Memoir
by Dean Karnazes
In the Fall of 2006, Dean Karnazes, known as the "Lance Armstrong of the running world," took on the ultimate challenge: running 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 consecutive days. Dean set off in a caravan packed with fellow runners, with nothing more than a roadmap and a determination that defied all physical limitations.
Seafaring isn't for the faint of heart. It wasn't for the Apostle Paul in the first century A.D.-- shipwrecked, imprisoned, and often a stranger in foreign lands. And it turned out to be a heart-stopping task some 2,000 years later when Linford Stutzman, a religion professor, and his wife undertook a 14-month journey by sailboat.
Time magazine's Michael Weisskopf was riding through Baghdad in the back of a U.S. Army Humvee, an embedded reporter alongside soldiers from the First Armored Division, when he heard a metallic thunk. Looking down, he saw a small, dark object rolling inches from his feet. He reached down and took it in his hand. Then everything went black.
On April 4, 2004, Cindy Sheehan learned that Casey, the eldest of her four children, had been killed in Iraq, where he was serving in the United States Army. After struggling through crippling grief for three weeks, she came to an epiphany: "I will spend my life trying to make Casey's sacrifice count for peace and love, not killing and hate."
As a radio journalist whose work appears regularly on Morning Edition and All Things Considered, John F. Burnett has reported from the Branch Davidian standoff in Waco and the Kosovo conflict; covered the guerilla wars in Central America; ridden with US marines during the invasion of Iraq; and reported from the flooded streets of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and from New York City, Pakistan, and Afghanistan in the weeks and months following 9/11.
by Kevin Clash with Gary Brozek
Meet Kevin Clash, the man behind the Muppet and the unassuming heart and soul of Elmo. At last, the puppeteer who has performed Elmo for nearly twenty years comes out from behind the stage to share his story.
In August 2003, at the age of thirty, Rory Stewart took a taxi from Jordan to Baghdad. A Farsi-speaking British diplomat who had recently completed an epic walk from Turkey to Bangladesh, he was soon appointed deputy governor of Amara and then Nasiriyah, provinces in the remote, impoverished marsh regions of southern Iraq.