A Child's Choice; Move Machines With Your Mind; Take Control Of Your Health Care

Plus, how the president's racist rhetoric riffs on America's centuries of anti-immigrant sentiment.

Stories And Podcasts You May Have Missed Claire Harbage/NPR You can keep one parent with you, they told the toddler. Choose. That was the ultimatum given by the Border Patrol to a 3-year-old Honduran girl whose family was seeking asylum in the U.S. and couldn’t be made to stay in Mexico because of her heart problems. (The Border Patrol disputes the family’s account.) The family eventually was allowed to enter together, but the story presented one more black mark as the government launches new asylum rules and struggles with weak oversight of its overwhelmed detention centers. Democrats warned this week that a popular new app that lets you play with your facial features in photos — changing your expression, aging yourself by decades, and more — may be too suspicious to be worth it. In public appeals and letters to authorities, they worried the Russian-made app could be unintentionally exposing sensitive data or even train facial-recognition software. This is America: President Trump’s nativist “go home” rhetoric has a long history in U.S. politics, stretching as far back as 1798, when the Alien and Sedition Acts made deportation easier and citizenship more daunting. Through means both legal and menacing, Americans have resisted many subsequent waves of immigration, including Catholics, Chinese and European Jews. This nebulous “other” often has been targeted as a threat by U.S. politicians, including Trump – and his language this week suggests he’ll make it a major theme of his reelection campaign. A comprehensive new analysis finds that menstrual cups are safe to use and may be as effective at containing menstruation as tampons or pads. That could be big news in poorer countries, where a lack of access to disposable products can keep girls out of school for several days every month. When progressives proposing big new government are asked how they would pay for it, some have begun citing something called Modern Monetary Theory. The idea essentially says that so long as there’s idle capacity in the economy and a country controls its own currency, the government essentially can spend as much as it wants. The idea has some strong supporters on Wall Street, but some economists have compared it to the discredited conservative idea that cutting taxes has pays for itself. When it comes to student debt, college dropouts get the worst of both worlds: Five-figure loans to repay and terrible-paying jobs to do it with. And if they default on their debt, which college dropouts are three times more likely to do, the knots get tighter: They’re no longer allowed to take out more money to further their education and improve their income. "I feel like I'm stuck in quicksand," one former student says. Podcasts of the Week M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives, University at Albany, SUNY “Better that those people not be born at all." Throughout history, there have been those so certain their goals were right that they committed to them regardless of who would be hurt. Hidden Brain looks at two instances when scientists took this approach, sterilizing and experimenting on powerless people in the name of benefiting the human race. The U.S. and Iran have been at odds for 40 years now, but between tanker seizures and drone shootdowns, tensions seem as high as they’ve ever been. Throughline looks at previous major incidents in this standoff to get a sense of what might come next. The U.S. medical system isn’t the most user-friendly bureaucracy, and bending it to your will may feel impossible. Life Kit offers tips for keeping control of your health care, including ways to communicate better with your doctor and to shop for a surgeon when you need a procedure. The Indicator notes there has been a lot of noise lately about an obscure economic data point called the yield curve and how its current course portends economic doom for us all. Does this difference in bond rates really mean we’re headed for a recession, and if so, when? Video Of The Week NPR Having “the force” might not be so far off: In the latest episode of Future You, NPR’s Elise Hu checks out an armband that reads neuron activity to let you control robots with your mind. What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: bestofnpr@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Daily News, Politics, Health and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to our Best of NPR emails. |  Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy | NPR 1111 N. CAPITOL ST. NE WASHINGTON DC 20002