Morning Edition

Monday - Friday, 5am - 9am

Steve Inskeep, Renee Montagne
Bob Leweke

Waking up is hard to do, but it's easier with NPR's Morning Edition. National hosts Renée Montagne and Steve Inskeep, and local host Bob Leweke, bring the day's stories and news to radio listeners on the go. Morning Edition provides news in context, airs thoughtful ideas and commentary, and reviews important new music, books, and events in the arts. All with voices and sounds that invite you to experience the stories.

On any given day, topics may include reports on the Supreme Court from Nina Totenberg; education from Claudio Sanchez; health coverage from Joanne Silberner; and the latest on national security from Tom Gjelten. Steve and Renee interview newsmakers: from politicians, to academics, to filmmakers. In-depth stories explore topics like "digital generations" about the effect of technology on the way we live; special series delve into the intersection of science and art, and discover the untold stories of the country's Hidden Kitchens.

Morning Edition, it's a world of ideas tailored to fit into your busy life.

Genre:

News/Talk

Composer ID:

5187f51ee1c8951d21ce777a|5187f510e1c8951d21ce7773

The Ghostly Grandeur Of A Desert Graveyard

Next image Previous image

Credit Stacy Kendrick / Concordia Cemetery

A couple celebrates Dia de los Muertos at the Concordia Cemetery in El Paso, Texas.

Credit Henry Flores

A photo provided by Henry Flores shows a headstone with what some believe is a ghost in the frame, perched behind the tomb.

Credit Melissa Sargent

The grave of John Wesley Hardin draws many visitors and historians to Concordia.

Credit Melissa Sargent

During a recent tour, the cemetery's visitors included a dog, who sought a cool place to rest.

Credit Stacy Kendrick

A couple celebrates Dia de los Muertos at the Concordia Cemetery.

Credit Melissa Sargent

The cemetery holds the graves of men who came from China to build the intercontinental railroad in the 1800s.

Credit Melissa Sargent

With more than 60,000 graves, Concordia Cemetery in El Paso, Texas, is an easy place in which to get lost. The graveyard covers some 52 acres.

Credit Melissa Sargent

An infant grave for Cynthia Jimenez. The children's section of the cemetery is said to be haunted.

By Neda Ulaby

Originally published on Thu August 2, 2012 7:31 am

Listen

It's a raggedy moonscape; no lush green grass or tranquil arbors here. Concordia Cemetery in El Paso, Texas, just a few blocks from the Mexican border, is stark and dusty. It's overrun with crumbling concrete markers and old wooden crosses gone askew. And it goes on ... and on ... and on.

"It's 52 acres," says Bernie Sargent, chair of the El Paso County Historical Commission. "Sixty thousand people buried here. And they're all dead."

The Grave Of A Wild West Legend

12:43 am

Wed August 1, 2012

'Once More,' Passing The Torch To One And All

Next image Previous image

Credit Ron Tanovitz

By editor

Originally published on Mon August 13, 2012 10:14 am

Listen

Representing Europe in NPR's Poetry Games is Slovenian poet Ales Steger. Steger's first work translated into English, The Book of Things, won last year's Best Translated Book Award for Poetry. The translator was poet Brian Henry, who also translated Steger's Olympic poem, "Once More."

8:04 am

Tue July 31, 2012

Police Use Their Heads To Hem In Runaway Hamster

By editor

Listen

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

7:56 am

Tue July 31, 2012

Olympic Volunteers Cash In On Ceremony Souvenirs

By editor

Listen

The Telegraph reports that props from the Olympics opening ceremony are appearing on eBay — everything from an "Industrial Revolution" costume, to pieces of confetti that erupted as Great Britain's team entered the stadium. Some of the performers are calling it "crass." But a seller pointed out it is in the spirit of the games — because it could "help me achieve my own ambitions."

Dead Stop

5:07 am

Tue July 31, 2012

Rediscovered Headstones Hold Clues To Earthquake

Next image Previous image

Credit Cindy Carpien / NPR

The Gilliam Cemetery, near Sebastopol, Calif., received its first grave in 1852. Many of its older headstones have disappeared over the years.

Credit Cindy Carpien / NPR

The Gilliam Cemetery, near Sebastopol, Calif., received its first grave in 1852. Many of its older headstones have disappeared over the years.

Credit Cindy Carpien / NPR

Jean McNear Powers stands between the twin headstones for her great-, great-, great-grandparents — pioneer couple Isaac and Polly Sullivan.

Credit Tony Pires

The repaired headstone for Jonas Turner and his wife, Lewhettie, shows that he was a native of Tennessee and she was a native of Maine. They died just four months apart, in 1860.

Credit Cindy Carpien / NPR

Tony Pires (right) inspects a repaired headstone for Mitchell Gilliam (Polly's father) with Jack Boatwright of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Credit Cindy Carpien / NPR

Tony Pires uses a metal rod to find a grave marker. Decades of growing plants, pecking birds and digging gophers can make things strangely "disappear" in old cemeteries like Gilliam.

Credit Cindy Carpien / NPR

The partially restored headstone for Thomas C. Potter, who traveled west from Rhode Island, shows that he died on July 21, 1871, at age 25. The inscription reads, "He has gone from the earth, With its pain and care: He is safe in a realm That is bright and fair."

Credit Cindy Carpien / NPR

The headstone for Benjamin Taylor, who died in 1873. Taylor helped drive a wagon train for pioneers who settled in Northern California's Green Valley in 1850. His headstone has been pieced together after being found under a foot of dirt. Caretaker Tony Pires says he hopes to find the missing piece.

Credit Cindy Carpien / NPR

Seismologist Jack Boatwright checks his notes from 2006, when he determined that two-thirds of Gilliam's headstones had very likely been shattered during the 1906 earthquake. Back then, he didn't know that Tony Pires had been resurrecting buried headstones at the cemetery.

Credit Cindy Carpien / NPR

The repaired headstone for Stephen Dovey notes that he died on July 12, 1870, at age 33.

Credit Cindy Carpien / NPR

Some of the oldest headstones at the Gilliam Cemetery were broken and buried by two factors: the 1906 earthquake that also hit nearby San Francisco, and plant and animal life that mounded dirt over broken stones.

By editor

Originally published on Tue July 31, 2012 8:55 am

Listen

The Gilliam Cemetery, which lies 60 miles north of San Francisco, appears to be gaining residents lately. But it's not only because new people have been interred there. Instead, headstones that wound up being buried a century ago have been found and resurrected.

The cemetery's story begins in 1850, when a wagon train of pioneers left Missouri and settled near what is now Sebastopol, Calif. The Gilliam Cemetery was started in 1852, when Polly Gilliam Sullivan and her husband, Isaac, needed a place to bury their stillborn son.

5:07 am

Tue July 31, 2012

Is Housing Recovery Real? Not Everyone Is Convinced

Credit Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

A construction worker carries lumber while working on new homes in San Mateo, Calif., in March. Homebuilding is at its highest level in nearly four years.

By Yuki Noguchi

Originally published on Tue July 31, 2012 5:08 pm

Listen

Housing, the sector that led us into the recession, now looks to be one of the brighter spots in the economy. Homebuilding is at its highest level in nearly four years. More homes are selling, and at higher prices.

The question, of course, is whether this is a solid enough foundation to sustain a full housing recovery.

Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, says housing woes are largely behind us.

5:06 am

Tue July 31, 2012

Romney Targets Obama On Alleged Leaking Of Secrets

Credit Rich Pedroncelli / AP

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney meets with members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars after his speech at the VFW National Convention in Reno, Nev., on July 24.

By Tom Gjelten

Originally published on Tue July 31, 2012 8:25 am

Listen

The latest national security issue to figure in the presidential campaign has little to do with Iran, Afghanistan or other foreign policy challenges. Mitt Romney is instead focusing on what he and other Republicans allege is the Obama administration's record of leaking classified information for political purposes.

5:06 am

Tue July 31, 2012

Medical Technician Might Have Exposed Hundreds To Hepatitis C

By Todd Bookman

Originally published on Tue July 31, 2012 3:24 pm

Listen

After five years of crisscrossing the country as a traveling medical technician, David Kwiatkowski landed at New Hampshire's Exeter Hospital in the spring of 2011. A full-time job in the hospital's cardiac unit soon followed.

It was at Exeter that federal prosecutors say the 33-year-old began to divert syringes of the drug Fentanyl. They say Kwiatkowski, who was arrested July 19, would inject himself with the painkiller, and then refill syringes with a saline solution. He is hepatitis C-positive, meaning those tainted needles might have spread the liver-damaging virus.

6:25 pm

Mon July 30, 2012

'Olimpicamente': In Praise Of Feistiness And Big Feet

Next image Previous image

Credit Ron Tanovitz

By editor

Originally published on Mon August 13, 2012 10:14 am

Listen

A poet and editor of BOMB magazine living in Brooklyn, Monica de la Torre was born in Mexico City. Her poem "Olimpicamente" is told in the voice of the Mexican taekwondo champion Maria del Rosario Espinoza, who was born in the village of La Brecha, in the state of Sinaloa, where her father was a fisherman. Though of limited means, her parents supported her passion for taekwondo, and in 2008 Espinoza fought her way to a gold medal in the Beijing Olympics. "I am," says the poet, "dumbfounded and positively moved by Maria del Rosario's improbable story."

7:35 am

Mon July 30, 2012

Traffic In London Not So Jammed

By editor

Originally published on Mon July 30, 2012 8:24 am

Listen

Transcript

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Linda Wertheimer. Time now for traffic on the 30. London's moving well despite fears the games would clog the city. The M1 highway is busy, but somewhere between normal and nice. And the AP reports inside London no problems at all. The commute to the Houses of Parliament five minutes shorter than normal and bike riders are loving roads cleared of cars for the Olympic races. Wish we were there. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.

Morning Edition	closeNews podcasts Use iTunes Use a different player	RSS
All Content	closeNews podcasts Use iTunes Use a different player	RSS
View all podcasts & RSS feeds

Now Playing

Podcasts & RSS Feeds

Morning Edition

Pages

Dead Stop

4:56 am

Wed August 1, 2012