm
Mon July 16, 2012

Kitty Wells, Pioneering Country Singer, Dies

Credit Frank Driggs Collection/Getty Images
A studio portrait of Kitty Wells in the mid-'70s.

Originally published on Tue September 18, 2012 6:29 pm

Money & Politics
4:14 pm
Mon July 16, 2012

New Romney Fund Highlights Fundraising Muscle

Credit Charles Dharapak / AP
Mitt Romney arrives at the Utah Olympic Park for a private dinner during a donor's conference in Park City, Utah, on June 22.

Originally published on Mon July 23, 2012 2:30 pm

Republican Mitt Romney's presidential campaign says a recently formed arm of the organization collected more than $10 million a week during a three-month period this spring. And most of the money care from high-end donors.

Romney Victory Inc., got its first four contributions on April 6 — three donations of $50,000 each and one check for $350. Since early April, it's pulled in $140 million.

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Science
4:04 pm
Mon July 16, 2012

Can Science Plant Brain Seeds That Make You Vote?

Credit Adam Cole / NPR

Originally published on Thu January 24, 2013 6:03 pm

In 2008, just a few days before the Democratic presidential primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania, a large group of Pennsylvania voters got a very unusual phone call.

It was one of those get-out-the-vote reminder calls that people get every election cycle, but in addition to the bland exhortations about the importance of the election, potential voters were asked a series of carefully constructed questions:

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Middle East
3:39 pm
Mon July 16, 2012

A Syrian Defector Confronts A Sectarian Divide

Credit Vedat Xhymshit / AFP/Getty Images
Syria's ongoing fighting is increasingly a sectarian conflict with the majority Sunni Muslims facing off against the Alawites who make up most of the country's ruling elite. Here, government opponents rally in the northern town of Mareh on June 29.

Originally published on Mon July 16, 2012 7:16 pm

The violence in Syria is increasingly being called a civil war, and it can also be called a sectarian war, because much of the fighting pits the majority Sunni Muslims against the minority Alawites who make up much of the country's leadership.

Yet not everyone fits neatly into a category. There are some Alawites who have joined the uprising.

One 30-year-old Alawite man, who doesn't want his name revealed, is nervous as he lights another cigarette and tells the story of how he came to side with the opposition and turned his back on the Alawite rulers.

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Economy
3:09 pm
Mon July 16, 2012

Call Me Maybe When Your School Loan Is Paid In Full

Credit iStockphoto.com
Some young adults say their student loan debt affects their dating and marriage potential. A few have had partners break up with them over debt, while other couples forge ahead, but keep finances separate and avoid legal marriage.

Originally published on Tue July 17, 2012 4:12 pm

The increasing debt load of college graduates has affected young people's lives in untold ways, from career choices to living arrangements. Now add another impact on a key part of young adult life: dating and marriage.

Rachel Bingham, an art teacher in Portland, Maine, learned this a few years back, when a guy broke it off after four months of a budding relationship. Among other reasons, he cited her $80,000 in student loan debt.

"He said it scared him," she recalls, "that it really made him anxious. And he just did not want to take on my responsibility."

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Law
3:06 pm
Mon July 16, 2012

Even Scalia's Dissenting Opinions Get Major Scrutiny

Credit Alex Wong / Getty Images
Justice Antonin Scalia testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Oct. 5, 2011.

Originally published on Mon July 16, 2012 9:01 pm

As legal observers have sifted through the ashes and the tea leaves of the recent Supreme Court term, one justice has stood out for his dissents.

Justice Antonin Scalia was the first name on the joint dissent filed by four justices in the health care case. But it was Scalia's dissent in the Arizona immigration case, written for himself alone, that drew particular attention, and especially harsh criticism.

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Africa
1:27 pm
Mon July 16, 2012

Kenya's Free Schools Bring A Torrent Of Students

Originally published on Mon July 16, 2012 5:22 pm

Parents of U.S. students often complain about things like too many standardized tests or unhealthful school lunches. Kenya wishes it had such problems.

Kenya dropped or greatly reduced fees at public schools nearly a decade ago in an effort to make education available to all children. On one level, it's been a success — school attendance has soared. Yet this has also exacerbated chronic problems that include shortages of qualified teachers, books, desks and just about every other basic need.

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