© 2026 KVNF Public Radio
THE COMMON THREAD
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Search results for

  • The restaurant chain hopes a new system for analyzing big data sets will help it spot patterns of complaints across its more than 170 outlets in a matter of hours, not weeks. The goal: to spot problems small and big (soggy pickles? foodborne illness?) before they balloon.
  • Despite Germany's long association with beer, it looks like its citizens are imbibing less of their celebrated beverage now than they did a generation ago. Some cite the economy as a factor; others, the rise of health consciousness.
  • The victory of the candidate backed by Michael Bloomberg's anti-gun superPAC in an Illinois primary was more than just another achievement on the gun control front. It was one more win in Bloomberg's unique assault on what he views as the public health problems of our time.
  • A new study of the Barnett Shale formation in Texas shows that the natural gas reservoir there will last for at least another two decades. "Turns out, what we learned is that there's a lot of good rock left to drill," says geology professor Scott Tinker, the study's author.
  • Relations between the two countries have long been problematic but seemed to be turning a corner a few months ago. Now, they are at it again: After a series of diplomatic miscues, each country is accusing the other of hindering peace talks with the Taliban.
  • It's been a busy week in college basketball, complete with a Cinderella, a gruesome injury and a head coach's exit. We wonder: How do colleges spin the unpredictable news of sports?
  • Sherman worked a tight niche: classic songs rewritten to tickle a Jewish audience's funny bone. A new biography, Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allan Sherman, explains how the performer's 1960s crossover fell in line with a collective awakening to ethnic identity in America.
  • A scientist who studies tornadoes says there's still much to be learned about how they form and how to better forecast them. Still, the storm chasing and research communities will be reevaluating their procedures in the wake of three colleagues' deaths.
  • We've rounded up the tech week that was — on this blog, on NPR airwaves and from our fellow technology writers and observers at other organizations.
  • In extensive and personal comments about the Florida teen's death and the trial that just concluded with a not guilty verdict for the man who fired the fatal shot, the president urged Americans to consider why African-Americans have reacted so strongly.
2,673 of 6,687