NPR Staff

Talk about a spirited debate ...

Just Google the question, "Should kids get trophies for participation?", and the first page yields headlines like "Losing Is Good For You" and "Hell YES all the little league kids should get trophies!"

I remember collecting a shelf full of participation trophies from years ...

Recent water-related problems in Los Angeles and Ohio have put a focus on infrastructure. Many of the pipes in the U.S. are more than 100 years old and may not be replaced for another 100 years.

In 1987, Mytokia Fair shot and killed her husband — before battered spouse syndrome was an admissible defense in Maryland. She served three years in prison before her 15-year sentence was commuted.

Mirren stars as a French restaurant owner in The Hundred-Foot Journey, a film about food, family and the clash of cultures. She says during her first 20 years in film, sets were "very locker roomy."

All the things customers do on phones — texting, tweeting, taking pictures, fussing with Wi-Fi passwords — slows down the process of being seated, ordering and paying the bill. And it's annoying.

Taylor played through countless injuries, even one that kept him in a catheter on the field. But sitting out an injury "doesn't make you less of a man," he says — just a different type of competitor.

A Top 40 radio station in Calgary, Alberta, is promising listeners "twice the music" — by cutting the length of its songs in half.

Estela de Carlotto's grandson was taken as a baby when her daughter was a political prisoner in the 1970s. NPR's David Greene talks to writer Francisco Goldman, who has chronicled her struggle.

Kate Micucci and Riki Lindhome make up the comedy-folk duo Garfunkel and Oates, whose simple, saucy songs about love and life as 30-something women have made their way to a scripted comedy on IFC.

For the past month, NPR's Emily Harris has covered the intense Israeli-Palestinian fighting from the Gaza Strip.

She has reported from the front lines of the fighting, from the chaotic scenes at Palestinian hospitals and on the funerals that took place even as the ...

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is spreading at a frightening rate. To find out why this outbreak has been so deadly and what may lie ahead, we spoke with science writer David Quammen.

Petty says his new album, Hypnotic Eye, takes an observational look at the American dream: "I don't really take a side," he says. "I just invented characters that had their points of view."

As the son of a preacher, McDonald often had to practice his magic tricks in secret while he was growing up. Now he's the first black president of the Society of American Magicians.

In one predominantly Latino neighborhood outside of Washington, D.C., young people are working instead of going to school at four times the national average.

They Want My Soul is the band's first album in four years. Singer Britt Daniel says the recording process often felt like being in a horror movie.

The Trinidadian soca star is ready to follow up on the success of his breakthrough single, "Differentology."

Trejo is famous for playing rough, macho tough guys. A distinctive tattoo helped him get his first role, as a convict. He was perfect for the part: Before he was in movies, Trejo was in prison.

Dan Nakamura and Mary Elizabeth Winstead met by chance while shooting Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. The two struck up a friendship, and are now on the cusp of releasing their first album.

Wesleyan University President Michael Roth, author of the new book Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters, says that the debate over the value of a college education is hardly new.

Hoffman's Playland, one of a handful of kiddie parks left in the country, is getting ready to close after 62 years of merry-go-rounds, toddler trains and more pint-sized fun.