NPR News

First Watch: Loudon Wainwright III, 'The Here & The Now'

Credit Courtesy of the artist

Loudon Wainwright III at the beach with his grandson Archangelo, the son of Martha Wainwright.

By editor

Originally published on Fri December 14, 2012 3:40 pm

Maybe we should all write our autobiographies and boil them down to 5 minutes. Loudon Wainwright III makes it look so easy in this music video for his song "The Here & the Now." There's a poignancy here that is so bittersweet and a trajectory that is both unpredictable and undeniable.

2:31 pm

Fri July 13, 2012

Shawn Colvin On World Cafe

Credit Courtesy of the artist

Shawn Colvin.

By editor

Originally published on Mon August 20, 2012 3:05 pm

Three-time Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin is a contemporary folk legend. Colvin started playing guitar at the age 10 and went on to cut her teeth on the folk circuits of Illinois and San Francisco before moving on to the Fast Folk cooperative of Greenwich Village in New York City. During her solo music career, Colvin has appeared in off-Broadway shows and episodes of television shows such as The Simpsons and Treme.

2:02 pm

Fri July 13, 2012

Struggling Families Lift Themselves Out Of Poverty

Next image Previous image

Credit Pam Fessler / NPR

Support group members Pamela Travis (from left), Dominique Martin, Yovanda Dixon, Shanna Chaney and Ramona Shewl hold a meeting as part of the Family Independence Initiative. The Oakland nonprofit encourages low-income families to form small groups to help each other get ahead.

Credit Pam Fessler / NPR

Yovanda Dixon washes vegetables in her San Francisco home to prepare a demonstration for her support group.

Credit Pam Fessler / NPR

Yovanda Dixon (left) shows fellow group member Pamela Travis some of the bath oils she sells outside a San Francisco grocery store as part of her business Scentuality.

By Pam Fessler

Originally published on Fri July 13, 2012 9:24 pm

Listen

It's been almost 50 years since President Lyndon Johnson declared a "War on Poverty." But today, the poverty rate in the U.S. is the highest it's been in 17 years, affecting some 46 million people.

The economy is partly to blame, but even in good times, millions of Americans are poor.

That's been a longtime concern for Maurice Lim Miller. He ran social service programs in the San Francisco Bay Area for 20 years. Then one day, the painful truth hit.

"The very first kids I had trained back in the early '80s, I saw their kids now showing up in my programs," he says.

1:45 pm

Fri July 13, 2012

Al-Qaida: Now Vying For Hearts, Minds And Land

Next image Previous image

Credit Reuters/Landov

Militiamen from the Ansar Dine Islamic group, an al-Qaida affiliate, ride on a vehicle in northeastern Mali in June. Mali is one of the places where al-Qaida-linked groups are trying to take over territory and win over local residents to their cause.

Credit Reuters/Landov

Members of Ansar al-Sharia, another al-Qaida-affiliated group, man a checkpoint at the southern Yemeni town of Jaar in April. Government troops recently retook areas in the country's restive south from militant control after a two-month offensive.

By Dina Temple-Raston

Originally published on Fri July 13, 2012 9:33 pm

Listen

Al-Qaida has been subtly testing a new strategy. In the past couple of years, the group's affiliates have been trying their hand at governing — actually taking over territory and then trying to win over citizens who live there. It happened with various degrees of success in Somalia and Yemen, and recently in the northern deserts of Mali.

1:35 pm

Fri July 13, 2012

Around The Classical Internet: July 13, 2012

Credit Charles Ludeke for NPR

Conductor Kent Tritle in Times Square. (And that's WNYC's John Schaefer in the Saratoga T-shirt.)

By Anastasia Tsioulcas

So we did this thing in Times Square, and some people have seen the video.

All Content	closeNews podcasts Use iTunes Use a different player	RSS
View all podcasts & RSS feeds

Now Playing

Podcasts & RSS Feeds

NPR News