NPR Topics: Story of the Day Podcast

Why have so many soldiers committed suicide in recent years? The Army is looking beyond post-traumatic stress and asking whether bad commanders and destructive leadership are taking a toll.

Sgt. Cody Wolf died in World War II on Jan. 11, 1944, when his plane was shot down. Weeks before his death, he contributed to a Christmas broadcast recorded on the front lines. His daughter, Margaret Ann Wolf Harris, heard that recording for the first time in December.

Students at Rice University in Houston are finding low-cost solutions to big global health problems. The women running the program are hoping to get these young engineers hooked on helping. One particularly successful device that helps infants breathe has already been tested in Malawi and will be distributed to hospitals around the country.

Just as the passengers aboard the MV Akademik Shokalskiy thought they had escaped the Antarctic ice, word came that the Chinese ship that rescued them might be stuck as well. Poet Jynne Martin recommends a book to put the situation in perspective, one that tells the story of an expedition that was doomed from the start.

Among those who stand to benefit the most from the expansion of Medicaid are homeless adults. Many of these men and women are mentally ill or addicted to drugs and alcohol. Enrolling them can be difficult, but the benefits should be substantial.

Across the country, there's a wave of interest in local food, and a new generation of young farmers wants to grow it. But many aren't buying land. Instead, they're renting it.

Fewer than 5,000 black rhinos are thought to exist in the wild, but the Dallas Safari Club is auctioning off a permit to hunt one down. It says the controversial fundraiser is a conservation effort.

Mountain lions are slowly making a comeback, but they live at constant risk of getting hit by cars or shot. In Santa Cruz, Calif., one project tracks how the lions live — and it's already helping to protect the big cats nationwide.

Since returning from Iraq, Jerral Hancock, a single father of two, has been living in a poorly constructed mobile home with doors and hallways too narrow for his wheelchair. When a group of high school students found out, they decided to do something about it.

Ryan Begin, an injured veteran, says marijuana helped his pain and PTSD in ways that prescription drugs did not. Those drugs "drained his soul," he says. But pot brought on new complications for the Iraq vet because while six states allow the use of marijuana for PTSD, the federal government does not.

For more than a decade, Stern Pinball was the only company manufacturing pinball machines. A New Jersey startup company is trying to shake up that monopoly. But with decreased demand for the games, it's unclear whether the pinball industry is big enough for two.

The Texas Camel Corps leads trips through the rugged Big Bend region of West Texas. Indigenous people lived in the area some 9,000 years ago, and for a while, camels called it home, too. In the 1800s, U.S. soldiers brought the animals in to traverse the distance between water supplies for the first American settlers.

Robots from around the world are competing in a Pentagon-sponsored robot "Olympics" this weekend. The challenge is to build a robot that can do human tasks and even go into disaster zones.

Salinas, Calif., is just an hour from Silicon Valley, but production at many local lettuce farms is decidedly low-tech. City officials here decided it's time for an upgrade — and have hired a venture capital firm to help Salinas transition into a high-tech agricultural hub.

The ruling is welcome news for those like Joe Darger, who live in polygamous relationships. But others question the court's interpretation and worry about young girls they say are vulnerable to coercion into polygamous marriages.