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Caring Makes Us Human

When a scruffy cat wandered into the prison yard at a Michigan correctional facility, Troy Chapman says, the little orange stray disrupted the tough code of prison culture. Chapman, who was convicted of murder in 1985, says the cat reminded him that everyone wants to be needed.

Caring Makes Us Human

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Wynton Marsalis Moves Jazz To 'Higher Ground'

Jazz legend Wynton Marsalis says that music is the "art of the invisible" — it is memory, intention and imagination. Marsalis explains his relationship to jazz in his new book, Moving to Higher Ground, and talks about how music changed his life.

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In Character

Charlotte A. Cavatica: Bloodthirsty, Wise And True

She's a spider's spider — sophisticated, pretty (by her own account), authoritarian — and she says something profound about love and commitment. Melissa Block looks at the heroine of Charlotte's Web.

Charlotte A. Cavatica: Bloodthirsty, Wise And True

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Loan Officer Flies To The Rescue Of Baby Ducks

A story is making the e-mail rounds about a man who saved some baby ducks that had been nesting on an awning outside his office window. When they began jumping down, "Duck Hero" Joel Armstrong rushed to catch them so they wouldn't hit the sidewalk.

Loan Officer Flies To The Rescue Of Baby Ducks

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A Bra's Tale: Detour On A Daughter's Trip Abroad

As a young woman, Betty Jenkins received a gift from her mother that was meant to attract the attention of young men. But as Jenkins tells her niece, the attention she got wasn't the kind she was expecting. The gift was an inflatable bra designed to enhance its wearer's figure. It worked well — until she got on a plane.

A Bra's Tale: Detour On A Daughter's Trip Abroad

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Opinion

In 'A Dog's Life,' One Student Finds Strength

In essays on the 'In Character' blog, NPR audiences have been waxing thoughtful about their own favorite characters. An 11-year-old, in foster care for the past four years, says he feels a kinship with the protagonist of A Dog's Life: Autobiography of a Stray.

In 'A Dog's Life,' One Student Finds Strength

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French Families Adopt U.S. Graves in Normandy

Eight years ago, a French couple founded an organization that adopts graves of American servicemen who died during the Normandy invasion of World War II. The volunteer group encourages French families to lay flowers on the graves when the Americans' own families can't do it.

French Families Adopt U.S. Graves in Normandy

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Slugging to Work: Anonymous Ride-Sharing

If you've ever sat in rush-hour traffic, gazing longingly at the cars rushing by in the high-occupancy vehicle lanes, try doing something your parents warned you never to do: Hop in a car with a complete stranger behind the wheel.

Slugging to Work: Anonymous Ride-Sharing

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Couple Frantic to Find Loved Ones in Rubble

Rescuers worked frantically throughout southwestern China on Wednesday to reach the thousands of people still trapped in the rubble after Monday's devastating earthquake. But, as the day faded, so did the hope that many of the missing would be found alive.

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Two Families Grapple with Sons' Gender Identity

Thousands of miles apart, two families noticed their toddler sons gravitated toward toys, colors and clothes generally associated with girls. Each family eventually decided to go with radically different approaches to their child's identity issues, as directed by their therapists.

Two Families Grapple with Sons' Gender Identity

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Dan Gottlieb, 'Learning from the Heart'

Fresh Air

He's helped many people through painful passages in their lives. And he's faced his own: Since a near-fatal auto accident in 1979, he's been paralyzed from the chest down. Gottlieb has had nearly three decades to come to terms with the changed circumstances of his body — but now, he fears, that body may be growing tired.

Dan Gottlieb, 'Learning from the Heart'

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Radio Rookies: 'Aging Out' of Foster Care

Shirley Diaz grew up in foster care. Now almost 21, she's on the verge of aging out of the system. As part of "Radio Rookies," a project at WNYC that teaches teenagers to tell radio stories in their own words, Diaz takes listeners into her world as she looks ahead to an uncertain future and back to the violent tragedy that shaped her teenage years.

Radio Rookies: 'Aging Out' of Foster Care

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