Cat Schuknecht

Judy, Lyn and Donna Ulrich were driving to a volleyball game when their Ford Pinto was hit from behind by a Chevy van. The Pinto caught fire, and the three teenagers were burned to death. This week on Hidden Brain, we talk to a former Ford insider who could have voted to recall the Pinto years before the Ulrich girls were killed — but didn't. And we ask, is it possible to fairly evaluate our past actions when we know how things turned out?

We don't always behave the way economic models say we will. We don't save enough for retirement. We give money to charity. This week, why we act in ways that go against our "rational" self-interest.

One day after the United States signed an agreement with the Taliban, Ashraf Ghani said a proposed prisoner swap between the Taliban and his government could not be a precondition for talks.

Ken Starr was stripped of his presidency at Baylor University in 2016, accused of overseeing an administration that ignored a campus sexual assault scandal.

Former students at the Dalton School in Manhattan remember Epstein as a young, charismatic teacher. More than four decades later, Epstein stands accused of sexually abusing dozens of underaged girls.

Alabama officials tell NPR that if the FBI had shared its case file, they would have investigated the James Reeb murder case while one of the assailants was still alive.

A fourth man was involved in the 1965 attack on civil rights worker and minister James Reeb, but that man was never identified or charged in Reeb's murder, an NPR investigation revealed.

ENTER TEASER

The White House has been strong against China in trade talks, but NPR and PBS Frontline found top advisers battled for more than a year over imposing billions of dollars in tariffs on Chinese imports.

The U.S. has largely failed to stop Chinese cybertheft of U.S. companies, but the companies themselves led the charge in keeping it under wraps.