All Things Considered

One year ago Camden, N.J., Mayor Dana Redd went through with massive layoffs, including slashing nearly half the city's police force. A year after the layoffs, life has not gotten easier in the crime-ridden city, leading some families to consider moving out.

Robert Siegel talks to John Timoney, senior vice president for business development and senior consultant for police and security matters for Andrews International, a consulting firm with offices throughout the U.S. and the world. He has been recruited by Bahrain for police training. Timoney is a former Miami and Philadelphia police chief, who won accolades for fighting crime and curbing police shootings of civilians.

Brian Unger is the host of the History Channel show How The States Got Their Shapes.

When we talk about our moms, many of us end up crying. Barbra Walters made her career exploiting this universal weakness. Newt Gingrich proved it recently, very publicly, in Iowa talking about his mom.

I'm going to try to control my emotions as I discuss my mom.

Because I'm not ashamed to say — lately, there have been a few tears.

My mom's not sick. No, she beat cancer.

It's been six years since The Little Willies released an eponymous debut album.

These days, memoirs are often the target of contempt. A scathing slam in New York Times Book Review this year inveighed against "oversharing"; and in the New Yorker, the memoirist was likened to "a drunken guest at a wedding... motivated by an overpowering need to be the center of attention." If the narrative deals with socially unacceptable matters like abuse, addiction, family dysfunction, or even poverty, the scorn gets even thicker.