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All Things Considered

Weekdays, 4pm - 7pm; Weekends, 5pm - 6pm

All Things Considered is a NPR radio newsmagazine that delivers in-depth reporting and transforms the way listeners understand current events and view the world. The program presents breaking news mixed with compelling analysis, insightful commentaries, interviews, and special -- sometimes quirky -- features.

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News/Talk

Composer ID:

5187f236e1c846f8db74ca9f|5187f230e1c846f8db74ca8f

To Beat Odds, Poor Single Moms Need Wide Safety Net

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Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

Shyanne (left) holds 1-year-old Makai, as Stepp checks to see if all of Shyanne's homework has been completed.

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

Along with raising three kids, Stepp works full time and takes evening classes at a local community college to earn an associate degree in early childhood education. Opportunity House also helps pay the rent on her family's apartment.

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

Stepp hugs her daughter, Shyanne, at the Second Street Learning Center, where she is a head assistant teacher earning less than $9 an hour. The center provides 24-hour day care for Reading's working poor and is run by a nonprofit called the Opportunity House.

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

Opportunity House also supports Stepp's education and sometimes will subsidize her schooling expenses if she is running short on cash. "Being a head assistant, I can't go any further without some kind of degree," she says.

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

Stepp sports a tattoo of her younger son's name, Makai, on her wrist. I-LEAD, the nonprofit that runs her evening classes, provides dinner for its students.

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

Stepp says her goal is to obtain an associate degree and then a bachelor's degree. She hopes to open a day care center of her own someday.

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

Stepp picks up her three children, (from left) Shyanne, 8; Isaiah, 10; and Makai, 1, at the 24-hour day care center after her classes are over around 9 p.m.

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

Sometimes Stepp has to remind her children why their lives are so hectic. "I explain to them that I'm doing it for them, not for me," she says.

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

Shyanne (left) holds 1-year-old Makai, as Stepp checks to see if all of Shyanne's homework has been completed.

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

Stepp speaks to Isaiah before bedtime. "Sometimes I think I have done something wrong for them to turn their backs to me," she says of her failed relationships with her children's fathers. "But then there are other times that I'm in a good mood and think, 'Oh, well. Let them go. If they don't want to do it, I can do it. I can be the mother and father at the same time.' "

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

"I think a lot of single mothers have a bad name," Stepp says. "[People] think they just go out and have babies and be on welfare. I'm the opposite, and I know [there are] other single mothers out there that are also the opposite. They try hard, and sometimes it's just not hard enough. You need that help."

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

Jennifer Stepp, 29, lives in Reading, Pa., and is raising three children by herself. Like 14 million other single mothers in America, she lives below the poverty line.

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

Once a thriving railroad hub and factory town in southeast Pennsylvania, Reading has a poverty rate of 41.3 percent and is labeled America's poorest city with a population of 65,000 or more.

By Pam Fessler

Originally published on Fri July 13, 2012 6:51 pm

Single mothers have an especially hard time getting out of poverty. Households headed by single mothers are four times as likely to be poor as are families headed by married couples.

Still, many of these women are trying to get ahead. Some know instinctively what the studies show: Children who grow up in poor families are far more likely to become poor adults.

5:01 pm

Wed July 11, 2012

At 100, Woody Guthrie Still Resonates

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Credit Al Aumuller / Courtesy of the Woody Guthrie Archives

July 14, 2012, is the 100th anniversary of Woody Guthrie's birth.

Credit Twangbox Productions

Reporter Bradley Klein stands with Nora Guthrie (left), director of the Woody Guthrie Foundation, and archivist Tiffany Colannino (right).

Credit Courtesy of the Woody Guthrie Archives

One of Woody Guthrie's notebooks, circa 1942.

By editor

Originally published on Fri July 13, 2012 11:16 am

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Woody Guthrie would have been 100 years old on Saturday. The singer and songwriter wrote "This Land Is Your Land," among thousands of other songs.

Even though Guthrie died almost 45 years ago, his lyrics and message continue to appeal to new generations of Americans.

4:31 pm

Wed July 11, 2012

Gene Mutation Offers Clue For Drugs To Stave Off Alzheimer's

Credit U.S. National Institute on Aging / via Wikimedia Commons

A PET scan of the brain of a person with Alzheimer's disease.

By Jon Hamilton

Originally published on Thu July 12, 2012 5:03 pm

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Finally, there's some good news about Alzheimer's disease.

It turns out that a few lucky people carry a genetic mutation that greatly reduces their risk of getting the disease, an Icelandic team reports in the journal Nature.

The mutation also seems to protect people who don't have Alzheimer's disease from the cognitive decline that typically occurs with age.

4:18 pm

Wed July 11, 2012

Korean Families Chase Their Dreams In The U.S.

Credit Martin Kaste / NPR

Hyungsoo Kim brought his sons Woosuk (left) and Whoohyun to California from Korea so the boys could get an American public-school education. In "goose families," one parent migrates to an English-speaking country with the children, while the other parent stays in Korea.

By Martin Kaste

Originally published on Wed July 11, 2012 5:33 pm

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Eleven-year-old Woosuk Kim sees his mother only three or four times a year. That's because he's part of what Koreans call a "goose family": a family that migrates in search of English-language schooling.

A goose family, Woosuk explains, means "parents — mom and dad — have to be separate for the kids' education."

Woosuk's father brought him and his little brother to America two years ago to attend Hancock Park Elementary, a public school in Los Angeles. The boys' mother stayed in South Korea to keep working.

3:55 pm

Wed July 11, 2012

Firefighters Prevail In Fight for Health Insurance

By editor

Originally published on Wed July 11, 2012 5:33 pm

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It all started around a kitchen table in Custer, South Dakota. John Lauer, a 27-year-old seasonal firefighter for an elite U.S.

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Poverty In America: The Struggle To Get Ahead

5:02 pm

Wed July 11, 2012