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Digital cameras are ubiquitous today — even $20 cell phones have them built in. But few people actually know how a digital camera works. Shree Nayar, a computer scientist at Columbia University, set out to change that with his Bigshot Do-It-Yourself Digital Camera kit, which gives tinkerers a view of a camera's anatomy.

As the new year started, the Senate adopted a bipartisan agreement that, while temporary, may help ease concerns about America's economic stability. The House considers the deal today. Host Neal Conan talks with NPR senior business correspondent Marilyn Geewax, and then with Yale economics professor Robert Shiller about how the crisis has affected the housing market.

British oil company BP agreed to pay $4 billion over five years to mostly government environmental agencies, and $525 million to settle claims with the Securities and Exchange Commission. BP will also plead guilty to 11 felony counts of misconduct or neglect related to the deaths of 11 people who died in the accident.

Astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, died Saturday. He was 82. Armstrong solidified his place in history on July 20, 1969 when he left the first human footprint on the surface of the moon. NPR's Neal Conan remembers the man his family called a "reluctant hero."

NPR's Susan Stamberg asked three of our go-to independent booksellers to help fill our beach bags with good books. The result is a reading list that's all about youth and ritual.

Shorter won the 1972 Olympic Marathon and helped establish the first anti-doping agency in the U.S. But his public persona hid a dark secret.

Your phone knows where you are. Social networks know who your friends are, and what you ate last night. How much of your personal data is really yours to control? Khaliah Barnes of the Electronic Privacy Information Center helps sort out the politics and policies of privacy.

Data scientist Edward Tufte (dubbed the "Galileo of graphics" by BusinessWeek) pioneered the field of data visualization. Tufte discusses what he calls "forever knowledge," and his latest projects: sculpting Richard Feynman's diagrams, and helping people "see without words."

It's a rivalry as old as forests themselves: the ancient battle between trees and their competitors, the vines. But now, ecologists say, the vines are winning. Bill Laurance, of Australia's James Cook University, says increased forest fragmentation and a boost in carbon dioxide may be contributing to the vines' domination.

For most of us, riding from floor to floor in an elevator is a completely mundane process. Lee Gray, an associate dean at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, is known as the Elevator Guy. He spends a lot of his time researching the history of elevators and why we behave so oddly in the big metal boxes.

Bikini Kill's instant anthem for the '90s riot grrrl movement found new purpose at rock camps, where young girls learn to express themselves through music. Hanna breaks it down with NPR's Ann Powers.

This week, we're listening back to some favorite Fresh Air interviews from the past decade. In 2011, Terry Gross spoke to Carr, the media columnist for The New York Times who died in 2015.

The new generation of smart speakers doesn't always play nice with each other's ecosystems, but at least they all sound much better.

Conservationists are deploying audio recorders, neural networks and predictive analytics in a bid to save elephants.

NPR is looking at the American dream, and during an election year, politicians often talk about what they think that dream means. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio from Florida is one of the political world's brightest new stars. He offers his version of the dream in his new memoir, An American Son. He speaks with host Michel Martin.

The Brazilian singer's two new albums of cover songs explore her love of both jazz and bossa nova.

Mitt Romney accepted his party's presidential nomination and promised to end four years of "disappointment and division." President Obama, he said, has failed to solve the nation's problems and it's time for him to leave the White House.

The debut album by the "drivers license" phenom plays like one bottled-up soliloquy after another, bursting from a quiet observer who has been paying closer attention than you think.

The news and lifestyle website MamiVerse launched this summer. It features Latina journalists, writers, entrepreneurs and everyday moms who are just trying to keep it all together. The site is also for the moms' daughters and their families.

Los Angeles Times CEO and Publisher Ross Levinsohn has been a defendant in two sexual harassment lawsuits; female colleagues have repeatedly challenged his conduct in the workplace at various firms.