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President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner both made their opening bids Friday on how to deal with tax, spending and debt problems. Their proposals sound strikingly familiar, but Obama says this time he has proof the majority of Americans agree with his approach to taxes.

Spc. Justin Cliburn was in his 20s when he trained Iraqi police in Baghdad. During his deployment, he made friends with a teenager that he says "made every day something I looked forward to." But even their friendship could not escape a violent reality.

Serena Frome is more bookworm than spy, but her bosses at MI5 have the perfect mission for her: to cultivate and fund British writers whose politics align with those of the government.

Host Scott Simon talks with New York Times op-ed columnist Joe Nocera about the efforts to overhaul America's tax system and prospects for reaching a compromise before the end of the year, when automatic tax hikes and spending cuts are set to go into effect.

The famed neurologist talks to Fresh Air about how grief, trauma, brain injury, medications and neurological disorders can trigger hallucinations. John Schwartz and Jeanne Mixon talk about coming to terms with their son's sexual orientation and his suicide attempt in their memoir, Oddly Normal.

Host Scott Simon talks with John Podesta about the transition from the first Obama administration to the next. Podesta served as co-chair of President Obama's 2008 transition team. Podesta, who currently chairs the Center for American Progress, says first terms always emphasize big building blocks of legislation, whereas second terms focus on implementing good management.

The term "congressional gridlock" suggests that people in Congress at least run into each other. But I've begun to think a more critical problem might be that politicians of opposing parties are almost strangers to one another.

In her latest novel for young adults, Jepp Who Defied the Stars, author Katherine Marsh tells the coming-of-age story of a young royal court dwarf who decides to steal his fate back from the stars and instead write his own future.

Bobby McDonald's wife, a nursing student who works at a hospital, fell asleep after a long shift. McDonald thought he had a good shot at winning a seat on the Walton, Ky., city council, so he didn't wake her up to vote.

Now considered one of Verdi's masterpieces, the opera flopped on its first run and carries the stigma of cursing those who perform it to terrible fates.