In "Gentrification in East Harlem" youth producer Evan talks to residents of his neighborhood about a personal, difficult subject that is affecting his community.

Evan's technique and questions are very professional. The lack of leading questions means the word "gentrification" doesn't even enter the conversation in many of his interviews.

As with any vox pop, however, the quality of the piece depends on the quality of the interview subjects. In this case, two say nearly the same thing, and one seems decidedly bored. While Evan does the best with what he has, this piece would be stronger with a wider range of opinions and experiences. In this case, it seems opinions from politicians, community leaders, real estate investors, and the gentry who are moving in should be easy to come by.

This piece doesn't show the whole story, but it is does a good job of revealing what some residents are thinking.

The hopes and dreams of Montpelier High School in Vermont are here, woven tightly into this short piece. Some interviewed want to see the world, some wish to help their family, the environment, or themselves. Some want to see change, some are happy with their lives.

Choosing to blend and wrap the interviews makes this a very fast two minute piece. I was left wondering who producers Robyn Moody and Rebecca Starr interviewed and what their stories were as Cat Stevens' Tea for the Tillerman blared loudly at the end.

"If There Is One Thing You Could Change..." is like a artistically blurred photograph. That I'm left wanting more detail shouldn't discount the technical or artistic quality of the interviews and editing.

Often lost in the abstract immigration debates of politicians are the personal stories of recent immigrants. Elizabeth Pliego speaks softly but delivers powerful words as she talks about her aunt Ofelia's journey to America, exhausting meat packing job, and the cousins her aunt left behind. This breathtaking piece is not about politics or protests, but about family and the borders keeping them apart.

More than a half-dozen students start rattling off slang names for drugs, an excellent hook for this six minute interview mashup. This discussion gives a firsthand look at peer pressure and the physical and mental effects of drugs.

While Adomako Amankwah's commentary is adequate, the people he (and co-producer Michelle Suarez) interviewed make this well-edited piece shine.

Ian Epstein has delivered an engaging and well-written insider look at the fast-paced world of ticket brokers: those guys who can get you a ticket to any event, but for a steep markup over the original price.

Despite the indignant protests of the ticket brokers interviewed for this story, I was still left wondering if is it morally and ethically right to charge an arm and a leg for tickets, and this topic isn't fully explored. But ticket brokering isn't a moral dilemma for Ian, he's focused on how much money he's making and can shrug off the reactions of his schoolmates.

Interwoven music, including the obligatory Pink Floyd classic "Money" works well and slows down the pace of this piece. That's a good thing, because Ian's got a lot to say, and has also collected a lot of interviews (some of which have distractingly poor sound quality). A long music tail after 16:33 extends this piece to almost 20 minutes.

I would recommend this engaging piece more highly, but Ian's delivery suffers from a lack of annunciation that leaves his words slurred.

Like a song with sad lyrics but an upbeat tune, "Why Teens Are Still Driving Drunk" delivers a shocking message from teenagers that you could almost miss if you weren't listening to the words.

The teens interviewed for this vox pop say crazy things so normally, it sounds perfectly understandable that they have been driven home by drunken drivers or even driven themselves because they weren't really drunk, "just a little buzzed."

At the beginning of the piece, the interviewer seems to put words in the mouth of one guy, who says he can do a better job of driving when drunk. The interviewer suggests that is because he's more aware, while the interviewee seems to think it's because he's "loose." But frankly, I am amazed that any interviewer could find people that would talk this openly about driving while drunk.

The teens in this piece have their own reasons for drunk driving or getting in a car with a drunk driver, but from the way they tell it, they had no other good options. Especially because they are underage, they didn't want anyone else to know.

This short piece is definitely a provocative start for any discussion on drunk driving.

Back in the good old days, high schoolers of average intelligence weren't listed as "most likely to succeed in college" by their yearbooks.

But little pills called Adderall are improving the formerly low expectations of what lazy or less-than-brilliant students can accomplish, and smart-guy Marshall Dungan doesn't like it one bit.

Adderall, a stimulant, works to keep students awake and focused on otherwise boring material.

No Adderall will be necessary to enjoy this short (1:49) personal essay by a jaded Dungan who hoped to see his slacker classmates fail in college while he became the successful graduate celebrated at high school reunions.

Fantastic vocal quality and punchy delivery keep the piece interesting, but Dungan fails to elaborate on exactly what Adderall is or how it works.

Also, Dungan nearly glosses over the routine torture he endured at the hands of his classmates that made him dream of their failure. The words are there: he says he was given countless wet willies, shoved into lockers, berated, and exiled by the social elite, but his punchy, upbeat delivery and lack of description fails to give these words an emotional impact.

While this piece is not a comprehensive look at college drug use, it is a unique, well-produced personal story about the effects of focus-enhancing drug use on one teen's life. "Aderall and Low Expectations" would be an excellent way to hook listeners for a show about drugs that enhance academic performance.