All Things Considered

NPR's afternoon radio newsmagazine, All things Considered presents two hours of breaking news mixed with compelling analysis, insightful commentaries, interviews, and special - sometimes quirky - features. A one-hour edition of the program is available on Saturday and Sunday.

Saturdays at 6 p.m.
Sundays at 6 p.m.

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Bobby Womack: 'God Must Still Have A Purpose For Me'

Credit Jamie-James Medina / Courtesy of the artist

Bobby Womack's latest album, The Bravest Man in the Universe, came out June 12.

By editor

Originally published on Sun July 1, 2012 3:05 pm

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"We had two shows that night," says Bobby Womack, recounting a recent concert in Houston. "It was a small theater, about 5- or 6,000 people. The second show, I was just out of it; they had to take me to the hospital."

It was a serious scare for the 68-year-old singer-songwriter — who has also lived through drug addiction and the deaths of two sons — and it didn't end that night.

2:03 pm

Sun July 1, 2012

The Complex 'Tapestry' of Michelle Obama's Ancestry

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Credit Barack Obama Campaign

Fraser and Marian Shields Robinson raised their children, Craig and Michelle, in Chicago, but their family's ancestry can be traced back to pre-abolition Georgia.

Credit Barack Obama Campaign

The Shield and Robinson lines met in 1959 in Chicago, where Fraser and Marian Shields Robinson married and raised their children, Craig and Michelle.

Credit Courtesy of Jewell Barclay

The first lady's maternal great-great-grandfather Dolphus Shields (seated) was born to Melvinia Shields. After emancipation, he settled his family in Birmingham, Ala., where he stayed until his death in 1950.

Credit Courtesy of Francesca Gray

Obama's paternal grandfather, Fraser Robinson Jr., fought in World War II and spoke Gullah, a language that emerged on the South Carolina coast during slavery.

Credit Damon Wood

DNA tests have shown that Joan Tribble, the great-great-granddaughter of Melvinia Shields' owner, and the first lady are distantly related.

Credit The White House / Getty Images

Michelle Obama's family was part of American history long before she, Malia, Sasha and Barack Obama moved into the White House.

Credit Courtesy of HarperCollins

Rachel Swarns reconstructs Michelle Obama's family tree in her book American Tapestry. (Click here for a closer look.)

Credit Scott Robinson /

Author Rachel Swarns has been a reporter for The New York Times since 1995. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and their two children.

By editor

Originally published on Mon July 2, 2012 8:17 am

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When Michelle Obama's great-great-great grandmother was 8 years old, her life underwent a dramatic change.

Melvinia Shields was a slave who grew up at a South Carolina estate with a relatively large community of slaves she knew well. But then she was moved to a small farm in northern Georgia where she was one of only three slaves; most white people in the area didn't own any.

12:08 pm

Sun July 1, 2012

It's Not Tatooine, But Luke Can Call It Home Again

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Credit Mark Dermul

Construction Begins at the Lars Homestead

Credit Mark Dermul

The Lars Homestead, Luke Skywalker's boyhood home, has been repaired by fans.

By editor

Originally published on Mon July 2, 2012 9:28 am

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Mark Dermul is a serious Star Wars fan. He was just 7 years old in 1977 when the original movie hit the theaters. As soon as the huge Star Destroyer flew across the opening scene, he was hooked.

"It hasn't left me," he says. At 42, Dermul now guides tours throughout North Africa, visiting sites that were featured in the blockbuster films.

On one 2010 trip back to planet Tatooine — OK, Tunisia — he and his tour group noticed that Luke Skywalker's boyhood home was decaying. They jumped into hyperspace — OK, the Internet — to save it.

10:47 am

Sun July 1, 2012

The Movie Elizabeth Banks Has 'Seen A Million Times'

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Credit The Kobal Collection

John Travolta and Samuel Jackson in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction [THE KOBAL COLLECTION/MIRAMAX/BUENA VISTA].

Credit Matt Sayles / ASSOCIATED PRESS

Actress Elizabeth Banks (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

By editor

Originally published on Sun July 1, 2012 3:05 pm

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3:56 pm

Sat June 30, 2012

The Trickiness Of Tracking Severe Weather

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Weekends on All Things Considered guest host Laura Sullivan talks with Heidi Cullen, chief climatologist at Climate Central, a non-profit science journalism organization in Princeton, New Jersey. They discuss wildfires and extreme heat in the Midwest this week and how these climate conditions are tracked by Earth-observing satellites.

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2:22 pm

Sun July 1, 2012