by Brittney Melton

August 9, 2026

Good morning. This week, ousted Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Hasina vowed to return to her country despite being sentenced to death, the Food and Drug Administration approved Moderna's mRNA-based flu vaccine for people 50 and older, and Cleveland's expansion WNBA team revealed their new name as the Sirens.

'That guy does not need to be dead right now'

by Brian Mann, NPR national addiction correspondent

I’ve covered addiction for NPR through the darkest years of the U.S. opioid crisis, as prescription pain pills, heroin, and now fentanyl swept like poisonous waves through American communities.

One reality that keeps surfacing, on the streets and in people’s homes, is how few Americans struggling with this crisis get help from the kind of medical professionals we normally turn to when we’re sick.

It’s confusing, right? A quarter of a million Americans die every year from alcohol and street drugs. Addiction is one of the most common illnesses in the U.S., affecting more than 40 million people.

In bodycam footage, 26-year-old Jean Descamps is seen in a hospital bed at the Providence Milwaukie Hospital emergency room.

Milwaukie Police Department/Screenshot by NPR

Many of us have someone in our lives who struggles with a substance use disorder. One study found nearly one-third of Americans know someone who died from a fatal overdose.

But studies also show that many doctors, nurses and other clinicians actively avoid treating this vulnerable group of patients.

It’s not that they don’t have tools. There are low-cost, life-saving prescription medications, proven for decades to reduce cravings for alcohol and opioids in ways that save lives. Most American medical professionals simply don’t offer these treatments to their patients.

Instead, research shows, many clinicians view people experiencing addiction with fear, distrust and hostility. My reporting found that this kind of stigma among health workers remains widespread, and it affects decisions about how and when physicians care for patients.

I knew it was time to tell this story when I came across the case of Jean Descamps, a 26-year-old man in Milwaukie, Ore., who lived with chronic street drug addiction.

Descamps died in 2023 from an overdose shortly after being denied further care by a team of hospital doctors, nurses and other staff. They thought he was faking the severity of his illness. They insisted on discharging Descamps even after police warned them not to.

“That guy does not need to be dead right now,” one Milwaukie Police officer said after Descamps’ death, voicing anger over the hospital’s decision to deny further treatment. “Their mindset is ‘Oh, it’s just another tweaker.’”

In the past, I’ve reported on hopeful efforts to reform addiction care in the U.S. medical system. Medical experts I interviewed for this story say there has been limited progress.

Nearly a decade after President Trump declared opioids a national public health emergency, most U.S. medical schools still don’t teach addiction care as a core, normalized part of the profession.

New federal data released just last month shows that in 2025 — as Trump was extending the national opioid public health emergency — 80% of Americans facing addiction still received no treatment at all for their substance use.

I think about this a lot when I talk to people on the street experiencing severe addiction and when I interview family members grieving loved ones lost to alcohol and drugs.

What would their path have been like if the first doctor or nurse they encountered early in their illness said, “What you’re experiencing is treatable, we have good medications, and we can help.”

A lot of us have people with addiction in our lives. My hope is that the information in this story, which you can read here, might help individuals and families as they navigate a medical system that is often unwelcoming.

Check out more great reads from the NPR network you may have missed:

➡️ Drones play a crucial role in providing medical supplies across Rwanda, where it's famously hard to traverse the hilly terrain. The American robotics company Zipline dispatches a drone in Rwanda every 50 seconds, and manages the majority of the country's pharmaceutical supplies. But drones aren't enough to transform the country's healthcare system. Last year, the Trump administration granted $150 million to expand Zipline's medical deliveries in Rwanda. At the same time, it cut $200 million in funding for local aid groups. The move reflected the administration's new strategy favoring American businesses over nongovernmental organizations for global health work. The loss of funds has left rural Rwandan clinics struggling to afford basic care.
➡️ Many people fear that artificial intelligence will displace jobs. But Noella Sudbury, founder of the startup Rasa Legal, wants to turn that fear on its head by leveraging AI to help people get their criminal records cleared and find jobs. Studies show that people with cleared criminal records are less likely than the criminal population to commit a crime. Within minutes, Sudbury's app can determine if someone is eligible to get their criminal record expunged. Since the startup's launch in 2022, Rasa Legal has helped clear records for more than 34,000 people across three states. The company's AI has reduced the time it takes for Rasa's lawyers to file expungement petitions by more than half.
➡️ Virtually everyone has heard of New York City's Wall Street, but have you heard of Dallas' financial hub, dubbed "Y'all Street?" Wall Street banks are setting up camp in the city. It's already home to Goldman Sachs' second-largest U.S. presence after its Manhattan headquarters. The company plans to dwarf that office with a $700 million, 800,000-square-foot campus in Dallas, expected to open in 2028. The state's business-friendly laws make it easier for companies to protect themselves against lawsuits and other challenges from shareholders.
➡️ Soccer star Lionel Messi's likeness is helping his childhood city of Rosario, Argentina, rebrand itself as a tourist destination. A war between rival gangs broke out three years ago, but the city's crime rate has decreased in recent years. The neighborhood is now a pilgrimage site, and Messi fans from around the world visit to leave tributes to the soccer legend. The streets are filled with elaborate, colorful murals and street art depicting Messi’s life, creating a makeshift open-air museum that has helped to boost local tourism.

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Pod Club

An illustration of two screens facing each other. The left screen has a person’s mouth, and the one on the right has an ear. On the left side of the image are dollar signs, and on the right side are music notes.

Illustration for NPR by Jackie Lay

Thanks for tuning in last week to the Throughline episode “The Chinafication of Walmart,” which explored how the superstore became the largest U.S. importer of Chinese consumer goods. The Up First newsletter wanted to know whether American-made products can compete in price with Chinese-made ones. NPR listener Mary Thomas said she didn’t think so. “I recently saw a program featuring a man whose factory produces T-shirts and sweats with all-American materials, even the thread. There was a discount code, and I felt patriotic, so I ordered three T-shirts for over $100,” Thomas said. “They're nice, but not noticeably nicer than three similar items I could have purchased at Walmart for $18, total.”

Today, we’re listening to an episode from The Indicator from Planet Money about how music influencers shape our taste in music. These influencers say veteran artists and newcomers alike have paid them to promote their songs. This episode takes a close look at the music business and what it means to be an industry plant. Listen to the episode or read the transcript.

Is there an artist you suspect is an industry plant? Does knowing whether they are one matter? Let us know by clicking here. Your response could appear in next week's Sunday newsletter.

Love podcasts? For handpicked episode recommendations every week, check out Pod Club — a newsletter written FOR podcast fans BY podcast fans. Subscribe here!

And, on this week's episode of The Sunday Story from Up First, reporter Howard Berkes discusses his investigation into the resurgence of black lung among coal miners in Appalachia.

City, State

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NPR

It's time for the Sunday Puzzle! For this week’s on-air challenge, NPR Puzzlemaster Will Shortz will give you a word. The first two or more letters in that word are the beginning of the name of a well-known U.S. city. The rest of the word represents the first two or more letters of that city's state. The dividing point in the word between the city and the state is for you to discover. For example, if you are given the clue “WHINE,” the answer would be “WHite Plains, NEw York.” Test your skills here. Check the page later to hear the answers, or catch them live on Weekend Edition at 8:41 a.m. ET.

This week's online challenge comes from Steve Baggish, of Arlington, Mass. Using only the letters in the words FACES NORTH, repeating them as often as you wish, you can spell a familiar expression in seven words (4,3,3,6,3,3,5). What expression is it? Submit your answer here, and you could win a chance to play next Sunday's on-air puzzle.

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This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.

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