Consider This from NPR

As a neighbor of Ukraine's and host to more than 2 million of its war refugees, Poland has seen, heard and felt what Russia is capable of, and it's now preparing for the worst. This year, Poland will spend nearly 5% of its GDP on defense, more than any other NATO member, including the U.S. NPR's Rob Schmitz reports on the country's plan to train every adult in Poland for war. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Last week, the Gates Foundation announced it would spend more than $200 billion over the next 20 years — including nearly all the personal wealth of chair Bill Gates — and sunset operations in 2045. The Foundation says its goals are combating maternal and infant mortality, treating infectious diseases and lifting millions out of poverty. The announcement comes at a time when the U.S. is drastically reducing foreign aid commitments under the Trump administration, and other wealthy nations are also cutting global health funding. But in an interview with NPR about his decision, Gates said he remains optimistic that new scientific advances create opportunities to save lives. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

The election of the first American pope is a remarkable moment in the two thousand year history of the Catholic Church. But in choosing his name, it's clear Leo is looking forward. NPR's Scott Detrow and Jason DeRose look at what his selection means for Catholics and non-Catholics alike, in both the U.S. and around the world. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

When NPR listeners think of reports from Italy or the Vatican, usually one name comes to mind: Sylvia Poggioli. She covered much more, of course, over the years - reporting across Europe and on the war in the Balkans. But as Poggioli tells host Scott Detrow, for this week's Reporter's Notebook series, it was the Vatican, that in some ways, was her most challenging assignment. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

It's been more than two years since civil war exploded in Sudan. By some estimates the conflict has killed as many as 150-thousand people, and displaced millions more. In April, NPR International Correspondent Emmanuel Akinwotu gained rare access to the capital city, Khartoum, and reports how the once vibrant city of 6 million has been ravaged by war. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

The cardinals have elected a new pope: Robert Prevost, a cardinal born in Chicago. He has taken the name Leo XIV. He is the first American pope in the history of the Catholic Church. NPR's Scott Detrow has been in Rome all week. He talks through what we might expect from Pope Leo XIV with NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose, and former, longtime NPR Rome correspondent Sylvia Poggioli. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Newark Liberty International Airport has been a mess the past week, with hundreds of flights cancelled and hundreds more delayed. It was triggered in part by an incident on April 28, when air traffic controllers for the airport experienced a radar and communications blackout. They were unable to reach approaching planes. There were no accidents, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy later told reporters that the outage lasted for 30 seconds. After that incident, several air traffic controllers took time off to deal with the stress and trauma. That, on top of bad weather, a runway that's closed for repair and an already short-staffed air traffic controller corps, led to a lot of disruption. David Grizzle, the former chief operating officer and head of air traffic control for the Federal Aviation Administration, says what happened at Newark isn't surprising, given decades-old staffing and technology issues. He explains what it would take to fix air traffic control in the U.S. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

On the eve of the conclave to elect a new pope, some of the biggest questions hanging in the air have to do with LGBTQ Catholics. Will the church continue the path of outreach charted by Pope Francis, softening its harsh positions? Will it allow LGBTQ Catholics to fully participate in the church? Rev. James Martin, an American Jesuit priest, has built a ministry aimed at making gay, lesbian and transgender people feel more welcome in the Catholic church and advised Francis on the issue. He says Francis himself changed the church, but so did the many LGBTQ Catholics who have come out — changing the church at the level of the family and parish. That trend, he says, will continue. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

President Trump's rapid-fire spending cuts have affected communities all over the country–including strongholds of his supporters. One of them is Rising Sun, Maryland. The town had won two FEMA grants designed to mitigate the effects of catastrophic flooding. And though the area voted overwhelmingly to support Trump's re-election, his administration has now cancelled the program that funded those grants. Across the state in the Trump-voting town of Emmitsburg, Maryland, a similar scenario is playing out. The town is home to the National Fire Academy–a sort of national war college for training firefighters in America. In March, the Trump administration abruptly cancelled classes at the academy. NPR's Frank Langfitt reports that locals are concerned about how that will affect the town's economy–and emergency preparedness across the country. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Days before the beginning of the conclave to select the next pope, NPR's Scott Detrow is in Rome. He speaks with Sylvia Poggioli about the rituals and ceremonies involved in the upcoming election at the Vatican. We also hear from Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, about this moment for the Catholic Church, and what it's like being a seasoned veteran of the conclave process. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Over the past few months, world leaders and diplomats have talked about grand plans for ending the war in Ukraine. But what about daily life there right now? For our reporter's notebook series, we'll get on the ground with NPR correspondent Joanna Kakissis, who's been living and working in Ukraine for almost the entire war. We'll hear how everyday Ukrainians have adapted to a new normal. People go to work and kids go to school, but most nights Russian attacks continue. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

The U.S. has sent people it has detained — people it calls terrorists — to a prison overseas — indefinitely. This is true in 2025, after the Trump administration deported at least 261 foreign nationals to a maximum security prison in El Salvador. And it was also true two decades ago, following the attacks of Sept. 11, after the U.S. government began to house captured Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in the military prison at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. During the George W. Bush administration, John Yoo wrote the legal justification for the treatment of Guantanamo detainees, now widely referred to as "the torture memos." Yoo argues that there are key legal differences between what the Bush administration did – and what the Trump administration is attempting in El Salvador. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Americans are rushing to car dealerships as they worry about what President Trump's tariffs will do to car prices in the coming months. New vehicle sales have been increasing steadily this year, and they jumped in March, according to market research firm Cox Automotive. That's the month when President Trump announced upcoming auto tariffs. Shoppers are racing to buy cars this spring because they believe that prices are going to go up in the summer and fall. And experts say if tariffs remain in place, that's likely. It's a gamble President Trump is making – with the hope his tariff strategy will lead domestic car companies to make more vehicles at home. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley, who was at Ford's Kentucky truck plant, about Trump's tariffs, and Ford's future. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

President Trump is pushing the boundaries of executive power in nearly every area of policy. From his trade war, to immigration, to education, to the reductions in the federal workforce. Many of his actions are direct challenges to the Courts and to Congress. Those two branches of government are designed to act as checks on the president. Trump has governed largely by unilateral executive action... and left lawmakers on the sidelines. NPR's Juana Summers talks with political correspondents Mara Liasson and Susan Davis about the changing power dynamic. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

An NPR investigation has been following President Trump's efforts to retaliate against his perceived enemies since he returned to the Oval Office in January. NPR's Tom Dreisbach found that Trump's targets are already facing the consequences - including criminal investigations, attempted deportations, and firings. Trump has used government power to target more than 100 people or institutions across American society – and they're all feeling the consequences. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

About one in 31 children in the U.S. has been identified with autism spectrum disorder, according to CDC data released this month. When Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. discussed these findings, he declared that autism is a rapidly growing "epidemic" in the U.S. and vowed to identify the "environmental toxin" he says is to blame. Which of Kennedy's remarks rang true to those in the autism community? Jill Escher is the president of the National Council on Severe Autism, and had both gratitude and criticism for the new initiative. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war and threats to make Canada the 51st state have become some of the biggest issues facing Canadians as they head to the polls in their federal election on April 28th. Scott Detrow speaks to Lloyd Axworthy, a member of the Liberal party, who served as Canada's top diplomat between 1996-2000, about the schism between the two longtime North American allies and how Canada's next prime minister can reposition the country's foreign and economic policy in the face of growing tensions with the United States. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Long before he was elected to run the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis was essentially exiled from his Argentinian Jesuit order. Francis often referred to this two-year period, which happened when he was in his 50s, as a "dark night" and a "crisis" in his life. For our weekly Reporter's Notebook series, we talk with NPR religion editor Daniel Burke about what he learned by digging into this little known period of Francis' life that shaped him and his papacy. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Whether a "chainsaw," per Elon Musk, or "scalpel," as President Trump has said — the Trump administration is making deep cuts to the federal government within its first 100 days. And Trump has appointed personal allies with little experience in government to key cabinet positions. For the civil servants working to enact the missions of these government agencies, that's often meant another word: "chaos." NPR correspondents Tom Bowman, Michele Kelemen and Selena Simmons-Duffin recap what they are hearing from federal workers at the Departments of Defense, State, and Health and Human Services. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

When you think of a successful protest movement, most Americans probably think of the American Civil Rights movement, and the March on Washington in 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr. standing behind a podium on the steps of the Lincoln memorial delivered his most famous speech and a line that would come to define the goals of the Civil Rights Movement. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act just nine months after the March. A year after that Johnson signed the National Voting Rights Act of 1965. The quest for equality continues. In the decades since that bright summer day in August 1963, many other Americans have tried to use the model of protest to achieve their political goals. But do protests work? For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy