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During World War II, Harrison Wright served with the Army in Europe. And as he recalls during a visit to StoryCorps with his grandson, he was sent on a very special assignment to mark the end of the war.

On May 27, 1937, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge opened, connecting bustling San Francisco to sleepy Marin County to the north. The Oakland-Bay Bridge had opened six months earlier — but the Golden Gate was an engineering triumph. And on its first day, thousands of people walked across it.

President Obama campaigned Thursday in Iowa, where he delivered his sharpest criticisms yet of Republican rival Mitt Romney. Iowa is one of several states likely to determine the outcome of the November presidential election.

Hamelin was the setting for the tale of the Pied Piper who lured the town's rats into a river and then led away its children when he wasn't paid. Some 700 years later, the rats have returned and chewed through the electric cable powering the town's fountain.

Politics can be a dirty game — full of sleaze and attacks that seem unfair. But in this election cycle, the rhetoric seems to be somewhat more tame than expected. Noam Scheiber of The New Republic has a simple explanation for that — he doesn't think the tough tactics will appeal to voters.

John Wesley Harding laments the Starbucks-ization of America, great music from Josh Ritter, Edie Brickell, and Punch Brothers. Then questionable life advice from Sarah Vowell and Eugene Mirman, topped with Haley Tanner's homage to a favorite writer.

Amy Richter was slathered up in oil and wearing a sparkling red bikini when she competed in her first bodybuilding contest a few years ago. That was quite a change for an Episcopal priest. Host Michel Martin speaks with the "Ripped Reverend" about keeping the body and spirit strong.

NPR's "Sick in America" survey found that a lot of Americans are unhappy with the healthcare system. Among those who had a recent serious healthcare experience, nearly half said that a lack of cultural understanding played a big role in the problems with U.S. healthcare quality. Host Michel Martin talks with NPR's Richard Knox and Dr. Kavita Patel of the Brookings Institution.

The spin that one British newspaper has put on this otherwise unremarkable story may give you a laugh. So might the video that the Cape Cod Times produced.

What if the rapture actually occurred? That's the plot of Tom Perrotta's novel The Leftovers, which examines the aftermath of an unexplained rapturelike event in which millions of people around the globe inexplicably disappear into thin air.