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Inspiring people to volunteer all year long is Melanie Denise Cunningham's job. NPR's Tavis Smiley talks with Cunningham, the nationa field representative for the National Exchange Club, an all-volunteer service organization made up of some 900 clubs and 30,000 members throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.

Overweight "couch potatoes" burn fewer calories a day because they sit more than their naturally lean counterparts, who tend to be more fidgety and restless, a new study shows. The findings suggest small changes in daily activity could have a major impact on weight loss.

Robert Siegel talks with Alicia Munnell of the Carroll School of Management at Boston College and Kent Smetters of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Munnell and Smetters, both former Treasury Department officials, address questions about Social Security.

NPR's Puzzlemaster Will Shortz quizzes one of our listeners, and has a challenge for everyone at home. This week's winner is Terry Conour from Olney, IL. He listens to Weekend Edition on member station KUSI in Carbondale, Ill.

Longer than three football fields, freighters ply the Great Lakes hauling iron ore, coal, stone and a crew of hard-working men who consider the skill of the cook before signing up for duty. Hidden Kitchens explores life and food aboard the Great Lakes freighters.

Pulitzer Prize winning author Annie Dillard offers a commentary on the unimaginable number of lives claimed by last week's tsunami. She asks how can we remind ourselves that the thousands of victims were individuals with lives and loved ones and not just faceless statistics.

The average American spends two to three years of his or her life waiting in line. NPR's Tony Cox talks to MIT professor Richard Larson, one of a small group of scientists whose job it is to make the lines in our lives seem shorter.

President Bush nominates Jim Nicholson as secretary for Veterans Affairs, after the retirement of Anthony Principi. Nicholson is a Vietnam vet and former chairman of the Republican National Committee. NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

NPR's Mandalit del Barco reports on the different ways Latinos identify themselves by race. A new study from the Pew Hispanic Center shows broad regional differences in how American Latinos regard themselves.

In Wisconsin, people are celebrating a retro yuletide tradition: the aluminum Christmas tree. In 1959, the Aluminum Specialty Company rolled out the Evergleam, the first mass-produced aluminum tree on the market. Wisconsin Public Radio's Patty Murray reports.