Search results for

Along with submissions for our Weekly Innovation post, we've also received ideas for things that haven't been created yet, things that NPR readers want to see become a reality (like reversible tattoos or steering wheel fans). As we look ahead to 2014, here are our favorite ideas of the past year.

President Obama is staying home from next year's Winter Games, sending openly gay athletes instead to scold Russia for its anti-gay policies. This isn't the first time politics has intruded on the Olympics. Although the games are intended to be an apolitical athletic gathering, they have frequently provided a platform for protest.

The Puente Hills Landfill received waste from all over Los Angeles County for more than 50 years, and eventually grew higher than 500 feet. But with the site's closure, the trash won't just disappear.

Three years after bariatic surgery, most people experienced health improvements. Yet some people benefited much more than others. Figuring out those differences would help doctors and patients understand who should have surgery and who should avoid it.

President Obama with Rose Garden appearance looks for major reset of problem-plagued rollout of his signature health care legislation

The way we talk about films, audiences, and expectations often reflects not just what happened, or even what usually happens — it reflects what amounts to little more than mythology.

Rodney Scott's legendary South Carolina barbecue cookhouse went up in flames last year, so friends of the pit master cooked up a plan to help him rebuild. Scott is now making a comeback with his Bar-B-Que in Exile Tour and bringing people together with his whole hog barbecue.

The only road into Valdez, Alaska, was reopened on Wednesday after an avalanche closed the city off from all highway traffic for nearly two weeks. Melissa Block speaks with Valdez City Manager John Hozey, who helped coordinate clean-up efforts for the city's more than 4,000 residents.

California Rep. Henry Waxman, elected in 1974 in Watergate's aftermath, has announced his retirement. The Democrat leaves behind one of the most substantive legislative records in the House's recent history, and was instrumental in the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

The British-American actress co-stars opposite Eric Bana in the surveillance-state thriller Closed Circuit. She joins NPR's Robert Siegel to talk about playing a barrister, working with her celebrated Shakespearean father and being inspired by her opera-singer mom.