Twelve years after the 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, Japan is now considering restarting its shuttered nuclear reactors to combat rising energy prices. It’s a slow process, and one where the government and the public are conflicted about the advantages and risks of nuclear power. Around the world, countries that turned off their reactors in the wake of Fukushima, or have closed old or expensive reactors, are doing a similar about-face, with rising energy prices and clean energy commitments changing their calculus. That’s inevitably raised questions about the safety of potentially running these aging behemoths to more than double their expected lifespan.

In December, we told the wild story of drug smugglers who hide tons of cocaine aboard huge container ships bound for Europe from South America. Today, we pick up the saga from there. What happens to all that cocaine once it reaches port? Bloomberg investigative reporters Lauren Etter and Vernon Silver join this episode to talk about how a sophisticated network of drug cartels and traffickers recruit young people to sneak the cocaine off the ships and coerce dockworkers to look the other way. And how law enforcement is trying to stop cheap cocaine from flooding the streets of Europe–without grinding global trade to a halt.

Covid-19 isn’t quite done with us yet, but virologists are urging governments around the world to start preparing for the next pandemic. They warn it’s just a matter of time before it happens, and with good planning lessons learned from the current response can keep us from getting caught flat-footed again. So far, though, such calls haven’t been met with much enthusiasm by politicians who have more immediate concerns in front of them. Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist with the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan, joins this episode to explain where the next virus is likely to come from, and how to get in front of it. And Bloomberg reporters Riley Griffin and Josh Wingrove talk about what governments learned from the covid pandemic–and what if anything they’re doing to brace for what’s to come.

In 2019, US officials seized a massive cargo ship called the MSC Gayane in the Port of Philadelphia. On board, they found containers filled with products of all kinds that the ship had picked up along its global route. They also discovered cargo that didn’t appear on the ship’s manifest—40,000 pounds of cocaine. Bloomberg investigative reporters Lauren Etter and Michael Riley join this episode to tell the wild story of how one of the world’s biggest cargo ships became an unofficial courier for a notorious European drug cartel.

A group of Taylor Swift fans is suing Ticketmaster, the big live event ticket provider, after sales for her upcoming concert tour went haywire. It’s also drawn the attention of the US Justice Department. The government is investigating whether Ticketmaster is using its dominance in ticket sales to drive out competitors and drive up prices. And Ticketmaster isn’t the only big company in the government’s sights.

Here’s a random yet important fact: Copper is one of the very best conductors of electricity of all metals. And that matters, because as we move toward a world in which more and more things in our lives plug in or charge up–not just your phone, but electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines that will power the future–copper is in increasingly high demand. Worldwide, about 21 million metric tons of it are hauled up from the ground each year. And demand will soon double. Some of the richest reserves of copper are found in Southern Africa. But getting it from deep underground and trucking it thousands of miles to buyers can be a harrowing journey.

Hello and welcome to The Big Take Podcast! Today: The good news, and not so good news, about the US middle class. With inflation rising, the stock market ping-ponging and housing prices softening, that broad swath of Americans who form the backbone of the US economy are getting hit on all sides. Bloomberg reporters Shawn Donnan, Alex Tanzi, Claire Ballentine and Airielle Lowe teamed up to take a look at how middle-income Americans are doing. The answer: Not so badly, actually–at least on paper.

[Taped interview with Jamie Raskin] Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, serves on Congress’s Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the Capitol, and he’s running out of patience with the Department of Justice.

The Purple Principle celebrates Independence Day with its first of two episodes in a mini-series on America’s great independent voices. Amy Chua, perhaps best known by her bestselling Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, launches our exploration of figures who cut through the cacophony of partisan bickering.

Is this any way to understand California politics? It is when speaking with LA Times columnist, author and frequent tortilla contest judge, Gustavo Arellano. TPP host Robert Pease and guest co-host Barbara Bogaev sit down with Gustavo in this second series episode on the Golden State.

It seems like all political roads lead to Georgia these days. The Peach State was so pivotal in the 2020 election of Joe Biden and soon after in the 2021 runoff election of two Democratic senators from a state in the Deep South.

We kick off Episode 8 of Season 3, “Like Family, Like Nation,” with Guzmán’s retelling of that conversation stopper also featured in her new book, I Never Thought of It That Way: How To Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times. She joins Rob this week for Episode 8 of Season 3 to talk about open political dialogue, letting curiosity lead you, and why her Mexican immigrant parents voted for Donald Trump.

The series began with the operative question: is our nation’s red vs blue infighting eroding what was once a more distinctive and cohesive Texas identity?

Based on a great new book, American Reboot (just out from Simon & Schuster), and our TPP conversation, it’s clear former three-term, centrist Texas Congressman Will B. Hurd, now a Cybersecurity executive, should be a part of that “U.S. 2.0” development team.

Wright, a New Yorker staff writer, wastes no time in spinning around our hypothesis that polarized national politics might erode that rather famous, not shyly-held Texas state identity. “Texas is taking over the country,” states Wright emphatically. “The politics have been spilling out of Texas for a long time. So whatever happens in Texas is the future of America.”

What’s it like to represent one of the very few remaining swing districts on the U.S. Congressional map, and be virtually the only Republican member at that time to publicly address climate change? Former Congressman Carlos Curbelo from Florida’s 26th district (including southwest Miami and the Florida Keys) fields these questions in a season-ending Purple Principle episode.

“If we believe democracy has failed us,” writes author and scholar Tom Nichols in his latest book, Our Own Worst Enemy, “we should first ask ourselves whether we have failed the test of democracy.” In this Purple Principle episode entitled “The United States of Narcissism,“ co-hosts Rob Pease and Jillian Youngblood ask Nichols why many Americans seem to be enthusiastically failing that test recently.

Although sub-Saharan Africa is the lowest contributor to global emissions, it will likely be hit hardest by the impacts of climate change—from rising temperatures to extreme and destructive weather events.

[Producer for weekly show] This week on Arts and Ideas: 7pm: Tales of clandestine cooking, kitchen rituals and underground traditions. It’s Hidden Kitchens, from the Kitchen Sisters. The outdoor ovens of Western sheep-herders, barbeque meets Lebanese food in the Mississippi Delta, and more. 8pm: Winding down the Chicago, Green, and Ganges rivers. Stories about how rivers feed us and shape our lives. 9pm: Whether cancel culture is a good thing. A debate from Intelligence Squared US about the value of calling out and public

[Producer for weekly show] This Sunday on Arts & Ideas: a musical journey with jazz pianist Myra Melford, suits and the impressions they make, and the possibility of geoengineering our way out of climate change.

One year ago this week, Americans’ anxiety and uncertainty about the 2020 election was already inching upward when Donald Trump propagated the lie that mail-ballot fraud could cost him his victory and as far-right media began a movement called Stop the Steal. Also one year ago, a group of 15 reporters around the country got a crash course in a new kind of journalism and started jobs with a pop-up newsroom called Votebeat.

Few sectors have carried as much promise and frustration as the agriculture sector in Africa. Since the independence era, the potential of agriculture in Africa has been evident, yet the sector continues to underperform.

The 2020 election was contested at the polls and in the courts. Georgia’s secretary of state was the focus of intense criticism and White House pressure. North Carolina’s elections authority also had its share of political controversy, and it wasn’t the first time.

[Podcast two-way] Charlotte is known for its abundance of trees. Where can you find the biggest, oldest ones in the city?

The Prothonotary Warbler is an endangered species that can be found throughout the Southeastern U.S., including in South Carolina’s Congaree Creek Heritage Preserve.

Something historic happened when the North Carolina State Board of Elections certified the state’s election results in late November: Board member Tommy Tucker voted against certification. It was the first time in recent history a member has dissented from a unanimous vote.

The 2020 election in North Carolina is nearly over. Election boards are finalizing vote counts, and more than 5.5 million North Carolinians voted this year. One of them was a man in Union County who says he voted twice. The county board of elections is now challenging one of his votes in a rare case of double voting.

Charlotte has been losing trees for years, leaving some neighborhoods with less shade than others. New data shows a different way of looking at which neighborhoods lack trees.

A crowd of up to 250 people protested outside a CMPD office in north Charlotte on Friday evening, eventually breaking windows until police fired tear gas to disperse those who had gathered. The protest was one of many across the country following the death of George Floyd this past week by a police officer in Minneapolis.

Charlotte's rapid development in the past 20 years has threatened the city’s tree canopy, with at least 400 total acres lost since 2012. Among those lost are some of Charlotte’s biggest trees, and now there's an effort to track down a number of the city’s historic "treasure trees."

More than 60,000 gallons of gasoline leaked from a pipeline in Huntersville a few weeks ago. Town officials there are holding a public meeting Thursday to answer questions about the leak. The incident has left residents frustrated with the pipeline company and the town.

Most high schools in the region have delayed football practice because of the coronavirus pandemic. One exception is Lake Norman High School in Iredell County, where coaches and players are practicing football differently this year.