History

The story behind why Halyna Hrushetsky's family fled Soviet Ukraine for the U.S.

1:09pm February 25, 2022

by Jasmyn Morris

Halyna Hrushetsky was born in Ukraine during World War II and her family left in the 1930s. Hrushetsky talks to her daughter about her Ukrainian roots and the famine her parents lived through.

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National

National African American History Museum curator on George Floyd protest photo

3:41pm February 24, 2022

Aaron Bryant curates photography at the National Museum of African American History and Culture Smithsonian's collection. He spoke with NPR about the collection and a 2020 photo he believes is iconic.

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To grasp what's going on at the Russia-Ukraine border, it helps to know some history

7:44am February 24, 2022

For a historical view on the Ukraine crisis, NPR's Leila Fadel talks to Mary Elise Sarotte, professor of history at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

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Authors Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson say it's important to be honest with children about the history of race and slavery in America.

Books

'Born on the Water' gives Black children in America their origin story

5:00am February 24, 2022

by Jason Fuller

Authors Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson discuss the importance of teaching young people about the history of slavery and racism in America with honesty and respect.

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This photo shows two carved standing stones at a remote Neolithic site in Jordan's eastern desert. A team of Jordanian and French archaeologists said Tuesday that it had found a roughly 9,000-year-old shrine.

Archaeologists find a 9,000-year-old shrine in the desert in Jordan

9:35pm February 22, 2022

by The Associated Press

Researchers said the find "sheds an entire new light on the symbolism, artistic expression as well as spiritual culture of these hitherto unknown Neolithic populations."

Black history is more than one month, but February matters

4:42pm February 22, 2022

by Sandhya Dirks

Black history is more than a month — and it's more than just the sanitized story of the same handful of heroes told over and over.

Why America Has Been So Stingy In Fighting Child Poverty

1:39pm February 22, 2022

by Greg Rosalsky

The U.S. has a long tradition of favoring old people over kids. A new paper investigates why.

World News

Why Ukraine gave up its nukes

4:04pm February 21, 2022

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Mariana Budjeryn about the Budapest Memorandum, an agreement guaranteeing security for Ukraine if it gave up nuclear weapons left over after the Soviet Union fell.

National

A former Japanese internment camp is on track to become a national park

4:04pm February 21, 2022

by Shanna Lewis

On the 80th anniversary of the executive order that sent 120,000 Japanese-Americans to internment camps, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland visits a camp she wants to include in the National Park System.

Historian talks new doc series 'One Thousand Years of Slavery'

5:19pm February 20, 2022

NPR's Michel Martin discusses the new documentary series One Thousand Years of Slavery with one of the experts featured in it, historian Spencer Crew.