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Insurgent candidate Herman Cain suspended his campaign on Saturday. As Cain has fallen back, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has emerged as the leading alternative to one-time presumptive front-runner Mitt Romney. NPR's Mara Liasson talks with host Audie Cornish about the changing political climate.

Military chaplains, most of whom are Protestant Christians, are assigned many secular advising duties, including marriage, family and suicide counseling. But as many as 40,000 U.S. military service members identify as atheists, agnostics or humanists, and a retired Army captain is leading the charge to instate military chaplains who share their beliefs.

The first stethoscope, invented by the French physician René Laennec, was simply a hollow wooden or ebony tube. Laennec named the device using the Greek roots stethos, or chest, and skopein, to look at or to observe. Medical historian Howard Markel discusses how Laennec came up with the invention. Unlike the stethoscope familiar to patients today, the original device was a simple tube.

Using years of crime statistics, the department's computer churns out maps with small highlighted areas where it predicts a crime will occur. Police hope that the technique helps reduce crime, but there are concerns over how the data will be used.

In his book The Unconquered, journalist Scott Wallace goes deep into the Amazon rain forest to learn about a group that has never come into contact with modern civilization.

Many former members of Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party are running for parliament, creating stiff competition for newcomers seeking office across Egypt and prompting cries for the interim Egyptian government to ban their candidacy. The military rulers had said they would pass a so-called "treachery law" preventing their candidacy, but have not acted thus far. NPR's Soraya Nelson reports.

A new name burst onto the top rungs of British pop charts this year with a song called, "My Heart." Well, maybe not a new name; it's actually one of the most famous names in musical history. Host Scott Simon speaks with screen legend Doris Day about her new album.

It's hard not to look at Black Friday shoppers and see some kind of crass, mindless mob. Scott Simon thinks something else may be at work to explain the swarms at midnight sales and the intensity of bargain hunting.

Wayman Tisdale was that rare human being: a great athlete who had a great second act. The former pro basketball player became a jazz bassist, yet his life ended in tragedy at the age of 44. Host Scott Simon Speaks with Brian Schodorf about his new documentary The Wayman Tisdale Story.

Many community colleges let students pick and choose classes, but those who sign up at a Tennessee Technology Center have their schedules decided for them. The centers work closely with advisers from local businesses to keep their programs in sync with economic reality — one reason why around 8 in 10 students finish and get a job in their field.