Starting Monday, Ohio State Wexner Medical Center will begin handing out thousands of community care kits in areas at greater risk for contracting the coronavirus.

Tory Bilski could have called her well-written and witty memoir of riding horses in northern Iceland “Wild Horses of the Midnight Sun,” but in naming it “Wild Horses of the Summer Sun,” shows her writing creds: the alliteration effectively plays on the popular image many people associate with this starkly beautiful land of lupine fields and black volcanic sand banks – not to mention Johnny Mercer’s lyrics in that old jazz standard, “Midnight Sun.” Like Mercer, Bilski evokes a nostalgic warmth for what is gone but indelibly remembered because it was so affecting. In “Wild Horses of the Summer Sun” the love is for Icelandic horses and the country, not far from the Arctic Circle. An unusual destination when Bilski started going years ago, having heard about the horses from a woman who owned a horse farm in the Berkshires. The marvel of this moving, funny, episodic narrative is that Bilski turns living on a horse farm in Iceland with other women for a week every June into a universal story

Christopher Larkin's score for Hollow Knight is one of the most beloved soundtracks in recent games. I talked with arranger David Peacock and pianist Augustine Mayuga Gonzales about their project to adapt Chris' haunting music for solo piano. David says he appreciates Christopher's involvement in developing the arrangements. He says Chris advised him to use the lore of the game as inpiration for his arrangements. Augustine says he loved playing David's arrangements because they were challenging, but also allowed him to use his background as a classical pianist. The soundtrack is available through Bandcamp, and a vinyl release as well as a book of sheet music are also planned. Episode tracklist All tracks by Christopher Larkin, arranged by David Peacock and performed by Augustine Mayuga Gonzales Hollow Knight : Hornet; Greenpath; Resting Grounds; Dung Defender; Crossroads; City of Tears; Reflection; Radiance; Hollow Knight Follow Kate on Twitter Subscribe to Music Respawn in Apple

Before there was the Algonquin Round Table in New York in the ‘20s, a lunch group of literary bon vivants whose often quotable put downs would become famous, there was – and STILL IS – The Club, a unique London tavern assembly of intellectuals, started in 1764, that included some of the most dazzling verbal sharpshooters of the day. Their extraordinary, wide-ranging conversations, passionate arguments and often hilarious provocations and rejoinders have now been captured by the award-winning cultural critic Leo Damrosch. Called “ The Club: Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped An Age , ” this fascinating history will likely prove one of the most engaging, enlightening and delicious books you’ll come across in a long time. Damrosch wears his scholarship with ease and grace, including references, as he genially corrects or adds ironic commentary to the private lives and public careers he celebrates. As the title has it, he follows the arcs of the humbly born Samuel Johnson and of

There are celebrations of Beethoven's 250th birthday all over the world this year, but close to home, Musical Masterworks in Old Lyme is presenting every string quartet by Beethoven in two sets of three evening performances by the Ehnes Quartet beginning on Friday, March 13th. Kate Remington talks with series Artistic Director Edward Aaron about the concerts, which he'll be experiencing from the inside out as the cellist with the Ehnes Quartet.

It’s a matter of fact that between 1840 and 1882 there were eight assassination attempts on the life of Queen Victoria, but in his suspenseful novel “The Darwin Affair,” Tim Mason adds a ninth, in 1860, and makes the target Prince Albert. The date is important: it’s just months after the publication of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” and concomitant with the Oxford University Museum debate on evolution featuring those famous antagonists – biologist and anthropologist Thomas Huxley and Anglican Bishop Samuel Wilberforce. Prince Albert wants to give Darwin a knighthood. No way say fierce evolution deniers in Parliament and powerful members of the clergy, and so they conscript a sinister anti-evolutionist to kill the prince and thus head off what would otherwise be seen as royal approval of a theory that threatens The Great Chain of Being: the way things are, have been, and must be forever. Little do they know that their hired man, the wraith-like creature with the disturbing

Lumote is a dreamy puzzle platforming game created by the tiny team of Luminawesome. Composer and sound designer Paul Ruskay describes it as "a science fair project" because they designed a completely new way of generating the graphics with a program that's normally used to place the music at the appropriate moment in a game. The art style is flowy, and as the little blobby Lumote moves through the world interacting with the various flowers and little "dumb-bats," or batteries, the whole environment feels like it's underwater. Paul used that as inspiration, as well as the way nature films are shot and edited to create his playful, ambient soundtrack. Paul says he was thrilled to have a chance to add music and sound design to the genre of puzzle platformers, including games he really admires, like Portal. He says working on this soundtrack felt like unexplored territory, as it did when he wrote the music for the iconic Homeworld series of games. Paul's soundtrack is available with the

Ori and the Will of the Wisps by Moon Studios continues the adventure begun with the beloved Ori and the Blind Forest. Will of the Wisps takes Ori on an emotional journey as he searches for his new friend, Ku. Gareth Coker, who also scored Blind Forest , told me that writing the score for Will of the Wisps gave him plenty of fresh ideas because of all of the new characters in the game. Gareth was part of development of Will of the Wisps since the game's beginning, which gave him plenty of time to finetune themes for each of the new characters. Gareth worked with some outstanding musicians, including Kristin Naigus, who plays 21 different wind instruments on the score, and vocalist Aeralie Brighton, whose voice was so memorable in Ori and the Blind Forest. The digital release of Gareth's soundtrack is over three hours long, and follows the story arc of the game. A vinyl release by IAM8Bit is planned as well, and because LPs hold fewer minutes of music, Gareth describes it as "composer's

He didn’t at first appreciate the scare and chose to stay in the crowded city. And he hadn’t at the start stockpiled food or self-isolated or realized the extent of the contagion. But he did come to acknowledge the horror and the “brutal courage” of those who tried to help. “He” was Daniel Defoe. The time was 1722. The occasion, the publication of “A Journal of the Plague Year,” three years after Robinson Crusoe. In the “Journal” Defoe is looking back 57 years to when The Great Plague hit London, one year before The Great Fire would destroy just about anything that was left. Ironically it was probably the fire that helped finally destroy the vermin carrying the infecting bacteria. Writer, merchant, at times spy, Daniel Defoe created in the “Journal” a chronological first-person narrative of the epidemic in the voice of a middle-class tradesman, a saddler. Defoe would have been 5 when The Plague broke out, so his gripping on-the-scene account, augmented by research, must be considered

At this year's (now postponed) Game Developers Conference, composer and sound designer Oda Tilset planned to present a session about how incorporating music created by a computer's Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool. Oda tells me that AI-generated music is really helpful to generate ideas that a composer might not have thought of. For musicians and composers who are just getting their feet wet with computer-generated music software, Oda reccommends Noknok Audio , which is very flexible and easy to use. One of the murkier aspects of using AI to create music is who owns the end product. Oda has studied numerous user agreements for sharing audio and music, including SoundCloud and there's no clear answer. She says the best part of using AI is that it's like having a collaborator without those painful discssions about whose ideas are better! Episode tracklist All tracks composed by Oda's computer AI, modified in her digital audio workstation. Thanks to Dick Roberts for production

The spy-thriller, Spyder , from studio Sumo Digital, is an homage to a classic genre that had its golden age in the 1960s. The Apple Arcade game features an adorable mechanical spider, Agent 8, created like one of James Bond's gadgets, that players control during missions that are increasingly dangerous. Composer Winifred Phillips created the perfect '60s and early '70s inspired soundtrack, featuring elements of jazz, orchestral, and even early synth rock sounds. She says doing the research by reviewing classic spy and adventure films and TV shows helped her keep the score pitch-perfect. Winifred says the first music she wrote for Spyder was the trailer soundtrack, which encapsulates lots of aspects of the game: suspense, heroics, and Agent 8's confident swagger. Winifred's insightful articles about writing game soundtracks appear regularly on Gamasutra, and her sessions at the annual Game Developers Conference are among the most well-attended. She was planning to present a session

Yet another go at the Founding Fathers? Well, to judge from historian and documentary filmmaker Tom Shachtman’s new book, “The Founding Fortunes,” Yes and No. Subtitled “How the Wealthy Paid for and Profited from America’s Revolution,” Shachtman’s analysis of the years 1763-1813 merits a yes because he does revisit some of the big names and battles of the day. But the answer is also no because “The Founding Fortunes” is not just another look at Colonial and post-Colonial politics and economics. Shachtman has a timely and provocative take on who in America supported the War for Independence, and why. Relying on hundreds of historical documents and contemporary scholarship, Shachtman’s out to dispel what he calls “myths” about some of the movers and shakers of the day. And to suggest, by comparison, the less-than-generous or suspect ambitions of some of the wealthy today who would influence current events under the heading of patriotism. It’s a complicated and complex story Shachtman

This quartet is based out of Dublin, thanks to singer Joe Gibney and guitarist James Ryan, but fiddler J.C. Morel and flutist Julien Brunetau originally hail from Bordeaux, France. They've been crafting their own tunes (independently and in collaboration with others) since about 2013, and Gibney's lyrics in particular reflect a strong respect for Irish history, and compassion for humanity. They visited with Martin Anderson in Studio B this past Tuesday morning, and Richard Beard airs our session again during Celtic Winds . They play Isis Restaurant & Music Hall in Asheville Sunday evening.

Firecracker has played everywhere from street corners, secret speakeasies, jazz festivals, & swing-and-swill dance halls, to Bonnaroo and the Kennedy Center. They've returned to the 20's -- as in the 1920's, give or take a few decades -- on their fine new collection of songs from the Teens through today, centered around their great Dixieland and New Orleans jazz heroes. Album release show Saturday the 14th at The Mothlight.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that Western NC has some of the freshest, most innovative bluegrass being made, thanks in part to Fireside Collective. It's Joe Cicero on guitar, Alex Genova on banjo, Jesse laquinto on mandolin, and Tommy Maher on resonator guitar, and Carson White on upright bass. Their brand new album is a real winner! And they officially release it at the Grey Eagle in Asheville on Saturday the 14th. We have a rather firy streak of local Studio B acts this week, with Firecracker Jazz band live Friday at 3.

Google says most of its employees will likely be allowed to work remotely through the end of year. In a companywide meeting Thursday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said employees who needed to work in the office would be allowed to return in June or July with enhanced safety measures in place. The rest would likely continue working from home, a Google spokesperson told NPR. Google had originally told employees work-from-home protocols would be in place at least through June 1. Facebook also said it would allow most of its employees to work remotely through the end of 2020, according to media reports. The company had previously announced it was canceling large events through June 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Both companies began telling employees to stay home in March . Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Primary schools in France are reopening next week. There will, of course, be social distancing measures in place. Class sizes will be limited to 15 and no games at recess. It's a gradual three-week process beginning with preschoolers. The government says the reopening is voluntary and students won't be forced to return. Still, many parents and administrators are against the plan. More than 300 mayors in the Paris region signed an open letter to President Macron, urging a delay in reopening and saying the timeline is " untenable and unrealistic ." They said schools needed more time to implement the required sanitary measures. Jean-Michel Blanquer, France's minister of education, talked with Mary Louise Kelly on All Things Considered about bringing students back to class for the first time since mid-March. Here are selected excerpts: Do you think they will come? Do you think you will have 15 students in classrooms come next week? Yes, because we are asking the parents during the last

Attorneys for Rick Bright, the government scientist who said he had been reassigned and subsequently filed a whistleblower complaint , say a government watchdog agrees that he should be reinstated to his post. Bright was serving as director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which is working on a vaccine to combat the coronavirus. He said he was ousted from the position last month because he wanted to spend money on safe and vetted treatments for COVID-19 — not on ones without "scientific merit," such as hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial drug that President Trump and others had been touting. Trump on Wednesday called Bright "a disgruntled employee who's trying to help the Democrats win an election." Bright's attorneys say that the Office of Special Counsel, which hears whistleblower cases, determined there were "reasonable grounds" to believe that his removal was retaliatory and therefore prohibited. Bright's attorneys say OSC plans to contact the

The Census Bureau says it is continuing the gradual relaunch of limited field operations for the 2020 census next week in nine states where the coronavirus pandemic forced the hand-delivery of paper forms in rural areas to be suspended in mid-March. On May 13, some local census offices in Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington are scheduled to restart that fieldwork, according to an updated schedule the bureau published on its website Friday. All workers are expected to be trained in CDC guidance in preventing the spread of COVID-19, and besides a new reusable face mask for every 10 days worked and a pair of gloves for each work day, the bureau has ordered 2 ounces of hand sanitizer for each census worker conducting field operations, the bureau tells NPR in an email. The announcement means more households that receive their mail at post office boxes or drop points are expected to find paper questionnaires left outside their

A meat-packing plant in Waterloo, Iowa, where a coronavirus outbreak exploded a few weeks ago, resumed operations on Thursday after a two-week closure. The reopening of Tyson Foods' largest U.S. pork plant came the same day that health officials in Black Hawk County, where the plant is located, announced that 1,031 of the plant's estimated 2,800 employees have tested positive for the virus. That's higher than previous estimates by state officials. Tony Thompson, sheriff of Black Hawk County, was among the public officials who called for the Waterloo facility to shut down temporarily. His call to close the plant came after he first toured the facility on April 10. Thompson says that when he toured the plant then, he "fully expected" to see barriers, masks and other personal protective equipment in place. That wasn't the case. "What I saw when we went into that plant was an absolute free-for-all," he says. "Some people were wearing bandannas. Some people were wearing surgical masks. ....

This is part of a series looking at pressing coronavirus questions of the week. We'd like to hear what you're curious about. Email us at goatsandsoda@npr.org with the subject line: "Weekly Coronavirus Questions." More than 76,000 people in the U.S. have died because of COVID-19, and there have been 1.27 million confirmed cases across the country — and nearly 4 million worldwide. Though the virus continues to spread and sicken people, some states and countries are starting to reopen businesses and lift stay-at-home requirements. This week, we look at some of your questions as summer nears and restrictions are eased. Is it safe to swim in pools or lakes? Does the virus spread through the water? People are asking whether they should be concerned about being exposed to the coronavirus while swimming. Experts say water needn't be a cause for concern. The CDC says there is no evidence the virus that causes COVID-19 can be spread to people through the water in pools, hot tubs, spas or water

President Trump wants states to begin relaxing stay-at-home orders and reopen businesses after the spread of the coronavirus pummeled the global economy and killed millions of jobs. The White House coronavirus task force released guidelines on April 16 to encourage state governors to adopt a phased approach to lifting restrictions across the country. Some states have moved ahead without meeting the criteria . The task force rejected a set of additional detailed draft recommendations for schools, restaurants, churches and mass transit systems from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that it considered " overly prescriptive ." A number of states have already begun to lift restrictions, allowing for businesses including hair salons, diners and tattoo parlors to once again begin accepting customers. Health experts have warned that reopening too quickly could result in a potential rebound in cases. States are supposed to wait to begin lifting any restrictions until they have a 14

As of Friday in Texas, you can go to a tanning salon. In Indiana, houses of worship are being allowed to open with no cap on attendance. Places like Pennsylvania are taking a more cautious approach, only starting to ease restrictions in some counties based on the number of COVID-19 cases. By Monday, at least 31 states will have partially reopened after seven weeks of restrictions. The moves come as President Trump pushes for the country to get back to work despite public health experts warning that it's too soon. "The early lesson that was learned, really, we learned from the island of Hokkaido in Japan, where they did a really good job of controlling the initial phase of the outbreak," said Bob Bednarczyk, assistant professor of global health and epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta. Because of that success, many of the restrictions on the island were lifted. But cases and deaths surged in a second wave of infections. Twenty-six days later

For the first time in its 231-year history, the Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments remotely by phone and made the audio available live. The new setup went off largely without difficulties, but produced some memorable moments, including one justice forgetting to unmute and an ill-timed bathroom break. Here are the top five can't-miss moments from this week's history-making oral arguments. A second week of arguments begin on Monday at 10 a.m. ET. Here's a rundown of the cases and how to listen. 1. Justice Clarence Thomas speaks ... a lot Supreme Court oral arguments are verbal jousting matches. The justices pepper the lawyers with questions, interrupting counsel repeatedly and sometimes even interrupting each other. Justice Clarence Thomas, who has sat on the bench for nearly 30 years, has made his dislike of the chaotic process well known, at one point not asking a question for a full decade. But with no line of sight, the telephone arguments have to be rigidly organized, and

As the COVID-19 pandemic began to pick up in Alaska, Dr. Anne Zink, the state's chief medical officer, faced a difficult choice. Should she continue in-person meetings and nightly briefings with Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy? Or should she opt for a more socially distant form of engagement? Zink chose the latter, saying she wanted to model the behavior that she has been appealing to residents to follow. She now appears at Dunleavy's briefings by video. And over the past two months, she has become a trusted voice as she urges Alaskans to follow the strict social distancing and other public health guidelines adopted by the state administration — which doctors groups have credited with keeping the state's COVID-19 numbers among the lowest in the country. Zink, who has a Facebook fan club and a #ThinkLikeZink hashtag , isn't the only public health official to acquire a cultlike following during the pandemic: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal infectious disease expert, has inspired a Saturday

Many factors have shaped jazz in Ann Arbor, but trumpeter and educator Louis Smith has to be at the top of the list for modern jazz and education. Sean Dobbins , Rick Roe, Justin Walter and Ingrid Racine will testify to his grace, wisdom, strength and total honesty as a teacher. He encouraged a professional attitude and exponential musical growth from middle school students. His students could play rings around others years older!

For the past 18 years, saxophonist, flutist and educator Vincent York has carved out a unique niche in the Southeastern Michigan jazz and educational community with his multi-media and live performance program, Jazzistry. Saturday, November 12th, Vincent, his band and Jazzistry board members will receive national recognition for the program from The National Association for Multicultural Education, N.A.M.E. At the closing banquet of the convention Vincent York and Jazzistry will receive The Founder's Award for outstanding national multicultural program: The Rose Duhon-Sells Award of the National Association for Multicultural Education.

On May 5th the Detroit Music Awards honored WEMU for 40 years of jazz broadcasting with a Distinguished Service Award at the Fillmore Theater in Detroit.

An initiative now has the funds to help expand pre-kindergarten programs across Long Island.

The New York State Board of Regents’ reassessment of high school graduation standards won’t change the state’s troubled standardized testing system, but could allow more ways for students to graduate.

The New York State Board of Regents is expected to decide in October whether to allow local public school officials to have the final say over education at private schools.

Fewer Long Island students chose to opt out of New York’s standardized testing last spring, compared to two years ago.

A proposal to eliminate the Regents exam in New York has alarmed some social studies teachers on Long Island. They worry if the state cuts the standardized tests, history will be the first to go.

The State University of New York has opened a new branch of Empire State College on Long Island.

Enrollment at colleges in Connecticut is declining at a rate faster than the national average.

Connecticut has reached a milestone settlement agreement in the 30-year-old Sheff v. O’Neill Hartford school racial discrimination case.

There are eight fiscally stressed school districts on Long Island. That’s according to a report released Thursday by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

Legislation introduced in New York could place a four-year freeze on tuition costs at state and city universities.

A fiscal report about four public universities in Connecticut shows a $457 million operating loss in 2019, despite increased state funding and higher tuition.

The Sahara – the world’s largest desert – was once underwater. Now a 20-year study led by a Stony Brook University professor has profiled the aquatic animals that once lived there.

A new study from Yale University found some users of the popular e-cigarette brand Juul might be inhaling unexpected chemicals.

You don’t have to be a mathematician to see beauty in math – you don’t even have to be able to do anything beyond basic algebra. That’s according to new research from Yale University and the U.K.’s Bath University.

Video games often get a bad rap for isolating young people. However, they might be an effective treatment for older adults with depression. Scientists from several universities, including the University of Connecticut, are investigating.

Researchers at Stony Brook University hope to find new ways to treat depression among teenagers – using a computer or smartphone.

A team of marine scientists are on a mission to preserve biodiversity in oceans around the world. To do it, they need accurate maps that will help them identify areas in need of protection. There are several ongoing projects to create these maps. But they’re led by different groups, using different methods that can produce conflicting results.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has won a $750,000 grant from TD Bank to support its new cancer research facility.

Stony Brook University researchers will study how underwater sediment that’s kicked up by large-scale shellfish harvesting impacts the environment.

Connecticut’s public health laboratory has begun screening newborn babies for a genetic disorder called spinal muscular atrophy.

A bill in the New York State legislature would set the goal to cut greenhouse emissions by 100 percent by 2050.

The GOP has flipped two of the five Connecticut General Assembly seats left vacant by Democratic incumbents who resigned to take jobs in Governor Ned Lamont’s new administration.