Patrick Jarenwattananon

These days, a New Year's Eve celebration doesn't feel complete without one thing: a countdown. But that ritual to ring in the new year isn't as old as you might think.

In Hong Kong, authorities from the police's national security department arrested half a dozen senior staff members, confiscated boxes and closed one of the last pro-democracy outlets, Stand News.

In 2017, the rapper Logic named a song after the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline phone number. A new study has found it may have had a remarkable impact.

NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Zoë Jenkins, Miranda Zanca and Ichtaca Lira, reporters for YR Media, about their series "Teens in America."

When rapper Logic's song "1-800-273-8255" — the digits for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline — came out, the hotline started getting more calls.

In 2020, a Baltimore man strung holiday lights across the street to remind his neighbor of the connection they shared despite pandemic isolation. Soon, others hopped on their rooftops to do the same.

Here's how their hospitals are doing nearly two years into the pandemic, what they are seeing in new omicron patients, and their thoughts on the wave of burnout affecting the industry.

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with reporter Hunter Walker, who wrote a Rolling Stone article on Dustin Stockton and Jennifer Lynn Lawrence, the Trump supporters now cooperating with the Jan. 6 House panel.

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with three nurses from around the country about how the omicron variant has affected their work and what their year has been like on the front lines of the pandemic.

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with HuffPost labor reporter Dave Jamieson about the announced end to the Kellogg's strike in Michigan.

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Matthew Brazzel, a Kentucky native who lost his home in deadly tornadoes on Dec. 10. Some of Brazzel's family photos have been found across the border in Indiana.

After fleeing Somalia some 30 years ago, Dhalac became this country's first Somali-American mayor earlier this month, elected in a city that's 90% white.

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Deqa Dhalac, who recently became the first Somali-American mayor in the United States.

Bruce Springsteen has reportedly sold Sony his masters for a value north of $500 million. NPR's Audie Cornish talks with Billboard's Melinda Newman on why music icons have recently decided to cash in.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with ProPublica reporter Eli Hager on why many Utah families living in poverty don't get assistance — from the state nor the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Polilogue, a weekly podcast that analyzes every Sunday morning political talk show, just hit its 250th episode. It's produced by a husband and wife who have a young child at home and one on the way.

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Dr. Saad Omer about the effectiveness of travel bans now that the omicron variant has been discovered in the United States.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Féin president and leader of the opposition in the Republic of Ireland, about Brexit and how cross-border relations are working.

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Dr. Jamila Perritt, president and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health, on what's at stake in the Mississippi abortion law that is being heard by the Supreme Court.

When 10-year-old Eli McKivigan went to get his first COVID vaccine, he was terrified of the needle. So he whispered his high-risk best friend's name to remind him why the shot was important.