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Hank Stuever wanted to write about Christmas in America with a capital "A." Tinsel is the story of his journey to Frisco, Texas, where the lights are brighter, the Christmas trees are taller, and the reindeer are faster.

World Cafe features daily interviews and live in-studio performances from seasoned music veterans and new sensations, in genres ranging from rock to blues to folk to alternative country and beyond. From NPR station WXPN, host David Dye chooses his favorite albums of 2006.

Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are ramping up their campaigns across Texas and Ohio ahead of the states' March 4 Democratic primaries. But voters are focused on very different issues in the two states.

Research explores the consequences of boosting self-esteem when it is not justified. When self-esteem is artificially boosted, it reduces performance and effort — as people seek to protect the fragile gain in self-esteem by withdrawing from effort and the risk of failure. When self-esteem is diminished without justification, people appear to work harder to retrieve lost feelings of self-worth.

The All Songs Considered host's list includes many records that felt particularly appropriate for such a turbulent year.

Reports vary as to whether al-Shabab's Zakariye Ismail Ahmed Hersi turned himself in or was captured in a raid. The U.S. had placed a $3 million bounty on the leading Islamist extremist.

As the not-guilty verdict set in, protesters took to the streets and thinkers asked the big questions.

Peter Carey and Rachel Kushner are among those who are withdrawing in protest from the PEN American Center's annual gala. Kushner says she is uncomfortable with Charlie Hebdo's "cultural intolerance."

Also: Enrollment opens in the new health care exchanges; Israel's prime minister will warn the U.N. against Iran's nuclear program; U.S. diplomats are expelled from Venezuela; and British police nab a thief by spraying him with a liquid that glows green in ultraviolet light.

In terms of pop hits, the shadow of 2013 fell over most of 2014. But for NPR Music's Stephen Thompson, there were plenty of winners this year as well.