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Coffee beans are filled with oils that emerge from coffee grounds under high pressure. These oils form the crema - "the frothy stuff" on top of an espresso. In the last installment of Science Friday's series on coffee, food-science writer Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking, explains the chemistry of crema.

Your inbox overflows with spam, so what else is new? But have you ever wondered how junk email got its name? And where all of it comes from? Finn Burton, author of Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet describes the spam business, how it's become a criminal enterprise and how you can protect yourself online.

Historian Rick Atkinson's new book completes his trilogy on the second world war. He tells NPR's Steve Inskeep that the events of the war may be 70 years in the past, but they're still very much a part of American culture.

All the news we couldn't fit anywhere else.

All the news we couldn't fit anywhere else.

NPR's Philip Reeves recently visited the earthquake-battered cathedral in New Zealand built by a 19th-century ancestor. He found his family history entwined in a fierce contemporary controversy.

Human relationships are entanglements, and those connections often aren't clear to us at all. When Maria Bamford impersonated her mom, she realized what she loved about her — and about herself.

Youree Dell Harris became a cult celebrity as the face of a psychic hotline — saying "Call me now" in her distinctive, dubious patois. The role meant fame, but also a lifelong association with fraud.

The president said Democrats have "ceded too much territory" to Republicans in local races. Obama sees his role after leaving office as helping a new generation "rise up."

The Exxon Mobil CEO had, at times, a shaky hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday. He's still expected to win confirmation, but perhaps narrowly.