In recent years, NPR has explored how small interactions with strangers can do more than just brighten our days — they can improve our well‑being. Our original story from 2023 traced psychologist Gillian Sandstrom’s research back to her experience as a lonely graduate student in Toronto who exchanged a wave and hello daily with a
To paraphrase Jane Austen, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a woman approaching midlife will experience physical changes that will take her by surprise. Take, for example, dry eyes. Turns out, this chronic eye condition is highly common among women in perimenopause and beyond. Hilda Hernandez Nash says her symptoms sprang up earlier this
Catch up on what you missed with our Education newsletter, sent weekly. A massive trove of data about the civil rights of American students was quietly published on the U.S. Education Department’s website this week. The Civil Rights Data Collection includes information about which groups of students are being bullied, which students across the country
This image shows a section of an organoid. Organoids are lab-grown tissues that model the human brain. A new study used brain organoids to probe key protein interactions that may be linked to profound autism. Courtesy of the UCSF Quantitative Biosciences Institute hide caption toggle caption Courtesy of the UCSF Quantitative Biosciences Institute Scientists have
Hosne Ara teaches a group of fourth graders, seated on benches inside the floating school’s classroom. Ali Asif Shawon for NPR hide caption toggle caption Ali Asif Shawon for NPR In September 2018, we posted a story from flood-prone Bangladesh, ‘Floating Schools’ Make Sure Kids Get To Class When The Water Rises. Did the floating
Kevin Reddington, defense attorney for Lindsay Clancy, reacts after the judge declared a mistrial at the conclusion of Clancy’s murder trial at the Plymouth County Superior Court in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on September 4, 2026. Greg Derr/POOL/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Greg Derr/POOL/AFP via Getty Images The judge has declared a mistrial in
