Comedian Stephen Colbert is serious about food

If you’ve followed Stephen Colbert’s career closely, you might have picked up on something. It’s there back in his days on The Colbert Report, when he issued a throw-down about the proper way to make barbecue sauce and that time on The Late Show, when he took calls on the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Colbert has opinions about food. Like, strong opinions.

And it turns out that’s true off-camera, too. Stephen and his wife, Evie McGee Colbert say they basically live in the kitchen.

Now they’ve written a cookbook: Does This Taste Funny? Recipes Our Family Loves. It’s a delightful window into their marriage and the food of the South Carolina Low Country where they both grew up.

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Ina Garten was ready for the luck

Thirteen bestselling cookbooks, a thriving food business in the Hamptons that she sold decades ago, and now her memoir “Be Ready When the Luck Happens” has hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

None of that was in Ina Garten’s plan.

Her legendary career began when she was working in Washington DC as a somewhat discontented government employee, and saw an ad for a food store in the Hamptons.

For this Thanksgiving, a holiday celebrating gratitude and food, we take a look at how Ina Garten built a successful business, powerful brand and happy life.

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Is ‘Do Unto Others’ the way to bridge the political divide?

On a Sunday in mid-July, Pastor Chris Morgan welcomed worshipers to Christ United Methodist Church in suburban Pittsburgh with a simple message.

That Sunday was particularly difficult.

A day earlier, a man had nearly assassinated then-candidate Donald Trump forty miles north in Butler. Morgan asked people to pray for Trump and those killed and injured in the shooting, and asked the congregation to pray for the family of the shooter.

Morgan had already planned a sermon series, called Do Unto Others, to deal with the nation’s — and his congregation’s — political divisions ahead of Election Day.

NPR’s Frank Langfitt went to Christ Church the weekend before Election Day – and the weekend after – to see if the efforts there made a difference.

As Americans prepare to come together at Thanksgiving, how do we bridge this country’s political divide? And can we?

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Angela Merkel recounts being the first and only in new memoir

In her new memoir, Angela Merkel writes about the many dilemmas she had to navigate as Chancellor of Germany. Dilemmas her male colleagues never had to sweat. Like, can you wear a pantsuit instead of a skirt in the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament? She decided the answer was, yes.

Merkel is the only woman ever to rise to the most powerful political post in Germany. She served as chancellor from 2005 to 2021.

Angela Merkel has gone toe-to-toe with world leaders like Vladimir Putin, led Germany through times of turmoil and become a role model for other women aspiring to positions of leadership. But her legacy is complex.

She gets into all of this in her new memoir, “Freedom.”

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The “Bad Sisters” are back, and they’re better than ever.

The Apple TV series “Bad Sisters” debuted two years ago. There were laughs. There was murder. And that could’ve been it for the Garvey sisters, because the show wasn’t originally intended to have a second season.

But, as creator and star Sharon Horgan puts it — “You don’t just kill a man and move on.”

The Garvey sisters are back for Season 2 – with more banter… wickedness… and secrets. We catch up with creator and star Sharon Horgan to find out what’s in store.

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Some Trump cabinet picks are accused of sexual misconduct. What’s it mean for #MeToo?

If you’re tracking Donald Trump’s cabinet picks, you may have noticed common threads among them: top jobs are going to people fiercely loyal to Trump, people with experience appearing on TV, but no experience directly relevant to the jobs they would be doing.

There’s another thing several share: being accused of sexual misconduct. Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth, HHS Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, Elon Musk, who Trump has picked to co-run the Department of Government Efficiency — all these men have faced some variation of accusations of sexual misconduct. All have denied it, or claimed no memory.

Donald Trump’s first presidential win helped lay the groundwork for the #MeToo movement. What do his cabinet picks say about the movement today?

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Witnesses say Israel is using sniper drones in Gaza and they’re shooting civilians

Last week British surgeon Nizam Mamode testified in front of a committee in the U.K. Parliament. Dr. Mamode had recently returned from working at a hospital in Central Gaza.

He told parliamentary members what he witnessed, including drones that would come down and “pick off civilians, children. And we had description after description. This is not, you know, an occasional thing. This was day after day after day.”

For months, NPR has been collecting eyewitness accounts from Gaza that corroborate Dr. Mamode’s testimony, saying the Israeli military has been using sniper drone technology and that they’re not just shooting enemies, but also civilians.|

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Is Trump’s defense secretary nominee qualified?

What does it take to run the Department of Defense? That’s a question that will be at the heart of Pete Hegseth’s confirmation process early next year.

Hegseth, a longtime Fox News host, is President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense. The department he’s nominated to run is one of the biggest, most complex entities in the US government. It’s an institution that former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel notes – has its “own judicial code, legal system and health care system.”

Pete Hegseth is about to oversee a Defense Department with an 800 billion dollar budget, and millions of service members. Is he qualified for the job?

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