The Story on WUNC

Even as they are mourning the dead from the massive explosion in a fertilizer plant in West, residents are returning to their homes.

In the latest edition of The Story, host Dick Gordon speaks with people as they are still making sense of the disaster, including Nita Gerik, a longtime resident and widow of the fire chief, and her son Jim Gerik, who traveled from Dallas to oversee donations for the community.

As news of the Boston Marathon bombings emerged, people at the scene took pictures, tweeted and shared police wanted posters on their phones.

On this edition of The Story, guest host Sean Cole sits down with Brooke Gladstone, host of NPR's On the Media, to figure out what people got right and what they got wrong. She says it’s normal for people to want to know everything right away, but that stories have to be in context and checked out.

Take a pianist, his Baldwin upright piano and a van, and you have Dotan Negrin and his musical quest.

On this edition of The Story, host Dick Gordon tracks him down in front of the Alamo, where he dragged his piano into the public square to play. Dotan is traveling and playing music in New York City, New Orleans, San Antonio, and all the way through Central America to Panama.

As the economy has collapsed in North Korea, a new emerging market economy has begun to germinate. This will likely be more powerful than politics in terms of change. Young North Koreans know about – and at times gets their hands on – illegal cell phones, and that opens up information.

On this edition of The Story, host Dick Gordon speaks with Sokeel Park of the U.S.-based NGO Liberty in North Korea about this and the slowdown of people escaping North Korea as security has tightened in the past year or so.

On this edition of The Story, host Dick Gordon speaks with longtime Boston Marathon announcer and runner Kathrine Switzer.

She was covering the event on Monday and witnessed the explosions. She says the event may have been targeted because it is a symbol of freedom.

"This has gutted me," she tells him.

So easy to get, so hard to pay off.

With the national average for student debt hovering around $23,000, a group of activists is purchasing student debt from collectors and simply "forgiving it." The group, known as Rolling Jubilee, call their movement "a bailout of the people by the people." 

On The Story, host Dick Gordon speaks with Rolling Jubilee member Christopher Cassucio, who owes more than $100,000 in student loan debt.

The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky almost caused a riot when it was first seen 100 years ago. The music, the choreography was so unusual and dissonant that the audience rebelled. There was laughter and fistfights. Today it has become a classic piece and is being celebrated on its centenary- yet eyebrows can still be raised when a puppeteer stages The Rite of Spring. Basil Twist and Dick Gordon speak on the day of a new world premiere.

Ten years ago today, the massive statute of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad was toppled, and there was a feeling that a new country was ready to rise. The past decade has seen continuous war and violence: at first there were U.S. troops and now there are constant bombings and attacks between factions.

Host Dick Gordon covered the days after the U.S. invasion with his translator Ahmed Fadaam. They recall the destruction, and we hear reports from that time. Then, they call back to Iraq and talk to two Iraqis about life there now.