It's a holiday tradition unlike any other — the annual pardoning of Thanksgiving turkeys. But not everybody is a fan of giving the birds clemency, especially if they've had to report on it for more than a decade straight.

This episode: Politics Podcast producer Elena Moore, and senior political editor & correspondent Domenico Montanaro.

This episode was produced by Elena Moore. It was edited by Casey Morell. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi. Fact-checking by Katherine Swartz.

Unlock access to this and other bonus content by supporting The NPR Politics Podcast+. Sign up via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Connect:
Email the show at [email protected]
Join the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Emily and Aaron wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, and explain how you can help the show. Hint: It's giving us feedback about what you love and think we could do better on the show. You can take our survey at npr.org/shortwavesurvey.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Our colleagues at Planet Money had a simple question: how do pollsters do their work ahead of elections? They went to Marist College — home of the Marist Poll, which partners with NPR for its polling — to learn how to be pollsters. They break down the science of polling, and find out all the tricks that pollsters use to get people to finish their surveys.

Unlock access to this and other bonus content by supporting The NPR Politics Podcast+. Sign up via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Connect:
Email the show at [email protected]
Join the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

The climate meeting known as COP27 has wrapped. Representatives from almost 200 countries attended to talk about how to tackle climate change and how to pay for the costs of its effects that the world is already seeing. Rebecca Hersher and Michael Copley from NPR's Climate Desk talk with Emily about why the meeting went into overtime, three big things that came out of it, and the long and bumpy road still ahead to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

When the new Congress takes office in January, Democrats will lose control of the House of Representatives. Until that happens, they have a slew of legislative priorities, ranging from increasing the debt ceiling to codifying the right to same-sex and interracial marriages.

This episode: White House correspondent Asma Khalid, and congressional correspondents Claudia Grisales & Deirdre Walsh.

This episode was produced by Elena Moore and Casey Morell. It was edited by Eric McDaniel. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi. Fact-checking by Katherine Swartz.

Unlock access to this and other bonus content by supporting The NPR Politics Podcast+. Sign up via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Connect:
Email the show at [email protected]
Join the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

The idea came to Uma Valeti while he was working on regrowing human tissue to help heart attack patients: If we can grow tissue from cells in a lab, why not use animal cells to grow meat?

Food production accounts for as much as a third of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. The idea behind cultivated meat is to help feed the world while dramatically reducing human contributions to global warming and avoiding killing animals. NPR Health Correspondent Allison Aubrey has been visiting production facilities and talking with both food and climate scientists to understand how far away lab-grown meat is from store shelves, and what a meal of cultivated chicken tastes like.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on our show. Take our survey: npr.org/shortwavesurvey

Reach the show by emailing [email protected].

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Election observers were concerned misinformation would have an outsized impact on the 2022 elections, as it did in 2020. But, that ended up not being the case. Why?

This episode: White House correspondent Tamara Keith, voting correspondent Miles Parks, and disinformation correspondent Shannon Bond.

This episode was produced by Elena Moore and Casey Morell. It was edited by Eric McDaniel. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi. Fact-checking by Katherine Swartz.

Unlock access to this and other bonus content by supporting The NPR Politics Podcast+. Sign up via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Connect:
Email the show at [email protected]
Join the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

In the mornings, Sonia Vallabh and Eric Minikel's first job is to get their two garrulous kids awake, fed and out the door to daycare and kindergarten. They then reconvene at the office and turn their focus to their all-consuming mission: to cure, treat, or prevent genetic prion disease.

Prions are self-replicating proteins that can cause fatal brain disease. For a decade, Sonia Vallabh has been living with the knowledge that she has a genetic mutation that will likely cause in her the same disease that claimed her mother's life in 2010. Upon discovering she had the mutation, Sonia and her husband made a massive pivot: They went from careers in law and urban planning to earning their Ph.D.s, and founding a prion research lab at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. On today's episode, Sonia and Eric talk with Short Wave's Gabriel Spitzer about what it's like to run a lab with one's spouse, cope with the ticking clock in Sonia's genes, and find hope in a bleak diagnosis.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Attorney General Merrick Garland has named Jack Smith, the Justice Department's former public integrity chief, to oversee the investigations into the former president.

This episode: White House correspondent Tamara Keith, senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro, and national justice correspondent Carrie Johnson.

This episode was produced by Elena Moore and Casey Morell. It was edited by Eric McDaniel. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi. Fact-checking by Katherine Swartz.

Unlock access to this and other bonus content by supporting The NPR Politics Podcast+. Sign up via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Connect:
Email the show at [email protected]
Join the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

The first time Sonia Vallabh understood something was very wrong with her mother Kamni was on the phone on her mom's 52nd birthday. She wasn't herself. By the end of that year, after about six months on life support, Kamni had died.

The disease she died from would upend Sonia and her husband Eric's lives, and send them on a careening journey toward a completely new calling: to prevent or cure the disease that's stalking Sonia's family." Sonia Vallabh and Eric Minikel join Short Wave to tell their story in this second of three episodes on prion disease.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy