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Jim Nayder, host of The Annoying Music Show! on Chicago Public Radio, returns with a fresh batch of truly irksome holiday music.

One town in Virginia is fed up with an inclusive policy for holiday displays that has brought a "Flying Spaghetti Monster" and "Skele-Claus" to its courthouse lawn. Across the country, some secular activists and atheists are taking provocative measures to kick religion off of government property.

Latin America has hundreds of interpretations of this Christmas Eve treat – tamales vary not just by country but often by region. So whose version is best? That's a question likely to elicit a fiercely partisan response.

The wise men would be one gift short at the manger — frankincense, one of the gifts given to the baby Jesus, is now in short supply. The trees from which the fragrant resin is produced are declining, and in 15 years, frankincense production could be cut in half.

2011 was a year of intense and compelling news stories: from the Arab Spring, to the nuclear disaster in Japan and the killing of Osama bin Laden. This year, media consumers did not shirk from the magnitude of the events. Instead, they embraced them.

Increased deportations in the U.S. have led to more broken families among immigrants. Reporter John Faherty recently profiled three undocumented high school students living together without their families in a trailer in Phoenix, Ariz. Host Audie Cornish speaks with Faherty about his reporting on how Arizona's immigration law has impacted immigrant children.

The Garabedians' over-the-top decorations have been a traffic-snarling must-see for nearly four decades. And "traditional" is definitely not the right word for this holiday attraction. Amid Santa and his reindeer, life-size figures of celebrities rejoice.

Nearly 50 Americans million now live below the poverty line, according to the Census Bureau. Many food banks are not only reporting an increase in the number of people they're serving, but also a drop in food and cash donations — as much as 30 percent in some areas. Guest host Allison Keyes talks with two people working on the front lines of hunger relief.

Dr. Norman Spack at Boston's Children's Hospital has worked with 30 transgender youth and their families to get through the difficult phases of adolescence. One treatment includes a controversial medication that blocks puberty until he or she decides whether or not to transition to the other gender. Dr. Spack talks with guest host Allison Keyes.

Some 500 years ago, Leonardo da Vinci noted that branches on trees split with mathematical precision. Recently, physicists studying this phenomenon have discovered it has important implications for the way wind flows around and through trees.