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In the United States, an orphan disease is one that affects fewer than 200,000 patients. These conditions often involve chronic pain or fatigue, and can be controversial and difficult to diagnose. Yet they affect around 30 million Americans. Author Laurie Edwards is one such patient.

Abortion foes say the U.S. Supreme Court's aggressive decision set the issue on the path toward becoming intractable. Others say factors besides the landmark case — including doctors, lawyers, President Nixon and the Catholic Church — more strongly influenced the state of today's debate.

Same-sex couples are still processing how the Supreme Court's recent rulings on gay marriage could change their lives and their relationship to the government: from health insurance, to retirement, to green cards. For more, host Michel Martin speaks with Susan Sommer of Lambda Legal.

Brilliant.org is an online hub for the world's most promising young minds to come together, connect, and see how they measure up against one another.

The comic and actor talks to NPR's Scott Simon about his insomnia, his friendship with baseball legend Mickey Mantle, and the love of his life. They're all topics in his memoir, Still Foolin' 'Em: Where I've Been, Where I'm Going, and Where the Hell are My Keys?

Clarence Jones played an integral but mostly unseen role in the 1963 March on Washington. As Martin Luther King Jr.'s legal adviser, Jones assisted in drafting King's landmark speech, and drew from a recent event in Birmingham, Ala., to craft one of the speech's signature lines.

When Republicans on Capitol Hill want to hear reasons not to take strong action on climate change, sometimes they call on Judith Curry to testify. The climatologist has staked out an unusual position on the subject: She says the climate is changing and people are partly responsible, but we shouldn't bother regulating carbon dioxide.

Alberto Carvalho runs the nation's fourth largest school district — Miami Dade Public Schools. Since he took over four years ago, the district's turnaround has been nothing short of "miraculous", or so his supporters say. During his tenure the dropout rate has plummeted. The high school graduation rate has climbed to record levels and test scores for all students are way up. How did Carvalho do it?

Legend has it that an innkeeper caught a glimpse of the goddess of love in her bedroom and then rushed to his kitchen to create an egg pasta inspired by Venus' belly button. Today the art of making tortellini is endangered, but several groups are devising creative ways to preserve the tradition.

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