What's Your Purpose? Finding A Sense Of Meaning In Life Is Linked To Health
Having a purpose in life may decrease your risk of dying early, according to a study published Friday. Researchers analyzed data from nearly 7,000 American adults between the ages of 51 and 61 who filled out psychological questionnaires on the relationship between mortality and life purpose. What they found shocked them, according to Celeste Leigh Pearce, one of the authors of the study published in JAMA Current Open . People who didn't have a strong life purpose — which was defined as "a...
Theresa Burroughs, Voting Rights Activist, Dies At 89 In Alabama
Theresa Burroughs, who proudly called herself a foot soldier for the right to vote, has died in Greensboro, Ala. She was 89. Greensboro is part of Alabama's Black Belt, a region named for its rich black soil, and known for its oppression of black citizens during the Jim Crow era, including erecting obstacles to the vote. She said no one around her talked about it then out of fear. "When I was a child," she recalled in a 2016 interview with NPR , "I would see white people getting dressed and...
'A Bigger Issue Than Some Might Think': Texas 8th-Grader Raises $10,000 To Cover School Lunch Debt
When students who aren’t enrolled in a free school meal program lack the money to pay for their food, what results is an accumulating lunch debt. It’s a problem facing many schools across the country. About 75% of districts reported having unpaid student meal debt at the end of the 2016-17 school year, according to the School Nutrition Association . In Texas, one 14-year-old boy recognized the issue in his community and crowdfunded more than $10,000 to pay off the Austin Independent School...
In Rural West Texas, Illegal Border Crossings Are Routine For U.S. Citizens
Along one rugged stretch of the Rio Grande, U.S. citizens routinely cross the border into the United States illegally. A shortage of basic services in rural Texas, such as health care, means U.S. citizens rely on Mexican services and rarely pass through an official port of entry on return. Informal, unregulated crossings have been a fixture of life for generations in rural communities along the U.S.-Mexico border. Today, however, with the unrelenting focus on border security, this kind of...
On The Campaign Trail, These Are Hot Spots Candidates Can't Resist
January 2016. The New Hampshire primary was just weeks away. Donald Trump slid into a booth at the Red Arrow Diner in downtown Manchester and ordered a deep-fried concoction featuring a cheeseburger topped with mac 'n' cheese and smothered with cheesy sauce. The neon sign of the Red Arrow Diner has been attracting presidential hopefuls for decades. Don Gonyea / NPR In that moment, he joined a long, long list of candidates who've dined at the Red Arrow, including Barack Obama, Bill Clinton,...
How Disney Princesses Influence Girls Around The World
Many academics and parents have said that Disney princesses are "bad for girls" because they are defined by their appearance – and they often must be rescued by men rather than act on their own (see: Sleeping Beauty and Snow White). Sociologist Charu Uppal in Sweden has another concern – the fact that many classic Disney princesses are white and Western. Uppal has been studying the effects of Disney princesses on girls internationally since 2009. In a world where Disney's TV channels are...
'Booksmart' Director Olivia Wilde: Teen Movies 'Made Me Excited To Be Young'
Right after Olivia Wilde saw Lady Bird — the 2017 film about the loving, infuriating, infinitely complicated relationship between a teen daughter and her mother — her first impulse was to pick up the phone to call her mom. Now, when the credits roll on Wilde's new film Booksmart , audiences are dialing their old high school best friends. These are the friends who got you through adolescence, Wilde says — the ones who knew you best, allowed you to be vulnerable, and saw you in a way that was ...
He Led A Platoon Of Artists Who Fooled The Germans: 'Imagination Is Unbelievable'
After World War II broke out, 26-year-old Gilbert Seltzer enlisted into the Army. Soon after, he was told he was being put on a secret mission — and an unconventional one at that. Seltzer, then an architectural draftsman, was selected to lead a platoon of men within a unit dubbed the "Ghost Army." Made up mostly of artists, creatives and engineers, the unit would go on to play an instrumental role in securing victory in Europe for the U.S. and its allies. Their mission was deception. From...
OPINION: Why Ditching Processed Foods Won't Be Easy — The Barriers To Cooking From Scratch
This opinion piece is written by sociologists Sarah Bowen of North Carolina State University, Sinikka Elliott of the University of British Columbia and Joslyn Brenton of Ithaca College. They are the co-authors of Pressure Cooker: Why Home Cooking Won't Solve Our Problems and What We Can Do About It . "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants," Michael Pollan, one of America's most influential food writers, famously advised more than a decade ago. This pithy advice is perhaps the clearest...
Barr Is Investigating The Investigators: Will He Find Wrongdoing Or Political Fuel?
Updated at 4:30 p.m. ET President Trump has handed Attorney General William Barr the keys to the vault. Trump has authorized Barr to "declassify, downgrade, or direct the declassification or downgrading of information or intelligence" related to the origins of the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential campaign, according to an official order. The White House says that will mean he can be freer to reveal wrongdoing if he finds it. Democrats call it a bid to scare up...
Why Corned Beef Sandwiches — And The Rest Of The Universe — Exist
It's easy to take corned beef sandwiches for granted. There's no mystery about them. They simply exist. But corned beef sandwiches, along with everything else in the universe, raise a critical question in the minds of physicists: Why do they exist? In the earliest moments of the universe, energy turned into matter. But matter comes in two forms, matter and antimatter. And when a particle of matter encounters a particle of antimatter, they annihilate each other — and all you're left with is...
$19.1 Billion Disaster Aid Bill Stalled After Republican Blocks House Vote
Texas House Republican Rep. Chip Roy blocked an attempt to pass the $19.1 billion disaster aid bill by unanimous consent, likely stalling passage of the legislation until Congress returns in June. The Senate approved the measure Thursday 85-8 and House Democrats had hoped to rush the legislation through in a special session on Friday, skipping the regular voting process because lawmakers had already left town to begin a weeklong Memorial Day recess. The procedural vote required the consent of...
European Elections Will Be A Test For Nationalist Parties Hoping To Remake The EU
Some 400 million people in 28 countries are eligible to vote in this week's elections for new representatives for the European Parliament — the only popularly elected European Union institution. It's normally a low-turnout affair, but this year, the Europe-wide result will be a crucial test of strength for nationalist and populist parties that want to remake the EU — and for those who oppose them. "If we screw this up, none of us in this room can look our children in the eye anymore. If we...
'What/If' You Were In Just The Right Mood For Some Good Bad Television?
Let us begin with a story. A story of revenge (sort of). At the 2011 summer press tour of the Television Critics Association, ABC presented a new drama series called Revenge that would premiere in the fall. It followed a woman played by Emily Van Camp who went around the Hamptons trying to seek ... well, revenge, on a lot of people who had somehow wronged her. If memory serves, she actually crossed them off! On a chart! Once she had gotten some of that delicious revenge! Anyway, when the...
NPR's Summer Movie Guide: 27 Films Coming Soon To Theaters
Is it weird to keep asserting that Summer Movie Season starts Memorial Day weekend, when Avengers: Endgame , the ultimate summer movie, and also the year's (the decade's! the century's!) biggest blockbuster, opened last month? Maybe. Sure. Who cares? "Summer movie" is a term, after all, that has taken on a negative connotation, as it tends to be deployed by those looking to sniffily dismiss the whole crop of films that come out in the months without an R. See also: "popcorn movies," "comic...
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