John Burnett

NPR National Correspondent John Burnett is retiring after 36 years at the network. During that time, he's covered wars, hurricanes, religion and most recently a divided America.

In a deeply divided America, few things bring people together across party lines. But some musicians believe they can bridge differences in ways others seem unable to.

These days, as polarization reaches deep into American life, some musicians are trying to stay out of the fray and use their music to bridge divides.

A longtime pastor says the question used to be how can the church change the culture? Now, it's how do they change the culture of the church? Ways range from gardening to food giveaways to fire pits.

Churches hemorrhaging members are experimenting with ways to help millennials and Gen Z find meaning. In Knoxville, Tenn., some are drawing people back with gardens, yoga mats and food giveaways.

Neither of the reclusive author's interconnected books The Passenger and Stella Maris contains the savagery and bloodletting his readers have come to expect — there's less action and more dialogue.

Hurricanes — whether big or small — manage to damage or destroy most things in their path. But palm trees tend to escape a hurricane's fury. That was definitely true after Ian.

Immigrant workers, many undocumented, are helping to clean up parts of Southwest Florida devastated by Hurricane Ian. But Gov. Ron DeSantis is openly hostile about undocumented people in his state.

Mobile homes built before 1994 can't withstand the kind of ferocious winds of a major hurricane. In Florida, there are thousands of these older homes that crumble during big storms like Ian

Among the most damaged neighborhoods in Southwest Florida are the 1,200 mobile home developments sprawled along the coastline.

A group of library patrons in Llano, Texas, has filed a First Amendment lawsuit against county officials for removing or restricting a range of books. It's a rare example of readers pushing back.

Voices from the 1960s reflect on the 2020s: "We feel that we are reliving the past."

America was polarized during the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Veterans from the movement say the racial backlash they feel today is reminiscent of the recoil they faced in 1968.

People look to the Civil War for a precedent to the current state of polarization. But look no further than the 1960s, when America was riven over Vietnam, counterculture and the student movement.

In Lafayette, La., like elsewhere in the nation, conservative groups are demanding removal of books they consider unsuitable for young readers. Many librarians see it as an attack on civil liberties.

A conservative Christian group is forcing public libraries in South Louisiana to remove books about sexuality, race and gender and targeting the state's Librarian of the Year for her opposition.

Eight radio stations in Southern Louisiana still broadcast partially in French as they try to keep alive a dying language in the area. French has been spoken there since the mid-1700s.

Jurors in the Alex Jones defamation trial reached a verdict on punitive damages. They have ordered the InfoWars host to pay $45.2 million to the parents of a child killed in the Sandy Hook attack.

A long-shot Democratic candidate in Wisconsin is running for the U.S. Senate. He is hoping to capture favor with voters who are sick of polarization and partisan demonization.

The InfoWars host and creator will have to pay $4.1 million to two parents whose 6-year-old son was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012. Jones spent years claiming the mass shooting as a hoax.