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Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is one of two independents in the Senate. Now, the self-described socialist says he may run for president.

Sanders is aligned with Senate Democrats, but he's spoken lately of a problem with the Democratic coalition that elected President Obama. He says working class white voters have abandoned Democrats in large numbers. The party, he says, has "not made it clear that they are prepared to stand with the working class people of this country, take on the big money interests."

NPR's Steve Inskeep sat down with Sanders in his office and talked about his plan for the middle class, how he says the Democratic party lost its way, and American action against Islamic State.

Interview Highlights

On what the Democrats should learn from their midterm election defeat

To see where the Democratic Party is, I think, it's important to understand where America is. And where America is, is that today we are seeing the collapse, the continued collapse, of the American middle class. You have working class families who have given up the dream of sending their kids to college. My family never had any money. My father came ... from Poland without a nickel in his pocket. He was able to send two of his kids to college. That dream is now not a reality for a whole lot of folks in this country.

And then people look out and they say, "Gee, the wealthiest people are doing phenomenally well." And where are the Democrats? Do people see the Democratic Party standing up to Wall Street? Any of these guys going to jail? Not really. The average person is working longer hours, lower wages and they do not see any political party standing up and fighting for their rights. What they see is a Republican Party becoming extremely right wing, controlled by folks like the Koch brothers. But they do not see a party representing the working class of this country.

On why he says Democrats are losing white voters

Well, I am focusing on the fact that whether you're white or black or Hispanic or Asian, if you are in the working class, you are struggling to keep your heads above water. You're worried about your kids. What should the Democratic Party be talking about, Steve? What they should be talking about is a massive federal jobs program. There was once a time when our nation's infrastructure — roads, bridges, water systems, rail — were the envy of the world. Today that's no longer the case.

I would say if you go out on the street and you talk to people and say, "Which is the party of the American working class?" People would look to you like you were a little bit crazy, they wouldn't know what you were talking about, and they certainly wouldn't identify the Democrats.

On African-American support for Democrats

Well, here's what you got. What you got is an African-American president, and the African-American community is very very proud that this country has overcome racism and voted for him for president. And that's kind of natural. You've got a situation where the Republican Party has been strongly anti-immigration, and you've got a Hispanic community which is looking to the Democrats for help, but that's not important.

You should not be basing your politics based on your color. What you should be basing your politics on is, 'how is your family doing?' ... In the last election, in state after state, you had an abysmally low vote for the Democrats among white, working class people. And I think the reason for that is that the Democrats have not made it clear that they are prepared to stand with the working class people of this country, take on the big money interests. I think the key issue that we have to focus on, and I know people are uncomfortable about talking about it, is the role of the billionaire class in American society.

On why Americans are uncomfortable talking about the 'billionaire class'

Because they fund organizations like NPR and the media in general. Because they make huge campaign contributions, to politics, to politicians of all stripes.

On the U.S. approach to battling Islamic State in Syria and Iraq

I think the president is ... moving us in the right direction. My own view is that if we're gonna be successful in defeating this brutal organization called ISIS, what needs to happen is that the people in the region, the Muslim nations, are gonna have to take the responsibility of leading that effort. It cannot be the United States of America. In many ways I think that's exactly what ISIS wants. They want this to be a war of the United States versus ISIS, of the west versus the east, of Christianity versus Islam. What has got to happen is countries like Saudi Arabia which, by the way, has the fourth largest defense budget in the world ... they're gonna have to step up to the plate and take the leadership in fighting ISIS.

Greeks have loved coffee for centuries. Today, they drink more per capita than even the French and Italians, and almost as much as Americans, and they may spend hours each week in cafes. They're proud of their coffee too, and if you call their rich, gritty signature brew "Turkish coffee" instead of Greek, you're practically asking for a fight in the Greek islands.

But while coffee can be a matter of national pride, increasingly, the Greeks are sipping on a decidedly non-Greek brew: espresso. Chalk it up as one more sign of globalization.

From hipster-thick city centers to the remote hinterlands, espresso is booming in Greece. Mikel Coffee Co., a cafe chain focused on espresso-based drinks, has spread through the country. New restaurants in Athens are specializing in serving espresso — and training baristas to prepare it. Coffee-roasting companies have appeared, and in the midst of the trend, gritty Greek coffee has been put on the back burner.

And the tourism industry has also latched firmly onto espresso: Today, new hotels often install industrial-sized espresso machines in their kitchens, something they weren't doing five years ago, says Athens architect Yiannis Giannopoulos, who oversees construction and remodeling of hotels.

The Salt

Don't Call It 'Turkish' Coffee, Unless, Of Course, It Is

Chrysa Gerolymatou, the general director of the 6-year-old Mikel Coffee Co., believes Greek coffee lovers increasingly see espresso as a more cosmopolitan, modern choice. Whatever the reasons, she says, espresso is undeniably catching on in Greece. "Consider that until the early '90s, there were only two coffee choices — Greek traditional coffee and instant coffee," she tells The Salt in an email.

While espresso has been in Greece for about two decades, its popularity didn't begin to take off until about 10 years ago.

"Drinking coffee and being out of house with your friends is part of your social identity," says Greek food writer Marianthi Milona. She notes that, even through recent hard times, many Greeks who've become hooked on espresso have continued to prefer it.

"You can save money by resisting to buy expensive food or clothes, but as a Greek, you try always to find money for a cup of coffee," Milona explains.

Even in the home, the hiss of espresso machines is growing louder and louder. According to Euromonitor International, a market research firm, sales of home-use espresso machines in Greece increased a total of 40 percent from 2008 to 2013. Forecasts suggest sales will continue to grow for at least the next five years.

This is not the first time that an outsider coffee has reshaped Greece's coffee culture. In the middle of the 20th century, Greeks embraced the virtues of instant coffee — often the Nescafe brand. Sure, the thought might horrify coffee snobs of today, but back then, instant Joe was seen as a sign of modernity and the Western world (not to mention a way to a much faster cup).

"This fast way to prepare coffee reminded the Greeks of their European identity," Milona says, "something that is completely different from the Eastern world." And different from Greek coffee, whose roots date back to the Ottoman empire and whose very name is tied up with Greece's tortured history with Turkey.

Nescafe eventually gave birth to another coffee drink now considered a signature Greek beverage: the frappe, an instant coffee whipped into a froth, served over ice and sucked through a straw.

But now, even the iconic frappe could be displaced by espresso, says Yannis Taloumis, owner of a new Athens coffee shop and roastery called Taf. That's because espresso, too, can easily be served cold, over ice — inevitably a popular coffee style in Greece's blazing summers.

So, will espresso ever replace the traditional Greek coffee?

"Never," Milona says, adamant that Greeks will not forsake their cherished coffee traditions.

But Giannopoulos says Greek coffee has been largely relegated to the home, at family breakfasts on the weekends. Taloumis says it's now especially popular among folks 65 and older, and Gerolymatou agrees that young people, enamored of the modern cafe culture, generally aren't interested in drinking espresso's gritty predecessor.

All of which means, if espresso consumption continues to creep into the nation's caffeine culture, Greek coffee could eventually be left to the Turks.

Alastair Bland is a freelance writer based in San Francisco who covers food, agriculture and the environment. He recently returned from a trip to Greece.

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The federal agency that oversees many American healthcare workers volunteering in Ebola-stricken regions of West Africa says there's been a significant decline in the number of people who are willing to go. International aid groups attribute that drop to the mandatory quarantine rules implemented by New York and New Jersey last month.

"Once the restrictions were issued, we definitely had people who said I'm going to have to back out," says Margaret Aguirre, the head of global initiatives at the International Medical Corps in Los Angeles. The group has about 30 healthcare workers volunteering in West Africa.

Aguirre says Ebola assignments can last six to eight weeks at a time because of all the safety training that's required. "Many of these people are volunteering their time. And to be able to ask them to leave their work and families for that long stretch of time — plus the three weeks, 21-day quarantine — that's just prohibitive for people."

Goats and Soda

Ebola Volunteers Are Needed — But Signing On Isn't Easy

Aid groups have been warning about a possible "chilling effect" on volunteers since the two states' rules were announced in late October. And now there is some data to back up those claims.

The United States Agency for International Development, which handles applications from medical personnel volunteering to serve in West Africa, says applications declined by about 17 percent after October 26th, when the rules for mandatory quarantine rules were announced. "There was an unquestionable drop-off," says USAID spokesman Matt Herrick. "And unfortunately, that decline has continued."

There could be other explanations for the drop-off in volunteers, including the upcoming holiday season or the inherent dangers of treating the Ebola virus. But public health experts believe the mandatory quarantine rules are partly to blame.

New York Ebola Doctor Released

New York and New Jersey implemented their rules after a healthcare worker in New York City, Dr. Craig Spencer, tested positive for Ebola after working with Doctors Without Borders in Guinea. Spencer has since been treated and released, with no further Ebola cases reported. The governors of both states say the mandatory quarantines are needed to protect the public.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's administration did not respond to our request for comment today. But he defended his policy vigorously at a campaign appearance in Rhode Island in late October. "Your first and most important job is to protect the health and safety of the people who live within your borders," Christie said. "And the fact is we're doing the exact right thing."

Public health officials aren't so sure.

"The word is out on the street: if you go, you're at risk of losing your liberty," says Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health at Georgetown University Law School. "And people don't volunteer because of it."

Gostin points out that Ebola patients are only contagious when they're showing symptoms of the disease. And he's worried that mandatory quarantine rules may ultimately hurt more than they help by discouraging volunteers. "I call this a kind of misguided self-interest," he says. "We think it's in our self-interest. But in fact, it's probably harmful to our own interests."

Public health experts say it's in everyone's interests to end the Ebola epidemic at its source in West Africa. And that's going to take a lot more volunteers.

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If a person can get treatment, he or she has nearly a 40 percent chance of surviving Ebola. But for a pregnant woman and her fetus, Ebola is almost a death sentence. One small study found about 95 percent fatality rate. The woman invariably passes the virus to the fetus. And the fetus dies before labor, or it's born and dies shortly after.

The devastation doesn't stop there.

Both the baby and the woman's amniotic fluid are flooded with Ebola virus — and are highly infectious.

"After a few days, the midwife who did that delivery came down with Ebola," Bahr says. "She spent 21 days in a treatment center. It was only by the grace of God that she recovered."

Many other midwives haven't been so lucky.

Right outside Bahr's office is a whiteboard. There are about three dozen photos taped on it. At the top, it says, "Nurses and midwives who have died during the Ebola crisis."

Not all them caught the infection from pregnant women, but in Liberia, you hear the same story over and over again: Someone got Ebola while trying to help a pregnant woman in trouble.

Goats and Soda

U.S. Doctor Didn't Treat Ebola Patients Yet Still Caught The Virus

When a woman is bleeding, minutes can mean the difference between life or death for the baby and mom, Bahr says. "Sometimes it doesn't even give you ample time to put on your gloves ... That alone is so dangerous for the midwives."

With so much blood and so much bodily fluid involved in deliveries, even doctors with access to protective gear are getting infected.

That's how the American doctor Rick Sacra got Ebola in August. Sacra, who is now recovering in Worcester, Massachusetts, was helping pregnant women at a hospital outside Monrovia, called Eternal Love Winning Africa, or ELWA.

"Sacra was being very cautious," says ELWA's assistant director, Dr. John Fankhauser. "But it's also just very risky. What we consider our two riskiest places are the OB ward and the operating room.

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Midwife Ester Kolleh and family doctor John Fankhauser say that, despite the risk of getting Ebola, they won't stop helping women deliver babies at the maternity ward of Eternal Love Winning Africa. Michaeleen Doucleff/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Michaeleen Doucleff/NPR

Midwife Ester Kolleh and family doctor John Fankhauser say that, despite the risk of getting Ebola, they won't stop helping women deliver babies at the maternity ward of Eternal Love Winning Africa.

Michaeleen Doucleff/NPR

The problem, he says, is that women who are miscarrying often have bleeding and cramping, like someone with Ebola. So it's very difficult to tell the difference.

The risk to healthcare workers is so high that many clinics in Liberia refuse to treat pregnant women. Hospitals have closed their maternity wards.

The ripple of effects of that breakdown in the healthcare system could be more catastrophic than Ebola itself.

ELWA is one of the few health facilities in Monrovia where a woman can deliver her baby. The midwives there now wear full Ebola suits — gown, gloves, face mask, goggles — during every delivery. And they get sprayed down with chlorine after a shift, just like in the Ebola clinic.

"So far, by the grace of God, we haven't had another infection," Fankhauser says. "But all we can do is take great precautions. We can't stop caring for patients."

But even as careful as Fankhouser was, he is now back in the U.S., under quarantine, after a possible exposure exposure to Ebola. So far, he's had no symptoms.

And many midwives across Liberia have stopped caring for patients, says Ester Kolleh, the lead midwife at ELWA. They've quit or stopped coming to work. "Everybody is afraid of catching Ebola," she says, "because most nurses who caught Ebola died."

Goats and Soda

Ebola Is Keeping Kids From Getting Vaccinated In Liberia

Right around that moment, a nurse walks by in the hallway of ELWA's OB ward. In her arms is a baby who isn't moving. Kolleh explains what happened.

"Last night we received three ladies," she says. "They had been in labor one week, two weeks. Nobody to help them."

The three women had gone from hospital to hospital in Monrovia. They were turned away at each one. By the time they made it to ELWA, it was too late for their babies.

"All of them had stillbirth," she says. "They couldn't get help from anyone. The babies died before they came. Now we have three dead babies in the delivery room."

The United Nations Population Fund says the problem is widespread across Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Maternal death rates are climbing. And tens of thousands of women — and their babies — could die in the region over the next year unless more maternity wards reopen, and ERs start seeing pregnant women again, the agency predicts.

Kolleh says that's why she's not quitting, no matter the danger. "We keep doing it because we have to do the work," she says. "We have to save lives."

And bring tiny new ones into the world, too.

ebola

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