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Stay up to date with our Up First newsletter, sent every weekday morning. A dozen states, led by California, are suing to block Paramount from buying Warner Bros. Discovery in a Hollywood mega-merger that would unite some of the nation's largest movie studios, television newsrooms, and other entertainment properties.

For new discoveries, everyday mysteries, and the science behind the headlines, follow NPR's Short Wave podcast. When Skip Maas first adopted Agrapina, a mottled ball python, she hadn't eaten in 14 months. But as he soon observed, she was still a taut coil of spring-loaded muscle. Presented with a rat, she struck quickly, constricted it and then gorged on her meal.

The written word has healing power. That’s the idea behind narrative medicine, an emerging branch of healthcare that adds creative writing to the clinical toolkit. Akron Children’s Hospital is a leader in narrative medicine, and all this week, Ideastream Public Media is highlighting the program's writers in our series "The Healing Page." Dr. Sarah Friebert is director of Akron Children's palliative care center, the first in the country to include narrative medicine.

This much is undisputed: On Nov. 2, 2023, a guard and a prisoner at a federal penitentiary in California got into it over a straw sunhat that the officer had confiscated. The man — identified in court records by his initials, J.M. — walked out of the office, as Officer Sandra Munagay followed him. When he stopped and turned around, Munagay "cocked back … and punched me in my face," he said in an interview. That is on camera.

This much is undisputed: On Nov. 2, 2023, a guard and a prisoner at a federal penitentiary in California got into it over a straw sunhat that the officer had confiscated. The man — identified in court records by his initials, J.M. — walked out of the office, as Officer Sandra Munagay followed him. When he stopped and turned around, Munagay "cocked back … and punched me in my face," he said in an interview. That is on camera.

The hormone testosterone is figuring prominently in conversations about the “manosphere.” Politicians and influencers are turning to testosterone and peptides in pursuit of an idealized masculine image. On this hour of All Sides, we’re talking about the national obsession with testosterone. We’ll meet actor and screenwriter Brock Yurich. His movie Test, filmed here in Ohio, follows one man’s personal battle with steroid abuse.

The night before he stopped by the Desk, Flea took a moment between songs at the Black Cat in Washington, D.C., to call his experience of performing with a jazz band "an adventure." After four decades as a founding member and bassist for Red Hot Chili Peppers, Flea was touring on his debut solo album, Honora, in small venues, including the NPR Music office space.

The landscape for music discovery has changed drastically over the last few decades. Largely gone are the days of finding your new favorite song by watching MTV or switching through radio stations. Magazine and newspaper reviews are harder and harder to come by, given the decline of print journalism (and arts coverage in particular).

Stay up to date with our Up First newsletter, sent every weekday morning. On a sweltering morning in early July, Thomas Andrade, the co-owner of Everett Auto Parts in Massachusetts, supervises as a team of workers carefully straps two Chevy Volt hybrid batteries to a pallet, ready to ship out for recycling. Selling off valuable bits and pieces of a vehicle is, fundamentally, how a salvage yard makes money.

The landscape for music discovery has changed drastically over the last few decades. Largely gone are the days of finding your new favorite song by watching MTV or switching through radio stations. Magazine and newspaper reviews are harder and harder to come by, given the decline of print journalism (and arts coverage in particular).