Clayton Young and Conner Mantz are longtime training partners and friends. They're also the two fastest men's marathoners representing the U.S. at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. The pair met on a run at Brigham Young University in 2017. They've been friends, training partners and competitors ever since. With years of friendship and thousands of miles binding them together, can Young and Mantz break away from the pack and take home the gold at the Olympic games? For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at cons ..read more

Vice President Kamala Harris is barreling towards the Democratic nomination for president. Her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, has a record of personally attacking women of color who stand in his way. Sexist and racist attacks on Harris have already started. How might they impact her bid for office? For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy ..read more

If Kamala Harris officially becomes the Democratic presidential nominee next month, she'll be the first woman of color to lead a major party's ticket. Of course, that would not be her first, first. Harris's entire career is a list of jobs that nobody who looks quite like her had held before, including California's attorney general, Senator, and Vice President of the United States. Harris often stresses that while she may be a first, others paved the way. Kamala Harris has had a career full of firsts – could she also be the first woman to become President of the United States? Learn more a ..read more

In just a matter of hours, a Kamala Harris for President campaign has gone from a far-flung possibility, to all but certain likelihood. It puts the Vice President in a tricky spot. She's got to run on President Biden's achievements, while avoiding the more challenging aspects of his record. Biden entrusted Harris with some of the most challenging parts of his portfolio, including voting rights, the rollback of reproductive rights and immigration. Harris has struggled to find her footing on immigration. Early on, she faced criticism for having not visited the southern border. As Republicans ..read more

President Biden has made a historic decision to endorse his vice president, Kamala Harris, to take his spot at the top of the Democratic ticket. The move comes after weeks of calls for Biden to step aside after concerns about his fitness for the job. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Senior White House Correspondent Tamara Keith and National Political Correspondent Mara Liasson about what this means for the Democratic Party in the months ahead to the election. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at conside ..read more

A plucky meteorology heroine; a male rival with no shortage of hubris; and some very, very big storms: that's the basic formula behind the new disaster action movie Twisters, which follows storm chasers around Oklahoma amid a tornado outbreak. It's a standalone sequel to the 1996 film Twister, a box-office hit in its day which also spurred a lot of real-life research into severe storms. We've since learned a lot about how tornadoes behave, and the technology of storm chasing has improved dramatically. But behind these summer blockbusters is a mystery that scientists are still trying to solv ..read more

In 2017, the Larry Nassar scandal rocked the Olympic community. Hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse against the former USA Gymnastics doctor underscored how vulnerable athletes are — particularly when they're minors. That year, Congress and the U.S. Olympic Committee had a solution. The U.S. Center for SafeSport was founded to investigate and respond to allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct. The goal was for predators like Larry Nassar to never harm young athletes again. Now, seven years later, SafeSport is facing scrutiny of its own — over whether it's made good on that promise ..read more

A warming planet is making storms and wildfires more intense, and more destructive. That's making homeowners insurance more expensive and harder to find. Insurance companies are raising their rates because, they say, they need to cover increasing losses from extreme-weather-related property damage. This week the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is holding a summit to address this spike in premiums. HUD Acting Secretary Adrianne Todman explains what the federal government is looking to learn. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Pod ..read more

Donald Trump's message for America has long been one of grievance and retribution. What will he say at the Republican National Convention this week, after an attempt on his life? For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy ..read more

When President Biden heard that Donald Trump had picked J.D. Vance to be his running mate, he called the Ohio senator "a clone" of Trump. But when Vance first gained national attention, he was one of Trump's loudest critics. Vance first drew the national spotlight in 2016 with the publication of his memoir "Hillbilly Elegy." The book served as a biography of his upbringing in America's Rust Belt and social commentary on the white working class at a time when many were trying to understand those voting for Donald Trump. On the press tour for that book Vance had a lot of negative things to say ..read more