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Africa
3:00 am
Tue June 5, 2012

Tunisian Women Turn Revolution Into Opportunity

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Credit John W. Poole / NPR

Workers at a carpet-making business in the town of Kairouan are paid about $2.50 a day. Many carpet buyers are tourists, but the number of foreign visitors has dropped since the revolution.

Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Women talk with a police officer in Tunis.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Women in a range of styles pose for a picture near the entrance to the old medina, or marketplace, in Tunis.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
Lawyer Ferida Lebidi heads the commission writing the "rights and liberties" section of Tunisia's new constitution. She belongs to an Islamist party that is considered moderate, though she advocates capital punishment for adultery.
Credit John W. Poole / NPR
A woman walks through the marketplace in Kairouan, where some street scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark were filmed.
Credit John Poole / NPR
Tunisian women walk through the narrow streets of Tunis' medina, or marketplace. Compared to women in other Arab countries, Tunisian women have had access to education and job opportunities for decades.
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Originally published on Wed June 6, 2012 1:42 am

Over the next couple weeks, NPR Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep is taking a Revolutionary Road Trip across North Africa to see how the countries that staged revolutions last year are remaking themselves as they write new social rules, rebuild their economies and establish new political systems. Steve and his team will be traveling some 2,000 miles from Tunisia's ancient city of Carthage, across the deserts of Libya and on to Egypt's megacity of Cairo. In this story, he looks at the changing role of women in the new Tunisia.

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Author Interviews
2:59 am
Tue June 5, 2012

The Marriage Is The Real Mystery In 'Gone Girl'

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Credit Heidi Jo Brady /
Gillian Flynn's first novel, Sharp Objects, was an Edgar Award finalist. She lives in Chicago with her husband.
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By NPR Staff

Originally published on Tue June 5, 2012 9:37 am

Gillian Flynn's new novel, Gone Girl, begins on the morning of Nick and Amy Dunne's fifth wedding anniversary — the day Amy disappears.

It opens with a rather sinister reflection: "When I think of my wife," Nick says, "I always think of her head.... You could imagine the skull quite easily. I'd know her head anywhere."

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Asia
2:57 am
Tue June 5, 2012

What China's Thinkers Need Most Is Also Most Elusive

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Credit Courtesy Yang Weidong
Yang Weidong interviews a subject for his documentary project "Signal," which finds that the vast majority of China's intellectuals yearn most for freedom. He plans to interview 500 of China's top thinkers for the project.
Credit Louisa Lim / NPR
Yang is the grandson of a revolutionary martyr who joined the Communist Party in 1925. He launched his project in memory of his father, who died after a confrontation with officials from his mother's work unit.
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Originally published on Wed June 6, 2012 10:35 am

A deceptively simple question has become an obsession for Chinese artist Yang Weidong: "What do you need?"

For the past four years, Yang has posed the question to more than 300 Chinese intellectuals, and the results illustrate a startling level of discontent among China's thinkers.

As for the answer, one word pops up time and time again.

"I need freedom," says writer Chang Ping.

"I need freedom of speech," says economist Mao Yushi.

"I need freedom of expression," says poet Ye Kuangzheng.

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It's All Politics
8:02 pm
Mon June 4, 2012

Scenes From Wisconsin On Recall Eve

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Credit Liz Halloran / NPR
Barbara Forgue of Marshall, Wis., a union member and regular at daily gathering at the Capitol.
Credit Liz Halloran / NPR
Protest songs on a sidewalk outside the Capitol.
Credit NPR
rotunda.jpg
Credit Liz Halloran / NPR
John Schaeffer of Madison, a regular at anti-Walker demonstrations at the Wisconsin state Capitol in Madison
Credit Liz Halloran / NPR
Fourth graders from Wauwatosa on field trip get lesson in democracy at the state Capitol in Madison.
Credit Liz Halloran / NPR
Wisconsin's Senate chamber, scene of so much partisan division this year, is quiet a day before the recall election, occupied only by a group of crystal spiritualists drawn by its beautiful round design.
Credit NPR
sign.jpg
Credit Liz Halloran / NPR
Barbara Forgue of Marshall, Wis., a union member and regular at daily gathering at the Capitol.
Credit Liz Halloran / NPR
The state Capitol rotunda, scene of the upheaval and tumult following Gov. Scott Walker's rollback of public union collective bargaining rights, on Monday.
Credit Liz Halloran / NPR
John Schaeffer, of Madison, a regular at anti-Walker demonstrations at the Wisconsin state Capitol in Madison.
Credit Liz Halloran / NPR
Fourth graders from Wauwatosa get a lesson in democracy while on a field trip to the state Capitol in Madison.
Credit Liz Halloran / NPR
Wisconsin's Senate chamber, scene of so much partisan division this year, is quiet a day before the recall election, occupied only by a group of crystal spiritualists drawn by its beautiful round design.
Credit Don Gonyea / NPR
The statue, "Forward", circa 1893, stands in front of the capitol building. "Forward" is the state motto, and both campaigns have been using that motion in their ads.

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Originally published on Tue June 5, 2012 9:41 am

Demonstrations and contemplation were evident at the Wisconsin state Capitol on Monday.

Union members and supporters gathered at noon — as they have done since the original "occupation" of the rotunda in protest of the policies of Gov. Scott Walker. Others found in the building a place for quiet discussion.

Click through the slideshow above for some of those scenes, as witnessed by NPR reporters Liz Halloran and Don Gonyea.

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The Two-Way
6:44 pm
Mon June 4, 2012

High Court Rules 'Equal Protection' Doesn't Extend To Municipal Taxpayers

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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Constitution's guarantee to equal protection of the law does not extend to taxpayers who paid more for a sewer hookup than their neighbors.

The case centered on what essentially amounted to an amnesty program for some taxpayers when Indianapolis switched from one payment system to another.

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The Two-Way
6:20 pm
Mon June 4, 2012

It's Not Your Imagination: Americans Are More Polarized, Says Pew

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Linda Door of Laguna Beach, Calif. protests against the health care reform law as supporters file past the Supreme Court in Washington, last March.
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By editor

Originally published on Mon June 4, 2012 7:44 pm

It's not just our politicians who are divided. According to a new report (pdf) from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, Americans' values and "basic beliefs are more polarized along partisan lines than at any point in the past 25 years."

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The Record
5:49 pm
Mon June 4, 2012

There's No Such Thing As A Sold Out Concert (Even For Justin Bieber)

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Over the weekend, Justin Bieber's 45-city fall tour sold out in an hour.
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By editor

Originally published on Tue September 18, 2012 7:44 pm

This weekend, as Billboard has reported, tickets for Justin Bieber's tour of the United States and Canada sold out in an hour. Not just one venue. The whole tour. All of the tickets. Completely.

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Music News
5:45 pm
Mon June 4, 2012

In Seattle, A Music Community Improvises Mourning

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A memorial outside Seattle's Cafe Racer on Thursday, a day after a deadly shooting inside. Just a few days later, musicians gathered outside the coffeehouse for an improvised memorial jam session.
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Originally published on Mon June 4, 2012 7:44 pm

Cafe Racer is a coffeehouse and bar in Seattle near the University of Washington. Last Wednesday, it was the site of a shooting that left four people dead.

Cafe Racer is also a music venue, home to a Sunday-night improvisational jam session called The Racer Sessions. Sunday night's Racer Session wasn't inside — it was too soon for that — but the show did go on.

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This Is NPR
5:42 pm
Mon June 4, 2012

Alex Ebert Loves NPR

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By editor

Originally published on Tue October 16, 2012 1:28 pm

Singer Alex Ebert of Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros and IMA Robot stopped by NPR West to talk with Morning Edition about his band's new album Here. He couldn't disguise his love for NPR...even by sporting his kaleidoscope glasses, a first for the I Heart campaign.

Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Ask Me Another
5:16 pm
Mon June 4, 2012

Talk The Talk

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By editor

Originally published on Fri June 8, 2012 9:19 am

Transcript

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

Let's play our next game. Let's bring up our next two fearless contestants, Mike Taylor and Lisa Schreibman.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: All right. Mike, I am told by our producers you are an attorney, but more interesting than that, if there could be possibly something more interesting, you won a Chevy Impala in a contest where you had to stay rocking in a rocking chair for 90 hours?

MIKE TAYLOR: That's correct, I did, yes.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: What - where was that?

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