Leaving Timber Behind, An Alaska Town Turns To Tourism
What happens to a town when a key industry collapses? Sometimes it dies. But sometimes it finds a way to reinvent itself. Case in point: Ketchikan, Alaska, where the demise of the timber industry has...
View ArticleWhat It's Like To Live In A Small, Rural, Politically Divided Town
If you fly into Haines, Alaska, you'll be on a prop plane so small that your pilot will call the roll. "Melissa." Yup. "Mary." Yes. "Joseph?" Right here. Just 2,500 people live in Haines — a small town...
View ArticleIn Southeast Alaska, The Ferry System Is A Lifeline
Southeast Alaska is known as the Panhandle: It's a long, narrow strip of mainland coastline, plus 1,000 islands and the braided waterways that surround them. In most places, there are no roads...
View ArticleIn This Alaska Family, Life Lessons Are Passed Down On The Water
Alaska is home to about 18,000 fishermen who harvest nearly 6 billion pounds of seafood each year. Salmon dominates the catch, five species in all : chum salmon, sockeye, king, coho and pink. For a...
View ArticleA Native Village In Alaska Where The Past Is Key To The Future
What does it mean to lose your land, your language, and your heritage? For Alaska Natives, these are existential threats. On a trip to Southeast Alaska, I traveled to one village that is finding new...
View ArticleImagining Daniel Day-Lewis In A Life Without Acting
He brooded, as Lincoln. He seduced in The Unbearable Lightness of Being . And he murdered, in There Will Be Blood. This week, Daniel Day-Lewis — a three-time Oscar winner, and incomparable film...
View ArticleMeyers Chuck, AK, 99903
There are only two ways to get to Meyers Chuck, Alaska: by boat or float plane. If you go by plane, you might hitch a ride on a de Havilland Beaver, circa 1958 — one of the planes that brings the mail...
View ArticleYoung Astronaut Hopeful Gets NASA Tour Of His (Space) Dreams
Sixteen-year-old Murad Rahimov peered down into a gigantic space he had only dreamed about before: the world's largest clean room, kept scrupulously free of any dust or contamination, where NASA...
View Article'You Have To Help': Gulf Coast Neighbors Fly, Cook And Organize For Harvey...
Right after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas, electrician Rocky Breaux, 53, loaded up his airboat in Houma, La., and drove to help rescue people from the swiftly rising floodwaters. And now that the waters...
View Article'They're Scared': Immigration Fears Exacerbate Migrant Farmworker Shortage
On a recent, perfect morning at Johnson Farms in northern Michigan, workers climb wooden ladders high up into the trees, picking bags strapped across their bodies. The branches are heavy with fruit...
View ArticleTom Petty's Songs Served As Anthems For Many Generations
Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: A moment now to remember one of rock music's most-beloved musicians. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AMERICAN GIRL") TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS:...
View ArticleFace-Down, Head-First, 90 Miles An Hour On The Ice
At the Winter Olympics, which get underway next month in Pyeongchang, South Korea, some of the most blistering speeds will come in the three high-adrenaline sliding sports, where top athletes zip on...
View ArticleColombian Speedskater Gets A Last-Minute Chance To Compete In Olympics
Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: The Winter Olympics start this week in South Korea. NPR's Melissa Block brings us the story of one athlete who is astonished just to be...
View ArticleEveryone Has Anxiety Dreams. Olympic Athletes Have Olympic-Size Ones
Here are a few of the big questions hovering over the Pyeongchang Olympics, about to get underway in South Korea: Which Russian athletes will be allowed to compete? How will the North Korean team fare?...
View ArticleMaame Biney Came To The U.S. From Ghana At 5. Now 18, She's A Team USA...
Remember this name: Maame Biney. The short track speedskater just turned 18; she's not even out of high school. But she is already one of the biggest U.S. names at the Winter Olympics. When Biney won...
View ArticleAerials Skier Ashley Caldwell's 'Bold Move': A Quadruple-Twisting Triple Flip
Since she was a little girl, Ashley Caldwell has been in constant motion: jumping out of her crib, tumbling off the couch, leaping down stairs, flipping on a trampoline. So it seems fitting that now,...
View ArticleFor Some, Competing At The Olympics Runs In The Family
Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: There are Olympic athletes, and then there are Olympic families. NPR's Melissa Block caught up with a famous former Olympian as she watched her...
View ArticleThe Experts Known As 'Ice Meisters' Create Perfect Olympic Skating Surfaces
In the Winter Olympics, where races can be won or lost by thousandths of a second, tiny imperfections can make all the difference. Nowhere is this more true than in the ice venues, where skilled...
View ArticleA Look At Immigration From A Virginia Town With A Fast-Growing Hispanic...
Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Immigration is near the top of the list of issues Americans find the most worrying. That's according to a recent poll conducted for NPR by...
View ArticleAmid A Hispanic Boom, Conflicting Feelings On Immigration
Immigration is near the top of the list of issues Americans find "the most worrying," according to a new poll conducted for NPR by the research firm Ipsos. But Americans' views on immigration diverge...
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