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All over the world, democratic institutions are under threat. The United States isn’t just part of that trend — it may also be one of the causes. Former Obama administration foreign policy adviser Ben Rhodes examines why in a new book called After the Fall: Being American in the World We’ve Made.

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Proponents of trans female athlete bans struggle to cite examples of trans women or girls gaining an unfair advantage in sports competitions. But amid a lot of debate about fairness, there’s been less attention on science. NPR sports correspondent Tom Goldman spoke to a pioneering trans researcher who explains why — in most sports — trans women can compete fairly against cisgender women.

Behind a recent spate of anti-trans state laws, LGBTQ communities see a new chapter in a familiar story: the culture wars that broke out in America in the 1990s. A new episode of the FX documentary miniseries Pride examines that era. It was directed by Academy-Award nominee Yance Ford, who tells NPR why the culture wars of the 90s are so relevant today.

Additional reporting on the legal debate over Idaho’s ban on trans female athletes from our colleague Melissa Block.

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Apple has always wanted to be one of the good guys in tech. But now a high-stakes lawsuit with Epic Games, the creator of the hit video game Fortnite, isn’t just challenging Apple’s reputation. It’s raising questions about whether the most valuable company in the world has grown into an illegal monopoly.

NPR’s Bobby Allyn reports on the federal trial that led to Apple CEO Tim Cook taking the stand last week to defend his company.

And Sally Hubbard, who researches monopolies, explains how Apple’s control over its app store reminds her of past antitrust violations from Microsoft and AT&T.

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After his death on May 25, 2020, George Floyd became the face of a movement against police violence. But attorney Andrea Ritchie says, in some ways, the prosecution and conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin created a false sense of progress in that movement. Ritchie focuses on police misconduct and is the author of the book, Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women And Women Of Color.

Bowling Green State University criminologist Phillip Stinson explains why so few police officers are prosecuted and convicted for murder. Stinson maintains the Henry A. Wallace Police Crime Database.

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We’re working on a future episode about people who got involved in activism in the past year. We want to know why — and whether you’ve stayed involved. If this sounds like you, please respond to our callout here.

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For decades, Israel had solid bipartisan support for Israel from Capitol Hill. But progressive congressional Democrats have started to question support for the policies of the Israeli government. Palestinian rights activists also feel tied to the growing power of racial justice movements in the United States. NPR political correspondent Asma Khalid explains.

Peter Beinart, editor-at-large of Jewish Currents, says more Americans are hearing Palestinian voices in the media, and some Democrats can now criticize Israel without fear of losing their next election.

Additional reporting in this episode comes from NPR’s Connor Donevan and Eli Newman with member station WDET.

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We know that Americans in blue states are getting vaccinated at higher rates than those in red ones. But that gap obscures another growing divide in America’s vaccine campaign — the divide within states between rural and urban areas. An NPR analysis of county-level data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that divide exists across age groups in almost every state. NPR’s Austin Fast explains why.

The Biden administration says it’s making progress on closing the gap. Their focus is on getting as many people vaccinated as possible. But public health officials tell NPR’s Geoff Brumfiel that the U.S. may never reach ‘herd immunity.’

Additional reporting in this episode from Veronica Zaragovia of member station WLRN in Miami.

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A week ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidance that vaccinated people can safely return to most activities without wearing a mask. But the announcement caught many local officials and business leaders off guard. One of them was Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas.

NPR’s Andrea Hsu reports on the confusion among businesses, which now have to decide what to do on their own.

NPR’s Yuki Noguchi interviewed behavioral scientists about whether the new guidance may encourage more people to get vaccinated.

Additional reporting in this episode came from NPR’s Allison Aubrey and Pien Huang.

Read more about what the new CDC guidance means for unvaccinated kids — and their parents.

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The White House is courting influential Democratic senators and making a public relations push for President Biden’s infrastructure proposal, while Republicans draw a red line around corporate tax increases.

Biden also spent part of this week test-driving Ford’s new electric F-150 Lightning. But for all the talk of energy innovation and electric cars, one part of Biden’s infrastructure plan is based on a pretty old idea — one from another era when millions of Americans were out of work. NPR’s Scott Detrow and Nathan Rott report on Biden’s proposal to revamp the nearly 100-year-old Civilian Conservation Corps — with a new focus on climate change. Read more from their reporting here.

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Over the past year, QAnon conspiracies have migrated from obscure corners of the internet into national headlines. The false belief that left-wing Satanists are controlling the government helped fuel the U.S. Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6.

These theories didn’t come from nowhere. Back in the 1980s a similar “satanic panic” swept through the country and led to lawsuits that alleged preschool teachers were performing evil rituals with children. These claims were debunked but the accusations themselves had staying power.

NPR’s Ari Shapiro reports on what factors contributed to the original “satanic panic” and what it can teach us about the conspiracy theories that attract followers today.

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The conflict between Israel and Hamas has gone from bad to worse. The Biden administration says it’s engaging in “quiet, intensive diplomacy” to broker an end to the violence.

Leni Stenseth of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency tells NPR that the humanitarian situation in the region is “extremely alarming.”

NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro explains how the recent outbreak of violence began — and the historical seeds of the region’s conflict.

What is the diplomatic path toward some sort of peace? Israeli political analyst and journalist Akiva Eldar, a contributor to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, and Mkhaimar Abusada, a professor of political science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, discuss what life on the ground is like for each of them, and the role of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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