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NPR Story

3:37 am

Mon August 6, 2012

Business News

By editor

Originally published on Mon August 6, 2012 12:02 pm

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(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with an airline refund.

Refunds are starting to arrive in the bank accounts of Southwest Airlines' customers who were billed multiple times for promotional fares booked on Friday. Some customers paid for their discounted air travel as many as 20 times, according to the Associated Press. The company blamed the problem on a computer glitch.

NPR Story

3:37 am

Mon August 6, 2012

NASA's Curiosity Lands On Red Planet

By Joe Palca

Originally published on Mon August 6, 2012 12:02 pm

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.

They were pretty cheerful at NASA this morning after an unmanned vehicle set down on the surface of Mars.

JOHN HOLDREN: If anybody has been harboring doubts about the status of U.S. leadership in space, well, there's a one ton automobile-size piece of American ingenuity...

(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING AND APPALUSE)

HOLDREN: ...and it's sitting on the surface of Mars right now, and it should certainly put any such doubts to rest.

First And Main

3:07 am

Mon August 6, 2012

Even In Florida Swing County, Minds Seem Made Up

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Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Michael Bailey, 2, was the last baby baptized in St. Paul's AME church in downtown Tampa. Rev. Jesse Jackson preached here and Rosa Parks, Thurgood Marshall and President Clinton all spoke here, but the dwindling congregation forced the church to close.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Faces of Florida's First and Main: Susan MacManus lives in her family's home on a secluded plot of land near Lutz, Fla. MacManus, shown at the old train depot across from the public library, is a political scientist and local historian. Her family was among the first to develop land around here a century ago.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Jayla Mills, 18, lives in the Metro 510 apartment complex that was funded with stimulus money in downtown Tampa. She entered the foster care system at 15 and recently aged out but is fighting for custody of her special needs daughter, Promise. "Do I need the president in this courtroom? Who do I need next to me? Because right now, I have nobody." Mills is undecided about who to vote for this fall.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Gregory Brown, 52, used to be a glazier installing plate-glass windows. He now lives off of unemployment checks, plus the disability checks of a woman who lives with him in Lutz, Fla. Brown is selling his motorcycle to help pay the bills. He is eager to vote President Obama out this fall, and says he plans to register to vote before the election.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

My Bui just had a model home built in Brandon, Fla., which he and his wife moved into in June. Brandon is a Tampa suburb that has been hit hard by foreclosures, but Bui says the plots in their development are selling, and houses are going up fast.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Robert "Pete" Edwards is a registered Republican who argues that Obama has not done enough for the black community. Edwards' grandson, Michael Bailey, 2, was the last baby baptized in the historic St. Paul's church, before the building was sold and turned into a community center.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Claude Walker has been a pastor for 40 years and started working at the First Baptist Church in Plant City, Fla., three years ago. He supports Mitt Romney because of his family values.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Sofia Martinez, 40, is the daughter of migrant farm workers. She jokes that she was made in Mexico but born in the USA. She is a registered nurse who passionately supports the Dream Act and plans to vote for Mitt Romney in the fall.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Roland Lamb and his wife live behind an automated gate across the street from a trailer park. The Lambs are malpractice lawyers. "The truth is," says Lamb, "I'm not much of a good neighbor. You can tell by my gargoyles, I'm not welcoming." He voted for President Obama in 2008 and, despite some frustrations, will vote for him again this year.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Parkesdale Farm Market is run by Jim Meeks, 70, and his extended family, including his daughter-in-law Xiomara Meeks, 36. Business is booming and the stand has been a mainstay on presidential campaign stops since the days of George H.W. Bush. The key to winning, says Meeks, is drinking a strawberry milkshake. He is voting for Romney and his daughter-in-law is voting for Obama.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

New Tampa is a suburb that suffered from multiple foreclosures several years ago, but is now on the rebound. Wanda Kos has lived in the community for eight years. Kos is undecided, but voted for Obama in 2008 and feels positively about his presidency. She is concerned for the future of her daughter Sofia, 6, and her two older children.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Hot Rods BBQ is a family owned restaurant in Lutz, Fla. "Hot Rod" Gaudin, his wife, Helen, and their extended family all pitch in telling jokes, sharing food and manning the wood-burning grill. Rod Gaudin supports Mitt Romney but his wife is undecided.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Katrina Bordwell's home was flooded recently after nearby development stopped up a drainage pipe. Bordwell, 24, lives in the community with her children, from left, Leo, 3, her boyfriend's son Kyle Cose, 3, and Zoey, 5.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

The intersection of First and Main in Lutz, Fla., is located on a privately owned road in a trailer park community.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

The home of Ed Faucher on the corner of First and Main in Lutz, Fla.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Roland Lamb and his wife live behind an automated gate across the street from the trailer park. The Lambs are malpractice lawyers. He voted for President Obama in 2008 and despite some frustrations will vote for him again.

By Steve Inskeep

Originally published on Mon August 6, 2012 9:04 pm

Let's take a picture of America in the latter months of an election year. We want to sense what's on this country's mind. So Morning Edition begins a series of reports from First and Main. Several times in the next few months, we'll travel to a battleground state, then to a vital county in each state. In that county we find a starting point for our visit — an iconic American corner — First and Main streets.

Shots - Health Blog

2:29 am

Mon August 6, 2012

An Anthropologist Walks Into A Bar And Asks, 'Why Is This Joke Funny?'

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Credit Melanie Burford for NPR

Amateur comedian Robert Lynch takes the mic at the Metropolitan Room in New York City on July 21. Lynch is also an evolutionary anthropologist who is studying what laughter reveals about us.

Credit Melanie Burford / NPR

Megan Lutz, left, and Justin Chun react to Lynch's standup routine. When we laugh at a joke, Lynch hypothesizes, we are often revealing our unconscious attitudes.

Credit Melanie Burford / NPR

Lynch performs to a full house at the Metropolitan Room in Manhattan, N.Y. He says people all over the world want their friends and romantic partners to share their sense of humor.

Credit Melanie Burford / NPR

Bruno Fava laughs at a joke at the Metropolitan Room. Lynch finds there's a connection between self-deception and laughter.

Credit Melanie Burford / NPR

Lynch has found people with higher levels of self-deception are less likely to laugh at jokes.

Credit Melanie Burford / NPR

Lynch, far right, sits with fellow comedians waiting to go on stage at the Metropolitan Room. He says his research helps him to be a better comic.

Credit Melanie Burford / NPR

Lynch, center, talks with friends after performing his stand-up routine. He plans to continue trying his hand at amateur comedy, while pursuing a career in anthropology.

Credit Melanie Burford for NPR

Megan Lutz, left, and Justin Chun react to amateur comedian Robert Lynch at the Metropolitan Room in Manhattan, N.Y. Lynch is an anthropologist researching what laughing reveals about us.

By Shankar Vedantam

Originally published on Thu August 9, 2012 3:26 pm

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It's Saturday night at the Metropolitan Room, a comedy club in New York City. Host Jimmy Failla is warming up the crowd.

"Where you guys from?" he asks one group in the audience. "Boston? Home of the Red Sox. Personally, we'd prefer you rooted for the Taliban!"

There are 50 or 60 people in the audience, sipping cocktails. Failla has a system. He asks people where they're from. Most are locals. He then hits them with something they can relate to.

Author Interviews

2:01 am

Mon August 6, 2012

'American Dream,' Betrayed By Bad Economic Policy

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Credit Nick Kelsh / PublicAffairs

Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele are the authors of America: What Went Wrong?

By editor

Originally published on Tue October 9, 2012 6:33 am

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A lot is at stake in the current election, but no matter who wins, the victor will stay committed to policies that cripple the middle class. That's according to Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters Donald Barlett and James Steele, who've been covering the middle class for decades.

In their new book, The Betrayal of the American Dream, Barlett and Steele criticize a government obsessed with free trade and indifferent toward companies that outsource jobs.

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