About 300 Americans a year give a kidney to a complete stranger. Researchers have studied the brains of these very generous people, and say they may feel others' pain more than the average person. (This story first aired on All Things Considered on November 28, 2024.)

NPR staff recommend memoirs from our annual Books We Love list: "Bird of Four Hundred Voices," "The Backyard Bird Chronicles," "Knife," and "Here After."

NPR's Scott Simon talks with Adrien Brody about his new film, "The Brutalist." The Oscar-winner plays an architect and Holocaust survivor striving to fulfill his artistic vision in America.

We explore the history of the bells that have become so tied with the Christmas season: jingle bells.

For NPR's series "Picture This," illustrator Carson Ellis talks about working with author Susan Cooper to make Cooper's poem "Shortest Day" into a children's book. (This story first aired on Weekend Edition Saturday on December 16, 2023.)

The Food and Drug Administration has told food manufacturers the psychoactive mushroom Amanita muscaria isn't authorized for food, including edibles, because it doesn't meet safety standards.

Gypsy has been called the best musical of all time. Audra McDonald is starring in a new Broadway revival, and the race-conscious casting gives the production a new frame.

A Christmas tree farm in the Smoky Mountains tries to bring "joy to the world" each season.

Ayesha Rascoe talks with British singer-songwriter Cat Burns about young adulthood and her debut album, "early twenties."

The Great Circle is all Indy, no Harrison. Iconic video game actor Troy Baker discusses how he reinterpreted the role.