Category: International

Medical education must always keep up with the times. But the pandemic forcing medical students to learn virtually revealed new fault lines and opportunities to rethink the way medical professionals should learn. The medical field is grappling with which of those changes should become permanent and which ones could jeopardize the quality of healthcare.

To get a better understanding of how technology has enabled new ways of approaching medical education, NPR’s Jonaki Mehta visits Kaiser Permanente’s Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, a school that was uniquely positioned to adapt to the conditions imposed by the pandemic since it opened during quarantine.

Elisabeth Rosenthal, editor-in-chief of Kaiser Health News and a non-practicing physician, shares her concerns about the medical field leaning more heavily on telemedicine as a result of the pandemic.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Jodie Turner-Smith in Anne Boleyn. Mindy Kaling in Scooby Doo. Dev Patel in The Green Knight, and last year’s David Copperfield.

It seems like Hollywood gatekeepers are opening up more traditionally white parts to other performers. But as NPR film critic Bob Mondello explains, cross-cultural casting isn’t new — and it’s always raised eyebrows.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

From police officer misconduct to deadly shootings, internal affairs investigations are how law enforcement agencies investigate their own and promise to hold themselves accountable. In California, those investigations were secret — that is, until a new police transparency law unsealed thousands of files.

The protests that erupted in Cuba over the weekend are the biggest the country has seen in decades. Cubans are suffering through a summer of shortages, from food and electricity to medicine. All of which have been made worse by the pandemic. Officials in the authoritarian government are tying to stamp out the unrest quickly.

These demonstrations present a political opportunity for President Biden. NPR’s Franco Ordonez reports on how the White House’s response could change future Florida votes.

NPR international correspondent Carrie Kahn looks into internet blackouts enacted by the Cuban government in an attempt to stop organizing happening on social media platforms.

And Miami-Herald editorial writer Luisa Yanez explains why a younger generation of Cubans may not buckle under pressure.

The U.S. military will be fully out of the country by August 31. The Taliban already control more than half of it. A U.S. intelligence assessment reportedly says the Afghan government could collapse in as little as six months.

Some members of the Afghan military feel “abandoned and alone,” Commanding General of the Afghan Army Sami Sadat tells NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly.

Additional reporting this episode from NPR’s Diaa Hadid.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

In a speech this week, President Biden said Democrats must ‘vigorously challenge’ what he described as the ’21st Century Jim Crow assault’ on voting rights, attacking Republican-led state efforts to pass new voting restrictions.

Democrats, Vice President Kamala Harris told NPR, must respond on multiple levels: “It will be litigation, legislation, it will be activating the people.”

Harris spoke to NPR political correspondent Asma Khalid. Hear more on the NPR Politics Podcast via Apple, Google, or Spotify.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

The Biden administration is emphasizing vaccine outreach by ‘trusted messengers’ — community volunteers, faith leaders, and primary care providers — who are best-positioned to convince people to get vaccinated.

NPR’s Maria Godoy reports on that kind of outreach in Maryland, one of just a handful of states where at least half of the Latino population is vaccinated.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

‘Cancelling’ is a term that originated in young and progressive circles, where it was used to mean ‘boycott,’ University of Pennsylvania linguist Nicole Holliday tells NPR. Now the term ‘cancel’ has been co-opted and weaponized by some conservative media and politicians.

Something similar happened in the 1990s with the term ‘politically correct.’ John K. Wilson wrote about that time in a book called The Myth Of Political Correctness.

And — just like ‘politically correct’ — ‘cancelling’ and ‘cancel culture’ have been co-opted and weaponized to attack the left today. Social media has made that easier, says Jon Ronson, author of So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Critical race theory is a legal framework developed decades ago at Harvard Law School. It posits that racism is not just the product of individual bias, but is embedded in legal systems and policies. Today, it’s become the subject of heated debate on Fox News and in local school board meetings across the country.

Adam Harris, staff writer at The Atlantic, explains why. Harris has traced the debate over critical race theory back decades.

Gloria Ladson-Billings spoke to NPR about watching that debate morph in recent years. She’s president of the National Academy of Education and one of the first academics to bring critical race theory to education research.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

NPR’s Tom Dreisbach reports on the story of Alan Hostetter, a former police chief and yoga instructor from California who’s now facing conspiracy charges for his alleged role in the U.S. Capitol riot.

Hostetter is one of more than 500 people facing charges related to January 6th. Hear more about how prosecutors are proceeding from NPR’s Ryan Lucas and the NPR Politics Podcast. Listen via Apple, Google, Spotify, or Pocket Casts.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.