ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: British director Ken Loach is both an award-winning filmmaker and a social activist. His latest film, I, Daniel Blake, combines those two passions. It's about a man tangled in bureaucratic red tape. And though Loach cast a stand-up...
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: Time now for StoryCorps. This Christmas Eve, people all over the world will log on to the official Santa Tracker to follow his progress on U.S. military radar. The tradition started in 1955 thanks to a misprint in a Colorado Spr...
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: If you think you're stressed out during the holidays, try being one of Santa's helpers. Before he became a best-selling writer and humorist, David Sedaris tried. He worked as a department store elf. Turns out that being surrounde...
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: This year, Disney premiered its first Latina princess. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, ELENA OF AVALOR THEME SONG) GABY MORENO: (Singing) Elena, Elena of Avalor. SIEGEL: Elena of Avalor sings and plays guitar. She goes on adventures and rule...
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: In Turkey, the government has been arresting people who've been implicated in the failed political coup last summer. Tens of thousands of Turkish military officers, teachers, judges and journalists have been jailed on orders from...
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: Several of President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees have strong ties to oil and gas. Trump has also been clear about his support for coal. You might think that would mean renewable energy companies are feeling a bit anxiou...
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: We're going to talk about a very specific health problem now - kidney failure. The federal government will pay for expensive transplants for patients whose kidneys aren't working anymore. But after three years, the government wil...
DAVID GREENE, HOST: This week, around this country, activists are holding vigils to remember thousands of people who passed away in 2016. They all belong to a group we label the homeless. NPR's Pam Fessler found that the majority of those being memor...
DAVID GREENE, HOST: OK. Here in Washington, D.C., a single color, red, is the focus of a small exhibition at the Smithsonian's Sackler Gallery of Asian Art. NPR special correspondent Susan Stamberg says the show finds links between a 15th-century Min...
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Cue the music. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) SHAPIRO: Put some mulled wine on the stove. String the lights. And grab everything red and green in your home, and throw it all over the walls, windows, door jambs. To tell us how red and green b...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, SILVER BELLS) UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing) Bum bum bum, bum bum bum bum (ph). ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Time now to talk Christmas tree decorations. Earlier this month, I spoke with Bonnie Mackay, who wrote a memoir told through Chris...
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: Disney has become the first Hollywood studio to sell more than $7 billion in tickets globally in one year. And 2016 isn't over yet. NPR's Andrew Limbong reports on how Disney did it. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR)...
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: A bar in Washington, D.C., has found a way to combine two holiday season staples, cocktails and cookies. NPR's Neda Ulaby visited the birthplace of the cookie dough cocktail. NEDA ULABY, BYLINE: Even in a season spiked with boozy s...
DAVID GREENE, HOST: As the United States approaches the inauguration of a new president, there is a dangerous dance underway in the South China Sea. Last week, China seized an underwater drone the U.S. Navy was operating there. The Obama administrati...
DAVID GREENE, HOST: Let's chat now with one of President-elect Donald Trump's most high-profile advisers. It's former House Speaker Newt Gingrich who, like Trump, led a political upheaval. That was 1994. Gingrich helped Republicans take control of bo...
