Consider This from NPR Folgen

The Panama Canal has sat at the center of global trade for more than a century, connecting two oceans. The things Americans use every day pass through here, from gas to food. And now, this spot is also at the center of President Trump's global expansionist agenda.Secretary of State Marco Rubio has just wrapped up a trip to Panama where he told the President that if China's influence over the canal isn't curbed the United States will take measures to protect its rights.Trump's threat to take back the Panama Canal has the potential to reshuffle global politics. We're meet the people and the 51-mile waterway in the middle of it all.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.orgEmail us at considerthis@npr.orgLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Most presidents want as much power as they can get. And it's not unusual to see them claim authority that they don't, in the end, actually have. We saw it just last term, when former President Biden tried to unilaterally forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in federal student loans.Or when he announced, days before leaving office that the 28th Amendment, on gender equality, was now the law of the land. So are the opening moves of Trump's presidency just a spicier version of the standard playbook or an imminent threat to constitutional government as we know it?For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.orgEmail us at considerthis@npr.orgLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Schools, corporations, even churches, are wrestling with how to approach issues of racial and social justice in a highly polarized U.S. But what happens when people with shared political views disagree on how much is too much? For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy