Episodes

  • Gregg Carlstrom On The Situation In The Middle East

    Gregg Carlstrom On The Situation In The Middle East
    May 20 2026
    A war the president promised would last weeks is now in its third month. And the ripple effects are rocking the global economy.

    The Strait of Hormuz is still closed to most ships. Iran, the U.S., and Israel don’t look ready for a peace deal. Iran’s air force and navy are severely damaged. But recent intelligence reports say the regime has control of more missiles and weapons systems than the Trump administration has acknowledged, and that it’s taking advantage of the ceasefire to rearm.

    Meanwhile, Iranians are living under a blockade. Gulf states are absorbing the shock of Iranian missiles and of economic uncertainty.

    What does the Middle East look like now? Who wins, who loses, and what happens to American influence in a region it just turned upside down? Luckily, we know just the man to ask.

    Gregg Carlstrom’s is a name that might be familiar to listeners of the News Roundup. He’s been The Economist’s Middle East correspondent since 2010. He’s also the author of the book, “How long will Israel survive? The threat from within.” We sit down with him to talk through the latest in the region.

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    45 mins
  • America 250: One Nation Under God?

    America 250: One Nation Under God?
    May 19 2026
    This week, thousands of Americans attended a day-long conservative prayer gathering. The event was billed as a rededication of the U.S. as “One Nation Under God” for our nation’s 250th birthday.

    The gathering was a private-public partnership backed by the White House. Non-Christian voices of faith were notably absent, apart from one Jewish rabbi. Almost all the speakers featured were Christians and most were Evangelicals. Some were Trump cabinet members and lawmakers.

    With the separation of church and state and the freedom of religion baked into the founding of our country, what does our nation’s relationship with faith look like today? Does the America of 2026 represent what our founding fathers intended?

    In this special broadcast of 1A in partnership with Religion News Service, we leave our studio and head to American University in Washington D.C. where we sit down with a panel of experts in front of a live audience.

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    46 mins
  • 'If You Can Keep It': Reforming The Supreme Court, Part 2

    'If You Can Keep It': Reforming The Supreme Court, Part 2
    May 18 2026
    It’s been more than two weeks since the Supreme Court made the decision to weaken a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That piece of the legislation protected minority voters from discrimination in elections. Now, that ruling has invoked a new wave of calls to reform the court.

    In the last installment of our “If You Can Keep It” series, we discussed what those reforms might look like, from expanding the size of the bench, to restricting the shadow docket.

    Our listeners had so many thoughts on whether and how to reform the court that we decided to return to that conversation to talk more about what’s possible and answer more questions.

    So, what happens when the Supreme Court loses credibility among a large swath of the country? And how can the court get it back when partisanship on the bench has become the expectation.

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    45 mins
  • The News Roundup for May 15, 2026

    The News Roundup for May 15, 2026
    May 15 2026
    Despite assertions by President Donald Trump to the contrary, reporting from The New York Times indicates that Iran’s military is still in fighting shape, regaining access to 30 of its 33 missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz.

    The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act has paved the way for Alabama to use a controversial GOP-drawn electoral map in the upcoming midterms.

    And FBI Director Kash Patel appeared on Capitol Hill this week to give testimony before Congress. He clashed with Democrats over reporting from The Atlantic that indicated that the Trump official’s alcohol use was impeding him from completing his duties.

    We cover the most important stories from around the country in the domestic hour of the News Roundup.

    And, in global news, President Donald Trump traveled to China this week to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Taiwan, the war in Iran, and trade are all up for discussion between the two leaders of the world’s largest economies.

    The price tag of the war with Iran has now topped $29 billion.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week that he believes his country’s invasion of Ukraine is “coming to an end.”

    We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.

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    1 hr and 28 mins
  • How Mayors Across The Globe Are Making A Difference

    How Mayors Across The Globe Are Making A Difference
    May 14 2026
    Mayors are uniquely aware of what’s needed to make their cities run more efficiently. And when it comes to improving city life — from housing, to public safety, to city services — a lack of resources can be a major obstacle.

    In February, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced the winners of this year’s mayors’ challenge. A $1 million prize was awarded to 24 winners from 20 countries selected from 630 entries.

    1A spoke to some of those winners at Bloomberg’s Citylab conference in Madrid, Spain. The summit was held in April and convened mayors from across the globe to talk about the latest in city planning.

    We sit down with Vico Sotto, mayor of Pasig in the Philippines; Lauren McLean, the Democratic mayor of Boise, Idaho; and Geordin Hill-Lewis, the Mayor of Cape Town, South Africa, to talk about how they’re navigating the challenges facing them and their neighbors.

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    44 mins
  • What Tele-ICUs Mean For Health Care In Critical Moments

    What Tele-ICUs Mean For Health Care In Critical Moments
    May 13 2026
    In August 2024, 26-year-old Conor Hylton checked into Bridgeport Hospital in Connecticut. Overnight, he was transferred to critical care, where he died.

    It was only after his passing that his family found out that Conor was treated at what’s known as a “tele-ICU.” His story shines a light on a practice that’s been around for decades despite a lack of substantial research about its outcomes.

    A tele-ICU is a hospital unit where patient care is handled off-site by remote doctors, nurses, or specialists. Up to a third of ICU beds in the U.S. are in tele-ICUs. That’s according to a study from the American Hospital Association.

    In Wisconsin, as of May 1, critical care physicians are no longer physically present in the ICUs of a few Ascension satellite hospitals. They remain available via video call to help bedside nurses and on-site hospital medicine doctors, known as hospitalists, who do not specialize in critical care.

    These facilities do present an opportunity to expand and improve the health care people receive. But what are the risks of replacing in-person care in the most critical, life or death moments?

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    45 mins
  • Journalist Jodi Kantor On Finding Your Life’s Work

    Journalist Jodi Kantor On Finding Your Life’s Work
    May 12 2026
    Last year, when Columbia University found itself embroiled by anti-war protests and fighting with the Trump administration, journalist Jodi Kantor was invited to speak at the school’s commencement.

    “My friends actually tried to stop me. Like, ‘Don’t do it. Call in sick,'” remembers Kantor.

    The Pulitzer prize-winner did wind up giving that speech. And that experience led her to write a new book about how young people can find their life’s work. We sit down with Kantor to talk about ‘How to Start.’

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    34 mins
  • 'If You Can Keep It': The Realities Of Supreme Court Reform

    'If You Can Keep It': The Realities Of Supreme Court Reform
    May 11 2026
    Public trust in the Supreme Court is at a 30-year low, according to Pew Research Center. For some, this month marked a turning point in perceptions of its legitimacy.

    The court recently ruled in Louisiana v. Callais. Its decision undermined a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that protected minority voters and sought to prevent racial discrimination in elections.

    Following the court’s ruling, Tennessee’s GOP-controlled legislature passed a new congressional map, dismantling the state’s majority-Black district. The map gives Republicans a competitive advantage in all nine districts ahead of the state’s midterms. Other red states are now scrambling to redraw their congressional maps as well.

    Justice Samuel Alito justified the court’s ruling by claiming that Black voter turnout, both nationwide and in Louisiana, exceeded white voter turnout in two of the five recent presidential elections, writing that the kind of discrimination the Voting Rights Act was designed to prevent no longer exists.

    However, reporting from The Guardian found that Alito’s claim was based on misleading data from the Justice Department.

    As trust in the Supreme Court continues to remain low, calls for reform grow. In this installment of our weekly politics series, “If You Can Keep It,” we unpack what that reform might actually look like and what’s at stake for our democracy if it doesn’t happen.

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    43 mins