OSWEGO, NY (August 1, 2011) - More and more people are turning to life coaches to help get them through the difficult periods of their lives. Bob Vinciguerra and Alicia Wood are both Syracuse-area life coaches who have joined us today to help shed some light on this somewhat unknown profession. We start off with the obvious question, what is a life coach?

Later Saturday in Ames, Iowans will cast their ballots in the state's quadrennial straw poll, considered the first ballot-box test of the 2012 presidential field. NPR national political correspondent Don Gonyea reports on the tradition and this year's politics.

Stocks closed high on Friday, ending a dramatic week on Wall Street. Guest host Jacki Lyden talks with Roben Farzad of Bloomberg Businessweek about the market's ups and downs.

Charles L. Gittens' tenure opened the door for hundreds of minority Secret Service agents who served after him. NPR's Sam Sanders reports.

This week, golf's PGA Championship might have cemented the downfall of Tiger Woods, while the Philadelphia Eagles hope their first preseason game was just a small step en route to a Super Bowl appearance. Guest host Jacki Lyden talks sports with ESPN's Howard Bryant.

Pat Gallant-Charette wants to swim across the English Channel in August. On top of her job as a nurse, the 60-year-old grandmother from Westbrook, Maine, follows a rigorous training schedule that includes one- to 10-hour swims along the crashing waves of the cold ocean shore. Gallant-Charette almost crossed the Channel once before, but currents kept her at bay just a mile and a half from the finish. This time, she's convinced she'll make it. Independent producer Patty Wight sends this audio postcard.

Thirty years ago this week, IBM released the first personal computer. It was a computer designed for the average American, and the average American couldn't get enough of it. Guest host Jacki Lyden talks to Dr. Dave Bradley, one of the 12 engineers who designed the original IBM personal computer and who also invented the control-alt-delete function.

An advertisement regulatory board in Australia recently spent two weeks deliberating over whether the red M&M in the M&M commercials was a bully. They've found, in fact, he is not. Guest host Jacki Lyden has more.

One of the most decorated women of World War II died earlier this month. Her name was Nancy Wake, but she was best known as "The White Mouse." Guest host Jacki Lyden has more.

Flash-mob violence refers to an instantly organized crowd, usually teenagers, bent on mayhem. This summer there have been incidents around the country: Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago and, more recently, at the Wisconsin State Fair. Guest host Jacki Lyden talks with Eugene Kane, columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, about incidents of alleged hate crimes involving young African Americans at the state fair.