Kristine Allington

When 22-year-old research ecologist Charlie Crisafulli arrived at Mt. St. Helens two months after the massive 1980 eruption, he discovered a lifeless, volcanic wasteland. He spent the next 30 years studying and documenting the landscape's slow recovery. In this audio slide show, Crisafulli shares some of his photos taken over three decades and talks about how life returned to the blast zone.

Produced by Jasmyn Belcher Morris for StoryCorps “It was the first case of plague in New York City in over a hundred years.” In 2002, Lucinda Marker and her husband, John Tull, came down with the bubonic plague—the same bacterial infection that killed about one-third of Europe’s population in the Middle Ages. Today, the plague is rare in the U.S., only a handful catch it each year and it’s mostly found in Southwest states—where Lucinda and John live.

Produced by Jud Esty-Kendall for StoryCorps “It’s like the Taj Mahal for rats.” In 2008, Dawn Burke and her husband, Don, decided to start The Rat Retreat—a sanctuary in their home in Boise, Idaho, where they care for mistreated, sick, or unwanted rats. “It grew very quickly, from one rat to 72,” Don said. The intensity of Dawn’s affection for rats might surprise the most passionate of animal lovers—Dawn would let one rat, Annie, clean the food out of her teeth.