Plus: A New Zealand woman sets a new world record for sprinting - on a track covered with Lego. 

Also: Some LA residents who had just gotten into housing find themselves right back where they started thanks to the wildfires;  and an expert provides a nuanced perspective on the ban of Red Dye #3.

Plus: The terrifyingly massive “big boy” that will super size your arachnophobia. 

Also: We speak to one of the Quebec pilots flying water bomber missions over the Los Angeles fires.

Plus: Casey Stoney explains how she’ll lead Canada’s women’s soccer team out of scandal and back into the win column. 

Also: A British pizzeria shows its reluctance to put pineapple on pies by charging the equivalent of 175 dollars Canadian to anyone who dares to order it. And we are pine-appalled.

Plus: On Prince Edward Island, a man nearly gets beaned by a meteorite…and ends up capturing a historic image with his home security system. 

Also: After visiting the region, Canada's Minister for International Development Ahmed Hussen tells us he sees a window of opportunity for countries to support the rebuilding of a peaceful and prosperous Syria.

Plus: Russell Howells hits a “bleak” moment in his long fight to recover a fortune in Bitcoin from a dump in Wales.

Also: A team of Italian physicists think they've found the recipe for the perfect cacio e pepe pasta, featuring…cornstarch?

Plus: Zora Neale Hurston's last novel was almost destroyed in a fire. But the well-timed instincts of a friend helped save it for a new generation. 

Also: We'll hear from the co-owner of a Los Angeles theatre – Public Displays of Altadena – destroyed in the Eaton fire about the livelihoods lost and the fine art of rebuilding.

Plus: That’ll do, donkey. We bid farewell to the beast of burden who served as a model for Shrek’s two-dimensional donkey sidekick.

Also: After our story about a mysterious pile of bananas in England, listeners tipped us off to an equally unexplained phenomenon in Whitehorse.

Plus: We reach a volunteer in Finland who’s getting out his shovel to build the snow drifts seals need to build their next generation. 

Also: Survival of the fittest is a phrase we all learn in biology class. But new research suggests something else might also shape evolution in the animal kingdom: sheer luck.

Plus: When we heard about a mystery plate of peeled bananas on a British street corner we couldn't resist the urge to call up some locals…

And our efforts bore fruit. Also: The head of Physicians for Human Rights Israel calls for the release of a Palestinian doctor detained by the IDF after a December raid on the Kamal Adwan hospital in North Gaza.

Plus: After a fire destroys a new romance bookstore in the DC area, readers come together to show it some love -- and give the story a happy ending.

Also: We reach Kate McElwee of the Women’s Ordination Conference after Pope Francis appoints a nun to a historically important role. She says she still believes that the Catholic Church is capable of full inclusion.