Evan Thomas examines the closing months of WWII, exploring the motivations of key U.S. leaders, and of Japanese commanders and diplomats.
Originally broadcast June 20, 2023.

Original source: https://www.npr.org/2024/08/09/g-s1-16200/did-the-u-s-need-to-drop-two-atomic-weapons-on-japan-in-order-to-end-world-war-ii

Today, we’re bringing you the final installment of our space summer series … with the end … of EVERYTHING. Will the universe end in a huge cosmic unraveling? A slow and lonely dissolution? Or a quantum-level transition that breaks the laws of physics? Theoretical astrophysicist Katie Mack breaks down three possible scenarios for how the universe as we know it will finally come to an end.

Original source: https://www.npr.org/2024/08/12/1250455735/universe-ending-science-nasa

In his sequel to ‘This Day,’ Berry’s themes, including bringing alive the joys and sorrows of hard-working rural Kentuckians. are revisited in ways both familiar and fresh.

Original source: https://www.npr.org/2024/08/15/nx-s1-5072678/wendell-berry-another-day-poems-book-review

NPR spoke with Appalachian fiction and nonfiction writers about this moment and how they are building a tapestry of what they know as home.

Original source: https://www.npr.org/2024/08/16/g-s1-17184/jd-vance-hillbilly-elegy-barbara-kingsolver-appalachia