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An incredible diversity of grains, herbs and fruits goes into the world's alcoholic drinks, as writer Amy Stewart explains. Her new book describes the plants behind cocktails and other boozy beverages and features drink recipes and growing instructions.

On the 10-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, journalist Aaron Glantz talks about the challenges American service members face in accessing disability and other benefits. Glantz says there is a backlog of 900,000 claims and that the average waiting period is 273 days.

In the mid-19th century, more than a million Irish fled the potato famine in search of a better life. But the fate they met aboard so-called "coffin ships" headed to the New World was often as bad as what they left behind. Not so for those lucky enough to find their way onto one ship. Kathryn Miles tells the story in her book, All Standing.

Spencer Geissinger headed the Presidential Advance Team for former President George W. Bush. Geissinger served Bush during both terms, doing advance work in 98 countries. He shares anecdotes with host Rachel Martin of arranging the scheduling, security and publicity for Bush's foreign trips, with a view toward President Obama's upcoming visit to Israel.

In the 1960s, Irish-born Jews living in New York started the Loyal League of Yiddish Sons of Erin. The fraternal organization's biggest event was the annual St. Patrick's Day banquet, complete with green matzo balls.

Next week marks the anniversary of a landmark Supreme Court decision that says defendants facing substantial jail time deserve legal representation in state courts, even if they can't afford it. Now, many lawyers say the system for providing defense attorneys for the poor is in crisis.

In Ruth Ozeki's new novel, A Tale for the Time Being, a 16-year-old girl in Japan starts a diary, writing that it will be a record of her last days before she commits suicide, and gets an unexpected reader when that diary washes up in Canada.

Melissa Block talks to Philip Reeves about reaction to the selection of a new pope to lead the Catholic Church, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

An inspector general investigation exposed deep fissures within the unit for the past dozen years and gave rise to perceptions of politicized and partial behavior by lawyers there.

On Tuesday, 115 cardinals convened, celebrated mass and then entered the Sistine Chapel for the first day of closed door deliberations on who should be the next pope.