Consider This from NPR Folgen

Every Fall NPR asks our critics and staff to pick their favorite books from the past year. Those nominations - there's hundreds of them - are then sorted down to a semi-manageable number. This year is our largest list yet with 383 titles. Click here to visit NPR's Book Concierge for 2020. The hosts of Consider This all submitted their picks to the list. Here are some of their favorites:Ari Shapiro recommends Susanna Clarke's novel Piranesi. A mythic story about a man who is disoriented and trapped in a mysterious sort of house. Mary Louise Kelly has a suggestion great for a book club. Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet explores the connection between what was arguably William Shakespeare's greatest play, Hamlet, and the death of his only son four years before. Ailsa Chang's pick is a good read for ages 10 and up. Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri takes you on a journey through myth, youth and cultural clash as a young boy and his family flee Iran and end up in Oklahoma. Audie Cornish chose to share Just Us by poet Claudia Rankine. It's a collection of essays, photos, poems and conversations that Rankine has been having with friends and strangers about race. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Americans got some good news on Wednesday morning when the White House announced that it had secured another 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine.Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar released a statement afterward saying the U.S. will now have enough supply "to vaccinate every American who wants it by June 2021." Even with these announcements questions remain on how exactly everyone will get vaccinated. States are having varying levels of success with the vaccine rollout process. Dr. Jose Romero, Arkansas health secretary and chair of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention immunization advisory committee, discusses the success Arkansas has had with vaccine distribution and the lessons learned in the process.In Seattle, NPR's Will Stone has been following vaccine distribution, including to health care workers who have been caring for COVID-19 patients for nearly a year. One of the questions that remains as more people get vaccinated is should volunteers who got a placebo during the vaccine trials now be offered the real thing? NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Dr. Steven Goodman of Stanford School of Medicine who is advising the Food and Drug Administration about this.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

After seven months since the last coronavirus relief bill, Congress finally passed a new one on Monday. Neither Democrats or Republicans are completely happy with the $900 billion package, but it does provide some relief. Included in the newest bill are extended unemployment benefits and $600 direct deposit payments to most Americans. But for many people who previously lost their jobs and livelihoods, this relief comes too late. NPR's Lauren Hodges reports on the millions of people who are have been in financial limbo since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.And the financial impacts of the pandemic have not been felt evenly. Women and communities of color are bearing the greatest burden. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly spoke with associate professor of economics Michelle Holder of John Jay college at City University of New York, about how industries like retail and hospitality have been disproportionately gutted and when they might return to pre-pandemic levels.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy