MPR News Presents

Special programming from MPR News.

Truth, Politics and Power: A North Korea update
The U.S. and South Korea this week commenced computer-simulated military drills designed to prepare for a possible war with a nuclear-capable North Korea. Former NPR host Neal Conan explores the diplomatic and military situation with a former negotiator, a former high level Pentagon official and a historian.
Listen live to NPR special: solar eclipse across America
Monday, August 21st the solar eclipse will darken the skies along a path from Oregon to South Carolina. It's the first eclipse that will be seen from coast to coast in 99 years. Millions will don special glasses or watch through pinhole projectors. Eclipse enthusiasts say totality never disappoints.
NPR's Richard Harris on the dangers of sloppy science
Harris says science is hard, and there are a lot of ways to get it wrong — sometimes with dangerous consequences.
Aspen Ideas Festival: Walter Isaacson on how we can be more like da Vinci
The best-selling biographer says that while we can't be Albert Einstein or Sir Isaac Newton, we can all try to be more like da Vinci. "We can try to be curious -- playfully curious and inquisitive, which was his ultimate trait," he said.
Aspen Ideas Festival: Henry Louis Gates Jr. on race and class in America
The Harvard professor and documentary filmmaker explores the question: What would we tell Martin Luther King Jr. if he came back and wanted to know what had happened?
Thread Book Hour: Authors take on American empathy and the edge of the world
The Thread features a conversation with novelist Stephanie Powell Watts about race, class and life in small-town America. Plus, hear from the author of a new novel about a quarter-life crisis at the South Pole.
America's history of impeaching presidents
An historian, a political scientist and NPR legal affairs reporter Nina Totenberg explain the presidential impeachment process, and our past two experiences: the impeachment trials of Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.
Aspen Ideas Festival: Being Muslim and American in 2017
Insights into the varied experiences of Muslims in America, from a son of Afghani refugees who works for the Department of Homeland Security, and the daughter of Pakistani immigrants who founded an organization called Safe Nation Collaborative.