Lifestyle
From the wilderness to the generic drug market, check out these new podcasts
NPR; WABE; OPB; KUT & KUTX Studios — Podcasts; GBH; KALW
Summer is sunsetting but dawn has arrived for several podcasts across public media. The NPR One team gathered a list of new releases to cozy up and listen to this fall.
The podcast episode descriptions below are from podcast webpages and have been edited for brevity and clarity.
How To Do Everything – NPR
Half advice show. Half survival guide. Half absurdity-fest. (Wait, how does this work again? We’re not numbers people.) Each episode, we answer all your burning questions, from how to survive a public bathroom to how to get close to a panda. When we don’t know the answer, which is roughly 92% of the time (again, not numbers people), we bring in overqualified experts to help out. So you’ll eventually walk away knowing how to do everything. That’s what happens when you’re one & a half shows. From the team at Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!
Start listening to, “Haircuts in Space, Tutus, and the Nasal Ranger.”
Tacos of Texas – KUT & KUTX Studios — Podcasts
KUT & KUTX Studios — Podcasts
Tacos of Texas is back! With Season 4, we’re taking the taco studio on the road to 3 markets in Texas and talk to locals about the food and the culture in their own communities. You’ll hear about the history of Vaqueros and Breakfast Tacos, learn about HEB’s road to Mi Tienda, meet James Beard award-winning chef Ana Liz Pulido, and more.
Start listening to, “Los Verdes: Goooool!”
Imperfect Paradise – LAist (New Season)
Voters elected Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón in 2020 on his promises to undo decades of mass incarceration, tackle what many viewed as excessive prison sentences, and to generally create a fairer system. LAist Civics & Democracy Correspondent Frank Stoltze explores the criminal justice system Gascón set out to change. He examines decades-old practices and the impact on the people imprisoned through the case of Jose Santana. Santana ended up being sentenced to 22 years in adult prison for robbing two kids of their cellphones when he was 15.
Start listening to, “District Attorney Gascón: Part 1.”
Tradeoffs – WFYI
Generic drugs are, in many ways, the unsung hero of America’s health care system, bringing powerful medical innovations within the reach of millions more people. These cheaper copies of brand-name drugs — from pills that stop heart attacks to antibiotics that cure life-threatening infections — save America hundreds of billions of dollars a year. But will affordable, high-quality generic drugs continue to be there when we need them? Some players are abandoning this business while others slash costs by cutting dangerous corners. Shortages of older generic drugs have become the norm, sending doctors scrambling. At the same time, crucial new medicines are proving tougher to copy on the cheap, saddling patients with brand-name prices. Over the course of “Race to the Bottom,” our new three-part podcast series, we’ll explore why this industry that’s so essential to our health is in trouble — and what could change that.
Start listening to part one, “Race to the Bottom: Boom Times.”
Health Wanted with Laurel Bristow – WABE
Health Wanted brings you each week’s need-to-know public health headlines and breaks down the science behind trending topics. Host and social media science influencer Laurel Bristow covers everything from Ozempic to the ozone, interviewing experts and answering your questions, all in pursuit of better health.
Listen to, “Vaccines.”
Terrestrials from Radiolab for Kids – WNYC
Terrestrials is Radiolab’s spin-off nature show for families and for people of all ages that explores the strangeness that exists right here on Earth. Each episode feels like a fairytale that is 100% true. Host Lulu Miller (co-host of Radiolab) leads you on a nature walk to encounter incredible creatures, wild storytellers, and original songs from “The Songbud” Alan Goffinski. That’s right! We sing on this show; don’t worry, good voices not required. Listen in with your whole family. Or all alone. This season, we are tackling the overlooked – the treasures, secrets, and wildness waiting right underneath our noses. From tree stumps, to lichen, to humble squirrels that fade into the background so easily. When you look close at the creatures we usually ignore, you’ll find all kinds of secrets hidden inside.
Start listening to, “The Stumpisode: The Wild World of Tree Stumps!”
Hush – OPB
Hush is an investigative podcast from OPB, uncovering the buried truth about critical stories in the Pacific Northwest. In the first season, we look at the case of Jesse Lee Johnson, a Black man who lived for 17 years on Oregon’s death row for a crime he says he didn’t commit, and we try to understand why the state tried for so long to kill him.
Listen to episode 1, “Jesse.”
Question Everything with Brian Reed – KCRW
Reporter Brian Reed re-examines everything about journalism, the profession he thought he knew. In the middle of making his second hit podcast, Brian got sued. Accused. Told the biggest story of his career – the Peabody Award-winning series S-Town – wasn’t journalism. Which meant he had to spend years proving that it was. Obsessing over the question, “What is journalism, anyway?” Join Brian as he turns the tools he’s acquired over his years as a journalist on journalism itself. With gripping stories, reporting, and interviews every other Thursday, Question Everything is a show for anyone who’s ever felt confused, frustrated, or misled by the news they rely on. At a time when distrust in the media is at an all time high, when so many believe that journalism is failing, Question Everything is a real-time quest to try and make journalism better.
Listen to episode one, “The Critic.”
How Wild – KALW
How Wild hits trails around the country, exploring the meaning of wilderness. A century ago, the U.S. set aside the first official wilderness. You’ll hear stories from rangers, scientists, hikers, environmentalists, and Tribal leaders as they grapple with the realities of wilderness on a changing planet, and whether the concept of “wilderness” has ever really existed.
Start listening to, “Untrammeled.”
College Uncovered – GBH
Divisive protests, police crackdowns, and a chilling backlash against free speech are among the reasons that a growing number of students say they don’t feel welcome on some college campuses. Conflicts over abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, and DEI, as well as what can and can’t be taught in classrooms are stirring up campus life against the backdrop of a contentious presidential election. A majority of students say abortion laws and restrictions around the discussion of race and gender would have at least some effect on where they go to college, according to Gallup polling. The same polls also find that some students at four-year universities feel as if they don’t belong or disrespected. Students on the left and right alike say they’re increasingly reluctant to express controversial opinions, but that it’s okay to report on classmates or faculty who do. That’s why we’re exploring the politics of higher education this season. College has become a new battleground in the culture wars, and it’s affecting where students enroll and what they’re learning. Learn more from the Hechinger Report’s College Welcome Guide!
Listen to episode one, “Un-welcome to college.”
NPR’s Jessica Green and Jack Mitchell curated and produced this piece.
There’s a three-story house in Baltimore that looks a bit imposing. You walk up the stone steps before even getting up to the porch, and then you enter the door and you’re greeted with a glass case of literary awards. It’s The Clifton House, formerly home of Lucille Clifton.
The National Book Award-winning poet lived there with her husband, Fred, starting in 1967 until the bank foreclosed on the house in 1980. Clifton’s daughter, Sidney Clifton, has since revived the house and turned it into a cultural hub, hosting artists, readings, workshops and more. But even during a February visit, in the mid-afternoon with no organized events on, the house feels full.
The corner of Lucille Clifton’s bedroom, where she would wake up and write in the mornings
Andrew Limbong/NPR
hide caption
toggle caption
Andrew Limbong/NPR
“There’s a presence here,” Clifton House Executive Director Joël Díaz told me. “There’s a presence here that sits at attention.”
Sometimes, rooms where famous writers worked can be places of ineffable magic. Other times, they can just be rooms.
Princeton University Press
Katie da Cunha Lewin is the author of the new book, The Writer’s Room: The Hidden Worlds That Shape the Books We Love, which explores the appeal of these rooms. Lewin is a big Virginia Woolf fan, and the very first place Lewin visited working on the book was Monk’s House — Woolf’s summer home in Sussex, England. On the way there, there were dreams of seeing Woolf’s desk, of retracing Woolf’s steps and imagining what her creative process would feel like. It turned out to be a bit of a disappointment for Lewin — everything interesting was behind glass, she said. Still, in the book Lewin writes about how she took a picture of the room and saved it on her phone, going back to check it and re-check it, “in the hope it would allow me some of its magic.”
Let’s be real, writing is a little boring. Unlike a band on fire in the recording studio, or a painter possessed in their studio, the visual image of a writer sitting at a desk click-clacking away at a keyboard or scribbling on a piece of paper isn’t particularly exciting. And yet, the myth of the writer’s room continues to enrapture us. You can head to Massachusetts to see where Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women. Or go down to Florida to visit the home of Zora Neale Hurston. Or book a stay at the Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald Museum in Alabama, where the famous couple lived for a time. But what, exactly, is the draw?
Lewin said in an interview that whenever she was at a book event or an author reading, an audience question about the writer’s writing space came up. And yes, some of this is basic fan-driven curiosity. But also “it started to occur to me that it was a central mystery about writing, as if writing is a magic thing that just happens rather than actually labor,” she said.
In a lot of ways, the book is a debunking of the myths we’re presented about writers in their rooms. She writes about the types of writers who couldn’t lock themselves in an office for hours on end, and instead had to find moments in-between to work on their art. She covers the writers who make a big show of their rooms, as a way to seem more writerly. She writes about writers who have had their homes and rooms preserved, versus the ones whose rooms have been lost to time and new real estate developments. The central argument of the book is that there is no magic formula to writing — that there is no daily to-do list to follow, no just-right office chair to buy in order to become a writer. You just have to write.
Bruce Johnston
I’m Riding My Last Wave With The Beach Boys
Published
Bruce Johnston is riding off into the California sunset … at least for now.
The Beach Boys legend announced Wednesday he’s stepping away from touring after six decades with the iconic band. The 83-year-old revealed in a statement to Rolling Stone he’s hanging up his touring hat to focus on what he calls part three of his long music career.
“It’s time for Part Three of my lengthy musical career!” Johnston said. “I can write songs forever, and wait until you hear what’s coming!!! As my major talent beyond singing is songwriting, now is the time to get serious again.”
Johnston famously stepped in for co-founder Brian Wilson in 1965 for live performances, becoming a staple of the Beach Boys’ touring lineup ever since. Now, he says he’s shifting gears toward songwriting and even some speaking engagements … with occasional touring member John Stamos helping him craft what he’ll talk about onstage.
“I might even sing ‘Disney Girls’ & ‘I Write The Songs!!’” he teased.
But don’t call it a full-on farewell tour just yet. Johnston made it clear he’s not shutting the door completely, saying he’s excited to reunite with the band for special occasions, including their upcoming July 2-4 shows at the Hollywood Bowl as part of the Beach Boys’ 2026 tour. The run celebrates both the 60th anniversary of “Pet Sounds” and America’s 250th birthday.
“This isn’t goodbye, it’s see you soon,” he wrote. “I am forever grateful to be a part of the Beach Boys musical legacy.”
In 1982, Jean Muenchrath was injured in a mountaineering accident and on the brink of death when a stranger and his family went out of their way to save her life.
Jean Muenchrath
hide caption
toggle caption
Jean Muenchrath
In early May 1982, Jean Muenchrath and her boyfriend set out on a mountaineering trip in the Sierra Nevada, a mountain range in California. They had done many backcountry trips in the area before, so the terrain was somewhat familiar to both of them. But after they reached one of the summits, a violent storm swept in. It began to snow heavily, and soon the pair was engulfed in a blizzard, with thunder and lightning reverberating around them.
“Getting struck and killed by lightning was a real possibility since we were the highest thing around for miles and lightning was striking all around us,” Muenchrath said.
To reach safer ground, they decided to abandon their plan of taking a trail back. Instead, using their ice axes, they climbed down the face of the mountain through steep and icy snow chutes.
They were both skilled at this type of descent, but at one particularly difficult part of the route, Muenchrath slipped and tumbled over 100 feet down the rocky mountain face. She barely survived the fall and suffered life-threatening injuries.
This was before cellular or satellite phones, so calling for help wasn’t an option. The couple was forced to hike through deep snow back to the trailhead. Once they arrived, Muenchrath collapsed in the parking lot. It had been five days since she’d fallen.
”My clothes were bloody. I had multiple fractures in my spine and pelvis, a head injury and gangrene from a deep wound,” Muenchrath said.
Not long after they reached the trailhead parking lot, a car pulled in. A man was driving, with his wife in the passenger seat and their baby in the back. As soon as the man saw Muenchrath’s condition, he ran over to help.
”He gently stroked my head, and he held my face [and] reassured me by saying something like, ‘You’re going to be OK now. I’ll be right back to get you,’” Muenchrath remembered.
For the first time in days, her panic began to lift.
“My unsung hero gave me hope that I’d reach a hospital and I’d survive. He took away my fears.”
Within a few minutes, the man had unpacked his car. His wife agreed to stay back in the parking lot with their baby in order to make room for Muenchrath, her boyfriend and their backpacks.
The man drove them to a nearby town so that the couple could get medical treatment.
“I remember looking into the eyes of my unsung hero as he carried me into the emergency room in Lone Pine, California. I was so weak, I couldn’t find the words to express the gratitude I felt in my heart.”
The gratitude she felt that day only grew. Now, nearly 45 years later, she still thinks about the man and his family.
”He gave me the gift of allowing me to live my life and my dreams,” Muenchrath said.
At some point along the way, the man gave Muenchrath his contact information. But in the chaos of the day, she lost it and has never been able to find him.
”If I knew where my unsung hero was today, I would fly across the country to meet him again. I’d hug him, buy him a meal and tell him how much he continues to mean to me by saving my life. Wherever you are, I say thank you from the depths of my being.”
My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.
Supreme Court blocks California ban on notifying students’ parents about gender transitions
Comer to say Tim Walz ‘enabled fraud,’ failed whistleblowers in bombshell Minnesota hearing
Nancy Guthrie’s abductor may have returned to the crime scene, left critical clues at tribute: expert
Trump, BBC agree on mediator for $10 billion lawsuit over Jan 6 documentary editing controversy
Rhode Island teacher accused of sexting, kissing high school boy
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Indiana Members Credit Union announced as new anchor tenant at Bottleworks District
DHS defends McLaughlin against allegations husband’s company profited millions from ad contracts: ‘Baseless’
Fareed Zakaria’s takes on Trump and the collapse of nuclear stability
Sánchez defies Trump in political gamble as Madrid say no to war
Satellite images show Iran school strike hit more buildings than earlier reported
US submarine sinks Iranian warship by torpedo in a first since World War II
-
World1 week agoExclusive: DeepSeek withholds latest AI model from US chipmakers including Nvidia, sources say
-
Massachusetts1 week agoMother and daughter injured in Taunton house explosion
-
Wisconsin3 days agoSetting sail on iceboats across a frozen lake in Wisconsin
-
Maryland4 days agoAM showers Sunday in Maryland
-
Denver, CO1 week ago10 acres charred, 5 injured in Thornton grass fire, evacuation orders lifted
-
Florida4 days agoFlorida man rescued after being stuck in shoulder-deep mud for days
-
Massachusetts2 days agoMassachusetts man awaits word from family in Iran after attacks
-
Oregon6 days ago2026 OSAA Oregon Wrestling State Championship Results And Brackets – FloWrestling