Sarah Gonzalez
-
The idea of vaccination is almost 2,000 years old. The story of the very first vaccine involves a nose pipe, milkmaids, death row inmates, and a beautiful woman out for revenge.
-
As a low-wage worker, Yesenia Ortiz wishes she would get paid more during the pandemic because of the extra level of risk to which she is exposed.
-
In a competitive labor market, employers would need to pay workers more money for riskier jobs. But now, essential workers are making as much money as they were before the pandemic.
-
The people who harvest food face two challenges right now: tighter border controls keeping many away from the fields, and cramped living quarters that make social distancing almost impossible.
-
In the Caribbean island of Barbuda, land is not bought or sold. Put up a fence and the land is yours forever, for free — if you're Barbudan. But now there is a plan to start selling it.
-
French fries are facing an existential crisis. As consumers opt for food delivery services, the shelf life of fries isn't good enough. But some are trying to engineer the fry of the future.
-
More recycling isn't always good for the environment. Now that China is buying less recyclables, cities are shoving their water bottles and cardboard boxes into the trash pile. And it might be OK.
-
We kind of owe recycling to the Mafia and a 1987 garbage barge that couldn't dock anywhere. That's when cities started sending trucks to everyone's homes to pick up glass bottles and cardboard boxes.
-
In 2010, Panera launched an experiment at a few of their cafes. They told customers: Pay what you can afford. NPR's Planet Money looks at how that experiment turned out.
-
The first government shutdown in history was in 1879, when former Confederate Democrats in Congress refused to fund the government unless protections for black voters went away.