In this conversation, we hear from people who have a stake in and particular knowledge of where cities and schools are headed. The conversation gets at the huge urban challenges faced by communities across the country and a realistic look at solutions.

If your listeners are interested in "green" development, better versions of growth than urban sprawl, new ideas in housing, creative financing, approving urban education, or fixing "No Child Left Behind," this makes a great choice. It's all about thinking creatively and changing the way cities develop and schools improve.

Carol Coletta, president and CEO of CEOs for Cities, hosts the program. She pretty much gets things going then stays out of the way and gives her guests plenty of time to develop their ideas.

Her first guest, Maureen McAvey of the Urban Land Institute, says "We need to think about creative ways of making the future... fun. It's not about living with less or being draconian about changes, its really accepting the best from the big marketplace of the world, where we're seeing incredible experimentation going on..."

In the second half-hour, her guest is Dr. Beverly Hall, superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools and 2009 National Superintendent of the Year. She says "the most important ingredient is teacher quality: One of the toughest things for teachers to do is...differentiated instruction. That is, they have to be able to keep the standards high, but take the students where they happen to be to where they need to be."

By the way, watch out for the dated "latest news in the world of urban housing and design" newscast at the start of the second half-hour.

May is Menstruation Month! So is June, July, etc. for most women for most of their lives.

I love this look, by independent producer Ari Daniel Shapiro, at how women's voices change during their cycle. Lots of sound and science to back up the claim that while cats and whales make that certain noise when they go into heat, human females also sound different when they're ovulating. Never mind that German women's voices seem to go down in pitch and US women's voices go up...Shapiro explains that, too, sort of.

This one's like getting on an amusement park ride that grabs your attention right from the get-go and doesn't let go. Listen to the use of percussive music to move the story along, hear the energy in the hosts voice, meet some great characters, throw your hands in the air and go for the ride!

Snap Judgement Host Glynn Washington is an independent producer out of Oakland, California, who won the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Talent Quest. He says he "loves public radio the way a baby elephant loves his mother."