Public radio from Western Michigan University 102.1 NPR News | 89.9 Classical WMUK
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Support WMUK with a gift - call 844-387-1021 or click the donate button above

Search results for

  • Lexicographers know they're in the hot seat as they confront the changing use of the word "marriage." Linguist Geoff Nunberg says the key to getting the new definition right is to crisply describe everything that's in the category and nothing that isn't.
  • At the Guantanamo Bay detention center, 166 prisoners remain detained. U.S. officials say nearly a fourth of the captives are on hunger strike, though lawyers for the prisoners say the strike is more widespread. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama has re-declared his desire to close the facility.
  • Los Angeles, Calif. is the first major city to computerize all of its traffic signals. According to the city, the average speed has gone from 15 miles per hour to 17.3. This is just one example of the innovative ways cities try to address congestion issues.
  • He was a print journalist initially, but Ebert's "thumbs up" TV critiques were just as influential as his essays, and he later carved out a prodigious digital presence. Ebert died Thursday after struggling for years with cancer. He was 70 years old.
  • The Obama administration has decided to delay for a year a key piece of the health law that will let small businesses provide a choice of health plans to their workers. It is the first admission that the task of rolling out the law is too complicated to accomplish in the time allowed.
  • Roger Ebert, an icon of film criticism and a one-time filmmaker himself, died Thursday at the age of 70. At the end of his life, Ebert cut back on his work as he faced a series of bouts with cancer. Film buff Murray Horwitz remembers Ebert and talks about the courage he showed in his final days.
  • Some of the tiniest critters inside the harsh, otherwordly vents at the bottom of sea are unlike almost anything on Earth. They don't need oxygen to thrive — they can use rocket fuel. The discovery is a hint that our planet's first microbes probably sucked up whatever chemicals they could to survive.
  • A new exhibit in Berlin's Jewish Museum is intentionally provocative. The point, one curator says, is to "get people talking about how they perceive Jews, particularly in Germany today." At the center of the controversy is a display in which a Jewish person sits inside a glass showcase and answers questions from visitors.
  • Broadcast TV used to have bigger stars, bigger audiences and bigger budgets. Cable shows were edgier, with more sex and violence than the broadcasters dared show. In the last few seasons, though, cable ratings have improved and broadcast shows have taken more risks. What's going on on TV?
  • Brooklyn-based Vice Media has gone from a small Canadian magazine to figuring out the holy grail of media: how to capture an international audience of aloof 18- to 24-year-olds. From magazines to the Web to film, Vice's CEO says, "We do it weirder, and we do it younger, and we do it in a different way and in a different voice."
282 of 19,548