The endurance of booster shots; Spotify gets blowback over Joe Rogan; charity for Capitol rioters

Also, understanding dreams. [View this email online]( [Best of NPR]( January 23, 2022 This week, we look at how long a [COVID booster lasts]( the special pandemic misery of those [caring for kids under 5]( and how we [understand dreams](. Plus, NPR's Scott Simon has a few recommendations. --------------------------------------------------------------- Scott’s Weekly Weigh-in A good weekend to you. Every time we report on inflation, I hope you won’t think just of stock market prices and political polls, but Tamika Calhoun and her five children. Calhoun is a housing counselor in Jackson, Miss. She helps others but finds it increasingly costly to feed her own family. She told us [sometimes she has gone without a meal so all her children can eat,]( but she doesn’t want them to know. It also hurts her (parents will understand this) that she often cannot afford to give her children the after-school snacks they see other children enjoy. Her story shows the true, human costs of rising prices. Christine Baranski brings her signature, sterling, upper-crust enunciation and attitude to [The Gilded Age]( which debuts tomorrow on HBO. But she told us her character is a long way from her beginnings in Buffalo, N.Y. She loves giving voice to the Julian Fellowes dialog and characters, alongside a company of other Broadway luminaries. It was a joy to hear her enthusiasm. One of my pandemic highlights was seeing this video of Christine Baranski and her friends, Meryl Streep and Audra McDonald, saluting Stephen Sondheim’s 90th birthday with a [DAH (drink-at-home) version of a classic](. And from Sondheim, we turn to … sea shanties. A lot of us have spent more time in front of screens during this pandemic, relying even more on the skills of IT workers for rescue when things go awry. They are essential, but often unseen. In this week’s essay, Scott Simons, the Los Angeles musician from America’s Got Talent and [Paw Patrol]( and I came up with some [shanties to sing of the cyber-valor of IT workers]( to bring their stories to port. Ahoy and enjoy! [Scott Simon]( Scott Simon is one of NPR's most renowned news anchors. He is the host of [Weekend Edition Saturday]( and one of the hosts of the morning news podcast Up First. Be sure to listen to him every Saturday on your local NPR station, and follow him [on Twitter](. --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- by [Carol Ritchie]( Stories you may have missed [Cori Berg, executive director of the Hope Day School early childhood program in Dallas, looks out a classroom window]( Cooper Neill for NPR Nonstop quarantines. Not enough rapid tests. Too few substitute teachers. Parents and caregivers of kids under 5 — who are too young to be vaccinated — are [in a special kind of hell right now](. Parents are losing tempers, sleep and jobs, and child care workers are quitting theirs. "This is the worst it has ever been," one educator tells NPR. ➡️ Fed up parenting in a COVID world, a group of Boston moms gathered to get their frustrations out with [a long, loud primal scream](. Researchers in the U.K. have the first estimates for how long a third shot of the Pfizer vaccine will last. The data shows protection against infection is likely short-term, lasting less than six months, but [protection against severe disease appears to last much longer](. The Supreme Court nixed President Biden's vaccine-or-test rule for private employers, leaving companies to decide whether to go ahead with their own mandates or go without. [Workwear retailer Carhartt chose to mandate]( — fueling a backlash from some conservatives. A nonprofit supported by Steve Bannon says it is raising big money for alleged Capitol rioters and their families. Some families are asking exactly how that money is being spent, and [charity experts see red flags](. "Certainly, from a governance perspective, CharityWatch would give them a failing grade," said one. More than a thousand health professionals are calling on Spotify to crack down on COVID-19 falsehoods aired on [The Joe Rogan Experience,]( app's hit podcast](. The pressure on Spotify illustrates how podcasts have emerged as an influential source of misinformation. Home values rose faster than ever in 2021. The median sales price for an existing home was $346,900, [up a whopping 17% from 2020](. That made things tough for first-time buyers, but the typical American homeowner saw a gain of $50,200 in home equity in just a single year. --------------------------------------------------------------- Podcast of the week [A vintage, staged photo of researchers watching a woman sleep]( AP Dreams are often dismissed as meaningless. Today, researchers are finding new evidence that dreams are a vital way people process the world. In this Throughline episode, we take a journey through [the history of our understanding of dreams](. --------------------------------------------------------------- Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. [Listen Live]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Twitter]( Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! [They can sign up here.]( Looking for more great content? [Check out all of our newsletter offerings]( — including Daily News, Politics, Health and more! 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