Simon Says Videos

If people feel warm and safe, if they're working and well-fed, they will accept and even enjoy a certain amount of corruption if they think that their government makes a place run well. If it doesn't, they can begin to see corruption as their one best chance to look out for themselves.

Paco Rodriguez, known as El Niño Azteca on the west side of Chicago, died last week of injuries sustained in the ring. His organs have been donated. "He's not only in heaven, but walking the earth in other people," his brother says.

Every 1,900 screenings for women in their 40s produces just one case in which cancer is discovered. But what if you're the one?

Gandhi was a champion of the poor. Montblanc is celebrating his life with a limited edition 18-karat gold pen. Cost: $33,000.

So many voices have already figured out what caused an Army major to open fire on his fellow soldiers, despite the absence of key facts.

The helmets that are supposed to protect football players actually encourage them to block with their heads, which pummels and rattles their brains.

History says that television was invented by Philo T. Farnsworth in 1927. He must have had two children at home with the flu. There is no greater spur to ingenuity than the desperation of parents who need to distract and amuse sneezing, squirming children.

There were many other stories the media could have covered, but caring about the fate of a 6-year-old boy is not a waste of time.

It was the crime of al-Qaida terrorists, whom the Taliban let use Afghanistan, that brought the U.S. and NATO there. But even if al-Qaida now hides in the hills of Pakistan, host Scott Simon says it would seem another crime to let such murderers take power again.

The Summer Olympics would bring the world to competing cities like Rio, Tokyo and Madrid for a few weeks. But Chicago reflects the world year round.

Scott Simon offers a few words for the creator of the TV series M*A*S*H and the genius behind other classic comedies. He died this week at age 81.

Sex offenders like Phillip Garrido, charged with kidnapping a girl and molesting her over two decades, serve their time in prison. But are they ever truly rehabilitated?

Sen. Edward Kennedy realized that personal failings could undo the good he wanted to do. Eventually, he carved a kind of profile in courage by taking control of his life to lend service to others.

60 Minutes producer Don Hewitt, who died at age 86 this week, didn't try to disguise himself as a pillar of integrity. He was proud to be a master showman. But in a medium of sound bites, images and half-sentences, he emphasized the power of narrative and good prose.

Host Scott Simon's daughters have been having a wonderful summer, spending most afternoons splashing in the pool of their apartment building. Before going away on vacation, Host Scott Simon thanks the lifeguard at the pool where his daughters swim for doing her job and well.

Could President Obama's beloved White Sox hold the key to economic recovery?

When Walter Cronkite told America "that's the way it is," you could be sure that's the way it was, not the way you wanted it to be.

Those annoying summer hordes from somewhere else should remind us of what's remarkable about the places we take for granted.