Davar Ardalan

This ancient festival marks the beginning of spring and celebrates the rebirth of nature. And naturally, it has a lot to do with fresh, green foods just beginning to poke out of the ground.

We know that women and minorities continue to be underrepresented in the STEM fields — that's science, technology, engineering and math. Now dip into #RaceOnTech to find out why. Since Monday, entrepreneurs, scientists, computer scientists and coders from Silicon Valley to Greenbelt, Md., have been sharing their thoughts ...

Across the tech industry, efforts to increase diversity in the workforce have intensified. Google for instance, has embedded engineers at Historically Black Colleges to mentor students and help advise them on curriculum.

Google also reports that women now represent 18 percent of technical roles at the company. That's ...

When Edward Buck Jr. learned that Baltimore schools were shutting down Tuesday, he decided to spend the day giving his 5-year-old son, who's also named Edward, a tour of West Baltimore.

"I wanted to be the one painting the picture of what was happening in our neighborhood," he explains.

...

Boys like Facebook, girls like Instagram. Wealthier kids Snapchat. Lower income kids Facebook. And somehow Google+ is still relevant.

So says the Pew Research Center's latest study, "Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015," in which we officially learn that teenagers spend as much time online as adults think ...

As 2014 winds down, we want to learn about the stories that didn't make the headlines. It's hard to say what qualifies as an underreported story, but here are some suggestions from smart people we know.

1. Algorithms Are Shaping Our Stories:

"I think this really touches on ...

Cuban cigars are wrapped in mystique. Soon travelers will be able to bring back $100 worth of the famed cigars. Here are some facts you should know.

1. Cuban cigars are expensive, even in Cuba.

As NPR's Tom Gjelten tweeted, the new permission to bring back $100 worth of ...

NPR senior producer Davar Ardalan spoke with Simin Behbahani in June 2009 and has this remembrance:

One of Iran's most vocal and outspoken poets died this morning in Tehran at the age of 87. Known as the "Lioness of Iran," Simin Behbahani reportedly had been in a coma ...

The USS Houston sank during World War II after being hit by the Japanese, killing 700 sailors and Marines. Now, more than 70 years later, U.S. and Indonesian divers have confirmed that a sunken vessel in the Java Sea was the wreck of the ship dubbed "The Galloping Ghost of ...

Editor's Note: On May 10, Iran Davar Ardalan, a senior producer at NPR, will be the recipient of an Ellis Island Medal of Honor in New York. The annual award is given to "American citizens who have distinguished themselves within their own ethnic groups while exemplifying the values of ...

Children across the country will be rolling out the breakfast trays and handmade cards for Mother's Day. But the holiday brings up mixed feelings for many foster mothers and their children.

"It can be really confusing for a child when there's Mother's Day and the child is supposed to celebrate ...

Code Switch has been writing about some overlooked cultural interactions that have helped shape what Jewish identity is today, and we continue the series with a post by Tell Me More Senior Producer Davar Ardalan on Iranian Jews.

Judaism has a rich and millennial history in Iran including the era ...

As Iran prepares to hold a presidential election Friday, many women say that their limited gains have been rolled back by the outgoing president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Since all of the presidential candidates have been officially approved by Iran's clerical leaders, women say most are conservative and would be likely to ...