All Things Considered

Transcript

(SOUNDBITE OF CLOCK TICKING)

GUY RAZ, HOST:

She closed the book, placed it on the table and finally decided to walk through the door. That's the starting sentence for Round 8 of Three-Minute Fiction. That is our contest where we ask you to write an original short story that can be read in about three minutes. We are no longer accepting submissions for this round.

Our readers from across the country are almost done going through all of the more than 6,000 submissions this round. So let's hear a few samples of their favorites so far.

President Obama held a pair of campaign rallies today, his first big public events of the 2012 election. He targeted two key battleground states: Ohio and Virginia. NPR's Scott Horsley is traveling with the president and joins weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz to talk about the events.

Jason Mraz's 2008 single "I'm Yours" was a multiplatinum global hit. In fact, it set a record by staying on Billboard's Hot 100 chart for 76 weeks — more than any other song in the magazine's 51-year history.

Although Mraz's new record, Love Is a Four Letter Word, was written on the heels of a breakup, the songs are mostly sunny and positive. Mraz says he was more interested in making something relatable than in zeroing in on his own experiences.

Junior Seau's suicide this week adds more fodder to the questions around the NFL and player safety. Audie Cornish talks with sportswriter Stefan Fatsis about Seau and the league's ongoing lawsuits from other players and their families.

Transcript

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

So, 115,000 jobs added last month. And on that subject, Mitt Romney had this to say on Fox News today.

MITT ROMNEY: Well, we should be seeing numbers in the 500,000 jobs created per month. This is way, way, way off from what should happen in a normal recovery.

CORNISH: We'll dig into the math of that number. But more on the politics of the moment, we turn to our regular commentators, columnist E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post and the Brookings Institution, and David Brooks of the New York Times. Welcome, gentlemen.

News of a possible way out of the diplomatic impasse over Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng has again overshadowed other events in Beijing. The Chinese Foreign ministry says Chen might be allowed to leave China to study abroad. Meanwhile about 200 U.S. officials from the State Department and the U.S. Treasury are in China to discuss other matters vital to the U.S.-China relationship.

Robert Siegel talks to actor Bill Nighy about his role in the new film, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The movie follows a group of British retirees who move to the less-expensive and more-exotic India. Expecting a luxury development, they arrive to discover a hotel filled with dusty sheets and birds nesting in the rafters. Their experiences transform the way they see the world and themselves.

Political tensions are rising in Egypt ahead of the presidential elections later in May. Deadly protests in the capital are jeopardizing the already fragile transition process that started a year ago after the ousting of former President Hosni Mubarak. Robert Siegel talks to Egyptian parliament member Amr Hamzawy for more.