Connor has Prader-Willi Syndrome, an illness characterized by chronic, uncontrollable hunger. Only about 22,000 people in this country suffer from Prader-Willi, which effects numerous bodily systems from respiratory to immune, and often causes those who have it to become obese. Connor's primary caregiver is his mother Colleen, a registered nurse and mother of three adult children. Her entire life is now devoted to Connor's care, from morning nebulizer treatments to help weak lungs, to evening injections to human growth hormone to combat poor muscle tone. But she wants her son to be more than his illness. This piece was produced at the Transom Story Workshop.  

Nathan Henderson doesn't use a tractor to farm. To mow hay, till fields and harrow, he prefers riding behind of a team of Suffolk Punch draft horses. Henderson is old school, even though he's just 29, and would take the smell of horse poop over diesel any day. This piece was produced for Working Now, a collaborative online audio project. workingnow.org.

Jacob Albee was supposed to be a raptor biologist, living in a tent, studying exotic birds. Somehow, he ended up becoming a designer jeweler, making one-of-a-kind, custom pieces out of gold, precious stones and even meteorite in his Burlington, Vt. studio. But his conservationist roots are never far from the surface and are often at odds with his craft. This piece was produced for Working Now, a collaborative online audio project. workingnow.org.

Downtown Washington, D.C. is a sea of bollards. Some people love them. Others can’t stand them. Regardless of how anyone feels about this perimeter security measure meant to protect the city’s important buildings, the reality is they’re here and they’re not going anywhere. And that, of course, is by design. This piece originally aired on WAMU's Metro Connection on 3/22/13.

Adrian Kulp is a daddy blogger. After leaving a successful career as a TV executive to become a stay-at-home dad to his two toddlers, Kulp parlayed his comedy chops into a popular blog called Dad or Alive. Now he's written a book based on the blog and major movie producers have come sniffing. This piece originally aired on WAMU's Metro Connection on 6/14/13.

Washington. D.C. boasts every kind of social sport league imaginable. There are the standards — kickball, dodgeball and softball, to name a few. Then there are some non-traditional sports — competitive shuffleboard, inner tube water polo, even a game show league. Producer Lauren Ober takes us behind the scenes of the championships of one of the most popular social sports leagues in the city. This piece was originally produced for NPR and WBUR's Only A Game on 6/14/13.

What makes a happy life? Is it financial stability? Professional success? Great friends? A loving partner? For the Sclater family in Jefferson, Maryland, happiness is all about chromosomes. Or in their case, the lack of a chromosome. This piece originally aired on WAMU's Metro Connection on 5/24/13.

Chances are you’re familiar with Mary Pickersgill’s work, even if her name doesn’t ring any bells. Pickersgill was the Baltimore flagmaker responsible for creating one of America’s most enduring symbols — the Star Spangled Banner. Two hundred years after the War of 1812, the Maryland Historical Society has recreated the iconic flag with the help of a legion of dedicated volunteers and curious citizens. They’re trying to give Pickersgill the credit she is due for her role in helping save a new nation from British rule. Originally produced for WAMU's Metro Connection on 9/6/13.

We've all played dodgeball at some point in our childhood, right? And chances are, those memories of getting drilled in the face with a red rubber ball still sting. Unless you're Paniz Asgari. The 29 year-old Persian-American moonlights as somewhat of a dodgeball professional. In fact, she’s one of the best dodgeball players in the country and will be representing the U.S. in the World Dodgeball Invitational in New Zealand at the end of the month. Recently, Asgari showed reporter Lauren Ober a few of her signature moves. And talked about how her Persian upbringing helped make her a dodgeball powerhouse. This piece originally aired on WAMU's Metro Connection on 9/20/13.

Andy Warhol is probably best known for his pop art paintings of Campbell’s soup cans and celebrities. But his most personal and intimate work was never exhibited until well after his death. Warhol’s serial work, Time Capsules, is comprised of more than 600 boxes filled with the ephemera of his life: postcards, phone messages and newspaper clippings. The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, which houses the work, has been steadily opening the boxes and cataloguing their contents for the past six years. And now they’re almost finished. This piece was originally broadcast Nov. 2, 2013, on NPR's Weekend Edition.

Not that many people go to North Korea on a lark. In the winter. But that’s what a pair of young American rappers is about to do. They’re heading to Pyongyang to shoot a music video, with tourist visas in hand. Reporter Lauren Ober has the story. This was originally produced for PRI's The World on Nov. 15, 2013.

Some people are not meant to stay on the ground, weighted down by gravity. Aaron “Wheelz” Fotheringham is one of those people. He’s used a wheelchair since he was a kid and he wouldn’t have it any other way. How else would he be able to perform tricks like double backflips that break the laws of physics? And challenge the notion of just what disability means? Originally produced for Only A Game on January 18, 2014.

The Capitol Riverfront in Southeast D.C. is one of the District’s newest neighborhoods. It’s got condos and offices and restaurants galore. Plus, there are award-winning public parks and tons of transportation options. Oh, and the city’s baseball team makes its home there. But the neighborhood’s not finished yet. By 2017, Capitol Riverfront will be only half built out. Reporter Lauren Ober visits the neighborhood to see how it’s growing. Originally aired on WAMU's Metro Connection on Jan. 24, 2014.

Currently in Maryland, transgender people can be fired from their jobs, denied housing and prohibited from entering movie theaters, restaurants and other public accommodations because of their gender identity. But a bill working its way through the Maryland State Senate hopes to address that. Originally aired on WAMU's Metro Connection, Feb. 21, 2014.

Anne Abernathy is a woman who’s been defying the odds her whole life. After graduating from college, Abernathy became a professional singer and performed all over the country. Then she got into the sport of luge and qualified for a record six Olympics...after beating cancer. Now, when many people her age are thinking about retirement, Abernathy is taking on a new challenge. This story originally aired on Only A Game on April 5, 2014.

For the past few years, the Washington Redskins have been embroiled in battle after battle over its team name. Lots of people object to the name on the grounds that it's a racist epithet from a bygone era. But before engaging in the debate, it helps to understand the origin of the word "redskin" and how it came to be seen as offensive. Many claim that the word harkens back to the days when Indians were scalped for bounties, but as Lauren Ober reports, the word's genesis might come as a surprise. Originally aired on WAMU's Metro Connection, April 11, 2014.

Tonya Pointer leads a pretty normal life. But almost 20 years ago, Pointer's life was anything but. Pointer, who also goes by Nonchalant, was one of the most successful rappers to come out of the D.C. hip hop scene. In 1996, Nonchalant scored a Billboard hit with her record, "5 O'Clock" — a response to the District's crack epidemic. But after winning the respect of influential DJs, notching airplay all over the country and touring the world multiple times, Nonchalant's career fell flat. Lauren Ober finds out what this D.C. legend is up to now.

Sherell McGee never had a stable home. A product of the D.C. foster care system, McGee was until recently living with two of her four children at her adopted mother's house. But then her mother died suddenly, leaving McGee and her kids with nowhere to live. That was almost six months ago. Today, McGee and her kids live at D.C. General — the District's tumbledown city hospital turned shelter — but this mother is determined to move her family into an apartment of their own. Though without a way to support herself and her children, it's an uphill battle. Lauren Ober reports on one family's day-to-day struggle to move beyond the barren and inhospitable D.C. General.

For the uninitiated, navigating the streets of Washington D.C. can be an exasperating exercise. Sure, it's a grid, but why are there four different M Streets or four different 5th Streets? If the roads are based on the letters of the alphabet, why is there no J Street? Or X, Y, and Z Streets, for that matter? And what's with the traffic circles? Listen as D.C. native and longtime cab driver Eartha Clark explains her tricks for getting around from A to... well, W.

As the longest continuously operating hotel in Washington D.C., The Mayflower on Connecticut Avenue Northwest has played host to Washington’s political elite going back to 1925. And where politicians congregate, misbehavior often follows. The Mayflower has served as the backdrop to several political sex scandals in its time, housing President John F. Kennedy’s alleged mistress, lodging former White House intern Monica Lewinsky before the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton, and working as a meeting place for New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer in his reported liaison with a $1,000-an-hour prostitute. Head Doorman Frank Agbro has seen just about everything in his 21 years at The Mayflower. As such, it’s his job to be discreet, but he makes an exception here to share the story — in 97 seconds — of a mayoral staffer whose nefarious endeavors at the hotel went, well, out the window. Give his story a listen:

As the nation's capital, D.C. is home to scores of folks whose names and faces are known throughout the world. Among the elementary school set, however, there may be no bigger celebrity than the giant panda Bao Bao, born to mother Mei Xiang in the Smithsonian's National Zoo in 2013. In her short life, Bao Bao has been filmed, photographed and feted just as much as, if not more than, celebrity human babies like North West or Blue Ivy. But can anyone — even an adorable baby bear — live up to that amount of hype? Listen as a discerning group of grade schoolers offer their impressions on Bao Bao's overall cuteness levels, suitability as a possible pet and, yes, even her bodily functions:

The Washington region is jam-packed with museum of all kinds, but not all of them have Smithsonian in the title. And not all of them are on the National Mall. The Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum in Old Town Alexandria is one of those off-the-beaten path collections. It is a fully preserved 19th Century pharmacy with all the weird drugs and implements you'd expect to be used back then. There are drawers of Job's tears, bins of unicorn root and bottles of something called meat juice, used for customers with anemia. This piece originally aired on WAMU's Metro Connection on Nov. 7, 2014.

Just across the street from the U.S. Capitol, there's a treasure trove of information – the Library of Congress. The library’s holdings include a Gutenberg Bible, Thomas Jefferson’s personal library and just about every book published in the U.S. — 158 million items total. Among them is also a little-known assemblage of materials called the Delta Collection. This collection, previously held under lock and key, features the Library's stash of erotica, pornography and other materials meant to, or at least thought to, titillate. Reporter Lauren Ober visits with the Library's chief of rare books to talk about the origins of this steamy collection and how it's changed over the years. This piece originally aired on WAMU's Metro Connection on July 18, 2014.

In the past decade, the D.C. has lost 50 percent of its low-cost rental housing stock to condo conversions and “luxury” renovations, according to the DC Fiscal Policy Institute. Landlords either buy out low-income tenants through voluntary agreements, or jack the rent up so high that residents have to move elsewhere. But while many low-income tenants choose to leave, some stay and fight the incursion. Lauren Ober takes a look at one group of residents battling against what they see as an effort to push them out. This piece originally aired on WAMU's Metro Connection on Sept. 12, 2014.