Boston Calling

Two journalists set off on a quest to hand deliver a letter to a grandmother in Puerto Rico from her family on the mainland of the United States. Also: we learn why Che Guevara is being honoured on a postage stamp in Ireland; we admire the art of Martin Ramirez which has been featured on postage stamps in the US; plus we read one of the most timeless job application letters in history, sent by a copywriter, Robert Pirosh, to studio directors in Hollywood, in 1934. (Image: Janet Franceschini Colon (left), Jennifer Santos Franceschini (middle), Jenelyn Santos (right) and Jennifer's two daughters are pictured. Credit: PRI’s The World)

“There is no statute of limitations on the truth.” Vince Pankoke, a former FBI agent, has launched a probe into who betrayed Anne Frank. Also: we investigate why American diplomats in Cuba have mysteriously fallen ill; we learn the backstory of the two women accused of assassinating Kim Jong-nam; we meet the disgraced real-life French diplomat who inspired the play, “M. Butterfly,’’ plus we find out why talks between North Korea and South Korea may hinge on a group of twelve singing waitresses. (Image: Anne Frank's facsimile diaries on display in the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam on November 1, 2009. Credit: Ade Johnson/AFP/Getty Images)

Tereza Lee, the woman sometimes referred to as the first “Dreamer,” has been fighting for immigrant rights for nearly two decades. Also: the turbulent history of the US Virgin Islands; a remembrance for a little-known Soviet colonel who probably averted a nuclear war; a look at how Tiki bars inspired Star Wars creator George Lucas; a progress report on a project to digitize the notebooks of Harvard’s female astronomers; plus a folk song dedicated to a modern hero: the street cart vendor. (Image: Protestors gathered at the US Capitol on September 26, 2017 in Washington, DC. Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Marco Werman climbs aboard the largest passenger ship ever to sail through the Northwest Passage. Also: we speak to residents of the Arctic with mixed feelings about cruise ships sailing past their towns; we meet climate change scientists risking their lives to gather data in the field; we visit a marshland that's worth millions of dollars; we spend the day with teens saving songbirds in Washington, DC; and we learn how American climate change policies have changed this past year. (Image:The Crystal Serenity docked at the Boston cruise terminal near the end of its 32-day Northwest Passage journey. Credit: PRI’s The World)

What impact did Russian internet “trolls’’ have on the 2016 US presidential election? Also: we hear about wealthy Russians coming to America to give birth to US citizens; we learn why the poet Langston Hughes went to the USSR to work on a Soviet propaganda film in 1930s; we visit a Korean-Uzbek-Russian cafe in New York; we meet two science fiction writers who advise the US government on the future of warfare; and we find out why Tchaikovsky's concerto No. 1 had its world premiere in Boston. (Image:The Kremlin stands in Red Square in Moscow on March 7, 2017 in Moscow, Russia. Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

President Trump is scrapping a programme that protects hundreds of thousands of young unauthorised immigrants. We hear two different perspectives on this decision. Plus; we meet an immigrant from Northern Ireland whose troubled past is haunting his future; we learn why some evangelical Christians are speaking out against the President; we find out about a proposal from Canadian Senator Ratna Omidvar for Canada to open its doors to DACA recipients; plus we visit Quebec where immigrants fearing Trump are pouring in. (Image: Julio Ramos is a medical school student and a DACA recipient in New York City. Credit: Reynaldo Leanos Jr.)

M.J. Khan, the president of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston, who spent a sleepless night monitoring relief efforts, tells us what Houston’s residents are doing to help each other. Also: experts weigh in on how Houston can plan for future flooding events; a brewer in Amsterdam turns rain into beer; an activist vows to keep the Marshall Islands from disappearing beneath rising seas; we learn if climate change is behind extreme hurricanes; plus a port city in Maine revitalizes its economy by shipping pregnant cows to Turkey . (Image: A flooded road is seen during the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey on August 30, 2017 in Houston, Texas. Credit: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)

Bashar al-Assad seems to have a fan base in the United States. White supremacists and neo-nazis have worn pro-Assad T-shirts at rallies, while others have shown their support for the Syrian president on social media. Also, white supremacists wear t-shirts emblazoned with a picture of a notorious Romanian fascist; and if you're in Turkey, leave your 'HERO' T-shirts at home; plus, if you lived in East Germany during the Cold War, it may have been verboten to wear a Frank Zappa T-shirt, but somehow his music made it in. (Image: A photo taken on March 4, 2015 shows a banner bearing a portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a street in the city of Damascus. (Credit: LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images)

On Monday, a total solar eclipse will cross 14 states from Oregon to South Carolina. We find out people all across the country are preparing. Also: we meet an eclipse chaser traveling to the US from Australia; we speak to a cloistered nun who has been getting calls from concerned Catholics worried about the end of times; we learn what solar eclipses have revealed to us about our universe throughout the ages; plus how a new technology can help blind people experience the coming eclipse as well. (Image: Solar Eclipse related items are offered for sale in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Hopkinsville is located near the point of greatest totality for the August 21 eclipse. Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Maytag built washing machines in Newton, Iowa, for more than a century. The company left in 2007, and the town collapsed. Now, it's rising again. Also: why are people from Australia selling houses in Detroit; what the closure of a coal fired power plant will mean for one Navajo family; Montreal welcomes refugees coming from the US; will a new Canadian pipeline be the next Standing Rock; plus we remember Haruo Nakajima, the man inside the original Godzilla suit. (Image: Frank Liebl, executive director of the Newton Development Corporation, is pictured in front of the old Maytag headquarters. Credit: Jason Margolis)

Two teenage reporters, Teddy Fischer and Jane Gormley, interview the US Secretary of Defence. Also: an unauthorized immigrant dreams of white picket fences; a Mexican street cart vendor in Los Angeles becomes an overnight celebrity; oil brings wealth and trouble to a small town in North Dakota; Laleh Khadivi’s latest novel is about a surfer-dude turned jihadi; plus we meet a man who listens to trees. (Image: U.S. Secretary of Defence James Mattis listens to a reporter’s questions at the Pentagon on July 7, 2017 in Arlington, Virginia. Credit: Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images)

Until recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin was deeply suspicious of the world wide web. What changed his mind? Also: the curious parallels between love and quantum physics; the Native American tribe that invented lacrosse gets nation status in the sport’s World Cup; fans of 'The Bachelorette' react when the reality TV show features a Sikh convert; two immigrant entrepreneurs create virtual reunions; and the Colombian rock star Juanes just wants to make his world better. (Image: Russian President Vladimir Putin uses binoculars as he visits an air show outside Moscow on July 18, 2017. Credit: Alexey Nikolsky/Getty Images)

In 1878, scientists all over the US witnessed a total eclipse of the sun. After that, American science was never quite the same. Also: Sona Hosseini learns that being an astronomist….can be depressing; photographer Joel Sartore goes on a quest to take pictures of endangered animals before they disappear; why the American TV drama Twin Peaks took off in Russia; and we remember director George Romero who changed how we think about zombies. (Image: A total solar eclipse is seen in Indonesia on March 9, 2016. Credit: Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)

David Eubank, an American relief worker, decides to bring his whole family with him to Mosul. Also: Choi Seong-guk, a North Korean refugee, draws a popular online comic strip series about his defection; presenter Marco Werman joins the US Coast Guard on patrol; scientist Milo Nordyke remembers a time when the US government tried to use a nuclear bomb as a bulldozer; and Mexican-American musician Lila Downs dedicates her latest album to “dangerous’’ women. (Image: Smoke plumes billow in Mosul on July 10, 2017. Credit: Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images)

Russia, it turns out, accidentally helped the US win its independence. Also: we meet two sisters who will go to the Olympics together but on competing teams; we remember when North and South Korea teamed up to beat China at table tennis; we go a few rounds with a boxer who’s inspiring young women in Jordan; we learn why an all-girl robotics team from Afghanistan is going to be competing virtually in a US competition; and we get the backstory to a popular baseball podcast hosted by three fans of the sport who also happen to be blind. (Image: People watch fireworks as they celebrate US Independence Day on July 4, 2017 in Washington, DC. Credit: Brendan Smialowski/Getty

Five months after Jewish graves were vandalised in St. Louis, questions remain. Also: a resolution condemning racism causes chaos at the Southern Baptist Convention; why refugees from Myanmar draw inspiration from the action movie, Rambo; the story of a murder that got manipulated to serve more than one political agenda; why a hate crime survivor tried to save the life of his attacker; plus Renee Goust has something to say to people who thinks she’s a “feminazi” and it comes in the form of a song. (Image: Karen Aroesty is the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League. Credit: Daniel A. Gross)

“People are absolutely losing it. Some they go to their work. Some they pluck them right out of bed from their families." Why Iraqis in the US are getting sent back to Iraq; what it means for one immigrant to get to stay; the fight for paid leave for victims of domestic violence in Canada; a Ukrainian physicist who always tries to keep politics and science separate fails yet again; and the two comedians who started ArmComedy, their country’s first satirical news programme, explain what Armenians find funny. (Photo: An Iraqi owned restaurant in Detroit. Credit: Shirin Jaafari)

Sam Heller, an expert on Syria, thinks that the US should evacuate the country’s residents. Also: a physicist who always dreamed of working in the US says it’s no longer the ‘global centre of science’; we revisit Orlando, Florida, one year after the Pulse nightclub shooting; a grandmother from Queens, New York, shares a shocking personal secret; and an orchestra conductor turns the fence on the US-Mexico border into a musical instrument. (Image: Idleb is a city in north western Syria. Credit: Omar Haj Kadour/Getty Images)

Trump still uses his personal mobile phone. Security experts are baffled. Also: A lack of immigrant labour in the US has some farmers planning for robots to pick produce; a Dutch teenager came up with a plan to clean up the world’s oceans and now he’s got funding for it, but at least one expert does not think it will work; fake turtle eggs get fitted with GPS trackers to catch poachers; plus we meet a Yoruba priest who also makes hypnotic electronic music. (Image: Donald Trump speaks on his mobile phone in in Potomac Falls, Virginia, U.S., on Thursday, April 30, 2009. Credit: Mannie Garcia/ Getty Images)

Citizen journalists try to figure out what’s going on in those videos of the Turkish president’s bodyguards clashing with protesters in Washington, DC. Also: female war veterans tell their stories through comics; Kathy Eldon, the mother of slain photographer Dan Eldon, turns his life into a film; we visit an exhibit of the photos of Henryk Ross, official photographer of the Lodz ghetto; we learn about Stanley Greene, the African-American war photographer celebrated in Europe. Plus, Lilly Singh, an internet star, says she’s ready for her close up. (Image: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Washington, D.C on Monday, May 16, 2017. Credit: Cheriss May/Getty Images)