Here & Now Anytime

With the rise of artificial intelligence, utilities are trying to satisfy an unquenchable thirst for new sources of electricity. Part of the answer may be deep underneath our feet. Here & Now's Peter O'Dowd visits New Mexico, where scientists, entrepreneurs and politicians from both parties are trying to harness the endless supply of heat generated below the surface of the Earth. Then, Virginia's climate law requires 100% renewable energy by 2050. The commonwealth is also known as the data center capital of the world. Can those ambitions coexist? University of Virginia professor William Shobe weighs in. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

The White House has promised to quadruple nuclear power by 2050. To get there, some closed nuclear plants are coming back online, including one near the site of a reactor that partially melted down more than 45 years ago. Here & Now’s Chris Bentley visits two of them: the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan and the Crane Clean Energy Center on Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island. And, we talk with Katy Huff, associate professor at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, about what it will take to increase the role of nuclear in the country's future energy mix. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Democrats are criticizing President Trump's affordability speech for not focusing that much on affordability. We learn more from The Washington Post's Matt Viser, who attended the president's rally. Then, it's not just affordability that's becoming a problem; so is inequality. Now, California is debating one potential solution: a tax on the wealth held by that state's billionaires. North Carolina State University professor Christina Lewellen discusses the pros and cons of a wealth tax. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

President Trump will allow technology giant Nvidia to sell its second-best artificial intelligence chips to China. The move reverses years of policy restrictions and could help push China farther along in the AI race. "Chip War" author Chris Miller shares more. Then, Paramount launched a hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery after Warner Bros. agreed last week to sell its streaming and studio businesses to Netflix. David Ellison, the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, bought Paramount this summer. The Ellisons have strong ties to Trump. And a firm run by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner would help finance Paramount's bid. NPR’s David Folkenflik explains what this could mean for U.S. consumers. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

The Supreme Court is considering whether to allow President Trump to fire Rebecca Slaughter, a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission, not for cause, but because she doesn't fit in with the agenda. Law professor and former assistant U.S. attorney Kim Wehle weighs in. Then, the Department of Homeland Security has arrested dozens of people in New Orleans since the Trump administration expanded its crackdown to the city. Bobbi-Jeanne Misick, immigration reporter at Verite News, explains how immigrant communities in the city are preparing for possible raids. And, Frank Gehry, whose designs helped redefine modern architecture, died Friday at the age of 96. Design critic Alexandra Lange talks about his legacy. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, discusses how local police departments are caught between following federal immigration directives and maintaining community trust. And, President Trump has been denigrating the community of more than 80,000 Somali migrants living in Minnesota. Khalid Omar, an organizer with the Minnesota interfaith group Isaiah, explains the impact on his community. Then, if raccoons are wild animals, why are they so darn cute? There may be a scientific reason: Urban raccoons are showing early signs of domestication. Raffaela Lesch, a researcher at the University of Arkansas, shares more. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Efforts to end Russia's war in Ukraine have continued this week, but Russia expert Fiona Hill said she doesn’t see any big changes on the immediate horizon. Hill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who served in the first Trump administration as a Russia expert, explains more and talks about why Russia and China are keeping an eye on President Trump’s boat strikes in the Caribbean. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

President Trump made inflammatory comments about Somali immigrants living in the U.S on Tuesday, calling them "garbage." His comments come amid reports that the administration is planning to launch an ICE operation in Minnesota to target primarily undocumented Somali migrants. The Minnesota Reformer's Madison McVan joins us. Then, a planned meeting between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a U.S. delegation led by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner is off after talks in Russia earlier this week ended with no breakthrough. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley tells us more. And, Michael and Susan Dell announced on Wednesday that they'll give $250 to 25 million children, in investment accounts. Wailin Wong, host of Planet Money's the Indicator, explains. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

The White House is contradicting earlier reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a verbal order to conduct a secondary strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean in September. The strike, which killed two remaining survivors from the first offense, has drawn scrutiny from both sides of the aisle. NPR's Tom Bowman joins us. Then, Elliott Abrams, a former special representative for Venezuela in the first Trump administration, talks about why he thinks regime change in Venezuela is “the only way forward.” Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

President Trump wants to pardon former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted of trafficking drugs into the United States. At the same time, his administration is blowing up what they call drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. Juan Sebastián González of the Georgetown Americas Institute explains more about Trump’s actions in Latin America. And, bipartisan support is growing for congressional review of those strikes after multiple reports have raised questions about whether at least one of the strikes amounts to a war crime. Franco Ordoñez, a White House correspondent for NPR, joins us. Then, for the first time since 1988, the United States will not commemorate World AIDS Day. Dr. Monica Gandhi of the University of California, San Francisco, explains what the move says about the Trump administration’s policy to fight HIV and AIDS. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

The famous country music venue and radio show “The Grand Ole Opry” turns 100 years old today. Grand Ole Opry host Charlie Mattos and country music star Mandy Barnett share some big moments from the institution’s long history. And, the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin reburied the remains of 67 ancestors that were excavated in the 1960s and held for decades by the Milwaukee Public Museum. The Association on American Indian’s Shannon O’Loughlin — also a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma — talks about the decades-long fight for Native American repatriation. David Grignon, a tribal elder and historic preservation officer with the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin, also joins us. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

During World War I, fighter planes called Sopwith Camels downed 1,294 enemy aircraft, more than any other Allied fighter in WWI. For those familiar with the Peanuts comics, it's the name of the doghouse that Snoopy flies in his fantasy sequences as a Flying Ace, a brave WWI pilot battling the Red Barron. The Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. has one on view. Here & Now's Scott Tong visits the museum to check it out. And, Yomi Young, a friend of disability activist and author Alice Wong, tells us about Wong's legacy of building community. Wong died earlier this month at 51 Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Here & Now’s Scott Tong recently traveled to Doral, Florida, the U.S. city with the highest population of Venezuelans, to talk with people who support President Trump's pressure campaign against Venezuela's leader, Nicolas Maduro. And, even as they speak in support of the president's recent moves against Maduro, there is concern in the community after Trump ended Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants. Tong talks with residents about their loss of permission to live and work in the U.S. or buy health insurance, and the conflict between Venezuelans in Doral and Republican Mayor of Doral Christi Fraga over her unwavering support for Trump. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

The Pentagon is investigating former Navy officer and current Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly for calling for troops to disobey "illegal orders." Former Air Force Deputy Judge Advocate General Steve Lepper joins us to break down the complicated military justice system. Then, where might the U.S. pressure campaign on Venezuela lead? We talk with Michael Shifter, former president of the Inter-American Dialogue and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University's Center for Latin American Studies. And, two Senate Democrats want to know why a White House official intervened in a federal investigation on behalf of pro-Trump influencer Andrew Tate and his brother, who are accused of sex trafficking. ProPublica's Avi Asher-Schapiro tells us more. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Ten secretaries of state are demanding answers from the Trump administration. Earlier this month, they wrote a letter to the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security with concerns about how voter information they were asked to submit would be used. Arizona's Secretary of State Adrian Fontes talks about the letter and the implications for midterms. Then, a religious nonprofit and several Catholic clergy are suing the Trump administration for blocking them from ministering to people at an ICE detention center near Chicago. Father David Inczauskis tells us more. And, a record number of Indigenous people from around the world took part in COP30. Indigenous Climate Action's Rosalyn Boucha explains what the talks accomplished and whether indigenous concerns were addressed. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

TikTok chef Tineke "Tini” Younger went viral in 2023 for her mac and cheese recipe, and it’s become a Thanksgiving staple for home cooks. Younger joins us to share her recipe and tips for making it. Her number one recommendation? Shred your own cheese. And, roasting can bring out the flavors of vegetables with little effort. Resident chef Kathy Gunst shares tips for roasting and recipes that make squash, cabbage and other produce shine. Then, a stew is not a soup, and a soup is not a stew. In general, a stew is thicker and more of a comfort food that sticks to the ribs. Gunst details some recipes for hearty stews, perfect for winter. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

The Labor Department released September's monthly jobs report, showing employers added 119,000 jobs, which is the strongest increase since April. But it also shows the unemployment rate ticking up. NPR's Scott Horsley joins us. Then, we speak with two California congressmen, Democrat Sam Liccardo and Republican Kevin Kiley, about their proposal to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits for another two years, as well as other health care reform ideas that lawmakers are considering ahead of a planned vote next month. And, more than 4,000 students in the Cincinnati Public School System are experiencing homelessness. We hear from Rebeka Beach, program manager at Project Connect, the homeless advocacy organization within the school system, about its plan to help those students and their families. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

President Trump is expected to sign a bill forcing the Justice Department to release files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was friends with rich and powerful men, including President Trump, before he became a politician. The bill sailed through the House and Senate on Tuesday after Trump withdrew his opposition to it. But the battle over the Epstein files has revealed deep divisions between the president and some of his most ardent Make America Great Again supporters. The Bulwark’s Will Sommer explains. And, Liz Stein, a survivor of Epstein’s abuse and an anti-trafficking advocate, joins us to discuss the vote to release the files. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

The House of Representatives approved a bill Tuesday to force the Department of Justice to release all of its files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein died by suicide in a federal jail in 2019. South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace explains why she's voting to release the files. Then, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is making his first visit to the White House after the 2018 killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. NPR's Danielle Kurtzeleben tells us more. And, on the ground in war-torn Sudan, aid groups say the malnutrition crisis is the worst since the start of the civil war more than two years ago. Myriam Laaroussi with Doctors Without Borders explains what her team is seeing and what they are doing to help. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

President Trump posted on social media Sunday night that "we have nothing to hide" and now says House Republicans should vote to release all files on convicted sex offender and well-connected financier Jeffrey Epstein. Punchbowl News co-founder John Bresnahan explains why. And, even with the government open again, Head Start programs are unstable, with some of them still closed. Tommy Sheridan, deputy director of the National Head Start Association, shares more. Then, Kentucky's Republican senators are feuding over a provision quietly tucked into the bill that reopened the government. Sen. Mitch McConnell added language banning the sale of hemp products with more than 0.4 milligrams of THC per container. Sen. Rand Paul says the provision could devastate the industry. Kentucky Public Radio's Joe Sonka explains. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy