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Social psychologist Vanessa Bohns, in an NPR interview tied to her new book 'Should I Say Something?', said honesty at work isn't always useful if it lacks practical value. She recommends workers ask three questions before giving feedback: is it actionable, would I want to hear it, and does the other person actually want it.
NPR reported that consumers are increasingly turning to public libraries to cut spending, using them for free books, streaming via apps like Kanopy, and digital newspaper access. One example cited was Topeka, Kansas resident Izzy Rivera, who borrows books through her library and the Libby app instead of buying new ones, and recently bought 15 used books for about $20 at a library sale. The New York Public Library also began offering free NYT digital access to visitors using its Wi-Fi starting in January.
Schools, libraries, and education associations flooded the FCC with comments opposing a proposal from Chairman Brendan Carr to potentially sunset E-Rate, the $2 billion annual program that subsidizes internet connectivity for schools and libraries. The National Association of Elementary School Principals and the American Library Association were among groups urging the FCC to preserve the program, which Carr has criticized for enabling excessive student screen time. The FCC already cut E-Rate funding last year for Wi-Fi hotspot lending and school bus internet service.
Listeners, many of them younger users, have been posting on the sparsely trafficked Spotify comment sections of NPR podcast episodes, turning the underused feature into an informal chat space. The comments sections, rather than containing feedback on the episodes themselves, have filled with casual back-and-forth conversation among a recurring group of users.
NPR staff discovered that middle schoolers were using the Spotify comment section under an episode of its Wild Card podcast to chat with friends, initially mistaking the flurry of cryptic, emoji-laden posts for bot spam. This American Life host Ira Glass investigated the phenomenon, learning that kids sought out podcasts with few existing comments specifically to use as a private-feeling space. NPR says a similar pattern occurred previously on an episode of Ted Radio Hour.
NPR staff discovered that streams of odd emojis and abbreviations under Spotify episodes of its podcast 'Wild Card' were not bot spam but messages from underage kids using the comments as a group chat, according to reporting on 'This American Life.' Producer Hannah Chin identified the pattern after colleagues had already flagged the posts to Spotify as bots, and host Ira Glass later found a similar case had occurred on NPR's TED Radio Hour.
NPR's podcast Throughline dedicated an episode to the original 19th-century Luddite movement, explaining that these workers were not simply anti-technology but were organizing to protect their livelihoods from mechanization. The episode, prompted by a listener question, features historian Katrina Navickas discussing parallels between that rebellion and today's anxieties over AI displacing jobs.