PRI: Latest Stories

How did a highbrow MacArthur genius end up writing a book about zombies?

Before he was old enough to fully understand he was transgender, Evan Urquhart found Isaac Asimov’s “The Robots of Dawn.”

Harlan Ellison wrote for “Star Trek,” and authored the dystopian classic “A Boy and His Dog.” But don’t call him a science fiction writer.

Kristian Nairn has one of the hardest jobs on “Game of Thrones.” He has to make an entire character come to life with only one word: Hodor. So why has it made him so famous?

Who will care for Japan's elderly? The government is now welcoming foreign workers to fill the labor gap, but some say racism and discrimination are major obstacles in Japanese society.

A group of Koreans dumps water bottles loaded with rice, medicine and USB drives into the sea on the North Korean border. They hope that the information loaded into those USBs can spark some sort of revolution in the North.

Well before the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, or the rise of the UK Independence Party, the co-owners of Solstar gym in the London neighborhood of Tottenham were training to fight back against what they see as the rise of violence on the part of the right-wing.

Far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro's hardline positions speak to working-class voters who say they feel the left has abandoned them.

Women dominate the food business in Bolivia. From farmers to market sellers, chefs to restaurant owners, women are transforming Bolivia's capital, La Paz, into a food destination.

For anyone who wants to skip the farm and go apple picking in their neighborhood this fall, there’s the Falling Fruit app, an online map that uses imported datasets to guide foragers to the locations of public fruit trees, edible plants and mushrooms.

In 1968, Andrew Larkin and his Harvard teammates represented the United States at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City. There, American runners John Carlos and Tommie Smith turned the world on its head by raising two fists in the air while the national anthem played.

For generations, Alaskan Natives crossed the Bering Sea to visit family on nearby islands. It’s harder today, thanks to international politics, high costs and weather.

A sculpture in Iceland marks the location of the Arctic Circle — at least the circle's location this year, because it turns out that the Arctic Circle doesn't stay in one place. It's a suggestion of how difficult it is to pin down anything in the Arctic.

Despite everything that happened, and even though he would like to remain with his family intact in Guatemala, her father sees no hope. He still wants to go to the US.

One could argue that NAFTA negotiations came down to one big sticking point: Canadian milk. Trump won, Canada lost. And Canadian farmers aren't happy.

University of Florida graduate Lara Alqasem applied and got accepted to a master's program at Hebrew University. But Israeli authorities say her political past disqualifies her.

What hidden treasures can be found in the pages of old books?

Playwright Theresa Rebeck on her new play, “Bernhardt/Hamlet.”

The former “Family Ties” actress takes an unflinching look at her one-time fame and our national obsession with getting those 15 minutes in her book, “Fame: The Hijacking of Reality.”

In the 1990s, pirate radio station WBAD started playing hip-hop music without bleeping it like commercial radio. But even if it was playing church music, the FCC still would have come after them.

If you’re among those who feel press coverage of Russia has an unhealthy fascination with all things Vladimir Putin, then enter artist Victoria Lomasko’s “Other Russias” to the rescue. Lomasko is out to capture Russian stories that most of us never see.

The coming years should bring more solid, blue-collar jobs to Springfield, as CRRC builds subway cars not just for Boston, but also for Philadelphia and LA. But now there’s a hitch: significant uncertainty linked to President Trump’s escalating trade war with China.

Will Latino candidates bring out more Democratic voters in Arizona? The answer might depend on how Latinos feel about the border.

Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico's agriculture sector. Months later, many farmers are still trying to get back on their feet, with the help of friends and volunteers.

When American Lynne Murphy says "sure" to her British husband, he thinks she means "not really."

On the congressional campaign for the 50th District in California, incumbent Duncan Hunter was indicted for corruption. Then he went on the attack.

A government program has created 800 full-time Indigenous rangers who patrol to make sure water sources are clean and restore resources damaged by intensive farming practices.

Sexual assault in the hotel industry is a global issue. Housekeepers here in the US are campaigning for more protections in the workplace.

Around six million Americans with criminal records are excluded from voting in elections. Not ideal in a democracy. But this is not a new topic. Courts in other democracies have debated this issue, and some have found solutions.

The number of Aboriginal children removed from their families in Australia and placed in out-of-home care has doubled in the last 10 years. In the Northern Territory it is three times as high as a decade ago.

Jordanian journalist Salameh Nematt has faith his friend Jamal Khashoggi is still alive, despite reports he was killed inside a Saudi consulate in Turkey.

Keeping the Earth's temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius means making rapid, unprecedented changes in the way people use energy to eat, travel and live or we risk even more extreme weather and loss of species, a UN report said on Monday.

For decades, the Aboriginal community has politely asked tourists not to climb Uluru, one of their most sacred sites. Beginning in October 2019, the site will finally be closed to climbing.

This week, Maya Gabeira was awarded the Guinness World Record for the biggest wave surfed by a woman.

The Swedish Academy will not award a Nobel Prize in literature this year, but that doesn't mean there haven't been excellent books. So, we asked for your nominations.

This election, the work of fact-checking organizations is being amplified by a new partner: Facebook. It is part of the social media giant’s push to assure users it is taking misinformation campaigns in elections seriously. In September, Facebook announced it was dedicating its own “War Room” in Menlo Park to preventing election interference in Brazil — one of its five biggest markets.

Brazil’s leading climatologist wants to change the way businesses view the Amazon. If standing trees become more valuable than cleared land, the forest can recover and continue to absorb greenhouse gases.

In the darkly satirical new book “Boomer1,” desperate millennials threaten baby boomers to retire … or else.

How someone who grew up thinking Lawrence Welk was square grew to find him oddly progressive ... and even subversive.

Buenos Aires-based experimental musician Juana Molina performs songs from her album “Halo.”

Last year at the UN General Assembly, Donald Trump brought up the issue of the Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea. This year, he praised North Korea's leader for his courage.

Indigenous people are engaged in a fierce battle to defend the Amazon forest from illegal logging, and it’s working. Deforestation in indigenous territories is much lower than in other areas. But those efforts are fraught with danger.

There’s a high stakes game of chicken going on in the South China Sea, and neither the US nor China is showing any sign of backing down.

Just a few years ago, Republican Party leaders couldn’t stop warning us about the perils of the debt. But once in power, their voices have gone silent. The US is now one of the most indebted nations on earth.

Refugees from Syria and Iraq help visitors at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology make connections between history and the present day.

The world's greatest forest used to absorb greenhouse gases, but it may now be emitting them. And that could spell disaster for all of us.

Canada's Donna Strickland, of the University of Waterloo, becomes only the third woman to win a Nobel for physics, after Marie Curie in 1903 and Maria Goeppert-Mayer in 1963.

The show, "First Contact," which airs on the Aboriginal People's Television Network, has sparked controversy and dialogue over the way in which it handles racism.

French singer Charles Aznavour, who rose to stardom under the wing of Edith Piaf and went on to steal the hearts of millions with decades of haunting love songs, has died at the age of 94.

Across the United States, it doesn’t take a devastating storm for scientists and citizens to see the unwelcome transformations that climate change is causing right now.