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Delegates to a United Nations wildlife conference have agreed to ease a 13-year-old global ban on ivory trading. The decision is a victory for southern African nations, but conservationists see it as a defeat for elephants. NPR's John Nielsen reports.

This week PBS will present Benjamin Franklin, an unblinking look at the remarkable founding father whose industriousness furthered the cause of science and whose diplomatic skills helped win American independence. NPR's Steve Inskeep talks with documentary writer Ron Blumer and Ellen Hovde.

Dying from a terminal illness in America can be unnecessarily painful. In the last several years, foundations have spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to improve care for the dying. A new report, compiled by the national coalition Last Acts, grades the results of that effort, state by state. NPR's Joseph Shapiro went to a Hospice home in Washington, D.C. -- a place known for providing good care -- to find out why it's still so hard to help people die in comfort. Hear his report Tuesday on Morning Edition.

Charles de Ledesma reviews 1 Giant Leap a multimedia project that combines documentary film, recorded music, and spoken word, all compiled on a CD and a DVD. Two producers spent six months traveling to more than 20 countries, recording musicians, writers, and storytellers. Featured on the project are readings from Kurt Vonnegut and Dennis Hopper, and performances by Michael Stipe, Nenah Cherry and Baaba Maal, among others. All of the audio corresponds with short films, with themes like time, death, happiness, money, and God. The CD 1 Giant Leap is from Palm Pictures, catalog # PALM CD 2077-2.

The food pyramid is an American icon. But a new Harvard study says people are healthier if they eat fewer carbohydrates and more fat than it recommends. Nutritionists are calling for a new pyramid and a revamping of government guidelines for a healthy diet. NPR's Richard Knox reports.

In the early 1900s, Billy Sunday sold what was then a unique brand of muscular, testosterone-laden Christianity. NPR's Steve Inskeep talks with biographer Robert F. Martin about the influential preacher.

Doctors are struggling to treat two diseases that have reached epidemic proportions in American children: asthma and obesity. Physicians at Boston's Children's Hopsital have given cameras to their young patients to document what goes on outside the doctor's office. And as Madge Kaplan reports, the tapes are revealing a side of kids' lives doctors rarely see, but probably should.

The state of Oregon and the AARP are trying to make it easier for patients to obtain the proper prescriptions at the best prices. The state and the senior citizen group are providing an online comparison of four different types of drugs: for pain, blood pressure, cholesterol and arthritis. Kristian Foden-Vencil reports.

In his special year-end installment of Director's Cuts, Ned Wharton, music director of Weekend Edition Sunday, offers musical gift suggestions, including albums by Tim Sparks, Joni Mitchell and Rachel Z.

It's a Thanksgiving Day tradition on All Things Considered for commentator Bailey White to read an original short story. With the author's permission, npr.org reprints this year's story, "Almost Gone."