3:11

Thanksgiving feasts are always in need of something special.

Can a sprinkle of artisanal salt noticeably pump up the experience?

Let’s meet a new Appalachian salt-maker in West Virginia and find out.

J.Q. Dickinson Salt-Works is nestled in the Kanawha River Valley, just southeast of the capital city of Charleston in the small town of Malden (not to be confused with Maldon, a sea salt brand from the U.K.). It’s mostly pasture land, with cows nearby.

Amid the livestock, there’s a new, small — you could call it micro — salt works.

“This is our well, in the field over here. It goes down 350 feet,” Nancy Bruns, CEO of J.Q. Dickinson Salt-Works, says.

The wellhead is simple, white and about 2 feet high. It took a couple of weeks to drill, and then came the salty water.

“It did gush; it absolutely did gush. We went through a lot of fresh water on the way down. And we all had cups, we were tasting it on the way down, and I just said no, keep drilling, it’s not salty yet.”

She’s a seventh-generation descendant of salt workers who started the original J.Q. Dickinson Salt-Works in 1817. This is a revival of that company.

Long ago, when the mountains rose up, an ancient ocean went underground. But some of it stayed near the surface.

The pioneers needed salt and the meatpackers in Cincinnati did, too. There was only one choice: drill deep. Fifty companies did, burning timber and coal to evaporate the water. Slaves were brought in for much of the labor.

It was a big, noisy, extractive industry.

At the new Dickinson Salt-Works, an almost-worn-out electric pump is the only real industry. There are two large and peaceful greenhouses — here they call them sunhouses.

“It gets up to around 150 degrees here in the summer,” Megan Parker, the operations manager, says.

Parker is happy to be using sunlight instead of burning fossil fuels.

The salt water is stored in large trays lined with black polyethylene. You can see the beginning of white salt crystals — they’re in graceful, almost mystical patterns.

“It is magic. It’s my favorite part of the process, to see a bed that, like this on our right, that’s completely clear, clear liquid, and then the next day you come in and you start to see these beautiful crystals forming,” Bruns says.

Bruns uses a wooden rake to gather finished salt crystals into a pile. Her company will produce about 10,000 pounds this year to be dried, sorted, put in small jars and shipped out to top restaurants like The French Laundry in northern California, Husk in Charleston, S.C., and Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore.

“I think of salt as like wine, so the minerality of our salt is different from the minerality of any other salt, kind of like a pinot noir grown in California is different from a pinot noir grown in France. Could be exactly the same vine but because of the earth that it’s grown in it gives you a different flavor,” Bruns says.

A suggestion from the expert salt-maker for your holiday feast?

Whisk up some dark caramel sauce, sprinkle away and approach cautiously with a small spoon.

2:56

Commercial space startup Blue Origin announced Tuesday the successful launch and landing of one of its rockets. NPR explores what the success means for space travel.

Transcript

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Big news this week in commercial space travel. And to tell us all about it, NPR science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel is here. Hey, Geoff.

GEOFF BRUMFIEL, BYLINE: Hey there.

SHAPIRO: What exactly happened this week?

BRUMFIEL: So yesterday afternoon, a rocket built by this company Blue Origin, which is owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, took off from a field in Texas. The rocket traveled more than three times the speed of sound, got up to 62 miles above the Earth, which is technically the boundary to outer space. And then – this is the really cool part – this giant rocket stage fell back to Earth. But instead of just crashing into the ground, it fired its rockets.

(SOUNDBITE OF ROCKET FIRING)

BRUMFIEL: So the rocket fires its engines and sort of hovers like a UFO and then gently sets down on Earth.

SHAPIRO: This was so secret people didn’t even know the launch was happening. And it sounds like the big news is not the takeoff but the landing. Why is the landing so important?

BRUMFIEL: The point here is reusability. So right now, when you have one of these giant rockets taking off from Cape Canaveral, or, you know, from Kazakhstan if it’s Russian, basically the rocket goes firing off into space and then the vast majority of it, the first stage, just breaks off and goes clump back down onto the ground or into the ocean.

SHAPIRO: That’s Geoff making the sound of a rocket hitting the ground.

BRUMFIEL: Yeah, exactly. But if you could land that first stage, you could potentially use it again. And that’s exactly what billionaire Jeff Bezos told CNN he wants to do. Here he is.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JEFF BEZOS: This is the first of what will be many test flights. We’re going to – over the next couple of years, we’re going to fly this vehicle many, many times.

BRUMFIEL: And if they can fly the same rocket many, many times, they could potentially dramatically cut the cost of space travel. So space could get a whole lot cheaper.

SHAPIRO: Does this mean that in our lifetimes people will be able to take tourist trips to space affordably?

BRUMFIEL: So that’s exactly what this company Blue Origin’s hoping to do. So on top of this rocket that they can reuse they’re going to put a capsule. And when they get up to the edge of space, the capsule’s going to pop off the top of the rocket. It’ll float in space for about four minutes, give people a great view and then it’s going to come back down. It’ll open some parachutes and land gently so it doesn’t rely on this rocket landing system. If that works, then potentially, yeah, people could at least get a taste of space. And further down the road maybe it could get cheap enough that you could actually go into orbit.

SHAPIRO: Geoff, this launch and landing was a success. Before this, there were a lot of pretty spectacular failures. So does this now mean problem solved, everybody’s got it figured out?

BRUMFIEL: Well, right, I think that’s a really good point. So, you know, this was a big success for Blue Origin, but earlier this year, they did have a failure where the rocket stage actually crashed. SpaceX, which is a rival company, has tried this several times. And their rocket stages have crashed and actually exploded. So I think it’s important to remember this isn’t a proven technology yet and we probably have a ways to go before this is going to happen.

SHAPIRO: That’s NPR’s Geoff Brumfiel. Thanks, Geoff.

BRUMFIEL: Thank you.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

3:13

U.S. drug giant Pfizer and its rival Allergan have agreed to merge in order to lower its corporate taxes, creating the world’s largest pharmaceutical company by sales.

Transcript

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

One of the largest mergers of the year may turn out to be the most controversial. It’s being criticized as a huge corporate tax dodge. New York-based Pfizer announced today that it is buying Allergan, which is based in Dublin, Ireland. The deal is valued at a $160 billion. NPR’s John Ydstie reports.

JOHN YDSTIE, BYLINE: There’s no doubt this merger will reduce Pfizer’s U.S. tax bill significantly, says international tax expert Tim Larson.

TIM LARSON: Suffice it to say, it would at least be cut in half.

YDSTIE: Larson, who is a partner at Marcum LLP, an international accounting and advisory firm, says that could easily mean annual tax savings for Pfizer of more than $100 million. That’s because under the deal, Pfizer would move its corporate citizenship from the U.S. to Ireland and its lower tax rates. Under the deal, the company’s operational headquarters would remain in New York City, but its principal executive offices would be in Ireland.

LARSON: Basically pushing a large portion of its non-U.S. revenues outside the existing U.S. tax net.

YDSTIE: And, Larson says, that can be done without any significant change in Pfizer’s current operations. Larson says research and production could remain in the U.S., and the company’s executives could even continue to live and work in the New York area at the company’s current headquarters.

LARSON: You’ve just pinpointed why Treasury and the IRS really want to put a halt to these altogether because there’s tax benefits to be gained without meaningful and substantial business operational change.

YDSTIE: The U.S. Treasury is trying to stop these kinds of mergers which Wall Street calls corporate inversions. The administration says they’re costing the U.S. billions of dollars in tax revenue. President Obama has called the inversions, which have become popular in recent years, unpatriotic. Treasury has tried to stop the flood of inversions by issuing new interpretations of tax rules. Larson says they may slow them down, but only legislation from Congress will stop them. Pfizer’s CEO, Ian Read, has argued the current U.S. tax system, which officially taxes corporate profits at 35 percent, makes U.S. firms compete globally with the one hand tied behind their backs. Of course, many large U.S. firms pay far less in corporate taxes due to tax breaks and loopholes. In announcing the deal today, Pfizer’s CEO deflected the criticisms by touting other benefits of combining Pfizer and Allergan.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

IAN READ: Together, we’ll be even better positioned to make more medicines and more therapies available to more people around the world.

YDSTIE: The merger will add Allergan’s Botox to Pfizer’s large, popular drugs like Viagra. And merging with Allergan provides other benefits for Pfizer.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

READ: Allergan expands our leadership position by bringing very strong franchises in aesthetics, dermatology, eye care, GI, women’s health, urology and anti-infectives.

YDSTIE: And the two firms say the deal will achieve more than $2 billion in annual cost savings. John Ydstie, NPR News, Washington.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

1:37

As retailers prepare for the demand of the holiday season, they’re hiring thousands of temporary workers. People who are looking for temporary holiday jobs this season talk about their experiences.

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Thanksgiving is almost here, and that means the official start of the holiday shopping season. And love it or hate it, it is a fact that tens of thousands of Americans will be at the stores next Friday, looking for hot toys and door-buster deals. Today, we decided to hear from people on the other side of those ringing cash registers – seasonal workers. We reached out on social media to get their stories, like this one from University of Illinois senior Marie Johnson-Dahl.

MARIE JOHNSON-DAHL: I have kind of always liked working during the Christmas season because it’s a lot of people buying things for the people that they love. And I think it’s really exciting that I’m able to work when I have free time, and I don’t feel the pressure of balancing that with schoolwork.

MARTIN: But it’s not just teens and college students like Marie who find jobs as Santa’s retail helpers. It’s also people like Tennessee small business owner Michael Tims. He’s looking for his first seasonal job, and he says with all the warehouses in his area, there are plenty of opportunities.

MICHAEL TIMS: They’re advertised through the mail, through emails, on billboards. Actually, I got a postcard from FedEx Ground with the information of, you know, what they were hiring and the rates they were paying.

MARTIN: For Chris German, seasonal jobs are his career. During the warm summer months, he is a sailing instructor, so temporary holiday work is his key to getting through the winter.

CHRIS GERMAN: The things I have been called back on, they don’t pay quite as well, unfortunately, and much worse hours. But when you’re in the lean months, you do what you’ve got to do.

MARTIN: Despite the drawbacks of holiday jobs, Chris says one of the big benefits is the joy of the season.

GERMAN: And it was really kind of fun to be kind of like one of Santa’s elves for a little bit and bringing packages that you assume were for Christmas. It was great to be able to do that.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

5:47

One year ago this month, Sony suffered a cyberattack perpetrated by North Korean hackers. NPR’s Ari Shapiro talks to Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton about how the company has recovered.

Transcript

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Even in a movie, this story would have sounded too over the top. North Korean hackers infiltrate one of the biggest studios in the world. They leak tawdry, gossipy emails about celebrities to a ravenous press. The hackers steal everything from employee’s Social Security numbers to unreleased movies. The alleged motive? A stoner buddy comedy about the assassination of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un. All of this actually happened to Sony Pictures one year ago. And the CEO who led the company through that period joins us now. Michael Lynton is the head of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Welcome back to the show.

MICHAEL LYNTON: Thank you for having me.

SHAPIRO: So here we are on the other side of one of the worst corporate cyberattacks in U.S. history. Was there a time in your darkest hour when you weren’t sure whether the studio would make it to the other side?

LYNTON: No, that actually didn’t ever occur to me. I think part of the reason was the resilience of all of the employees and all of my colleagues. The other reason was one of the best ways, I’ve found, to get through this kind of a process is to have not necessarily a false optimism but always have this sense that you are going to get through because if you do fall into the trap of doubting that, then it becomes truly perilous.

SHAPIRO: Last summer, you told the Harvard Business Review that the hackers didn’t just steal practically everything from the house. They actually burned the house down. What do you mean when you say they burned the house down?

LYNTON: So (laughter) they stole all the data. Then they wiped the data clean. Then they destroyed most of our servers and most of our PCs. So by the time it was done, we were immobilized.

SHAPIRO: And so were you functioning in, like, a 1970s manner, teletypes and Post-it notes?

LYNTON: Very much so. The only difference between then and the ’70s is we had cellphones. Though, first things first, we had to set up a communications method, which was texting trees. We did indeed use a lot of Post-it notes. In addition to that, we had to drag out of the basement the old payroll check-cutting machines.

SHAPIRO: Wow.

LYNTON: Happily, we never missed a single day’s payroll. And we did manage to keep the place going. We didn’t miss a single day’s production on any of the television shows or movies we had in production. And that’s really thanks to the incredible work of the folks at Sony Pictures.

SHAPIRO: I imagine you must have heard stories from people who were hit really personally by this, whether it’s somebody saying, you know, my child’s Social Security number is now public or I am no longer speaking to the person because we’ve seen each other’s salaries. And it’s – or some – I mean, this really hit home in a personal way.

LYNTON: Right, you know, there was a lot of that, as well. You know, all that I could say to them, first of all, on the email front was I never looked at any of the emails. And I really encouraged them to do the same. To this day, I’ve never looked at the emails. And I’d said that the rubbernecking doesn’t help anybody. On the personal information front, all you could do was be very sympathetic – I was put in exactly the same place that they were – and explain to them that we were doing everything in our power to make sure that their identity and their personal information was going to be protected going forward. And – which is what we did.

SHAPIRO: This was obviously hugely damaging. And the hack is something that nobody would ever have wished for. Is there anything good to have come out of it? I’m thinking, for example, there is a national conversation happening right now about gender in Hollywood that was spurred, to no small extent, by the information that came out in the hack. Do you think there is any positive upshot from this?

LYNTON: I would have a different – I mean, I’m not – I’ve heard that conversation. I think the conversation was going to be inevitable. Obviously, the people referred back to some emails. And by the way, when you keep referring back to these emails, so many of these emails are taken out of context that it’s not an accurate portrayal of what the conversation was. But leaving that aside, I do think that one of the positive things that came out of this was we are a relatively small but very loud canary in the coal mine. We’re a fairly large company but we’re nowhere near the size of the company of a General Electric or something like that or the National Grid. But we’re very loud because of the unfortunate fact that all these – a lot of these stolen emails were made public and a lot of them involved celebrities. So the good therein is that I do think people have bolstered their security. I do think people are a lot more tempered in what they’ve put in their email. Although I must say, a year later, I still get emails from colleagues and people outside of Sony that I’m stunned by sort of saying, like, wow, haven’t we learned something from all of this?

SHAPIRO: (Laughter) Do you write back to the person and say, have you forgotten what happened a year ago or do you just…?

LYNTON: No, I pick up the phone.

SHAPIRO: …Pick up the phone? You pick up the phone (laughter).

LYNTON: I pick up the phone. I pick up the phone and I say, (laughter) come on, we did not go through all of this to continue like this. There’s a lesson here, and we should all keep it in mind.

SHAPIRO: OK, so who’s going to make the movie about this?

LYNTON: (Laughter) I do not want to see the movie.

SHAPIRO: Oh, come on. You’re the CEO of a film studio.

LYNTON: I – no, this is one disaster film that I don’t think needs to be made. It’s always, by the way, very difficult to make movies, having made one or two, involving computers ’cause the trick is not to endlessly be seeing somebody just slapping away at a keyboard. That’s not exactly cinematic.

(LAUGHTER)

SHAPIRO: There was some other drama in there, too.

LYNTON: There was, in fairness, there was, yeah. No, that’s true. You could get away from the keyboard at some point. I’d just not – I’d just as soon not see that again.

SHAPIRO: That’s Michael Lynton, the CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Thanks for talking with us.

LYNTON: Thank you very much.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.