Talk Of The Nation

Dead-Pan Humor And Childhood Fears Collide In 'The Dark'

editor — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 18:24:00 +0000

Author Daniel Handler, who writes under the pen name Lemony Snicket, is known for his dry wit and matter-of-fact take on the mysterious and macabre.

Letters: Researching Rare Diseases, Only Children

editor — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 18:04:00 +0000

Transcript

NEAL CONAN, HOST:

It's Wednesday, and time to read from your comments. James in Laurel Hill, Florida, emailed during our conversation about research into rare diseases: I would like to affirm the comment made by your guest about rare disease research leading to help for more common diseases. He wrote: My nephew has brittle bone disease. Some aspects of his treatment have been used to help mend broken bones in accident victims.

Will Work For Free? The Future Of The Unpaid Internship

editor — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 18:00:00 +0000

Transcript

NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. With school out, many college - and even some high school students - will spend the summer working as interns. It's a chance to beef up their resumes, gain on-the-job experience and make valuable contacts. Last week, a federal district court judge in New York issued a ruling that could change the system.

Judge William Pauley ruled in favor of two unpaid interns who worked on the movie "Black Swan," and they argued that Fox Searchlight Pictures violated minimum wage and overtime laws.

The Penultimate Edition Of The Political Junkie

editor — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:56:00 +0000

Transcript

NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. The speaker clamps the Hastert Rule on immigration reform. Three Republican senators now support gay marriage. And the Bay State Senate race goes into its last week.

A Look Ahead To The Future Of Afghanistan

editor — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:07:00 +0000

Twelve years after the war began, Afghanistan's president announced Tuesday that Afghan forces officially assumed control of security for the country. U.S. and NATO troops will remain until the 2014 deadline, but the Afghan military is now expected to fight without NATO support.

Breaking Bad News To Kids: How Media Has Tweaked The Process

editor — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:05:00 +0000

Parents have always had to break hard news to kids, from family hardships to national tragedies. Now there are more ways for children to learn about news faster — through 24 hour news and social media. So, what's changed in how parents broach these subjects? How can media help, or hurt?

Obama's Former Legal Adviser Urges U.S. To 'Disciple Drones'

editor — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:03:00 +0000

Transcript

JOHN DONVAN, HOST:

Last month, Harold Koh, who is a lawyer who worked for President Obama, gave a speech where he criticized the way the president is running the drone war against terrorist targets overseas, which is an interesting thing because Koh himself provided much of the legal underpinning that the president relies on to keep the use of drones within the boundaries of national and international law.

When A Language Dies, What Happens To Culture?

editor — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:49:00 +0000

Transcript

JOHN DONVAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm John Donvan.

We now turn to the world's 7,000 languages and the fact that nearly half of them are expected to vanish over the next 100 years. You're going to give me a moment to sip my water so that my voice returns. That was the sound of sipping water and it worked. Like the whole language in India or the Panau language of Papua New Guinea. And in the U.S., the Pacific Northwest is a major global hotspot for disappearing languages, like Athabaskan, a language of the Siletz tribe. Some languages have already gone extinct.

After SCOTUS DNA Ruling, What Changes For Police?

editor — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:54:00 +0000

The Supreme Court ruled in June that police can routinely take DNA samples from people who are arrested for comparison against a national database. The decision raises major questions about how law enforcement and criminal justice processes will change.

'Cows' To The Rescue! Soil's Secrets For Saving The Earth

editor — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:45:00 +0000

In her book Cows Save The Planet, journalist Judith Schwartz argues that the key to addressing carbon issues and climate change lies beneath our feet. Schwartz says that proper management of soil could solve a long list of environmental problems.

"The thing to realize is that while we think about this as a sky thing — that it's all about all the fossil fuels that we're burning and all that spewing into the atmosphere — it's actually also a ground thing," she tells NPR's Neal Conan.

Schwartz explains how livestock can help restore the land and get the carbon cycle back in balance.