Brian Dwyer owns the world's largest collection of pizza-related items. He plans to display some of his memorabilia, including pizza-themed music records, in a new museum-restaurant in Philadelphia.
Credit Kimberly Paynter for NPR
Dwyer branded himself with a tattoo of himself holding a slice.
Many foods have their own dedicated museums — like burnt food and mustard — so why not pizza? That's what Brian Dwyer, the owner of the world's largest collection of pizza memorabilia, has wondered for a long time.
The famous Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is also a prominent dissident in his home country. His political side is the focus of Alison Klayman's documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry.
Credit Larry Busacca / Getty Images
Alison Klayman at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. For Ai Weiwei, her first film, Klayman got incredible access to the artist both abroad and in China.
Ford Motor Co. intends to prove that good things come in small packages — really small packages. The company has taken engine downsizing to a new level with its new three-cylinder EcoBoost engine, which has been introduced in Europe and is set to hit the U.S. market next year.
The EcoBoost offers more power than many conventional four-cylinder engines, with fuel economy numbers a hybrid could envy. Early fans are calling it a modern "little engine that could," and Ford is betting that American customers are ready to embrace a three-cylinder engine.
President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney have been trading attacks over the issue of American jobs being moved overseas.
The president has pounded Romney for the investments made by his former firm Bain Capital in the 1990s. Not to be outdone, the Romney campaign has suggested most of the money from the president's stimulus program went to create jobs overseas.
The HIV epidemic among African-Americans is getting deserved new attention at the 19th International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C. And the news isn't all bad.
New data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that black high school students are engaging in risky sexual behavior far less often than they were 20 years ago.
Since black teens are the future of the epidemic for the hardest-hit ethnic group, this is encouraging.
If the stakes could not be bigger, why are the presidential candidates running such insubstantial campaigns?
On any given day, it seems like the debate is about whether President Obama thinks entrepreneurs built their own businesses or what year Mitt Romney gave up control of Bain Capital — instead of big solutions to fundamental problems like economic growth, energy or immigration.
Mark Thomas is using a pay phone, but he isn't paying. And physically, he's not even that close to the phone.
He's sitting on a bench on the street in Astoria, Queens, checking email on his netbook. It's grabbing an Internet signal from a military-grade antenna on top of a pay phone down the block.
"It's not the speediest but you can't complain about free, right?" Thomas says.
As thousands gather in Washington, D.C., for the International AIDS Conference, the city is battling disturbing levels of HIV/AIDS, particularly in the black community.
According to the D.C. Department of Health, 4.3 percent of the black population in the city is living with the disease, and some advocates argue that black churches should be doing more to fight it.
African migrants fired from Italian factories in the north have joined the swelling ranks of people searching for agriculture work in the south. Originally from Burkina Faso, Karim Suruku (right) is a migrant worker in Calabria in southern Italy. At left is Amidou Denamidou.
Credit Sylvia Poggioli / NPR
Men on cots wait for farm work near Calabria. Poor living conditions for migrant workers, sometimes without running water or toilet facilities, has led the Italian government to set up tents for them.
Credit Sylvia Poggioli / NPR
With its vast citrus groves, Calabria is a major stop for migratory workers in the country.
Italy recently approved a decree that would grant work and residence permits to migrants who blow the whistle on bosses who exploit them in the economy illegally.
But in places like the southern region of Calabria, the law has little chance of being applied at a time when the economic crisis increasingly fosters an illegal, underground economy.
The main activity in Calabria is agriculture. Thanks to vast citrus fields, it's one of the major stops for migratory workers, mostly Africans without legal documents.
A sign for Interstate 81 sits under an overpass in Syracuse, N.Y. City officials and residents are debating what to do about an aging stretch of the highway that cuts through the city.
Credit Zack Seward for NPR
Hazel Miller's home is located about 100 feet from I-81. She moved into the Pioneer Homes, a low-rise public housing project, 40 years ago, when houses were still being ripped down to make room for the highway.
Credit Zack Seward for NPR
Bill Egloff, I-81 project manager for the New York State Department of Transportation, and Meghan Vitale of the Syracuse Metropolitan Transportation Council stand underneath the I-81 viaduct in Syracuse, N.Y.
Interstate 81 runs through the heart of Syracuse, N.Y., where a 1.4-mile-long elevated stretch of the highway is known locally as "the viaduct." Like many road projects built in the middle of the last century, I-81 is bumping up against the end of its life span. While officials say it's still safe to drive on, the highway is crumbling in parts.