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Suhair at home with her son, Yousef, earlier this year. Credit Credit Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos

At War
Suhair had to decide whether leaving Syria was worth risking her children's lives. Now she is coming to terms with the opportunities and costs of her decision.

Suhair at home with her son, Yousef, earlier this year. Credit Credit Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos

This is the first dispatch from a project following a mother and her four children who fled Syria in 2015 and are now rebuilding their lives spread across four European cities. Read more about the project here.
At the end of her shift in January 2019, Suhair was listening intently to Bjorn Muller, a former line chef at the Michelin-starred restaurant Inter Scaldes, as he explained in Dutch to her and the other kitchen trainees what each did well that day and what they could improve upon. Though she was not 100 percent sure what was being said, Suhair laughed when the others did. She had been studying the language for more than a year, but those lessons about van Gogh and Rembrandt, Dutch birthday traditions, the Netherlands' history and the requisite forms for navigating its bureaucracy weren't proving entirely relevant here at Orionis, a work-placement agency in Vlissingen, a seaside town in the southern province of Zeeland. Muller was talking about menus, work flow and hygiene as he gestured to notes he had made in washable marker on the stainless-steel countertops, where they prepare each day's lunch.

[ To receive the next dispatch about Suhair and her children, sign up for the weekly At War newsletter.]

Image

Suhair and her son, Yousef, have been settled in Vlissingen in the Netherlands since 2016. She wonders whether she will ever feel as if she really belongs. Credit Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos

The kitchen at Orionis is a vocational-training site, the heart of a fully functional restaurant and a cafeteria for the agency's employees and students. The goal is to make the people who train here, who now include Syrian refugees like Suhair, employable in any restaurant. "I've never done this before; all my life was house and kids," Suhair said in Arabic. "The last thing I thought about was Suhair. But it's not wrong to try new things." (Out of concern for her security in a new country and the safety of her relatives in Syria, Suhair asked to use only her first name.)

Though Suhair, 55, looked the part in chef's whites and a long black apron, it was only her third day, and she was still learning her way around the kitchen and the pantry, taking cues from watching what others were doing. Since arriving that morning, she had served soup at lunch, washed the knives piling up in the sink and scrubbed down the counters and cabinets with soapy water, which she carried around in a plastic container that originally held satay sauce.

Work in the food industry is not what Suhair would have chosen for herself, but the way she calculated it, given her age and the level of Dutch she thinks she can reach, it was the fastest way to join the labor force and get off welfare. Like her decision to risk the sea crossing to come to Europe - and like most decisions Suhair has made since becoming a mother - the change was for the sake of her four children, so that they might have better lives. But leaving Syria has also forced her to think about herself for what she says is the first time. In the Netherlands, she is asking herself who she should be, could be and wants to be - beyond mother to her children. It's a time in her life that she sees as full of both opportunity and costs, and she is approaching it with excitement, some trepidation and plenty of pragmatism. She remains sober about the chances that she will ever feel as if she really belongs.

In Syria, Suhair, had stayed with her husband long after their relationship had gone bad. Even as she became increasingly unhappy in her marriage, she told herself she could wait it out until her youngest made it to university. And when Suhair left Syria for good, it was for the children as well. Had it just been her, Suhair most likely would not have gone, even as the country unraveled; she was not afraid to die there, and she was wary of the indignities of displacement and of the loss of the only home she'd ever known.

Suhair and her children first left Syria in 2013 and tried riding it out in Jordan, while her husband stayed in Damascus. In Amman, the two eldest daughters both paused their university studies and started working, but with Jordan's restrictions on the kinds of jobs Syrians are allowed to do, they found they couldn't afford a protracted stay. The family had to go back to Syria. By then, according to Suhair and her children, her husband had abandoned them, having also spent all of their savings. Souad, Suhair's second-oldest daughter, remained in Jordan to help support them financially. She passed out samples at a mall, while her mother and siblings squeezed into a one-bedroom apartment in Damascus.

[ For Syrian refugees, there is no going home.]

Suhair wasn't sure what to do next. While in Jordan, she had applied to the Australian Embassy for immigration visas, but she received no reply. Then in summer 2015, Souad called from Istanbul, where she had gone to look for better-paying work. She confided to her mother that she planned instead to cross the Aegean Sea to Europe. Suhair tried to dissuade her, fearing the dangers of sea and smugglers. When Souad called from Amsterdam a few weeks later, she urged her mother to follow with the others.

With her eldest daughter, Naela, 26 at the time, Suhair agonized over the decision to flee. They especially worried about the sea crossing between Turkey and Greece, and the risk of drowning in those waters. Suhair's son, Yousef, who was 13, still didn't know how to swim. But Suhair reasoned that outside Syria her children might at least have a chance to actually thrive. "I'm their mother; I brought them to this world, to this life," she says. "They're my responsibility." Finally, convinced that there was nothing left for them in Syria, they sold everything they owned to raise the money needed to pay the smugglers who would transport them to Europe. They told friends they were taking a short trip to Lebanon, and Suhair burned whatever family pictures they couldn't take with them. Yousef began studying swimming by watching videos on YouTube.

A few weeks later, they were on an overloaded raft on the Aegean Sea. The motor stalled halfway through their crossing, leaving them adrift. They made it to Kos, a Greek island, but their plan to be together in the same country was wrecked soon after.

[What refugees face on the world's deadliest migration route]

Telling them that the less they knew initially the better, Souad had withheld essential details about how she made it to Europe. Only when her family had been cleared in Kos to leave for Athens on the large ferry picking up refugees from the different islands did she finally explain by phone that they could skip Athens and the grueling land route because they could all pass for Europeans. (With fair skin - and in Suhair's case, blue eyes - their appearances aren't what most non-Syrians imagine Middle Easterners to look like.) She told them they should buy fake ID cards from the same smuggler she had used, and then book plane tickets for direct flights from Kos to the Netherlands or any Schengen Area country, from which they could reach Amsterdam without leaving the border-control-free zone.

In Kos, Suhair and her children followed the smuggler's instructions, splitting up and buying separate plane tickets on separate days. Naela and Maisam, Suhair's youngest daughter, then 19, were relieved when their fake papers worked at the airport in Greece for their flight to Switzerland. In Zurich, they boarded a train to cross Germany to Amsterdam - and during an unexpected ID check, the authorities detained them for traveling with false documents. The German government was allowing Syrians to travel to Germany and onward; had the sisters shown their Syrian IDs, they might have been allowed to continue to the Netherlands. Instead, they were forced to ask for asylum right there in Germany.

Suhair and Yousef were immediately discovered while checking in for their flight in Kos, and they watched in humiliation as the airline agent destroyed their boarding passes in front of everyone present. With no more money for new IDs and plane tickets, they had to travel to the Netherlands overland by train, bus, taxi and on foot - a journey Suhair still remembers with a shudder - but after a week they made it. Arriving in the last days of September 2015, they were reunited with Souad at Central Station in Amsterdam. It was the first time Suhair had seen her daughter in more than a year. By that point, she knew Naela and Maisam would be required to stay in Germany. The family would not be reunited after all. (No one would be able to travel until they obtained official residency papers - an unpredictable process that could take months or years.)

Suhair and Yousef would spend the next 12 months crisscrossing the Netherlands north to south, east to west, uprooted each time the Dutch authorities told them to pack whatever belongings they had and moved them to yet another reception center. They were housed in everything from a tent to gyms, where they showered in the locker rooms, to slowly sinking trailers erected on muddy fields. With Souad already processed as an individual adult and her other daughters in Germany, Suhair focused most of her efforts on keeping Yousef safe from the daily danger of their first refugee camp, then keeping him in some sort of schooling as they were shuttled all over the country. In that time, Suhair also bought a bike, made some Dutch friends and even had a piece of art she created in collaboration with a local artist exhibited at a museum in the city of Nijmegen.

In July 2016, almost a year after they arrived, Suhair and Yousef were granted five-year residency permits in the Netherlands. In October, they were settled in Vlissingen. Suhair rented a sunny two-bedroom apartment in public housing, across the street from a canal surrounded by a park and a 10-minute walk to the beach. With the help of Syrians already living in Vlissingen and with a starter grant from the Dutch government, she repainted the apartment and installed parquet floors. After a few trips to the secondhand store in town, she adorned a small bookcase with tchotchkes - what she saw as the critical first steps to making the place feel like a home, one all her children could visit in the future.

They fell into a routine: Yousef started attending high school, and while Suhair waited for enough new students to fill a class at the local language school, she started following Dutch language lessons on YouTube. She would also walk and bike around the city, frequently passing by a grocery stocked with ingredients and foods from home, opened by another refugee who arrived a year earlier and who had been an engineer in Syria. He and his wife became Suhair's friends.

After a year of formal language classes, she passed the civil integration exams, and the social workers at Orionis asked her what she might like to do. She kept her dreams to scale. "I'm not going to become a minister or director of something or have a company," Suhair says. "I want to work. I want to get off public assistance, and whatever I reach, I want it to be out of my own labor." She sees no shame in working in the service industry - something that middle-class housewives like her would never have done in Syria. "People here don't have complexes about being the boss of others," she says. "Here, I'm not less than people who have better-paid jobs than me."

A couple of weeks ago, at the end of April, she took a job at a resort village about 12 miles up the coast as they began staffing up for the coming summer season. The Egyptian-Dutch man who hired her speaks Arabic, though most of the tourists speak Dutch, German or English. Suhair is finally earning a salary. She also adopted Moosha, a mutt who loves to walk with Suhair along the canal and especially in the sand dunes near the beach. And she still drops by the cafe at the language school to practice Dutch with retired folks; the conversation is mostly about elections and taxes. Suhair has even gone on a few dates - though she wants love, not just something casual.

[ For more stories about the experiences and costs of war, sign up for the weekly At War newsletter.]

Still, she remains skeptical about whether she'll ever feel that she truly belongs. Her parents were Palestinian refugees in Syria, and though Suhair was born there, she became Syrian only when she married a Syrian man. It meant she breathed more freely - finally replacing the laissez-passer papers she had with a passport - and assuaged a lifelong anxiety she held about being restricted in her ability to travel. But even as she loved Syria and loved the life that she lived there - "It wasn't all tragedy," she says - she had the sensation that it wasn't fully hers. And if she couldn't feel it in Syria, then she doesn't know how she will in the Netherlands.

Throughout this new phase in her life, Suhair has recited to herself a verse from Al-Mutanabbi, a 10th-century Iraqi poet, lines that have become a common saying in Syria: "Not all that one longs for can happen; the winds do not blow in the direction the ships desire." Suhair recently found verses online written by an anonymous poet riffing on and answering those famous ones: "The one who hopes for something with not just his wishes but also his labor, will find it, even if he is opposed by humans and the Jinn. So aim for the heights and you will get there. Then the wind will blow the way the ship desires."

"Nothing is impossible," she said, switching to English. "Nothing is too late."

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To Stay or to Flee: A Syrian Mother's Impossible Choice

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At War Suhair had to decide whether leaving Syria was worth risking her children's lives. Now she is coming to terms with the opportunities and costs of her decision. Suhair at home with her son, Yousef, earlier this year.

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JA: Jad Abumrad

LN: Latif Nasser

JD: Jason DeLeon

DT: Donald Trump

JA: Hey, I'm Jad Abumrad.

RK: I'm Robert Krulwich.

JA: This is Radiolab.

RK: And...let's just um, let's just begin.

LN: OK, cool. So, umm...

JA: With our reporter and producer, Latif Nasser.

LN: I think the best place to begin, it sounds like, is in 2008.

JD: Yeah, I think that sounds about right.

LN: So, this is Jason DeLeon.

JD: I'm an associate professor of anthropology.

LN: At the University of Michigan.

JD: And I direct the undocumented migration project

LN: But, uh back in 2008 Jason had actually just finished grad school.

JD: And, my doctoral dissertation was on ancient stone tools.

MUSIC IN

Quote: "The lithic industries of San Lorenzo and Nochetitelon an economic and technological study"

JD: About as far removed as you can be from, the stuff that I'm doing right now.

Quote: "Using obsidian technological data from 11 domestic and non-domestic contexts."

LN: Just to explain: Jason was on his way to being an archaeologist, so he would go out into the field, do these digs in different parts of Mexico and find these little fragments of old stone tools

JD: This study focuses primarily on percussion flake tools

LN: Dating back to about 1000 BC

JD: An industry that has often been ignored in mesoamerican lithic analyses

LN: And then uh he would write these papers

JD: I evaluate these models by comparing differences in the frequencies of various tool types

LN: You know in these journals that just, that really just a handful of people would read

News Clip: Previous meso-american...

LN: But like many academics, and I can say this because I was an academic

News Clip: The study also finds that the introduction and adoption of prismatic blade

Technology

LN: He had this moment where he just kind of...hit the wall

JD: Like okay, this is enough, I'm not, I'm not doing this.

LN: I want nothing to do with this anymore.

RK: [Laughter]

JD: You know when I finish my dissertation, I had really become, kind of disillusioned with the work that I was doing.

JD: And I had no idea what I was gonna do. I remember telling my wife at one point,"I feel really bad. I feel like I've wasted the last ten years of my life doing archeology."

LN: And to make matters worse

JD: I'd taken this job at University of Washington

LN: He'd just gotten this job where he was supposed to teach the very thing he's was now sick of

JD: Yeah. Uh, just like, uh, just an exit...just a full-blown, crisis.

LN: But then, uh, fate stepped in. While Jason was preparing for one of his freshman classes, someone handed him a book

JD: By a writer named, uh Luis Alberto Urrea called The Devil's, "The Devil's Highway".

SW: Five men stumbled out of the mountain pass so sunstruck, they didn't know their own names couldn't remember where they had come from, had forgotten how long they'd been lost. One of them wandered back up a peak, one of them was barefoot, They were burned nearly black. Their lips huge and cracking.

LN: So the Devil's highway, is actually, well it's a true story. It's the story of 26 men who came to the US hiking their way through the Arizona desert. Fourteen of them died along the way.

JD: And so I start reading it, and

SW: Visions of home fluttered through their minds, soft green bushes, waterfalls, children

JD: it just shocked me, I mean I knew a lot about the border. At least I thought I did, I'd grown up, you know, in South Texas my parents were immigrants, but just like I couldn't believe that um that, that you know that this was, this is somebody's world.

SW: They were drunk from having their brains baked in the pan. They were seeing God and devils.

JD: Days and days of walking um running out of food.

SW: And they were dizzy from drinking their own urine.

JD: You know, dying of thirst.

SW: The poisons clogging their systems.

LN: And, at a certain point, Jason comes across this passage where the author is describing

JD: The things that were in these men's pockets.

SW: Belt buckle with a fighting cock inlaid. One wallet in a right front pocket of his jeans.

JD: You know, some change, some keys, a silver belt buckle.

SW: Fake silver watch, one comb.

JD: Um, you know these personal effects,

SW: Green handkerchief.

JD: And he's trying to reconstruct the story about who these men were that died from from, from exposure.

SW: John Doe number 42. Pure jeans. Colored piece of paper in pocket.

LN: Jason says when he read that book, a lightbulb went on

JD: And so I bought a plane ticket, and a month later I was in the Arizona desert.

MUSIC IN

LN: Jason gets out to Tucson, Arizona, and he manages to convince someone from a local NGO to basically like show him around and be his guide

JD: And I said "I want to look at the stuff that migrants are leaving in the desert."

He was like, "All right, you want to see this stuff. I'm gonna take you real deep into the desert and see what you- what you're made of."

JD: This guy just ran me through the wringer.

LN: That part of the Sonoran desert it's uh hilly, covered in sage brush, cacti everywhere, red sand, and Jason says at a certain point a few hours into the hike they walked up this incline, and got to this ridge where they could kind of of look out over this huge expanse

JD: Just imagine like a ravine or a wash

LN: And Jason says he suddenly noticed that the, the desert ground below them, was just covered in stuff.

JD: Over a thousand backpacks and water bottles, I mean the just-

JA: What?

LN: That much?

JD: Well, what ends up happening is stuff gets left behind, for a couple of different reasons, if you're en route you might throw something down because you get so tired and your bag just gets so heavy. And those things are kind of sprinkled across these migrant trails. But once you get to the end, past the checkpoint, your smuggler says ok we're safe now, we've got to a new road where we can get picked up, someone else will show up in a truck, and then they will say alright the 30 of you, get into this van, leave everything behind, change your clothes, so it doesn't look like you've just walked for two weeks through this desert, umm, and so when groups were moving really big you would see things the size of like football fields

JD: Just stuff everywhere, gatorade bottles, Bibles, photographs, um, toys. The kind of

random of things that you might throw in your bag and say "I'm leaving my home forever,

and these are the things that I want to take with me." You know you see things like a

diaper bag or a baby bottle and you wonder my God, you know, who, who just came

through this and what's, what's happened to them?

LN: So...

MUSIC IN

LN: For the next several years Jason just keeps going back to this stretch of the Sonoran Desert.

JD: Ripped clothes. Fragmented clothes in bushes.

LN: Gathering whatever he could find.

JD: Dirty socks.

LN: And y'know like an archaeologist, he would collect this stuff.

JD: Bandages.

LN: Itemize it. Categorize it.

JD: Cocktail dresses. High heel shoes.

LN: Try and figure out who it came from. Why it was there.

JD: Baby bottles. Hair curlers. Toys. Wrappers.

LN: He did this year.

JD: Sneakers. Photographs.

LN: After year.

JD: Socks.

LN: Picking up this.

JD: Shoes. Dresses.

LN: Picking up that.

JD: Backpacks. Bibles. Bottles.

LN: And then one day...

MUSIC OUT

JD: Uh. Human arm...

LN: He finds an arm.

JD: Wedged between some rocks.

LN: Like an entire arm up to the shoulder.

JD: Just sort of sticking, sticking out between two rocks. I mean there was no flesh other than the...the...the things that were holding the joint together.

JA: Oh wow.

JD: Yeah.

SILENCE

LN: Jason and his guide, the folks he was there with, they began to search the surrounding areas for other parts of the body.

JD: I mean really the goal was to try to find this skull. Um, because in terms of, you know, um identification, I mean your best luck is gonna be if you can get, if you can get the, um pieces of the skull.

LN: Because if you can find pieces of the skull maybe you can ID the body and if you can ID the body maybe you can tell the family "here's what happened to your loved one"

JD: And so we were out there basically digging around for...for other parts of this person.

JD: We come across a human tooth.

LN: Some little tiny bits of rib bones?

JD: But we never find the skull. And I realize that nobody's ever going to identify this person. There's just not enough left of them. And this is not...not likely to be a case that will be solved.

LN: Now Jason says he knew of course, that people were dying in a desert, but to see this

JD: The fragments of a person...

LN: Who'd basically been erased

MUSIC RISES

JD: You know, I mean it's very, [Exhale] I mean it's kind of just, it sort of just kills you.

LN: Eventually he began to have these nightmares

JD: Snakes coming out of the eyes

LN: about the missing skull.

JD: Birds swooping down and pecking out the eyes. Coyotes playing soccer with this person's skull.

LN: And for weeks, he couldn't shake the simple question:

JD: You know what, what did this to this person?

LN: And how many other bodies like this might be out here?

JD: How did it get to be like this?

JA/LN: And those questions

LN: Would end up sending Jason down a sort of rabbit hole

JD: Digging in the library to

LN: Of forensics papers

JD: Decomposing flesh.

LN: Missing persons reports

JD: Hikers who had gone missing.

LN: Historical trends

JD: Sociology papers. Demography papers.

LN: Government documents,

JD: illustrations and the figures that are buried in these appendices.

LN: And over the next several years, Jason would end up putting together this truly startling portrait of lost stories, hidden statistics, little known policy decisions along our southern border that completely upended how I think about this issue

Clip: ...: The Immigration issue poses real problems and challenges

LN: That we're constantly fighting about

DT: We will build a great wall along the southern border.

APPLAUSE

LN: But still never quite seeing.

JA: This is part one of a three part series on our southern border.

RK: We'll be doing it today, and then next week, and the week after.

JA: Part 1, a hole in the fence.

LN: Alright, so I thought I'd start us off with Jason's question.

JD: How did it get to be like this?

JA/LN: How did it get to be that so many people cross into America through the desert?

LN: Like, that's the classic image you have, is someone walking through the desert, why, out of all the places, along the border that you could cross, why is it that so many people are, are crossing in the hottest and most unforgiving place imaginable? And, one of the things that Jason ended up telling us about that we found most striking was simply

JD: The numbers

LN: The yearly numbers of migrant deaths in the desert.

JD: And, I mean it is shocking.

LN: If you look at the data, there's a very stark moment when things shift. It turns out that if you're looking at the number of people dying in the Sonoran desert, the numbers are a bit tough to pin down. But in the early 90s, it's single digits. Five bodies one year. Six bodies another year, seven bodies another. And then all of the sudden,

JD: Overnight

LN: In the late '90s....

JD: You go from 5 to 10 bodies to, to hundreds.

JD: I mean it used to be that if you wanted to cross the US-Mexican border you'd go down to Tijuana at dusk, a place called the soccer field, you would hop the fence with about a hundred other people and you would just bum rush the border patrol, and half of you would get by, would make it into the US, and the other half would get caught and sent back and people would do it the next day. Um, that was the system for a long time, I mean

LN: So what changed?

JD: Well, in the mid-90s, there was a lot of pushback against the visibility of fence hopping, and it all kind of starts with this little-known story. There's a great book by this guy Timothy Dunn called um "Blockading the Border" and it's about these Latino high school students in Texas right on the US- Mexico border.

LN: We ended up calling up the author he mentioned, Timothy Dunn, and then getting so interested in the story that Dunn laid out for us that well, we're gonna leave Jason behind for a while and we're gonna go on a little trip.

TH: Yes.

MK: That by the way is co-reporter Tracie Hunt.

TH: Yes.

RK: Alright, well so, where are we gonna go?

TH: We're going to go to El Paso.

MUSIC

TH: El Paso, Texas.

LN: Yeah so, Tracie and I went to El Paso awhile back.

TH: Latif, do you ever think how your life would've been totally different if you were just born somewhere else? Of course you've thought that.

LN: If I was born somewhere else? Yeah, of course. I mean I think about that, I feel like... I guess I got distracted at that point? We didn't finish the conversation, but anyway.

MUSIC OUT

...: Two flags flying, the American flag and the Texan flag.

LN: We went down to El Paso to visit

[Bell sound]

LN: a high school.

TH: Called Bowie High School.

LN: Home of the Bowie Bears.

...: Guys, the bell rang...Well you guys are listening much to me.

TH: You know, in many respects it's just you know your typical American high school.

...: Good morning bears! Yeah baby, Taco Tuesdays.

TH: You've got your Taco Tuesdays.

...: [unintelligible]

TH: It's ninth through twelfth grade.

TH: And about 1,200 students.

...: All right guys, so please take out your notes, ok?

LN: Because it's Texas, y'know

FOOTBALL SOUNDS

LN: Football is a big deal.

CHEERS/CHANTING

LN: And on their campus they have this huge football stadium with those big, you know, Friday Night Lights, uh.

...: It's the pride of the south side.

LN: They've got a marching band, the pride of the south side, it's uh yeah, your typical Texas high school.

Music In: Band Playing

LN: It's ah yeah you're typical high school.

TH: But, there is something a little different about it and that is that almost all the students here

TEACHER: Jennifer is here, Eduardo is here, Jose?

ROBOT VOICE: Are Mexican American

TEACHER: Josella, Oscar...

TH: and, you know, we actually we talked to this former teacher...

JS: This is Juan Sybert-Coronado. I was a teacher at Bowie High School in the 1980s and 1990s.

TH: And what did you teach?

JS: I taught history.

TH: And he said that in all his years of teaching at Bowie...

JS: I taught there for 21 years and never had a single Anglo student.

LN: Really?

RK: Really?

TH: Yes.

LN: Never had a single white student.

[Wow that's]

LN: But the reason we went to Bowie high school is cause something happened there, in the early 90's, something that, it sort of, in a, in a kinda roundabout and and totally unforeseeable way, completely changed the way we think about the US-Mexico border.

MUSIC IN

LN: So where, where we're gonna start the story is actually in one of Juan Sybert-Coronado's classes.

MUSIC OUT

JS: The class was immediately after lunch, and

LN: And, on this particular day, they were gonna have a debate in class, and one the debaters, one of the kids who was gonna be part of the debate, was late.

JS: Yes.

LN: Uh, his name was Albert.

JS: Albert often came, came late to class. And so we'd been waiting and waiting and waiting for him.

LN: 10 minutes went by. 15. 20.

JS: And eventually he showed up being dragged in by this campus security guy...

MUSIC

LN: The school security guard.

JS: And I thought you know the security guard brought him in because he was you know out doing some miscreant stuff like smoking pot again.

[Laughter]

JS: And, and so I kind of lay into Albert for being late again and for you know not holding up his responsibilities to his class.

TH: But Albert's like no. No no no no no. Albert says that he had been at the handball court playing with his friends and then when it was time to go from the court back to class,

TH: These two border patrol agents appear, out of nowhere, in their green uniforms, and they just start demanding to see his papers. Like who are you? Where are you from? Let me see your ID.

JS: Yeah

LN: And he, Albert tries to give them his school ID but they wouldn't take it. And they actually told him

JS: That he needed a federal ID of some sort for them to believe at all that he was a United States citizen or belonged on the campus.

LN: And Juan's just standing there like mmm-hmm, uh-huh Border Patrol? Really?

JS: You know, I was haranguing the kid, obviously, and.

LN: But then 3 or 4 other students in class...

JS: Just kind of stepped in and said no, what Albert's telling you is true.

MUSIC IN

LN: Not only is Albert telling the truth but in the last couple of weeks

JS: Border Patrol had been on the handball courts and on the playing fields repeatedly...

LN: Stopping students, harassing students

JS: And I was quite frankly shocked.

LN: Juan says of course he knew that the border patrol was around, because of where the school is situated. Which we'll talk about in a second. But he just never understood, how present they were in his students' lives.

JS: I was having a hard time processing this.

LN: So over the next few weeks

MUSIC IN

LN: Juan started asking around different students being like hey have you had anything happen with Border Patrol at school?

JS: And I got literally hundreds of stories.

NR: I was walking home from school, and you know I had my backpack on...

TH: Nidia Rodriguez, who was a freshman at the time.

NR: All of a sudden I saw this truck - a Border Patrol truck and it was speeding my way.

TH: A couple agents got out of the truck, and started questioning her.

NR: Where am I from or where am I going?

EM: Basically we were all rounded up

TH: Ernesto Munoz remembers walking to school with a bunch of kids.

EM: We were searched, our backpacks

LN: And again, you know, a couple agents got out, started asking him questions.

EM: You know where were we born? Our date of birth...What classes we were taking.

MDL: We stop, they get out of the truck

TH: Marcela De Leon who was walking with a friend near school

MDL: And they go, what do you have in the bag? And I go, books, you know what else would I have in my bag? And they were like well let us see.

RT: I was walking and they yelled at me, hey get over here!

TH: Ricardo Thielma

RT: They sped up to me and they stopped in front of me and asked me you know what's,

what's in the bag, I was like, books. One of them ripped the bag out from my hands as I was trying to pull it away from him, the other one grabbed me and pushed me up against the truck forcibly took the bag away, rifled through it, pushed me off of the, pulled me away from the truck, threw my bag at me and told me to get out of here.

LN: As these stories came out it became clear that even the staff had had its run ins with the border patrol. We talked to the assistant football coach Ben Mario. He told us there was this moment he was driving with two of his football players, they got pulled over by the border patrol and one of them actually pointed a gun at his head.

BM: Never had a gun pulled on me. So I thought ok my life is over and I identified

myself. My name is coach Ben Murio. Coach at Bowie High School. I have my football players. I would really appreciate if you'd holster your gun. And the guy barked at me "I'd appreciate if you'd shut your mouth and get out of the car!"

LN: Eventually the agent did holster the gun. Ben did get out of the car everything was fine.

LN: What was that like having that right in your face?

BM: It was one of the scariest things in my life.

LN: Wow.

RK: Why was the border patrol on the grounds of the school? Do they have some reason?

LN: Well so let's let's set the scene a little bit uh uh um, more maybe.

LN: Because I think to understand what was going on at Bowie High School

MUSIC IN

LN: You have to understand something else.

TV PRESENTER: The legend of El Paso.

LN: You have to understand El Paso.

TV PRESENTER: There is a spirit, a flavor. So come on, amigo see it for yourself.

MUSIC

LN: It's right on the border of Texas, Mexico and New Mexico. It's right there.

TH: It's right there. It's also the biggest city.

MUSIC- "The West Texas City of El Paso"

TH: That shares the border with Mexico too.

LN: And the other thing to know about it is that it's like it kind of has a mirror city on the other side of the border which is...

TV PRESENTER: Juarez

LN: Juarez

TH: Ciudad Juárez

TV PRESENTER: The largest city on the U.S.-Mexico border.

LN: So the two cities are separated by a this little sliver of the Rio Grande, but they were essentially the same city up until 1848 when the US invaded Mexico and annexed half the country. And even now, according to Juan-

JS: This mythical division between these two cities it's just doesn't exist for most of us. I mean I go to the dentist over there. I buy cigarettes over there. Okay, I smoke, yes. Ok, ok? Almost everybody in El Paso knows people who lives in the Ciudad Juárez, people in Ciudad Juárez know people who have family members who live in El Paso. I mean this is literally one community.

LN: But the thing is, when everything was going down at Bowie in the early 90s.

MUSIC IN

LN: It was a community in, in crisis.

TELEVISION PRESENTER: So come on amigo and see for yourself (FADE OUT) Tonight the Peso crisis has spilled across the Rio Grande.

LN: In the 80s, the Mexican peso crashed.

TELEVISION PRESENTER: A dramatically devalued peso is causing havoc with prices and wages.

JA: And so people in Juarez started flocking to El Paso because well that's where the jobs were. Like jobs in construction.

Man: Or childcare, gardening.

TH: Though you had tons of people getting these permits to come into El Paso, legally but then you had all these other people.

TV Presenter: Workers who can't get permits required by U.S. law.

TH: Who couldn't get permits, but they still needed to work.

TV PRESENTER: ...simply respond to the laws of supply and demand.

TH: And so they started coming too...

TV PRESENTER: ...making illegal dashes across the border to the United States at unprecedented numbers.

LN: I mean it was as high as like 10,000 people a day.

RK: A day?

LN: Coming back and forth illegally basically for their commute to work.

DH: It was chaos. It was a mess here.

LN: We spoke to this former Border Patrol Agent, a guy named David Ham.

DH: Anti-smuggling special agent.

LN: He told us that when, when he was on that job, before dawn, you could go down to certain parts of the Rio Grande

DH: You'd have 100-200 people lined up.

LN: Waiting on the river's edge.

DH: Sun come up and here they come.

TV PRESENTER: It's morning in America and the rush hour has begun. The rush to cross the Rio Grande into El Paso...

LN: And there are videos where you can see this, you see hundreds of people wading into the shallow parts of the river.

LN: ... To cross over to El Paso

TV PRESENTER: If they don't want to get wet they can pay a young entrepreneur a small fee and raft across...

LN: And so for people like David, these border patrol agents,

News Cast: Ok, here comes about a 100

LN: It becomes this cat and mouse game

DH: From the way we had always done business. They come in, you chase them, catch

them and send them back.

LN: Day and night and day and night it was, it was,

TV PRESENTER: A never-ending job.

DH: And there was something you know you can catch the same guys 2-3 times a shift sometimes.

[Laughter]

DH: Um so it was, it was chaos.

DM: Obviously we're not accomplishing 100 percent of our mission.

TH: And, and this is actually kind of hilarious. So like so...

TH: Around this time, in 1992 there was a television interview and Dale Musegades. He's the sector chief of the Border Patrol in El Paso. He's wearing his green hat with his green uniform with his gold shield on his chest.

DM: If we were not here and did not keep a lid on this situation

TH: And in this shots behind him...

DM: Uh, there would be just an absolute free inflow from other countries.

TH: You can see people climbing up the banks of the Rio Grande and just walking into El Paso, like

[Laughter]

RK: That's like having Wyatt Herbs standing in front of three bank robbers robbing a bank.

TH: Yeah, Exactly. And um like so ok how many entries um, alright so it was reported at the time that for every one migrant the Border Patrol caught, there were at least three to five who snuck in and didn't get caught. And The Border Patrol said that this was because they just didn't have the resources. They didn't have the money or the agents to apprehend all these people who are coming in.

LN: Which, finally brings us back

CHANTING

LN:... to Bowie high school.

LN: Okay alright, okay yeah let's try it.

MK: Because there's two important things about Bowie.

LN: Okay I'm counting my steps actually here okay from the sidewalk.

LN: One, Bowie is right, right

LN: ...3, 4, 5, 6...

LN: Right on the border

LN: 48, 49... Basically it's 50. That was 50 steps.

TH: Fifty steps

LN: Fifty steps from the Bowie campus into Mexico.

LN: Yeah.

LN: And two, uh, the former assistant football coach and teacher, Ben Murillo, he showed me...

LN: What's, what is that?

LN: This fence.

BM: That's part of the old fence.

LN: Oh, that's part of the old fence?

LN: El Paso in the '70s put up a bunch of fencing on the border to curb illegal immigration.

LN: Um, So it's like a... It's, it's not much taller than us.

LN: But, but it was-it was pretty flimsy, they called it a "tortilla curtain", and right at this spot, across from Bowie High School, there was a hole in the fence.

Music In

DH: Yeah.

MK: And David Ham, a former border control agent, told us that what that meant was that you had migrants, you had a lot of migrants, who would be coming through that hole in the fence.

DH: Through Bowie high school.

TH: And he claimed that it wasn't just people looking for work, it was also people bringing in drugs.

DH: And the way I know that because I worked at anti-smuggling unit. We'd watch them come through.

TH: And so...

TH: Border Patrol agents had taken to just sort of hanging out around the school, on the school's property, on the football field, across the street from the school like just

LN: Yeah

TH: They were just there all the time.

MK: There were even rumors that border patrol agents would go undercover as students, and that they would, you know, wander the halls, that they would go into the locker rooms.

JS: I'd notice, B- the uh the uh suburbans parked on the Bowie campus.

LN: Yeah

MK: Again, former Bowie teacher Juan Sybert-Coronado.

JS: But, the whole reason you know that I thought they were there was the chainlink was cut and they need to stop people from entering into a high school.

LN: Right

JS: Instead of realizing that what they're doing is they're using the high school as a hunting ground.

LN: And so to Juan, when he started hearing about all these stories of these 14, 15, 16 year old kids getting stopped and shaken down, it wasn't about border patrol trying to stop migrants from coming in, or trying to stop drugs from coming across the border, it was-

JS: The border patrol simply stopping people because they were brown. And that really uh.... This is radio? Angered me.

LN: You can say whatever you want

TH: But for most of these kids

EM: It was nothing, like out of the ordinary.

TH: You know kids like Ernesto Munoz, and Ricardo Thielma,

RT: That was just, day to day life.

TS: Talking to even to some other community members

MK: Tony Santos

TS: They told me, "Ah, don't worry about it"

TH: Growing up in this poor neighborhood right next the border.

Man: It was just like way of life in south El Paso.

EM: It, it wasn't, like a concern, like oh no you got stopped?

RT: You go to the park, uh and shoot some basketball. You'd tell your, your schoolmates, you know, guess what happened after school?

EM: He was like, you know haha you got stopped! It was probably cause of your haircut or probably cause of how you're dressed or whatever.

LN: So the students were more likely to laugh about it than be angry but in his U.S.History class that year, Juan started teaching his kids about civil rights, actually getting them to debate tthe ways of thinking about civil rights.

XX: Talking about stuff like

MLK? The activities which have taken place in Birmingham over the last few days.

XX: Uh letter from the Birmingham jail.

MLK?: To my mind marked the nonviolent movement coming of age.

LN: And

XX: It's liberty [inaudible]

XX: Malcolm X's Ballet for the Bullet.

MX: There's freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody.

LN: And so these students are learning about

Newscaster

LN: Farmworkers strikes in California in the 1960s.

... We learned about Cesar Chavez.

...: And the workers know, that they are no longer alone.

...: We learn about Dolores Huerta, uh Reies Lopez Tijerina. And it was like ok I'm

I'm reading the book and then I look outside the window and, there they are.

MK: Border patrol agents in SUVs, on the parking lot, stopping students.

EM: I think that's when, you know, we were like, wait

JS: This kinda like

LN: It felt not okay.

NR: I mean I didn't fully know exactly the letter of the law,

TH: That's Nadia Rodriguez, again.

NR: but I knew that what they were doing was wrong.

EM: And

TH: Eventually, some of these students started to get together

EM: Met, and talked

JS: Like, you think this is right? What do you think this is about?

NR: Telling each other you know that this is wrong.

EM: We talked about how we wanted things to be different

JS: Let's see what we can do about it, because, this has to stop.

Choir teacher: Alright? Alright that's what's up!

PIANO

JA: Coming up, Juan and his students fight back

RK: We'll continue in just a moment.

Choir teacher: Let's do with some more warm-ups, let's do ah

VOCALIZING

AUDIO VOCAL WARM UPS

FADE OUT

LN: Latif, Tracie, and

RV: Hello?

MK: Ricardo

TS: Umm

LN: And Tony,

LN: Alright

LN: So, Some of these, at kids at Bowie High School, they actually belonged to this group

LN: MECHA

... [inaudible]

LN: Which is a Chicano civil rights group.

TS: They have been around since 1960's

MK: It actually, it was a college only group, but apparently these kids at Bowie, um, petitioned them to have a chapter at the high school.

RV: And um,

MK: They made their case, and MECHA said, sure!

MUSIC IN

RV: We were the first ones to get a collegiate group.

LN: And they asked Juan if he could, you know, supervise.

JS: We would meet about once a week, and our meetings tended to be 30, 40, 50 kids packed into a classroom,

TH: And for one of these meetings, Juan brought in one of his friends, a woman named Susan Kern, she who worked at the Border Rights coalition, and so she comes in, and starts telling her, you know, what's been going on, and they ask her do we have any rights here? She tells them, absolutely you do because according to the US constitution, the border patrol, or really any officer of the law,

JS: They cannot stop you, without reasonable cause.

MUSIC OUT

TH: Like they have to have seen you cross the border, or when you saw them, you started acting fidgety or you ran away, or something!

JS: They can't just arbitrarily stop you

TH: Question you.

RV: Just because the color of your skin

JS: That's not enough to stop you.

LN: Because if that's the only reason they have to stop you, then they're violating your fourth amendment right.

TH: Their right to be protected from unreasonable searches and seizures.

JS: Exactly.

RV: They just said, you know what, you're getting- your rights are getting stomped all over, let's see what we can do about this because it needs to stop.

JA: After Susan explained that their rights were being violated, the conversation turned to what are we going do about it?

JS: We have a lot of students who were suggesting things that were probably, you know, slightly inappropriate.

JA: Like how bout we just like...curse em out?

JS: Which I thought, well maybe that's not a bad approach, but, uh apparently,

TH: According to Juan's lawyer friend Susan,

JS: fuck off was not the right response

LN: [laughs]

LN: That can maybe get you in trouble?

JS: Can be considered assault, and so-

TH: Another student said well how about if we just y'know run away from them?

JS: Uh no

LN: Another kid was like, what if we just fight back?

JS: Oh God

ROBOT VOICE: Oh, definitely don't do that.

JS: Mm-mm

LN: But finally,

MUSIC Law & Order Theme

MK: One of the students

JS: Who'd been watching Law & Order-

L&O4: Debbie Mason you're under arrest for the attempted murder of your mother.

L&O5: No, this is a mistake.

JS: Who knew all about saying

L&O4: You have the right to remain silent.

L&O5: No!

JS: The right to remain silent.

L&O3: Caroline Tyler, you have the right to remain silent.

LN: He was like, that's a thing

TH: Which is your fifth amendment constitutional right

TH: And it's something you typically hear

...: I have however been instructed by my counsel not to testify... based on my fifth amendment constitutional rights.

MK: When rich, white dudes get in trouble.

...: On the advice of counsel I invoke my fifth amendment privilege and respectfully decline to answer your question.

LN: But this one Bowie, MECHA student was like, why don't we do that?

MUSIC IN

JS: And that's exactly what our students started doing

TH: After that, when border patrol agents would stop students and say "hey, give me your papers." Some of these students would say, No!

STUDENT: I want to use my fifth amendment right

JS: I want to take the fifth amendment.

STUDENT: amendment right to remain silent.

...: Simple as that, I have the right not to incriminate myself

STUDENT: To remain silent.

JS: I do not want to answer your questions.

...: Sorry, had to burp, ok ready?

STUDENT: Mhmm

STUDENT: I have a fifth amendment right

STUDENTS: To

STUDENT: to remain silent

STUDENTS: remain silent.

...: I don't want you to go through any of my stuff

STUDENT: Right to remain silent.

ROBOT VOICE: You're not going through my backpack, I'm not talking to you.

STUDENT: I want to use my fifth amendment

STUDENT: Fifth amendment right

JS: And, their message started spreading around,

STUDENT: Right to remain silent.

STUDENT: Remain silent.

STUDENT: Silent.

STUDENT: Silent.

STUDENT: Silent.

STUDENT: Silent.

JS: That we really don't need to answer these people's questions,

STUDENT: To remain silent?

TH: Yeah, perfect, you nailed it.

STUDENTS: (CHEERING)

TH: Nice to meet you, y'all have a good day.

STUDENTS: Bye miss!

LN: I'm kind of trying to imagine myself being you and giving advice to these students, and on the one hand, obviously this is their legal right not to provide this information. On the other hand, I can imagine that, you know, I've heard that there are these Border Patrol abuses, there are ug you know, there are times when this doesn't go well, and I'm telling these students to go out and basically, you know, stonewall these agents, and it could put them in harm's way at some point.

JS: And it did frequently

MUSIC IN

JS: Uh, students were harrassed for this. Students were... the most notorious case is the case of David Renteria.

DR: And uh the way I'll start it was on June the 3rd...

LN: So this is David Renteria from a documentary that was made in the 90s about Bowie High School.

TH: Yeah, so David Renteria he was a senior at Bowie

TD: A legally blind student who was coming home from graduation practice.

DR: And uh...

ROBOT VOICE: And this one day, he and a friend are just walking down the street, and a Border Patrol truck rolls up.

DR: They stop and they ask us for citizenship and I respond you know, U.S. citizen, my friend did the same thing. And then they ask us again, what is your citizenship? U.S. citizen. They ask us again and I said U.S. citizen. And I looked at my friend and I said, 'you know what, let's go.' Kept on walking. And the border patrol agent on the passenger side said if we didn't stop, they were going to beat us up real bad, to the point where we weren't going to be able to move.

MK: So this border patrol agent gets out of the truck, comes up to David...

JS: And started threatening to break his arm if he tried to walk away.

DR: I felt his hand on my arm, left elbow, he jerked it back, when he jerked it, I turned and faced you. And I looked and said to him. I'm exercising the right to remain silent. And he got me and he slammed me against the fence and he put his left forearm on the back of my neck. And he kicked my legs.

TH: Slapped him in the face apparently. And, you know, David wasn't physically injured after that. He was freaked out.

LN: But the reason that Juan called this particular incident notorious is because...

MUSIC IN

LN: Immediately after, the local news in El Paso picked it up and started doing a lot more reporting on, on Border Patrol, on Bowie, and so did-

TV PRESENTER: From the El Paso, Texas, Good Morning America!

LN: National News.

JS: Good Morning freakin America, you know what I mean? That's, that's pretty huge

TV REPORTER: The daily invasion has strained the relationship between the Border Patrol and some people at Bowie High School.

JS: Y'know and, and they're talking to us.

STUDENT: We all have rights, and that our rights daily, on a day-to-day course are being violated,

INTERVIEWER: Why are they harassing you?

STUDENT: Because we're Hispanic, because the color of our skin, because we live right on border, and because, well, we live in a really poor neighborhood and, that's the only reason.

LN: And as this news started to grow, the Border Patrol Sector Chief, Dale Musegades, decided he was gonna come to Bowie to talk to the students. Is that something you remember? Him showing up to ?

JS: [laughs] Oh yeah, Mr. Musegades, uh, that guy was kinda doing damage control at that point.

TV REPORTER: When agent Dale Musegades met with about 40 students to discuss the alleged harassment, he kept us out.

LN: We tried to contact Dale Musegades multiple times, for this story, but he did not reply to our voicemails, or emails. But-

DM: [unintelligble] Wednesday morning...

LN: We were able to get footage, of that meeting Musegades kept Good Morning America out of.

LN: Because one of the students, uh taped this and then we managed to get our hands on it.

RK: Huh,

LN: So it's like 30, 40 kids, from MECHA, in this classroom, and Dale Musegades...

JS: He was sitting in front of us, wearing a suit and tie, trying to put things into perspective-

DM: Uh,

LN: He started telling the students like, look the holes in the fence?

DM: I can't hold those holes.

MK: We keep patching them up, they keep getting cut open...

DM: And something, it's a commitment, and I said I would try, it's a commitment I can't, I don't think there's anyway in the world to keep those holes closed.

LN: And he told the students, they, they've busted some people who have brought drugs through Bowie,

DM: I now have another case that's under investigation

LN: So Musegade is like we're essentially trying to stop the flow of drugs here..why are you guys complaining so much?

VOICES BOO

TH: But eventually-

PSS: Let's get some of these students- C'mon you had your hand raised over there, go ahead.

TH: The students start speaking up.

PSS: Give him your name.

S1: My name is [LORENA ANDRES?] I've been living here right on the border on Delta

LN: One student stands up and says A you're harassing us, and that's why we're upset and B your strategy for capturing border crossers seems to be to be to herd them all into the school where they're penned in

S1: You're treating human beings like cattle. What you're doing is you run them into a place where they can't get out and then you circle them in? You're treating them like cattle, not human beings.

DM: Those people will not stop or will not obey the law. So you have to somehow or another apprehend them. I don't... I... You know I don't know a better way to do it.

S2: But not at the sacrifice of our rights.

LN: It's a little hard to hear, but he said not at the sacrifice of our rights.

DM: What you mean the sacrifice of their rights? They're illegally in this country

S2: OUR rights

...: Alright alright

S1: But they're human beings! They have rights.

DM: They do not have rights to come into the United States illegally...

LN: What did it feel like to be sitting in that meeting? I mean...

JS: Well, it felt bizarre. I mean that you know somebody is denying what everybody sees with their own eyes.

...: Yeah, there was no face value to what, what he said, y'know cause at that point we were cynic- cynical about the whole situation, and y'know you can't undo the stuff that was already done

LN: So the meeting goes poorly, and a bunch of the students, and some of the staff, including Ben Murio, the assistant football coach, who had a gun pointed in his face, they all together decide that they want to, sue the border patrol.

MUSIC IN

AA: The phone rings one day...

LN: And eventually they call up this guy.

AA: I said we're getting ready to sue the border patrol. Will you be our local counsel? And I said not only yes, but hell yes. [Laughter]

LN: El Paso civil rights lawyer, Albert Armenenener Jr.

LN: Were you optimistic?

AA: I mean, uh, it's never an easy job. Suing the government is not easy.

JS: When you live on the border and work in Segundo Barrio, you are never optimistic that a governmental system is going to work for you.

LN: So,

MUSIC

LN: October 23, 1992, the trial between Bowie high school and the Border Patrol begins. And apparently the courtroom was pretty much divided in half, on one half you had the border patrol, like a ton of agents, in full uniform sitting there. On the other half, you had, these Bowie students.

AA: Dressed in their finest.

TH: Sunday dresses, slacks, shirts

AA: Those kids were little troopers. They all got up on the stand, told their stories

TH: And then eventually the border patrol sector chief, Dale Musegades testifies

AA: Yeah.

LN: Do, do you remember what the defense's argument was?

AA: Well they had lots of arguments, umm.

LN: Now we can't verify the specifics of what happened in the courtroom because a lot of the court documents have been destroyed, but Musegades got up there and his basic argument was that if you look at the... the US code of federal regulations section 1357, Powers of Immigration officers and employees, um, number 1, officers have the power to interrogate any alien or person believed to be an alien, as to his right to be, or to remain in the United States, and they can do that without a warrant. And then skipping down a bit from that, umm they can do that quote "Within a reasonable distance from any external boundary of the United States."

JA: What's a, what's a reasonable distance?

LN: This is what's nuts is, I don't know exactly what went into the determination of what that is, but the distance is a hundred miles.

JA: Really?

LN: Yeah, in that hundred mile zone, border patrol has the power to interrogate, has the power to arrest without warrant, and they can also, and I'm quoting here, uh quote "search for aliens in any railway car, aircraft, conveyance, or vehicle within that distance". And then on top of that, within a narrower distance of 25 miles from the border, they can go right onto private property whenever they want. There's, it's like this little zone

AA: That's designed to prevent border patrol officers from being charged with trespass when patrolling the border. I cross examined Chief Musegades, and so,

LN: What Musegades was arguing, is that like, if they have all of this power, and if they can go on y'know private property right up on the border, and you got this high school on the border, then there's no question that they can be on school property and do their jobs.

AA: That's how they read that. What they couldn't understand is, they were doing it in a way that violated the constitution and that is against the supreme law of the land.

LN: This was Albert's argument, that no matter what powers you have, you can't violate somebody's 4th amendment right. You have to have a legitimate reason to stop somebody.

RK: Hm. So what, what ultimately happened?

TH: Okay, before this court, uh Findings of fact and conclusions of law Bunton comma Senior District Judge before this court is plaintiff's motion for temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction memorandum of law and support, pursuants to rule, I don't know, Does that sound like anything to you?

RK: Yeah yeah he's saying here's what we got in front of me here.

TH: Alright, okay.

RK: So read the next paragraph, down one.

TH: Jurisdiction and venue,

RK: Okay that means, keep, read the next one,

TH: Findings of fact. The litigation, the name individual plaintiffs are...

RK: Go to the very, vey bottom, last paragraph.

(laughter)

RK: Is it "I hereby order..?"

TH: The court hereby enjoins the immigration and naturalization service, the INS, which is above, at the time was above the Border Patrol, from stopping and questioning an individual as to his or her right to be or remain in the United States unless the agent has reasonable suspicion based on specific articulable facts involving more than the mere appearance of the individual being of Hispanic descent-

RK: Okay that's a fancy way of saying stop judging people by their looks, signs the judge.

TH: Yes!

LN: Correct.

RK: So, they won.

LN: They won!

MUSIC

AA: It was just absolute elation

TH: There's a big celebratory, school assembly.

TS: For the whole school

TH: Oh wow

ROBOT VOICE: Tony Santos was there

TS: We were, yay, all happy

TH: There were all these parties

AA: people gave us plaques, I think I may even have some on the wall out there.

RICARDO VILLERMA: It was pretty awesome.

MK: Again, former student Ricardo Villerma.

RV: It was crazy, to say the least.

TV PRESENTER: The final ruling holds up that the Border Patrol did violate constitutional rights.

BEN MURILLO: You just don't see the agents on our campus anymore.

LN: That's the assistant football coach, Ben Murillo, who ended up being the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit.

...: They're Treating us like people, not like second class citizens, not like we have to be submissive simply because they're Federal agents.

RV: You know, we couldn't believe that we took on the federal government and won. That was one of the first times I was really proud of what our government, y'know, stands for.

MUSIC OUT

LN: And Ricardo said, coming out of federal court that day, it was like him, and seven other students, and they came out and there was a bunch of other students and faculty from the school there.

RV: Everybody was like cool, let's go back to school, hop in the car like, no, we kinda want to bask in this. So we walked from uh, the federal courthouse downtown to Bowie High School. And, y'know when we were getting there we were all just kind of tearing up, we were proud, we were just happy, and uh, surprised all at once, it's, we were beside ourselves. And, y'know we had camera crews and news crews waiting for us as we were walking up, cause I guess they got wind that we were just walking back to school.

LN: But in the wake of this victory, in the months following there would be a chain of events that would really drastically change the US-Mexico border forever, and take us to, really to where we are now.

TH: When you, because you wrote in that essay sort of just, you don't see a connection, you don't think there's a connection but the fact that the connection is being made still sort of weighs on you?

...: Of course it weighs on us, ok? Because I mean, because of us, fences were built, because the fences were built, maybe 10,000 people have died in the desert.

MUSIC

...."Men tore their faces open chewing XX and prickly pears. Gutted plants that tore them apart with their claws. The green here was gray." They walked west though they didn't know it. They had no concept anymore of destination. They were in a vast trickery of sand. One of them said XX.

RK: So how this story goes from jubilation and pride to death in the desert, that's the subject of our next episode.

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Border Trilogy Part 1: Hole in the Fence | Radiolab | WNYC Studios

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JA: Jad Abumrad LN: Latif Nasser JD: Jason DeLeon DT: Donald Trump JA: Hey, I'm Jad Abumrad. RK: I'm Robert Krulwich. JA: This is Radiolab. RK: And...let's just um, let's just begin. LN: OK, cool. So, umm... JA: With our reporter and producer, Latif Nasser.

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Is it inevitable that even our most sacred natural landscapes will eventually get swallowed up by humans?

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Baby Blue Blood Drive | Radiolab | WNYC Studios

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Horseshoe crabs harbor a half-billion-year-old secret: a superpower that helped them outlive the dinosaurs. But it hasn’t just been saving their butts, it’s been saving ours too.

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Talking to Machines | Radiolab | WNYC Studios

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What can machines tell us about being human?

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ROBERT: I'm Robert Krulwich.

JAD: This is Radiolab and today we're going to travel back in time to World War II which is a war that has been chronicled and re-chronicled and re-imagined and told a thousand thousand thousand million times. But we actually have two stories for you today that took place during that war, right here on American soil, that were utterly surprising to us, that I'm betting you have never heard. And we're going to call today's show, the War on Our Shore. And to start--

PETER: My name is Peter Lang-Stanton.

NICK: My name's Nick Ferraga

ROBERT: Well, it--we're gonna get a story from two reporters

PETER: I'm a freelance filmmaker

NICK: Freelance reporter

PETER: Writer slash radio producer, too many slashes

ROBERT: Should we start with, with air currents, or like with--

PETER: I mean I want to start with--can we go to Thermopolis, Wyoming? Because that was one of the first really well-documented landings.

ROBERT: All right. Thermopolis, Wyoming?

RC: Well it's the first week of December, 1944

JAD: This is Ross Cohen, he's a historian and he wrote a book that's pretty much the definitive account of the story you're about to hear. Anyhow, Thermopolis, Wyoming, December 1944

ROSS COHEN: And there are three miners at a place called the Highline Coal Mine, which is outside of Thermopolis. They step outside the mine one evening. It's just about dusk. And just as they step out of the mine they hear this whistling sound over their heads. And then a moment later there's [SFX] a tremendous explosion and they see this rising cloud of dust about a mile away across the valley. They turn and look. It's dusk, and so in the fading twilight they can't be sure exactly what they're looking at

NICK: But above them there's sort of this fluttering, white circle

PETER: Just floating there. They made sense of it by thinking it was a parachutist

ROSS COHEN: They get in their car and they chase after it until eventually they lose sight of it in the

NICK: Right around that same time, about 500 miles away in Colorado,

PETER: A boy and his dad are working in the barn when [SFX] they hear an explosion. They run outside and in their yard there's just this smoldering crater.

ROSS COHEN: In Wyoming a nine year old boy playing in his front yard hears an explosion

NICK: All throughout the winter of 1944

ROSS COHEN: In Burwell, Nebraska

NICK: These strange parachute things

ROSS COHEN: Native residents hear a loud explosion

NICK: Just start appearing in the skies all over America

PETER: Napa, California

NICK: Lame Deer, Montana

PETER: 20 or so miles from downtown Detroit

NICK: Over farms

PETER: Nogales, Arizona

NICK: And slipping behind hills

PETER: Rigby, Idaho.

ROSS COHEN: Everybody who sees these things, all of them have different explanations for what they think they're witnessing

NICK: The US military sends out an APB to local police stations saying we need information. What are these things?

XX: Try again

MARION HYDE: Testing, testing

XX: A there we go--

MARION HYDE: OK, whoo [RINGING]

NICK: Enter Sheriff

PETER: Warren Hyde

MARION HYDE: My name is Marion Hyde

NICK: Warren Hyde actually died in 1989, so

MARION HYDE: I'm the oldest son of Sheriff Hyde

NICK: We talked to his son

MARION HYDE: He had a presence about him that he kind of commanded a room

PETER: Sheriff Hyde was a big guy

MARION HYDE: Black wavy hair, broad at the shoulders, narrow at the hips

NICK: Stetson, gun on his hip

PETER: And one day

MARION HYDE: From what I understand, a dry farmer called him

PETER: Said there's this strange contraption in my field

NICK: Some kind of balloon, parachute looking thing floating around

MARION HYDE: So he jumped in the car and went hell bent for leather out in the Blue Creek area

PETER: There's this crazy story where he rushes out to this farm

NICK: To investigate

PETER: Hops out of his car

NICK: Rips off his belt with his .38 pistol, because a man can't run with a .38 pistol on his waist

MARION HYDE: And took off after the balloon

PETER: Here's what he sees in that field. It was-I mean if you look at a picture of this thing, it's this huge globe. 30 feet in diameter

ROBERT: Oh wow

PETER: Paper white.

NICK: And then coming down from this globe are these thick, 40 foot ropes and at the bottom, attached to it is a heavy metal chandelier with bombs hanging off the bottom. And Sheriff Hyde, he sees this thing, runs out into the field, grabs onto the ropes to maybe tie it down, but just as he grabs it

MARION HYDE: A gust of wind comes by

PETER: Lifts him up off the ground

MARION HYDE: Like he was a paper doll

NICK: And so he's dangling from the ropes of this thing, the balloon is above him, the explosives are below him and it takes him across this canyon, and he's holding on just dangling from it, still trying to wrangle it like some bucking bronco. He lands again. He tries to tie it to a juniper bush or something but the wind catches it again and goes back over the canyon

ROBERT: Back over the first side?

NICK: Back to the first side

MARION HYDE: And they started to float around the field. He kept wrestling this balloon for a long time

NICK: He's nauseous from being spun around on this balloon

PETER: His vision is getting blurry

NICK: His hands are becoming raw from the rope

PETER: But he feels like this sense of duty

MARION HYDE: He knew that the government wanted one of these balloons

PETER: It's his territory so he's got to take it down

MARION HYDE: That's right

PETER: He finally

NICK: Lets himself freefall

PETER: So he can grab it again

NICK: So his weight will jerk the balloon to the ground

MARION HYDE: Then finally the balloon came down in kind of a little ravine where sagebrush were growing and a root had been exposed on the side of the ravine from a sagebrush

NICK: And he hooks his arm around this root

MARION HYDE: Then he was able to hold the balloon without being carried into the air

JAD: So he actually captured the thing?

PETER: J. Edgar Hoover wrote him a personal letter of thanks

ROSS COHEN: They end up shipping all off the evidence off to the Aberdeen military research facility

NICK: Where they had gathered all this different evidence from all over the country. And they were able to tell that

ROSS COHEN: Apparently this bomb matched known characteristics of Japanese bombs.

JAD: So it's Japanese

ROSS COHEN: Yeah

NICK: But, it's impossible to send a balloon across the Pacific Ocean at this point. I mean it's never, never been done. It's basically an intercontinental ballistic missile. So they're trying to figure out where it's coming from. They thought maybe they were being launched from submarines, maybe they were coming from beaches in North America, from saboteurs

PETER: There was even speculation at one point that maybe they were coming from Japanese internment camps in North America

ROSS COHEN: Two days before Christmas, 1944

NICK: In Alaska, a native Alaskan trapper tracks one down

ROSS COHEN: And it has two sandbags still attached to the bottom most ring

NICK: And that turns out to be

PETER: They key to the mystery

ELISA BERGSLIEN: Well, not just sand. There's a lot in there. My name is Elisa Bergslien and I am a forensic geologist

NICK: We called up Elisa to help us understand this next part

PETER: What happened was the sand from the balloons was sent to Washington DC to some scientists at the US Geological Survey

ELISA BERGSLIEN: Right away

ROSS COHEN: They discover that there's no coral

ELISA BERGSLIEN: So finding no coral, you know, you're talking cold water now

ROSS COHEN: They look at the diatoms

ELISA BERGSLIEN: Marine bivalves

ROSS COHEN: Microscopic fossils

ELISA BERGSLIEN: Mollusks, minerals

ROSS COHEN: By compiling all of these different characteristics

ELISA BERGSLIEN: But that all together, where would you find these diatoms, these minerals, that you wouldn't find coral. All those different pieces of information

NICK: All together

ROSS COHEN: The geologists are able to determine that there are two or perhaps three beaches in the world

ELISA BERGSLIEN: That fit all of these qualifications

ROSS COHEN: Where they believe this sand could have come from and all of which are on the east coast of Honshu, the largest of Japan's four main islands

JAD: You can get that kind of specific from sand?

ELISA BERGSLIEN: Yep

ROBERT: Why would the Japanese choose to deliver bomb payloads by balloon. It's a strange choice

JAD: Particularly after Pearl Harbor, you know, it's like we already know they can do planes, right

ROBERT: Yeah they got planes

JAD: Yeah, why balloons

ROSS COHEN: Well

ARCHIVAL CLIP: Now it can be told, history in the making

ROSS COHEN: It grew directly out of the Doolittle raid

PETER: Back in April of 1942

ARCHIVAL CLIP: United States Navy aircraft carrier Hornet steams westward across the Pacific

ROSS COHEN: Jimmy Doolittle and his raiders

PETER: Took off from an aircraft carrier deep in the Western Pacific

ROSS COHEN: And dropped bombs on Tokyo and Yokohama and a number of other cities across Japan

ARCHIVAL CLIP: Greatest surprise raid in the history of area warfare

PETER: Now they didn't do a lot of damage physically

ROSS COHEN: But it was such a shock to the Japanese to think that their homeland could be invaded, that these planes could actually fly over the Imperial Palace, the home of the emperor and--

ROBERT: Doolittle went over the palace, I did not realize that--

ROSS COHEN: Yeah.

ROBERT: He went all the way downtown in Tokyo

ROSS COHEN: Oh yeah, right over the city. And so immediately after the Doolittle raid an order went out, it was just find a way to bomb America

NICK: Now Japan's navy is stretched so thin at this point in the war, there's no way they can pull off something like the Doolittle raid

PETER: They didn't have aircraft carriers that could get their planes close enough to the US mainland

NICK: But what they did have was the wind

ROSS COHEN: Today we call this the jetstream. That name didn't come along until after the war

PETER: At that point we barely knew about the jetstream

ROSS COHEN: But prior to and during the war, the Japanese did extensive research into these winds

PETER: OK, so in 1924, there's this meteorologist named Wasserboroish, and he goes to the top of a mountain and he releases a bunch of these little paper weather balloons. And he discovers that at about 30,000 feet up, there's this river of fast moving air, speeds up to 170 miles per hour, carrying everything in its midst. Pollen, insects, all the way to North America within days.

NICK: And after the Doolittle raid they thought maybe if we were to release a bunch of balloons in just the right place at just the right time

PETER: Maybe this jetstream of air could

ROSS COHEN: Push these balloons across the pacific ocean

ARCHIVAL CLIP: [Japanese]

PETER: So this is Tetsko Tanaka. She was interviewed in this independent documentary called On Paper Wings

ARCHIVAL CLIP: [Japanese]

NICK: In 1944 she says she was a teenager when the Japanese military came to her school and basically turned it into a factory.

ARCHIVAL CLIP: [Japanese]

PETER: She and hundreds of other school children were conscripted to begin making this special kind of paper out of mulberry wood called

MA HO SHINA: Wasi. Handmade, Japanese traditional paper

NICK: This is Ma Ho Shina, who now works at the Noborito Institute in Japan

MA HO SHINA: A huge amount of paper was required

PETER: Ma Ho says that girls would work 12 hour days making thousands, tens of thousands of these sheets and gluing them together

NICK: And after they finished producing the balloons and after the balloons were strapped with bombs, they were shipped off to those beaches. And just let go.

PETER: People from the Japanese side watching them take off said they looked like huge jellyfish swimming through a pale blue sky.

ROSS COHEN: These perfectly silent vehicles, the only sound was the rustling of the paper as they took off

ROBERT: How many were launched?

ROSS COHEN: From November 1944 to April 1945 they launched 9,000 balloons

ROSS COHEN: They I guess figured it would be more terrifying to have bombs raining down silently from above with no calling card than with a Japanese calling card

ARCHIVAL CLIP: And as the last sandbag is dropped, now only the central payload is left

NICK: This is audio from a declassified Navy instructional video made about these balloon bombs in 1945:

ARCHIVAL CLIP: In the event one of these units is found, do these two things to render it harmless

NICK: It explains to soldiers how to--what to do if they find one of these bombs and how to defuse the bomb. But I think one of the most interesting thing about the video is this text that's written in huge block letters right at the bottom of the screen. It says, do not aid the enemy by publishing or broadcasting or discussing information

MIKE SWEENEY: Information can be a powerful tool. It can be a powerful tool for good and a powerful tool for evil

NICK: This is professor Mike Sweeney

MIKE SWEENEY: And i'm a historian of wartime censorship

NICK: And he says that immediately after those first balloons landed

MIKE SWEENEY: There are a few stories that appear in the local newspapers in the far west. Stories about a Japanese attack on the mainland of the United States

NICK: Time and Newsweek even picked it up

MIKE SWEENEY: Saying, we're not sure what these are, but are these Japanese spies coming in on these balloons?

NICK: Is this a large scale attack?

MIKE SWEENEY: What is going on? And then very shortly thereafter

NICK: Just three days after those Time and Newsweek articles

MIKE SWEENEY: The office of censorship initiated a press blackout

ROSS COHEN: This blackout on news

NICK: They sent out memos and telegraphs to all major wire services

ROSS COHEN: The UP, the AP, and the INS saying

MIKE SWEENEY: Keep any news of these Japanese balloons off the wires and out of print

ROSS COHEN: Any stories of these bombs will have to be approved by the appropriate authority of the US Army if you wish to publish or broadcast news about them

JAD: And why would they want to keep this secret?

MIKE SWEENEY: So the government's ideas about why balloon bombs should be censored, in particular army's ideas, were number one, to avoid panic

PETER: These things are instruments of terror, right. You can't be afraid of something you don't know exists

MIKE SWEENEY: Number two is avoid helping Japan. It was thought then that if we printed exact coordinates of particular bomb landings that this would help Japan better target the bombs

JAD: And what did the reporters think about this?

MIKE SWEENEY: They grumbled sometimes but they complied

ROBERT: Really?

MIKE SWEENEY: Yeah. Everyone in the news industry was as patriotic as the rest of the country, that is the vast majority of journalists supported the war.

ROSS COHEN: And of course if you screwed up and sent out a story that got American lives killed, you could be prosecuted under the espionage act. Furthermore, could you imagine what your listeners would do if you were the radio station identified as killing a hundred American sailors?

NICK: So the newspapers and radio stations kept their mouths shut, which meant that most Americans never even heard this was happening, and more importantly, the Japanese weren't really hearing about whether their bombs made it or not. So, they probably concluded that it was basically a failed experiment. Which largely it was. Of the 9,000 released, virtually none caused any damage, and certainly not any terror. Except for this one balloon

PETER: That's coming up

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JAD: Hey I'm Jad Abumrad

ROBERT: I'm Robert Krulwich

JAD: This is Radiolab. We continue now with our story from reporters Peter Lang Stanton and Nick Farago about the 9,000 or so balloon bombs that Japan sent to America in 1944 and 45 that rained down on American soil and created nothing. Nothing really. Nothing happened. No damage, no terror, nothing

NICK: But then we get to this tiny little town called Bly

CORA CONNOR: To me, there's no place like old Bly

NICK: Bly is this sleepy little logging town in the base of Gearhart Mountain in South Central Oregon

CORA CONNOR: Lots of pretty scenery

NICK: And Cora Connor, who you just heard, was born and raised there

CORA CONNOR: You know everybody and you're just like a big family out there

NICK: In the 40s when Cora was a young girl, there were about 700 people living there

CORA CONNOR: Yeah. But we did all kinds of fun things. We had a fish fry up at Dog Lake, huge catfish fry. The whole town stayed all night, went back home the next day. In the winter the canals would freeze over and we'd have bonfire and ice skating parties and it was a fun place to live

NICK: Can you tell me about the morning--it was a Sunday?

CORA CONNOR: Let's see what happened. I'm trying to think. Saturday I think. May 5th is all I can remember. Yep, that was may 5th

ROSS COHEN: May 5, 1945

CORA CONNOR: I thought it was a beautiful day. The sun was shining bright

ROSS COHEN: And the Reverend Archie Mitchell and his wife Elsie who was five months pregnant with their first child

CORA CONNOR: Knew them very well. Sunday school. I went to church and took vacations of up there

ROSS COHEN: They took their Sunday School class out for a picnic. There were five children that went along on that trip, ages 11 to 14

NICK: And one of the kids

CORA CONNOR: We called him Dickie. He had a crush on my sister who was a little younger than

And they wanted her to come on this picnic so they came by and stopped the pastor and his wife stopped trying to talk--to convince my mom to let my sister go or both of us or whatever. But mom didn't' want us to go because Saturday was our chore day and my day to work the switchboard, which usually made me pretty angry, but it was my job. And she said no, well my sister didn't really want to go because she really wasn't encouraging this relationship too much. Yeha, Dickie, yeah. No.

PETER: So Archie and Elsie and the five kids get back into the car

ROSS COHEN: And they drove up to Gearhart Mountain

PETER: And a couple miles up a logging road they pass some forest service guys working on the road. They go a little further to where the road comes near a creek

ROSS COHEN: And Archie pulled the car around and parked. They kids jumped out of the car and started running down toward the creek. Elsie who was pregnant as I mentioned she was feeling a bit carsick, she jumped out to get some fresh air and to chase after the kids while Archie went around to the trunk of the car to get out the fishing poles and the picnic baskets, et cetera. One of the children saw something on the ground. A large canvas, white gray, balloon of some kind spread out on the ground. Called to the other children to come have a look. The children and Elsie apparently gathered in a tight circle around the balloon. Archie later reported that while he was getting the picnic basket out of the trunk, his wife called to him, honey look at what we found. He turned and took a few steps towards them and at that moment--we'll never know exactly what happened, but apparently one of the children reached down to pick up the device. The bomb detonated. All five children and Elsie Mitchell were killed instantly.

PETER: The forest service guys down the road were close enough to hear the blast

ROSS COHEN: They come running when they hear the explosion and they see Archie Mitchell has run to the site and his wife's clothes were ablaze. And Archie was kneeling over his prostate wife beating out the fire with his bare hands.

[WALKING SOUNDS]

PETER: There's no wind

NICK: On our last day in Bly we went to visit the site where the bomb went off

NICK: It's the middle of nowhere. It's just a chain--it's just a little fenced off area. Like a little pen.

NICK: And there were these tall pine trees.

NICK: It's just huge cuts in the tree

JAD: Were those shrapnel cuts in the tree?

NICK: Yeha, they still--this hasn't, has not healed.

PETER: Eerie place

CORA CONNOR: Of course I didn't know what was going on.

PETER: This is Cora Connor again. At the time she was at her job, watching the switchboard when

CORA CONNOR: A guy that was working up there for the forest service comes rushing into the telephone office and I mean he was scared. Pure white and scared. And I thought, my god what's going on? What's happening? And he came in and made the call to Lakeview

PETER: The naval base in Lakeview. And about half an hour later you know this big, imposing military guy comes in

CORA CONNOR: He was all medals and all full uniform, you know. And he must have made it it seemed like in the blink of an eye. And I thought, my god what has happened? And then when the--he talked over the phone I knew what was going on. He said they'd had a bomb explode up there, with casualties. And then he talked to me. He said, do not talk to anybody about anything that you've heard here. Not your mother, not anybody. He says, now you're not to leave this office. By then I was just jelly I was so terrified

NICK: He leaves and the world is trickling around, spreading around town

CORA CONNOR: They knew something had gone wrong. And they gathered around the phone office because the phone office knows everything in the whole valley. And they knew I knew what was going on, and that's when it all hit

NICK: Pretty soon there was a crowd outside

Cora Connor: Screaming and yelling at me

CORA CONNOR: Yeah. We know you know what's going on. You better come out and tell us. We're coming in there and you're gonna tell us what's happened

PETER: These people are your neighbors and things like that?

CORA CONNOR: People--yeah.

PETER: That know you and they're saying

CORA CONNOR: That know. Yeah, because Bly's a very tiny place. I probably knew every one of them. I was about--you can imagine the state I was in. And Mr. Patsky

PETER: Dickie's father. Dickie was the boy who had a crush on Cora's sister

CORA CONNOR: I can tell you exactly how he was dressed that day. He had on a read and black checkered hunting shirt and his red hunting cap.

NICK: At the time all he knew was that his son was missing

CORA CONNOR: He stood out there and he shook his fist and he yelled and he scared me half to death, threatening to come in and all that. He says, you know what's happening. Let us know what's happening. And I couldn't do anything. I sat there all day

PETER: How old were you?

CORA CONNOR: 16. You know, it really really tore me apart. I was just in a complete fog for days. I'd never talked too much about it. Nope.

PETER: Within a day or so the military told ost of the town what actually happened that day

CORA CONNOR: And a short time after that a big army truck--well there was two big army trucks and they stopped right out in front of our house. We wondered what was going on you know, your little town like that, anything different everyone goes to the window and takes a look. And here come--OK, this is awfully hard for me. A woman and a little kid jumped out of the back of that truck. She was Japanese. They were on their way to the Tooley Lake

NICK: The Japanese internment camp nearby

CORA CONNOR: And she's screaming and crying and praying. Please, we need water, we need water. It was hot. It was really hot that day and they were in a canvas covered truck, jammed in there. And I grabbed a pitcher, a bucket or whatever was in the kitchen, filled it with water and started out the door. By that time they were throwing rocks at that lady and her kid. People in that town were so terribly upset and they were throwing rocks at her. And mom wouldn't let me go. And I screamed and cried at my mother because she wouldn't let me--she says, well you can't go out there. They'll throw rocks at you. I won't let you go. And to this day that picture is in my mind. And I've prayed to the Lord to forgive the people that were doing that and try to--I can't accept it. Nothing can make me accept what happened. I thought that was the most horrible thing in the world people could do. A woman and child they had nothing to do with the bomb, nothing to do with the war. Nothing. It--still hard. How can people be that way? It upset me so horribly bad. I didn't want to talk about it. I couldn't talk for 40 years.

JAD: It's weird like, there's a kind of weird scary symmetry to this thing. Like the Japanese military was trying to create terror, right. Like what they felt after Doolittle. And so they wanted to make this situation where like bombs were falling silently from the sky. We couldn't even tell where they were coming from. Almost like the gods were dropping them. But we kept it quiet so nobody panicked. Except by not saying anything, at least in this one small instance, it created exactly the situation that the Japanese military wanted. I mean not on the scale that they wanted but like in its effect. It's like a concentrated version of the thing they were trying to create.

ROBERT: Right but that's the war

JAD: That's the problem

ROBERT: That's not a problem. Five is a sacrifice in war, what is it five, six people. There wre 125 million people in America then.

JAD: Hm. I think there actually might have been a little bit more than that

ROBERT: Well you can see what it would have been like listening to this story, you could see what it would have been like if this story had been well-known and had been told from person to person, if everybody was looking up wondering where the next strange thing was coming from

JAD: Well they wouldn't--there might have been panic, but those kids wouldn't have tugged on the balloon

ROBERT: That's the choice

JAD: Because they would have known, yeah

ROSS COHEN: At the end of the war, the war department destroyed all of the evidence. They didn't want these--any evidence of these balloons just out there in general circulation

ROSS COHEN: This is one of those footnotes to the war that you know, at the end of the war, just never--people forgot about something they didn't know about anyway

PETER: Ross, are there anymore out there?

ROSS COHEN: It's estimated by the war department that of the 9,000 released, they thought that maybe seven to ten percent of the total would have survived the transoceanic crossing and arrived in North America. That's 900. 300 are confirmed as having arrived in North America. So that means there are dozens, perhaps hundreds, that arrived in North America but were never accounted for. In the ten or 12 years immediately after the end of World War II, a couple dozen of these things were found. And then the recoveries stopped more or less

ROBERT: Were they alive, like the one in Oregon--if you touched them would they blow up?

ROSS COHEN: Some of them were. Some of them were. Now here's the fascinating part. October of 2014, I kid you not

BRAD SINGLINGER: Dave was ahead of me and he'd stopped and said, I think I found a bomb

ROSS COHEN: A couple of loggers

BRAD SINGLINGER: My name is Brad Singlinger

DAVID BRIDGEMAN: My name is Dave Bridgeman

ROSS COHEN: In Lumey, British Columbia who were doing some survey work

DAVID BRIDGEMAN: You know, this is the middle of nowhere

ROSS COHEN: Found the remnants of a Japanese balloon that had been on the ground for 70 years

BRAD SLINGLINGER: And we definitely work in remote areas in general and we don't see much except trees and rocks and you know, there are those odd special days where you see things that no one else gets to see

ROSS COHEN: I tell ya, if you're hiking, if you're out in the woods in the Pacific Northwest, watch where you step.

ROBERT: Thank you to Peter Lang Stanton and to Nicker Ferago for their reporting and extensive reporting

JAD: Yeah. Big thanks to them, big thanks to them. Also thanks to Illana Soul whose documentary On Paper Wings was a big source for us that you heard those Japanese voices in the middle of the story. That came from her documentary. Also we have original music for this hour from a couple of folks: Jeff Taylor, Michael Manning, David Wingo, Justin Walter. And if you want to see these balloon bombs we have some incredible pictures on our website, radiolab.org. Coming up next we've got one more story about the war on our shores and I've got to say this one is a real doozy. I remember it when it was pitched, the entire staff just sat there like riveted. That's coming up next.

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JAD: Hey I'm Jad Abumrad

ROBERT: I'm Robert Krulwich

JAD: This is Radiolab, and today we're telling war stories. And this next one, well

ROBERT: What we're going to tell you is an old story. It's about 70 years old, but it's not really as old as that at all because you'll notice that it hasn't ended.

JAD: And it comes to us from reporter Karen Duffin

KAREN DUFFIN: Yeah

JAD: OK, where to start--do you have a sense of where to start?

KAREN: Well I could blame it on my dad

DAD: And that's the house I grew up in, just so you know

KAREN: Oh, right.

DAD: That's my bedroom window

JAD: This is Karen and her dad looking at pictures of his childhood home

KAREN: He grew up in this tiny town in Idaho called Aberdeen

KAREN: Good old Aberdeen, I forgot how much--

JAD: On a potato farm.

KAREN: He loves to talk about the farm. Like he thinks we should all live on a farm.

DAD: It's pretty cool

KAREN: So we were talking one day and he mentions very casually as if its like something we all know, he says, yeah back when we had Nazi prisoners of war working on our farm. And I was like, time out. What?

ROBERT: Really that's what he-- this was parenthetical?

KAREN: Yeah it was totally like, yeah we're picking potatoes and then yeah the Nazi prisoners of war were helping us

DAD: Sort of remember how old I was just by how tall the guards were. They were very tall.

KAREN: He was only three or four at the time

KAREN: Do you know if there were like dozens of prisoners or just like a handful?

DAD: Oh, there was a bunch

JAD: I didn't even know there was prisoners of war, Nazi prisoners of war in America ever

KAREN: Yeah. Me either.

KATHY KIRKPATRICK: Yeha, OK, so that was the first time--

KAREN: So after I talked to my dad, I ended up calling this historien

KATHY KIRKPATRICK: Kathy Kirkpatrick

KAREN: Because i wanted to know, was this just an Aberdeen thing?

KATHY KIRKPATRICK: No. Like you were talking about Idaho

KAREN: She told me that in Idaho alone

KATHY KIRKPATRICK: There's branch camps in Aberdeen and Blackfoot and Emmett and Folly Lake and Idaho Falls

KAREN: There were 23 different camps. Generally you had prisoners that were in churches

KATHY KIRKPATRICK: Tent cities, St. Paul

KAREN: Rodeo grounds

KATHY KIRKPATRICK: Dormitories

KAREN: High school gyms

KATHY KIRKPATRICK: Sugar City

KAREN: And this was the case all across the country.

KATHY KIRKPATRICK: The only state that did not have prisoners of war was Vermont

KATHY KIRKPATRICK: And the maximum we had over 371,000 Germans, 51,000 Italians and 5,000 Japanese.

KAREN: Almost half a million people

JAD: Oh my god

KAREN: Why does nobody know about this?

KATHY KIRKPATRICK: We just don't talk about it--I think we don't--I don't know.

JAD: But today we are going to talk about it. But not just because it's a cool historical thing, but because it raises a question

CLIP: Breaking news this noon, a stunning report looking into how the CIA interrogated detainees--

JAD: A question that

CLIP: On top secret interrogation tactics

JAD: With torture reports

CLIP: Bizarre, even sadistic--

JAD: And Abu Ghraib

CLIP: Prisoners being abused by American soldiers

JAD: Guantanamo Bay. Questions that we are still trying to answer today, which is, you know, when you capture an enemy soldier, take them out of the battle, out of the fight, how should you treat that person?

ROBERT: And if both sides agreed to follow certain rules and one side doesn't, what do you do?

JAD: And the interesting thing was 70 years ago this question was playing out in this really dramatic way in all of these towns across America

KAREN: There were about 200 basecamps that were huge. They were like up to 8,000 people

JAD: And by the way that's like 70 times the size of Guantanamo Bay currently. In any case, as she was researching, Karen started to zoom into one camp in particular

KAREN: So this is really illustrative of what happened. There's this one camp in Aliceville, Alabama. It's this tiny town of like 1,500 people. But the camp has 6,000 people.

JAD: Wow that's like four times the size of the town

KAREN: Yeah. So I went and interviewed a bunch of people--guards, prisoners, locals, from Aliceville and

THOMAS SWEET: It was quite a day

KAREN: That's Thomas Sweet. He worked in Aliceville. And he told me the day the prisoners came, so a thousand of them came at first, and the police were like, nobody allowed on the street. But of course

THOMAS SWEET: When word got out that the first train load was coming everybody rushed out on the street

MAN: The say the train come in there wasn't supposed to be any townspeople. But of course there was

WOMAN: Everybody was out

MAN: The road was lined with kids from three years old up to people 70 years old

KAREN: So these voices are from an oral history project that was recorded in 1994 about the prison camp in Aliceville.

WOMAN: So we all climbed the lumber pile so we could see them when we got off the train

KAREN: So everybody's super nervous

CLIP: [indistinct yelling]

KAREN: Because they have these images in their head

MAN: In my mind, just like a lot of people in Aliceville, they didn't know what kind of devils was going to get off that train. Guys with horns on their head

KAREN: So these prisoners that were sent to Aliceville were actually part of Rommel's Afrika Korps, and these guys were the most feared of Hitler's fighters

MAN: They were supposed to be the elite

ARCHIVAL CLIP: So-called Nazi superman

KAREN: The Nazi superman, right. So the train pulls up.

MAN: They stop right on the main highway

KAREN: Doors open. And then hundreds and hundreds of German soldiers get out

WOMAN: And they were marching with that German march.

KAREN: And they're singing their military songs in German

CLIP: [German singing]

WOMAN: Tell us about what is was like, what you thought when you got off the train. What did they look like, did they have on uniforms?

WOMAN: Oh yes.

KAREN: So when you listen to the oral histories, it's really clear that this was a really complicated moment for the people in Aliceville

WOMAN: The people of Aliceville were scared to death

MAN: I didn't know whether I was going to be mad at them when they first come in or what, but when I see they were just a bunch of whipped kids

WOMAN: There was a feeling of concern in our hearts for them

MAN: When I seen them they was nothing but a bunch of young kids

WOMAN: How young they were

MAN: Haggard looking and washed up and beat

WOMAN: Wounded and some of them had maggots--oh just gruesome

MAN: You could tell they'd been through a rough time

HANS COPER: It was awful for us

KAREN: That's Hans Copera, he was one of the prisoners stepping out of the train that day. He'd been drafted into the army against his will, captured in North Africa, and then he was sent to America in the bottom of this big cargo ship

HANS COPERA: and in one room they crowded 700 people. You couldn't even sit. There was no toilet, of course, we had only ten boxes. We all were wet, soaked with urine. It was awful. It was an awful trip

MAN: And you kind of had to feel sorry for them

KAREN: And then on the other hand and you hear this too in the oral histories, the people in Aliceville are thinking, these are Nazis. These are the men who are killing our sons

WOMAN: You know, I had three brothers overseas at the same time. So we didn't like them. That's just the way we felt.

KAREN: OK, so there's that question in people's mind, and this is playing out all across the country, here's the enemy at your mercy. What do you do? How do you treat them? They're in your hands. Nobody's' watching. You can do whatever you want with them at that point. In theory.

JAD: But in practice?

KAREN: Well actually this was a significant moment for the world. I mean, 14 years before a bunch of countries had gotten together and they'd made up rules for exactly this kind of moment

ARCHIVAL CLIP: In 1929 at Geneva, long before Hitler and his partners began to eye the real estate of the world, there was an international conference. Here nations solemnly promised to uphold the rules covering the treatment of prisoners of war.

ARNOLD KRAMER: Oh it was a series of dos and don'ts.

KAREN: That's historian Arnold Kramer. He's a professor at Texas A&M. Some of the rules he says are pretty basic

ARNOLD KRAMER: That women and children should be protected

KAREN: So you had to give prisoners a certain amount of food

ARCHIVAL CLIP: Prisoners are entitled to the same quantity of rations, clothing, and living quarters as afforded our own troops

KAREN: And then there's rules about medical attention, labor

KATHY KIRKPATRICK: While the Geneva convention says yes you can use people for labor

KAREN: Kathy Kirkpatrick again

KATHY KIRKPATRICK: You also should be paying people for labor. The rate of payment was 80 cents a day

KAREN: So the Geneva conventions are this attempt to kind of civilize the uncivilized thing which is war

ARNOLD KRAMER: You see the first World War was so horrific

KAREN: Hundreds of thousands of prisoners died in POW camps

ARNOLD KRAMER: There were no real regulations with regard to prisoners. Sides did almost anything they wanted

KAREN: So the Geneva conventions of 1929 was an attempt to kind of set things right

ARNOLD KRAMER: Because people kind of just couldn't fathom another war to end wars

THOMAS SWEET: We were well-trained in the Geneva convention

KAREN: That's Thomas Sweet again. He was actually one of the guards at camp Aliceville. And what he said is that even before the POWs arrived, the Geneva conventions were drilled into their heads. They had lectures, the rules were posted in the rec hall and in the officers club

THOMAS SWEET: We had to--the prisoners had to be treated the same as you would your own fellow soldiers

KAREN: Which sounds kind of basic. But for somebody like Hans who's stepping off this train and wondering how he's gonna be treated

HANS COPERA: It was--I should say it was really a sort of heaven

MAN: When they got into the barracks had all been laid out

WOMAN: Barricks were fresh and clean

MAN: They had towels and shaving equipment for each one of them at each one's bunks

KAREN: The prisoners washed up and then the guards opened up the cafeteria

WF: Then we got to eat good things

KAREN: This is Walter Fetzholder, he was another prisoner at Aliceville

WALTER FETZHOLDER: We got a piece of white bread, of your American white bread. And we got peanut butter. I didn't know what a peanut was. And it tasted wonderful, wonderful. It was the best dinner I ever had. And I always when I think on the good times, I think on peanut butter.

KAREN: And here's the funny thing. Like, as you look into this, you start to realize we're not just following the Geneva conventions the letter of the law. WE're going above and beyond and within two months they have an orchestra. Within a year they have three orchestras.

JAD: This is POW-led orchestras?

KAREN: Yes. Yes.

JAD: So they're being given instruments?

KAREN: They're making instruments, the locals are donating instruments, the YMCA is giving them instruments

CLIP: [German singing]

KAREN: They open a school

CLIP: [German singing]

KAREN: You can learn anything from pottery to mathematics, almost any language you want to learn

CLIP: [German singing]

KAREN: And they set up correspondence programs with the local universities. You could get credit

THOMAS SWEET: They had soccer games just about every day. They drew big crowds

KAREN: They had a newspaper. Their newspaper was called the Fenced Guest and it had like poetry

JAD: The Fenced Guest

KAREN: Right. They also did a lot of theatrical productions

KATHY KIRKPATRICK: And sometimes threw regular art shows

KAREN: So this is where things get a little bit strange

EW: On December 18th, there was another art exhibition

KAREN: This is a woman named Ellen Wanders, whose father was a POW at the camp. And here she's reading from his diary

EW: December 12, de fuhrer--that means Hitler--had sent 12,572 dollars to open the art exhibition in camp V.

JAD: OK wait she's saying that Hitler sent money to the camp for an art thing?

JAD: While--during--while we're fighting Hitler he's sending money?

CLIP: [German singing]

KAREN: Um, OK so--

JAD: OK. So with Hitler's Christmas gift to the art show and the ham and the bands and all that stuff, did people in the, outside the camp know what was going on inside?

KAREN: You know, once they start, so--I think it was in 1943 was the point at which we started realizing we're running out of American men to do labor and we look around and we're like, well actually we have quite a few men who might be able to do some work here.

MAN: A lot of them prisoners worked on farms down there. Picking cotton, peanuts

KAREN: So some of the farmers would bring them in the house for lunch. They would drink with them

THOMAS SWEET: They were drunk.

KAREN: There's some really funny stories of like

THOMAS SWEET: It was probably moonshine

KAREN: The prisoners getting drunk with the farmers and then they get in trouble because they come home late

THOMAS SWEET: [laughs]

KAREN: One of the biggest things that the war department says when they start sending the men out is like if you make friends with these POWs, it's against the rules. But they do it all the time

ROBERT: Did anybody fall in love with anybody

KAREN: Oh yeah. I mean not a lot but it definitely happened. So as these prisoners are out in the community, they're forming friendships, a few of them are falling in love, word starts to get out about how they're being treated. And meanwhile across America there's rationing. And so when they learn that the POWs are getting food that they might not be getting, a lot of the American public, they get pissed.

ARCHIVAL CLIP: Walter Winchell

KAREN: Especially this radio guy, Walter Winchell, who sort of made this his cause. They call him the Rush Limbaugh of World War II

JAD: Was he that well-known?

ROBERT: Walter Winchell was one of the most famous reporters in America

ARCHIVAL CLIP: Walter Winchell

KAREN: So in any case, when he finds out about the Nazi POW program, Walter Winchell just starts to rant about it

ARCHIVAL CLIP, WALTER WINCHELL: The United States Army caters to the Nazis as though they were kings. They get more food than our soldiers get. Ponies, radios, luxuries and all sorts of leniency beyond imagination.

KAREN: And he would do this week after week

ARCHIVAL CLIP, WALTER WINCHELL: We -- over here won't have any Nazis to capture and fatten up on steaks on ham and bacon or chopped chicken liver--

KAREN: People start writing articles in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe. Citizens start flooding the war department with letters

ARCHIVAL CLIP, WALTER WINCHELL: I know sir that your YMCA war prisoners aid does all it can to make Nazi war prisoners over here comfortable

KAREN: And in the meantime, according to Thomas Sweet, inside the camp some of these prisoners are starting to get kind of bold

THOMAS SWEET: For a couple of nights they cut out swastikas and took a kite and was flying the kite and had these swastikas on the box underneath the kite with a string that down to the ground. And they handeed the string to one of the--one of guards and said, pull this string and when they pulled the string the trapdoor opened on the gadget they had made and all these swastikas started falling all over, all over the camp and in Aliceville too. And the townspeople started calling the base mad about that

KAREN: Add to that, we don't have enough men to guard all these camps. So the prisoners are starting to get more and more control of the camp.

MAN: The prisoners had the run of the camp

KAREN: And in some cases the Nazi hardliners would start to torment the non Nazis. They would threaten them, they might beat them up. There were even a couple of murders.

ROBERT: Who was not a Nazi inside of these camps?

KAREN: If you had been drafted but you didn't--you weren't ideologically--

ROBERT: I see

KAREN: So the perception that is coming out of these camps is that we've created these hotels on American soil where Nazis could start radicalizing. And people get so mad that there's actually a congressional investigation into the coddling of prisoners of war. So I spent a lot of time at the National Archives trying to get to like, all right. What are the arguments. And here's kind of how it went. You have this congressman on one side, Richard Harlice, and he's saying you're coddling them.

ARCHIVAL CLIP, WALTER WINCHELL: Congressman Harlice of Arizona called the Nazi prisoners of the United States pampered and privileged

KAREN: And on the other side you have the guy who's now running the prisoner of war program, Archer Lurch, adn he's basically saying, no

CLIP, LURCH: We do not coddle them

KAREN: He says, we're just following the Geneva conventions. And the reason that he gave was the same reason that Joe Biden would give almost 60 years later

CLIP, JOE BIDEN: There's a reason why we sign these treaties, to protect my son in the military

ROBERT: We torture them, they torture us

KAREN: Reciprocity

CLIP, JOE BIDEN: That's why we have these treaties, so when Americans are captured they are not tortured. That's the reason. In case anybody forgets it. That's the reason

KAREN: One problem though. Just one month after that hearing in 1944

ARCHIVAL CLIP: Unarmed American prisoners fell to the machines of our enemies

KAREN: News breaks that 84 American soldiers, prisoners of war now in Germany are gunned down after they surrendered

ARCHIVAL CLIP: Four weeks later their frozen bodies, hands and ankles bound, were found where they fell

KAREN: We then go on to liberate American soldiers from POW camps in Germany and we find misery. Nothing like Aliceville

ARCHIVAL CLIP: American prisoners of war report inhuman hospital conditions

KAREN: Walter Winchell gets back on the airwaves

ARCHIVAL CLIP, WALTER WINCHELL: Attention--

KAREN: He says look, reciprocity hasn't worked. Our generosity

ARCHIVAL CLIP, WALTER WINCHELL: Has not been reciprocated and our boys were not treated the same

KAREN: And a few months later, things get even worse

ARCHIVAL CLIP: It was impossible to fully realize the horror of the Nazi concentration camps

KAREN: We start going into concentration camps

ARCHIVAL CLIPS: --the truth that man had indeed sunk below the level of animal beastiality

KAREN: And we start seeing what the German had done, what the Nazis had done

ARCHIVAL CLIP: Thousands of dead bodies were piled everywhere, most never having received the dignity of burial, but what was even more frightening were the living dead left behind

KAREN: So Congress decides to hold a second investigation into the treatment of prisoners. But this time it's real soul searching. I mean, we had just seen the full horrors of the Holocaust so we're thinking, anything we do to these guys at this point they deserve. And we're also realizing we're not really getting reciprocity so we don't really have a practical reason to treat them well anymore. So at this point, the question has really become, do we continue to be good even when we're not getting anything in return? And the kind of amazing thing to me is we decide, yeah. We're gonna stick to the Geneva conventions. Archer Lurch who runs the POW program at this point, he gets up and he says, we are not going to lower ourselves to Nazi standards. We are not gonna let the enemy decide who we are as a country.

JAD: And that argument stuck?

ARNOLD KRAMER: I think that most people associated with the prison camp experience

KAREN: That's historian Arnold Kramer again

ARNOLD KRAMER: Felt that we treated them well not because they treated ours well, but that we are decent people and probably would have done this anyway

ARCHIVAL CLIP: What makes an American is not any special precious sort of blood, but the tradition we have inherited. It's tradition, not blood, that patterns the way we think and act and feel

DAVID GOLDFIELD: There's a great belief that we have a special mission and we have a special history

KAREN: This is David Goldfield. He's a historian at UNC Charlotte

DAVID GOLDFIELD: And that's the ideal. But no. I mean, you only have to look at the treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II

KAREN: He says, don't forget, right as we're giving the Nazis massive amounts of ham, we're also rounding up tens of thousands of Japanese American citizens. Citizens. And we're throwing them into these cramped camps that are way worse than Aliceville. And if you ask David why are we treating the Germans so much better

DAVID GOLDFIELD: They look like us.

ARCHIVAL CLIP: These people look all right. The mailman, the farmer. They all pretty much look like the folks back home.

DAVID GOLDFIELD: The major reason, race

KAREN: The Germans were white. They seemed familiar.

DAVID GOLDFIELD: There was a connection between the German POWs and the folks in the American South, not only because of the ethnicity of the Germans, not only because of their economic benefit to the region, but also because of their racial ideology. If you go to Nuremberg, there's a museum there and you will see that the laws against the Jews were copied from the Mississippi black codes. And there are direct quotes from both the black codes and the Jewish codes

JAD: This is the most horrifying thing I've heard in a long time. I mean, is it really true that like all the niceness was just a perverse form of racism?

PAUL SPRINGER: Well I would say racism plays an enormous role in why Japanese citizens were interned in the first place. I don't think there's any question about that.

KAREN: That's Paul Springer. He's a military historian

PAUL SPRINGER: Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama

KAREN: He's not quite sure that race explains all of this. He says, you know what, you've got to be careful because you're comparing treatment of citizens to treatment of prisoners of war. And that's different.

PAUL SPRINGER: It's not a fair comparison. For the case of why you treat the German POWs better, well, because they're prisoners of war. The Japanese POWs were also exceedingly well-treated. They were treated much better than the Japanese citizens of the United States and I think that's the comparison that's probably more interesting, is why did you treat enemy soldiers from Japan better than you treated citizens of the United States of Japanese heritage?

KAREN: And he says very simply that with prisoners of war, it's because we had a rule

PAUL SPRINGER: Governing international law

KAREN: Like the Geneva conventions

PAUL SPRINGER: There's no similar law at that time that says what you can and can't do towards your civilian populations.

JAD: That's interesting. So it's like maybe we're not racist or noble, but both. And it's the rules that allow us to be our better selves.

KAREN: I mean, here's what I take from this. I think that in a time of war it's incredibly difficult to be good to your enemy. It's not just about aspiring to be good, this American ideal, it's about having 97 really nit-picky, tiny tedious rules to tell you exactly what you can do and what you can't do. Because it would just be so easy to not be the person that you want to be in that moment.

JADD: It does kind of make you think back to February of 2002.

ARCHIVAL CLIP: Good afternoon. I have an announcement to make. President Bush today that the Geneva convention will apply to the Taliban detainees, but not to the Al-Qaeda international terrorists. The President has maintained the United States' commitment to the principles of the Geneva convention while recognizing that the convention simply does not cover every situation in which people may be captured or detained by military forces, as we see in Afghanistan today. Yes John

ARCHIVAL CLIP: What you're telling us is the Taliban prisoners, detainees, at Guantanamo will not get any more protections than they already are given under the Geneva convention. What you're telling us is the Al-Qaeda detainees will get fewer.

ARCHIVAL CLIP: No. There's no change in the protections they will be provided. They're-- They've always been treated with the principles consistent with the Geneva convention, which means they'll be treated well. If you're looking for anything that will not happen as a result of this announcement is that they will not receive stipends from the American taxpayers. They will not receive musical instruments courtesy of the United States military. They would have received those had they been declared POWs. They will continue to be treated well because they're in the custody of America.

ARCHIVAL CLIP: But the concern--the debate here was about if you don't do it here, then US soldiers could be mistreated abroad, isn't that correct? Isn't that a big, a big motivation here--for the US soldiers get the same kind of treatment?

ARCHIVAL CLIP: It's important for all nations, throughout the world, to treat any prisoners well. And that is something the United States always expects, and the United States always does. We have time for one more question and then there's a-- Hold it. Go ahead. David.

ARCHIVAL CLIP: --US special forces. They don't, they often do not wear uniforms, they often do not carry their weapons outwardly. If they are captured, they wouldn't be prisoners of war?

ARCHIVAL CLIP: The terms of the Geneva convention apply to all. The terms speak for themselves. OK, thank you everybody.

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The War On Our Shore | Radiolab | WNYC Studios

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ROBERT: I'm Robert Krulwich. JAD: This is Radiolab and today we're going to travel back in time to World War II which is a war that has been chronicled and re-chronicled and re-imagined and told a thousand thousand thousand million times.

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Radiolab Presents: On the Media: Busted, America's Poverty Myths | Radiolab | WNYC Studios

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On the Media’s Brooke Gladstone tells Jad and Robert about a project they launched to look at the tales we tell when we talk about poverty.

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Native Americans at Carlisle Indian School challenge the best (and all-white) American football teams.

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[RADIOLAB INTRO]

ROBERT KRULWICH: I'm Robert Krulwich.

JAD: And today, just for kicks we're gonna start in a park. So let me set the scene.

JAD: Couple days ago, we gathered a bunch of Radiolab listeners in McCarren Park in Brooklyn.

ROBERT: This is a random set of listeners.

JAD: Random set of listeners. Whoever showed up as a result of a few tweets and Facebook postings. Got about 70 people. It was a super cold day. Park was covered in snow. And we had brought everybody there to help us make some noises that we would use in this segment. Like ...

JAD: Chanting. Or -- it was amazing. You'll hear them throughout the hour. But when people got there, we hadn't actually explained to them why we wanted them to make these noises. So just to start things off, I just asked them a couple questions.

JAD: Questions of the moment.

JAD: This was not a shocking revelation.

ROBERT: No. Kind of expected.

JAD: But these anti-football sentiments, I believe they say more about you and I and our fans than the game.

ROBERT: Although I -- in fairness, I mean there are a lot of people who -- I would even consider myself a -- a -- I watch for the ads.

JAD: Okay. Whether you watch for the ads like you or whether you love the game like I happen to, or loathe it like some others, football right now ...

ROBERT: It's massively popular. That's not the same as ...

JAD: I actually think it's massively interesting, also. Here's a way to think about it. Sally Jenkins, the author of the book The Real All-Americans, she puts it this way. Imagine a thousand years from now, maybe ten thousand, maybe a hundred thousand years from now, we're all gone. All our history has been forgotten. All the silly trifling games we play have been lost to time. Imagine the future human beings looking back on us.

JAD: Okay, so here's the thing Radiolab listeners. We're gonna do an entire hour on the game of football. In part, because it just seems to be that there are a lot of questions in the air about football right now, about what it really is and what that means about us. What it might or could or can't become.

ROBERT: Am I gonna like this?

JAD: Absolutely! This -- in a way, this whole hour is for the people like you who really don't care about football. And I am willing to wager that at the end they will care more. Particularly because of this first story which comes from Sally Jenkins who just heard. It comes from her book, The Real All Americans This is a story, not about the game as you might think of it now, but about where it came from. It didn't come from the people you'd expect.

ROBERT: Okay, I'm folding my hands. And you see here, in my lap, and I'm going to listen to this.

JAD: Okay, you want to get in the three-point stance?

ROBERT: 71! 71 Hike! We're ready to begin.

JAD: And this is a story about the beginning.

JAD: Basically she says, you had these kids whose parents had fought in the Civil War and then some of them had gone west to fight the Lakota, the Cheyenne, the Arapaho, the Apaches. And now those wars were winding down, which oddly enough created kind of an issue for young men at the time.

ROBERT: If you're a young student, say back east at a fancy school like Harvard, how are you gonna prove your own toughness? I mean, your older brother, your father they maybe fought at Gettysburg, Battle of Little Bighorn.

JAD: And so, according to historian David Adams who you just heard, those kids were desperate for opportunities to man up.

JAD: Around this time says David Adams, you see a bunch of violent sports take off. And in particular, for our purposes, you see these kids at Harvard and Yale getting together and knocking the snot out of each other in this game that's kind of like rugby, but just more violent.

JAD: Writer Chuck Klosterman, and before him historian. Dr. Conrad Crane.

JAD: There were formations and strategies and that kind of thing, but it was pure, like, right out of Napoleon's military playbook. I mean, where you -- you concentrate your force.

ROBERT: Yeah, my shoulder next to your shoulder next to his shoulder. It's like a line.

JAD: Yeah, you bunch up all -- all your men, and then pierce the other guy's army.

JAD: That was the basic idea.

ROBERT: And so you just end up with piles of guys.

JAD: Yeah, and inside those piles?

JAD: But then along comes this school, this tiny little school founded in 1879 in the middle of nowhere, that if you're a football fan or just a fan of American history kind of changed everything.

JAD: Big guy. Shock of white hair. Large nose.

JAD: And it was after winning a lot of those fights, too many of those fights really, we're talking 1870s now, that Pratt had a change of heart. And he -- he suddenly became concerned about the very people he had just been fighting.

JAD: His idea was to start a boarding school specifically for American Indian children that was kind of a radical experiment.

JAD: I.E. They would be white-itized.

JAD: That's Barbara Landis.

JAD: We went up to Carlisle to talk with her and her colleague Cara Curtis. And they told us that Pratt basically made that pitch ...

JAD: ... not just to Congress, but directly to American Indian families all over the country.

JAD: We need to teach them how to communicate with the white man, so that when the white man comes and tries to get you to sign away the Black Hills you won't fall for it again.

JAD: Joe lives near the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. He's Lakota. And he told us the story about his grandfather who was a famous Lakota chief. In the 1890s, his grandpa led a delegation of American Indians to Washington.

JAD: Joe says his grandpa had this moment where he was just stunned by how many white people there were. His phrase was, "They're like ants."

JAD: Basically, Joe says his grandpa just had this realization.

JAD: And it seemed to him Carlisle was the way forward.

JAD: As kids were admitted, here's how it would work. They would come in, and they'd immediately have their picture taken on arrival. Then they'd be given an extreme makeover which would also be photographed.

ROBERT: Barbara showed us a picture of a Navajo kid looking maybe 18 years old.

ROBERT: This is when he arrives. So he's got kind of dark skin, high cheekbones.

ROBERT: He's wearing an elaborate necklace. Looks like it might be made of bone.

JAD: And he's wrapped in a blanket.

JAD: In the second picture, his hair is very short. Not long.

JAD: He's wearing a three-piece suit.

ROBERT: Sitting there with a cravat and a spread collar and parted hair.

JAD: Joe American Horse said his family saw that transformation firsthand.

JAD: But just think about this for a second. Just think about this. We spoke with one guy Professor Eric Anderson who teaches at Haskell, he's also part Pottawatomi. Just imagine the parents, he says, the first time they see their kids.

JAD: In any case, according to Sally Jenkins, after the kids were recropped and redressed, Pratt would run them through a bunch of drills.

JAD: I mean, we know that in the 39-year history of the school at least 200 kids died of disease or poor health or even homesickness.

JAD: And Sally thinks that one of those hires ...

JAD: This guy who had formerly taught at an Ivy League school. He showed the Carlisle Indian kids this game that the kids at Harvard were playing. Maybe he thought it would toughen them up, who knows? But suddenly they're playing football. Now keep in mind, this is, you know, at a point, we're talking 1882, where football's barely a thing. Not so many schools had teams.

JAD: But the Carlisle kids self-organized, level the field, start to play. They even start to scrimmage some kids across town. And at one of those games, according to Barbara ...

JAD: Because in his mind he was trying to civilize these kids, and football was doing the opposite. But a short time later, says David Adams ...

JAD: According to his memoir, Pratt was sort of bowled over by the eloquence and passion of the appeal. So he said, "Okay ..."

JAD: And at that early point in American football ...

JAD: Which brings us to October 24th 1896.

JAD: Apparently, there was about 4,000 people in the stands, including ...

JAD: According to David Adams in one paper ...

JAD: Because of course, that's what Pratt wanted. Now one thing that was immediately clear to everyone in attendance when they saw the Carlisle players was that they were physically outmatched.

JAD: Or at the very least, the odds are heavily against them. But three minutes into the game, in the midst of a big pile up. A Yaley fumbles the ball. It comes squirting out. Carlisle guy picks it up, and runs the entire length of the field, 63 yards, and scores a touchdown. Now, nobody had scored on Yale in seven games. They were furious. So what they do is they use their bulk to slowly push the pile down the field twice to take the lead. And with three minutes left, Yale is up 12 to 6, Carlisle has the ball. Carlisle running back charges the pile and gets clobbered. Falls backwards, And just as he's about to hit the earth, he laterals the ball to a teammate who grabs it, runs around the scrum the entire length of the field and scores!

ROBERT: And some of the Carlisle players said oh, we're gonna walk out of here. We are leaving this game. But according to David, at the last moment Pratt runs down from the stands comes onto the field and says, "Wait a second, wait a second. Wait. Don't forget rule number one. Be a gentleman."

ROBERT: So the Carlisle boys finish the game. And when they walk off the field ...

JAD: They get a standing ovation.

JAD: After another Carlisle-Yale game where something similar happened ...

JAD: The complicatedness of Pratt and of the whole Carlisle idea kept smacking us in the face as we were putting this show together. I mean on the one hand, there were clearly students who felt that Carlisle was prison. And in fact, Barbara Landis, when she took us on a tour of the grounds of the former Carlisle Indian School, she said that kids would even set fire to the buildings.

JAD: On the other hand, when we started looking around for original archival recordings of some of the earliest Carlisle players, pretty much the only recording we could find ...

JAD: Was this oral history with a guy named ...

JAD: Albert Exendine. The interview was done in the early '70s when he was 88. He entered the school.

JAD: Can't really play you too much of this because the audio quality is really bad. But in the interview, Pratt comes up.

JAD: A nd Exendine talks about him with a great deal of affection and gratitude.

JAD: We call him the father of Indian education.

JAD: Now, Pop Warner was an interesting guy.

JAD: Just to give you a visual.

JAD: Barbara and Cara showed us pictures. Looks kind of like Mike Ditka if Mike Ditka had Einstein's hair.

JAD: And that is exactly what he does in spectacular fashion when he gets to Carlisle.

JAD: Sure, they're fast, they got heart.

ROBERT: But Harvard did not take this lying down. Harvard retaliates by painting the footballs the same color as their jerseys. It's maroon everywhere. So when they held the ball against their chest, the ball basically, well, you can't see it.

JAD: At least initially, British football ran on the honor system. But with American football, the refs were there practically from the beginning. And she says it was largely a response to the brutality of the game, but also to the kind of rule-bending that you saw from Pop Warner and the Carlisle Indians.

JAD: And Pop Warner's greatest sleight of hand, and maybe the Carlisle Indians' most soaring moment -- and I mean that literally, happened at a moment when the game almost disappeared. That's coming up.
[ANSWERING MACHINE: End of message.]
ROBERT: I'm Robert Krulwich.

JAD: This is Radiolab. And getting back to our story on the Carlisle Indian School and the birth of the modern game of football. One of the most important moments in this story happens at a time when football it was right on the edge of disappearing. Talking about 1905.

JAD: This was the most violent year in football to this point. 19 people died on the football field.

ROBERT: One death is a lot. But 19? That's crazy.

JAD: Yeah. Because what would happen is that Carlisle would try and do these things to sort of open up the game. The Ivys would consistently respond by making the game more about brute force, more about violence. And so you had all these deaths. And suddenly all the major programs were spooked. You know, Columbia pulls their -- their football team. Harvard even thinks about doing that.

ROBERT: And so, and this is kind of odd. Into the fray steps the President of the United States of America, Teddy Roosevelt. Because he was a fan, according to Conrad Crane.

ROBERT: And then there was his kid.

JAD: Broke his nose, slit his eyebrow.

ROBERT: In one game he got knocked out cold. So after the violence of '05, the President calls the presidents of all these colleges and so on to Washington. And according to David Adams, he basically tells them ...

JAD: And out of that we see a couple of rule changes. First, the schools decide in order to loosen up the pile so to speak, they're gonna tinker with the down yardage ratio.

ROBERT: Three downs to get ten yards or four downs to get ten yards?

JAD: Four would come a couple years later.

JAD: But the second rule change, which is maybe the most important for our story, is for the first time they legalized the ability to move the ball through the free-floating air that surrounds us all. Okay.

ROBERT: So where do we go -- what's the next ...?

JAD: But not so fast with football, because when the rule committee had made that rule about forward passing they had also hedged a little bit saying if you throw a forward pass and your receiver doesn't catch it you are penalized 15 yards, which back in the day was a monster amount. So nobody threw the ball. It was too risky.

ROBERT: But, story goes as soon as that rule got passed, Pop Warner goes back to his garage. It's always a garage of course, with a ball. And he starts experimenting. And he started thinking okay, what would be the most efficient way to toss this thing?

JAD: Sort of imagine a deflated basketball.

JAD: And in 1906, there's a tiny bit of tape in Albert Exendine's oral history where he talks about this. In 1906, he says Pop called all the players together. He tells them ...

JAD: He says, "I think you're gonna have to learn to spiral the ball."

JAD: Because if you throw the ball on the spiral it gets 10 times less air drag than if you throw it end-over-end.

ROBERT: Plus it's easier to catch.

JAD: Which gets us to that game. November 23rd, 1907, Carlisle plays the University of Chicago. Last game of the season. We're in Chicago. And the Chicago team is arguably the best in the nation.

ROBERT: The best. I don't think it's even arguable.

JAD: Well, Carlisle's good at this point, though.

ROBERT: Yeah. But Chicago's like Stagg Field, whoa!

JAD: And there are 27,000 people in the stands.

JAD: And so Carlisle's greatest receiver, Albert Exendine, our guy, had been stymied the entire game, because the minute the ball was snapped the Chicago players would ...

JAD: By some accounts, this was Exendine's idea. But whoever thought of it, on the next play Albert Exendine as expected ends up out of bounds, but he keeps running.

JAD: Runs around the spectators, maybe around the band.

JAD: Right at that moment ...

JAD: Lets loose a vicious spiral.

JAD: This is Sally's description of that moment from her book The Real All Americans.

JAD: After we'd spent an entire day looking at pictures of, you know, Albert Exendine and Pratt and Pop Warner and Delos Lone Wolf and Tom Torlino and all these Carlisle players, Barbara and Cara took us to the field where they practiced.

JAD: And we just kind of walked around and tried to imagine all the stuff we'd just seen in photos.

ROBERT: It was a little bit like walking among ghosts.

JAD: Yeah. That's the sound of the flag blowing in the background. I remember standing on that field and having this thought that I couldn't quite articulate. But later, Eric Anderson, that professor from Haskell, who's a member of the Pottawatomi Nation, he sort of put his finger on it. And essentially said that, like, there's a lot of room on a football field. I mean, there's room for anger and war and violence, but there's also room for pride and a kind of coming together, that's not a Pratt coming together where one side gets erased, but it is a coming together.

JAD: A lot of people to thank for this episode. We had original music made for us for that episode from Morgan O'Kane. You can hear him right here playing the banjo. That's MorganOKaneMusic.com. Check him out. Also, we had original music from Austin musician Shaky Graves. And the Albert Exendine tape that we played is from the research division of the Oklahoma Historical Society.

ROBERT: Thanks also to the Cumberland County Historical Society and the US Army Heritage and Education Center, where you can go and see tons of photos from both archives, or you can come to us.

JAD: On our website, Radiolab.org, we have a ton of old archival football picks, a ton of those before-and-after pictures from the ...

JAD: Really amazing. And we also have a link to Sally Jenkins's book, which is highly recommended, The Real All Americans. That's on our site Radiolab.org.

ROBERT: Thanks also to Reggie Kathy and to Scott Graham. To Noah Robbins to Michael Chernus to Matt Della Pina, Cole Wimpy, to J.R. McCarthy to Nick Capodice.

JAD: Colin and Michelle Campbell.

JAD: And special thanks, very special thanks to our amazing volunteer cheer squad that came out and weathered the Brooklyn cold to scream and holler and bring this story to life. And speaking of that, very special thanks to Brenna Farrell who found the story and produced it with us. And production support from Damiano Marchetti.

ROBERT: Well, that's a lot of people to have thanked. But we will have -- we will have more to listen to and more people to thank in the second half of our program.

JAD: Yeah, we're gonna take a distinctly modern view on football coming up.
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Ghosts of Football Past | Radiolab | WNYC Studios

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RADIOLAB INTRO] ROBERT KRULWICH: I'm Robert Krulwich. JAD: And today, just for kicks we're gonna start in a park. So let me set the scene. JAD: Couple days ago, we gathered a bunch of Radiolab listeners in McCarren Park in Brooklyn. ROBERT: This is a random set of listeners.

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Native Americans at Carlisle Indian School challenge the best (and all-white) American football teams.

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[RADIOLAB INTRO]

ROBERT KRULWICH: I'm Robert Krulwich.

JAD: And today, just for kicks we're gonna start in a park. So let me set the scene.

JAD: Couple days ago, we gathered a bunch of Radiolab listeners in McCarren Park in Brooklyn.

ROBERT: This is a random set of listeners.

JAD: Random set of listeners. Whoever showed up as a result of a few tweets and Facebook postings. Got about 70 people. It was a super cold day. Park was covered in snow. And we had brought everybody there to help us make some noises that we would use in this segment. Like ...

JAD: Chanting. Or -- it was amazing. You'll hear them throughout the hour. But when people got there, we hadn't actually explained to them why we wanted them to make these noises. So just to start things off, I just asked them a couple questions.

JAD: Questions of the moment.

JAD: This was not a shocking revelation.

ROBERT: No. Kind of expected.

JAD: But these anti-football sentiments, I believe they say more about you and I and our fans than the game.

ROBERT: Although I -- in fairness, I mean there are a lot of people who -- I would even consider myself a -- a -- I watch for the ads.

JAD: Okay. Whether you watch for the ads like you or whether you love the game like I happen to, or loathe it like some others, football right now ...

ROBERT: It's massively popular. That's not the same as ...

JAD: I actually think it's massively interesting, also. Here's a way to think about it. Sally Jenkins, the author of the book The Real All-Americans, she puts it this way. Imagine a thousand years from now, maybe ten thousand, maybe a hundred thousand years from now, we're all gone. All our history has been forgotten. All the silly trifling games we play have been lost to time. Imagine the future human beings looking back on us.

JAD: Okay, so here's the thing Radiolab listeners. We're gonna do an entire hour on the game of football. In part, because it just seems to be that there are a lot of questions in the air about football right now, about what it really is and what that means about us. What it might or could or can't become.

ROBERT: Am I gonna like this?

JAD: Absolutely! This -- in a way, this whole hour is for the people like you who really don't care about football. And I am willing to wager that at the end they will care more. Particularly because of this first story which comes from Sally Jenkins who just heard. It comes from her book, The Real All Americans This is a story, not about the game as you might think of it now, but about where it came from. It didn't come from the people you'd expect.

ROBERT: Okay, I'm folding my hands. And you see here, in my lap, and I'm going to listen to this.

JAD: Okay, you want to get in the three-point stance?

ROBERT: 71! 71 Hike! We're ready to begin.

JAD: And this is a story about the beginning.

JAD: Basically she says, you had these kids whose parents had fought in the Civil War and then some of them had gone west to fight the Lakota, the Cheyenne, the Arapaho, the Apaches. And now those wars were winding down, which oddly enough created kind of an issue for young men at the time.

ROBERT: If you're a young student, say back east at a fancy school like Harvard, how are you gonna prove your own toughness? I mean, your older brother, your father they maybe fought at Gettysburg, Battle of Little Bighorn.

JAD: And so, according to historian David Adams who you just heard, those kids were desperate for opportunities to man up.

JAD: Around this time says David Adams, you see a bunch of violent sports take off. And in particular, for our purposes, you see these kids at Harvard and Yale getting together and knocking the snot out of each other in this game that's kind of like rugby, but just more violent.

JAD: Writer Chuck Klosterman, and before him historian. Dr. Conrad Crane.

JAD: There were formations and strategies and that kind of thing, but it was pure, like, right out of Napoleon's military playbook. I mean, where you -- you concentrate your force.

ROBERT: Yeah, my shoulder next to your shoulder next to his shoulder. It's like a line.

JAD: Yeah, you bunch up all -- all your men, and then pierce the other guy's army.

JAD: That was the basic idea.

ROBERT: And so you just end up with piles of guys.

JAD: Yeah, and inside those piles?

JAD: But then along comes this school, this tiny little school founded in 1879 in the middle of nowhere, that if you're a football fan or just a fan of American history kind of changed everything.

JAD: Big guy. Shock of white hair. Large nose.

JAD: And it was after winning a lot of those fights, too many of those fights really, we're talking 1870s now, that Pratt had a change of heart. And he -- he suddenly became concerned about the very people he had just been fighting.

JAD: His idea was to start a boarding school specifically for American Indian children that was kind of a radical experiment.

JAD: I.E. They would be white-itized.

JAD: That's Barbara Landis.

JAD: We went up to Carlisle to talk with her and her colleague Cara Curtis. And they told us that Pratt basically made that pitch ...

JAD: ... not just to Congress, but directly to American Indian families all over the country.

JAD: We need to teach them how to communicate with the white man, so that when the white man comes and tries to get you to sign away the Black Hills you won't fall for it again.

JAD: Joe lives near the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. He's Lakota. And he told us the story about his grandfather who was a famous Lakota chief. In the 1890s, his grandpa led a delegation of American Indians to Washington.

JAD: Joe says his grandpa had this moment where he was just stunned by how many white people there were. His phrase was, "They're like ants."

JAD: Basically, Joe says his grandpa just had this realization.

JAD: And it seemed to him Carlisle was the way forward.

JAD: As kids were admitted, here's how it would work. They would come in, and they'd immediately have their picture taken on arrival. Then they'd be given an extreme makeover which would also be photographed.

ROBERT: Barbara showed us a picture of a Navajo kid looking maybe 18 years old.

ROBERT: This is when he arrives. So he's got kind of dark skin, high cheekbones.

ROBERT: He's wearing an elaborate necklace. Looks like it might be made of bone.

JAD: And he's wrapped in a blanket.

JAD: In the second picture, his hair is very short. Not long.

JAD: He's wearing a three-piece suit.

ROBERT: Sitting there with a cravat and a spread collar and parted hair.

JAD: Joe American Horse said his family saw that transformation firsthand.

JAD: But just think about this for a second. Just think about this. We spoke with one guy Professor Eric Anderson who teaches at Haskell, he's also part Pottawatomi. Just imagine the parents, he says, the first time they see their kids.

JAD: In any case, according to Sally Jenkins, after the kids were recropped and redressed, Pratt would run them through a bunch of drills.

JAD: I mean, we know that in the 39-year history of the school at least 200 kids died of disease or poor health or even homesickness.

JAD: And Sally thinks that one of those hires ...

JAD: This guy who had formerly taught at an Ivy League school. He showed the Carlisle Indian kids this game that the kids at Harvard were playing. Maybe he thought it would toughen them up, who knows? But suddenly they're playing football. Now keep in mind, this is, you know, at a point, we're talking 1882, where football's barely a thing. Not so many schools had teams.

JAD: But the Carlisle kids self-organized, level the field, start to play. They even start to scrimmage some kids across town. And at one of those games, according to Barbara ...

JAD: Because in his mind he was trying to civilize these kids, and football was doing the opposite. But a short time later, says David Adams ...

JAD: According to his memoir, Pratt was sort of bowled over by the eloquence and passion of the appeal. So he said, "Okay ..."

JAD: And at that early point in American football ...

JAD: Which brings us to October 24th 1896.

JAD: Apparently, there was about 4,000 people in the stands, including ...

JAD: According to David Adams in one paper ...

JAD: Because of course, that's what Pratt wanted. Now one thing that was immediately clear to everyone in attendance when they saw the Carlisle players was that they were physically outmatched.

JAD: Or at the very least, the odds are heavily against them. But three minutes into the game, in the midst of a big pile up. A Yaley fumbles the ball. It comes squirting out. Carlisle guy picks it up, and runs the entire length of the field, 63 yards, and scores a touchdown. Now, nobody had scored on Yale in seven games. They were furious. So what they do is they use their bulk to slowly push the pile down the field twice to take the lead. And with three minutes left, Yale is up 12 to 6, Carlisle has the ball. Carlisle running back charges the pile and gets clobbered. Falls backwards, And just as he's about to hit the earth, he laterals the ball to a teammate who grabs it, runs around the scrum the entire length of the field and scores!

ROBERT: And some of the Carlisle players said oh, we're gonna walk out of here. We are leaving this game. But according to David, at the last moment Pratt runs down from the stands comes onto the field and says, "Wait a second, wait a second. Wait. Don't forget rule number one. Be a gentleman."

ROBERT: So the Carlisle boys finish the game. And when they walk off the field ...

JAD: They get a standing ovation.

JAD: After another Carlisle-Yale game where something similar happened ...

JAD: The complicatedness of Pratt and of the whole Carlisle idea kept smacking us in the face as we were putting this show together. I mean on the one hand, there were clearly students who felt that Carlisle was prison. And in fact, Barbara Landis, when she took us on a tour of the grounds of the former Carlisle Indian School, she said that kids would even set fire to the buildings.

JAD: On the other hand, when we started looking around for original archival recordings of some of the earliest Carlisle players, pretty much the only recording we could find ...

JAD: Was this oral history with a guy named ...

JAD: Albert Exendine. The interview was done in the early '70s when he was 88. He entered the school.

JAD: Can't really play you too much of this because the audio quality is really bad. But in the interview, Pratt comes up.

JAD: A nd Exendine talks about him with a great deal of affection and gratitude.

JAD: We call him the father of Indian education.

JAD: Now, Pop Warner was an interesting guy.

JAD: Just to give you a visual.

JAD: Barbara and Cara showed us pictures. Looks kind of like Mike Ditka if Mike Ditka had Einstein's hair.

JAD: And that is exactly what he does in spectacular fashion when he gets to Carlisle.

JAD: Sure, they're fast, they got heart.

ROBERT: But Harvard did not take this lying down. Harvard retaliates by painting the footballs the same color as their jerseys. It's maroon everywhere. So when they held the ball against their chest, the ball basically, well, you can't see it.

JAD: At least initially, British football ran on the honor system. But with American football, the refs were there practically from the beginning. And she says it was largely a response to the brutality of the game, but also to the kind of rule-bending that you saw from Pop Warner and the Carlisle Indians.

JAD: And Pop Warner's greatest sleight of hand, and maybe the Carlisle Indians' most soaring moment -- and I mean that literally, happened at a moment when the game almost disappeared. That's coming up.
[ANSWERING MACHINE: End of message.]
ROBERT: I'm Robert Krulwich.

JAD: This is Radiolab. And getting back to our story on the Carlisle Indian School and the birth of the modern game of football. One of the most important moments in this story happens at a time when football it was right on the edge of disappearing. Talking about 1905.

JAD: This was the most violent year in football to this point. 19 people died on the football field.

ROBERT: One death is a lot. But 19? That's crazy.

JAD: Yeah. Because what would happen is that Carlisle would try and do these things to sort of open up the game. The Ivys would consistently respond by making the game more about brute force, more about violence. And so you had all these deaths. And suddenly all the major programs were spooked. You know, Columbia pulls their -- their football team. Harvard even thinks about doing that.

ROBERT: And so, and this is kind of odd. Into the fray steps the President of the United States of America, Teddy Roosevelt. Because he was a fan, according to Conrad Crane.

ROBERT: And then there was his kid.

JAD: Broke his nose, slit his eyebrow.

ROBERT: In one game he got knocked out cold. So after the violence of '05, the President calls the presidents of all these colleges and so on to Washington. And according to David Adams, he basically tells them ...

JAD: And out of that we see a couple of rule changes. First, the schools decide in order to loosen up the pile so to speak, they're gonna tinker with the down yardage ratio.

ROBERT: Three downs to get ten yards or four downs to get ten yards?

JAD: Four would come a couple years later.

JAD: But the second rule change, which is maybe the most important for our story, is for the first time they legalized the ability to move the ball through the free-floating air that surrounds us all. Okay.

ROBERT: So where do we go -- what's the next ...?

JAD: But not so fast with football, because when the rule committee had made that rule about forward passing they had also hedged a little bit saying if you throw a forward pass and your receiver doesn't catch it you are penalized 15 yards, which back in the day was a monster amount. So nobody threw the ball. It was too risky.

ROBERT: But, story goes as soon as that rule got passed, Pop Warner goes back to his garage. It's always a garage of course, with a ball. And he starts experimenting. And he started thinking okay, what would be the most efficient way to toss this thing?

JAD: Sort of imagine a deflated basketball.

JAD: And in 1906, there's a tiny bit of tape in Albert Exendine's oral history where he talks about this. In 1906, he says Pop called all the players together. He tells them ...

JAD: He says, "I think you're gonna have to learn to spiral the ball."

JAD: Because if you throw the ball on the spiral it gets 10 times less air drag than if you throw it end-over-end.

ROBERT: Plus it's easier to catch.

JAD: Which gets us to that game. November 23rd, 1907, Carlisle plays the University of Chicago. Last game of the season. We're in Chicago. And the Chicago team is arguably the best in the nation.

ROBERT: The best. I don't think it's even arguable.

JAD: Well, Carlisle's good at this point, though.

ROBERT: Yeah. But Chicago's like Stagg Field, whoa!

JAD: And there are 27,000 people in the stands.

JAD: And so Carlisle's greatest receiver, Albert Exendine, our guy, had been stymied the entire game, because the minute the ball was snapped the Chicago players would ...

JAD: By some accounts, this was Exendine's idea. But whoever thought of it, on the next play Albert Exendine as expected ends up out of bounds, but he keeps running.

JAD: Runs around the spectators, maybe around the band.

JAD: Right at that moment ...

JAD: Lets loose a vicious spiral.

JAD: This is Sally's description of that moment from her book The Real All Americans.

JAD: After we'd spent an entire day looking at pictures of, you know, Albert Exendine and Pratt and Pop Warner and Delos Lone Wolf and Tom Torlino and all these Carlisle players, Barbara and Cara took us to the field where they practiced.

JAD: And we just kind of walked around and tried to imagine all the stuff we'd just seen in photos.

ROBERT: It was a little bit like walking among ghosts.

JAD: Yeah. That's the sound of the flag blowing in the background. I remember standing on that field and having this thought that I couldn't quite articulate. But later, Eric Anderson, that professor from Haskell, who's a member of the Pottawatomi Nation, he sort of put his finger on it. And essentially said that, like, there's a lot of room on a football field. I mean, there's room for anger and war and violence, but there's also room for pride and a kind of coming together, that's not a Pratt coming together where one side gets erased, but it is a coming together.

JAD: A lot of people to thank for this episode. We had original music made for us for that episode from Morgan O'Kane. You can hear him right here playing the banjo. That's MorganOKaneMusic.com. Check him out. Also, we had original music from Austin musician Shaky Graves. And the Albert Exendine tape that we played is from the research division of the Oklahoma Historical Society.

ROBERT: Thanks also to the Cumberland County Historical Society and the US Army Heritage and Education Center, where you can go and see tons of photos from both archives, or you can come to us.

JAD: On our website, Radiolab.org, we have a ton of old archival football picks, a ton of those before-and-after pictures from the ...

JAD: Really amazing. And we also have a link to Sally Jenkins's book, which is highly recommended, The Real All Americans. That's on our site Radiolab.org.

ROBERT: Thanks also to Reggie Kathy and to Scott Graham. To Noah Robbins to Michael Chernus to Matt Della Pina, Cole Wimpy, to J.R. McCarthy to Nick Capodice.

JAD: Colin and Michelle Campbell.

JAD: And special thanks, very special thanks to our amazing volunteer cheer squad that came out and weathered the Brooklyn cold to scream and holler and bring this story to life. And speaking of that, very special thanks to Brenna Farrell who found the story and produced it with us. And production support from Damiano Marchetti.

ROBERT: Well, that's a lot of people to have thanked. But we will have -- we will have more to listen to and more people to thank in the second half of our program.

JAD: Yeah, we're gonna take a distinctly modern view on football coming up.
-30-

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Ghosts of Football Past | Radiolab | WNYC Studios

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RADIOLAB INTRO] ROBERT KRULWICH: I'm Robert Krulwich. JAD: And today, just for kicks we're gonna start in a park. So let me set the scene. JAD: Couple days ago, we gathered a bunch of Radiolab listeners in McCarren Park in Brooklyn. ROBERT: This is a random set of listeners.

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The five-minute documentary " A Conversation About Growing Up Black " explores what it's like to be a young black man or boy in America.

Joe Brewster and Perri Peltz write:

Imagine strangers crossing the street to avoid you, imagine the police arbitrarily stopping you, imagine knowing people fear you because of the color of your skin. Many of this country's young black men and boys don't have to imagine.

In this Op-Doc video, "A Conversation About Growing Up Black," we ask African-American boys and young men to tell us candidly about the daily challenges they face because of these realities. They speak openly about what it means to be a young black man in a racially charged world and explain how they feel when their parents try to shelter and prepare them for a world that is too often unfair and biased.

As we debate the headlines about the deaths of young black men and police misconduct, from Baltimore to Ferguson to Staten Island, we fear our society is turning away from the painful conversations that need to be had at home, in our own communities, schools and families. Focusing our attention on the nation's latest racial hot zone often devolves into the same old invectives about race and politics, and we lose sight of the bigger picture. Worse, it allows us to avoid the painful discussions we need to have with our young people about their concerns, and the role we each may play in them. We can be a part of the solution only if we dare to open up and have the conversation.

Students: Watch the five-minute film "A Conversation About Growing Up Black." While you watch, you might take notes using our Film Club Double-Entry Journal to help you remember specific moments.

Then post a thought or two about the film by clicking the comment box at the top or bottom of this post. Feel free to simply write what occurs to you, or use any of the questions below to help you get started.

The most important part of your job, however, is to engage in conversation about the film by responding to comments other students make by hitting the "reply" button or using the @ symbol. (Keep in mind good Web etiquette, of course.)

Teachers, feel free to encourage your classes to comment at any time, but we'll be actively "listening in" from Nov. 6 through 13, choosing our favorite comments - those that seem to best further the conversation - to highlight as "NYT Picks" in a special tab of the comments section.

We can't wait to see what you have to say.
Some Optional Discussion Questions

What moments in this film stood out for you? Which things these young men said were especially resonant for you? Why?

Were there any surprises? Anything that challenged what you know - or thought you knew?

What commonalities did you hear in these young men's stories? Why do you think that is?

Have you often been treated unfairly because of some aspect of the way you look? If so, how do those experiences inform how you relate to this short film?

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Respond to that quotation, 52 years later.

What messages, emotions or ideas will you take away from this film? Why?

Our next Film Club discussion will be on the 12-minute film " Wright's Law: A Teacher's Unique Lesson," and will begin on Nov. 20.

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Film Club | 'A Conversation About Growing Up Black'

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The five-minute documentary " A Conversation About Growing Up Black " explores what it's like to be a young black man or boy in America. Joe Brewster and Perri Peltz write: Imagine strangers crossing the street to avoid you, imagine the police arbitrarily stopping you, imagine knowing people fear you because of the color of your skin.

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War in Syria and the U.S. opioid epidemic

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Note: The internet version of this episode contains un-beeped curse words. BEEPED VERSION.

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The rise and fall of a school maintenance man in Schenectady, New York who terrorized his staff and got away with it for decades.

The surprisingly entertaining story of how the U.S. got itself into a housing crisis.

Ira tells the story of Dave, a former heroin addict who, with his friend Chris, launches a podcast inspired by the Howard Stern Show. Except it's all about heavy drug use. (5 minutes)

Producer Dana Chivvis picks up the story of Dave and Chris and their show " Dopey." (27 minutes)

Reporter Dana Ballout tells the story of Radio Fresh, a community station in Syria that the local listeners depend on, and local militant factions try to shut down. (22 minutes)

The rise and fall of a school maintenance man in Schenectady, New York who terrorized his staff and got away with it for decades.

The surprisingly entertaining story of how the U.S. got itself into a housing crisis.

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Note: The internet version of this episode contains un-beeped curse words. BEEPED VERSION. If you enjoyed this episode, you may like these The rise and fall of a school maintenance man in Schenectady, New York who terrorized his staff and got away with it for decades. The surprisingly entertaining story of how the U.S.

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A robot that creates inspiring messages

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What I like about InspiroBot, the web app we talk about in this week's show, is that it's both a parody of inspiration postings and also something more. The software that Peder Jørgensen and Jesper Sundnes created generates slogans that are sometimes funny but often weirdly insightful and - is this a bad word to use? - sort of profound.

"Each day is another chance to be dreadfully dysfunctional," seems to me to be simply true. "First comes the limbo, then comes the life," describes my twenties and lots of other people's as well. "Internet fame will save us from the next mass extinction," critiques everything that's wrong with our priorities right now.

Peder and Jesper insist that they do not edit the bot, that what we're seeing is purely made by machine, which - people who understand computers better than I do - find entirely credible. Also, P&J say, the bot is churning out thousands of these a day. Too many to edit.

I love especially the deeply nihilistic ones, because I am actually someone who believes that we're here briefly and then gone for all eternity afterwards. Which is why I always try to focus on the moment I'm in, not on the eternity.

Here are a few more of my favorites. You can generate your own or explore this list of great ones others have made. Inspirobot can be found on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

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Why I Love InspiroBot - This American Life

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What I like about InspiroBot, the web app we talk about in this week's show, is that it's both a parody of inspiration postings and also something more. The software that Peder Jørgensen and Jesper Sundnes created generates slogans that are sometimes funny but often weirdly insightful and - is this a bad word to use?

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Immigrant teenagers go missing. Police treat them as runaways, but it turns out to be much worse.

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Can the secular world and the religious world understand each other?

Ordinary people make last ditch efforts to get through to their loved ones.

Suffolk County Police Will Look Into Treatment of Immigrant Families

"To hear it out of the detectives' mouths, the complete disrespect...gut-wrenching."

Ira takes us through a couple of occasions in which President Trump has evoked the brutal street gang MS-13. The President has lauded local law enforcement on Long Island on its efforts to stop the gang. But reporter Hannah Dreier has turned up evidence suggesting otherwise. (2 minutes)

This episode is a collaboration with Pro Publica, where Hannah is a reporter. You can read her print version on their website.

Hannah Dreier with ProPublica spent a year reporting in Brentwood, Long Island where three teenagers mysteriously disappeared. All three were considered runaways by the Suffolk County Police. The families of the teens suspected otherwise but couldn't get police detectives to take them seriously. (29 minutes)

Hannah Dreier's story continues. She confronts former Suffolk County Police Commissioner Timothy Sini with her findings. And gets to the bottom of what may have happened to the first boy who was murdered, Miguel Garcia Moran. (25 minutes)

Song:

"Desaparecido" by Manu Chao

Can the secular world and the religious world understand each other?

Ordinary people make last ditch efforts to get through to their loved ones.

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If you enjoyed this episode, you may like these Can the secular world and the religious world understand each other? Ordinary people make last ditch efforts to get through to their loved ones. "To hear it out of the detectives' mouths, the complete disrespect...gut-wrenching."

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The story of Five Guys

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subscribe to How I Built This with Guy Raz podcast

subscribe to How I Built This with Guy Raz podcast

Jerry Murrell's mother used to tell him, you can always make money if you know how to make a good burger.

In 1986 - after failing at a number of business ideas - Murrell opened a tiny burger joint in Northern Virginia with his four sons.

Five Guys now has more than 1,500 locations worldwide and is one of the fastest growing restaurant chains in America.
How You Built That
We check back in with Hannah England, who turned a common parenting problem into Wash. It. Later. - a water-tight bag for soaking soiled baby clothes before they stain.

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Jerry Murrell's mother used to tell him, you can always make money if you know how to make a good burger. In 1986 - after failing at a number of business ideas - Murrell opened a tiny burger joint in Northern Virginia with his four sons.

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The story of Nolan Bushnell, creator of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese

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subscribe to How I Built This with Guy Raz podcast

subscribe to How I Built This with Guy Raz podcast

Before he turned 40, Nolan Bushnell founded two brands that permanently shaped the way Americans amuse themselves: the iconic video game system Atari, and the frenetic family restaurant Chuck E. Cheese's. PLUS in our postscript "How You Built That," an update on H2OPS, a non-alcoholic take on craft-brewed - a fragrant sparkling water made with hops. (Original broadcast date: February 27, 2017)

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Atari & Chuck E. Cheese's: Nolan Bushnell

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Before he turned 40, Nolan Bushnell founded two brands that permanently shaped the way Americans amuse themselves: the iconic video game system Atari, and the frenetic family restaurant Chuck E. Cheese's. PLUS in our postscript "How You Built That," an update on H2OPS, a non-alcoholic take on craft-brewed - a fragrant sparkling water made with hops.

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The story of Michael Dell, creator of Dell Computers

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subscribe to How I Built This with Guy Raz podcast

subscribe to How I Built This with Guy Raz podcast

Before it became fashionable to start a tech company in your dorm room, Michael Dell did exactly that. In 1983, he began selling upgrade kits for PC's out of his dorm at UT Austin. A few months later he gave up his plan of being Pre-Med, and dropped out of school to focus on the PC business. At age of 27, he became the youngest CEO to head a Fortune 500 company. Today, Dell has sold more than 650 million computers. PLUS for our postscript "How You Built That," how Hannah England turned a common parenting problem into Wash. It. Later. - a water-tight bag for soaking soiled baby clothes before they stain.

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Before it became fashionable to start a tech company in your dorm room, Michael Dell did exactly that. In 1983, he began selling upgrade kits for PC's out of his dorm at UT Austin. A few months later he gave up his plan of being Pre-Med, and dropped out of school to focus on the PC business.

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What does justice mean for Mexicans who don't speak Spanish?

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A Moment in Mexico: Justice in Translation

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Many indigenous people who enter the Mexican justice system must navigate it without a translator - even if they don't speak Spanish.

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The story of Alex Honnold, the first to free solo climb El Capitan, and what it meant to film it

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Alex Honnold took a huge risk when he made his free solo climb of El Capitan. Did making a film about it make it even riskier?

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How technology is transforming lives for those who are deaf

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For a generation of people with cochlear implants, technology is transforming the experience of deafness.

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Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives (police) Matter, too

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A blue line intended to show support for police instead turned neighbors against each other.

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NBA referees have gotten better over time but people increasingly protest calls

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Writer Michael Lewis takes us inside the world of NBA refereeing. He explains how protests about unfair calls have increased in recent years. However, at the same time, hard evidence suggests referees have only gotten better and better at making good calls. Lewis says this is actually indicative of a larger trend in America - people distrusting authorities, judges and referees of all kinds. This story is a version of the first episode of his new podcast Against the Rules. (32 minutes)

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Writer Michael Lewis takes us inside the world of NBA refereeing. He explains how protests about unfair calls have increased in recent years. However, at the same time, hard evidence suggests referees have only gotten better and better at making good calls.

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Date : 25 September 2015

This infographic highlights progress and remaining challenges for women in a range of areas, from politics, to literacy, to wages and media representation. Print options: 8.5x11 | 11x17

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Infographic: Gender equality - Where are we today?

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Date : 25 September 2015 This infographic highlights progress and remaining challenges for women in a range of areas, from politics, to literacy, to wages and media representation. Print options: 8.5x11 | 11x17

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We talk a lot about the expectations society has for girls and women, whether it's how people think women should act, how they should look, what they should wear, and basically everything else. But it's not just girls who face unrealistic and potentially harmful societal standards - it's everyone. For young men, these standards can be just as harmful and stringent. In a new ad, Axe shows exactly what impact these expectations have, and how they contribute to the toxic masculinity that hurts everyone.

According to the ad, 72% of guys have been told how a real man should behave. That, Axe points out, leads guys to Google questions about what it is and isn't ok for them to do. Some of these questions, which the ad scrolls through, showing really guys having these thoughts, include if it's ok for guys to be skinny, to not like sports, to be a virgin, to wear pink , to hook up with other guys, to be depressed, to be scared, to be the little spoon, and much more. It ultimately asks if it's ok for guys to be themselves.

The Good Men Project defines toxic masculinity as follows:

Toxic masculinity is a narrow and repressive description of manhood, designating manhood as defined by violence, sex, status and aggression. It's the cultural ideal of manliness, where strength is everything while emotions are a weakness; where sex and brutality are yardsticks by which men are measured, while supposedly "feminine" traits - which can range fromemotional vulnerability to simply not being hypersexual - are the means by which your status as "man" can be taken away.

Toxic masculinity tells guys that they should be one certain way, which encompasses how they look, how they act, how they treat others, and more. Brown University points out the way men are socialized plays into rates of violence and sexual assault in society.

"Unfortunately, the way that young men are conditioned to view sex and their need to be dominant and have power over others also contribute to instances of sexual assault and other forms of interpersonal violence on college campuses," a post on BWell from Brown University says. "Men don't have a lot of spaces to have open and honest conversations about the different things that they are dealing with, like how they grapple with emotions or deal with conflict."

This is exactly what Axe's ad is addressing. And it's not making up the questions guys ask in the ad either. If you enter "Is it ok for guys" in Google, a bunch of autofill options come up.

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This Video Shows Exactly Why Toxic Masculinity Sucks

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We talk a lot about the expectations society has for girls and women, whether it's how people think women should act, how they should look, what they should wear, and basically everything else. But it's not just girls who face unrealistic and potentially harmful societal standards - it's everyone.

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What happens when doing what you want to do means giving up who you really are?

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It's 2018, but we're still learning about events that could've affected the 2016 presidential election in the United States.

NBC's Matt Lauer was fired after he was accused of sexually harassing women. He joined a lengthy list of men in media who have been fired or put on leave for similar reasons.

Other journalists, including those from NBC, NPR, and PBS have been accused of sexual misconduct against women, and many of those journalists covered candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump during the 2016 United States presidential election.

As more men are added to the list comprised of those accused of sexual misconduct, it's crucial to revisit how they covered America's first female presidential nominee for a major party.

In September 2016, Lauer moderated a forum between both candidates, and in Clinton's account of that night in her book What Happened, she describes how she feels the journalist treated her. In a televised event that was supposed to cover national security and foreign policy, Lauer focused on Hillary's emails, which he'd also brought up during an April 2016 interview.

"Lauer had the look of someone proud of himself for having laid a clever trap," Clinton wrote. "I was almost physically sick."

In the book, Clinton worries the coverage didn't help voters decide who should've been president and wishes she'd pushed back more, especially seeing Lauer neglect to call Trump out on lies about his position on the Iraq war and interrupting Clinton multiple times.

Men at a high level controlled the narrative during 2016, and they continue to affect what we read on a daily basis at other publications, making the problem much larger than one election.

A 2017 survey by the American Society of Newsroom Editors found that minority journalists comprised just 16.6% of newsrooms that responded to the survey, results taken from nearly 700 print and online publications. On average, newsrooms were 63% male, and though a few reported having a 50/50 split, no newsrooms reported having 70% or more female staff.

As allegations continue to accumulate against men in the industry, female journalists in media companies are reckoning with accusations against colleagues and with allegations not yet made public. In December 2017, New York Times journalist Emily Steel reported on a culture at Vice, that, two founders said in a statement to the Times, "failed...to create a safe and inclusive workplace where everyone, especially women, can feel respected and thrive." Steel reported some of the company's top management had been accused of sexual harassment , and Vice- known as a progressive media outlet covering important global news- put two of its executives on leave over allegations. Vice told the Times it had updated its sexual harassment policies and made a commitment to achieving gender-pay parity by 2018, among other initiatives.

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How Newsroom Bias and Gender Imbalance Impact Women

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It's 2018, but we're still learning about events that could've affected the 2016 presidential election in the United States. NBC's Matt Lauer was fired after he was accused of sexually harassing women. He joined a lengthy list of men in media who have been fired or put on leave for similar reasons.

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Youth Radio Podcast: Transgender Rights

Youth Radio Podcast: Transgender Rights

At the end of February, President Donald Trump rescinded protections for transgender students put in place by the Obama administration. The White House made it clear that the federal government would no longer require schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms matching their gender identity.

Then this week, the Supreme Court reversed a decisions to hear arguments for the case of Gavin Grimm, a transgender teen from Virginia who is fighting to use the high school bathroom that corresponds with his gender identity.

In the podcast this week, we tackle the state of transgender rights. Where do we stand? What has changed? And how do young people feel about it?

Support young journalists and artists

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Youth Radio Podcast: Transgender Rights - YR Media

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Youth Radio Podcast: Transgender Rights Youth Radio Podcast: Transgender Rights At the end of February, President Donald Trump rescinded protections for transgender students put in place by the Obama administration. The White House made it clear that the federal government would no longer require schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms matching their gender identity.

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The London Match Girls Strike of 1888 was an important labor rights event in Britain. Women and girls working in a match factory took a stand against hazardous and unfair working conditions, and impacted organized labor in the process. Although writer and activist Annie Besant is often credited with the strike's success - and she did break the story - the "match girls'" own advocacy was a victory for working women.

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The London Match Girls Strike of 1888 was an important labor rights event in Britain. Women and girls working in a match factory took a stand against hazardous and unfair working conditions, and impacted organized labor in the process.

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What does it mean to "sound gay"? Why do some men sound this way, whether they are gay or not? Where do vocal differences come from?

David Thorpe explores these thoughts in his film " Who Sounds Gay? " and in the process raises fascinating questions about gender stereotypes and stereotyping in general. He writes about the film:

For the last few years, I've wondered why some men "sound gay." I began asking people for their thoughts on the subject, and received a surprising range of answers. Some people said the gay voice was a put-on, like a man in a conspicuously sparkly dress. Others thought gay men sounded gay just to let other gay men know they were. Some thought that every man who sounds gay is gay, even if he claims otherwise. A lot of people said, "Wow, I don't know."

I decided to make a film about the stereotype of the "gay voice" and my own anxieties around "sounding gay" (I am gay, and sometimes worry that my voice gives me away before I'm ready to come out). I interviewed strangers on the street for the film because, as I discovered, the origin of men's gay-sounding voices intrigues people of all backgrounds, regardless of their sexual orientation. (I subsequently became intrigued by the intrigue.) Nobody knows for sure why some people sound stereotypically gay and others don't. This Op-Doc video explores one of the prominent theories.

As you watch, consider something that a linguist kept reminding me: There's no such thing as a fundamentally gay voice. Plenty of men may sound gay, but their voices aren't evidence that they are gay. What we call the "gay voice" belongs to us all.

Students: Watch the six-minute film "Who Sounds Gay?" While you watch, you might take notes using our Film Club Double-Entry Journal to help you remember specific moments.

Then, post a thought or two about the film by clicking the comment box at the top or bottom of this post. Feel free to simply write what occurs to you, or use any of the questions below to help you get started.

The most important part of your job, however, is to engage in conversation about the film by responding to comments other students make by hitting the "reply" button or using the @ symbol. (Keep in mind good Web etiquette, of course.)

Teachers, feel free to encourage your classes to comment at any time, but we'll be actively "listening in" from Oct. 9 through 16, choosing our favorite comments - those that seem to best further the conversation - to highlight as "NYT Picks" in a special tab of the comments section.

We can't wait to see what you have to say.
Some Optional Discussion Questions

What moments in this film especially stood out for you? Why?

Were there any surprises? Anything that challenged what you know - or what you thought you knew?

What explanation does the film provide for how people's voices sound? Does that make sense in your own experience?

Have you ever thought about how your own voice sounds? Does anyone ever make judgments about you based on your voice?

Have you ever made snap judgments about someone else - based on their voice, the way they dressed or how they look - and gotten it wrong?

Can stereotypes ever be dangerous? How?

What messages do you take away from this film? Why?

Our next Film Club discussion will be on the 12-minute Retro Report video " Haunted by Columbine," and will begin on Oct. 23.

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What does it mean to "sound gay"? Why do some men sound this way, whether they are gay or not? Where do vocal differences come from? David Thorpe explores these thoughts in his film " Who Sounds Gay? " and in the process raises fascinating questions about gender stereotypes and stereotyping in general.

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new video loaded: Great Expectations for Female Lawyers

Recent episodes in Op-Docs: Season 2

A collection of the second season from 2013. Op-Docs is the editorial department's channel for short opinion documentaries, produced by independent filmmakers.

A collection of the second season from 2013. Op-Docs is the editorial department's channel for short opinion documentaries, produced by independent filmmakers.

Show more videos from Op-Docs: Season 2

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Video: Opinion | Great Expectations for Female Lawyers

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new video loaded: Great Expectations for Female Lawyers Recent episodes in Op-Docs: Season 2 A collection of the second season from 2013. Op-Docs is the editorial department's channel for short opinion documentaries, produced by independent filmmakers. A collection of the second season from 2013.

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This is the last of three dispatches from a New York Times reporting trip to Antarctica.

From the air, the Ross Ice Shelf looks like a vast white plain extending to the horizon. The monochromatic landscape is relieved only occasionally by rocks poking through, or by deep crevasses in the ice itself.

Only at its edge does the ice shelf become something more dramatic: a spectacular sheer cliff rising 100 feet above the ocean and extending 900 feet below the surface. From that cliff edge, icebergs occasionally calve away, completing a thousand-year journey of the ice from land to sea.

Scientists are racing to understand what is happening to the Ross Ice Shelf - and the rest of Antarctica - as the planet warms around it. They are trying to map the thickness of the ice and the shape of the sea floor beneath it in an effort to gauge how vulnerable the shelf may be to collapse, and how soon that could happen.

Scientists are also trying to measure the role of human-caused climate change in weakening some parts of the West Antarctic ice sheet, and to fathom how damaging the seas around the continent might prove to be as they warm over time.

The answers carry profound implications for humanity. In the scientists' worst-case computer simulations, continued global warming will cause the Ross Ice Shelf to weaken and collapse starting as early as the middle of this century.

Right now, the shelf works like a giant bottle-stopper that slows down ice trying to flow from the land into the sea. If it collapses, the ice could flow into the ocean more rapidly, an effect that has already happened on a much smaller scale in other areas of Antarctica.

The most vulnerable parts of the West Antarctic ice sheet could raise the sea level by 10 to 15 feet, inundating many of the world's coastal cities, though most scientists think that would take well over a century, or perhaps longer. They are worried about a possible rise of as much as six feet by the end of this century.

Whether these alarming forecasts ultimately prove right depends in part on the shape of the sea floor beneath the ice shelf, and in particular on whether it has deep channels that can funnel warming ocean water under the ice shelf and attack the West Antarctic ice sheet from below. A different undersea topography - high ridges of rock, for example - may keep warmer water out, stabilizing the ice sheet, possibly for hundreds of years.

"We're hoping to figure out how warm water can get to the edge of the ice sheet," said Robin E. Bell, head of the Columbia University laboratory that sent a team to survey the Ross Ice Shelf late last year. "What are the sort of hidden roads it can go on?"

As they flew back and forth across the vast white landscape in December, the Columbia scientists used some of the world's most sophisticated geophysical instruments to see into and beneath the ice. As the hours-long flights wore on, the scientists took turns napping, knitting or eating cold pizza, but at all times, somebody kept close watch on the instruments.

Kirsty J. Tinto, the scientist leading the field team, loved watching as the measurements stripped away the illusion that the ice was just a flat, boring pancake.

"You take a slice through it and you can see a thousand years of history, a hundred million years of history," she said.

The Ross Ice Shelf appears stable now, so the Columbia project will function somewhat like a doctor's baseline X-ray - a starting point for comparison if the ice starts to deteriorate.

Satellite evidence suggests that this is already happening in other parts of West Antarctica, and many scientists believe that relatively warm ocean water is the culprit. "It's kind of a blowtorch on the underside of the ice shelf," said Robert A. Bindschadler, a retired NASA climate scientist.

But the story is not straightforward, and the warmer water attacking the ice has not been linked to global warming - at least not directly. The winds around the continent seem to be strengthening, stirring the ocean and bringing up a layer of warmer water that has most likely been there for centuries.

Are those stronger winds tied to human-caused global warming? Some scientists think so, but others say the case is unproven. "We're not sure because we don't have enough data, for long enough, to separate signal from noise," said Eric J. Steig, a scientist at the University of Washington who has studied temperature trends in Antarctica.

Though the role of global warming is unclear now, it is likely to be a factor in the relatively near future. Many experts think warmer air temperatures could start to weaken the ice of West Antarctica from above, even as warmer ocean water attacks it from below.

The warmer water seems to be doing the most damage to a series of glaciers that flow into a region of West Antarctica called the Amundsen Sea. Satellites have identified the most rapid loss of ice there, raising a critical question: Has an unstoppable collapse of the ice sheet already begun?

The Amundsen Sea region is one of the remotest parts of the continent, far from American and British research bases. Working together, the two countries are planning to devote tens of millions of dollars to getting better measurements there, having decided that it is imperative to begin answering questions about the region's potential collapse.

For instance, scientists need to know a lot more about the ground beneath the glaciers there. Is it slick mud that may allow the ice to flow much faster, or hard rock that may slow down the ice even in a warmer world?

"What we need to know is really the details of what is occurring where the ice, ocean and land all come together," said Ted A. Scambos, a University of Colorado scientist who is helping to plan the joint research effort.

Unraveling the answers, and gaining a better understanding of how Antarctica's ice has waxed and waned in the past, may offer a rough guide to the changes that human-caused global warming could wreak in the future.

Already, scientists know enough to be concerned. About 120,000 years ago, before the last ice age, the planet went through a natural warm period, with temperatures similar to those expected in coming decades.

The sea level was 20 to 30 feet higher than it is today, implying that the ice sheets in both Greenland and Antarctica must have partly disintegrated, a warning of what could occur in the relatively near future if the heating of the planet continues unchecked.

But some research suggests that a catastrophe might not yet be inevitable. In a study last year, Robert M. DeConto of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and David Pollard of Pennsylvania State University used their computer model to predict what would happen if emissions were reduced sharply over the next few decades, in line with international climate goals.

Under the most ambitious scenarios, they found a strong likelihood that Antarctica would remain fairly stable.

"There's still a chance that all hell will break loose," Dr. DeConto said. "But the model is suggesting there's a way to reduce the risk of a big sea-level rise from Antarctica."

In the immersive video below, we fly past a six-mile iceberg, a tiny fragment of the Ross Ice Shelf.

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Miles of Ice Collapsing Into the Sea (Published 2017)

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This is the last of three dispatches from a New York Times reporting trip to Antarctica. From the air, the Ross Ice Shelf looks like a vast white plain extending to the horizon. The monochromatic landscape is relieved only occasionally by rocks poking through, or by deep crevasses in the ice itself.

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Puerto Rico's apagón, or "super blackout," is the longest and largest major power outage in modern U.S. history. Without electricity, there is no reliable source of clean water. School is out, indefinitely. Health care is fraught. Small businesses are faltering. The tasks of daily life are both exhausting and dangerous. There is nothing to do but wait, and no one can say when the lights will come back on. Lee este artículo en español.

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RAFAEL SURILLO Mayor of Yabucoa

You can mark our history as pre-Maria and post-Maria.

[Hurricane Maria] came to either straighten Puerto Rico out or make it anew.

The little we had, we lost.

I feel abandoned by the state.

Basically the world changed. Everything changed.

Stability won't get here until the power is back.

Without power, life is very hard.
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Two powerful hurricanes devastated Puerto Rico in September. They created a humanitarian crisis for the island's 3.4 million U.S. citizens that has persisted for three months. Power restoration is at a crawl because the grid collapsed, the utility is bankrupt and the logistics are daunting: Crews and supplies have to come from the mainland, then make their way into rugged interior areas like Utuado. Many roads remain impassable, and hundreds are still isolated.

Two powerful hurricanes devastated Puerto Rico in September. They created a humanitarian crisis for the island's 3.4 million U.S. citizens that has persisted for three months. Power restoration is at a crawl because the grid collapsed, the utility is bankrupt and the logistics are daunting: Crews and supplies have to come from the mainland, then make their way into rugged interior areas like Utuado. Many roads remain impassable, and hundreds are still isolated.

The deluge of rain created mudslides that toppled transmission lines, broke water pipes and pushed homes down hills. The family that lived in this house escaped just in time. The green lushness has returned to the mountains, though it is broken by huge gashes of mud.
Reconstruction of the scene
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Afraid that the slope supporting her house would collapse into the lake below, Maria Ortiz Viruet moved two doors away, to her mother's house. She is a veteran public school teacher who has weathered storms of all kinds. But nothing prepared her for this darkness.

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Maria Ortiz Viruet

Maria left me with nothing.

We are not getting basic services like water or electricity.

My daily routine has been affected.

To get the coffee ready we have to use the water that we're given, the potable bottled water.

I have to go to the mountain spring to find water, with a bucket to be able to take a bath,

carry the water to wash the dishes, the plates and the silverware.

It's hard.

Like most teachers across the island, Maria reports to work each day at an empty school.

Like most teachers across the island, Maria reports to work each day at an empty school.

No power and no water means no school for many of the territory's more than 1,000 schools - and total disruption to the lives of tens of thousands of children. They have lost their daily routine of classes, friends and meals.

Most have not been to school at all this fall. With each passing day, educators realize they are waiting for students who may never come back.

Maria can't get used to the emptiness.

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Maria Ortiz Viruet

I studied here from first grade until ninth grade.

That is why I love my school,

I love my community.

It feels really sad

to get to the classroom every day.

The children's smiles are missing.

We teachers are going to school because the instructions that were given to us

at first were to fix the school, remove debris, clean the rooms

to have the school in optimal condition.

And we're waiting as well for the team of engineers to come and certify that the school

is ready to receive the children.

They will be gravely affected if we don't act immediately.

Instead of classwork, children get lessons in catching mountain water to do the wash. On the mainland, school districts in Florida, Texas, New York and New England have absorbed thousands of students who don't want to fall behind. But those who stayed - including Maria's son, Jesús, 18 - are about to lose an entire semester.

But those who remain - including Maria's son, Jesús, who is 18 - don't know what will happen next.

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Jesús Manuel Mejía Ortiz

I really need my school. It's my last year. I believe that high school is important.

People have told me many times to enjoy high school. How am I going to enjoy it like this after this disaster?

There is one more thing to learn, and I will finally know

all the basics of welding. And I will have my diploma.

It is my last year, and I don't know what's going to happen.

What he does know: Nearly every day, the generator needs some kind of fix. When it breaks down, out come the candles and flashlights.

The buzzing of fuel-powered generators is inescapable. Their din is the new background noise of the night, the motors roaring to life all across the island at dusk.

Expensive to buy and fill, smelly and dangerous, the machines were never intended to be a substitute for public electricity.

A household can limp along on a generator, but it has been perilous for Puerto Rico's elderly and infirm to rely on the machines for months on end.

Many of them need power just to breathe. Since the storm, there has been a surge of deaths from pneumonia, diabetes, Alzheimer's and breathing disorders compared with the same period in 2016. The toll could rise over 1,000, some estimate.

All the advances of modern medicine are useless without electricity. How to run oxygen machines and nebulizer treatments? How to sterilize equipment and refrigerate medicine?

Thousands of the chronically sick live at home and are too poor or too frail to keep a generator filled and running. The fumes can trigger more breathing problems. It falls to family members and community health workers to improvise and soldier on.

Aixa Jiménez, a home hospice nurse, spends more time caring for her patients, including Margarita, 94, who has Alzheimer's disease. Helping Margarita live with dignity and keeping her clean and comfortable are more complicated since the hurricane hit.

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Teresa Irizarry

The nurse, Aixa,

She's a beautiful human being.

We've learned a lot from her.

She's helped us a lot taking care of Mom.

Aixa Jiménez Nurse, San Lucas Home Hospice We faced a challenge with her because she uses oxygen continuously.

It was difficult to provide therapy, change the bed position, and to lift her up.

She has to come up with new therapies on the spot. Héctor Pérez, who has a lung disease and shouldn't get overheated, no longer has working air conditioning.

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Hector Perez Hospice Patient

We don't have water yet.

I was in the Marine Corps. I spent five years and nine months in the service.

I joined when I was 17 years old and here I am. I'm still alive.

Lydia Zeda Reyes Hector's Wife After the hurricane, as you know, no one in Utuado had power or water service,

which was hard for him because he needs oxygen, and he gets overheated.

He used this hand fan to have air because we didn't have a generator or a place to install one.

The Spanish verb "to struggle" is bregar, but it means much more on this island.

When Puerto Ricans use this word, as they do constantly post-Maria, they are describing gritty determination. It's the deeply cultural will to not just survive scarcity and hardship but also to use creativity and humor to thrive within it. On busted power poles and crumbling overpasses are Puerto Rico's flag and this scrawled message: "Yo no me quito," or "I won't give up."

That spirit has propelled people to devise river crossings where bridges are washed out. Neighbors have formed brigades to clear roads with machetes and run cables from a single generator to light several homes.

But no amount of community resourcefulness can string electric line and rebuild highways. It took nearly two weeks for the territorial government and U.S. agencies to deliver relief to the hardest-hit communities. Politics and bureaucratic squabbles continue to bog down recovery.

While they wait on government, Puerto Ricans are demonstrating what they mean by bregar.

Three months after Maria, basic survival seems more like subsistence. The residents of Rio Abajo were cut off from food, water and supplies when the bridge to their rural homes collapsed. They had to get across the river.

Three months after Maria, basic survival seems more like subsistence. The residents of Rio Abajo were cut off from food, water and supplies when the bridge to their rural homes collapsed. Syndia Maria Sotomayor Torres' family invented a wood cart and pulley system to cross the river.

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The idea actually came from my son Dennis. "Daddy why don't we create a

basket and cross the river?" And we thought about it for a few days until they were able to build it

to have access to the main roads and bring food.

They call it the zip line. I don't know if that's the right name,

but when we use it we feel like we could fly.

It's the only way to get out of here, and it has been really helpful for us.

For every ingenious workaround, there are a dozen reminders of how life used to be.

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Living without electricity is hard

because we were used to living a certain way, just arriving home and turning on the lights.

And still after more than 30 days with no power, we still enter a room and automatically flip the switch, and then I say to myself, "What am I doing?"

We are trying to persevere. People have told us to leave,

but this is our home. This is not just a house, it is our home.

For Syndia and her family, the mountain life they chose now tests their endurance.
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For many Puerto Ricans who make their homes in population centers, the storm's aftermath has been equally merciless. In coastal regions like Yabucoa, the upheaval touches every facet of city life.

For many Puerto Ricans who make their homes in population centers, the storm's aftermath has been equally merciless.

In coastal regions like Yabucoa, the upheaval touches every facet of city life.

In three months, not a single light bulb in Yabucoa has been illuminated by the power grid.

In 12 weeks, not a single light bulb in Yabucoa has been illuminated by the power grid.

The baseball stadium that was the center of life in Yabucoa is now a landmark of mangled metal. The plantain fields that generated millions in revenue have been flattened.

Puerto Rico is bankrupt. A decade-long recession pushed the island to the brink of catastrophe, and Maria pushed it over. The outdated power infrastructure, run by a public utility with $9 billion in debt, collapsed. The territory has no money to restore electricity to businesses that power the economy, and with each passing day, the economy gets worse.

There are only two grocers in town stocked well enough to feed the city of 38,000. The line for the post office is dozens of people long. And the most reliable meals come from crowded fast-food restaurants and street vendors.

Several businesses are shuttered or open for a few hours a day, so pay has been cut for lots of workers, and many wonder how long they can hang on.

"The baseball park is part of our heritage as Yabucoans," said Mayor Rafael Surillo. "This sports venue is where the whole town gathers together. That place has a lot of history and in an instant, in less than 12 hours, it disappeared. That's the kind of pain we feel."
Reconstruction of the scene
"The baseball park is part of our heritage as Yabucoans," said Mayor Rafael Surillo. "This sports venue is where the whole town gathers together. That place has a lot of history and in an instant, in less than 12 hours, it disappeared. That's the kind of pain we feel."

Maria Rivera and her husband, Roberto, have sold fried snacks, including their popular alcapurrias, for decades at a food stand on Yabucoa's main strip. Seven days a week, eight hours a day, they work, and that has propelled them into the middle class. Keeping it going without power is a new challenge.

Maria Rivera and her husband, Roberto, have sold fried snacks, including their popular alcapurrias, for decades at a food stand on Yabucoa's main strip. Seven days a week, eight hours a day, they work, and that has propelled them into the middle class. Keeping it going without power is a new challenge.

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MARIA RIVERA Business owner

Look, when people come to Puerto Rico because a family member died,

their first visit is to get alcapurrias and then they go see their family.

That's just how it is.

But right now, I work for diesel and for what we are going to eat.

And with the chaos we had, we were all so exhausted,

we didn't know if we were going to be able stand on our feet.

Sometimes you go to bed and you can't sleep. You can't sleep because of all the day's work.00:36.230--> 00:40.200And the other day, my pressure rose to 200, something that's never happened to me.

The couple goes to town searching for the ingredients, paying nearly double what it cost before the storm. Add the fuel expenses for the generator that runs the commercial freezer, and the business is barely breaking even. But Maria and Roberto refuse to raise their prices.

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MARIA RIVERA Business owner

I told my husband, "Let's work until our supplies finish".

We went to work and people kept coming.

I've had my clients for 30 years.

And they're not only my clients, they're family.

They joke with us. We joke with them.

Many people say we are there to take away their stress.

I am buying small amounts of food so that I don't have a lot when the generator stops working

because all of them are failing.

Everyone that I know their generator has stopped working.

Sometimes I tell my husband that one of these days we'll leave and won't come back.

More than 472,000 homes across Puerto Rico were damaged by Hurricane Maria. Elizabeth Ortiz built this house a decade ago, hoping to one day pass it along to her children. But the tempest had other plans.
Reconstruction of the scene
Puerto Rico's emerging adults may be the most traumatized by what Maria wrecked.

For the half-million young people between the ages of 18 and 24, the powerful Category 4 hurricane was their first.

They are too young to have faced down disaster and developed the skills to survive it. And they are too old to find novelty in their reshaped landscape.

Their dreams were put abruptly on hold, and being powerless to affect what comes next, many say, is sofocante and desesperante - suffocating and exasperating.

Before Maria, 16-year-old Alondra Quiles had a plan. She would graduate high school, follow her brother to the mainland United States and join the military. After Maria, who can say? All she knows for certain is that she wants to stay by her mother's side.

It took her weeks to summon the strength to return to the damaged home where she rode out the storm's 18-hour assault, locked in the bathroom. That kind of desperation gnaws at her soul.

Her mother, Elizabeth, vows to persevere for Puerto Rico's sake. Alondra is less certain it's her fight.

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ELIZABETH ORTIZ Yabucoa resident

We are living as if it were the times of our parents or our grandparents.

To not have electricity means not having a fan, no water heater.

Basically the world changed. Everything changed.

The technological advances went back like 35 years or more.

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ALONDRA QUILES ORITZ

The day of the hurricane, in the middle of the bathroom I kept questioning God:

"Why did you send us this?

Why did you allow for us to lose everything?"

I questioned many things.

I told him I wanted to finish my senior year.

I said, "Lord, let them open the school.

Open the school because I cannot stand being cooped up in here, in this loneliness."

The storm blew out the front doors and windows, destroying everything inside their home. It broke Alondra's heart. Elizabeth salvaged what she could, but their home is not much more than a shell. They live by lantern light, washing clothes by hand, days ordered by sunlight.

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ALONDRA QUILES ORITZ

Emotionally, in losing everything, you compare your life now to what it was before.

All of that is traumatizing.

I feel immense anxiety.

It's something that builds up inside you.

It makes you want to run and run until you get tired and scream until you release everything inside.

It has been hard because we are literally alone.

But, I do not feel so bad because I have her and I feel full.

I don't need much more as long as I have my mother, a place to sleep and food to eat.

Her mother, Elizabeth, vows to persevere for Puerto Rico's sake. Alondra is less certain it's her fight.

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ELIZABETH ORTIZ Yabucoa resident

When will the power come back in Yabucoa? I wish it was today.

But I am not leaving my island.

Maybe rich people left, because they are not used to this.

But those of us who are poor, who have seen this before and who were hit hard.

We want to fight, to lift up our country.

We do not run.

Being powerless in Puerto Rico means that each day of the past three months is just like the day before, a way of life unimaginable in any state on the mainland. Hook up the generator, boil water and hold fast. It could take months until the power comes back on. Until then, millions are in limbo.

Being powerless in Puerto Rico means that each day of the past three months is just like the day before, a way of life unimaginable in any state on the mainland. Hook up the generator, boil water and hold fast. It could take months until the power comes back on. Until then, millions are in limbo.

Credits

Reporting and videography

Design and development

Emily Yount and Seth Blanchard

Graphics

Drone footage and photogrammetry

Editing

Translation

Icons

Joanne Lee and Victoria Fogg

Map sources

Special thanks

About our process

To give readers a new perspective on the situation on the ground in Puerto Rico, we reconstructed three scenes for this story: a mountainside overtaken by a mudslide, a devastated baseball stadium and Elizabeth Ortiz's house, which was heavily damaged. To create these scenes, which use realistic 3-D models of places we visited in this story, we used drones to photograph all sides of each location, then used special stitching software to identify the shape of the locations, buildings and terrain. Then, algorithmically, we recreated the locations as three dimensional models. Some cleanup of the models is required, especially of features that do not render well with the technique. As a result, some trees and other debris were removed from the final reconstructions in the project.
After Hurricane Maria, parts of Puerto Rico are still in the dark'If there is no water, disease will come': Many in Puerto Rico still lack water service A light amid the darkness, a Puerto Rico church stands up as its community struggles Puerto Rican schoolchildren could be out of class for months Life Without Power Share:
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Life without power in Puerto Rico - and no end in sight

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This browser is not fully supported. Please update for the best experience. Scroll to continue This presentation has sound. Scroll to continue. Puerto Rico's apagón, or "super blackout," is the longest and largest major power outage in modern U.S. history. Without electricity, there is no reliable source of clean water.

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Bees are having a really hard time right now. For about a decade, they've been dying off at an unprecedented rate-up to 30 percent per year, with a total loss of domesticated honeybee hives in the United States worth an estimated $2 billion.

At first, no one knew why. But as my colleague Tom Philpott has reported extensively, in the last few years scientists have accumulated a compelling pile of evidence pointing to a class of insecticides called neonicotinoids. These chemicals are widely used in commercial agriculture but can have lethal effects on bees. Other pesticides are also adding to the toll. So are invasive parasites and a general decline in the quality of bees' diets.

Clearly, that combination of factors poses a pretty serious problem for anyone who likes to eat, since bees-both the domesticated kind and their wild bumblebee cousins, both of which are in decline-are the main pollinators of many major fruit and nut crops. The problem is so severe that this spring President Barack Obama unveiled the first-ever national strategy for improving the health of bees and other key pollinators.

Bees "are in serious and immediate risk from human-caused climate change."

Now, it appears that lurking in the background behind the ag-industry-related problems is an even more insidious threat: climate change. According to new research published in the journal Science, dozens of bumblebee species began losing habitat as early as the 1970s-well before neonicotinoids were as widespread as they are today. Since then, largely as a result of global warming, bees have lost nearly 200 miles off the southern end of their historic wild range in both the US and in Europe, a trend that is continuing at a rate of about five miles every year.

As temperatures increase (the US is about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit warmer today, on average, than in 1900), many plant and animal species in the Northern Hemisphere are shifting their range north. But by analyzing a vast archive of bee distribution records reaching back more than a century, ecologists at the University of Ottawa showed that bees are not joining that trend. Instead of shifting north like many other species, the bees' range is only compressing in from the south, leaving less and less available habitat. That finding is illustrated in the chart below (and explained in more detail in the video at the bottom of this post, produced by Science).

In a call with reporters, lead scientist Jeremy Kerr stressed that although pesticide use is a critical cause of bee mortality at local levels, it doesn't explain the continent-wide habitat shrinkage that stands out in the bee data. But temperature trends do.

"They are in serious and immediate risk from human-caused climate change," Kerr said. "The impacts are large and they are underway."

The question of why bees aren't pushing northward is a bit trickier, and it isn't resolved in this paper. But Kerr said he suspects the answer could be the relatively long time it takes for bees to reach a critical mass of population that can be sustained in new places.

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Bees are having a really hard time right now. For about a decade, they've been dying off at an unprecedented rate-up to 30 percent per year, with a total loss of domesticated honeybee hives in the United States worth an estimated $2 billion. At first, no one knew why.

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Xiuhtezcatl Martinez is a 16-year-old, indigenous hip-hop artist hailing from Boulder, Colorado. He also happens to be one of the most vocal climate change activists out there today. Martinez is the youth director of the Earth Guardians, "a tribe of young activists," looking to change the world now for the sake of the future generations who will inherit the planet.

Martinez has been prolific in his efforts to combat climate change. He's a member of Obama's youth council, he's addressed the U.N., and has participated in countless protests. Perhaps his most noted accomplishment came back in April of this year when Martinez and twenty other youth activists, all under the age of 21, filed a lawsuit against the federal government for violating their constitutional right to life, liberty and property by their affirmative actions that have contributed to global climate change.

His age has never stopped him from making a difference. Martinez has been fighting on behalf of his generation pretty much his entire life, knowing that someone has to be their voice, speaking up about environmental issues.

Outspeak recently spoke to Martinez about climate change, how other youth inspire hope, and the upcoming presidential election.
What is the biggest threat facing our environment currently?
Xiuhtezcatl Martinez: The biggest threat currently facing our environment is our global climate crisis because of the impacts that it has on nearly every human and natural systems.

Who is the current leader of renewable energy and how can we support them?

XM: Several countries around the world are beginning to understand the importance of shifting away from the fossil fuel based energy economy to renewable energy.

The amazing thing about renewable energy is you don't have to be a billionaire, like Elon Musk to make a difference. Tesla is making great advances in the storing capacity for solar energy, but renewable energy innovation is also coming from the grassroots level. There are stories like that of 14-year-old William Kamkwamba of Malawi, who overcame poverty and famine to build a wind turbine that powered his family home, using found materials and knowledge from the local library. These are the kind of leaders we need to support. We the people of this nation need to look towards a renewable energy infrastructure as a way to boost our economy as just as much as a way to protect the environmentally.
What do you think is the greatest hope for environmental reform?
XM: Myself and 20 other youth plaintiffs from around the country are suing the federal government for violating our constitutional right to life, liberty and property by failing to act on global climate change.

If we win this lawsuit it will mean that the federal courts in the United States will force the government to put massive climate recovery plans in the place to cut greenhouse gas emissions. This recovery plan will remain active, year by year, until our Planet's atmosphere has recovered to a reasonable, safe, and sustainable level: 350 ppm of carbon dioxide.

Countries around the world are adopting this template. Young people are standing up in their countries to demand the rights to protect our atmosphere and save our planet. This is an attempt by the young people of our planet to work together to sway our own governments to take action on climate change immediately.
What do you think of the new environment law just passed in California? How do you believe other states should respond? Is it enough?
XM: The law that recently passed in California that aspires towards a goal of 50 percent renewables across the entire state by 2030 is simply not ambitious enough. Although it is a step in the right direction we need concentrate our collective action and transition away from a fossil fuel energy economy even sooner than 2030. Various states across United States and many nations across the world have begun to adopt similar methods, but we need to achieve progress at a faster rate. For every year we delay the greater and more potentially insurmountable the issue becomes.
What is the biggest lie being spread in the media about climate change?
XM: One of the biggest misconceptions that I hear about climate change is that is solely an environmental issue and only environmentalists should care about it. The truth of the matter is that climate change is a human rights issue. Climate change impacts human lives of all ages and nationalities across our planet. It is a impacting our children. It's one of the unsung factors and a driving force in the refugee crisis. It is hitting families at home on Main Street in the United States and it's damaging the fabric of communities and delicate ecosystems in every corner of the world.
What if anything inspires hope/optimism in you around the environment in this election?
XM: I am inspired by the opportunity to join forces on this issue with young people across the country that are also on the front lines of this movement. I am discovering similar movements that are uniting around climate change and learning about relevant issues that are affecting my generation.

All of these experiences and interactions inspire me everyday to continue the work that I do to protect the environment. This is a fight for the rights of nature. This is the fight for the survival of our generation and the generations that will follow in our footsteps. As I travel this world I see the staggering beauty of our planet. The beauty of planet Earth and the people I meet along the way remind me of my purpose and what we are fighting to protect.
What weight do you feel on your shoulders in respect to climate change? What makes you feel responsible for pushing change?
XM: As a member of a generation that is affected by the problems we see in the world today, I feel it is my responsibility to take action right now, without hesitation, so future generations will not have to suffer the way our generation has already suffered at the hands of climate change. It's imperative that we take action now. As a young person I have an incredibly powerful voice that has the potential to create change. I believe all youth on the planet have this potential. As a leader in this movement my responsibility is to act upon this crisis for every generation.
Why shouldn't young people fall into apathy and hopelessness about the environment?
XM: It's so easy to fall into a state of apathy and hopelessness about the daunting task of helping a world that is under attack from so many different angles. Our race against time, the weight of the world, and even even old habits can make you believe the opportunity for action has already been missed. But there is still just enough time if we unite as a generation to take action. We must remain hopeful. We must remain vigilant. We must connect with the community and support the people in our lives that inspire us towards positive change. Only together can we continue to fight to change the systems that are destroying the planet.
What can young voters fight for in the upcoming election?
XM: In this upcoming election I am pressing young voters to make their voices heard on all issues affecting our county and the world we live in. We must demand strong action on climate change. We must hold corporations, our US president, and all political leaders accountable for the continued degradation of our planet and it's people. We also need to play a greater role in how laws are written (and enforced) and how our resources are being consumed. But not only in our country. We must help empower and share our information and resources with those around the world that want to make a difference in the world.

We need our youth to see how climate change and environmental issues are affecting us, because honestly climate change is one of the most important and defining issues of our time. We are the generation of change and action. We need our youth to stand up for our planet and the generations to come. We need to inspire people to take to the streets and the voting booth to appeal to the local and national court systems to demand change from our political leaders we can vote in or out of office.

For more from Xiuhtezcatl and the Earth Guardians, follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

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This 16-Year-Old Climate Change Activist Is Suing The U.S. Government

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Xiuhtezcatl Martinez is a 16-year-old, indigenous hip-hop artist hailing from Boulder, Colorado. He also happens to be one of the most vocal climate change activists out there today. Martinez is the youth director of the Earth Guardians, "a tribe of young activists," looking to change the world now for the sake of the future generations who will inherit the planet.

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A podcast featuring science for kids and curious adults.

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children kids podcast ios apps education science discovery sharing

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Kids Listen: The Voyage of the Ocean Trash with Jenni Brandon [ENCORE]

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From Tumble Science Podcast for Kids. Our friends Andrew & Polly from the podcast Ear Snacks introduce their favorite Tumble episode. Listener Ilya asks if there's a way to remove all the trash from the ocean. Scientist Jenni Brandon helps us investigate the Great Pacific Garbage Patch - a vast, swirling soup of trash, twice the size of Texas.

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It's a confusing part of climate change when it seems winter is as cold as ever, but as global temperatures creep ever so slightly higher, a cascade of catastrophic events will almost surely follow. The ball is in humanity's court.

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It's a confusing part of climate change when it seems winter is as cold as ever, but as global temperatures creep ever so slightly higher, a cascade of catastrophic events will almost surely follow. The ball is in humanity's court.

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When I hear the term "tree huggers," I immediately think of a cliché hippie stereotype. You know, the free spirited, dreadlocked white dude who flashes peace signs while wearing a ragged tie-dyed shirt. Well, Among Giants, a short documentary from the team over at Rainhouse Cinema, does its very best to eschew conventions. For one, the film's tree hugging protagonist, Farmer, is surprisingly reflective. As he speaks, explaining his self-imposed struggle to save an ancient redwood grove in California, the expected free love platitudes never come. Instead, his conversation is personal, intimate, and understated. His love of nature-his willingness to spend three years on a tiny platform a hundred feet up in the tree canopy-is simultaneously crazy and heroic.

Shot in a lovely, understated style, Among Giants is as much a nature film as it is a socially conscious one. Apart from select sections, the movie exists almost entirely without a musical score, opting instead for the ambient sounds of the forest to comprise the soundtrack. The result is serene, practically mediative. While the film would never stoop so low to say it outright, it's clear that the creators are encouraging all to embrace individualism, to retreat back into all the transcendental glory that nature can offer. In the words of Emerson, "Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience." And, so Farmer and his comrades do just that-patiently wait amongst the treetops, sitting peacefully to stop destruction. As the film climaxes-as one of the few noticeable musical cues hits-we are treated to gorgeous aerial cinematography, juxtaposing both the beauty of the existing forestland with the elegiac destruction of logged areas.

Among Giants screened at numerous festivals on the circuit. And, really, it's success shouldn't be a surprise. Rainhouse is comprised of three extremely talented filmmakers and cinematographers- Sam Price-Waldman, Ben Mullinkosson, and Chris Cresci. The mission of Rainhouse Cinema is to make films that center around people and the environment. Based on their current track record, I'd say they're more than succeeding.

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When I hear the term "tree huggers," I immediately think of a cliché hippie stereotype. You know, the free spirited, dreadlocked white dude who flashes peace signs while wearing a ragged tie-dyed shirt. Well, Among Giants, a short documentary from the team over at Rainhouse Cinema, does its very best to eschew conventions.

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Are natural resources vital to the economy?
Why should nature be taken into account when looking at the economy as a whole? "A Bee's Invoice" uncovers and incorporates the hidden value of natural capital in the measurement of our economy.

Directed by Adrian Grenier
Producers: Peter Glatzer and Robin Garvick
A SHFT Production
In association with Reckless Productions
Animation by Nocturne
Director of VFX and Animation: Galen Pehrson
Animation Producer: Sara Cline
Editor: Jeff Cowan
Music by Moby
Cast:
Adrian Grenier
Gernot Wagner
Jodi Beggs
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Featured Players:
Alfredo Flores
Brandon Flores
Kate Bea Goldman
Theodore Havel
Victor Joro
Monica Ollander
Thomas James Reed
Julian Teran
Victor Teran
LA Crew List:
Director of Photography: Chris Greco
Camera OP: Julian King
Key Grip: Cameron Bryant
Grip: Alex Francis
Gaffer: Justin Raths
Best Boy: John Iadarola
Sound: Nick Campbell
Production Assistant for SHFT: Kate McLamb
Hair and Makeup: Gabrielle Pascua
Production Coordinator / Transcription / Archivist: Marisa Gill

NYC Crew List
Producer: Sara Cline
Unit Production Manager: Carrie Gooch
Production Assistant: Claude Gabrillo
Director of Photography: Todd Somodevilla
1st AC/B Camera Operator: Chris Heinrich
Grip: David Ranghelli
Gaffer: Jeff Holman
Hair and Makeup: Sokphalla Ban
Sound Mix: Abe Dolinger
Teleprompter Operator: Sterling Krusing
Production Assistant: Kate McLamb
Post Production List:
Sound Mixer: Noah Georgeson
Post Production Supervisor: Carrie Gooch
Animator: Paul Claessens
Animator: Branko Vudrakovic
Lighting and Render: Scott Butler
Chroma Key: Michael MacDonald
Rendering: Dan Underhill
Special Thanks:
MOAT
Tara Mei Smith
Janetti Chon
Marty Bales
Eric Harle
Matt Littlejohn
Oceana
Andrew Sharpless
Nicholas Muller
© Reconcile Productions. All Rights Reserved

ADRIAN GRENIER recently wrapped production on the Warner Bros. feature film adaptation of the HBO series "Entourage," set for release in June 2015. His other acting credits include: "The Devil Wears Prada," "Sex, Death & Bowling," "Cecil B. Demented," and "Goodbye World." Founder of Reckless Productions, Grenier has also produced and directed such documentaries as "Shot in the Dark," "Teenage Paparazzo," and "How to Make Money Selling Drugs." He is currently in pre-production on "52: The Search for the Loneliest Whale in the World," which will take audiences on a journey to search for the forgotten "52 Hertz Whale." In 2009, Grenier co-founded SHFT.com, a content creation/curation hub promoting sustainable green living through film, design, art and food. Its non-profit endeavors include the SHFT Mobile Kitchen Classroom, which provides New York City high school students with opportunities to engage in experiential lessons around food, health and sustainability.

Director's Note

"I have always been passionate about the state of our environment. There's a giving aspect to nature and what it provides us in both its ineffable beauty as well as its contribution to the things we make from it, that I found making a film about the hidden value of nature and its impact on the economy interesting to explore. Nature's material contribution to our economy is usually behind the scenes. 'A Bee's Invoice' gives me the opportunity to use state-of-the-art digital technology and computer graphics to animate and celebrate the functional wonder of nature and all the raw material it provides us without asking for anything in return. The animation allowed us to create a hyper-realistic vision of nature to help illustrate the story for a modern audience that is used to heightened visual experiences.

This topic was a learning experience and has helped to clarify for me some ideas that I've been exploring in my environmental work with SHFT.com that we need to find market-based solutions to our environmental problems. Getting accurate economic calculations by including the value and costs of climate change and exploitation of our resources are the only way we can make sure that the free markets can work to protect long-term prosperity for us and the planet. In today's economic climate I also thought it was important to excite people about what is possible for the future. I aimed to give a taste of economic principles which take nature into account, and to encourage people's economic empowerment - so that they may actively participate in building strong economies of tomorrow."

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A Bee's Invoice: The Hidden Value in Nature - Film - WE THE ECONOMY

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Are natural resources vital to the economy? Why should nature be taken into account when looking at the economy as a whole? Adrian Grenier's short film A BEE'S INVOICE uncovers and incorporates the hidden value of natural capital in the measurement of our economy.

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This sustainability challenge shows what it looks like to go an entire month without using any single-use plastics. NowThis' Lucy Biggers took on the challenge and learned how much single-use plastic is integrated into our lives - and what it takes to reduce her use.

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This sustainability challenge shows what it looks like to go an entire month without using any single-use plastics. NowThis' Lucy Biggers took on the challenge and learned how much single-use plastic is integrated into our lives - and what it takes to reduce her use.

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Image: SafariSeat; LifeStraw; The Peepoo Toilet; Mariko Products

Getting to the root of poverty means solving various issues along the way, and inventors are up for the challenge.

Poverty isn't just inadequate access to income - it manifests in a lack of access to health services, education and vital goods. It can also lead to societal instability, allowing sexism, ableism, classism and racism to flourish. And every day, innovators create new gadgets and other solutions with the world's poor in mind.

Here are 16 ingenious innovations helping to alleviate poverty-related inequalities for developing regions across the globe.

1. The Shoe That Grows

Children are notorious for quickly outgrowing clothing and shoes, much to the frustration of parents who are constantly replacing hardly-worn items with larger sizes. Growth spurts are especially a challenge in developing nations, where money for worn or outgrown items is scarce.

The Shoe That Grows is a simple, adjustable shoe that children can wear for years, capable of expanding five sizes through a series of notches and snaps. The shoe generally fits a child's foot from age 5 to 9, helping to curb foot injuries and cases of soil-transmitted diseases and parasites. A concept first conceived almost a decade ago, The Shoe That Grows is making an impact in developing regions around the world where the nonprofit delivers donated shoes to children and families.

2. Life Saving Dot

In rural India, thousands of women are estimated have iodine deficiency, which has been linked to breast cancer, fibrocystic breast disease and pregnancy complications. But the Life Saving Dot, an iodine-rich variation on a traditional bindi, is helping provide women with the vital mineral.

The dot, which is worn between a woman's eyebrows just like a bindi, delivers a wearer with the recommended daily amount of iodine. The Life Saving Dot only costs 10 rupees - or 16 cents - for a packet of 30, fitting the budgets of women in rural India.

3. Safari Seat

Wheelchairs are essential devices for many people, but in rural, developing areas with rough terrain and few roads, traditional wheelchairs aren't always practical - or even usable.

SafariSeat is a low-cost, all-terrain wheelchair designed to be manufactured and maintained in poor countries, creating a self-sustaining product. The innovation is made of bicycle parts, and the device is propelled forward by hand levers and durable wheels. The seat is projected to start production in Kenya in the coming months.

4. Mazzi

In developing nations, milk is an important source of income and nutrition for poor families. But transporting milk safely and easily with traditional open milk pails comes with spillage, spoilage and an increased risk of contamination.

Mazzi, a durable, 10-liter plastic container designed with a wide mouth for collection, solves these issues by providing a safe and affordable way to collect and transport milk. The container is also easy to clean, with a specially designed funnel attachment that helps eliminate spilling.

5. NIFTY Cup

When an infant in a developing country is unable to nurse, they're at risk of severe malnutrition - or even death. NIFTY cup is solving this issue in rural areas of Africa.

Developed over five years, the NIFTY cup was designed with a spout that makes collected milk easy to drink by infants with cleft palates or other related issues that prevent proper latching. The cup, which is reusable and costs only $1 to create, has already been credited with preventing starvation of infants in poor African communities.

6. Eco-Cooler

In developing areas without electricity, soaring temperatures can leave huts unbearably hot. Eco-Cooler, a low-cost cooling system created from recycled plastic bottles, helps solve the issue by drawing cool air into homes.

The cooler is made of halved plastic bottles on a board, which is then installed like a window. When in place, each bottle's neck compresses the hot breeze, cooling it down and dropping temperatures inside a hut as much as 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Rural communities in Bangladesh have implemented the environmentally friendly solution.

7. Lucky Iron Fish

Iron deficiency is the most widespread nutritional disorder in the world, affecting an estimated 3.5 billion people. It can be especially devastating in developing nations, where nutritional needs are often unmet. Iron deficiency alone can lead to anemia, low energy and difficulty concentrating.

Lucky Iron Fish is an iron, fish-shaped object that families can place in a pot of boiling water prior to cooking to enrich vegetables with additional iron. The company works on a one-to-one donation scale, allowing individuals in developed nations to buy their own fish while simultaneously donating one to a family in need.

8. Embrace Warmer

More than 1 million babies die on the day of their birth every year. A staggering 90 percent of these deaths occur in developing nations, where hypothermia is a common cause of death in premature and low-weight infants.

Embrace Warmer is essentially an infant sleeping bag, helping to regulate a baby's body temperature during their vulnerable first days. The award-winning innovation is reusable, low-cost and requires no electricity, making it ideal for poor communities around the globe. Over 200,000 infants have used the life-saving blanket so far.

9. LifeStraw

About 783 million people - or 11 percent of the world's population - lack access to improved sources of drinking water. Drinking contaminated water can lead to devastating disease and illness. It's estimated that every 90 seconds a child dies from a water-related disease.

LifeStraw makes drinking contaminated water safer, which can be a game-changer in poor regions where water access is minimal. The straw-like device uses a simple filtration system made of specially designed cloth to render water safe to drink.

The company not only provides straws to communities in need for individual use, but also donates larger filtration systems to poor communities around the globe for community use.

10. The XO Laptop

Education and learning are universal desires for today's youth. But poor communities don't always have the means to give children the comprehensive education they deserve.

The XO Laptop is helping to fill that gap. The small, low cost computer is highly durable and features a powerful screen that can be read in harsh sunlight. It has built-in wireless internet so kids can connect to information around the world.

The tech solution is specifically designed for children in developing nations, hoping to give youth access to self-empowered education. XO Laptops have been donated to more than 2.4 million children in several countries, such as Peru, Kenya, Nepal and Afghanistan.

11. Flo

Lack of access to menstrual products has devastating impacts on women and girls in developing nations. The inability to cope with menstruation often keeps girls out of school, with girls in Kenya missing an average of five days of school per month due to periods. Improper menstruation sanitation also has devastating health impacts, with 70 percent of all reproductive diseases in India caused by poor menstrual hygiene.

Flo, a simple, reusable menstrual hygiene kit, provides a solution for women and girls in developing nations to care for their bodies. The low-cost kit includes reusable pads, a wearable pouch to carry them and a washer-dryer container for improved cleanliness.

12. Wonderbag

Cooking food safely with limited resources is something many poor families in rural areas struggle with every day. Using stoves or open fires for long periods of time without proper ventilation can cause sickness or even death. Every year, household smoke inhalation from meal preparation contributes to more than 4 million deaths globally.

Wonderbag is a reusable, zero-energy slow cooker that drastically cuts down on the time needed for food to cook on a stove or fire. Once ingredients are brought to a boil using traditional methods, a pot can be placed in a Wonderbag, where it continues to cook for up to 12 hours.

The company is distributing the innovation to regions in Africa, helping families cut down on cooking times in favor of a more sustainable method.

13. Hippo Roller

For poor women and children in rural areas, collecting water can be a physically demanding - and dangerous - task. But the Hippo Roller, a water collection drum designed to roll along rough terrain, is allowing those who collect water to do so safely and effectively.

The Hippo Roller lets women collect enough water to sustain a family for a full day during daylight hours, when there is less risk of harassment and sexual violence on the walk to a water source. The drum also reduces the risk of injury, allowing women to roll the hefty drum instead of carrying a heavy, smaller pail on their head. More than 500,000 rollers have been distributed across 20 countries over the past several years.

14. Hemafuse

In emergency situations and during childbirth, blood transfusions are often necessary to save a person's life. But in poor nations, access to a safe, reliable blood supply is relatively rare, leading to preventable deaths each year.

The Hemafuse, from Sisu Global Health, takes the donation and storage barriers out of blood transfusions, recycling a person's own blood back into their body. The low-cost device acts like a large syringe, collecting blood and filtering it internally to remove clots and other particulates. The blood can then be deposited into a blood bag, where it can be pumped back into a patient's body.

15. The Peepoo Toilet

About 1 in 3 people - or nearly 2.4 billion people worldwide - lack access to a toilet. Managing human waste is a massive issue in developing nations, with improper sanitation partially responsible for the spread of deadly disease. Each year, poor sanitation contributes to an estimated 700,000 child deaths from diarrhea.

Putting aside its giggle-inducing name, The PeePoo Toilet is a vital way for people in developing nations to use the restroom safely, especially when they have a contagious disease. The slim, biodegradable bag is used by an individual in the absence of a toilet. The bag sanitizes human excrement, turning the contents of the bag into fertilizer in about a month.

The PeePoo Toilet, however, is a single-use solution, meaning it may not be practical for every time someone needs to use the restroom. Nevertheless, it's providing an innovative, safe way to prevent the spread of disease in the absence of improved sanitation.

16. Jet injections

Vaccines and immunizations are crucial in curbing the impacts of diseases and illnesses around the world. But safely administering a vaccine in a developing nation can be difficult with the complexities of sterilization, especially when it comes to often misused needles.

Jet injectors help solve this problem, delivering vaccines to patients using pressure to penetrate the skin, rather than needles. The single-use medical device administers a vaccine through a fine stream of fluid that passes through skin into tissue. The solution is cost-effective and highly efficient, using up to 80 percent less vaccine than a traditional needle injection.

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16 brilliant innovations tackling poverty around the world

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Getting to the root of poverty means solving various issues along the way, and inventors are up for the challenge. Poverty isn't just inadequate access to income - it manifests in a lack of access to health services, education and vital goods. It can also lead to societal instability, allowing sexism, ableism, classism and racism to flourish.

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In Augusta, Ga., a judge sentenced Tom Barrett to 12 months after he stole a can of beer worth less than $2.

In Ionia, Mich., 19-year-old Kyle Dewitt caught a fish out of season; then a judge sentenced him to three days in jail.

In Grand Rapids, Mich., Stephen Papa, a homeless Iraq War veteran, spent 22 days in jail, not for what he calls his "embarrassing behavior" after he got drunk with friends and climbed into an abandoned building, but because he had only $25 the day he went to court.

The common thread in these cases, and scores more like them, is the jail time wasn't punishment for the crime, but for the failure to pay the increasing fines and fees associated with the criminal justice system.

A yearlong NPR investigation found that the costs of the criminal justice system in the United States are paid increasingly by the defendants and offenders. It's a practice that causes the poor to face harsher treatment than others who commit identical crimes and can afford to pay. Some judges and politicians fear the trend has gone too far.

A state-by-state survey conducted by NPR found that defendants are charged for many government services that were once free, including those that are constitutionally required. For example:

In at least 43 states and the District of Columbia, defendants can be billed for a public defender.

In at least 41 states, inmates can be charged room and board for jail and prison stays.

In at least 44 states, offenders can get billed for their own probation and parole supervision.

And in all states except Hawaii, and the District of Columbia, there's a fee for the electronic monitoring devices defendants and offenders are ordered to wear.

These fees - which can add up to hundreds or even thousands of dollars - get charged at every step of the system, from the courtroom, to jail, to probation. Defendants and offenders pay for their own arrest warrants, their court-ordered drug and alcohol-abuse treatment and to have their DNA samples collected. They are billed when courts need to modernize their computers. In Washington state, for example, they even get charged a fee for a jury trial - with a 12-person jury costing $250, twice the fee for a six-person jury.

In Allegan County, Mich., Frederick Cunningham pleaded guilty to forging a prescription for pain medication and was told to pay $1,000 in "court costs." Testimony from a court official in a case where Cunningham challenged his fees shows that $500 reimbursed the program that paid for the impoverished man's court-appointed attorney and $500 helped pay for the costs of running the county courthouse. Those costs include the salaries of court employees, for heat, telephones, copy machines and even to underwrite the cost of the county employees' fitness gym.

"The only reason that the court is in operation and doing business at that point in time is because that defendant has come in and is a user of those services," says Michael Day, the administrator for the Allegan County Circuit Court. "They don't necessarily see themselves as a customer because, obviously, they're not choosing to be there. But in reality they are."

Courts usually offer alternatives to paying fees, like doing community service. But sometimes there's a cost with that, too. Jayne Fuentes, in Benton County, Wash., went on the county work crew to pay off her fines - only there was a $5-a-day charge, which she had to borrow from her daughter.
Alternatives For The Poor?
The people most likely to face arrest and go through the courts are poor, says sociologist Alexes Harris, at the University of Washington. She's writing a book on these fees and the people who struggle to pay them.

"They tend to be people of color, African-Americans and Latinos," Harris says. "They tend to be high school dropouts, they tend to be people with mental illness, with substance abuse. So these are already very poor and marginalized people in our society, and then we impose these fiscal penalties to them and expect that they make regular payments, when in fact the vast majority are unable to do so."

Many fees can be waived for indigent defendants, but judges are more likely to put the poor on a more manageable payment plan.

Courts, however, will then sometimes tack on extra fees, penalties for missed payments and may even charge interest.

In Washington state, for example, there's 12 percent interest on costs in felony cases that accrues from the moment of judgment until all fines, fees, restitution and interest are paid off in full. As a result, it can be hard for someone who's poor to make that debt ever go away. One state commission found that the average amount in felony cases adds up to $2,500. If someone paid a typical amount - $10 a month - and never missed a payment, his debt would keep growing. After four years of faithful payments, the person would now owe $3,000.

Virginia Dickerson, of Richland, Wash., has been drug-free for more than three years and out of jail for over a year. She's living in a treatment house and working as a waitress and cook. On the day last fall when NPR reporters met her, Dickerson was at the courthouse trying to get a summary of how much she owed in fines, fees and interest. The total: almost $10,000.

"I don't want to have to worry about going to jail. And that is my biggest fear," she says. "Relapses aren't even a thought to me. This is the only thing that is hindering me."

When an impoverished person fails to keep up with these payments, he has violated probation. There may be more fees and penalties. In some states, people who don't pay can lose their driver's license or benefits like food stamps. Sometimes felons have to pay before they get back their right to vote.

NPR's reporting came across many of these situations, including a woman in her 60s who lost her subsidized housing for seniors and became homeless. It was discovered she still owed $500 on a conviction decades before for forging a prescription. Other examples included people who didn't pay court costs and lost their driver's license, but they kept driving - to get to work, to get kids to school - until they were caught, went to jail and were assessed thousands of dollars in more fines and fees.

The result is that people face arrest and go underground to avoid police. But this means they cut themselves off from job opportunities, welfare benefits or other programs that could get them on their feet.

"There are a lot of things you can't do. A lot of jobs you can't apply for," says Todd Clear, who studies crime policy and is provost of Rutgers University, Newark. "Lots of benefits you can't apply for. If you have a license, a driver's license that needs to be renewed, you can't renew it. So what it means is you live your entire life under a cloud. In a very real sense, they drop out of the real society."

Eddie Restrepo was one of those dropouts. Three years ago, the Iraq Army veteran came home to New Jersey but couldn't find work. He was homeless and all he had was his car. He didn't have the money to renew his license - or to pay the fines when he got caught by police. He says he was caught twice: driving with a suspended license, with no registration or insurance, and for many unpaid parking tickets. There was also interest that went unpaid.

"I was always hiding from the cops," he says. "If I was driving, I had to turn left when they were coming right. I was always trying to hide."

During a four-day period last November, nearly 4,500 people turned themselves in to Fugitive Safe Surrender, a New Jersey program for people with unpaid fines and fees to get significant reductions. A judge reset Restrepo's court debt - from $10,000 to what Restrepo called "a measly" $199. And that has helped him get back on track. Last year, he took a job with the parking enforcement agency. He now gives out the kinds of citations and fines that got him into trouble.

But across the country, NPR found cases of hundreds of Americans who are jailed for failure to pay off those court debts.

This month, the governor of Colorado signed a law that tells judges they can't send people to jail simply because they're too poor to pay fines and fees.

The action came after the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado challenged the practice of courts in three Colorado cities.

One example was a case in Westminster. Jared Thornburg was ticketed for making an illegal left turn. He went to court and the offense was dropped to driving a "defective vehicle," a ticket with $165 worth of fines and fees. At the time, he was homeless and unemployed. He had recently lost a job at an oil field after a serious workplace injury. So he couldn't pay the ticket.

The day before he was to start a job at Taco Bell, he says, he was arrested for not paying the fines, which had increased to $306. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail.

"I cried a lot being in jail because I was scared," Thornburg says.

It cost the city of Westminster about $70 a day to jail Thornburg, according to the ACLU of Colorado.

"How is that humanely right?" he asks. "It cost the taxpayers more than what my fine was for and it just wasted 10 days of my life."
The Threat Of Pay Or Stay
But some communities argue they make needed money from fines and fees.

NPR obtained a year of jail records from Benton County and sampled data over a four-month period in 2013. On a typical day, about a quarter of the people who were in jail for misdemeanor offenses were there because they had failed to pay their court fines and fees.

Benton County District Court Judge Robert Ingvalson defends the county's heavy use of fines and fees - and jail time for those who don't pay. He says it's needed to hold people accountable when they break laws.

"If they won't pay the money, the only thing we can take from them at that point is their time," Ingvalson says.

But Vanessa Torres Hernandez, an attorney with the ACLU of Washington who recently wrote a report criticizing the practice, disagrees.

"If you have resources, a court fine and fee isn't a big deal. You can pay that money. You can walk free. But for people who are already poor, the court fine and fee is in essence an additional sentence," she says.

One result, she says, is that poor people are faced with difficult choices, sometimes using money they need for food or rent to pay court costs to stay out of jail.

Benton County collects just a fraction of all the fines and fees it's owed. But the county still collected $13 million in 2012 - making it one of the state's top revenue producers.

There is some debate in Benton County about whether that's a good thing. Court officials note with pride how much money they raise. But local police chiefs say money goes out, too. It costs the police departments about $65 a day to keep someone in jail for not paying their fines.

The county prosecutor worries that the practice is unfair to poor defendants, and he has asked local judges to put a cap on how many days they will put people in jail.

"I actually have some question about the fairness of some of the fines that are imposed," says Benton County Prosecuting Attorney Andy Miller. "But a lot of these fines are mandatory, set by the legislature."
Who's Too Poor To Pay?
In 1983, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Bearden v. Georgia that people can't be sent to jail simply for being too poor to pay fines and fees. The court said someone could be sentenced only if he or she had the money and had "willfully" refused to pay. But the justices did not define what that meant. The result is that it's often left to judges to make the difficult calculation: Who's too poor to pay. And who can, but didn't.

NPR found sweeping discrepancies across the country over how courts make those decisions. Some judges will tell an offender to give up their phone service, or quit smoking cigarettes and use the money instead to pay court debt.

Some judges and politicians - even ones with reputations for being hard on crime - are starting to question whether the use of fines and fees has gone too far. The new law in Colorado was passed on a near-unanimous vote of Republicans and Democrats.

Courts, too, have taken action to limit the use of fees. Last month, a U.S. district judge stopped the city of Montgomery, Ala., from collecting traffic fines from three defendants who went to jail for failure to pay fines and fees. And over the last two years, judges in Alabama and Georgia have ruled in other cases to limit fines and fees. Earlier this year, the Ohio State Supreme Court warned judges to stop putting people in jail simply because they're too poor to pay a fine.
A History Of Rising Fees
The roots of the growing practice to add more fines and fees can be dated back to the start of America's tough-on-crime policies, beginning with the War on Crime in the 1970s and then the War on Drugs in the 1980s. In 40 years, the number of people behind bars in the U.S. jumped 700 percent. Jails, prisons and courtrooms became overcrowded. And the costs of running them, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, rose from $6 billion for states in 1980 to more than $67 billion a year in 2010.

At the same time, states struggled with budget deficits. Politicians faced new pressure not to raise taxes. So states started charging user fees to defendants. Fines have long been a tool for judges; for decades they've been another form of punishment. The focus on fees, that are used to pay court, jail and probation costs, is newer.

One of the first instances NPR found of fees charged to criminal defendants was in 1965 when California required payments to reimburse crime victims. By the 1980s, states started billing criminal defendants to reimburse taxpayers. Michigan, in 1984, passed the first law to charge inmates for some of the costs of their incarceration. By 1990, Texas reported that fees from offenders made up more than half the budget of the state's probation agencies.

Today, fees are more common than ever, as states are under increased pressure to find funding. NPR, with help from the National Center for State Courts, surveyed state laws since the recent recession and found 48 states have increased criminal and civil court fees, added new ones or both.

The number of Americans with unpaid fines and fees is massive. In 2011, in Philadelphia alone, courts sent bills on unpaid debts dating back to the 1970s to more than 320,000 people - roughly 1 in 5 city residents. The median debt was around $4,500. And in New York City, there are 1.2 million outstanding warrants, many for unpaid court fines and fees.

The growth in the number of people who owe court-imposed monetary sanctions shows up in surveys by the U.S. Department of Justice, too: In 1991, 25 percent of prison inmates said they owed court-imposed costs, restitution, fines and fees. By 2004, the last time the Justice Department did the survey, that number climbed to about 66 percent.

But Harris of the University of Washington estimates that 80 to 85 percent of inmates now leave prison owing these costs.
Public Defender Fees
The growth of the fees charged for a public defender is typical of the way these charges have grown.

In 1963, the Supreme Court - in the landmark case, Gideon v. Wainwright -- ruled that indigent criminal defendants have a right to a lawyer. But the high court didn't say how states were to pay for those lawyers. So states turned to user fees.

The NPR survey found, with help from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, that in at least 43 states and D.C., defendants can be billed for a public defender. We found two typical charges: an upfront application fee to hire a lawyer, which can range from $10 to $400; and reimbursement fees, which can cost thousands of dollars.

"After the fact you can be asked to reimburse up to the full cost of your representation," says Alicia Bannon, an attorney with the Brennan Center.

The courts - including the Supreme Court - have justified this by saying even a poor person can often pay something - even if it's just that small application fee. Or maybe that person is poor today, but tomorrow will find a good-paying job and have money.

In reality, NPR found that poor people sometimes skip using an attorney. Or they carry the debt for their court-appointed lawyer for years.

Tom Barrett, who stole that can of beer in Augusta, Ga., was offered a court-appointed attorney, but turned the service down because he didn't want to pay the $50 administration fee. Now he says that was a mistake.

A lawyer might have helped him stay away from a deal he couldn't afford. His costs added up to more than $400 a month, which included daily rental of the electronic monitoring device and fees to a private firm that managed his probation. But Barrett was homeless. His only income, other than food stamps, came from the $35 he got selling his plasma to the blood bank. So when he quickly fell behind on his payments, he was sent to jail.

The NPR survey found, all states - except for Hawaii and also the District of Columbia - now allow or even require the cost of those devices to be passed along to those ordered by a court to wear one. Usually that includes a daily rental fee: Typically around $5 for a tracking device and often twice as much to rent the alcohol monitoring device. It also includes the cost of a land-line phone for the systems to work, and an installation fee.

Last fall, Augusta Superior Court Judge Daniel Craig put a temporary stop to forcing poor people to pay fees for the devices and other costs.
NPR's Emma Anderson, Nicole Beemsterboer, Robert Benincasa and Barbara Van Woerkom contributed reporting and research to this investigation.

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As Court Fees Rise, The Poor Are Paying The Price

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In Augusta, Ga., a judge sentenced Tom Barrett to 12 months after he stole a can of beer worth less than $2. In Ionia, Mich., 19-year-old Kyle Dewitt caught a fish out of season; then a judge sentenced him to three days in jail.

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At the height of the recession in 2012, nearly one in four American children were living in poverty.

Today, five years after America went through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, children are still more likely to live in poverty than adults. In fact, while the national poverty rate sits at 14 percent, for children, it's 18 percent.

The problem is particularly acute for children of color. While white children experience poverty at a rate of 11 percent, around 27 percent of Hispanic children, 31 percent of black children and 34 percent of Native American children in America today are growing up poor.

There are the obvious side-effects of growing up in poverty: deprivation, worry, and sometimes hunger and the risk of homelessness.

But just as troubling, experts say, is that growing up in a poor household is linked with long-term consequences in educational outcomes, physical health and brain development that can follow a child well into adulthood. Here are just a few ways how:

Children who grow up poor are more likely to be poor as adults

Studies show that children who grow up poor have a harder time escaping poverty as adults. For example, in one 2009 study by the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University, researchers found that children who grew up poor were not only more likely to experience poverty as adults, but that the likelihood of being poor in adulthood went up with the number of years spent in poverty as a child.

According to the study, around five percent of adults who never experienced poverty as children were poor at ages 20 and 25. If they were poor anywhere from one to seven years as a kid, that number went up to approximately 13 percent. For those who spent eight to 14 years in poverty as children, 46 percent were poor at age 20, and 40 percent were poor at age 25.

The longer you grow up in poverty, the harder it is to graduate

One factor at play for why poor children go on to struggle as adults is education. Whether it's because they didn't have access to good schools, or their parents didn't have the time or resources to help them, children who grow up in poverty often start at a disadvantage that can make it harder to achieve later in life.

In a 2017 report from the Urban Institute, researchers found that 62 percent of children who spent at least half their childhoods in poverty went on to attain a high school diploma by age 20. By comparison, that number was 90 percent for those who never experienced poverty.

The gaps only widen when it comes to college. A 2015 report from the Urban Institute found that 23 percent of children who spent at least half their childhood in poverty enrolled in postsecondary education by age 25, compared to 70 percent of children who were never poor. While roughly 37 percent of children who were never poor completed college by age 25, only 3 percent of children from persistently poor backgrounds were able to do the same. The study found that poverty played a role, even when race, gender, parent's education, and other factors were taken into account.

Overall, the Urban Institute found that only 16 percent of kids who spent half their childhoods poor were either consistently working or in school and mostly out of poverty by their late 20s.

Growing up poor can carry long-term health implications

Poverty itself can be dangerous. Children growing up poor are more likely to be injured in accidents, and five times more likely to die due to accidents, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"Poor families are more likely to reside in homes without functional smoke detectors and with open fires, unprotected windows and unsafe roofs or stairs," an AAP report from 2016 noted. "Children in poor neighborhoods are at increased risk of cycling accidents, pedestrian injuries, falls, burns, poisonings and chemical burns."

But the risks go deeper than that. Research shows that children who grow up in poverty are also more likely to develop chronic illnesses such as asthma or obesity - the latter can lead to further health problems, including diabetes and heart disease. Poor children are also more likely to be sedentary and exposed to tobacco, which in turn may increase the risk of heart and lung problems when they grow up.

Poverty can also harm a child's brain development and lifelong mental health

"There are definite impacts [of poverty] on physical health," said Benard Dreyer, former president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in an interview with FRONTLINE. "But in addition, and perhaps more importantly, there's an impact on brain development and the ability to succeed in life."

Dreyer was referring to a growing body of research that shows exposure to "toxic" stress can actually impact a child's brain development.

All children experience stress, and caring adults or support networks can help them cope and figure out how to respond. However, the constant stresses of living in an impoverished household - and in some cases, dealing with abuse or neglect - can create a toxic stress response.

Such levels of stress "impact children's brain development in the first couple of years of life," said Dreyer, and can result in permanent changes to brain structure and function. These changes can manifest as increased anxiety, impaired memory and mood control - making it harder to learn, solve problems, follow rules and control impulses. The release of stress hormones can also create a "wear and tear" effect on the child's organs, including the brain.

How toxic stress effects a child may depend on their innate ability to cope with the stress, and on whether or not they have a support system, Dreyer said. "It doesn't doom all children, but on the average, it causes a very significant problem in their ability to react to other stress, their ability to behave, to pay attention and to learn cognitively."

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How Poverty Can Follow Children Into Adulthood

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Poverty can follow children into adulthood, affecting their long-term physical and mental health, and making it harder to finish school and climb out of poverty.

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To say Lisa was sick doesn't really begin to describe her troubles. The 12-year-old was racked by seizures and disabled by strokes from the brain surgery she underwent to remove a tumor. After battling cancer throughout her life, Lisa required "assistance in dressing, eating, and elimination of urine and feces," as a doctor noted.

She most certainly could not go to school, as the superintendent, principal, and head of special education in her school district were all aware.

"For the past two and a half years of her life, she was in and out of the hospital," her mother, Martha, said. "She went from being this chatterbox to not talking at all."

But someone else at the school nevertheless dropped Lisa from enrollment after seeing she had been absent since spring 2012, when she suffered a stroke. By October 2014, Martha was told by the state of Michigan that her application for welfare was denied-because her daughter wasn't going to school.

"I checked my [benefits] card monthly to see how much I would have, and thought, Why is my amount less? Then I got a letter in the mail," Martha told The Daily Beast. (She asked that she and her daughter be allowed to use pseudonyms to protect their privacy.)

Michigan kicked Martha, Lisa, and her two siblings off welfare. Thanks to a policy created by the department's Republican-appointed director, the state can cut off households if their children are truant. The state Department of Health Services said 350 households have had assistance eliminated or reduced since 2012 as part of Michigan's attempt to force welfare recipients to send their kids to class.

"Our top priority is to keep kids in schools, and we want to use whatever tools we can to incentivize children to stay in school," DHS spokesman Bob Wheaton told The Daily Beast.

Cutting Martha and Lisa off of welfare did no such thing, of course.

When asked how effective this policy of cutting parents off welfare was in getting children to go back to school, Wheaton said the department doesn't really know.

"That's not anything we're able to track because they've stopped receiving public assistance," Wheaton said, adding the department has the "ability, in some cases, to manually cross-reference new-applicant [data] and current-recipient data."

Using that dodgy method, Wheaton said about one-sixth of the households who were recently cut from welfare for truancy are now receiving it again. About half who lost it haven't bothered to re-apply.

Despite a lack of conclusive data that cutting parents off welfare gets children to go back to school, Republicans pushed a bill to write the policy into state law. Representative Jim Runestad said at a hearing this year that it was time for "tough love" because parents of truant children "were on drugs" and "kids were running free." Last month, Republican Governor Rick Snyder signed the "Parental Responsibility Act" into law.

There are proven ways to reduce truancy that don't rely on punitive measures. Michigan's own "pathways to potential" program uses caseworkers in 200 schools to help families get assistance for day care (so an older sibling isn't staying at home to take care of kids), vouchers for public transportation, and more. Wheaton said the program has reduced chronic absenteeism by 33 percent.

Without a caseworker fighting on her behalf, Martha went to court.

A judge last summer said he was "sympathetic to the extenuating circumstances" but that school enrollment is required for benefits, period. The department's "denial for not being enrolled was proper and correct."

In other words, the department was right to drop Martha and her family from welfare even though the decision was made on the basis of erroneous information.

Four weeks later, another judge ruled in Martha's favor after finding she "never actively transferred her daughter to any other school." In addition, Lisa had been enrolled on the day Martha last applied for welfare. The judge ordered the state to backpay several months of assistance and no longer deny the family's welfare applications.

Martha won.

Lisa did not. She died of cancer before the second ruling.

Martha is now living on her own with her two adult children after moving in temporarily with her mother in Detroit.

"They're supposed to be a help department, but I think they actually hurt you more than help you," Martha said. "I don't want her death to be in vain. If her situation can help another family, I really want it to be done. I hate to have anyone go through what I went through."

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Michigan Punishes Mom for Her Daughter's Brain Cancer

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To say Lisa was sick doesn't really begin to describe her troubles. The 12-year-old was racked by seizures and disabled by strokes from the brain surgery she underwent to remove a tumor. After battling cancer throughout her life, Lisa required "assistance in dressing, eating, and elimination of urine and feces," as a doctor noted.

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Our Town - Part Two - This American Life

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When an Alabama town went from 98% white to one-fourth Latino, what did it mean for taxpayers, schools, traffic, crime?

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Instilled in the American Dream are the ideas of upward mobility, of success, and prosperity. For those that make it, we hear their stories and we often look up to them for what they have achieved; but for those that don't, we rarely have the same amount of time or interest. In Jason Tippet's film My Gal, Rosemarie we meet two people who didn't make it and are living day-to-day on social security, the American Dream a long faded aspiration. Ray and Rosemarie have been married for fifty years, and as her 90th birthday approaches, Ray tries to get enough cash together so he can splash out on Rosemarie's favorite treat - hamburgers from In-N-Out Burger.

"Most things don't work out in life, and that's ok, but it's how you handle your failures and disappointments"

It is a story of small lives, and the film is honest about who Ray and Rosemarie are and how they live. Director Jason met the subjects for this documentary living downstairs in his apartment complex; "I'd often see Rosemarie sitting outside with a cup of coffee in the morning watching the hummingbirds, so one day I joined her. She talked of her love for birds and animals and creatures, and the old days when she met the love of her life. Ray is his name, and while it hasn't been perfect, they made a lifetime of it". This is perhaps understating it, as it is clear that little in their lives has ever really gone their way and the limited horizons of their world are clear from the cluttered nature of their apartment, through to Ray hunting through garbage for cans to be able to buy Rosemarie a burger for her birthday.

If it sounds depressing, it isn't, because the couple have always had each other and the film captures the wonderful sense of peace and contentment that exists between the couple, presenting it with a delicate balance which is touching but yet avoids sentimentality. There is a remarkable lack of bitterness or anger in either of them, and it was this aspect of their relationship that attracted Jason to capture them on film - "their situation gave me perspective. Most things don't work out in life, and that's ok, but it's how you handle your failures and disappointments. I make documentaries, so it's nice to get some perspective on what a lifetime of disappointment looks like".

He kids of course, as Jason is currently busy on the second documentary feature in a trilogy on Santa Clarita (the first being 2012's Only the Young), as well as collaborating with musician Nick Thorburn (frontman of bands such as The Unicorns, Islands) on a semi-fictionalized piece on his life.

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My Gal, Rosemarie by Jason Tippet | Documentary Short Film

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Instilled in the American Dream are the ideas of upward mobility, of success, and prosperity. For those that make it, we hear their stories and we often look up to them for what they have achieved; but for those that don't, we rarely have the same amount of time or interest.

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The current era of documentary is certainly a pessimistic one. Humanity is destroying the world! What you eat is killing you! The system is broken! We relish in the dissection of our own destruction, shocked that people could be so corrupt, that our future could look so bleak.

Then, comes a film like Amar (all great achievements require time). Lyrical and deliberately paced, Amar follows a 14 year-old Indian boy at the top of his class who would someday like to be a professional cricketer. He also happens to be his family's main breadwinner, working two jobs six and half days a week. But, this film isn't an analysis of Amar's misery or an expose on his suffering. No, it's instead a quiet celebration of the human spirit-of a boy whose tenacity and quiet resolve carry him through every day. The system may be broken, but Amar's spirit certainly isn't.

Focusing on a single day in Amar's life, the film is what director Andrew Hinton calls an "observational documentary." The focus is simply on Amar's daily routine. Dialogue is eschewed, as are talking-head interviews, know-it-all voiceovers, or annoying gimmicks. The film even does without music. Essentially, this could be considered documentary in its purest form-we watch life, with all its tiny idiosyncrasies, play out. Amar wakes up. He dresses and heads off to his first early morning job. When he takes a moment from his daily routine and reads a newspaper, it's as if we are witnessing a silent moment of triumph, presented with no artificial fanfare. Special kudos should be given to the film's sound design. Without the crutch of music, the film takes on a unique soundtrack of ambient noise. Each scene is propelled by the chorus of Amar's surroundings. The cinematography is equally adept. Shots are well-composed, but never call attention to themselves or are hindered by unnecessary shaky-cam.

In the end, the film is not attempting to make some grand, profound statement. It's not requesting that we view Amar has some sort of hero or metaphorical beacon of light. It just asks that we pay attention-give up nine minutes of our lives to halt our lamentations of the world and remember, if just for a moment, that there truly is beauty left.

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The current era of documentary is certainly a pessimistic one. Humanity is destroying the world! What you eat is killing you! The system is broken! We relish in the dissection of our own destruction, shocked that people could be so corrupt, that our future could look so bleak.

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The Economic Case for Letting Teenagers Sleep a Little Later (Published 2017)

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We’ve known for a while that adolescent sleep cycles and high school hours are misaligned. But this is not just a health problem.

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Early in 1962, a young MIT student was on his way home in the nearby town of Lowell, Massachusetts.

As Peter Samson stepped off the train and gazed up at the stars above, a meteor streaked across the heavens. Mr Samson reflexively grabbed for a game controller that wasn't there, and scanned the skies, wondering where his spaceship had gone.

Mr Samson's brain had grown out of the habit of looking at the real stars. He was spending way too much time playing Spacewar!

His near hallucination was the precursor of countless digital fever dreams to come - that experience of drifting off to sleep dreaming of Pac Man, or rotating Tetris blocks, or bagging a rare Pokemon Jigglypuff.

In 1962, that ability of a computer to yank our Pavlovian reflexes and haunt our sleep would have been unimaginable to anyone but Peter Samson and a few of his hacker friends.

They were avid players of Spacewar!, the first video game that mattered - the one that opened the door to a social craze, a massive industry, and shaped our economy in more profound ways than we realise.

50 Things That Made the Modern Economy highlights the inventions, ideas and innovations that helped create the economic world.

It is broadcast on the BBC World Service. You can find more information about the programme's sources and listen online or subscribe to the programme podcast.

Before Spacewar!, computers were intimidating, vast and expensive: large grey cabinets in purpose-built rooms, closed off to all but the highly trained.

Computing was what banks and corporations and the military did.

But at the beginning of the 1960s, at MIT, new computers were being installed in a more relaxed environment.

They didn't have their own rooms but were part of the laboratory furniture.

Students were allowed to mess around with them.

The term "hacker" was born, meaning not the modern malevolent cracker of security systems, but someone who would experiment, cut corners and produce strange effects.

Video revolution

At the same time, MIT ordered a new kind of computer: the PDP-1.

It was compact - the size of a large fridge - and relatively easy to use. It was powerful. And it communicated not through a printer, but through a high precision cathode ray tube - a video display.

When a young researcher called Steve "Slug" Russell heard about the PDP-1, he and his friends began plotting the best way to show off its capabilities.

They had been reading a lot of science fiction and dreaming of a proper Hollywood space opera.

But Star Wars was two decades away, so they plumped for the best possible alternative: Spacewar! - a two-player video game that pitted spaceship captains against each other in a photon-torpedo-powered duel to the death.

There were two spaceships - just a few pixels outlining the ships - and the players could spin, thrust, or fire torpedoes.

Economic legacy

Other enthusiasts soon joined in, making the game smoother and faster, adding a star with a realistic gravitational pull, and cobbling together special controllers from plywood, electrical toggles, and bakelite. They were hackers, after all.

In one way, the economic legacy of Spacewar! is obvious.

As computers became cheap enough to install in arcades, and then in the home, the games industry blossomed.

One of the early hits, Asteroids, owed a clear debt to Spacewar! - with the realistic-seeming physics of a spaceship that rotated and thrusted in a zero-gravity environment.

Computer games now rival the film industry for revenue. They're becoming culturally important, too. Lego's Minecraft tie-in jostles for popularity with the company's Star Wars and Marvel sets.

But beyond the money that we spend on them, games affect the economy in a couple of ways.

First, virtual worlds can create real jobs.

Virtual sweatshops

One of the first people to make this case was an economist named Edward Castronova.

In 2001, Mr Castronova calculated the gross national product per capita of an online world called Norrath - the setting for an online role-playing game, EverQuest.

Norrath wasn't particularly populous - about 60,000 people would be logged in at a time, performing mundane tasks to accumulate treasure they could use to buy enjoyable capabilities for their characters.

Except, some players were impatient.

They bought virtual treasure from other players, on sites such as eBay, for real money, which meant other players could earn real money for doing mundane work in Norrath.

The wage, reckoned Mr Castronova, was about $3.50 (£2.70) an hour - not much for a Californian but an excellent rate if you happened to live in Nairobi.

More from Tim Harford
How a razor revolutionised the way we pay for stuff TV Dinner: The hidden cost of the processed food revolution How the lift transformed our cities How air conditioning changed the world
Before long, "virtual sweatshops" sprang up from China to India, where teenagers ground away on the tedious parts of certain games, acquiring digital short-cuts to sell to more prosperous players who wanted to get straight to the good stuff.

And it still happens: some people are making tens of thousands of dollars a month on auction sites in Japan, just selling virtual game characters.

For most people, though, virtual worlds aren't a place to earn money, but to enjoy spending time.

Even as Mr Castronova was writing about tiny Norrath, 1.5 million South Koreans were playing in the virtual world of the game Lineage.

Then came FarmVille on Facebook, blurring a game with a social network, mobile games such as Angry Birds or Candy Crush Saga, and augmented reality games such as Pokemon Go.

By 2011, the game scholar Jane McGonigal estimated that more than half a billion people worldwide were spending serious amounts of time - almost two hours a day, on average - playing computer games. A billion or two is within easy reach.

And that brings us to the final economic impact. How many of those people are choosing virtual fun over boring work for real money?

Unemployment puzzle

A decade ago, I saw Edward Castronova speak in front of a learned audience of scientists and policy wonks in Washington DC. "You guys are already winning in the game of real life," he told us. "But not everyone can."

And if your choice is a Starbucks server or a star-ship captain - what, really, is so crazy about deciding to take command in an imaginary world?

Mr Castronova may have been on to something.

In 2016, four economists presented research into a puzzling fact about the US labour market: the economy was growing strongly, unemployment rates were low, and yet a surprisingly large number of able-bodied young men were either working part-time or not working at all.

More puzzling still, while most studies of unemployment find that it makes people thoroughly miserable, against expectations the happiness of these young men was rising.

The researchers concluded that these men were living at home, sponging off their parents, and playing videogames.

These young men were deciding they didn't want to be a Starbucks server. Being a spaceship captain was far more appealing.

Tim Harford writes the Financial Times's Undercover Economist column. 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy is broadcast on the BBC World Service. You can find more information about the programme's sources and listen online or subscribe to the programme podcast.

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The surprising ways video games have shaped the economy

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Early in 1962, a young MIT student was on his way home in the nearby town of Lowell, Massachusetts. As Peter Samson stepped off the train and gazed up at the stars above, a meteor streaked across the heavens. Mr Samson reflexively grabbed for a game controller that wasn't there, and scanned the skies, wondering where his spaceship had gone.

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At least one-third of the U.S. prison population will be over 50 by 2030, according to a white paper released Thursday by the Osborne Association.

The association, a New York-based advocacy group that works with justice-involved people and their families, cited figures showing that even as states are working to reduce prison populations, the number of older adults in prison and jail is projected to grow by a "staggering 4,400 percent" in the 50-year period between 1980 and 2030-to an estimated 400,000 people.

According to statistics quoted by the researchers, adults over 50 comprised just three percent of the total incarcerated population in 1993, representing 26,300 individuals.

"Justice isn't served by keeping elderly people locked up as their bodies and minds fail them and they grow infirm and die," said Elizabeth Gaynes, president and CEO of the Osborne Association, which advocates for improved conditions in prisons and jails, better discharge planning, and expanded compassionate release of the elderly and infirm.

"It's both inhumane and inefficient."

According to the report, entitled "The High Cost of Low Risk: The Crisis of America's Aging Prison Population," extreme sentences doled out during the tough- on-crime era, as well as limited mechanisms for compassionate release, have driven what is now a costly and inhumane crisis that the corrections system is unequipped to manage.

The medical costs of caring for a burgeoning elderly population behind bars alone will add to the strains of resource-strapped corrections systems, many experts have said.

According to data analyzed by the American Civil Liberties Union, it costs twice as much to incarcerate someone over 50; in some cases, it may cost up to five times more when medical costs are added.

Between 40 percent and 60 percent of prisoners over 50 have some type of mental illness or cognitive impairment, according to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Some prisons are setting up makeshift hospice wings and opening nursing wards for people with serious cognitive degeneration.

Elsewhere, inmates suffer from such pronounced dementia that they are unable to follow rules, and may not remember why they are incarcerated. For many with cognitive, visual, or hearing loss, a diminished capacity leads to behaviors that are mistaken for disobedience, subjecting them to punishments such as solitary confinement.
See also: Solitary Confinement Policies at 'Tipping Point' in U.S., say Reformers
"Prisons were never designed to be geriatric care facilities and this surging elder incarceration comes at a high cost," wrote the authors of the Osborne report.

At the same time, research by the Pew Center on the States shows that incarcerated people over 50 pose little public safety risk, and have the lowest recidivism rate as any other inmate demographic.

The majority of people graying in detention were arrested for violent crimes in their teens, 20s and 30s.

The authors argue that addressing this crisis requires what they call a "new paradigm of justice," involving a shift in how we respond to violence.

The majority of people graying in detention were arrested for violent crimes in their teens, 20s and 30s, according to the report, Yet, it adds, "the low risk of recidivism for older people described earlier holds true for people who are convicted of the most serious acts of violence, particularly homicide-related offenses."
See also: When Should Older Americans with Alzheimer's Lose Access to Guns?
The report cites several victims advocates who argue against incarceration as a primary response to violent crime, since it fails to address underlying causes of individual violence in society, including poverty, trauma, isolation and inequity.

"Exposure to violence is especially prevalent amongst those aging behind bars, though decades may have elapsed since such harm was both survived and committed," a fact that underscores the potential for preventative interventions that address trauma, wrote the authors.

As one example of a more targeted approach to violence, Michigan last year "became the third state in the country to offer a trauma center for victims of crime within a hospital in Flint to promote healing and prevent future crime."
Health and Accelerated Aging
The report also calls for improved conditions in prisons and jails, including universal guidelines and training for prison staff to help them recognize age-related issues.

Those who are aging in prison have a higher rate of serious medical issues compared to the general population, in addition to health problems correlated with socioeconomic factors. Communicable and chronic diseases such as hepatitis, HIV, tuberculosis, arthritis, hypertension, ulcer disease, prostate problems, respiratory illnesses, cardiovascular disease, strokes, Alzheimer's, and cancer are far more prevalent in the older prison population compared with the overall prison population.

The cost of housing elderly inmates now represents an estimated $16 billion-a-year burden on taxpayers, and growing.

While there is more bipartisan support for decarceration when it comes to nonviolent offenders, the urgent need for a new approach to violent crimes is underlined by the runaway cost of housing elderly inmates: now an estimated $16 billion-a-year burden on taxpayers, and growing.

Narrow doorways, stairs, and lack of handrails all pose architectural problems for inmates with limited mobility, as do facilities like cafeterias and medical units, which can be spread far apart. The report also notes that older individuals may struggle getting to and from their beds, especially a top bunk; and that geriatric incontinence and other physiological issues that accompany old age "can be extremely difficult to handle with dignity in an environment lacking privacy, leading to harassment and feelings of shame, isolation, and depression."

Upon release, older adults face greater rates of homelessness, low employment, increased anxiety, fragmented community and family ties, chronic medical conditions, and increased mortality rates, according to the report.
Policy Recommendations
"The issue of aging people in prison can be interpreted through several lenses: an unintended consequence of 'tough-on-crime' policies, a human rights crisis, a matter of economic urgency, a public health crisis, an extension of a racialized punishment paradigm, or a reflection of the critical shortcomings of our criminal justice system," write the authors.

"Any serious and sustainable attempt to resolve this crisis must address the needs of those aging in prison," in addition to shifting our response to violence away from mass incarceration and long sentences.

In support of a solution, the Osborne Association makes a number of specific policy recommendations, grouped into five clusters:

Improve conditions inside of prisons and jails for those aging within them,
including strengthening staff capacity to recognize and address aging issues, and
adopting policies and practices that are age-considerate;

Improve discharge planning and reentry preparation for older people within
correctional facilities;

Expand specific release mechanisms for older people;

Improve the reentry experience of older returning citizens by increasing
community supports and receptivity, including addressing their housing, medical/
health, mental health, post-incarceration, financial, family, and employment needs;

Shift our response to violence by expanding the range of services offered to
victims and survivors of crime, and by reducing excessively long sentences for all crimes
of conviction, including for violent crimes, that drive the crisis of aging in prison.

These recommendations and the full report can be explored in more detail here.
This summary was prepared by TCR Deputy Editor Victoria Mckenzie. Readers' comments are welcome.

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The Rising Cost of Incarcerating the Elderly | The Crime Report

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The number of older adults in prison and jail is projected to grow to a "staggering" 400,000 people by 2030, according to a report released Thursday by the Osborne Association. The aging prison population requires a shift in how the U.S. addresses incarceration, the report says.

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Hunter-John Hurst, of Raleigh, N.C., is earning money washing cars this summer. He charges $35 for a car, $45 for an S.U.V. Credit Credit Ted Richardson for The New York Times

HUNTER-JOHN HURST, 16, of Raleigh, N.C., is a living example of a modern-day conundrum. Like many others his age, he needs to earn money this summer. But finding a job is tougher than ever, with the number of teenagers employed nationwide at a near-historical low.

He watched some of his friends land work - often with the help of their parents. But when his search failed to turn up a single offer, he decided to turn one of his chores - washing his parents' cars - into a business. He printed up some fliers offering car cleaning services - known in the trade as detailing - at $35 for a car, $45 for a sport utility vehicle.

A few days into his new business, he's feeling the glow of early success. "It takes about an hour a car and I can make more money than I would at a regular job," he said. And it's more fun than the lawn mowing he did last summer.

Mr. Hurst has company in his desperate quest for summer work and the need to get creative. About 25 percent of the nation's 16- to 19-year-olds were in the work force in 2013, compared with 45 percent in 2000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Failing to find work doesn't just mean a shortage of cash in the near term. A study released in March by the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program said finding a job when you're older is harder if you haven't worked during your teenage years.

In addition, "research shows those who work in high school have wages 10 to 15 percent higher when they graduate from college," said Ishwar Khatiwada, a co-author of the study and an associate director of research at Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies.

Since 1948, the percentage of teenagers in the work force had stayed relatively flat at 40 percent or so, dropping to 37 percent in the mid-1960s and rising to a high of 48.5 in 1979. But that trend began to reverse in the early 2000s and never rebounded, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The trend holds true when looking solely at summertime employment.

Low-income and minority teenagers are particularly hard hit; only about 17 percent of African-American 16- to 19-year-olds were employed in 2013.

The story behind the low employment numbers is more complex than it first appears. While many teenagers are unable to find jobs, others place a higher value on summer school and pre-college summer programs, which are far more popular than in the past, according to a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on declining summer employment rates for teenagers.

In more affluent areas, large numbers of teenagers play year-round sports that leave little time for work. Others, with an eye toward building résumés, perform community service or find unpaid internships.

"Real work experience is being displaced by summer and travel programs," said John Challenger, executive officer of the outplacement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas. But he says he doesn't think that is necessarily a good thing.

"A lot of kids are missing out by not learning what working is," he said. They're also missing the process of job hunting. Part of the experience is developing persistence and the all-important skills of shaking hands, answering questions clearly and looking someone in the eye.

For many teenagers, jobs are much more than an experience; they're a necessity. But over the years, the lower-level jobs that were once the entryway to employment for young people are being filled by older people who have remained in or returned to the work force, or by foreign-born workers, Mr. Khatiwada said.

In addition, the number of federally funded summer jobs has diminished.

Entrepreneurs like Renée Ward have turned to helping teenagers find jobs. Her site, www.teens4hire.org, offers some free advice and job-hunting tips, but charges a $39 fee for premium options.

Image

Detailed cleaning "takes about an hour a car and I can make more money than I would at a regular job," Hunter-John Hurst said. Credit Ted Richardson for The New York Times

She encourages teenagers who can't find work to think about creating their own jobs.

"If someone says, 'I went to 15 different pet stores and got nothing,' maybe start a dog-walking business."

While starting your own business is one option, she said, sometimes accepting unorthodox working arrangements might be another.

One teenager, she said, asked her if he should take a job with a moving company that wouldn't officially hire him, but would pay him off the books.

"I told him to start there, document all your experience and use that to move as quickly as you can to a reputable company," she said.

Deshawn Childress, 18, of Brooklyn, is using the website as one way to look for a job. He just finished high school and has applied to many places, including fast-food and retail stores, so far without success.

He's hoping a relative might help him land a position where he could continue working when he goes to community college in the fall, but he admits he's discouraged.

"There's a lot of competition," he said. And he's frustrated that his volunteer work doesn't seem to make a difference.

"People say volunteering is part of the work experience," but employers don't seem to view it as real experience, Mr. Childress said.

While job seekers can try innovative ways to attack the job shortage problem, the Brookings Institution study said high teenage unemployment also needed to be addressed through public policy. More programs in high schools and community colleges, for example, like work-based learning, where students learn technical, academic and employability skills in a real work environment, could help. More subsidized job programs are also needed, as well as classes that teach teenagers skills like interviewing and résumé writing, the report said.

The Boston Private Industry Council, financed with state, city and corporate money, works in Boston public high schools, where the students "are hungry for jobs," said Josh Bruno, the council's director of school to career and employer engagement. "They depend on summer job earnings to supplement their family income."

The organization provides mock interviews, job shadowing and résumé help during the school year and then works with employers to place most of the students in private sector jobs at places like banks and hospitals.

"We're trying to educate employers about how valuable it is to hire teenagers," Mr. Bruno said. "Some we have are trilingual, many are really good at technology. They have a lot of energy and see things differently."

Energy is one thing that Lauren Castro, 17, of Yorba Linda, Calif., needed. She just graduated from high school and had been looking for a part-time job for a year.

"I applied to about 30 companies - fast-food, Target, Sports Chalet," she said. She got a few interviews and then "the inevitable email saying they hired someone with more experience. I was tired of getting email after email saying I needed experience when I couldn't get it."

In the end, Ms. Castro found out that the adage that it's who you know holds true. She begins her summer job at a pizza parlor this weekend, thanks to her sister's soccer coach, who knew the owners.

And she's in good company. She's working alongside a college graduate with a bachelor's in biochemistry.

Correction:

Because of an editing error, the Shortcuts column on Saturday, about teenagers' difficulty in finding summer employment, described a feature of the website www.teens4hire.org incorrectly. Both the free site and a $39 premium option offer searchable job listings. The listings are not limited to the premium option.

Email: shortcuts@nytimes.com

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B5 of the New York edition with the headline: If a Teenager Lands a Summer Job, the Value Is Lasting. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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If a Teenager Lands a Summer Job, the Value Is Lasting

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Shortcuts HUNTER-JOHN HURST, 16, of Raleigh, N.C., is a living example of a modern-day conundrum. Like many others his age, he needs to earn money this summer. But finding a job is tougher than ever, with the number of teenagers employed nationwide at a near-historical low.

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Colleges have a problem: fewer people are applying every year. Universities are competing like crazy for any edge they can get. Some are offering more financial aid, others are building tiger habitats. But the economic impact of fewer universities could be large.

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subscribe to Planet Money podcast Colleges have a problem: fewer people are applying every year. Universities are competing like crazy for any edge they can get. Some are offering more financial aid, others are building tiger habitats. But the economic impact of fewer universities could be large.

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Listen to "Food fight" Episode 5 of The Revisionist History Podcast with Malcolm Gladwell.

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A film about teenagers and money in Los Angeles, by the award-winning filmmaker and photographer Lauren Greenfield.

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The Value of Work - Film - WE THE ECONOMY

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Why is minimum wage important? In 2013, Seattle became ground zero for the heated national debate about increasing the minimum wage to $15-an-hour. Steve James' short film THE VALUE OF WORK gives voice to supporters and the opponents, including the mayor, an activist city councilwoman, small business owners, and minimum wage workers affected by the unprecedented legislation.

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Why do we have budget deficits and a national debt?
In this free-wheeling animated film, you'll see how Congress and public officials use and manage debt, and why it matters to you.

Written & Directed by: Marshall Curry
Producers: Marshall Curry and Daniel Koehler
Creative Consultan: Hilary McHone
Consulting Producer: Elizabeth Martin

FlickerLab:
Creative Director/Narration: Harold Moss
Supervising Producer: Jordan Geary
Producer: Tom Chorlton
Art Director: Zartosht Soltani
Lead Animator: Philip Andrews
Lead Animator: Justin Cassano
Animator: Morag Wesselman
Animator: Christine Kwon
Compositor/Editor: Jeff Nelson
Sound Design/Music: David Wilson
© Marshall Curry Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

MARSHALL CURRY is a two-time Academy Award nominated documentary filmmaker. His film, "Street Fight," follows Cory Booker's first run for mayor of Newark, NJ and was nominated for an Oscar and an Emmy. His follow up documentary, "Racing Dreams" tells the story of two boys and a girl who live in rural America and dream of one day racing in NASCAR. It won numerous awards, including Best Documentary Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival, and aired on PBS and the BBC. His third film, "If a Tree Falls, a Story of the Earth Liberation Front" peels back the layers of a radical environmental group that the FBI called the number one domestic terrorist group in the United States. That film won the award for Best Documentary Editing at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to be nominated for an Oscar. Marshall was Executive Producer and an additional editor of "Mistaken For Strangers," a comedy rock-doc about indie band, The National. Most recently Marshall directed and edited "Point and Shoot," a documentary about a young Baltimore native who set out on a 30,000 mile motorcycle trip through Northern Africa and the Middle East and wound up joining the rebels in Libya fighting Gaddafi. It won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival and will be released in theaters in November, 2014. Marshall is a graduate of Swarthmore College where he studied Comparative Religion and has been a guest lecturer at Harvard, Duke, Columbia, NYU, and other colleges. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and children.

Director's Note

"I grew up in a family where we argued about economics a lot. But as the sole documentary filmmaker in a family of MBAs, I knew that most people don't find conversations about the federal deficit and debt inherently thrilling. We all know it's important-every year we seem to have some political 'crisis' in Washington related to the debt and deficit. But even among economic topics, it's particularly theoretical and dry. I wanted to make a documentary, but knew that there was only one thing more boring to most people than the words 'debt and deficit,' and that was the word 'documentary.' (For the record, I love documentaries and know they can be dramatic and amazing, but I'm just being honest here.)

And then my nine-year-old daughter said, 'Maybe you should do it as a cartoon. Everything's fun when it's a cartoon!' So I spent the next few weeks talking with economists of different political persuasions, asking them what they thought most people don't understand about the debt and deficit. I did my best to boil down those conversations into a handful of ideas that wouldn't answer every point or counterpoint about the issue, but would give a viewer a basic framework for thinking it through. And hopefully it would do it in a way that my nine-year-old daughter thinks is funny."

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Amazing Animated Film on the Debt and the Deficit - Film - WE THE ECONOMY

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Why do we have budget deficits and a national debt? In this free-wheeling animated film, you'll see how Congress and public officials use and manage debt, and why it matters to you.

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His NBA play-a-like: LeBron James.

Mundey started and runs an Instagram account for Neiko - which has more than 1,500 followers - and sometimes posts videos of him missing a shot to remind his followers that he is 9.

Instagram accounts for other players on the same rankings lists as Neiko have significantly more followers, with one topping 41,000 followers and 1,400 posts.

"It's sort of scary when your son has people that act like fans," Mundey said. "I think it's crazy. People will tell me 'your kid is like a celebrity.' He's not a celebrity. He's Neiko. He's 9."

Mundey is constantly straddling the line between wanting Neiko to succeed and shielding him from people who want to profit off that. She estimates that she spends between $6,000 and $8,000 a year for Neiko to play basketball, between travel, entertainment while on the road, tournament fees, team fees and gear. She works three jobs to do so, managing two community centers in Temple Hills and working part-time at a group home in Virginia on the weekends, all so Neiko isn't financially tied to anyone but her.

In June, the NY Elite 145 camp put Neiko's face on a poster and listed him as a "Confirmed" attendee. Mundey was never asked if her son could be used as a marketing tool. Neiko was never going to attend. The camp cost $150 for three days.

"I don't ever want to be like LaVar Ball," Mundey said in June, two weeks before Lonzo, the oldest son of the outspoken LaVar, was selected second by the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA draft. "I don't profit off my son, so no one else is going to profit off my son. Once you let people pay for something or give you something for free, then they are going to expect something in the future. My son isn't going to owe anyone anything."

Mundey was recently contacted by an agent offering to be Neiko's mentor. He dangled his connection with Under Armour and stressed that he wasn't asking for anything in return. She declined and has told multiple middle schools and high schools that she isn't ready to talk about scholarships.

AAU teams have offered to fly Neiko to tournaments and told Mundey she wouldn't have to pay for travel or tournament fees. Again, she said no.

Mundey did not want to use the names of those who have contacted her about Neiko, worried that they could hold it against her son in the future. The Washington Post was shown texts and emails to confirm the interactions she described.

"He's not fully mature enough to realize that a lot of people aren't going to be getting into his life to help him," said Enrique Barnes, who is the biological father of Neiko's older brother, E.J., and is referred to by Mundey as a "co-parent" for both of the boys. "Not everyone is going to do that. Some people are going to be there to help themselves. We'll have to show him that if this stuff continues."

That is only part of what worries Mundey when she thinks about Neiko's future. She is worried about a stranger slipping $100 into his hand when she is not around. She is worried about all of the crazed people on social media. She is worried he won't grow tall enough to achieve his dreams. (She is 5-10 and ran track at University of Florida. Neiko's biological father, Fred Primus, is 6-3 and played college basketball at Pittsburgh and East Carolina. Fred, who sees Neiko twice a week, said he was "nowhere near as good" at basketball as Neiko when he was 9 years old.)

And then Mundey worries about all that she can't hide from her son.

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'I don't ever want to be like LaVar Ball': What it's like parenting a No. 1-ranked 9-year-old

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His NBA play-a-like: LeBron James. Mundey started and runs an Instagram account for Neiko - which has more than 1,500 followers - and sometimes posts videos of him missing a shot to remind his followers that he is 9.

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The man responsible for delivering those Curry 3's is a 40-ish former nightclub owner named Ryan Silver. An excitable man with slicked-back brown hair, Silver runs the Earl Watson Elite AAU program, which is sponsored by Under Armour, which is in turn endorsed by Curry. Silver is prone to texting Nico at 3 a.m. to say, "Just thinking about you!" even though he knows Nico's parents make him plug in his phone in the kitchen overnight. The Mannions allow that Silver is a bit different-"refreshing, really," says Pace-but they like him because in a vast sea of b.s., he strikes them as a man at the oars of a boat of truth, relatively speaking.

For example, if they are walking into a restaurant and Nico is distracted, Silver will say, "Dude, what are you doing? Hold the f------ door for your mother!" He also espouses, at all times, an "attitude of gratitude," drilling Nico on the best way to tweet and post to Instagram, which is always "we" and "team", not "me" and "I."

"Is Nico marketable?" Pace asks, while looking at his son. "He's got red hair, he's athletic. Who knows? And if he isn't, that's fine too."

Not incidentally, Silver is also a conduit to the shoe folks. "The Under Armour people told us, We're going to need a new face of the brand in four or five years, after Steph," Pace said one night after dinner, sitting on the couch with Nico as the Knicks-Cavs game played on the flat screen. "Someone good who's different, interesting, marketable." Pace looked over at his son, sock-encased feet splayed out, shoulders hunched in iPhone position. "Is Nico marketable? Well, if he grows to 6' 6" he'll be good. He's got red hair, he's athletic. Who knows?" Pace pauses. "And if he doesn't, that's fine too."

At this age the price of Nico's allegiance is free gear, but that could change. After all, Curry's first contract with Under Armour was $4 million a year; he now makes millions more in equity. First, though: college. Offer number two came last June, from Arizona State, when coach Bobby Hurley saw Nico at a summer camp and was transfixed. Fortunately, Nico had Googled Hurley before the camp-at Pace's recommendation-and thus understood that when Hurley said Nico reminded him of himself, this was a big compliment.

A couple of days later Dan Majerle-former Suns star, current college coach, no Googling required-came up during a camp game and said, "Nico, Grand Canyon University is offering you a scholarship. Now go back to the game." San Francisco came next, sight unseen, followed by Utah State and Utah, Pace's alma mater. This meant Nico had six scholarship offers before he'd played a game in high school, which Pace deems "crazy" but is not all that uncommon. High-profile middle schoolers have been targeted for years, going back to 2003, when Taylor King accepted an offer to UCLA before his first high school game. More recently, LeBron James Jr., who is 10, reportedly received college offers, which understandably pissed off his dad. And there exist websites already covering "The Class of 2027", also known as second graders. The fact that all this happens does not make it right, much less beneficial in any way to the still-developing boys, only legally allowable.

A couple of days later Dan Majerle-former Suns star-came up during a camp game and said, "Nico, Grand Canyon University is offering you a scholarship. Now go back to the game."

In Nico's case, college coaches can't directly recruit him until the June after his sophomore year, at which point they're free to deluge him. Pace plans on getting a dedicated cellphone for Nico to use for "an hour or two hours a day-that's it." Until then, however, recruiters can call Wilde or Silver anytime they want, and those two can in turn put Nico on the phone. They can also mail letters, a stack of which Nico keeps in a shoebox. Many are bizarrely written, on account of the myriad NCAA regulations governing recruiting. "Hope you're doing well," one reads. "Here is some info on Utah. It's all we can legally send you right now. We're very excited about you and looking forward to seeing you on campus soon. Go Utes."

None of this strikes Nico as weird, for this is the only world he knows. When he was in the eighth grade-the first time, before Pace and Gaia held him back to let his body catch up, which is something good players now do-he worried that all his contemporaries were being ranked, and getting buzz, and had mixtapes, and he didn't. When a camp offered him a "presentation package"-basically, we'll film you all week and make you a mixtape for $75-he begged his parents but they stood firm. You have to earn it, Pace said. Besides, being ranked when you're in the eighth grade is meaningless. For every kid who meets the loftiest expectations, countless others fall short.

As for Pace and Gaia, they rely on their own experiences. When Pace was 10, he knew he wanted to be a basketball player, so he pursued that goal relentlessly, relying on defense to scrap his way to the league-or The League, as Nico's awestruck friends say-then becoming a legend in Italy, playing against everyone from Mike D'Antoni to a young Manu Ginóbili and finally retiring at 42. In 1995, divorced from his first wife, with whom he has two kids, he met Gaia. He was 35 and a star. She was 21 and a firebrand.

From an early age Pace groomed Nico to be a point guard, because it's easier to switch from the one to the two than the other way around. Always, he told him to be aggressive and drive to score, not to pass. At first, this seemed a bit ludicrous, as Nico was always the smallest kid, drowning in his jersey. Only in the last year or so has his body caught up to his peers'.

Video courtesy of My Own Sports Live

Now Pace, who works in merchant services, alternates between doting on Nico-"I'm basically a taxi driver"-and cutting him down to size.

When Nico changes shirts at a workout, exposing his chest: "Son, please put that shirt back on!"

At dinner, the night after a game: "Last night's dunk was weak, you might as well have laid it up. I wouldn't even count that as a dunk."

While barbecuing at the house: "Son, why'd I have you?"

Nico: "To get you beers."

Pace: [Winks.]

Nico returns with Heineken in a frosty glass.

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Nico Mannion: Peek into life of basketball prodigy

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The man responsible for delivering those Curry 3's is a 40-ish former nightclub owner named Ryan Silver. An excitable man with slicked-back brown hair, Silver runs the Earl Watson Elite AAU program, which is sponsored by Under Armour, which is in turn endorsed by Curry. Silver is prone to texting Nico at 3 a.m.

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The United States routinely spends more tax dollars per high-school athlete than per high-school math student-unlike most countries worldwide. And we wonder why we lag in international education rankings?

Every year, thousands of teenagersmove to the United States from all over the world, for all kinds of reasons. They observe everything in their new country with fresh eyes, including basic features of American life that most of us never stop to consider.

One element of our education system consistently surprises them: "Sports are a big deal here," says Jenny, who moved to America from South Korea with her family in 2011. Shawnee High, her public school in southern New Jersey, fields teams in 18 sports over the course of the school year, including golf and bowling. Its campus has lush grass fields, six tennis courts, and an athletic Hall of Fame. "They have days when teams dress up in Hawaiian clothes or pajamas just because-'We're the soccer team!,' " Jenny says. (To protect the privacy of Jenny and other students in this story, only their first names are used.)

By contrast, in South Korea, whose 15-year-olds rank fourth in the world (behind Shanghai, Singapore, and Hong Kong) on a test of critical thinking in math, Jenny's classmates played pickup soccer on a dirt field at lunchtime. They brought badminton rackets from home and pretended there was a net. If they made it into the newspaper, it was usually for their academic accomplishments.

Sports are embedded in American schools in a way they are not almost anywhere else. Yet this difference hardly ever comes up in domestic debates about America's international mediocrity in education. (The U.S. ranks 31st on the same international math test.) The challenges we do talk about are real ones, from undertrained teachers to entrenched poverty. But what to make of this other glaring reality, and the signal it sends to children, parents, and teachers about the very purpose of school?

When I surveyed about 200 former exchange students last year, in cooperation with an international exchange organization called AFS, nine out of 10 foreign students who had lived in the U.S. said that kids here cared more about sports than their peers back home did. A majority of Americans who'd studied abroad agreed.

Even in eighth grade, American kids spend more than twice the time Korean kids spend playing sports, according to a 2010 study published in the Journal of Advanced Academics. In countries with more-holistic, less hard-driving education systems than Korea's, like Finland and Germany, many kids play club sports in their local towns-outside of school. Most schools do not staff, manage, transport, insure, or glorify sports teams, because, well, why would they?

When I was growing up in New Jersey, not far from where Jenny now lives, I played soccer from age 7 to 17. I was relieved to find a place where girls were not expected to sit quietly or look pretty, and I still love the game. Like most other Americans, I can rattle off the many benefits of high-school sports: exercise, lessons in sportsmanship and perseverance, school spirit, and just plain fun. All of those things matter, and Jenny finds it refreshing to attend a school that is about so much more than academics. But as I've traveled around the world visiting places that do things differently-and get better results-I've started to wonder about the trade-offs we make.

Nearly all of Jenny's classmates at Shawnee are white, and 95 percent come from middle- or upper-income homes. But in 2012, only 17 percent of the school's juniors and seniors took at least one Advanced Placement test-compared with the 50 percent of students who played school sports.

As states and districts continue to slash education budgets, as more kids play on traveling teams outside of school, and as the globalized economy demands that children learn higher-order skills so they can compete down the line, it's worth reevaluating the American sporting tradition. If sports were not central to the mission of American high schools, then what would be?

On October 12, 1900, the Wall School of Honey Grove played St. Matthew's Grammar School of Dallas in football, winning 5-0. The event was a milestone in Texas history: the first recorded football game between two high-school teams. Until then, most American boys had played sports in the haphazard way of boys the world over: ambling onto fields and into alleys for pickup games or challenging other loosely affiliated groups of students to a match. Cheating was rampant, and games looked more like brawls than organized contests.

Schools got involved to contain the madness. The trend started in elite private schools and then spread to the masses. New York City inaugurated its Public Schools Athletic League in 1903, holding a track-and-field spectacular for 1,000 boys at Madison Square Garden the day after Christmas.

At the time, the United States was starting to educate its children for more years than most other countries, even while admitting a surge of immigrants. The ruling elite feared that all this schooling would make Anglo-Saxon boys soft and weak, in contrast to their brawny, newly immigrated peers. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. warned that cities were being overrun with "stiff-jointed, soft-muscled, paste-complexioned youth."

Sports, the thinking went, would both protect boys' masculinity and distract them from vices like gambling and prostitution. "Muscular Christianity," fashionable during the Victorian era, prescribed sports as a sort of moral vaccine against the tumult of rapid economic growth. "In life, as in a foot-ball game," Theodore Roosevelt wrote in an essay on "The American Boy" in 1900, "the principle to follow is: Hit the line hard; don't foul and don't shirk, but hit the line hard!"

Athletics succeeded in distracting not just students but entire communities. As athletic fields became the cultural centers of towns across America, educators became coaches and parents became boosters.

From the beginning, though, some detractors questioned whether tax money should be spent on activities that could damage the brain, and occasionally leave students dead on the field. In 1909, New York City superintendents decided to abolish football, and The New York Times predicted that soccer would become the sport of choice. But officials reversed course the next year, re-allowing football, with revised rules.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association had emerged by this time, as a means of reforming the increasingly brutal sport of college football. But the enforcers were unable to keep pace with the industry. Once television exponentially expanded the fan base in the mid-20th century, collegiate sports gained a spiritual and economic choke hold on America. College scholarships rewarded high-school athletes, and the search for the next star player trickled down even to grade school. As more and more Americans attended college, growing ranks of alumni demanded winning teams-and university presidents found their reputations shaped by the success of their football and basketball programs.

In 1961, the sociologist James Coleman observed that a visitor entering an American high school

would likely be confronted, first of all, with a trophy case. His examination of the trophies would reveal a curious fact: The gold and silver cups, with rare exception, symbolize victory in athletic contests, not scholastic ones ... Altogether, the trophy case would suggest to the innocent visitor that he was entering an athletic club, not an educational institution.

Last year in Texas, whose small towns are the spiritual home of high-school football and the inspiration for Friday Night Lights, the superintendent brought in to rescue one tiny rural school district did something insanely rational. In the spring of 2012, after the state threatened to shut down Premont Independent School District for financial mismanagement and academic failure, Ernest Singleton suspended all sports-including football.

To cut costs, the district had already laid off eight employees and closed the middle-school campus, moving its classes to the high-school building; the elementary school hadn't employed an art or a music teacher in years; and the high school had sealed off the science labs, which were infested with mold. Yet the high school still turned out football, basketball, volleyball, track, tennis, cheerleading, and baseball teams each year.

Football at Premont cost about $1,300 a player. Math, by contrast, cost just $618 a student. For the price of one football season, the district could have hired a full-time elementary-school music teacher for an entire year. But, despite the fact that Premont's football team had won just one game the previous season and hadn't been to the playoffs in roughly a decade, this option never occurred to anyone.

"I've been in hundreds of classrooms," says Singleton, who has spent 15 years as a principal and helped turn around other struggling schools. "This was the worst I've seen in my career. The kids were in control. The language was filthy. The teachers were not prepared." By suspending sports, Singleton realized, he could save $150,000 in one year. A third of this amount was being paid to teachers as coaching stipends, on top of the smaller costs: $27,000 for athletic supplies, $15,000 for insurance, $13,000 for referees, $12,000 for bus drivers. "There are so many things people don't think about when they think of sports," Singleton told me. Still, he steeled himself for the town's reaction. "I knew the minute I announced it, it was going to be like the world had caved in on us."

First he explained his decision to Enrique Ruiz Jr., the principal of Premont's only high school: eliminating sports would save money and refocus everyone's attention on academics. Ruiz agreed. The school was making other changes, too, such as giving teachers more time for training and planning, making students wear uniforms, and aligning the curriculum with more-rigorous state standards. Suspending sports might get the attention of anyone not taking those changes seriously.

Then Singleton told the school's football coach, a history teacher named Richard Russell, who'd been coaching for two decades. Russell had played basketball and football in high school, and he loved sports. But he preferred giving up the team to shutting down the whole district. He told Singleton to do whatever he needed to do, then walked over to the gym and told the basketball players, who were waiting for practice to begin. At first, the students didn't seem to understand. "What? Why?" asked Nathan, then a junior and a quarterback on the football team. "Would you rather have sports or school?," Russell replied.

Out by the tennis courts, Daniel, a junior who was in line to become a captain of the football team, was waiting for tennis practice to start when a teacher came out and delivered the news. Daniel went home and texted his friends in disbelief, hoping there had been some kind of mistake.

"We were freaking out," says Mariela, a former cheerleader and tennis and volleyball player. American kids expect to participate in school sports as a kind of rite of passage. "We don't get these years back," she told me. "I'm never going to get the experience of cheering as captain under the lights."

As the news trickled out, reporters from all over America came to witness the unthinkable. A photographer followed Nathan around, taking pictures of him not playing football, which the Corpus Christi Caller-Times ran in a photo essay titled "Friday Without Football in Premont."

Many observers predicted that Singleton's experiment would end in disaster. Premont was a speck on the map, an hour and a half southwest of Corpus Christi. The town's population had dwindled since the oil fields had dried up, and a majority of the 282 high-school students who remained were from low-income Hispanic families. How many football players would drop out? How many cheerleaders would transfer to the next town's school? How would kids learn about grit, teamwork, and fair play?

Last fall at Premont, the first without football, was quiet-eerily so. There were no Friday-night games to look forward to, no players and their parents cheered onto the field on opening night, no cheerleaders making signs in the hallway, no football practice 10 or more hours a week. Only the basketball team was allowed to play, though its tournament schedule was diminished.

More than a dozen students transferred, including four volleyball players and a football player. Most went to a school 10 miles away, where they could play sports. Two teachers who had been coaches left as well. To boost morale, Principal Ruiz started holding sports-free pep rallies every Friday. Classes competed against each other in drum-offs and team-building exercises in the school gym.

But there was an upside to the quiet. "The first 12 weeks of school were the most peaceful beginning weeks I've ever witnessed at a high school," Singleton says. "It was calm. There was a level of energy devoted to planning and lessons, to after-school tutoring. I saw such a difference."

Nathan missed the adrenaline rush of running out onto the field and the sense of purpose he got from the sport. But he began playing flag football for a club team on the weekends, and he admitted to one advantage during the week: "It did make you focus. There was just all this extra time. You never got behind on your work."

That first semester, 80 percent of the students passed their classes, compared with 50 percent the previous fall. About 160 people attended parent-teacher night, compared with six the year before. Principal Ruiz was so excited that he went out and took pictures of the parking lot, jammed with cars. Through some combination of new leadership, the threat of closure, and a renewed emphasis on academics, Premont's culture changed. "There's been a definite decline in misbehavior," says Desiree Valdez, who teaches speech, theater, and creative writing at Premont. "I'm struggling to recall a fight. Before, it was one every couple of weeks."

Suspending sports was only part of the equation, but Singleton believes it was crucial. He used the savings to give teachers raises. Meanwhile, communities throughout Texas, alarmed by the cancellation of football, raised $400,000 for Premont via fund-raisers and donations-money that Singleton put toward renovating the science labs.

No one knew whether the state would make good on its threat to shut the district down. But for the first time in many years, Premont had a healthy operating balance and no debt. This past spring, the school brought back baseball, track, and tennis, with the caveat that the teams could participate in just one travel tournament a season. "Learning is going on in 99 percent of the classrooms now," Coach Russell told me, "compared to 2 percent before."

In many schools, sports are so entrenched that no one-not even the people in charge-realizes their actual cost. When Marguerite Roza, the author of Educational Economics, analyzed the finances of one public high school in the Pacific Northwest, she and her colleagues found that the school was spending $328 a student for math instruction and more than four times that much for cheerleading-$1,348 a cheerleader. "And it is not even a school in a district that prioritizes cheerleading," Roza wrote. "In fact, this district's 'strategic plan' has for the past three years claimed that math was the primary focus."

Many sports and other electives tend to have lower student-to-teacher ratios than math and reading classes, which drives up the cost. And contrary to what most people think, ticket and concession sales do not begin to cover the cost of sports in the vast majority of high schools (or colleges).

Football is, far and away, the most expensive high-school sport. Many football teams have half a dozen or more coaches, all of whom typically receive a stipend. Some schools hire professional coaches at full salaries, or designate a teacher as the full-time athletic director. New bleachers can cost half a million dollars, about the same as artificial turf. Even maintaining a grass field can cost more than $20,000 a year. Reconditioning helmets, a ritual that many teams pay for every year, can cost more than $1,500 for a large team. Some communities collect private donations or levy a special tax to fund new school-sports facilities.

Many of the costs are insidious, Roza has found, "buried in unidentifiable places." For example, when teacher-coaches travel for game days, schools need to hire substitute teachers. They also need to pay for buses for the team, the band, and the cheerleaders, not to mention meals and hotels on the road. For home games, schools generally cover the cost of hiring officials, providing security, painting the lines on the field, and cleaning up afterward. "Logistics are a big challenge," says Jared Bigham, until recently the supervising principal of two schools in Copperhill, Tennessee, and a former teacher, coach, and player. "Even though the coaches are in charge of the budgets, I still have to oversee them and approve each expenditure. You're looking at 10 different budgets you have to manage."

That kind of constant, low-level distraction may be the greatest cost of all. During football season in particular, the focus of American principals, teachers, and students shifts inexorably away from academics. Sure, high-school football players spend long, exhausting hours practicing (and according to one study, about 15 percent experience a brain injury each season), but the commitment extends to the rest of the community, from late-night band practices to elaborate pep rallies to meetings with parents. Athletics even dictate the time that school starts each day: despite research showing that later start times improve student performance, many high schools begin before 8 a.m., partly to reserve afternoon daylight hours for sports practice.

American principals, unlike the vast majority of principals around the world, make many hiring decisions with their sports teams in mind-a calculus that does not always end well for students. "Every school in the entire country has done this," Marcia Gregorio, a veteran teacher in rural Pennsylvania, told me. "You hire a teacher, and you sometimes lower the standards because you need a coach."

But here's the thing: most American principals I spoke with expressed no outrage over the primacy of sports in school. In fact, they fiercely defended it. "If I could wave a magic wand, I'd have more athletic opportunities for students, not less," Bigham, the former Tennessee principal, told me. His argument is a familiar one: sports can be bait for students who otherwise might not care about school. "I've seen truancy issues completely turned around once students begin playing sports," he says. "When students have a sense of belonging, when they feel tied to the school, they feel more part of the process."

Premont is not alone. Over the past few years, budget cuts have forced more school districts, from Florida to Illinois, to scale back on sports programs. But in most of these places, even modest cuts to athletics are viewed as temporary-and tragic-sacrifices, not as necessary adaptations to a new reality. Many schools have shifted more of the cost of athletics to parents rather than downsize programs. Others have cut basic academic costs to keep their sports programs intact. Officials in Pasco County, Florida, have considered squeezing athletic budgets for each of the past six years. They've so far agreed to cut about 700 education jobs, and they extended winter break in 2011, but sports have been left mostly untouched.

In these communities, the dominant argument is usually that sports lure students into school and keep them out of trouble-the same argument American educators have made for more than a century. And it remains relevant, without a doubt, for some small portion of students.

But at this moment in history, now that more than 20 countries are pulling off better high-school-graduation rates than we are, with mostly nominal athletic offerings, using sports to tempt kids into getting an education feels dangerously old-fashioned. America has not found a way to dramatically improve its children's academic performance over the past 50 years, but other countries have-and they are starting to reap the economic benefits.

Andreas Schleicher, a German education scientist at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, has visited schools all over the world and is an authority on different regional approaches to education. (I profiled Schleicher for this magazine in 2011.) He is wary of the theory that sports can encourage sustained classroom engagement. "Our analysis suggests that the most engaging environment you can offer students is one of cognitive challenge combined with individualised pedagogical support," he told me in an e-mail. "If you offer boring and poor math instruction and try to compensate that with interesting sport activities, you may get students interested in sports but I doubt it will do much good to their engagement with school."

Though the research on student athletes is mixed, it generally suggests that sports do more good than harm for the players themselves. One 2010 study by Betsey Stevenson, then at the University of Pennsylvania, found that, in a given state, increases in the number of girls playing high-school sports have historically generated higher college-attendance and employment rates among women. Another study, conducted by Columbia's Margo Gardner, found that teenagers who participated in extracurriculars had higher college-graduation and voting rates, even after controlling for ethnicity, parental education, and other factors.

But only 40 percent of seniors participate in high-school athletics, and what's harder to measure is how the overriding emphasis on sports affects everyone who doesn't play. One study of 30,000 students at the University of Oregon found that the grades of men who did not play sports went down as the football team's performance improved. Both men and women reported that the better their football team did, the less they studied and the more they partied.

Exercise, without a doubt, is good for learning and living. But these benefits accrue to the athletes, who are in the minority. What about everyone else?

At Spelman College, a historically black, all-women's college in Atlanta, about half of last year's incoming class of some 530 students were obese or had high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, or some other chronic health condition that could be improved with exercise. Each year, Spelman was spending nearly $1 million on athletics-not for those students, but for the 4 percent of the student body that played sports.

Spelman's president, Beverly Daniel Tatum, found the imbalance difficult to justify. She told me that early last year, while watching a Spelman basketball game, "it occurred to me that none of these women were going to play basketball after they graduated. By that I don't mean play professionally-I mean even recreationally. I thought of all the black women I knew, and they did not tend to spend their recreational time playing basketball. So a little voice in my head said, Well, let's flip it."

That April, after getting approval from her board and faculty, she gathered Spelman's athletes and coaches in an auditorium and announced that she was going to cancel intercollegiate sports after the spring of 2013, and begin spending that $1 million on a campus-wide health-and-fitness program.

Many of Spelman's 80 athletes were devastated, needless to say, and it is too early to tell whether the new swim, aerobics, and Zumba classes, among other offerings, will lead to healthier students on campus. But Tatum's signal was clear: lifelong health habits matter more than expensive, elite sporting competitions with rival schools. One priority has real and lasting benefits; the other is a fantasy.

Imagine, for a moment, if Americans transferred our obsessive intensity about high-school sports-the rankings, the trophies, the ceremonies, the pride-to high-school academics. We would look not so different from South Korea, or Japan, or any of a handful of Asian countries whose hypercompetitive, pressure-cooker approach to academics in many ways mirrors the American approach to sports. Both approaches can be dysfunctional; both set kids up for stress and disappointment. The difference is that 93 percent of South Korean students graduate from high school, compared with just 77 percent of American students-only about 2 percent of whom receive athletic scholarships to college.

As it becomes easier and more urgent to compare what kids around the world know and can do, more schools may follow Premont's lead. Basis public charter schools, located in Arizona, Texas, and Washington, D.C., are modeled on rigorous international standards. They do not offer tackle football; the founders deemed it too expensive and all-consuming. Still, Basis schools offer other, cheaper sports, including basketball and soccer. Anyone who wants to play can play; no one has to try out. Arizona's mainstream league is costly to join, so Basis Tucson North belongs to an alternative league that costs less and requires no long-distance travel, meaning students rarely miss class for games. Athletes who want to play at an elite level do so on their own, through club teams-not through school.

Basis teachers channel the enthusiasm usually found on football fields into academic conquests. On the day of Advanced Placement exams, students at Basis Tucson North file into the classroom to "Eye of the Tiger," the Rocky III theme song. In 2012, 15-year-olds at two Arizona Basis schools took a new test designed to compare individual schools' performance with that of schools from around the world. The average Basis student not only outperformed the typical American student by nearly three years in reading and science and by four years in math, but outscored the average student in Finland, Korea, and Poland as well. The Basis kid did better even than the average student from Shanghai, China, the region that ranks No. 1 in the world.

"I actually believe that sports are extremely important," Olga Block, a Basis co-founder, told me. "The problem is that once sports become important to the school, they start colliding with academics."

In a column published in 1927, Roy Henderson, the athletic director of the University Interscholastic League, a public-school sports organization in Texas, articulated the challenge of keeping sports and academics in balance: "Football cannot be defended in the high school unless it is subordinated, controlled, and made to contribute something definite in the cause of education."

The State of Texas announced in May that the Premont Independent School District could stay open. The district has a lot of work to do before its students can feel the kind of pride in their academics that they once felt in their sports teams. But Ernest Singleton, Enrique Ruiz, the teachers, and the students have proved their ability to adapt. Nathan, the one-time quarterback, started college this fall, as did Mariela, the cheerleader-and, as it turns out, the valedictorian. This fall, Premont brought back a volleyball team and a cross-country team, in addition to basketball, baseball, track, and tennis. But for now, still no football.

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The United States routinely spends more tax dollars per high-school athlete than per high-school math student-unlike most countries worldwide. And we wonder why we lag in international education rankings? Every year, thousands of teenagersmove to the United States from all over the world, for all kinds of reasons.

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Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images

With 23 Grand Slam titles under her belt and arguably the most recognizable name in tennis, you would think that Serena Williams would be commensurately respected within the sport. But there are moments-often not-so-subtle ones-where you are reminded that one of the greatest athletes of all time, for all her success and stature, still faces the challenges of having a Black body in a predominantly white space.

In June, Williams wore a Nike catsuit to play in the opening round of the 2018 French Open. It was created to help her combat blood clotting issues, which she's suffered from for years. Last week, in an interview with Tennis Magazine, French Tennis Federation President Bernard Giudicelli stated that the catsuit is banned from future French Open tournaments. said officials were planning to "impose certain limits" out of "respect" for the game, and her look had "gone too far."

Williams may have been able to brush off the decision, telling the public, "Everything's fine" between she and Giudicelli, but it felt to many like another attempt to suppress the aspects of Williams's Blackness. In this case, her body.

"It's yet another example of the policing and weaponization of Black bodies-in particular, Black women's bodies," said Justin Tinsely, sports and culture reporter for The Undefeated. "Think about all these stories of young boys and girls being kicked out of school for their hair. Now Serena is told she can't wear something because it's disrespectful to the game. But is it more disrespectful than choosing to ignore that suit helped combat blood clots that she deals with and nearly took her life shortly after she had given birth?"

She is not a waif, petite, or scrawny. Williams is known for both her muscles and her curves, and when poured into her catsuit, we had the chance to see a post-baby Williams and her body in all of its glory. Despite the fact that many tennis skirts and dresses show more skin than what the tennis ace had on, it was her shapely figure, a shape quite common for Black women, that was really being deemed as disrespectful to the game.

"However they intended it, the result is bad for optics, if nothing else," Tinsely added. "It also leaves the opportunity to open these sorts of critiques."

This is one instance of many where Williams has been criticized, restricted, or "singled out," as Tinsely puts it. In the past, Williams has spoken about being tested more than her competitors to the point of it being clear "discrimination," and her career backs this up-like the time she was booed mercilessly (and allegedly racially taunted) while playing in the finals at Indian Wells in 2001. Just 19 years old at the time, she would go on to win-after the crowd was given the impression by tournament officials and participants that there was something underhanded going on to set Williams up for victory.

Williams' appearance has been a talking point throughout her career, like when former Russian tennis chief Shamil Tarpischev called Serena and Venus, both known for their strength, "the Williams brothers" and said, "It's frightening when you look at them." A reporter once asked Williams if Maria Sharapova's beauty intimidated her on the tennis court-and when Williams celebrated beating Sharapova in singles competition at the 2012 London Olympics by dancing, she was heavily criticized for " Crip-Walking all over the most lily-white place in the world."

Williams has dominated while wearing beads and braids (and been mocked for it). She's been criticized for representing for her hometown of Compton, CA. She's been a force while throwing up a tennis ball to launch her infamously fast serve with long and ornate fake nails and a big, bold weave pinned into a ponytail. She has, without needing to do so vocally, represented Blackness in her bodily presence. No matter how far she comes and how much she accomplishes, that makes the very white game of tennis uncomfortable.

Williams is no longer the teenager she was when she entered the sport, seeking to make the right impression and be accepted in white spaces. She is 36 now: a mother, a trailblazer, and one of the greatest to ever play any sport. It's clear that she has respect for the game-it's time the game has respect for her, too.

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Serena Williams' Outfits Are Not the Issue for Tennis-It's Her Blackness

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Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images With 23 Grand Slam titles under her belt and arguably the most recognizable name in tennis, you would think that Serena Williams would be commensurately respected within the sport.

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Welcome to Player FM

What if radio played only the shows you care about, when you want? Player FM is scanning the web for high-quality podcast content right now. Try us out on any web browser - desktop, mobile, or tablet.

Take it with you

Start listening to Pac-12 Hotline on your phone right now with Player FM's free mobile app, the best podcasting experience on both iPhone and Android. Your subcriptions will sync with your account on this website too. Podcast smart and easy with the app that refuses to compromise.

Google Play reviews:

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Concussion expert Chris Nowinski on the future of football

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What if radio played only the shows you care about, when you want? Player FM is scanning the web for high-quality podcast content right now. Try us out on any web browser - desktop, mobile, or tablet. Start listening to Pac-12 Hotline on your phone right now with Player FM's free mobile app, the best podcasting experience on both iPhone and Android.

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We Americans love us a comeback story. And, if it's a football comeback story? Well, that's just icing on the cake. In this branded doc for Victory Journal produced by the talented folks over at Prospect Productions and directed by Colin Barnicle, we are given the ultimate comeback tale-the story of a New Orleans high school roaring back to life after nearly closing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Like Undefeated and even Friday Night Lights (both the film and fictional television show) before it, it's an inspiring story about how high school football can be about more than just football-it's about community and how what takes place on the field inspires all those around it.

Narratively, this is all well-tread cinematic ground-from the rousing locker room speeches to the underdog "sports film" conventions. But, it's still undeniably effective on both a story and emotional level. Meeting these kids who grew up in a community that essentially had to start from scratch in the wake of one of this country's most infamous (and politically heated) natural disasters is inspiring. And, so, as we watch the Warren Easton Eagles make their bid for the the 2014 state high school championship, it's hard to not get caught up in energy of it at all. Is the film playing common notes? Yeah...but those notes just sound so good.

It's less about football than it is about the community

Communicating via e-mail, the team behind the film related Warren Easton's innately fascinating dramatic arc: "The redemption story for Warren Easton is extremely compelling. In a way, it's less about football than it is about the community. The buses have rolled from Warren Easton to the Super Dome only twice in the past ten years-once filled with fear and anger as a result of Hurricane Katrina, and the other nearly decade later, with pride and love in anticipation of kickoff."

Visually, the film looks great. For a brief ten minutes, we become a part of the Warren Easton community. The imagery has an undeniable sense of personality-from a player's swagger as he enters a pep-rally in slow motion to the texture of the N'awlins streets. W.E. NOLA has an all-encompassing setting which is really crucial to its overarching success. There's a rich sense of history here, and really, that's not surprising considering that Warren Easton is the oldest public high school in Louisiana and counts Master P and Trombone Shorty as some of its featured alumni.

W.E. NOLA was created as an entry in Victory Journal's "Glory Days" series. We're excited to check what future episodes have in store for us, from a film set in a boxing gym in Flint, Michigan to a deserted soccer field in Phoenix, Arizona. Be sure to follow Victory Journal on twitter to watch the latest films as they arrive.

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GLORY DAYS - W.E. NOLA by Colin Barnicle | Short Film

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When Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans in 2005, Warren Easton High School, the oldest public high school in Louisiana was not expected to recover. The community rallied to save the school, but rebuilding the football program presented an even greater challenge.

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I've always liked New Year's Eve more than Christmas. I don't have anything against Christmas, but I prefer my mushy sentimentality to tilt towards the positive potentiality of the future than an appreciative appraisal of the present. And as you make your resolutions for 2012, envisioning a better, brighter you, nothing will inspire you with as much world-conquering vivre as a good, underdog sports film.

So that's what we have for you today. Based off a true-story (aren't all the best sports films?) Panyee FC is a short about a youth soccer team in Thailand. What makes them underdogs? The fact that they live in a floating fishing village in the middle of the sea! The young go-getters don't let that dissuade them from their dream however. They succeed, through hard work and perseverance, in creating a pitch to call their own. But can these kids, playing on makeshift floating platform that has nails sticking out of it, really compete when it comes time for the big tournament held on the mainland?

It's a killer premise. I'm inspired all over again just writing about it. And the production values are up to the same quality standard. Professional cinematography and sound make it so that the film feels very similar to your traditional American cable classics, except that this film, at only 5 minutes, doesn't lay the sap on too thick. All the best parts of the genre are here, but the all the lame ones are left out-no inexplicable villain, no hackneyed halftime speech, and most thankfully no manipulative, swelling soundtrack.

The quality of production is possible because the film is, surprisingly, branded content for a Thai bank, released upon the launch of a new brand-vision entitled "Make THE Difference". That's a slogan I can get behind! Happy New Year!

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TMB: Panyee FC by Matt Devine | A Branded Short Film

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I've always liked New Year's Eve more than Christmas. I don't have anything against Christmas, but I prefer my mushy sentimentality to tilt towards the positive potentiality of the future than an appreciative appraisal of the present.

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Chevrolet - Mo'ne Davis - "I Throw Like a Girl" Documentary

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China builds 'world's biggest air purifier' (and it works)

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A 100-metre high air purification tower in Xian in Shaanxi province has helped reduce smog levels in the city, preliminary results suggest.

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Boyan Slat was just a regular Dutch high-school student when he went on a diving trip to Greece in 2011. Once underwater, he was surrounded by plastic waste. "There were more plastic bags than fish," he told MNN a few years back. "That was the moment I realized it was a huge issue and that environmental issues are really the biggest problems my generation will face."

Like many of us, Slat had heard about various giant garbage patches the world over, and he figured that someone, somewhere, was working to solve it. During his research after the Greece trip, he learned that there were a few cleanup ideas out there, but most of them relied on using nets to filter the plastic out of the water. Those nets also scooped up a lot of fish, turtles and other sea life, and weren't practical. So he developed his own solution.

"I finally decided to put both university and my social life on hold to focus all my time on developing this idea. I wasn't sure if it would succeed, but considering the scale of the problem, I thought it was important to at least try," Slat said.

Following a two-year feasibility study, Slat launched his garbage-collecting booms from San Francisco on Sept. 8 for a series of trials. This initial run is a test, according to the Ocean Cleanup website, probing for any issues before more booms ship out over the next few years. "All lessons learned will be applied to the subsequent system," the group explains, "as we will gradually deploy more systems until we reach full-scale deployment by 2020."

During the test runs, Slat's team made sure the booms passed five main tests:

U-shape installation

Sufficient speed through water

Ability to reorient when wind/wave direction changes

Effective span in steady state

No significant damage by the end of the test

Following several weeks of tests, the team reached a point where it had to decide whether to return to California for adjustments or head on toward the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Team members held a meeting on Oct. 2 and decided the current setup of booms - named "System 001" - was good to go.

System 001 arrived at the garbage patch Oct. 16, and its booms were quickly deployed back into their U-shaped formation, allowing Ocean Cleanup to begin its long-awaited mission. Slat tweeted on Oct. 24 that the system had collected its first plastic, noting it will "take a few weeks before real conclusions can be drawn."

Still, he offered a few early observations from the cleanup, reporting that "very small pieces seem to get caught too" and "no interactions with marine life observed." He added that some plastic items leave the system after being collected, an issue he says is being analyzed to understand why.

Slat's project has drawn skepticism from some scientists who see it as "well-intentioned but misguided," according to Science Magazine. But while it may still be too early to assess its effectiveness, the system has already evolved with impressive speed since Slat's fateful diving trip in 2011, and the testing so far has buoyed hopes that its ambitious goals are achievable. According to Slat's estimates, his booms will collect about half of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch within five years, and should collect about 90 percent by 2040.

A garbage-collecting coastline in the water

If the pilot project is a success, Slat plans to launch a bigger system to tackle the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. (Photo: The Ocean Cleanup)

The design works via massive floating booms that sit on top of the water and act like a mini-coastline. Just like beaches collect our plastic waste, the boom can passively gather plastic waste and pull it to its center. Once a month or so, a boat would go collect the garbage.

Slat's recent collection estimates have gone up due to a design innovation - specifically, iterative engineering. Instead of attaching the booms to the ocean floor, which was an engineering nightmare, they can be suspended in the ocean attached to anchors that float deep below. This would allow the booms to slowly move around, but not so much as would prevent them from doing their job. The booms would mostly be held in place by deep-water tides, which move at a slow but regular rate.

"The forces moving the plastic around are the same forces moving the cleanup systems. In other words, where the plastic goes, the cleanup systems automatically go as well, like plastic magnets. The concept is more feasible, and also more efficient at capturing plastic," explains the Ocean Cleanup site. Slat calls his new system a "fleet" of cleanup booms.

The whole thing is solar-powered, modular and flexible to move with the tides. Originally, "Slat had imagined one massive device, perhaps extending as much as 60 miles," writes Ben Schiller for Fast Company. But plans have changed as the project has grown. Now the plan is to reach a full fleet of 60 systems by 2020, with the help of corporate sponsors. "That constellation is more scalable and less risky, he says; if one device breaks down, there will still be 49 others operating at any time. Plus, they can be funded as cash flow allows, rather than all at once," continues Fast Company.

In case you missed it, the video at top is an animated preview of what the deployment is expected to look like.

Time is of the essence

Slat holds a piece of a mooring line that will be used in his solar-powered trash-collecting booms in the Pacific Ocean. (Photo: The Ocean Cleanup)

As Slat points out, only 3 percent of the plastics in his team's current surveys are microplastics. Most pieces are still large enough to easily fish out - for now.

"This is what scares me most," Slat says. "What will happen over the next few decades is that these large objects will start breaking down into these small and dangerous microplastics, increasing the amount of microplastics dozens of times - unless we clean it up. We must defuse this ticking time-bomb."

It's a huge job: In the Pacific garbage patch alone, scientists estimate 5 trillion pieces of plastic are floating around, some of it up to 40 years old. But Slat has done measurements, worked with scientists and used computer models to determine how much his booms can collect, and he's confident he can capture tons of plastic every year, and bring it back to shore.

And what to do with all the plastic waste that's recovered? Well, there's opportunity there. To help pay for the operation, this marketable plastic can be recycled into all sorts of stuff, from car bumpers to plastic logs to sunglasses and more.

Editor's note: This article has been updated with new information since it was originally published in June 2017.

Dutch inventor launches ocean cleanup mission

Boyan Slat's system has arrived at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and it's already collecting plastic.

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Dutch inventor launches ocean cleanup mission

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Boyan Slat was just a regular Dutch high-school student when he went on a diving trip to Greece in 2011. Once underwater, he was surrounded by plastic waste. "There were more plastic bags than fish," he told MNN a few years back.

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It's not uncommon to sit down in front of a computer screen, then glance down at the digital clock to suddenly realize you've been staring at a monitor for three hours without a bathroom break. But does that mean we're actually addicted to the Internet, or just victims of endless Reddit threads and continually loading Pinterest boards?

A recent infographic from MapsoftheWorld.com dissects Internet addiction disorder (IAD), which is defined as a "problematic or pathological use of computers and the Internet space." But don't go running to your psychiatrist or a support group to discuss your problems just yet.

IAD is categorized by excessive social networking, online shopping, and blogging, as well as compulsive online gambling and watching of Internet videos or pornography, not to mention playing online games. A total 61 percent of Internet users are classified as addicts, according to the graphic.

Unsurprisingly, 18 to 24 year olds account for the majority of Internet addicts (71 percent), while 25 to 44 years olds collectively fill in the second and third place spots. But then the scale begins to tip, as senior citizens mark 44 percent of addicted Internet users. The 45-54 and 55-64 age groups earned 40 percent and 39 percent, respectively.

It's easy to forget about real life when there's a virtual one unfolding on your screen, a fact to which 24 percent of Facebook users can attest; they admitted to missing important real-life moments while online.

While it may not seem as damaging as some addictions, IAD can lead to structural brain damage, which causes a loss of sense of time, withdrawal when the computer is inaccessible, social isolation and fatigue, and the need for better computer equipment.

It even made the cut for this year's edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which includes Internet-use disorder or Internet Addiction as a condition, which is "recommended for further study."

Maps of the World broke down the various pieces of IAD, including gaming addiction, which has incurred fatal consequences in the past few years. According to the graphic, 17-year-old Daniel Petric shot his parents in 2009 after they confiscated his Halo 3 video game. Meanwhile, a South Korean couple came home to find their newborn daughter had starved to death while they were away at a cyber café playing an online game all night.

Staring at a TV or computer screen for hours upon hours of gameplay can also do more damage than ruining your eyesight. In 2011, a 20-year-old died from a blood clot caused by playing his Xbox for 12 hours straight, while an 18-year-old died in a Taiwanese Internet café last year, after playing Diablo III non-stop for more than 40 hours.

All may not be lost for those suffering from an addiction to the Web. The first U.S. rehab location — the Heavensfield Retreat Center in Fall City, Wash. — opened in 2009 with an addiction recovery program for IAD called restart. The next year, a London center announced the launch of a program for children as young as 12.

For more about Internet addiction, check out the full infographic below. Also, test your own IAD likelihood with Heavensfield's online survey.

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Infographic: Are You Addicted to the Internet?

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It's not uncommon to sit down in front of a computer screen, then glance down at the digital clock to suddenly realize you've been staring at a monitor for three hours without a bathroom break. But does that mean we're actually addicted to the Internet, or just victims of endless Reddit threads and continually loading Pinterest boards?

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Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech

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Until recently, Facebook had dominated the social media landscape among America's youth - but it is no longer the most popular online platform among teens, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Today, roughly half (51%) of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 say they use Facebook, notably lower than the shares who use YouTube, Instagram or Snapchat.

This shift in teens' social media use is just one example of how the technology landscape for young people has evolved since the Center's last survey of teens and technology use in 2014-2015. Most notably, smartphone ownership has become a nearly ubiquitous element of teen life: 95% of teens now report they have a smartphone or access to one. These mobile connections are in turn fueling more-persistent online activities: 45% of teens now say they are online on a near-constant basis.

The survey also finds there is no clear consensus among teens about the effect that social media has on the lives of young people today. Minorities of teens describe that effect as mostly positive (31%) or mostly negative (24%), but the largest share (45%) says that effect has been neither positive nor negative.

These are some of the main findings from the Center's survey of U.S. teens conducted March 7-April 10, 2018. Throughout the report, "teens" refers to those ages 13 to 17.

Facebook is no longer the dominant online platform among teens

The social media landscape in which teens reside looks markedly different than it did as recently as three years ago. In the Center's 2014-2015 survey of teen social media use, 71% of teens reported being Facebook users. No other platform was used by a clear majority of teens at the time: Around half (52%) of teens said they used Instagram, while 41% reported using Snapchat.

In 2018, three online platforms other than Facebook - YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat - are used by sizable majorities of this age group. Meanwhile, 51% of teens now say they use Facebook. The shares of teens who use Twitter and Tumblr are largely comparable to the shares who did so in the 2014-2015 survey.

For the most part, teens tend to use similar platforms regardless of their demographic characteristics, but there are exceptions. Notably, lower-income teens are more likely to gravitate toward Facebook than those from higher-income households - a trend consistent with previous Center surveys. Seven-in-ten teens living in households earning less than $30,000 a year say they use Facebook, compared with 36% whose annual family income is $75,000 or more. (For details on social media platform use by different demographic groups, see Appendix A.)

It is important to note there were some changes in question wording between Pew Research Center's 2014-2015 and 2018 surveys of teen social media use. YouTube and Reddit were not included as options in the 2014-2015 survey but were included in the current survey. In addition, the 2014-2015 survey required respondents to provide an explicit response for whether or not they used each platform, while the 2018 survey presented respondents with a list of sites and allowed them to select the ones they use. Even so, it is clear the social media environment today revolves less around a single platform than it did three years ago.

When it comes to which one of these online platforms teens use the most, roughly one-third say they visit Snapchat (35%) or YouTube (32%) most often, while 15% say the same of Instagram. By comparison, 10% of teens say Facebook is their most-used online platform, and even fewer cite Twitter, Reddit or Tumblr as the site they visit most often.

Again, lower-income teens are far more likely than those from higher income households to say Facebook is the online platform they use most often (22% vs. 4%). There are also some differences related to gender and to race and ethnicity when it comes to teens' most-used sites. Girls are more likely than boys to say Snapchat is the site they use most often (42% vs. 29%), while boys are more inclined than girls to identify YouTube as their go-to platform (39% vs. 25%). Additionally, white teens (41%) are more likely than Hispanic (29%) or black (23%) teens to say Snapchat is the online platform they use most often, while black teens are more likely than whites to identify Facebook as their most used site (26% vs. 7%).

Teens have mixed views on the impact of social media on their lives

Despite the nearly ubiquitous presence of social media in their lives, there is no clear consensus among teens about these platforms' ultimate impact on people their age. A plurality of teens (45%) believe social media has a neither positive nor negative effect on people their age. Meanwhile, roughly three-in-ten teens (31%) say social media has had a mostly positive impact, while 24% describe its effect as mostly negative.

Given the opportunity to explain their views in their own words, teens who say social media has had a mostly positive effect tended to stress issues related to connectivity and connection with others. Some 40% of these respondents said that social media has had a positive impact because it helps them keep in touch and interact with others. Many of these responses emphasize how social media has made it easier to communicate with family and friends and to connect with new people:

"I think social media have a positive effect because it lets you talk to family members far away." (Girl, age 14)

"I feel that social media can make people my age feel less lonely or alone. It creates a space where you can interact with people." (Girl, age 15)

"It enables people to connect with friends easily and be able to make new friends as well." (Boy, age 15)

Others in this group cite the greater access to news and information that social media facilitates (16%), or being able to connect with people who share similar interests (15%):

"My mom had to get a ride to the library to get what I have in my hand all the time. She reminds me of that a lot." (Girl, age 14)

"It has given many kids my age an outlet to express their opinions and emotions, and connect with people who feel the same way." (Girl, age 15)

Smaller shares argue that social media is a good venue for entertainment (9%), that it offers a space for self-expression (7%) or that it allows teens to get support from others (5%) or to learn new things in general (4%).

"Because a lot of things created or made can spread joy." (Boy, age 17)

"[Social media] allows us to communicate freely and see what everyone else is doing. [It] gives us a voice that can reach many people." (Boy, age 15)

"We can connect easier with people from different places and we are more likely to ask for help through social media which can save people." (Girl, age 15)

There is slightly less consensus among teens who say social media has had a mostly negative effect on people their age. The top response (mentioned by 27% of these teens) is that social media has led to more bullying and the overall spread of rumors.

"Gives people a bigger audience to speak and teach hate and belittle each other." (Boy, age 13)

"People can say whatever they want with anonymity and I think that has a negative impact." (Boy, age 15)

"Because teens are killing people all because of the things they see on social media or because of the things that happened on social media." (Girl, age 14)

Meanwhile, 17% of these respondents feel these platforms harm relationships and result in less meaningful human interactions. Similar shares think social media distorts reality and gives teens an unrealistic view of other people's lives (15%), or that teens spend too much time on social media (14%).

"It has a negative impact on social (in-person) interactions." (Boy, age 17)

"It makes it harder for people to socialize in real life, because they become accustomed to not interacting with people in person." (Girl, age 15)

"It provides a fake image of someone's life. It sometimes makes me feel that their life is perfect when it is not." (Girl, age 15)

"[Teens] would rather go scrolling on their phones instead of doing their homework, and it's so easy to do so. It's just a huge distraction." (Boy, age 17)

Another 12% criticize social media for influencing teens to give in to peer pressure, while smaller shares express concerns that these sites could lead to psychological issues or drama.

Vast majority of teens have access to a home computer or smartphone

Some 95% of teens now say they have or have access to a smartphone, which represents a 22-percentage-point increase from the 73% of teens who said this in 2014-2015. Smartphone ownership is nearly universal among teens of different genders, races and ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds.

A more nuanced story emerges when it comes to teens' access to computers. While 88% of teens report having access to a desktop or laptop computer at home, access varies greatly by income level. Fully 96% of teens from households with an annual income of $75,000 or more per year say they have access to a computer at home, but that share falls to 75% among those from households earning less than $30,000 a year.

Computer access also varies by the level of education among parents. Teens who have a parent with a bachelor's degree or more are more likely to say they have access to a computer than teens whose parents have a high school diploma or less (94% vs. 78%).

A growing share of teens describe their internet use as near-constant

As smartphone access has become more prevalent, a growing share of teens now report using the internet on a near-constant basis. Some 45% of teens say they use the internet "almost constantly," a figure that has nearly doubled from the 24% who said this in the 2014-2015 survey. Another 44% say they go online several times a day, meaning roughly nine-in-ten teens go online at least multiple times per day.

There are some differences in teens' frequency of internet use by gender, as well as race and ethnicity. Half of teenage girls (50%) are near-constant online users, compared with 39% of teenage boys. And Hispanic teens are more likely than whites to report using the internet almost constantly (54% vs. 41%).

A majority of both boys and girls play video games, but gaming is nearly universal for boys

Overall, 84% of teens say they have or have access to a game console at home, and 90% say they play video games of any kind (whether on a computer, game console or cellphone). While a substantial majority of girls report having access to a game console at home (75%) or playing video games in general (83%), those shares are even higher among boys. Roughly nine-in-ten boys (92%) have or have access to a game console at home, and 97% say they play video games in some form or fashion.

There has been growth in game console ownership among Hispanic teens and teens from lower-income families since the Center's previous study of the teen technology landscape in 2014-2015. The share of Hispanics who say they have access to a game console at home grew by 10 percentage points during this time period. And 85% of teens from households earning less than $30,000 a year now say they have a game console at home, up from 67% in 2014-2015.

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Until recently, Facebook had dominated the social media landscape among America's youth - but it is no longer the most popular online platform among teens, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Today, roughly half (51%) of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 say they use Facebook, notably lower than the shares who use YouTube, Instagram or Snapchat.

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By Jonathan Amos
BBC Science Correspondent

US entrepreneur Elon Musk has launched his new rocket, the Falcon Heavy, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The mammoth vehicle - the most powerful since the shuttle system - lifted clear of its pad without incident to soar high over the Atlantic Ocean.

It was billed as a risky test flight in advance of the lift-off.

The SpaceX CEO said the challenges of developing the new rocket meant the chances of a successful first outing might be only 50-50.

"I had this image of just a giant explosion on the pad, a wheel bouncing down the road. But fortunately that's not what happened," he told reporters after the event.

With this debut, the Falcon Heavy becomes the most capable launch vehicle available.

It is designed to deliver a maximum payload to low-Earth orbit of 64 tonnes - the equivalent of putting five London double-decker buses in space.

Such performance is slightly more than double that of the world's next most powerful rocket, the Delta IV Heavy - but at one third of the cost, says Mr Musk.

For this experimental and uncertain mission, however, he decided on a much smaller and whimsical payload - his old cherry-red Tesla sports car.

A space-suited mannequin was strapped in the driver's seat, and the radio set to play a David Bowie soundtrack on a loop.

The Tesla and its passenger have been despatched into an elliptical orbit around the Sun that reaches out as far as the Planet Mars.

The Falcon Heavy is essentially three of SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 vehicles strapped together. And, as is the usual practice for SpaceX, all three boost stages - the lower segments of the rocket - returned to Earth to attempt controlled landings.

Two came back to touchdown zones on the Florida coast just south of Kennedy. Their landing legs made contact with the ground virtually at the same time.

"That was epic," said Mr Musk. "That's probably the most exciting thing I've ever seen, literally."

The third booster was due to settle on a drone ship stationed several hundred kilometres out at sea. Unfortunately, it was unable to slow its descent by re-igniting sufficient engines, missed the target vessel and was destroyed as it hit the water at some 500km/h.

By then, the upper-stage of the Falcon Heavy, with its Tesla cargo, was heading on a trajectory that would hopefully take it towards Mars' orbit.

That required the engine on the upper-stage to fire on three separate occasions, with the third and final ignition only occurring after a long cruise phase - something which was confirmed some six hours after the launch.

Having such a large and powerful rocket should open up some fascinating new possibilities for Mr Musk and his SpaceX company. These include launching:

Much bigger satellites for use by US intelligence and the military. The scale of these satellites is limited by current rocket performance.

Large batches of satellites, such as those for Mr Musk's proposed constellation of thousands of spacecraft to deliver broadband across the globe.

Bigger, more capable robots to go to the surface of Mars, or to visit the outer planets such as Jupiter and Saturn, and their moons.

Huge telescopes. Hubble's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, is having to be folded origami-like to fit in its launcher next year.

But it is the low cost - brought about through the recovery and reuse of the boosters - that Elon Musk believes will be a game-changer when allied to the new performance.

"It'll be game-over for all other heavy-lift rockets," he told reporters on Monday.

"It'll be like trying to sell an aircraft where one aircraft company has a reusable aircraft and all the other companies had aircraft that were single-use where you would parachute out at your destination and the plane would crash-land randomly somewhere. Crazy as that sounds - that's how the rocket business works."

You might also be interested in:

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Elon Musk's Falcon Heavy rocket launches successfully

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By Jonathan Amos BBC Science Correspondent US entrepreneur Elon Musk has launched his new rocket, the Falcon Heavy, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mammoth vehicle - the most powerful since the shuttle system - lifted clear of its pad without incident to soar high over the Atlantic Ocean.

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[theme music]

ALEX GOLDMAN: From Gimlet, this is Reply All. I'm Alex Goldman.

PJ VOGT: And I'm PJ Vogt.

ALEX: PJ.

PJ: Yes.

ALEX: Hi.

PJ: Hello.

ALEX: So over the course of maybe the past year, we've gotten a fair amount of emails from people who think that Facebook and Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, are using the microphone on their phone to listen to their conversations and advertise stuff to them, based on the things they're saying.

PJ: Yeah, I have also gotten some of these messages. I've- I basically have felt like I don't - I think it would be such a risky thing for Facebook thing to do, they've been like, "Oh, it's probably just a coincidence, and people are imagining stuff."

ALEX: Yeah, but I've been talking to this guy named JP, and some of the stories that he's been telling me are super hard to dismiss. He told me that he that he first started noticing this happening at the beginning of the year.

JP: I was baking pizza dough. I was, you know, making pizza dough, and I said, "This would be a lot easier if we had one of those fancy Kitchenaid mixers." Ten minutes later, there's an ad for Kitchenaid mixers on sale.
ALEX: Okay wow.

[MUSIC]

ALEX: Not long after that, JP is in Target, with his partner Gary, and he yells down the aisle "Hey, can you pick up some Red Bull?"

JP: And then I opened Instagram on the way home, you know, I wasn't driving, I was in the passenger's seat, (laughs) and there was an ad for four new flavors of Red Bull. "Try them now."
ALEX: (laughs)
JP: And I was like, "This is insane. This is crazy." You know, they just kept coming. And I was like, "Let's try something funny." And like we would say something ridiculous, like, "Man, I could really use a pair of really sexy underwear." And like, these weird mesh underwear ads started showing up in our feeds. And it was nonstop

ALEX : And then JP told me a story that just felt really crazy. Let's call it the perfume story.

[MUSIC]

JP: The thing that really got us, was uh - my partner's mom came to visit from Oklahoma, a very nice lady, but, you know, doesn't travel that often.

ALEX: Her name's Debbie, and she was going to visit JP and Gary in San Francisco. And on her way there, she gets a bottle of perfume confiscated by the TSA. So, when she arrives in San Francisco, she says, "Hey, I want to go the perfume store and get a new bottle of perfume."

JP: And my partner and I, we don't wear colognes, we've never bought perfume that I know of, never search for it. And within 30 minutes, he had opened his Facebook and there was an ad for a women's perfume store in San Francisco.

PJ: That's weird.

ALEX: Yes! It's weird!

[MUSIC]

ALEX: On a scale of like, 1-10, what would you say your belief that this is actually your phone listening to you?
JP: Uh, 10. I'm convinced.
ALEX: Wow. OK.
JP: And it just, it creeps me out. And I have no idea how to stop it. I actually- this week, removed the Facebook app and Facebook Messenger and Instagram from my phone, and now I just have links to the websites. I'm like, this close to just deleting my account.

[MUSIC]

ALEX: So naturally, the first thing I did was contact Facebook. Ask them for an interview.

PJ: They said no.

ALEX: They said, "No, we won't do an interview. And also, listening to people's conversations via the microphone on their phone to target ads to them is not something Facebook does." They said that unequivocally.

PJ: Right. Which... Again, I don't think they do it, but if you're a person who does, you're like, "Well, of course they would say that. Why are they going to tell you about how they're secretly spying on you?"

ALEX: Um, right. But the thing is that Facebook wouldn't offer me a satisfactory explanation as to why these ads were showing up in JP's feed. So, I looked into this, and after doing some reporting, I realized the reason they don't want to talk to me about this is probably because the technology they use to target people with ads is really invasive. I talked to the guy who first built that technology. His name is Antonio Garcia Martinez. He's since left Facebook, but he started at the company back in 2011.

ALEX: So just to be clear, there was no targeted ads division before you, right?
ANTONIO GARCIA MARTINEZ: (laughs) You use the term division like a whole part of the company. It was literally me and three engineers.
ALEX: Okay.
ANTONIO: Remember, the only Facebook ads were those little postage stamp sized little turds on the right hand side, on the right hand bar. There was no commercial content in feed.

Antonio's big insight was that they'd make way more money if they just squeezed more information out of their users. And the most obvious piece of information was location. People's devices were telling Facebook where they were, and the targeted ads team could weaponize that.

ANTONIO: All of location targeting was the responsibility of one guy. He's a friend of mine, a guy named Pierre. He's a kind of weird, quirky, idiosyncratic French dude. And he would basically take, you know, the lat/long data off your mobile phone, your check ins, um, you know, IP address lookups, if you're logging in from a laptop or a desktop machine. And that would kind of go into Pierre's magic location machine, and out would come a location.

ALEX: Location is important to Facebook because A) Just where you live tells them a ton about the kind of stuff you're probably interested in. And B) if you suddenly appear in a different location, a location that Facebook doesn't recognize, then it knows that you're traveling.

PJ: So like, with the perfume story, it's like she was telling them that she was traveling even if she didn't realize she was telling them that.

ALEX: Yes.

PJ: Interesting.

ALEX: And so the next thing I learned was that in 2012, Antonio came up with what is probably his enduring legacy at Facebook - the thing that he will be remembered forever for.

PJ: Which is what?

ALEX: So he wanted to figure out a way to keep tracking people after they left Facebook. Like, to be able to see what they were doing all across the internet. And so he developed this thing that's now called Facebook Pixel, and it's installed on millions of websites. So when you go to one of these sites with Facebook Pixel on it, it watches what you do and reports that information back to Facebook. It can see how long you linger on a certain webpage, it can see if you purchase something, it can see if you put something in your cart on a website and decide not to buy it. It's kind of like an internet surveillance camera.

PJ: Got- so that's why like, that's why, like, when you look at a pair of shoes or whatever- it follows you around Facebook.

ALEX: It follows you around the internet. Right. There's this app that I use called Ghostery that shows you if Pixel is on a site that you're visiting. And it'll also show you all the other ad trackers that are on that site. Like, if you go to the New York Times website, there may be 30 or 40 of these trackers.

PJ: Like, as soon as there's an ad, you basically have to picture 30 or 40 like helpful friendly sales associates like following you around the store-

ALEX: (laughs)

PJ: -trying to guess how much money's in your wallet, like, guessing your like weight and age, and like being like, "Oh, he looked at the hooded sweatshirt, oh my god, OK, OK, write that down, write that down, he likes hoodies."

ALEX: Right, So by 2012, the targeted ads division has figured out how to follow you all around the Internet. They have all this info on everything you're purchasing, everything you think about purchasing.

But once they figured out they could do this, they got, like, data hungry. They weren't just interested in the information that you could give them online, they wanted to know things about what you were doing offline. And so they figured out a way to buy your personal history.

PJ: So it's like, I have a file on Alex Goldman. I'll go buy Alex Goldman's credit report. I mean, probably not that but-

ALEX: No, yeah. I mean, we don't know exactly what Facebook is buying, because they're a black box, but we do know that they're buying from companies that sell credit reports.

PJ: Really?

ALEX: Yes. I talked to this reporter from ProPublica, her name is Julia Angwin. She's investigated a lot of this stuff.

ALEX: Wait, where are they buying this stuff?
JULIA ANGWIN: Oh you can buy this from these delightful places. Uh, one of them just had a big breach, Equifax, you may have heard of them.
ALEX: Yeah, Equifax. Right.
JULIA: Experian, Axiom. You know, there's about- there's tons of them.There's probably about seven or 10 big ones out there who sell information about your income, the square footage of your house- within 25 square feet.

ALEX: These companies sell information on whether you've been married, whether you've been divorced, whether-

PJ: Your credit score?

ALEX: Whether your name has showed up in a lawsuit. They know your income. And you know those loyalty programs that like supermarkets and pharmacies have? The data brokers often run those programs. So they know how often you're buying diapers or cold medicine or birth control.

PJ: So like, if Debbie had like, a loyalty card at like, her local perfume store. They would know like, this is the type of perfume she buys. And even like, in theory it's like, they would know like, oh and she bought it like eight months ago. Like, she's due for some new like, eau de Debbie, or whatever.

ALEX: (laughs) Absolutely. They're basically learning everything they can about you, and then they break your personality and your interests down into all these hyper-specific traits. And Julia told me there are a ton of these.

JULIA: So, we were able to put together a big database of about 52,000 attributes that Facebook was collecting about its users.
ALEX: (laughs) Oh my god.
JULIA: Right.
ALEX: 52,000?
JULIA: So they had some categories that were just mind boggling. There was one that was just my favorite called, "a person who likes to pretend to text in awkward situations."
ALEX: (laughs) How did they even figure that out?
JULIA: I have no idea.

ALEX: There's actually a page on Facebook where you can see how Facebook categorizes you.

PJ: I want to check mine.

ALEX: Ok, so when you go to your Facebook, you go to settings, and then you click on ads. And then, uh, there's a section called "your information," and under that you can click "your categories."

PJ: Your categories.

ALEX: "Close friends of men with a birthday in seven to 30 days."

PJ: So that's like a reason somebody... That's a category where you're buying perfume for other people. Who are they trying to hint that I need to buy a birthday present for?

ALEX: "Away from family. Gmail user. Millennial."

PJ: "Housemate-based households: People living in households where one or more people are not immediate members of family. Away from hometown. Frequent traveler." I don't know, it's weird.

ALEX: It is weird. And this is not a complete picture of the information that they have on you. Facebook knows so much more, but they just keep a lot of it secret. And honestly, we only get a real glimpse of how much they know when they screw up. For instance, I talked to Charles Duhigg, he used to work at the New York Times, and he's written a lot about how big companies track you. And he had this story about a friend of his who learned something really disturbing through Facebook.

So,his friend's this liberal guy, lives on the East coast.

CHARLES: His brother-in-law lives in another different state, they don't see him often, but his brother-in-law is kind of one of those, like he's into guns, and he's really conservative. But my friend, he wants to have a relationship with his brother-in-law. So like, he like friended him on Facebook and they'll like cross post, and he always tries to, like, like the posts of his brother in law that aren't, like, totally crazy.

ALEX: But then this really weird thing started to happen on Charles' friend's Facebook feed.

CHARLES: Which is that he saw- he started getting these like, these right-wing political ads that were like a little white supremacist. Like not really white supremacist, right? Because you can't put white supremacist stuff on Facebook. But it was- it used a lot of the code words.

ALEX: Which freaked Charles' friend out, because it's not like he had ever expressed any interest in white supremacy or anything like that. So Thanksgiving rolls around, and he sees his brother-in-law, and he's like, "Hey, um, I've been getting all of this sort of like stuff that feels disconcertingly, to me, like white nationalist or sort of, like racist. And you're probably like the only conservative that I friend online. I'm wondering if you have any idea what this might be happening." And he was like, "Come outside. We need to talk."

PJ: What?

ALEX: And they go outside and he says listen, "I disavowed this, I'm not into it anymore. But for a couple of months last year, I was going to a lot of like white pride, white nationalism meetups."

PJ: What?

ALEX: Yeah, so one of the things that Facebook can do is if you like something, it can advertise that thing to your friends. So the brother-in-law obviously signaled to Facebook that he was into white supremacy somehow, and Charles' friend was liking a lot of the guy's posts, and they were friends on Facebook, so Facebook was like, "Alright, well, why don't I advertise this white supremacist stuff to you."

PJ: Wow. That's wild. It's like Facebook built a machine that just like as a side-effect outs white supremacists, but that's not even like the point of the machine, like, they don't care. Like, the whole point of it is just to like to learn things about you to sell you crap.

ALEX: Yeah but think about all of the stuff that this thing can do. Like if you look at everything that I just talked about, and you apply it to JP's perfume story, I think it explains it.

PJ: Oh, totally.

ALEX: So, like Debbie is going through the TSA in Oklahoma. She gets her perfume confiscated, and she's like, "Aw, crap. Now I've gotta buy new perfume." She searches for it on her phone.

PJ: She like- she looks at it, she's like, "Oh, it's kind of expensive, I'm not going to buy it right now."

ALEX: Right, but she goes to a page where Facebook has a, has a Pixel on it.

PJ: Facebook knows this person is now in the market to buy perfume. And-

ALEX: And it knows that-

PJ: -she's traveling.

ALEX: She's traveling-

PJ: Right. And they probably know that she's traveling to visit her son because like he's her son, he lives in San Francisco. She's logging in in San Francisco, so is he.

ALEX: Right.

PJ: So why not show the son a perfume ad because he could be like, "Oh mom, isn't this the perfume you like?"

ALEX: Exactly.

[MUSIC]

[phone rings]
ALEX: (clears throat)
JP: Hi, this is John Paul
ALEX: Hey, this is Alex, how are you doing?
JP: Hey, I'm great how are you?

So I called JP, and I told him that while I couldn't say with 100 percent certainty that Facebook wasn't listening to him, I had a lot of evidence that they just didn't need to.

ALEX: So then Facebook knows that she wants perfume, right?
JP: Yeah.
ALEX: Knowing your relationship, Facebook might have given your partner that ad because it knows that she's nearby and it knows that she wants perfume.
JP: Okay. (laughs) I mean... So maybe they're not listening on the microphone, but- I don't know. It just feels like they are. It's just really, like, it-it-this is a weird thing we've signed up for and--and allowed. You know, thank you for the additional information. I- (stammers and laughs).
ALEX: (laughs) Um-
JP: Oh boy.

ALEX: So I actually kind of thought my work was kind of done here, and then a couple of days later, I got an email from JP with the subject line, "I'm not sure I'm convinced."

PJ: (laughs)

ALEX: And he just told me another story, a story about talking about having a leg cramp, and then getting an ad on Instagram for cramp cream.

PJ: I actually don't find that surprising. Like, I feel like, I think you can learn as much as you want, I don't think you're ever going to convince anybody who already believes that Facebook is spying on them that they're not. And I think it's actually Facebook's fault. Like, they've created this problem because they're really good at collecting information about us, they won't be very transparent about what they collect or how. And so, you're basically forcing people to come up with the simplest possible solution for how Facebook knows stuff about them, and that's that they're listening in.

I would be surprised if you could find literally one person in the world who thinks this is happening who you could tell them what you've learned, and they would be like, "Yeah. You're right."

ALEX: I could find one person.

PJ: You cannot find one person. We can- we can literally open the phone lines, we can let people call in, you will not find a person.

ALEX: OK.

[MUSIC]

PJ: After the break, Alex takes some phone calls.

[MUSIC]

BREAK

PJ: Okay, so Alex.

ALEX: Yes?

PJ: So I tweeted out, and I just like, "Hey we're going to take calls. If you believe this thing is true, call in." Before we even open the phone lines, I just want you to know how screwed you are. (laughs) So like, let me just actually bring it up, hold on.

ALEX: I saw.

PJ: Like, like hundreds of people, I think. Like, everybody thinks this is true. Including like, including tech journalists who I respect a lot. Like it's not just like a fringe belief. Like everybody thinks this is true. Literally like the VP of Facebook's ad division jumped in and was like, "We're not doing this!" And there were just like all these people being like, "You're lying, you're lying."

Like, you are- I think you are walking into something that is maybe a little bigger than either of us realized. And I'm really excited to watch you walk into it.

ALEX: I still think I can do it.

PJ: Okay. let's take a call. Let's open the phone lines.

ALEX: Sounds good.

[Skype noise]
ALEX: Hello.
MONIQUE: Hi.
ALEX: Hi, who's this?
MONIQUE: Hi, this is Monique.
ALEX: Hi Monique, this is Alex.
PJ: And PJ.
MONIQUE: Hi guys
PJ: So what's going on here is that we're talking to people who believe that Facebook is listening in on them using their microphones. And Alex, who's done a lot of research, and as far as I can tell believes it's not happening, he'll try to give you an alternate explanation
MONIQUE: Ok, so I have a very quick story, and this is so funny, I was just telling my friend about this last night. Um, so, a few months ago I was on the phone talking to my friend and she was talking about this device that she had bought, um, to help her open coconuts.
PJ: What
MONIQUE: It was this really weird thing and she was trying to explain--she was explaining this tool, but she couldn't remember the name. And we get off the phone, and then that was it. And maybe 15, 20 minutes later, I'm scrolling on Facebook and I see an ad for this device called the Coco-Jack.
PJ: (laughs) The Coco-Jack?
MONIQUE: I screenshot it. And was like "Is this what you were talking about?" And she was like "Yes." And ever since then, I've been convinced that they're onto me.
ALEX: OK (clears throat).
PJ: God, this is like watching a conductor warm up.
ALEX: OK, is this person your friend on Facebook?
MONIQUE: Yes.
ALEX: Did she buy the Coco-Jack online?
MONIQUE: I don't know for sure, but I don't think she did.
PJ: I just watched a balloon deflate-
ALEX: No! Not necessarily.
PJ: OK.
ALEX: Do you know where she bought it?
MONIQUE: If I recall correctly, she was in Vegas at some, like um, weird little shop, like "as seen on TV" shop. And she picked it up there.
ALEX: Do you think that she was, like, frustrated by all her coconuts beforehand, and so she Googled like, "How to open coconuts?"
MONIQUE: Perhaps. Maybe. But why would I be seeing it on my- like I saw it on my feed?
ALEX: So Facebook has the ability to follow you around the internet as you browse. When you're logged into Facebook, and you go to a shopping site, and you put something in your cart, and you decide not to buy it, the site will then transmit that information back to Facebook, saying, "Hey, this person's really interested in the Coco Jack." Right?
MONIQUE: Uh huh.
ALEX: So another thing that Facebook does is that it allows advertisers to advertise certain products to the friends of people who have either purchased or shown interest in that product. So your friend-
MONIQUE: Huh.
ALEX: -Being really into the Coco Jack, her favorite new device, might have left some kind of digital trail.
MONIQUE: I think that it's a possibility, um--the way it happened. It happened so quick. As soon as we were off the phone, not long after I saw it in my feed. So I was convinced, like, oh, they heard me talk about about a coconut opener, and now they're trying to sell me one. That's what it looked like.
ALEX: I understand. And that sounds creepy.
MONIQUE: Mhmm.
ALEX: And I empathize with feeling creeped out by it. But given an alternate explanation that does not require Facebook to be clandestinely listening to you using your microphone, which one feels more likely to you?
MONIQUE: (sighs) You know what? I'm still kind of convinced that they might be listening to me.
ALEX: Aw, Monique! You're killing me here!
PJ: This is not happening for you today.

[MUSIC]

MIKE: A coworker of mine had, this is going to sound silly, but she had brought in a brand of cough drop that I had never heard of before. It was new. We were talking about how I'd never heard of this cough drop before, and I didn't Google it. I didn't get on my phone and look it up. And I'm scrolling through Instagram like, maybe an hour later. And all of a sudden, there's an ad for this cough drop.
PJ: Alex Goldman, how do you explain that?
ALEX: Are you friends on Facebook with this friend who suggested, who- who brought in the cough drops.
MIKE: Yes.
ALEX: OK.
MIKE: But can I- can I add a caveat?
ALEX: Sure.
MIKE: I wasn't friends with them until after the cough drop incident.
ALEX: Oh.
PJ: (laughs) You're so screwed.
ALEX: Oh boy.

[MUSIC]

JASON: We were talking about whether we prefer like a firm or a soft mattress. And a couple days later, I started getting served ads for a mattress company called Casper.
ALEX: So, Casper may have decided that they have, like, not penetrated the market in your town of people who are about to graduate from college and are probably going to need a mattress when they move into their own apartments. It's very possible they know how much money you make because they buy information about you from data brokers. Facebook buys information.
PJ: Sir, are you finding this convincing?
JASON: It- it's a decent explanation. It just, like this one sounds as like plausible as, my phone heard me have this conversation with my friend, and immediately after that conversation, I'm immediately being served this ad about mattresses.
ALEX: What could I possibly do to tip the scale in this situation?
JASON: Uh-I-(sighs).
ALEX: (laughs)
JASON: (laughs)

PJ: Ok, let's try another person to see if you have any chance of-

ALEX: Oh I'm definitely- I'm definitely going to convince someone.

PJ: So you are now 0-4?

ALEX: I can't remember. Three or four.

[MUSIC]

TOM: Sillicon Valley startup idea of a milkshake.. And then for the next week I saw ads for Soylent in my Facebook scroll.
ALEX: And like what was the lag time between you mentioning it and seeing Soylent ads?
TOM: So I was visiting some family in a different town, and I remember the next week when I came back. It was within a couple of days.
ALEX: OK. Where were you visiting, and where do you live?
TOM: So I live in Des Moines, Iowa.
ALEX: OK.
TOM: And I was visiting my wife's cousins in Kansas City.
ALEX: OK. Both hotbeds of Soylent consumption. Do you have any friends who, um, consume Soylent?
TOM: Um, I had a coworker who was trying it for a while.
ALEX: Uh, around--
TOM: But I don't think I'm friends with them on Facebook.
ALEX: Do you have any friends who live in San Francisco?
PJ: (laughing)
TOM: Uh... No.
ALEX: Can you (laughing)? PJ has to keep turning away from me because he's laughing too hard about my futile attempts to convince people that-
PJ: I've never watched anyone do something so badly.
ALEX: (laughs)
PJ: It's like watching someone in the Olympics just fall down (laughs).
ALEX: (laughs)

[MUSIC]

PJ: I didn't think this would go like perfectly, but I did not think it would go this catastrophically so fast (laughs).

ALEX: What am I supposed to do? The problem here, which is the same problem with reporting out this story, is that Facebook not only is like a black box that tends to not want to tell you about how their stuff works. It is done using so many complex algorithms, that they don't even know. If I was like, "Hey tell me how this ad got served to this gentleman," the people of Facebook would say like, "I don't know the answer to that."

PJ: I feel like you're reverse convincing me.

ALEX: What, like now-

PJ: I feel like I'm starting to go to the other side now.

[MUSIC]

JULIA: Hi, uh, my name is Julia.
ALEX: This is Alex. How are you doing?
JULIA: I'm great. How are you?
ALEX: I'm good. I'm going to try and convince you that Facebook is not listening to you. Is Facebook listening to you?
JULIA: Oh. 1000 percent. Um, so I was at a friend's house a few weeks ago.
ALEX: Mhmm.
JULIA: We were talking about a guy that she went to high school with, and I went to college with. We did not look him up. We did not google him. We did not go on his Instagram or his Facebook.
ALEX: OK.
JULIA: And the next day, both of us got him as a recommended follow on Instagram.
ALEX: Huh.
JULIA: And this is like not somebody who I had interacted with online literally in any capacity for like a good many years. And it was both of us that got the recommended follow, and you don't get the recommended follows that often. So, it's definitely listening to me.
ALEX: PJ's- PJ is smirking at me because he thinks that I can't answer this.
PJ: No, I'm just smiling because your face is covered in flop sweat
ALEX: And you're absolutely right that I can't answer this one.
PJ: (laughs)
JULIA: (laughs)
ALEX: Because ad targeting and the "people you may know" data sets are totally separate. I don't- I haven't been researching this. I have no idea. I have- I can't answer this one.
JULIA: I do it tells you though that the microphone is definitely listening.
ALEX: Uh- I-
JULIA: What it's being used for...
ALEX: PJ can't- PJ can't keep it together. He's losing his mind. He thinks this is so funny.
PJ: (laughing) I just think it's funny because Alex had a lot of confidence (laughing harder, barely audible) he would have all the answers, and would be able to explain it to people.
ALEX: (laughing) I'm sorry Julia, I can't answer this one. I going to have to let you go. Maybe they're listening to you, and suggesting friends based on that, but I haven't been paying attention to that.
PJ: (laughing) Wait--wait--you're giving up instead.
ALEX: (laughing) I'm sorry?
JULIA: [Skype breaking up] You need to follow this. I do think it is like irrefutably the microphone is on.
ALEX: OK.
JULIA: I think this is fair.
PJ: You're not even arguing, Alex!
ALEX: Why would I argue? He's like, "Why aren't you arguing? Why aren't you arguing?" I don't know anything about how they decide who they should suggest to you as friends. They could be.
JULIA: But don't you think this means that like the microphone is on, and is listening, and is recording information.
ALEX: I have no idea.
PJ: (laughing) Oh my god.
ALEX: PJ can't take it. You need to pull yourself together. I've got to convince someone before the end of the day, and I'm definitely not going to do it with Julia.
PJ: (laughing) Well, I think that your argument is that maybe the microphone is listening to you is not going to convince anybody that the microphone is not listening.
ALEX: (laughing) It might. It might.
PJ: Julia, thank you so much.

[MUSIC]

ALEX: So, I wasn't able to convince anybody, but whether you think Facebook is listening to you or not, we are going to put a bunch of information up on our website about how to prevent them from tracking you as much as they do. And if you do believe that Facebook is listening to you, we'll also have instructions on there for how to disable the microphone privileges for your Facebook app. You can find it at replyall.limo/donttrackme.

[MUSIC]

Reply All is PJ Vogt and me, Alex Goldman. We were produced this week by Sruthi Pinnamaneni, Phia Bennin, and Damiano Marchetti. Production help from Jon Hanrahan. Our editor is Tim Howard. Our intern is Anna Foley. Fact checking by Michelle Harris. The show was mixed by Rick Kwan.

Special thanks this week to Zoe Kleiman, Christine McClellan and Emily Taylor. Matt Lieber is sitting on your couch and looking around at how nice your house looks after you just cleaned it. Our theme song is by the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder and our ad music is by Build Buildings. You can listen to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening, we'll see you in two weeks.

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#109 Is Facebook Spying on You? | Reply All

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theme music] ALEX GOLDMAN: From Gimlet, this is Reply All. I'm Alex Goldman. PJ VOGT: And I'm PJ Vogt. ALEX: PJ. PJ: Yes. ALEX: Hi. PJ: Hello.

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More or Less Human | Radiolab | WNYC Studios

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As the line between technology and humanity becomes blurrier, we wonder, are we becoming more or less human?

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Big questions about technology, science, and culture, hosted by The Atlantic's Derek Thompson.

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Remember the days when phones were just (gasp!) phones? Before we started clogging up cyberspace with billions of images no one particularly wanted to see? Or before endlessly snapping photos of our lunch became more important than eating it? Whether you look back at those times with a hint of nostalgia or you're a self confessed selfie addict, there's no denying that the camera phone changed the world as we know it. Jonathan Ignatius Green's 4 min short, The Birth of the Camera Phone is a picture-perfect reenactment of how Philippe Kahn created the device on the most important day of his life. It's a story about innovation and new beginnings, full of heart and wit, which will make you question the effects of this technology on our lives, as the seemingly expendable has become utterly essential.

On June 11th, 1997, as Philippe Kahn, and his overdue wife made their way to the maternity ward, something magical happened. By jerry-rigging a mobile phone with a digital camera, Khan managed to take a photo of his newborn daughter Sophie and share it via email instantly, for the very first time in history. Thus the camera phone was born. The short features actor re-enacting this momentous occasion and is narrated by and includes interview footage of Kahn himself. The Birth of the Camera Phone is short, sweet and snappy, a wonderful tribute to a brilliant man who shaped history.

Whilst studying the effects of photography on modern day society, Jonathan Ignatius Green came across an essay written by Philippe Kahn. "I was fascinated by the rather odd story of that day in the hospital when all the components of his project finally came together. It seemed like a true story that you wouldn't believe if you saw it in a movie. That's my favorite kind" - the director recalls. He had the opportunity to interview Mr. Kahn, as part of a feature documentary, called Social Animals, but as the film evolved during post production, the experts' interviews didn't make the cut. With the 20th anniversary of the birth of the camera phone approaching, Green realised it would be a shame not to use Kahn's interview footage and decided to make a short film with it instead.

As a self-confessed terrible millennial, I find pulling exasperatingly slappable facial expressions in front of the camera to be socially irritating and ultimately pointless, in the great scheme of things. I mean has anyone ever enjoyed someone else's selfie? Don't get me wrong; I do really believe believe in the power of technology and harnessing this to capture important moments. And Green's The Birth of the Camera Phone took me back to what I fondly think of as 'the innocent days'. What I like even more is learning that the first camera phone was born out of love and its very first picture is of baby Sophie Kahn. How lovely is that? Perhaps if we too stuck to only photographing those really special moments and the people we share them with, we'd actually take the time to look through them again at some point, the way we used to look through our cherished, old photo albums.

Green's upcoming feature documentary Social Animals is in the final stages of post production. It's centred around a daredevil photographer, an aspiring swimsuit model, and a midwest girl next door who are all looking for the same things from their Instagram accounts - a little love, acceptance and, of course, fame. Can't wait!

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The Birth of the Camera Phone by Jonathan Ignatius Green

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Remember the days when phones were just (gasp!) phones? Before we started clogging up cyberspace with billions of images no one particularly wanted to see? Or before endlessly snapping photos of our lunch became more important than eating it?

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Video: How Facebook Is Changing Your Internet

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Behind the scenes, Facebook is involved in high-stakes diplomatic battles across the globe that have begun fragmenting the internet itself.

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Overcrowding, poor sanitation and limited health care in the Rohingya refugee areas of Bangladesh is a "recipe for disaster".

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The United Nations has issued warnings about Yemen's food shortage since September 2016, with other humanitarian agencies continuing to stress the urgency as the situation grows increasingly dire. On April 17, Magne Barth, the head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said at a Moscow press conference that Yemen may be completely out of food by August, which is rapidly approaching.

Experts have long linked resource scarcity to conflict, and Yemen, like Syria or other war zones, is no exception. In Yemen, water scarcity, exacerbated by climate change, was an issue even before the war started, much like Yemen's food insecurity. In 2012, Foreign Policy wrote that then pre-conflict Yemen "could soon hold the distinction of being one of the hardest places in the world to get a glass of water." The same article states that in 2010 - even before 2011's Arab Spring pro-democracy movements that took hold in the Middle East and included Yemen - U.S. analysts forecast that Yemen could run out of water by 2020. This, again, was a pre-conflict forecast.

The unavailability of clean drinking water has brought with it another issue that becomes deadly in wartime: Cholera, a normally preventable and treatable disease spread by contaminated water and food.

With their health and economic systems in various states of disarray or collapse, Yemenis are unable to receive treatment for diarrheal disease and it often proves fatal, sometimes in a matter of hours. Since October 2016, Yemenis have faced outbreaks of cholera in huge numbers - numbers that the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) called "unprecedented."

UNICEF stated that more than 920 people have died of cholera since late April, and over 124,000 new cases have been recorded since that time. Almost half of the cases have been children. And the death toll from cholera has doubled in the first two weeks of June, according to the World Health Organization.

Those numbers are expected to grow. Being malnourished makes children more susceptible to cholera, according to the children's charity Save the Children, and current stats show that a Yemeni child is falling sick with cholera every 35 seconds.

The Globe and Mail reported that one Yemeni man told a children's charity that he had to travel 120 miles from his home to Yemen's capital, Sanaa, to seek treatment for his children, because the local hospital was full. The trip cost him 35,000 Yemen rial (about $140 USD) - in a country where the average government salary is less than $100 USD a month and the majority of people make far, far less.

For Yemen, a Muslim-majority nation, the humanitarian needs have greatly escalated during the holy month of Ramadan, a time when Muslims may focus more on acts of good deeds and charity. Wealthier Arab nations have not properly facilitated aid to the poorest among them, whose infrastructures are destroyed and whose children are dying.

Yemen - and other conflict zones - require ongoing assistance and humanitarian aid not just during Ramadan, but year-round until the crisis is stabilized. Several reputable organizations, including Islamic Relief USA, Oxfam, Save the Children, and CARE are working to combat the violence and hunger.

Related: Obama's Drone Warfare Is Something We Need to Talk About

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Yemen's MASSIVE Humanitarian Crisis Deserves More Attention

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The United Nations has issued warnings about Yemen's food shortage since September 2016, with other humanitarian agencies continuing to stress the urgency as the situation grows increasingly dire. On April 17, Magne Barth, the head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said at a Moscow press conference that Yemen may be completely out of food by August, which is rapidly approaching.

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Whether it's with the Free Syrian Army or the pro-government National Defense Forces militia, ISIS or the Kurds, children across the war-torn country have consistently been recruited to fight in Syria's war.

Abu Talha, 15, is fighting with opposition forces in Daraa, Syria.Roxana.fm/Syrian Independent Media Group

DARAA, Syria - Abu al-Baraa, 15, spends his days sitting in a gilt chair in a house abandoned by a family who fled the country. Once in a while, holding a sniper rifle, he stands on the chair to survey a broad field, just 9 miles (15km) away from government forces.

The teenage soldier left school more than two years ago, joining a rebel militia and eventually becoming a sniper at this intersection on the border between opposition and government-controlled territories.

"I sit here to protect myself and my family," he said. "Everyone else fled to Europe and Turkey, and they left us here without protection."

Militarizing children has become common in the Syrian war, with all sides guilty of what is considered a war crime in international law.

We interviewed soldiers ranging from 14 to 17 years of age, most belonging to branches of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Daraa, Homs and Idlib. We were unable to speak with child soldiers fighting for al-Nusra Front or ISIS, which do not permit such interviews - speaking to them without permission would have put the children at risk.

Many FSA leaders said children are not allowed to be involved in combat in any way, but its fighters said that children were joining opposition groups on their own, often following their older brothers and cousins into battle.

"The headquarters are filling up in the villages - it is very easy for a teenager to go with those he knows, or by himself, to volunteer and become a fighter," said Husam Abu al-Farouq, a fighter in Daraa. "Most of the time, there is no arrangement with the parents."

Abu Yahya, a leader of Jaish al-Sham, a coalition of Islamist and Salafist units, in Idlib, views it as a simple matter: "There are no schools or anything like that around here ... They come in and ask us to make them soldiers, and we rely on children who are able to carry weapons, starting at the age of 15. There are parents who do not want their children joining, but if we don't take them, some other group will."

Mahmoud al-Abbas, an 18-year-old Idlib native who enlisted two years ago with Ahrar al-Sham, another powerful coalition of rebel militias, recalled taking the initiative to join the group. "I asked where I could find the headquarters of the fighting groups for the opposition," he said. "My mother was very afraid, but my brothers encouraged me to fight because they are also fighters. Of course, there are financial reasons behind why I chose to fight, plus there are no schools to study in, there is no work and we have to defend ourselves and our parents."

Child soldiers fighting on the front line in Idlib for the FSA said they did not have steady wages, receiving around $30-35 from their leaders only once in a while. Farouq, the fighter in Daraa, said children received monthly payments, which their families depended upon for survival.

As for al-Nusra Front, many civilians in rural Idlib say the group's vehicles are constantly patrolling the area, trying to enlist children. In some parts of Idlib controlled by al-Nusra, children attend religious schools that have been opened as an alternative to public schools. There, they receive not only religious education, but also basic weapons instruction.

Human Rights Watch found in 2014 that al-Nusra Front requires its child soldiers to sign documents agreeing to participate in suicide missions.

The situation is similar with children fighting with the so-called Islamic State group (ISIS), which militarizes children through extremist religious teachings. According to Aktham Elwani, a journalist specializing in jihadist groups, teenagers in areas controlled by the ISIS are "brainwashed by constant implanting of jihadist ideology."

"The parents do not dare prevent their children from fighting," he added, "because whoever refuses is either sent to jail or killed, with the accusation being treason."

Children fighting for ISIS are paid around $65 per month, and their parents receive a "health basket" with food for a few days.

In northeastern Syria, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) are also known to militarize local youth, although they claim to keep them far away from the front lines.

But Human Rights Watch has found that the YPG is militarizing both boys and girls in their police and militia. In 2014, the YPG demobilized 149 children after signing a deed of commitment protecting children in armed conflict at the behest of nonprofit organization Geneva Call. However, it retained some teenagers who still fight with them to this day.

Child soldiers fighting for the Syrian government were the most difficult to reach. Although the government ratified the U.N.'s optional protocol for protecting children's rights in 2003, this does not cover groups assisting the Syrian army, including the notorious shabiha- mostly Alawite groups of armed militias that support Assad's rule.

According to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in 2012, the National Defense Forces - a pro-government militia that serves as a volunteer reserve component of the Syrian army - was actually training children. Still, no national organization has been able definitively to accuse the Syrian government of militarizing children.

Philip, a government soldier serving in rural Damascus, said the army sometimes takes child soldiers as military prisoners, forcing them into hard labor such as digging trenches and building sand dunes.

"The officers have noticed that they are much more active and effective than older prisoners, and they are also in much better shape," he added. "They do everything they can to complete their mission, no matter how hard it is."

We also acquired a video of Adonis, a 17-year-old boy killed in February while fighting for the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) branch in rural Latakia, a coastal area to the west of the country controlled by the Syrian army. In the tape, he shyly said: "My father doesn't know I am here ... he knows I am with the Social Nationalist Party, but he doesn't know I am fighting." While Adonis was not used to being filmed, he said a "brave" man was supposed to leave a video will for his parents to watch after his death.

While enlisted young people may initially be kept away from fighting, delegated to cooking or cleaning duties, they are eventually trained and sent to fight, some even participating in suicide missions. In January 2015, ISIS published photos of Abu al- Hassan al-Shami, a boy believed to be around 14, preparing to carry out a suicide bombing in Iraq.

In 2014, the United Nations documented 278 cases of child soldiers as young as eight years old. It also found that 77 percent of child fighters engaged in direct combat.

According to the Violation Documentation Center in Syria, at least 305 child soldiers have been killed in Syria's war, with the first deaths occurring in September 2011, when government forces detained a pair of 16-year-old brothers in Halfaya. The center's former manager Bassam al-Ahmad said the actual number of child soldiers killed in the war was "much higher" than the number the organization was able to record.

The process of rehabilitating militarized youth is also a struggle, according to Alaa Thatha, a psychologist at a children's organization in Syria, adding that these children need proper schools to continue their education, and alternative ways to earn a living for themselves and their families: "It's easy to save a child from war, but it's not easy to take the war out of him."

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Children are Fighting on All Sides of Syria's War

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Whether it's with the Free Syrian Army or the pro-government National Defense Forces militia, ISIS or the Kurds, children across the war-torn country have consistently been recruited to fight in Syria's war. DARAA, Syria - Abu al-Baraa, 15, spends his days sitting in a gilt chair in a house abandoned by a family who fled the country.

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Student Protesters | American Experience | PBS

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As the Vietnam War escalated, more and more students at the University of Wisconsin were drawn into the demonstrations.

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At a high school in Killeen, Texas, the imprint of the Iraq war is felt every day, by virtually every student.

Killeen is home to Fort Hood, where the Army's Fourth Infantry and First Cavalry divisions are based. The two divisions have alternated deployments through the last four years of war.

About 90 percent of the 2,000 students at Shoemaker High School have at least one parent in the military. The school's hallways are adorned with big, royal blue and silver cardboard stars. There is one for every parent who has been deployed to Iraq since the war began.

School counselor Barbara Critchfield and some colleagues had the idea for the stars soon after the war began. She recalls that they bought 80 stars with their own money, at 84 cents each.

But when they surveyed the students, they realized they didn't have nearly enough. They bought a thousand more, and then a thousand more.

And hanging above the school's entrance are seven gold stars - one for each parent who has died in Iraq. Critchfield says she often looks up as she walks through the halls.

"And a name will pop out, and I'm like, 'Oh, I need to check on him or I need to check on her,'" she says.

The absence of parents is inescapable. Once, after a football game, the opposing school sent Shoemaker a plant.

"They had noticed the absence of parents on our side of the stadium during the football game. And it struck them so hard, and they realized that our kids were doing all this without parents," says Critchfield.

Shoemaker has had four principals in three years. All the counselors are new this year, except Critchfield, who has been at the school for six years.

For students, life is filled with the usual teenage concerns: exams, football practice and young love. And yet, the war overshadows everything.

Take Eugene Daniels. The senior will play football at Colorado State next year. On a recent day, he was carrying a memory book filled with family photos. But there are just three or four pictures of his father, an Army lieutenant colonel in military intelligence.

"They're probably when my sister and me were born," Daniels says of the photos of his father. "So he's been gone quite a lot. Every time they go somewhere, he's deployed."

Since 2001, his father has been home for a year's duration just once. Many responsibilities fall on Daniels' shoulders.

"It's a lot on the students, because we're just teenagers, and I think a lot of time we forget that, because you have to grow up so fast," he says.

Critchfield says with so many parents away, school attendance has fallen. Students' grades start to slip, so fewer are graduating. The school also is seeing more discipline problems.

She also says some students worry their mothers might commit suicide while their fathers are deployed. As a result, the kids stay up all night, keeping watch.

And it's not just the students. Many teachers at Shoemaker have a spouse who has been deployed in Iraq.

Cynthia Kovach teaches art at the school, and her husband is in Iraq with the 1st Cavalry. He came home from his last deployment with what she calls "really bad" post-traumatic stress disorder.

Kovach says the longer the war goes on, the more she sees the effects on her students.

Senior Amanda Gillinger's mother is a fueler with the 4th Infantry. Gillinger's best friend is Allissa Richards, whose stepfather is a driver with the 1st Calvary and is currently in Iraq.

"What's really sad is that last goodbye could be your last goodbye - that last time you're there with that person," says Richards.

Gillinger recalls, with regret, yelling at her mother the day before she left Fort Hood for her deployment.

"We fought. I was hateful. Everything you do, you regret. You can't go back and change it. I can't say 'Mom, I'm sorry,' because she's not there. And that is devastating," Gillinger says. "You're not the same after something like that. You can't be, because it takes you and twists you and turns you, and you come out with something totally new."

Gillinger and Richards both say they don't watch the news, and they don't want to know where in Iraq their parents are deployed: They don't want to be even more frightened than they already are.

For now, the seniors at Shoemaker High are looking ahead to graduation in May. They are hoping their parents will be there, but as they've learned over the last four years, they can't count on it.
NPR's Melissa Gray produced this story.

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Iraq War's Effects Seen, Felt in High School's Halls

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At a high school in Killeen, Texas, the imprint of the Iraq war is felt every day, by virtually every student. Killeen is home to Fort Hood, where the Army's Fourth Infantry and First Cavalry divisions are based. The two divisions have alternated deployments through the last four years of war.

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Numbers came easily to Angeline Nanni. As a girl of 12 in rural Pennsylvania during the Great Depression, she kept the books in her father's grocery store. In high school, she took all the accounting classes on offer. Enrolled in beauty school after graduation-cosmetology being one of the few fields open to women in the 1940s-Angie focused on the business side while her sisters, Mimi and Virginia, learned to style hair. Before the war, the three Nanni sisters had opened a beauty parlor in Blairsville, Pennsylvania, and Angie ran it. So yes, numbers were her calling.

But the numbers on this test were like nothing she had ever seen.

Angie-intent, graceful, unflappable-was seated in a small classroom in a large, ill-built temporary structure. The year was 1945, and World War II was over. The Nanni sisters had moved to Washington, D.C. to take jobs in the war effort, but now the beauty shop in Blairsville beckoned. Angie, though, wanted to stay. This test would determine whether she could.

It was being administered at a secret government facility in Arlington, Virginia. Around Angie were eight or nine other women, all contemplating the same set of numbers, wearing various expressions of alarm. Most, Angie thought nervously, had attended college. She had not. On a piece of paper before her were ten sets of numbers, arranged in five-digit groups. The numbers represented a coded message. Each five-digit group had a secret meaning. Below that row of 50 numbers was another row of 50, arranged in similar groups. The supervisor told them to subtract the entire bottom row from the top row, in sequence. She said something about "non-carrying."

Angie had never heard the word "non-carrying" before, but as she looked at the streams of digits, something happened in her brain. She intuited that the digit 4, minus the digit 9, equaled 5, because you just borrowed an invisible 1 to go beside the top number. Simple! Angie Nanni raced through, stripping out the superfluous figures to get down to the heart of the message.

"I don't know how I did it," says Angie, who was 99 years old when we talked in March. "I just said, 'Oh, that's going to be easy.'" The supervisor came around and saw that she had finished before anybody else. "That's right, Angie! That's right!" she cried. Then she ran out of the room to tell her superiors they had a new candidate for the Russian code-breaking project.

**********

That moment-and Angie Nanni's instinctive grasp of an unusual form of math called non-carrying addition and subtraction-changed the trajectory of her life. It also helped seal the fate of other Americans, such as Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, executed in 1953 for passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. Their conviction was based in part on the work of Angeline Nanni and a group of other extraordinary American women.

Their persistence and talent brought about one of the greatest counterespionage triumphs of the Cold War: Venona, the top-secret U.S. effort to break encrypted Soviet spy communications. For nearly 40 years, Angie and several dozen colleagues helped identify those who passed American and Allied secrets to the Soviet Union during and after World War II. Their work unmasked such infamous spies as the British intelligence officer Kim Philby, the British diplomat Donald Maclean, the German-born scientist Klaus Fuchs and many others. They provided vital intelligence about Soviet tradecraft. Their work was so highly classified that President Harry Truman likely did not know about it.

In 1995, when Venona was declassified, the public face of the project was male. The most celebrated name was that of a man, Meredith Gardner, a linguist who deciphered names and words, working closely with FBI agent Robert J. Lamphere. But in the cryptanalytic unit-where the tough analytic math was done, where the messages were prepared and matched, where the breakthroughs happened, where the numbers were so painstakingly stripped-the face of Venona was different: "Most of the people working on it were women," says Robert L. Benson, a retired historian for the National Security Agency.

The story of Venona's female code breakers has never been publicly told in full. Benson interviewed some of them for a classified internal history of Venona, only portions of which have been declassified and released online. More important, while the exploits of Gardner and other men have been the focus of entire books, the women themselves did not talk about their work-not to their friends, not to their families, hardly to each other. Most took the secret to their graves. This article is based on exclusive interviews with Nanni, the last living member of the original team of Venona women; relatives of code breakers who are no longer alive; and NSA and CIA publications that detail how the project unfolded. It marks the first time that any of the female Venona code breakers has given an interview to a reporter.

Even now, talking about her career makes Angie Nanni nervous: "I still don't if I can help it," she says. She and her colleagues-young women from rural towns-were privy to some of the most closely held secrets of Cold War espionage. In the 1950s and '60s, as the Soviets attempted to learn about U.S. weapons and America was convulsed by the toxic chaos of McCarthyism, these women were among a tiny handful of Americans who knew the truth.

They were Gloria Forbes, Mildred Hayes, Carrie Berry, Jo Miller Deafenbaugh, Joan Malone Calla-han, Gene Grabeel and others. Anybody who saw the women together could easily mistake them for a suburban garden club. They wore shift dresses, big hair, fishbowl glasses. They carried handbags. They liked to picnic, shop, play bridge, bowl together. Most started out as schoolteachers. They had ferocious intellects, a powerful command of languages and math, a steely commitment to public service and an almost familial devotion to one another. Like Angie Nanni, most of them came to Washington during the war and never left.

"We were mostly single women," Angie says. Bachelorhood kind of came with the territory: "We were afraid to meet other people because at that time, we didn't know who we were going to meet." It might be a Soviet plant. "I was even afraid to join a church." Her family heritage is Italian; trim and elegant, she still has perfect posture; a cherubic face; alert, amused eyes with thin penciled eyebrows. She dresses in la bella figura tradition, with startlingly brilliant gold jewelry and bright, well-tailored clothing. She still cooks for herself; grocery shops; walks every day. And she still lives in the same downtown apartment, exotically decorated with knickknacks she picked up on travels and at antiques stores. Gesturing toward her window, in the direction of some townhouses where Soviet diplomats used to live, she conjures what Cold War Washington felt like for an unmarried woman who knew some of the government's most sensitive secrets.

The Venona messages were encoded in a fiendishly complex system, so difficult to crack that the women mined the same trove for decades, endlessly going over code groups, digging out names, going back and back as new information came to light. At the peak of the Cold War-which was also the peak of the baby boom, an era when American women were urged to spend their lives as homemakers-it was women who started Venona. It was women who kept Venona going, and women who rolled Venona up.

**********

To try to break wartime Soviet messages was an act of remarkable optimism, if not hubris. The Russians had a well-earned reputation for creating unbreakable codes, and U.S. code breakers already had their hands full in deciphering Japanese, German and other enemy messages. In addition, American leaders were squeamish about reading allies' communications. But the Soviets were unpredictable, and it would be vital to know their intentions in a postwar world. So, on February 1, 1943, the Signal Intelligence Service-the Army's code-breaking branch, and a forerunner of the NSA-quietly set up a program to break encoded telegrams sent to Moscow by Soviet diplomats stationed around the world.

The collection of intercepts had begun earlier, and somewhat by accident: Starting in 1939, Soviet communications were vacuumed up as part of a massive Allied effort to intercept transmissions sent by the Germans, Japanese and other Axis nations. When the United States abruptly entered the war on December 8, 1941, the Office of Censorship began to receive a copy of every international cable. Encoded cables were sent to the Signal Intelligence Service, which by late 1942 was up and running in Arlington Hall, a former girls' school in Arlington, whose gracious grounds had been transformed with barbed wire and massive temporary buildings.

There, the Soviet messages accumulated in a wooden file cabinet, and then another, and another. Nobody knew what to do with them, but no crackerjack code-breaking operation throws any message away. By early 1943, the head of Army intelligence, Carter Clarke, had come to distrust the Soviets, ally or not. If they were planning to broker a separate peace with Germany, Clarke wanted to be able to warn his bosses. So he made what is, in the annals of code-breaking, a pretty common decision-to try to penetrate an ally's secret communications. He launched a program to read Joe Stalin's mail.

At about the same time, a bright young home economics teacher was becoming discontented with the charms of rural southwest Virginia. Gene Grabeel, 23, had grown up in Lee County. Her hometown, Rose Hill, had 300 people, a grocery, a church and a service station. Her mother raised chickens and sold eggs, and her father farmed tobacco and worked a variety of jobs. The Grabeels had a tradition of sending their girls to college. Gene went to Mars Hill, a two-year school in North Carolina, then to State Teachers College (later called Longwood) in Farmville, Virginia.

At the time, the only job a female college graduate could reliably expect was teaching school, and Gene taught home economics to teenage girls in Madison Heights, Virginia. When she told her father she hated it, he urged her to find work that made her happy. At a holiday dance in her hometown during the Christmas season in 1942, she chatted with a childhood acquaintance, Frank Rowlett, who was now a top official in the Signal Intelligence Service. Rowlett confided that there was better work in Washington.

By that time, the Army had sent a handful of officers out to seek recruits for its code-breaking operation. Since most of the men were off fighting, the recruiters focused on women. (Ninety percent of Arlington Hall code breakers would be women.) Grabeel traveled to the post office in Lynchburg to hand her application for war work to a recruiter named Paavo Carlson. He offered her a job-doing what, he could not say, because nobody had told him, either-and asked her to head for the capital as soon as she could. Grabeel's father agreed she would be happier in Washington "shuffling paper" for six months-her likely task, they both assumed-so she took the job. On Sunday, December 28, 1942, she arrived by train and took a cab to Arlington Hall, where she was given hasty training in the art and science of breaking codes.

At Arlington Hall, most work focused on Japanese Army codes, but Grabeel, four weeks after arriving, was directed to attack the Soviet intercepts, an immensely secret and sensitive task even in that secret and sensitive place. It's likely she was chosen because Rowlett knew her as a solid citizen with an unimpeachable family background. Her code-breaking partner was Second Lt. Leonard Zubko, a 1942 Rutgers graduate fresh out of infantry school at Fort Benning. Eager to command troops, Zubko later figured he got this desk job because he knew Russian. He did not enjoy it. He and Grabeel were seated in one corner of a room and told to speak only in whispers. The other occupant was a British liaison officer-an odd allotment of office space, as the British were not to know what was going on.

And so Venona began: two junior analysts laboring at a table in a building that was alternatively hot and cold and always crowded, with huge open bays occupied by teams working on other projects. The first thing Grabeel and Zubko did was try to get a grip on what, exactly, they had. They began sorting the tangle of messages by date as well as by "lane," the communications circuit over which they had been sent. Before long, Zubko was replaced. Other men came and went. Grabeel stayed put.

As often happens in code-breaking, enemy countries became an odd sort of ally. Code breakers in Finland-which the Soviets invaded in 1939-had identified in Soviet messages embedded "indicators," or special numbers that give clues to how a code system works and what kind of resources (such as code books) have been used to compile it. The Finns passed this tip to the Japanese. And since Arlington Hall was reading Japanese messages, the Finnish gleanings were passed to Grabeel.

Using these few hints, the former home ec teacher and her colleagues divined that Arlington Hall had messages passing along five different Soviet communications systems. One, the most voluminous, had to do with trade-often about materials being sent from the U.S. to Russia through the Lend-Lease program. Another carried regular diplomatic communications. In time, the code breakers discerned that the other three were spy systems: GRU, or military intelligence; naval intelligence; and the NKVD, the forerunner of the KGB.

**********

The Soviets' code system was widely considered unbreakable because it had so many layers. To encode a message, a clerk would consult a code book, a kind of dictionary that provided a four-digit code group. Each code group stood for a word or letter. To make snooping much more difficult, those numbers were converted into five-digit figures (see " How to Cipher Like a Soviet,") and then enciphered by adding a second set of numbers, known as "key" or "additive." (This is where the non-carrying arithmetic came in.) The Soviets drew their additives from a "one-time pad": pads of pages, each containing about 50 random additives, each page never to be reused.

The one-time pad was believed to make the system watertight. That's because breaking a complicated code requires "depth," which is the term for lots of messages enciphered using the same page from an additive book. It is depth that enables code breakers to locate patterns and find a way in. With a one-time pad, there is no depth, no ability to compare.

But Arlington Hall had such huge success breaking Japanese and German codes that officials were optimistic. Over the summer of 1943, they funneled fresh recruits into the tiny Russian unit.

Josephine Miller arrived in late May. Carrie Berry and Mary Boake came in mid-July, Helen Bradley in August, Gloria Forbes in September. Virtually all were former educators. Berry later recalled that the salary was $1,800 a year, plus a bonus for Saturday work-twice what she had been making teaching school. She was an affable and opinionated Texan, adventurous and warm and outgoing-a contrast to her great friend Gene Grabeel, who was tidy and tiny and quiet and stylish ("She always looked like she stepped out of a bandbox," her sister-in-law Eleanor Grabeel recalls), a member of the Colonial Dames of America and the Daughters of the American Revolution and, later, a devotee of University of Virginia basketball. By fall of 1943, the group also included Doris Johnson, Ruby Roland, Juanita McCutcheon and Rosa Brown. These newly fledged analysts were receiving 2,500 intercepts a week, and the number of file cabinets was increasing. A survey quoted Johnson saying that efficiency was good, "no idleness and few complaints or grievances arise." Except that, despite all their figuring and matching, the work "has been negative in results."

In October 1943 the code breakers began doing "machine runs" under the supervision of Mary Joe Dunning, a studious, short-haired woman who had been working for the Army code-breaking operation since the late 1930s and knew everything there was to know about how machines could simplify and hasten even the most daunting code-breaking challenge. At this early, laborious, "brute-force" stage, they used IBM punch-card machines to compare early code groups in thousands of messages that had been sent over trade channels. Thanks to this repetitive, painstaking analysis, the team began to realize that there was, in fact, a tantalizing trace of "depth": Some pairs of messages appeared to have been enciphered using the same pad. This insight was the core achievement of Venona: The Soviets had used some of their one-time pads twice.

How could the Soviets, so expert at espionage, have committed such a basic blunder? After the Germans invaded Russia on June 22, 1941, entire factories' worth of equipment were packed up in Moscow and put on trains to the Urals. Amid the chaos, resources became scant. In desperation, someone decided to manufacture, briefly, some duplicate sets of pads. Soviet spymasters tried to mitigate this weakness by dispersing the duplicate pads. One set might be used by the NKVD unit that was secretly operating out of New York; the second might be used by the Soviet Government Purchasing Commission in Washington. Developing the needle-in-a-haystack ability to match messages traveling through two distinct channels was crucial: If the team could determine that a certain pad used for routine trade messages had also been used by the NKVD, then a so-called "depth of two" existed, and they could begin to compare the two. To be sure, two messages wasn't much when it came to depth: Among code-breaking experts, it had always been assumed that a depth of three-at least-was needed to break a system. But this was a uniquely gifted team.

It was Angie Nanni who did this vital matching work, looking for buried indicators to figure out which messages-traveling in different channels-might have used the same pad.

As they raced to build an understanding of the systems, other breaks were made-sometimes by men, often by women. Samuel Chew, a former English professor at the Citadel, recognized that the trade messages tended to use certain words repeatedly and in the same order, usually words having to do with the way commodities and shipment amounts were listed; this greatly helped anticipate what a code group might stand for. Marie Meyer, a Russian linguist, was particularly good at divining code-group meanings. Another big advance came when Genevieve Grotjan Feinstein, who had made a major break in a Japanese system in 1940, saw that some opening groups likely revealed which additive page had been used twice. This careful collective labor enabled the team to break the Venona messages using only their analytic powers, unaided by captured code books or supplementary material. It remains one of the greatest feats in the history of U.S. cryptology.

By now the unit had moved into an open area in the back of a temporary building, separated by wooden screens from a team reading weather-related Japanese messages. The code breakers sat in cast-off chairs at a couple of desks and wooden tables. They had a few regular typewriters and one that typed Cyrillic. At the end of the day, they unpinned their maps of the Soviet Union from the wall and locked up their Russian textbooks. Nobody else at Arlington Hall-which at its height had 8,000 workers-was to know that the Soviet code systems were being attacked.

**********

In 1945, the American intelligence establishment began to grasp the scope of Soviet spying against the United States. Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet code clerk working the GRU system, defected and told Canadian authorities that the Soviets had penetrated the Manhattan Project. Under interrogation by the FBI, Whittaker Chambers, a former GRU agent, named Americans spying for the Soviets. By November the Truman administration knew of allegations against Lauchlin Currie, a White House aide; Duncan Lee, executive assistant at the Office of Strategic Services, forerunner of the CIA; and assistant treasury secretary Harry Dexter White. Around the same time, a former Soviet agent, Elizabeth Bentley, gave the FBI a stunning 107-page statement detailing spies in the State and Treasury departments, the OSS, the Pentagon, even the White House.

The problem was that Bentley had a lot to say, but no documentation to back it up. That is where Venona came in.

By the time Angie Nanni was brought on in the fall of 1945-one of the few non-college-educated staffers-the section was in high gear. The Russian unit comprised a traffic section, two "reading" sections and a "back room," a high-level troubleshooting section where Gene Grabeel was now one of the most experienced workers. "We all loved Gene," says Angie, who worked in traffic. "She was very nice-very quiet....A lot of times, if we weren't sure about something, we felt free enough to go to her."

Not everyone was so congenial. A member of the Women's Army Corps-one Lt. Hunter-initially tried to keep Nanni out of the unit because she lacked a degree. But after Nanni proved her mettle-it didn't take long-she encountered Lt. Hunter in the ladies' room. "I owe you an apology," the officer said as they were washing their hands.

"Apology accepted," Nanni said, meaning it, and walked out.

She started sorting traffic but then was assigned to locate messages that had involved the reuse of a one-time pad. She would feed certain messages into the key punch machines and hunt for repetitions. Whenever she found one, the entire unit jumped: "If you would find a match, you know what I mean, everything would just hustle-bustle."

By 1946, the team had laid the groundwork so that Gardner, a linguist who had taught at the University of Akron, could look at code groups to divine what they meant. This was called book-breaking, and Gardner was a master. He not only broke words; he broke the "spell tables" used for encoding English letters. Soon enough he found himself reading a message from 1944 that identified prominent atomic scientists, including several with the Manhattan Project, who were passing secrets. He read dozens of messages sent between Moscow and New York in 1944 and 1945.

Thanks to the spell table, cover names emerged-dozens, even hundreds of aliases used to identify spies as well as public figures and projects. Gardner found that Franklin Roosevelt was KAPITAN. The U.S. War Department was ARSENAL, the State Department THE BANK. The Manhattan Project was ENORMOZ. Elizabeth Bentley was GOOD GIRL.

In September 1947, Clarke's military intelligence unit quietly shared these successes with the FBI; Gardner began a richly productive liaison with FBI agent Robert Lamphere, who used the Venona material for his investigation, then reciprocated by providing information that sent the Venona team back to read old code groups in the light of new findings.

The results were startling. For example: An agent was mentioned in the dispatches first by the code name ANTENNA, then, beginning in September 1944, by LIBERAL. In June 1950, the FBI discerned that information about this agent matched known facts about New York engineer Julius Rosenberg. His wife, Ethel, was implicated in two of the messages. Other translations corroborated what Bentley and Chambers had said. In June 1950, the FBI determined that ALES was State Department aide Alger Hiss, then serving a sentence for perjury. JURIST was Harry Dexter White, who had died two years earlier.

Prosecutions were difficult-the cryptanalytic breakthroughs were so sensitive, they were withheld as evidence. But sometimes the FBI could produce corroborating information to disguise where the data had originated. This set the pattern for two years of investigations and prosecutions.

Even as Sen. Joseph McCarthy was smearing many innocent Americans, some of the charges he made were true. Likewise, President Truman played down some allegations that were, in fact, on the mark. (There is no definitive evidence that he was ever told about Venona; counterintelligence officials worried that there were spies in the White House.) While the nation erupted in finger-pointing and denials, the women in the back rooms of the Venona project knew what was what and who was who. Whenever a cover name was identified or a major spy operation uncovered, "we would all be happy about it and everything," Angie Nanni recalls. But: "It was all in a day's work."

Her nonchalance is remarkable. The work was enormously stressful-potentially world-changing and crushingly tedious. Many code breakers suffered breakdowns. Gardner became an alcoholic. Not so the Venona women. "Once I walked out of those gates, I would forget about Arlington Hall," Nanni says. "That's the only way I could do it. When we would go out and eat and everything, we never discussed work."

The extent to which the Venona code breakers were quarantined stood out even in the top-secret environment of Arlington Hall and, later, the NSA building in Fort Meade. No one was permitted to enter the Russian unit except for those who worked there. And even that level of security wasn't enough.

William Weisband, a native Russian speaker who had become a U.S. citizen, worked as a "linguistic adviser" to the unit. He had a tendency to look over his colleagues' shoulders. "When I saw him coming, I would put things over anything" she was working on, Nanni says. "He stopped at my desk, and I said, 'May I help you?' He took off."

Her suspicion was well founded: Weisband was, in fact, an NKVD agent. He was identified and suspended in 1950-but never prosecuted for espionage, to preserve what was left of Venona's secrecy. He sold insurance until he died, in 1967.

But even once the Soviets knew that the Americans had cracked Venona, there was nothing they could do about the wartime messages the Americans already possessed. More names were identified over the next two decades as the FBI provided new leads and the women went back to old material. In 1953, the CIA was briefed and began to assist in counterintelligence, enabling more message-mining. The two decades between 1960 and 1980 produced hundreds of translations of messages sent in the early 1940s.

**********

The Venona women strove for secrecy at the office and anonymity on the town, but they did not make up a totally closed society. With most of them declining to marry and raise children, they basically adopted the children in their extended families, for whom they were figures of fascination-exotic creatures who lived in the big city and did mysterious work.

"I think Gene was just an independent person that didn't want the responsibility of a marriage," Grabeel's sister-in-law, Eleanor Grabeel, told me not long after Gene died, in January 2015, at the age of 94. Gene dated men, and men tended to like her very much, but "I just don't think she was interested in getting married."

"She was awesome," says her great-nephew Jonathan Horton. "I loved to go visit her," which he did often when he was growing up. (He's now a professor of biology at the University of North Carolina-Asheville.) "She and Carrie [Berry] were always traveling, always talking about where they had been." Once, when she read aloud some Russian words on a souvenir medal, her family was shocked to realize that she knew the language. "We all had crazy theories about what she did," Horton says.

Relatives tried to pump her for information. "We enjoyed doing that," says Grabeel's sister, Virginia Cole. "But she never told us anything." Jonathan Horton and his father, Ed, tried to interview Gene in the 1990s, long after she had retired, after Venona had been declassified, and after she had received a major award from the NSA. But "she would not talk about it, as much as my dad and I tried to pry," Horton says. In Pennsylvania and its environs, Angie Nanni is cherished by 20 doting nieces and nephews, for whom she has always been a surrogate mother, an important influence and inspiration. Her nephew Jim DeLuca moved to Washington for graduate school at George Washington University in part because Aunt Angie was there. Sometimes he would drive her to work in Maryland, to a big unmarked campus with armed guards. She would go through the gate and disappear into a dark building. "You probably thought I was going to jail," she teases him now. It was, of course, the NSA. By then, he knew better than to ask.

Not that he and his siblings hadn't tried. When he was a child, his father would slide him pepperoni sticks to induce him to quiz Aunt Angie about what she did. But she held fast-usually. "My aunt can definitely stop a conversation and change the subject when she wants," says her niece Mary Ann DeLuca. Though in the waning days of the Obama administration, some cousins were discussing the efforts of the Rosenbergs' sons to exonerate their mother, and somebody expressed sympathy for their cause. "Oh, honey, they can't," Aunt Angie said. "We had them, they were guilty," and walked away.

Into the 1970s, certain key Soviet wartime agents remained unidentified; even then, only selected portions of nearly 3,000 messages had been read. Customer agencies-the CIA, the FBI and agencies in the U.K.-wanted the messages mined as long as they might yield something, but in 1978, the NSA evaluated the likelihood of any more matches and decided to phase out the program within two years.

The NSA was moving into the computer age. The Venona women were artisans but also relics, and many chose to retire. Gene Grabeel retired at 58, in 1978. "She didn't think she would want to or be able to switch into another project," says Ed Horton; plus, her mother was ailing and needed Gene's care. In 1980, it was Angie Nanni and Mildred Hayes who, along with a colleague, Janice Cram, boxed up the familiar work sheets and folders stored them away.

In 2001, six years after Venona was declassified, Jim DeLuca was online when something came into his news feed. He followed a link to a new NSA publication that recounted the project's history and cited some of its key people. He was idly reading the names, Meredith Gardner and Gene Grabeel and the rest, when he saw: Angeline Nanni. Wait-what? Aunt Angie!? Venona?

He asked her about it. "Oh," she said, "that was nothing."

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Join Holly and Tracy as they bring you the greatest and strangest Stuff You Missed In History Class in this podcast by iHeartRadio.

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Join Holly and Tracy as they bring you the greatest and strangest Stuff You Missed In History Class in this podcast by iHeartRadio. Chat About Stuff You Missed in History Class Popular Podcasts Crime Junkie The Daily

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Radiolab Presents: More Perfect - American Pendulum I | Radiolab | WNYC Studios

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If you can’t find justice in the Supreme Court, can you find it someplace else?

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Susan Orlean tells us about the moment America asked untrained household canines to make the ultimate sacrifice: to serve in World War II. Susan talks to Gina Snyder, who remembers being a teenager when her dog Tommy joined the service. And Susan digs into the national archives to learn the fate of other dogs that fought on the front lines. A version of this story appears in Susan's book Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend. (20 minutes)

Videos: Watch this military dog use training video, and a War Department Film Bulletin, called " Use of War Dogs." (No sound on that second one.)

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When America Asked Household Dogs to Serve in World War II

Stories from the awkward, confusing, hormonally charged world of middle school.

David Sedaris takes Ira on a tour of his favorite spots in Paris.

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Susan Orlean tells us about the moment America asked untrained household canines to make the ultimate sacrifice: to serve in World War II. Susan talks to Gina Snyder, who remembers being a teenager when her dog Tommy joined the service. And Susan digs into the national archives to learn the fate of other dogs that fought on the front lines.

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This short film tells the story of Mohammed Alsaleh, a young Syrian refugee granted asylum in Canada in 2014. After fleeing torture and imprisonment by the Assad regime, he is rebuilding his life. Mohammed counsels newly-arrived Syrian refugee families with the same Vancouver-based NGO that aided him during his own resettlement process.

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As the Syrian crisis continues to rage on in the Middle East, there have been a lot of stories in the news about refugees looking for a home. Here in the United States, it's a topic surrounded by controversy. But, in Sweden-where asylum has been granted to 163,000 refugees-the issues are primarily logistical ones. Quite simply: where will they house all of them? Well, for 500 such people looking for refuge, that place just happens to be a Wild West theme park named High Chaparral.

This is a wonderful short doc-a combination of quirky subject matter (hey, an American-style cowboy theme park deep in a Swedish Forest!) and an emotional topic (families looking for sanctuary in the shadow of war). It's this marriage of sentiment and quirk that really makes High Chaparral stand out. To be honest, as a team, we've screened several short docs about the Syrian crisis. And, while most depict harrowing stories, they often feel overwrought (think meditative voiceover and lots of sad kid imagery). I don't mean to downplay the seriousness of the situation in that part of the world, but High Chaparral just feels fresh in comparison. It's inspiring, whereas so many other films about the subject seem to lack a defining factor. In other words, it's touching but never lugubrious.

"I've got a serious case of bad news fatigue."

Director David Freid elaborates about his motivations behind the film: "As a child of the 80's, with an impressionable head for headline news and charity infomercials, I grew up learning that the Amazon is in trouble, that Ethiopians are starving, that icebergs are melting, and that the Middle East conflict is constant and absolute. I'm older now, not much seems to have changed, and I've got a serious case of bad news fatigue. But there is some good too, and for a few hundred people looking for safety from war, it only takes a handful of Swedish/Lebanese/Syrian cowboys to do something meaningful."

There's an inherent ridiculousness to this situation-refugees living amongst fake old-timey saloons and horse corrals. But, it's also fittingly poetic. These are people who have been forced to flee their homeland, embarking on a journey into the unknown frontier. This is their new beginning. And, in turn, Freid and his team capture moments of simple humanity: the wonder of seeing fresh snow for the first time, or the compassion of the park's owner, Emil Erlandsson, who was willing to turn his family's long running business into a humanitarian Frontierland for the winter.

Like the case of most theme park visits, this unconventional arrangement will eventually have to come to an end. In the spring of this year, High Chaparral will once again need to open for tourist business, and, in effect, its current inhabitants will need to find new places to live. But, for the time being, Freid's great little short documentary manages to capture this strange, but hopeful epoch-a brief time when people forced from their homeland found solace in a modern recreation of the past.

If you enjoyed this piece, be sure to check out more impressive documentary content from .

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High Chaparral by David Freid | Short Film

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As the Syrian crisis continues to rage on in the Middle East, there have been a lot of stories in the news about refugees looking for a home. Here in the United States, it's a topic surrounded by controversy. But, in Sweden-where asylum has been granted to 163,000 refugees-the issues are primarily logistical ones.

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A (brief) history of the world's trade wars

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Chickens and trucks are just a few targets of recent trade spats. IMF historian Harold James walks through the history of trade wars in the 20th century with CNBC's Elizabeth Schulze in Washington.

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history "history channel" documentary footage "great war" "first world war" "world war i (military conflict)" wwi "20th century" "1914 to 1918" "british path...

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The Great War covers the First World War from 1914 to 1923 - in real time. Every other week, Jesse Alexander cover the important events that influenced the world 100 years ago. Form 2014 - 2018, Indiana Neidell followed the main events of what is classically considered as World War 1 on a weekly basis.

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For the protest, H-F High School did provide police escorts and presence from Homewood, Flossmoor, and other police departments from surrounding towns. However, Williams says school staff and administrators tried to control the flow of the protest and get students to return to class, and students pushed back.

"This is a protest. You don't tell us what to do in a protest," Williams says. "So we stayed out. We marched. We went past the cop cars because we were just letting them know, like, 'Don't tell us where to go.'"

"Then, students that did go back, they got cut," William said. "They were 'missing,' is what it said on their attendance. So, they didn't support it."

Teen Vogue has reached out to H-F High School for confirmation on details of the protest, whether any students were punished, and the school's stance on students taking action.

This isn't the first time H-F High School has turned up in national news over allegations of racism and the treatment of its students.

In 2016, a Black honors student at H-F, Taiylar Ball, was banned from prom after reciting a poem in the school's talent show called " Dear Black Girls." In the poem, she used the word "n*gga" and hadn't had the full version of the piece reviewed before the talent show. The school cited those issues as justification for her harsh punishment. Weeks later, Dr. Ryan Pitcock, the principal who banned Ball, was reportedly fired amid other concerns, with one year left in his four-year contract.

Though some residents view Homewood-Flossmoor as an idyllic, picture-perfect place to live, it is clear that lingering hostilities concerning race, health care access, and reproductive justice bubble just below the surface in this Wakanda-wannabe neighborhood.

For example, in January 2018, a new Planned Parenthood location opened four minutes down the road from H-F High School in Flossmoor. Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) opened the facility to accommodate residents in the south suburbs in need of care.

"I know you say you can't do anything about it, but that won't keep us from doing something about it," Reverend Eric Wallace, a Flossmoor resident, reportedly said. "We're planning protests and we're going to make it known that we don't want them here." He also called the PPIL facility a "blight on the community."

Since the PPIL facility opened in Flossmoor, anti-abortion protesters have been seen in the frigid winter temperatures voicing their opposition to its existence.

This opposition to health care and reproductive care access for those who often have few other options for meeting their medical needs is a prime example of what it looks like when communities like these don the veneer of racial solidarity and political liberalism. The truth is that neighborhoods like these are deeply invested in color-blindness, the idea that racial differences either don't exist or don't matter. By ignoring the very real experiences of marginalized people in these communities, many white Americans enable injustices and racist issues to persist.

In an email to Teen Vogue, Damayanti Wallace, a youth organizer with GoodKids MadCity, said she wasn't surprised about the blackface issue at H-F High School.

"This country does a great job of tucking away their racism, but Chicago does it even better. Sometimes folks get bold and decide that a joke is an appropriate way to express how ignorant they are," Wallace wrote. "For years we have seen folks take part in this 'it's just a joke' narrative around racism toward black students. It is hurtful and disgusting every time, but not surprising."

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My Wakanda-Wannabe Neighborhood Still Has a Race Problem

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For the protest, H-F High School did provide police escorts and presence from Homewood, Flossmoor, and other police departments from surrounding towns. However, Williams says school staff and administrators tried to control the flow of the protest and get students to return to class, and students pushed back. "This is a protest.

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Political momentum on the left for such an effort must face the reality of legal obstacles, particularly from the Supreme Court.

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The Supreme Court looms as a possible obstacle to policies that directly address the racial wealth gap. Credit Eric Baradat/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

Elizabeth Warren wants to offer down-payment assistance to home buyers living in formerly "redlined" neighborhoods where the federal government once denied access to mortgages. Cory Booker would like to create "baby bonds" that would be worth more to children in poorer families, helping them one day to buy houses or other assets.

Both presidential candidates say their proposals would aid in narrowing the enduring black-white wealth gap in America. But neither policy attempts to do that in the most direct way possible - by steering benefits to African-Americans.

Their ideas, along with several others that scholars advocate, are facing a tricky problem today. There's growing momentum on the left to address the racial wealth gap. But the prospects for race-based policies before the Supreme Court are unpromising, and that's unlikely to change with five conservative justices.

"The court is functionally not now going to be an ally in anything here, so you do have to be careful," said Mehrsa Baradaran, a law professor at the University of Georgia who has written about the racial wealth gap.

The court is unlikely to uphold baby bonds or housing programs explicitly for African-Americans, even to remedy disparities created when many government benefits were explicitly for whites. Affirmative action and government contracting programs have similarly struggled to meet or skirt the court's strict scrutiny for applying benefits by race.

Proponents concerned about the wealth gap instead must come up with policies that have the effect of disproportionately building wealth for African-Americans, without singling them out.

"There are ways that you can craft legislation that essentially gets at this effect," Ms. Baradaran said. "Look at how much legislation we have that gets at the opposite effect."

Policies like the mortgage interest deduction, for example, disproportionately benefit white families, who are more likely to own homes. So do tax advantages for the rich, who are more likely to be white. Even federal investments in seemingly race-neutral infrastructure like the Interstate Highway System had this effect by enabling the development of all-white suburbs in an era of legal discrimination.

Wealth-building proposals today are trying to engineer a similar if opposite outcome. That makes the details thorny.

"The first and most efficient approach is targeting relief to the people who were targeted with discrimination," said Dorothy Brown, a law professor at Emory University. "If we can't get there, then we have to go to next best."

Ms. Warren's strategy, she said, is a clever workaround. Rather than specifying African-Americans, Ms. Warren's bill would target specific neighborhoods where African-Americans harmed by the legacy of lending discrimination are likely to live.

Other researchers argue that a program based on neighborhoods redlined in the 1930s would be too narrow; most African-Americans who buy homes aren't purchasing in such neighborhoods today (and in some cities, middle-income whites are).

But the kind of neighborhood criteria Ms. Warren has in mind could be one model. Ms. Brown proposes identifying neighborhoods with the least household wealth and allowing tax breaks associated with homeownership, like the mortgage deduction, only to people who live there.

Ms. Baradaran proposes a "21st Century Homestead Act" that would focus on neighborhoods with many vacant properties. She proposes using government funds to purchase, restore and transfer properties to residents, then to help them build wealth by revitalizing their neighborhoods.

Mr. Booker's proposal would give $1,000 in a government savings fund to every newborn in America, for use later in adulthood. But the government would seed more money into that fund each year according to a family's income, giving the most to children in the poorest families. That money could then be spent in adulthood on education, buying a home or starting a business.

It isn't meant to be an income supplement, but rather a means to build assets.

"Ultimately, assets give people agency in their lives," said Darrick Hamilton, director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University. His work on the baby bonds concept informed Mr. Booker's proposal. "Assets give people the ability to make decisions," he said, "to have choice and have freedom and self-determination."

The point is not just to equalize wealth in America, Mr. Hamilton said, but to equalize those choices.

Mr. Booker's proposal could benefit African-Americans in particular by giving more to the families with the lowest incomes. But Mr. Hamilton's original idea would steer the greatest benefits to families with the least wealth. Wealth, which takes into account the value of assets like a home or a stock portfolio, is harder for the government to track than income. But it is a clearer proxy for race in economic data.

Research shows that black people with higher-paying jobs still hold less wealth than white people with lower incomes, who may benefit from generations of accumulated wealth. Even black people with college degrees are likely to have less wealth than white people who didn't complete high school.

While the federal government might have trouble tracking wealth for allocating baby bonds, it would be feasible with homeownership programs, said Dan Immergluck, a professor at Georgia State University. Loan officers already assess wealth when deciding whether to give people mortgages.

Mr. Immergluck favors an idea that would grant down-payment assistance, as Ms. Warren proposes, but that would target households with low family wealth. Ideally, he said, such a program would count parental wealth, too, given that whites are far more likely than African-Americans to receive down payment assistance (or any kind of financial help) from their parents.

Much more sophisticated data is available now than in the past, said Andre Perry, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, and it could be used to devise these policies - to identify neighborhoods with depressed property values, or to trace back the people helped or harmed today by past government policies.

There are ways, in other words, to sidestep race itself.

But in the end, that may close the racial wealth gap only so much. Today, African-Americans make up about 13 percent of the population, but hold only 2.6 percent of the country's wealth, said William Darity, a professor at Duke who has also worked on the baby bonds proposal. He wants to see those numbers equalized.

"That's an objective that is not achieved by any of the existing policies on the table now," Mr. Darity said. "Ultimately, you need a person-based program if you're really concerned about the racial wealth gap. And it not only has to be person-based, but it has to be race-specific."

That would look, he said, like another idea that has gotten attention - albeit with far fewer details - on the campaign trail: a comprehensive reparations program.

Emily Badger writes about cities and urban policy for The Upshot from the Washington bureau. She's particularly interested in housing, transportation and inequality - and how they're all connected. She joined The Times in 2016 from The Washington Post. @emilymbadger

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A13 of the New York edition with the headline: Can Policymakers Start to Close Racial Wealth Gap Without Talking About Race?. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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Can the Racial Wealth Gap Be Closed Without Speaking of Race?

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Political momentum on the left for such an effort must face the reality of legal obstacles, particularly from the Supreme Court. Elizabeth Warren wants to offer down-payment assistance to home buyers living in formerly "redlined" neighborhoods where the federal government once denied access to mortgages.

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Robert F. Smith, billionaire, pledged to pay off student loans for graduates of Morehouse, historically a black college

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During his commencement speech at Morehouse College, the billionaire investor Robert F. Smith pledged that he and his family would pay off the student debt for the entire graduating class. Credit Credit Audra Melton for The New York Times

On Sunday, Robert F. Smith, a billionaire investor, shocked and delighted the 396 graduates of Morehouse College when he pledged to repay their student loans. The gift, which was praised for its potential to transform the life of each recipient, is also focusing attention on a systemic problem that one donor's generosity cannot solve: the large student debt burdens shouldered by tens of millions of Americans.

Here are some answers to your questions about student debt, and a look at how the issue is increasingly a topic of debate in national politics.

About two-thirds of seniors at four-year colleges hold student loan debt - an average of $28,650 per person in 2017, according to an analysis of federal data from the Institute for College Access and Success, a nonprofit that advocates affordable higher education.

Student debt has risen significantly. The average debt burden for a senior at a four-year college was $12,750 in 1996, adjusted for inflation. At that time, only 58 percent of graduates held student debt.

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The campus of the University of Washington in Seattle. About two-thirds of seniors at four-year colleges hold student loan debt. Credit Kyle Johnson for The New York Times

The vast majority of the loans come from the federal government. Private loans, which account for 14 percent of the market, are riskier and more expensive for borrowers.

Currently, between 5 and 7.6 percent.

Yes, and that makes the Morehouse gift especially significant. Recent black graduates of four-year colleges owe, on average, $7,400 more than their white peers, according to research from the Brookings Institution. Four years after graduation, they still owe an average of $53,000, almost twice as much as whites.

Students at historically black colleges, like Morehouse, are also more likely to take out loans than other students, in part because black parents have less wealth to help pay for their children's educations.

Not the Morehouse graduates. Some of the biggest default risk is on those who attend certificate programs at for-profit colleges - like in cosmetology or health - and to those who drop out of such programs.

About half of undergraduates who entered for-profit colleges during 2003-2004 defaulted 12 years later, compared with 12 percent at public colleges and 14 percent at private, nonprofit colleges.

In that same group of students, regardless of the type of college they attended, 11 percent of those who completed their certificate or degree defaulted, compared with 23 percent of those who dropped out.

Not always. The borrower must file a separate motion in court called an "adversary proceeding" and demonstrate that repaying the loan would cause "undue hardship." The court makes the final determination.

Have you heard of Wayne Messam? He's the mayor of Miramar, Fla., and he entered the Democratic presidential primary in March with a promise to wipe out every cent of the more than $1 trillion of student debt in the nation - whether the borrower is a wealthy surgeon or a working-class nursing assistant.

Among the better-known candidates, Elizabeth Warren has the furthest-reaching plan. It offers up to $50,000 of debt relief to those earning under $100,000, and would repay a percentage of that, on a sliding scale, for those earning between $100,000 and $250,000. The plan would also increase federal funding for historically black colleges. Ms. Warren would finance her plan with higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy.

A major criticism of such a plan is that it would benefit the wealthy along with the middle class and the poor. During a CNN town hall last month, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who is also running for president, argued that the Warren approach was unrealistic. Her plan would allow students to refinance their loans at lower interest rates.

The Trump administration has rolled back Obama-era regulations that were meant to protect student borrowers, particularly those who attended for-profit colleges. Last year, President Trump proposed a budget that would have eliminated a student loan forgiveness program for those in public service careers, but Congress did not pass the measure.

Dana Goldstein is a national correspondent, writing about how education policies impact families, students and teachers across the country. She is the author of "The Teacher Wars: A History of America's Most Embattled Profession."

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A17 of the New York edition with the headline: Student Debt: Who Owes, and How Much?. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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The Morehouse Gift, in Context: An Average Black Graduate Has $7,400 More in Debt Than White Peers

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On Sunday, Robert F. Smith, a billionaire investor, shocked and delighted the 396 graduates of Morehouse College when he pledged to repay their student loans. The gift, which was praised for its potential to transform the life of each recipient, is also focusing attention on a systemic problem that one donor's generosity cannot solve: the large student debt burdens shouldered by tens of millions of Americans.