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President Obama's campaign recently urged supporters to stock up on 2012 merchandise for the holidays. Not to be outdone, the Republican White House candidates are hawking their own ballcaps and bumper stickers. Here, an NPR guide to campaign swag.

In Afghanistan, a media boom followed the ouster of the Taliban in 2001, but it hasn't been without problems. Watchdog groups report hundreds of cases of violence and intimidation against journalists, including murder. Afghan reporters have learned which topics are off limits, and they take great care to avoid offending the country's most powerful personalities.

On this Black Friday, Linda Wertheimer talks to branding expert Martin Lindstrom about the psychology of sales and the array of techniques retailers use to get people to shop.

This week in New York Magazine, two writers from different political parties each critiqued their own side. On Thursday, we heard from conservative David Frum, who argues Republicans lost touch with reality. In the same issue, liberal writer Jonathan Chait also uses the word "fantasy" in describing liberals. He tells Steve Inskeep liberals have become unreasonable.

China's "one-child" policy has repressed and stabilized the number of births, but the market for baby products has exploded. The growth is driven by rising incomes and the intense focus on the single child with interesting twists. For instance, baby formula sales have gone way up because people are now spending more money on foreign formula products because they no longer trust Chinese companies after the melamine poisoning of several years ago.

Guy Raz talks with weekly commentators, E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post and the Brookings Institution and David Brooks of The New York Times, about the tough spot Congress is in, observations on the political divide, economic mobility and disagreement over core values.

Guy Raz speaks with Samer Shehata, professor of Arab politics at Georgetown University, about how anger with Egypt's military rulers has prompted more protests, and how elections planned to begin next week may not be enough to quell the unrest.

New findings in the science of charity reveals some counter-intuitive results. For instance, people will give more money to a single suffering person than to a population of suffering people, and also give more when some type of physical discomfort — for example, running a marathon — is involved.

When the euro was rolled out nearly a decade ago, it was touted as a unifying force across European cultures. Uwe Boek, a 48-year-old Berliner, has seen and embraced these changes: "It's us being Europeans in the European Union. Because the euro is money but the European Union is about identity."

There was a time when Greeks were proud of being Greek, of being a people known for dancing, being happy without material wealth, enjoying life. Now, Greeks are known for being deeply in debt, accused by some of living the high life on other people's money, of dragging Europe's economy to the brink of disaster.