'Wild Card' with Rachel Martin gets to the heart of what it means to be human

Plus, how to put embarrassment aside and embrace the awkward.

View this email online by Suzanne Nuyen May 5, 2024 Good morning. This week, Trump's VP contender Kristi Noem faced backlash over a story about killing her dog, Fox News pulled down a series about Hunter Biden after he threatened to sue the network, and the Federal Reserve voted to keep interest rates at a 23-year high.   Best of NPR Longtime newsletter readers know how much I enjoyed NPR's Enlighten Me with Rachel Martin series. As a devout Catholic, I was captivated by Rachel's thoughtful conversations with people from all backgrounds about religion, spirituality and how to build a life of meaning.   Now, Rachel is bringing more of the big-picture conversations I love in her new podcast, Wild Card. It's part interview, part existential game show. With the help of a little deck of cards with some big questions, Rachel gets to the heart of what it means to be human with actors, artists, thinkers and more.    NPR Rachel has hosted NPR news shows for more than a decade and worked as an NPR reporter for 15 years before that. She has covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the opioid crisis, mass shootings and more. "I got to a point in my life and in my career where I needed to focus more on the hope and inspiration part," she says. "And I find that in deep conversations with people about how they make sense of this world and their place in it."  Through these conversations, Rachel realized that we all go through hard things. "The guests on our show are people you might think have their existential acts together," she says. But when it gets down to it, we’re all working through our insecurities. I’ve lived enough life at this point to know that’s true but this show and these conversations draw that into such sharp relief. And they make me feel more alive."  It only took one episode for me to learn the same lesson. In her interview, comedian and actress Jenny Slate talks about meeting her current husband after a tough divorce, and whether fate or hard work brought them together. "I couldn't stop the timing of falling in love with him," Slate says when asked if she had to change something in herself first before making the new relationship work. The sentence stopped me in my tracks, and I listened to her answer several more times, thinking of my own husband, whom I met five weeks after ending a long-term relationship. We were married in January and my fears mirrored Slate's almost exactly. Celebrities ... they're just like us!  You can listen to the first episode of Wild Card with Jenny Slate here, or read the interview highlights. In the coming weeks, Rachel will bring you conversations with Issa Rae, Chris Pine, LeVar Burton and more. Keep your ears open for the episode with U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limon — Rachel promises Limon will lay down some wisdom. "You'll see what I mean when you hear it," she says. Newsletter continues after sponsor message The Week That Was  Eva Marie Uzcategui for NPR Michael Vargas Arango was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder as a teenager. The first person he told about his diagnosis outside his family was his girlfriend. He was in college and living in a foreign city far away from his family in Colombia. Though his girlfriend was understanding and loving, she didn't want him to tell her friends. The request didn't sit well with Arango, and it inspired The Monsters We Create, a deeply personal narrative that won NPR's College Student Podcast Challenge.  Women under 60 can benefit from hormone therapy to treat hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause, according to a new study published in the medical journal JAMA. The analysis is based on two decades of follow-up data from a study following thousands of women taking hormone replacement therapy. That study was halted after it was found that women taking Prempro, which is a combination of estrogen and progestin, had higher risks of breast cancer and stroke. Americans are scared for the country's future. But as the latest NPR poll shows, Democrats and Republicans are scared for different reasons. Democratic respondents are most concerned about a rise in extremism and fascism. They also overwhelmingly valued teaching children to treat others as they would want to be treated. In contrast, Republican respondents were most concerned about a lack of values in the country and feared the U.S. was becoming weak as a nation. They valued instilling children with faith in God, teaching them that hard work and discipline pay off and abiding by the golden rule. Support your local station with NPR+ NPR+ is a great new way to support mission-driven journalism while getting something great in return (aside from that warm fuzzy feeling of making a difference). Enjoy Sponsor-free listening from your favorite NPR podcasts, and even get fun bonus episodes from select shows like Fresh Air, Planet Money, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me! And more. All in return for a simple recurring donation to your local station. Get NPR+ Podcast Picks Getty Images Ted Radio Hour: Join Manoush Zomorodi as she explores the biggest questions of our time with the help of some of the world's greatest thinkers. 🎧 Forgetting a name, a poorly executed hug, the 7th grade — awkwardness is part of our lives whether we like it or not. But what if we put the embarrassment aside and embraced our awkward selves? The State of the World: With bureaus spanning the globe, NPR reporters take you where the news is happening — and explain why it matters. Get the facts and context from the ground so you can cut through the noise of disinformation. 🎧 European countries that border Russia are concerned that they'll be invaded next if an emboldened Russia is successful in Ukraine, even though they're members of the NATO alliance. Go to the Baltic nation of Estonia and hear from people who are making preparations in case of invasion. Sea Change, from WRKF: People who live on the coast are living on the front lines of a rapidly changing planet. Hear stories that illuminate, inspire and sometimes enrage as you dive deep into the environmental issues facing coastal communities on the Gulf Coast and beyond.  🎧 The U.S. is experiencing a liquefied natural gas (LNG) boom. This three-part series follows American Gas's journey around the world to find out if LNG is the miracle fuel it's claimed to be. Can it really prevent a climate apocalypse, or is it a carbon bomb waiting to go off? Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from Central Florida Public Media (edit station). This newsletter was edited by Carol Ritchie. Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Music, Politics, Health and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Up First emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy