Greece is still struggling to climb out of debt, but the markets have lost hope that its economy will recover. Meanwhile, the Greek people are losing patience with austerity measures that cut jobs and benefits but appear to achieve nothing. Guest host Jacki Lyden talks with NPR's Sylvia Poggioli from Athens.

The civil unrest in the Middle East has laid bare the conflicting goals of the United States and its longtime ally, Saudi Arabia. Guest host Jacki Lyden talks about the state of the U.S.-Saudi relationship with Aaron David Miller, a public policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Nearly three weeks after the Russian president joined a growing international chorus demanding Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi step down, a Russian envoy went to Tripoli to try and find a diplomatic solution to the growing crisis in the North African country. The gesture and the Libyans' receptiveness herald a renewed era of Libyan-Russian relations, but can the Russians succeed when the Libyans insist Gadhafi stay in power? NPR's Soraya Nelson reports.

With Syrian tanks and soldiers occupying towns in northern Syria, refugees pouring across the border into Turkey bring news about the growing resistance to the Assad regime. Guest host Jacki Lyden talks to NPR's Peter Kenyon, who's on the border between Syria and Turkey.

This year's U.S. Open hasn't exactly been par for the course. Instead of the big names in golf dominating the leaderboard, a couple young breakout stars have been tearing up the green. Guest host Jacki Lyden talks with Ron Sirak, senior writer at Golf Digest to preview the final day of the tournament.

Bill Haast, a pioneering snake expert, died this past week at the age of 100. He was director of the Miami Serpentarium Laboratories, where he extracted venom from the world's most poisonous snakes for use in medical research. Guest host Jacki Lyden has a remembrance.

This past week marked the fifth consecutive week of falling U.S. gas prices. Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst with the Oil Price Information Service, explains the price decline and tells us whether the downtick will be sustained this summer.

Since last fall, the Federal Reserve has been providing support for the economy through a program known as QE2, short for Quantitative Easing, Round Two. That program is coming to an end, and there are concerns about whether the economy is strong enough to get along without it. NPR's Jim Zarroli reports.

I recently looked through diaries that my father wrote as a young man in New York in the 1930s, trying to get his start in life during the Great Depression.

The man in the diaries is not the man I knew: a middle-aged father of four who commuted from the New Jersey suburbs to a job he detested in Manhattan. Instead, the 20-something Robert Fessler was eager, passionate, full of hope. He dreamed of traveling around the world, maybe getting a job as a reporter. Just out of high school, he was trying desperately to mold himself into an interesting adult.

In the decade since the release of Ang Lee's blockbuster Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Chinese filmmakers have struggled to repeat its international success.

But the Quijang Film and TV Investment Group is hoping a new project might provide perfect fodder for a Hollywood hit. The Chinese government-owned company recently invested $30 million in hopes of making a movie that would both celebrate Chinese culture and turn a tidy profit.