Ten years ago, the people of Lubec, Maine, were met with an unpleasant surprise: an enormous finback whale had washed onto the beachfront of their tiny coastal town. (more)

Soon after 9-11 producer Karen Michel moved from a predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhood in Brooklyn to Pleasant Valley, NY. (more)

Here's an audio homage on three levels: first, to James Agee's poetic memoir of the sounds and smells of Knoxville, Tennessee in the summer of 1915, shortly before his father died; secondly, to Samuel Barber's 1947 orchestral setting of Agee's text for the soprano Eleanor Steber; and finally to the modern city of Knoxville. (more)

Decommissioned Soviet mousetraps in Brooklyn's Little Odessa. (more)

At least forty thousand African Americans are practicing Jews. They call themselves Hebrew Israelites and their style of worship inspires a variety of reactions: enthusiasm, curiosity, and sometimes even outright hostility. (more)

America's history is rich with the stories of antagonistic coal strikes, but the Herrin Massacre of 1922 is a particularly distressing event that resulted in the deaths of nearly two dozen strike-breakers. (more)

A wildfire swept through Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Sylmar, California in November 2008, destroying more homes, and displacing more families, than any California blaze in decades. (more)

San Francisco luminary and famed poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti takes listeners on a freewheeling tour of his neighborhood haunts in San Francisco's Chinatown and North Beach. (more)

This hour: two decades after he was forced to flee, a young Palestinian man returns to his home to meet the Israeli woman who lives there now. (more)

This piece explores what happens when trailers want to stay put, but condos travel -- removing Austin residents and their beloved trees. (more)

In September, 2002, three years before Katrina devastated America’s gulf coast, veteran NPR reporter Daniel Zwerdling investigated what would happen to New Orleans if it fell in the path of a Category 5 hurricane. (more)

This hour: kids sing opera, they talk about life on a remote island, and they opine about running the world. (more)

A simple scene of sharing language, laughter, songs and daily chores with my neighbours in Kigali, Rwanda. (more)

This hour: a visit to a pauper's graveyard, three very short (but very big) questions, and more. (more)

A couple from Amsterdam East talks about the brown frogs they introduced to the neighborhood (more)

A year ago, a swat team broke down the door of a home in downtown St. Paul and found eight Molotov cocktails inside. (more)

I challenged my neighbors to a good old fashioned college chant off! (more)

Louise tries to teach me singing, and Philip speaks about silence and writing. (more)

Just a typical day in "The Southgate." (more)

This hour: a visit to one of the most remote islands on earth, a woman who sings with crickets, a return to Zagreb, and more. (more)