The NPR Politics Podcast

Rank #1: Trump Fires National Security Adviser John Bolton. Bolton was Trump's third national security adviser and continued the pattern of departures by advisers who proved a bad fit for a White House led by the rare president with no prior experience with the military, national security or elected office. This episode: political correspondent Scott Detrow, White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez, and national political correspondent Mara Liasson. Email the show at nprpolitics@npr.org. Find and support your local public radio station at npr.org/stations.

Rank #2: In Fight With 'Chuck And Nancy,' Trump Says He'd Be 'Proud' To Shut Down Government. In a testy and dramatic Oval Office exchange with Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer, President Trump made clear he would be "proud" to shut down the government in less than two weeks if he doesn't get funding for his border wall. This episode: White House correspondent Tamara Keith, political editor Domenico Montanaro and Congressional correspondent Scott Detrow. Email the show at nprpolitics@npr.org. Find and support your local public radio station at npr.org/stations.

On Point

Rank #1: MSNBC's Katy Tur; 2020 Candidate Mark Sanford. MSNBC’s Katy Tur blasts lack of federal paid family leave upon her return to work. She’s on with Meghna Chakrabarti, and we also hear from Dr. Kimberly Montez. Plus, Republican presidential candidate Mark Sanford joins.

Rank #2: California Is Changing The Rules For Contract Workers And The Gig Economy. Who’s an employee and who’s a contract worker? California is rewriting the rules. Carolyn Said, Lorena Gonzalez and Diane Mulcahy join Meghna Chakrabarti.

Here & Now

Rank #1: Sept. 17, 2019: Remembering Cokie Roberts; Climate Change And Religion. Veteran journalist Cokie Roberts has died at 75. According to a family statement, Roberts died Tuesday due to complications from breast cancer. We take a look at her legendary career as an NPR and ABC News journalist. Also, a growing number of churches are taking an active roll in fighting against climate change. Host Tonya Mosley speaks with Reverend Michael Malcolm in Birmingham, Alabama, about his faith-based approach to environmental activism.

Rank #2: Sept. 17, 2019: Climate Change Reporting; Frank Bruni Talks Blindness. Journalists reporting on climate change say there are nuances and intersectional issues in covering the "climate emergency." We speak with three reporters covering the issue throughout the country. Also, New York Times columnist Frank Bruni woke up one morning without sight in one eye and now he has a 20% chance of going blind entirely. Here & Now's Robin Young talks with Bruni about blindness, writing and empathy.

Up First

Rank #1: Friday, September 20th, 2019. President Trump denies saying anything inappropriate to a foreign leader. But House Democrats push the intelligence community for information on a whistleblower complaint that allegedly accuses him of that. Will they get that information? Students across the world are marching for action on climate change today. Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg leads the cause. How did she create this movement and what are the demands? And catastrophic floods have hit large parts of southeast Texas. A state of disaster has been declared in 13 counties.

Rank #2: Thursday, September 19th, 2019. Saudi Arabia presents bits of wreckage as evidence. They're blaming Iran for the attack on their oil facilities. How could the administrations in Washington and Riyadh respond? An old photo shows Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dressed in brownface. What are the circumstances surrounding that picture? Also, the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates for the second time this year. It's a move the Fed typically makes to ward off recession. What's the move suggest about the near future of the economy?

PBS NewsHour - Segments

Rank #1: News Wrap: Israel's government in limbo after close election. In our news wrap Wednesday, the government of Israel remains in political limbo after two main parties deadlocked in Tuesday's do-over election. A smaller party led by former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman may now be critical to forming a coalition in parliament. Also, the European Parliament approved another extension to the deadline for Brexit, if the United Kingdom seeks one.

Rank #2: News Wrap: Iran threatens 'all-out war' if attacked by U.S. or Saudi Arabia. In our news wrap Thursday, Iran threatened an "all-out war" if attacked by the U.S. or Saudi Arabia. From the United Arab Emirates, Sec. of State Mike Pompeo said he hoped for a "peaceful resolution" of the tense situation. Also, a Taliban truck bomb in southern Afghanistan's Zabul province killed 20 people and wounded nearly 100, while a U.S. drone misfired and killed 30 civilians in the east.

Fresh Air

Rank #1: Investigating Justice Brett Kavanaugh . In their new book, 'The Education of Brett Kavanaugh,' 'New York Times' reporters Kate Kelly and Robin Pogrebin investigate the allegations against the Supreme Court justice and what was omitted from the confirmation hearings. They discuss Kavanaugh's behavior at Yale, their interviews with Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez, and why the FBI didn't talk to witnesses Ramirez provided.

Rank #2: How Tech Companies Track Your Every Move & Sell Your Data. 'Washington Post' tech columnist Geoffrey Fowler talks about how web browsers, phone apps, and smart speakers are tracking users, even when they're asleep. Fowler listened to four years' worth of audio that Amazon had captured and stored from his Alexa smart speaker — and was surprised by what he found.Soraya Nadia McDonald reviews the final season of Netflix's 'Orange is the New Black,' set in a immigration detention center.

1A

Rank #1: Miracle On Your Street: How The Post Office Handles Holidays. This week, the U.S. Postal Service will deliver nearly 200 million packages. It's an essential service — with some major challenges. Is today's post office sustainable? Would you miss it if it shrank or went away? And if it is worth saving, how should we save it?Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to our podcast. Have questions? Find us on Twitter @1a.

Rank #2: The 1619 Project. "We really tried to select stories that would go across the spectrum of American life," journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones told us.Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Find us on Twitter @1A.

PBS NewsHour - Full Show

Rank #1: September 16, 2019 - PBS NewsHour full episode. Monday on the NewsHour, a strike by 50,000 General Motors workers at plants across the country puts the brakes on production. Plus: Airstrikes on two major Saudi oil fields increase U.S. tension with Iran, Israelis go to the polls for the second time in a year, Politics Monday, the first woman of color on network late-night TV and an artist's brief but spectacular take on his unique visual medium.

Rank #2: September 15, 2019 - PBS NewsHour Weekend full episode. On this edition for Sunday, September 15, a look ahead to this week's election in Israel, the author and physicist Sean Carroll on the existence of parallel lives, and do the recent presidential debates show a growing rift between moderates and progressives in the Democratic Party? Hari Sreenivasan anchors from New York.

All Songs Considered

Rank #1: The Year In Music 2017. Music and politics have a long history and in 2017, a new chapter in their fraught and complicated relationship burst open. It began on a weekend in January with the Presidential inauguration and the Women's March on Washington, D.C. (and around the globe) that followed. That's when the new resistance movement got its first anthem, courtesy Los Angeles-based singer MILCK and her defiant song, "Quiet." She and other women sang the empowering ballad against sexual assault and abuse a cappella during the march, and it turned out to be a prescient chorus for what would unfold throughout the year.It was a strong year for guitar rock, the best of it coming from relatively younger bands dominated by women: Jay Som, Charly Bliss, Vagabon, Waxahatchee, Diet Cig, Palehound, Chastity Belt, Girlpool, Daddy Issues, Partner. The list goes on and on.2017 was also a year when much beloved artists abandoned the sounds their fans first fell in love with to try something new. Weezer and Beck dove deep into pop and all its tropes; St. Vincent and Torres largely traded electric guitar for synths and pulsing soundscapes. Bands that once dominated many top 10 lists — Arcade Fire, Grizzly Bear, The xx — all released records that fell way below expectations.There was so much more that happened in 2017 — more than we could ever get to in a single episode of All Songs Considered — but we do our best on this edition to hit the highlights (and a few low points), with NPR Music's Ann Powers and Stephen Thompson.

Rank #2: New Music Friday: March 16. All Songs Considered's Robin Hilton runs through the essential new album releases for March 16 with NPR Music's Ann Powers and Rodney Carmichael. Featured albums: 1. Snoop Dogg's Bible Of Love, 2. The Decemberists' I'll Be Your Girl, 3. Essaie Pas' New Path, 4. Mount Eerie's Now Only, 5. Meshell Ndegeocello's Ventriloquism. Also mentioned: Yo La Tengo: There's A Riot Going On, Caroline Says: No Fool Like An Old Fool, Bishop Nehru: Elevators Act 1 & 2, Durand Jones & The Indications: Durand Jones & The Indications, Lauren Auder: Who Carries You, PRhyme: PRhyme 2, Rich Homie Quan: Rich As In Spirit.

Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!

Rank #1: Best of WWDTM. As summer ends, we revisit our interviews with Matt Smith, Fabien Cousteau, and more.

Rank #2: Piper Kerman. Piper Kerman, author, joins us along with panelists Mo Rocca, Maeve Higgins, and Alonzo Bodden.

The Daily

Rank #1: The (Misunderstood) Story of NATO. On a combative opening day of the NATO summit in Brussels, President Trump called other member countries “delinquent” on military spending and attacked Germany as a “captive” of Russia. We examine where his frustration is coming from. Guest: David E. Sanger, a national security correspondent for The New York Times and the author of “The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age.” For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Rank #2: ‘1619,’ Episode 4: How the Bad Blood Started. Today on “The Daily,” we present Episode 4 of “1619,” a New York Times audio series hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones. You can find more information about it at nytimes.com/1619podcast.Black Americans were denied access to doctors and hospitals for decades. From the shadows of this exclusion, they pushed to create the nation’s first federal health care programs. Guests: Jeneen Interlandi, a member of The New York Times’s editorial board and a writer for The Times Magazine, and Yaa Gyasi, the author of “Homegoing.”Background reading:“One hundred and fifty years after the freed people of the South first petitioned the government for basic medical care, the United States remains the only high-income country in the world where such care is not guaranteed to every citizen,” Jeneen Interlandi writes.The Times Magazine asked 16 writers to bring pivotal moments in African-American history to life. Read Yaa Gyasi’s story “Bad Blood” here.The “1619” audio series is part of The 1619 Project, a major initiative from The Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. Read more from the project here.

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Rank #1: Fall TV Preview. It's autumn again. And that means we're getting a wave of new television. So it's time for the annual fall TV preview. Whether you like superheros or detectives, broadcast or cable or streaming, we're here to share what we're excited to see.

Rank #2: The Movies Of 1999. Just about every week, we talk about what we're watching or reading or listening to right now. Today, we're doing something different. We're going back 20 years to talk about some of the movies of 1999, including Drop Dead Gorgeous, Office Space, and The Talented Mr. Ripley. We'll talk about what holds up, what looks really different, and what we miss the most.

Planet Money

Rank #1: #909: Dollar Stores Vs Lettuce. Every six hours a new dollar store opens in the U.S. Are they killing grocery stores?

Rank #2: #427: LeBron James Is Still Underpaid. The best player in basketball is getting hosed. The NBA team owners, the players, the fans and even LeBron James himself want to keep it that way.

NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt

Rank #1: NBC on Earth: Pebble Mine. Chief Environmental Affairs Correspondent Anne Thompson travels to Dillingham, Alaska to report on a controversial copper mine proposal that some say could threaten the world’s largest salmon run.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rank #2: NBC on Earth: Water Prize. An international competition with a $10 million prize hopes to find a solution to harmful algae blooms caused by agricultural runoff. Chief Environmental Affairs Correspondent Anne Thompson reports from Ontario.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Car Talk

Rank #1: #1938: Theresa Syndrome. This week on The Best of Car Talk, Lee's mild-mannered wife's temper and vocabulary both take a dive, but only when she listens to our show. Are Tom and Ray carriers of a new form of ABS—Aberrant Behavior Syndrome? Meanwhile, tempers are also flaring out in California, where Jim's truck is polluting his entire town; and down in Hendersonville, Kentucky, where Brian's merging strategy is incredibly efficient, and also incredibly rude. Also, on Stump the Chumps we find out if Sarah's kids really held a peeing contest in her car while she was away; and, can Bill in Alaska get his forklift running in time to get us our halibut? All this, plus the return of the Puzzler, and more, this week on The Best of Car Talk.

Rank #2: #1937: The Great Montreal Hotel Fire. This week on The Best of Car Talk, the best prank ever in Magliozzi history, as Ray's family vacation is interrupted by the unfortunate news that his beloved Ford LTD has "burned to a crisp." Elsewhere, grad student Erica hopes her Celica's rattle is serious enough to get Mom and Dad to buy her a new car; Jodi's oil burning may put her Cavalier well ahead Erica's car on the path to heapdom; Unitarian Minister Carol is being tempted by a shiny Jetta; and can Vince put the leftover gas from his weedwacker in his car without destroying it? Also, if you keep taking a car apart and putting it back together, will you eventually wind up with two? All this and more, this week on The Best of Car Talk.