Commentator Andrei Codrescu says he knew the future was back when he saw a headline in Smithsonian Magazine. In his mind he imagines a sinister-something that does everything we want for us. He has been against this faux device since he was born.

For decades, Alexis Martinez, born Arthur, had to mask her transgender identity by "being as macho as I could be." But in a visit to StoryCorps, she tells her daughter how, with her family's acceptance, she's finally been able to live as a woman full-time.

Audie Cornish and Melissa Block read emails from listeners about a fight on Mount Everest, the coming-out of NBA center Jason Collins and an app that uses ambient noises to help you sleep.

Dr. Gregory McGriff, a black doctor in a largely white community, says gaining his patients' trust requires him to spend more time and "communicate a little bit more" than his white colleagues. He says that disparity, while seeming unfair, has helped to make him a better doctor.

Frank Deford's friend "the Sports Curmudgeon" reflects on some of the things that bother him about the sports world.

Audie Cornish talks to regular political commentators E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post and Brookings Institution, and David Brooks of The New York Times. They discuss Syria, the immigration reform bill and the opening of George W. Bush's Presidential Center.

After more than a week of gruesome media coverage, linguist Geoff Nunberg takes a close look at the words we use to describe events that mesmerize and horrify, that sensitize and desensitize, that transfix and repel us at the same time.