Sharon Hanshaw, a beautician turned global climate activist living in Biloxi, Miss., has traveled the world to tell the story of how her neighborhood has struggled to recover from Hurricane Katrina. Debbie Elliott/NPR hide caption

Lisa Daxer is a biomedical engineering major at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. She says her autism has made her feel like an outsider but has also helped her become something of an expert on the social behavior of people she calls "neurotypicals." Skip Peterson for NPR hide caption

Apocalypse Then: Arnold Schwarzenneger first played The Terminator in 1984. The date proposed then for worldwide nuclear devastation: 1997. Carolco/The Kobal Collection hide caption

U.S. Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke in Islamabad, on Feb. 18, 2010, after a joint operation with Pakistan that captured the Taliban's top commander. Aamir Qureshi/AFP hide caption

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera holds up a plastic bag Sunday in Copiapo, Chile, containing a message from the trapped miners that reads, "We are OK in the refuge, the 33 miners." Hector Retamal/AP hide caption

Soul queen Irma Thomas is ingrained in the genetics of New Orleans. Getty Images hide caption