History

Pope John XXIII with President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who stands at left, during an audience granted in the pontiff's private library in the Vatican Palace on Dec. 6, 1959. Eisenhower was the second U.S. president to meet the pope.

U.S. presidents have met with the pope since 1919. It all started with Woodrow Wilson

7:17am October 29, 2021

by Jaclyn Diaz

President Biden's meeting with the pope is a fairly recent tradition for U.S. presidents. His meeting will mark the 31st time a U.S. president has met with the leader of the Catholic Church.

Encore: Ahmaud Arbery muralist turns to Brunswick history

4:28pm October 27, 2021

by Debbie Elliott

Marvin Weeks memorialized Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was killed in Georgia last year, in a mural. Weeks' latest work delves into the history of race relations in Brunswick, Ga.

'Sellout' explores how anti-establishment views in punk puts bands in a tough spot

6:23pm October 26, 2021

by Andrew Limbong

In his new book Sellout, Dan Ozzi explores the punk phenomenon where anti-establishment clout is currency and while it's hard to pay your bills on principles, selling out often led to buyer's remorse.

Montgomery, Ala., drops Confederate street name to honor famed civil rights attorney

5:05pm October 26, 2021

by Kyle Gassiott

Despite a threat from Alabama's attorney general, Jefferson Davis Avenue in Montgomery will be no more. The street once named for the Confederate figure will now honor civil rights attorney Fred Gray.

World News

10 years after the end of Basque separatist violence, some wounds are still open

5:05pm October 26, 2021

NPR's Sarah McCammon talks with Spanish writer Edurne Portela and Tamara Muruetagoiena about the 10 year anniversary of peace in the Basque Country and coming to terms with a history of the conflict.

Martha Lillard needed a large respirator called an iron lung to recover from polio, which she caught in 1953. She still uses a form of the device at nights.

Decades after polio, Martha is among the last to still rely on an iron lung to breathe

4:59pm October 25, 2021

Martha Lillard had just turned 5 years old when polio incapacitated her. She still uses a form of the ventilator that saved her life as a child — though now she worries about replacement parts.

National

Where We Come From: What's in a name?

4:43pm October 25, 2021

by Anjuli Sastry

Author Luvvie Ajayi Jones and Tiffany Aliche talk about changing their given Nigerian names to more American ones in order to assimilate, and what their given versus chosen names mean to them today.

Workers remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from Market Street Park in Charlottesville, Va., in July. Initial plans to remove the statue four years ago sparked the infamous "Unite the Right" rally at which 32-year-old Heather Heyer was kille

Arts

A Black museum asks to melt Charlottesville's Robert E. Lee statue to create new art

5:30pm October 22, 2021

by Becky Sullivan

In 2017, debate over Charlottesville's Robert E. Lee statue sparked a violent neo-Nazi rally that left a woman dead. Now, a Black cultural center wants to melt it down and turn it into public art.

World News

60 years after a massacre in Paris, French-Algerians are still pushing for justice

4:56pm October 21, 2021

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Melissa Chemam, a French-Algerian journalist, about the 60th anniversary of a massacre of Algerians in Paris.

Canada, Newfoundland, L'anse Aux Meadows Nhp, Replicas Of Norse Houses From 1000 Years Ago.

Science

Researchers pinpoint when the Vikings came to Canada. It was exactly 1,000 years ago

10:20am October 21, 2021

It has long been known that the Vikings arrived in the Americas sometime before Christopher Columbus. Now, a new article in the journal Nature concludes the exact year was 1021.