Right after she graduated from high school in 2001, Jess Goodell enlisted in the Marine Corps as a mechanic. She was stationed in Okinawa, Japan — but she wanted to go to Iraq. "I felt a pressure both from my peers and from within that in order to be a real marine, I needed to go to Iraq," Goodell tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross.

Syria Update

This season, many students are putting the traditional summer internships on their agendas. Many see internships as an opportunity to get a foot in the door and to jumpstart careers. But recently, there has been much criticism that this training time might be exploitive. Host Michel Martin speaks with career expert and author Lindsey Pollack about what to look out for when selecting an internship and how to make the most of the experience.

As part of LGBT Pride month, Tell Me More's guests and friends who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender are sharing stories of coming out to those closest to them. Today's installment is from Mary Buckheit, a journalist from San Diego.

In this week's parenting conversation, host Michel Martin looks at the debate over the growing number of doctors — mostly women — who work part-time or stop practicing medicine after earning their degrees. Martin speaks with Dr. Karen Sibert, an anesthesiologist and a mom, who recently wrote an op-ed arguing that doctors should prioritize medicine once they have their degrees; Dr. Michelle Au, author of This Won't Hurt a Bit (And Other White Lies): My Education in Medicine and Motherhood; Medical journalist Dr. Randi Hutter Epstein; and Dr.

Two different bloggers claiming to be lesbians have been recently outed as straight men. Host Michel Martin and Sherry Turkle, Professor of Social Science and Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology, explore what motivates someone to adopt a new persona on the Internet, one that may be radically different from his or her everyday life.

Ethnic killings and mass displacement of people are threatening to break the fragile peace agreement between the North and South in Sudan. Just three weeks before the South formally secedes from the North, violence in two border regions have raised fears about the outbreak of another bloody conflict in Sudan. Host Michel Martin speaks with Ambassador Princeton Lyman, U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, about the recent outbreak of violence in the regions of Abyei and Kordofan and America's role in resolving the conflicts.

The U.S., the African Union and the United Nations are struggling to stop the violence in two border regions between North and South Sudan as mass killings and unrest are raising fears of another humanitarian crisis. Just three weeks before southern Sudan officially secedes from the North, some residents have been fleeing their homes by the thousands. To learn more about the unrest in Sudan, host Michel Martin speaks with

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke on the Senate floor this morning. He began his remarks with an update to his colleagues on the three miners who spent yesterday trapped in a Bell County coal mine due to rising flood waters. “Yesterday I came to the floor to report that there were several miners in Kentucky trapped in a mine as a result of floods,” he said. “I want to start today with an update on that situation. I’m happy to report that all three were rescued after spending 14 hours trapped in a Bell County coal mine. They were all reunited with their families last night, which is great news.  Their families were waiting for them at the West Cumberland Baptist Church. We’re certainly glad that this particular story had a happy ending.”

After a recent trip to tornado-stricken Alabama to deliver supplies, a Hardin County mission group is planning to return. The group from New Horizon Baptist Church in Glendale took a tractor trailer full of food, housewares, bed linens, water and a variety of other needed supplies to Webster’s Chapel, Ala., and saw first hand the devastation the recent outbreak of tornadoes had on the area. The group will return to the area because of how many people are still without homes.