Freight rail carriers and the unions representing rail workers have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract. The deal includes wages increases and medical exemptions from attendance policies.

Teachers are using a game called Mystery Skype to teach geography and connect with classes around the country and world.

Only 25% of eighth graders score proficient in geography on standardized tests. Some teachers are using a video chat game to engage kids in the world around them.

Concussions, broken bones, and torn ligaments are a few serious injury concerns in Quidditch — a new sport where the rules are still evolving, and players are testing the safety of them.

Technology has often been proposed as the solution to controversial policing practices. But reporter Matt Stroud says new innovations embraced by law enforcement can present their own problems.

Writer Rhianna Jones is petitioning the Unicode Consortium for an emoji of a person with an Afro.

After hours of rescues on stormy seas, the Viking Sky cruise ship was able to regain control of its engine and reach the Norway port of Molde on Sunday.

Lux Prima is a new nine-song album that features otherworldly orchestrations from Grammy-winning artist Danger Mouse and vocals from Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O.

Christchurch's residents are coming to terms with Friday's shooting that killed at least 50 people. Many are showing support for the Muslim community, which is struggling to process the attacks.

As luck would have it, NPR reported plenty of stories this past year of people who have been fortunate — whether by gaining something good, or escaping something bad. Here are seven "lucky" tales.

Kaiser is the first musher of Yup'ik descent to win the Iditarod sled dog race. His win is a significant point of pride for Alaska's indigenous people.

For one year, New York-based photographer Shuran Huang followed the Collins family to church, baseball fields and their family-run barbershop.

Jennifer Carrieri's twin was shot and murdered in an empty parking lot in 1996, but nobody knows why. This year, Carrieri put up billboards in Baltimore, Md., in the hopes of solving the cold case.

Brendan Johnston refused to compete against Jaslynn Gallegos because of her gender. Gallegos went on to place fifth but is frustrated to be treated differently as an athlete because she's a girl.

NPR's Michel Martin talks with journalist Soledad O'Brien about her recent reporting on eating disorders among male athletes. O'Brien said social media played a big role in these eating disorders.

Original poems by the gangsters Bonnie and Clyde are going up for auction on May 4 in Texas. The poems reveal a more authentic side to the often glamorized duo.

On his latest multigenre album, Clark is unapologetically angry. He tells NPR's Michel Martin what inspired it: "That's what came out as a result of ... life being black in this country."

Bird lovers around the world are counting birds this weekend for the annual Great Backyard Bird Count, which provides valuable data for avian research.

In poring through past yearbooks, the student journalists are reckoning with the racist history of both their state and their campus. A historian says the yearbook's title itself refers to blackface.

Ethan Lindenberger had never received vaccines for diseases like polio or measles because his mom is anti-vaccine. Now he's 18, he's finally getting his shots.