The World from PRX

Mikaela LefrakML

Mikaela Lefrak

The World InternThe World
I was an intern at The World in 2014.In previous lives, I was an AmeriCorps volunteer in Oakland, CA, a Spanish student in Bolivia, an education policy wonk in Washington, DC, and a competent but undistinguished pirate in the South China seas.I received my Bachelor's degree from Middlebury College in Vermont, with a major in literature and minors in both Spanish and African Studies (if you need advice on milking a liberal arts degree, I'm your girl). I'm particularly interested in coverage of immigration, women's issues, the global economy, and anything baseball.
Vermont couple provides home for Ukrainian kids with special needs
Chef brings fresh Thai flavors to rural Vermont
Isaan Thai cuisine thriving in small-town Vermont
A traditional dish from the Isaan region of Thailand served at the Vermont restaurant Saap
Food
Self-taught chef introduces rural Vermonters to traditional Thai cuisine
A Maryland-based ukulele marching band performs during a 2019 Fourth of July parade.
Music
Global ukulele community keeps music alive, online in pandemic
A bicyclist rides past the front entrance of the former Embassy of Iran.
History
Iran’s govt buildings in DC are vacant. But they’re full of stories.
A group of people is seen on a mobile staircase at an airport.
Arts, Culture & Media
Metro banned ads for this art exhibition on the immigration crisis, then changed its mind
jazz group
‘It was a social revolution’: The Turkish Embassy’s surprising role in desegregating DC jazz
Three elderly Holocaust survivors sit at a table writing.
Conflict & Justice
One day, there won’t be any more Holocaust survivors. This museum is racing to preserve their stories.
Sound of Thunder
Music
A heavy metal band from Virginia went viral in Catalonia
Starbucks
Culture
What happened to the opera music at Starbucks?
A man checks his own blood pressure using an at-home machine. Researchers hope to expand the range of at-home medical care with new tests and devices.
Medicine
The doctor’s office of the future might be your living room
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks about Apple Pay during an Apple event at the Flint Center in Cupertino, California, on September 9, 2014.
Economics
We actually pay CEOs like menial laborers — and here’s why
Gillette Field
Sports
Data analytics are playing an increasingly important role in sports — on and off the field
A woman holds a birth control pill at her home in Nice, France.
Health
The inside, not-always-ethical story of how ‘The Pill’ was made
College graduation
Education
Author argues that it’s time for the idea of the college major to graduate
Solar panels
Technology
How a century of infrastructure is holding back renewable energy supplies
Pills and pill bottle
Medicine
A world without antibiotics? A new book says it’s coming sooner than you think
Teen scientist Alexa Dantzler
Business
Want to be a woman entrepreneur? Here’s advice from those who have made it
Chiquita bananas are displayed for sale in a London store. Shares in Irish banana company Fyffes slumped on Monday after Cutrale Group and Brazilian investment firm Safra Group offered to buy Chiquita Brands, threatening Fyffes' earlier deal with Chiquita
Business
A Brazilian company bids to become Chiquita’s orange knight
Chiquita bananas are displayed for sale in a London store. Shares in Irish banana company Fyffes slumped on Monday after Cutrale Group and Brazilian investment firm Safra Group offered to buy Chiquita Brands, threatening Fyffes' earlier deal with Chiquita
Business
A Brazilian company bids to become Chiquita’s orange knight
Migrants wait for a "coyote," the colloquial term for people smugglers, about 60 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border in the Mexican state of Sonora. Coyotes call their clients "pollos," or chickens.
Global Politics
Facebook offers the best advertising for migrant-smuggling coyotes
Tania Chavez, 29, from Mexico has spent nearly half her life living in south-eastern Texas, unable to travel beyond secondary US checkpoints. She cannot go to her native Mexico either as she is out of status.
Justice
Trapped in Texas: Tens of thousands of immigrants are stuck in the borderlands
More than 1,000 rhinos were killed in South Africa last year. It's a 50% increase from the year before, proof of the escalating poaching crisis. Most of the rhinos were killed in Kruger National Park, a popular tourist destination.
Business, Economics and Jobs
Even evacuating South Africa’s rhinos may not save them from poachers
A Sri Lankan man reads the newspaper. People in Sri Lanka are most likely to read the paper in the mornings and evenings, the same times that disease-carrying mosquitoes come out to bite.
Environment
Could reading a newspaper save you from dengue fever?
Injuries and fatalities from landmine explosions globally have fallen since the creation of an international mine ban treaty in 1997, though 4,000 fatalities still occur annually. Here, demining efforts followed a landslide in Bosnia & Herzegovina in May.
Conflict & Justice
Will the US join other nations in banning land mines?
Conflict & Justice
A Massachusetts mayor wants to say ‘no’ to more refugees
Kurdish security forces in Iraq detain a man suspected of being a militant belonging to the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), June 16, 2014. Iraq's Shiite rulers defied Western calls to reach out to Sunnis to defuse the ISIS uprising
Conflict & Justice
The US and Iran could work together in Iraq to counter the ISIS insurgency
Kurdish security forces in Iraq detain a man suspected of being a militant belonging to the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), June 16, 2014. Iraq's Shiite rulers defied Western calls to reach out to Sunnis to defuse the ISIS uprising
Conflict & Justice
The US and Iran could work together in Iraq to counter the ISIS insurgency
Conflict & Justice
A Canadian news network refuses to broadcast a mass shooter’s name
The U.S. flag flies over a prison used to house detainees at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay. The facility now holds around 150 prisoners who have been captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Conflict & Justice
Most Gitmo detainees still face a long path to freedom
A billboard calling for the release of US Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, held for nearly five years by the Taliban after being captured in Afghanistan, is shown in this picture taken near Spokane, Washington on February 25, 2014. Bergdahl has been released
Conflict & Justice
Like Sergeant Bergdahl, reporter David Rohde knows about being a prisoner of the Taliban
A billboard calling for the release of US Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, held for nearly five years by the Taliban after being captured in Afghanistan, is shown in this picture taken near Spokane, Washington on February 25, 2014. Bergdahl has been released
Conflict & Justice
Like Sergeant Bergdahl, reporter David Rohde knows about being a prisoner of the Taliban
The original Unikko pattern by Finnish design company Marimekko
Arts, Culture & Media
That flower design on your shower curtain? It just turned 50