Laurel Dalrymple

There are heroes on the battlefield, but there are also heroes like Seattle Pacific University student Jon Meis, who tackled a gunman and, with other students, held him down until police arrived.

There is a perception that Americans would rather play slot machines and watch car racing because those things are more relatable than horses. NPR's Laurel Dalrymple doesn't think that is true.

When a plane crashes, it can take many months or years to find the black box that provides clues to what happened. Just what are these devices, how do they work, and why can they be so hard to find?

What do artists like Philip Seymour Hoffman owe us, after all? Do they owe us their art? Or is their art a gift — for as long we have it?

At Philadelphia's historic prison, Cellblock 12 is known for cackling and echoing voices, Cellblock 6 for shadowy figures darting along the walls, Cellblock 4 for ghostly faces. Footsteps. Wails. Whispers. For decades, people have told the same eerie stories, over and over again.

Shug McGaughey is the trainer of Kentucky Derby winner Orb, who runs Saturday in the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown. Despite his long record of success, no one seems as surprised as the 62-year-old McGaughey to be pursuing one of the sport's top honors.

The anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has NPR.org editor Laurel Dalrymple thinking about her father — and how he could never talk about his experience in Vietnam.