All Things Considered

Weekdays at 4 pm
Melissa Block, Michele Norris, Robert Siegel and
Brady Carlson

Every weekday, local host, Brady Carlson, and national hosts Melissa Block, Michele Norris, and Robert Siegel present two hours of breaking news mixed with compelling analysis, insightful commentaries, interviews, and special -- sometimes quirky -- features from NHPR and NPR.

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Three-Minute Fiction
5:57 pm
Sun May 20, 2012

Three-Minute Fiction: The Round 8 Winner Is...

The end of Round 8 of our Three-Minute Fiction contest has finally arrived. With help from our readers at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, New York University, the University of Oregon and the University of Texas, at Austin, we've read through more than 6,000 stories.

Submissions had to be original works of short fiction — no more than 600 words. They also had to begin with this sentence: "She closed the book, placed it on the table, and finally, decided to walk through the door."

Our judge for this round is the novelist Luis Alberto Urrea, author of Queen of America. He helped sift through some of the submissions before picking his favorite.

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Law
5:17 pm
Sun May 20, 2012

Perjury Trial For Roger Clemens Heats Up

More trouble for the prosecution in the perjury trial of baseball star pitcher Roger Clemens. He is charged with lying to Congress when he said he had never used performance-enhancing drugs. But under cross examination, the key witness has himself admitted to lying and the key evidence has been called into question. NPR's Nina Totenberg explains all to weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz.

NPR Story
5:14 pm
Sun May 20, 2012

Examining NATO's Past, Present And Future

Originally published on Sun May 20, 2012 5:17 pm

Sunday is the first day of the NATO summit in Chicago. Weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz talks with the U.S. Ambassador to NATO, Ivo Daalder about the Alliance's future, and with Vijay Prashad, a professor of international studies at Trinity College, who argues NATO is bad for the world. We also hear reports on the kickoff of the summit from NPR's Jacki Northam and on the protests from Cheryl Corley.

NPR Story
5:14 pm
Sun May 20, 2012

Vets Return With Brain Injuries Oft Seen In Football

Originally published on Sun May 20, 2012 5:17 pm

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is best-known for affecting football players; repeated bangs to the head can hurt the parts of the brain that direct impulse, memory and emotion. Now, scientists are finding evidence of CTE in the brains of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. Dr. Bob Stern from Boston University School of Medicine talks to weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz.

Music Interviews
2:59 pm
Sun May 20, 2012

Adam Lambert: 'I Want To Sing It Big'

Adam Lambert's second studio album is entitled Trespassing.
Courtesy of the artist

Originally published on Sun May 20, 2012 5:19 pm

Adam Lambert captivated America in 2009 when he almost won American Idol. Lambert was brash, likable and glamorous, but he soon became better known for being the first openly gay Idol contender.

Though Lambert finished as the runner-up, his popularity and talent won him a recording deal. He released his second studio album, Trespassing, this week — just a few months after his 30th birthday.

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Asia
4:52 pm
Sat May 19, 2012

Dissident Leaves China For U.S.

Originally published on Sat May 19, 2012 6:18 pm

Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng and his family are due to arrive in Newark this evening after a surprise early-morning flight from Beijing. Host Guy Raz gets the latest from NPR's Michele Kelemen, who's been following the story.

Music Interviews
3:26 pm
Sat May 19, 2012

John Mayer: Restoring An Image, And An Instrument

John Mayer's new album, his first since a 2010 controversy that sent him retreating from the spotlight, is called Born and Raised.
Courtesy of the artist

Originally published on Sat May 19, 2012 6:18 pm

John Mayer is one of the biggest-selling artists of the last decade — and with love interests like Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Aniston, one of its most pursued by the media. In 2010, he gave a pair of interviews to Rolling Stone and Playboy that shocked readers with sexually aggressive and racially insensitive language. Mayer seemed to be self-destructing in full view of his fans.

The blowback was intense, and Mayer pulled way back from the spotlight, rejecting almost every interview request. But this spring, he's started to come out of his shell to promote his first album since the controversy: a tender, introspective collection called Born and Raised.

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Remembrances
6:34 pm
Fri May 18, 2012

Baritone Fischer-Diskau Was One Of Opera's Greatest

German Baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau has died — he was 86. Fischer-Dieskau began performing in the 1940s and had a career spanning five decades. He was perhaps best known for his interpretation of Franz Schubert's "Winterreise."

Religion
4:58 pm
Fri May 18, 2012

Three Candidates in Consideration for New Hampshire's Next Episcopal Bishop

New Hampshire Episcopalians are set to choose a successor to retiring Bishop Gene Robinson, whose election in 2003 as the first openly gay Episcopal bishop created worldwide headlines and controversy between the church and the Anglican Communion.

Lisa Wangsness covers religion for the Boston Globe; she joins All Things Considered host Brady Carlson to look at the three candidates and the state of the Episcopal Church in New Hampshire.

Boston Globe: N.H. Episcopalians may elect 2d gay bishop

Bishop Search and Nomination Committee website

Middle East
4:51 pm
Fri May 18, 2012

In Change, Palestinians Now Seek High-Profile Visits

Egypt's grand mufti, Ali Gomaa (center, with scarf), visits the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem in April. The Dome of the Rock, which is part of the same compound, is shown behind him. Many Muslims have boycotted the site because Israel claims sovereignty. But Palestinian religious figures now say they welcome such visits, a move that has sparked controversy.
AFP/Getty Images

Originally published on Sun May 20, 2012 8:46 am

For decades, Muslims around the world have been unofficially boycotting Islam's third holiest site, the Al-Aqsa mosque Jerusalem.

Many Muslims believe that visiting legitimizes Israel's claim to the site, which also sits atop the holiest place in Judaism. The Palestinians, meanwhile, are seeking a state with a capital in east Jerusalem, where the mosque is located.

But Palestinian religious authorities at Al-Aqsa and Palestinian officials are now calling on Muslims to visit the shrine, a change that is creating controversy within the Palestinian community.

Last month one of Egypt's most important religious figures, Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, came and prayed at the mosque.

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Movie Reviews
3:23 pm
Fri May 18, 2012

Coming Soon — To A Theater Nowhere Near You

Originally published on Fri May 18, 2012 6:34 pm

The movie Battleship, based on the popular board game, opens today in the U.S. In most respects, it's a typical popcorn picture — the kind of effects-laden action movie that audiences often turn into a summer blockbuster.

And while it may not be any good, it is undeniably ours — American from the water up: a Universal Studios picture about an alien invasion, crammed with special effects from Industrial Light and Magic and set largely on American warships.

But there is one respect in which this homegrown sci-fi epic is something of an outlier: American audiences are among the last to see it.

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Middle East
2:52 pm
Fri May 18, 2012

Egypt's New President Could Come From Old Guard

Originally published on Fri May 18, 2012 6:34 pm

In Egypt's historic presidential race, opinion polls place the oldest candidate with the most political experience far ahead of his 11 rivals.

Many opponents try to portray Amr Moussa as a holdover from the hated regime of Hosni Mubarak. Moussa was Egypt's foreign minister under Mubarak and later the secretary-general of the Arab League.

Yet many voters believe he is the only candidate who can end the country's growing insecurity and economic problems.

Moussa, 75, proudly recalls his disputes with Mubarak, who eventually pushed him out as Egypt's foreign minister. Moussa also lauds the revolution that forced his former boss from power.

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Planet Money
1:25 pm
Fri May 18, 2012

California's Facebook Windfall

Originally published on Sun May 20, 2012 11:21 am

Mark Zuckerberg is, among many other things, the highest-profile taxpayer on the planet today.

After today's Facebook IPO, Zuckerberg will owe nearly $200 million in California state taxes alone. That's "among the largest tax liabilities that a single individual has ever paid at a given point in time," says Jason Sisney of the California State Budget Legislative Analyst's Office.

Zuckerberg's profits will be taxed at a 10% rate in California. That's a much higher rate than in many other states.

In all, Facebook's employees and early investors are expected to pay about $2 billion in California state taxes over the next 13 months. But California is almost 16 billion dollars in the hole. Facebook won't solve that problem.

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Politics
6:06 pm
Thu May 17, 2012

Lawmakers Take Up Tax Amendment, But Not Ed Funding Amendment

The flurry of activity continues at the New Hampshire statehouse.

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The Record
5:29 pm
Thu May 17, 2012

The Many Voices Of Donna Summer

"Queen of Disco" Donna Summer performs in 1979. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images

Originally published on Thu May 17, 2012 7:16 pm

Pop singer Donna Summer, whose long career began in the 1960s and reached its apex in the disco era of the '70s, died of cancer on Thursday at her home in Naples, Florida. Summer was 63 years old. According to Billboard magazine, the singer born LaDonna Gaines had 32 singles that charted in the Hot 100. Fourteen of them made it into the top 10. To hear Sami Yenigun's appreciation of Donna Summer's life and career, as heard on All Things Considered, click the audio link.

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