Around the Nation

Amanda as a teenager (left). She now lives in Manhattan and works as a massage therapist.

National

Teenage Diaries Revisited: A Gay Teen's Family, 'Evolved'

10:19am May 13, 2013

Amanda Brand is gay. Her family is Catholic, and when she was a teenager, her parents were convinced she was only going through a phase. Recently, Amanda sat down with her mother and father in Queens, N.Y., in the same house she grew up in, to revisit her tumultuous teen years.

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Juan recorded his first diary at 18. He now lives in Colorado and is married with three children.

National

Teenage Diaries Revisited: Living Life Under The Radar

10:19am May 13, 2013

Juan came to the U.S. with his family, who crossed the Rio Grande illegally in 1992. He has made a life for himself in Colorado that might seem like the American dream: a house, a job, two cars, three kids. But he remains undocumented.

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Frankie Lewchuk had been a high school football star whose picture was in his hometown newspaper every week. Now, after struggling with a crystal meth addiction, he is trying to repair his life.

Teenage Diaries Revisited: From Kicking A Football To Kicking Meth

10:19am May 13, 2013

Frankie Lewchuk was a high school football star whose picture was in his hometown newspaper every week. Years after graduating from high school, Frankie was back in the hometown paper, this time for drug-related crimes. Now, he's attempting to repair his life and his relationship with his family.

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Melissa Rodriguez struggled to create a stable life at home for her son in the late 1990s. Today, he's a teenager and together, they've faced many challenges.

Teenage Diaries Revisited: Mother And Son Listen To The Past

10:18am May 13, 2013

In 1996, after 12 years living in the foster care system, Melissa Rodriguez recorded a diary about getting pregnant and becoming a mother. Now, her son Issaiah is a teenager, and she shares her teenage diary with him and reveals things about her past that she's never mentioned.

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Well, That's One Way To Stop Smoking

8:41am May 13, 2013

Etta May Lopez wanted to stop smoking. She decided she needed to go someplace where she could not buy cigarettes. After slapping a Sacramento sheriff's deputy, she now has 63 days to stop smoking.

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4-Year-Old Boy Chosen As Mayor Of Dorset, Minn.

8:41am May 13, 2013

He won his seat by having his name picked out of a hat — an annual tradition for the small town of 22. Mayor Tufts is celebrated in town as a singer, dancer, and fisherman.

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Thien-Kim Lam (left) and Larry Bright (right) with their 3-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter, are a multiracial family. They represent a growing segment of American families that are inter-racial and whose children identify as both races.

National

Checking More Than One Box: A Growing Multiracial Nation

8:35pm May 12, 2013

The last Census showed 9 million people, about 3 percent of the population, reporting more than one race. That's an increase of one-third from the decade before — and that number is only going up.

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The Plymouth County Beekeepers Association distributed more than 500 crates of honeybees this spring.

For Year-Round Buzz, Beekeepers 'Fast-Forward Darwinism'

6:51pm May 12, 2013

by Katherine Perry

Honeybees are in trouble across the U.S., but one association in Massachusetts is hoping to boost the population in its own area. The bees it currently uses have a hard time surviving the winter and battling other foes that have been killing bees nationwide. So beekeepers in Plympton decided to breed their own.

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National

In Guantanamo, Have We Created Something We Can't Close?

7:26pm May 11, 2013

by NPR Staff

The crisis at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp keeps growing in size and intensity. According to the military's own count, 100 of the 166 men held in the prison there are now on hunger strike. The strike has brought renewed attention to the issue of closing the prison, but some wonder if that's even possible.

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Music & Culture

Ala. Juke Joint Shuttered After More Than 50 Years

10:11am May 11, 2013

Longtime blues joint Gip's Place, in Bessemer, Ala., has been forced to close its doors. Weekend Edition profiled the place two years ago. Host Scott Simon takes note of the closing.

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