1A

America's workforce has more than seventy million women: most of whom have kids at home. And two-out-of-every-five households have working moms as the main or sole breadwinner. | Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station at donate.npr.org/1A and subscribe to our podcast. Have questions? Email the show at [email protected] and find us on Twitter @1a.

What does it mean to be a mother in the public eye? It means you have a platform and a lot of responsibility, should you choose to use it. Jada Pinkett Smith is using her platform to have a unique, intergenerational conversation with her daughter, Willow, and her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris.

A mother giving birth in the U.S. is three times as likely to die as a mother in Britain or Canada. That's largely because of the disproportionate toll on African-American moms. How can we reverse this devastating trend? This episode is part of our weeklong series "Beyond Mother's Day." | Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station at donate.npr.org/1A and subscribe to our podcast. Have questions? Email the show at [email protected] and find us on Twitter @1a.

Nobody's perfect. It's a lesson supermodel and entrepreneur Tyra Banks learned early on from her mother, Carolyn London. The pair co-authored a book called "Perfect Is Boring," based on London's advice. | Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station at donate.npr.org/1A and subscribe to our podcast. Have questions? Email the show at [email protected] and find us on Twitter @1a.

Today's the day we celebrate mothers and reflect on how they touch our lives every other day of the year. Moms are on our mind a lot at 1A, and we're paying homage all week long. Our series "Beyond Mother's Day" starts now, with you. We wanted to hear more about your moms. Here's what you told us.| Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station at donate.npr.org/1A and subscribe to our podcast. Have questions? Email the show at [email protected] and find us on Twitter @1a.

Michael Cohen is under scrutiny for his business endeavors, and three American hostages were released from North Korea. Around the world, America's allies stick with the Iran nuclear deal, and social media takes on Turkey's president with one word: "enough." | Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station at donate.npr.org/1A and subscribe to our podcast. Have questions? Email the show at [email protected] and find us on Twitter @1a.

Michael Hayden thinks America is in danger of losing something precious — our reliance on truth. That's what his new book, "The Assault on Intelligence: American National Security in an Age of Lies," is all about. The four-star general and former leader of both the C.I.A. and the N.S.A. says if we abandon facts, we abandon freedom. | Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station at donate.npr.org/1A and subscribe to our podcast. Have questions? Email the show at [email protected] and find us on Twitter @1a.

One of the country's greatest writers has a new book out, and it took almost a century to get published. Zora Neale Hurston's "Barracoon" is based on her conversations with Oluale Kossola, the man believed to be one of the last people stolen, shipped and sold into slavery in the U.S. Written in dialect, the publishing world refused to touch the text — until now. | Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station at donate.npr.org/1A and subscribe to our podcast. Have questions? Email the show at [email protected] and find us on Twitter @1a.

The device you're using to listen to this podcast contains many, many tiny parts, each engineered to a level of precision that is astounding, given that precision engineering is only a couple centuries old. Simon Winchester tracks the advancement of precision engineering, from cannons to computers, in his new book "The Perfectionists." Plus, learn why Rolls-Royce supplied Simon Winchester with cars for more than a decade. | Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station at donate.npr.org/1A and subscribe to our podcast. Have questions? Email the show at [email protected] and find us on Twitter @1a.

Virtual reality is having a moment, but today's VR is much more than fun and games — it's in the private and public sectors, in healthcare and in education. Jeremy Bailenson has been studying the technology for 20 years. He believes VR has the power to create empathy and change how we see the world. | Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station at donate.npr.org/1A and subscribe to our podcast. Have questions? Email the show at [email protected] and find us on Twitter @1a.