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Saturday in Argentina, the International Olympic Committee will announce the host of the 2020 Summer Games. The committee is choosing from among Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo. The contenders all have strong selling points, but each also has serious issues clouding its bid.

The new chairman of the Reserve Bank of India infused a sense of much-needed optimism this week, but analysts say the exuberance is unlikely to last. India's economic growth has crashed, its currency has plunged and prices are up. After a decade of high growth rates, India is now the sick man of Asia.

The jobless rate dipped to 7.3 percent in August as 169,000 jobs were added to public and private payrolls, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated. This report has taken on special significance because it could affect the Federal Reserve's plan to begin phasing out its bond-buying program.

Two Wall Street types competed for a narrow lot bordering both of their properties. The county in New York intended to sell the lot for $10. The winning bid was $120,000.

There's been a sort of collective freak-out in the auto industry about millennials and their waning interest in cars. Our series, reporting on the changing relationship between youth culture and the automobile, draws to a close.

Renee Montagne talks to Elizabeth O'Bagy of the Institute for the Study of War about the balance of power among different rebel groups in Syria.

Scientists looking back on last year's extreme weather events conclude that human-induced climate change didn't cause any of the events, but appears to have made some of them worse. The results are published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

A satellite is scheduled to take off for the Moon Friday — carrying an instrument that could represent the future of deep space communication. Instead of sending data back to earth using radio waves, the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration will use pulsed light waves.

Each city has strong selling points, but also serious problems. They each hope the games jump-start their economies. But the jury's still out on whether mega-sporting events do that.

Also: Former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez faces a hearing on a murder charge; a massive undersea volcano is discovered in the Pacific; and a British firm is sorry for making job applicants dance in their interviews.

In 1993, Monty Hall, host of the game show Let's Make a Deal, joined us on the program to discuss how contestants used risk and probability to win big prizes.

In a new study, researchers were able to make mice lean or obese by altering their gut bacteria. Jeffrey Gordon, an author of the study, discusses how the interaction between diet and the microbial community in our gut influences our health.

This year, the U.S. Forest Service has spent hundreds of millions of dollars fighting wildfires, cutting into funds originally set aside to prevent them. Fire historian Steve Pyne compares the way we manage fires today to how we manage health--focused on emergencies, and not prevention.

Scientists report in the journal Nature Geoscience that they've uncovered the largest volcano on Earth in the Northwest Pacific Ocean, about 1,000 miles east of Japan. In fact it's one of the largest in the solar system, second only to Olympus Mons on Mars. Scientists have been studying the massive structure for decades, but now are confirming it's a single volcano about the size of New Mexico. It rises about four miles off the sea floor, but doesn't break through the ocean surface. Called Tamu Massif, it hasn't erupted in more than 130 million years, helping to keep its true nature secret.

Comedian Dave Chappelle caused some controversy at a comedy festival in Hartford, Conn. last week, after he got upset at hecklers and walked off stage. Depending on who you ask, Hartford was a horrible, racist audience — or just had a bad night.

After a slow, lightning-delayed, start, creaky, old Peyton Manning exploded in front a national television audience. The Denver Broncos quarterback eviscerated the defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens in the opening game of the NFL season with a record-tying seven touchdown passes. Will Manning's performance help fans forget a worrisome offseason full of concussion litigation and uncertainty? The league hopes so. Sportswriter Stefan Fatsis joins Robert Siegel to talk about the upcoming NFL season.

Commentator Andrei Codrescu reflects on the text message written by poet Seamus Heaney just before he died. In Latin he wrote to his wife "do not be afraid." The 74-year-old Heaney died in a Dublin hospital last week. Codrescu says no great meaning should be implied — it was just a personal message to his wife.

Author Jesse Walker argues that believing in shadowy cabals and ominous secrets isn't just for people on the margins — it's as American as apple pie. He says that our nation's paranoia stretches back to the colonial era, and that some conspiracy theories are believed by a majority of Americans.

Though it may be considered an adolescent rite of passage in some places, journalist Jake Swearingen insists it can't be done. Swearingen talks to host Scott Simon about the science of cow tipping, and why it's mathematically impossible.

As Congress debates whether to give President Obama the authority to attack Syria, Russia's ambassador told a U.S. think tank Friday that the United States should uphold international norms of war and peace.