Linton Weeks

Question young, first-time voters about whom they will be supporting in the 2016 presidential election — via a callout on NPR's Facebook page — and you will receive more than 700 all-over-the-map responses.

Some thoughtful, some insightful. And a heck of a lot filled with what can only ...

Post a photo of the plant on your desk in the Comments section below.

That's right: The plant the boss wants you to take home ...

Now you can explain — with some research to back you up — that having greenery in your workspace makes you more productive. And ...

Post a photo of the plant on your desk in the Comments section below.

That's right: The plant the boss wants you to take home...

Now you can explain — with some research to back you up — that having greenery in your workspace makes you more productive. And how ...

Now that the term Digital World has become redundant, we are able to make mistakes and encounter entanglements that no human — even Shakespeare --could ever have imagined.

Email doubles, for instance. Nearly everyone — even those of us with unusual names — has run into the dilemma. An email ...

Speaking recently about a state proposal to abandon the Common Core standards in North Carolina public schools, Vance County, N.C. district Superintendent Ronald Gregory opined in the Henderson Daily Dispatch, ""I don't know what's wrong with these people ... To me, it's like we never finish ...

The National Museum of American History ... or Herstory ... or Everybodystory — whatever you feel it should be called — is expanding its collection of objects and archival materials representing the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.

In public remarks in mid-August, museum director John ...

Oxymoronic, isn't it, the idea of a "good psychopath"?

But in their just published book, The Good Psychopath's Guide to Success, Andy McNab and Kevin Dutton argue that relying on some psychopathic traits can lead to a more successful life.

Andy is a British Special Air Service veteran and novelist; ...

For years I was convinced that there exists among us a strange, unidentified species of animal — something between bug and bird — jetting around gardens and flowers and trees.

Not too long ago one of these natural UFOs buzzed past me in broad daylight. Too big to be a ...

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 Great American Junk Drawer can be an accidental time capsule, a haphazard scrap heap, a curious box of memories and meaninglessness. It can also serve as a Rorschachian reflection of your life.

You know what we're talking about: The drawer of detritus. The has-been bin. That roll-out repository where ...

Perhaps this is the sound of history repeating itself.

In the early days of his first term, President Obama was painted as "the anti-Bush" and many of his ideas, for instance his foreign policy and his approach to global terrorism, were considered non-Bushesque initiatives.

Of course, ...

Wait a minute. Weren't we told by Simon and Garfunkel: "Slow down, you move too fast. You've got to make the morning last"?

And by some other philosopher to "stop and smell the roses"?

Now we learn from new research that walking slow can be a bad thing — or ...

With the disappearance of the desktop computer and the downfall of the desk phone, could we be seeing the demise of the office desk?

"We still need a place on which to set all that digital stuff," says Henry Petroski, a civil engineering professor at Duke University and ...

Now that Weird Al week is long past, we can mull over the merits — and demerits — of Al Yankovic's new mishmash of novelty music: Mandatory Fun.

For word nerds, there is no question that Word Crimes, a paean to punctuation and grammar sung ...

The Philippines on Sunday welcomed its 100-millionth citizen — a baby girl named Chonalyn who was born at a hospital in the capital, Manila.

Juan Antonio Perez III, executive director of the Commission on Population, announced the official milestone after the birth at Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital, which has one ...

Politics Fatigue Syndrome — it strikes many people in many ways. Swelling anger. Watery expectations. Sniffling insecurity. That nagging sense of hopelessness when it comes to the efficacy of political action.

Historically, one of the salient symptoms is extreme lethargy. A while back, a reporter from the Atlanta Constitution noted ...

Steve Sims is the founder of Bluefish, a luxury concierge service that takes care of rich people. As Steve posted on Reddit recently: "We've arranged everything from supersonic military jet flights in Russia, submersible dives in the Atlantic Ocean to view the Titanic, sunsets in the Serengeti, deep-sea ...

Cinema sites abound with lists such as Top 10 Movies ForThe Fourth Of July from Forbes and 12 Patriotic Movies by the Los Angeles Times. After all, Hollywood knows that Americans love to celebrate American celebrations.

"Cinematically," says Mary F. Pols — a movie reviewer for Time ...

Celebrating Independence Day on July Fourth is as American as burgers and dogs on the grill, lemonade in plastic cups, apple pie on paper plates, baseball, fireworks and Sousa marches.

Except for those Americans who don't celebrate it at all.

Like William H. Lamar IV. Last year the African-American preacher ...

Fireworks can be:

1) Historic. One of the earliest references to the celebration of America's Independence Day comes from The Universal Asylum and Columbia Magazine in July 1790. Because July 4 fell on a Sunday that year, festivities were postponed for a day. In Philadelphia, thousands of celebrants gathered on ...