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Words matter when it comes to medicine. By comparing placebo pills labeled as migraine medicine with medicine labeled placebos, doctors figured out that half of the pain relief of medication comes from a person's belief in its effectiveness.

Figure skater Ross Miner hopes to qualify for the Winter Olympics, and the final competition starts Friday night in Boston, where Miner will perform his experience of last year's bombing, through moves and music.

A potent, syrupy extract of marijuana has become a popular way to ingest pot among young people, particularly in places where pot use has been liberalized. That has public safety officials worried, in part because making the substance can have explosive side effects.

Scientists say that the freezing weather can help reduce the population of a beetle that harms trees, as well as other invasive species. In Minnesota, up to 80 percent of the beetle's larvae may die off, buying some time for those who feared its negative effects on the ash tree population.

Saturday Night Live recently announced that they were hiring Sasheer Zamata, the first black woman to join the cast in six years. For our series This Week's Must Read, author Danielle Evans recommends a book that can give readers an idea of how Zamata might feel: Get Down, a short story collection by Asali Solomon.

The former prime minister, who had been in a coma after suffering a massive stroke in 2006, died on Saturday. Sharon's career spanned the birth of the nation and most of its essential turning points. Israelis had a love-hate relationship with him that was beginning to soften only shortly before his death.

Dennis Rodman took a team of former NBA players to North Korea to celebrate leader Kim Jong Un's birthday. NPR's Scott Simon likes the flamboyant and frank Rodman, but wonders if his tour amounts to sports diplomacy or propaganda for the North Korean regime.

In Duty, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates writes that the Obama team was always "suspicious" of the military and never trusted senior leaders. The memoir is a case study in a long-standing cultural divide between the White House and the military.

Israel's former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who suffered a devastating stroke in 2006 at the height of his political power, died Saturday after spending eight years in a coma. NPR's Scott Simon remembers Sharon with former ambassador Dennis Ross, who has played a leading role in shaping U.S. policy on Israel.

Nearly 20 percent of Americans still smoke, in spite of what we know about the dangers. Part of the reason is the allure of a cigarette, so elemental to classic scenes in movies, television shows and books. NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Richard Klein, author of Cigarettes are Sublime, about smoking and American culture.