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U.S. Marine Corps Col. Thomas Hammes discusses the Iraqi insurgency and reports about possible rifts among insurgent fighters. Hammes is an expert on guerrilla warfare and the author of The Sling and The Stone: On War in the 21st Century.

In over 30 years of traveling, writer Eric Hansen has met some odd characters. He details some of his most memorable explorations in a new book of essays called The Bird Man and the Lap Dancer.

A new study finds that smoke from massive wildfires has eroded about a quarter of the air quality gains from the last few decades.

Much of the world's cotton comes from Texas, even though it's not a particularly great place to grow the crop. Big subsidies and heavy technology and R&D spending have helped the United States dominate the global cotton trade for two centuries.

The Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal each win two Pulitzer Prizes in journalism. Steve Coll wins the non-fiction prize for Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden.

Wesley Brown graduated from the Naval Academy in 1949 — the first African American to do so. Others had tried, but were forced out by racism and even violence. Brown and author Robert J. Schneller, Jr., tell John Ydstie about efforts to integrate the Academy.

Lily Tuck's novel of 19th century Paraguay wins the National Book Award for fiction. Tuck, awarded the prize for her novel The News From Paraguay, was one of five New York women authors nominated for the fiction award. Kevin Boyle won the nonfiction prize for Arc of Justice and Jean Valentine's Door in the Mountain won in the poetry category. Hear NPR's Lynn Neary.

Simone Biles, 26, is now the only U.S. woman ever chosen for six World Championships. The star gymnast is heading back to Antwerp, where she competed in her first Worlds in 2013.

It's hard to imagine a school with no tests, no grades and no classes. But those familiar elements of education are missing at two dozen Big Picture schools in six states. Margot Adler visits one called The Met, the 10-year-old model for the schools, in Providence, R.I.

Author Richard Louv talks about his new book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. Louv argues that kids are so plugged into television and video games that they've lost their connection to the natural world.