The intersection of race and abortion

Plus, one Sioux chef's journey to reclaim Indigenous cuisine.

View this email online May 15, 2022 This week, we look at the disproportionate impact overturning Roe would have on Black women. Plus, economists' outlook on soaring home prices and how to watch tonight’s lunar eclipse. Scott’s weekly weigh-in Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images The sheer death toll of COVID is just staggering. When the pandemic began, we spoke of thousands of lives that might be lost in a pandemic that could last just months. This weekend, two years and two months later, a million American lives have been lost to the virus, even as new vaccines and treatments have saved lives.   Our senior producer Melissa Gray started a series featuring people from around the U.S. with the aim of capturing this unfolding story in human terms. “I chose the self-narrated format because it can be incredibly intimate, and hoped listeners who felt as isolated, disconnected, and unmoored as our guests might find comfort in hearing how other Americans – strangers – were also seeing and feeling,” she said. Melissa and producer Gabriel Dunatov followed the work of Stephanie Ramos, a hospital chaplain in Los Angeles, who was often the last person to hold a patient’s hands as their life slipped away. “There were just constant people I was close to. They were there and they were gone. I miss them. I miss their presence, their laughter, their smiles,” Ramos reflected.   I also felt it was important to note the return of the burqa under Taliban rule in Afghanistan. In this week’s essay, I remembered trying on the burqa I had thoughtlessly brought back as a souvenir while covering the war.   It was especially cheering in these days to have Lyle Lovett tell us about his new album, 12th of June, titled for his twins, with whom he is besotted.   We must report about so much loss in the news, and I hope without becoming jaded. I was reminded this week of Edna St. Vincent Millay: “I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.” Scott Simon Scott Simon is one of NPR's most renowned news anchors. He is the host of Weekend Edition Saturday and one of the hosts of the morning news podcast Up First. Be sure to listen to him every Saturday on your local NPR station, and follow him on Twitter. Newsletter continues after sponsor message Stories you might have missed   Bloomberg via Getty Images Advocates and policy experts want you to know that abortion is about racial justice, too. America is the only developed country with a steadily rising maternal mortality rate. Overturning Roe v. Wade would only increase the number of deaths – and Black women are especially at risk. If you want to understand the intersection of race and abortion, one legal scholar says, start by looking at the 14th Amendment. Home prices are up, up, up. Will they fall? Housing prices all over the U.S. have been rising astronomically. Boise, Phoenix, Austin and Miami are red-hot. In Nashville, prices have skyrocketed 45% in the last two years. One analysis finds homes in most U.S. metro areas are more expensive than they should be, based on historical trends. In the run-up to the housing bubble 15 years ago, prices rose faster than normal too, before bottoming out and causing the worst housing crash in generations. Some economists say that prices may fall, though the jury’s out on just how much. But another big crash? It’s unlikely, experts say. Here’s why. The U.S. pledged billions to fight climate change. Then came the war in Ukraine. The U.S. owes billions of dollars in climate funding to developing nations as part of the 2015 Paris agreement, akin to reparations for the emissions wrought during early industrialization by rich countries. But this spring, Congress only allocated one-third of the international climate funding it had pledged – even as billions in military aid flowed to Ukraine and climate change’s toll rises. That has left some leaders dismayed. Editor's pick   Chelsea Saunders for NPR One Sioux chef's journey to reclaim Native American cuisine. A few years into chef Sean Sherman’s culinary career, he realized how little Indigenous foods were represented on menus. So he set out to prepare dishes that celebrate and preserve his Oglala Lakota Sioux ancestors’ cooking. Our illustrator drew his story. Before you go...   Matthew Decker/Reddit A Kansas man discovered an object in his yard that looks like it was plucked right out of a Marvel movie: a peculiar ax with a knotted root handle. A valedictorian with nonspeaking autism delivered her college commencement via text-to-speech software and urged her classmates to embrace the power of sharing. Tilda Swinton plays a botanist who’s haunted by a mysterious sound in the new film Memoria. The climax will leave your jaw on the floor. A total lunar eclipse will turn the moon a brilliant red hue this evening. Here's how to watch it. Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WUFT 89.1 (edit station). Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! 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