Danny Bradury / flickr

About 80,000 Americans are being held in solitary confinement right now -- a rough estimate because many states don't even keep records of the number of prisoners held in isolation. NPR's National Desk is collaborating with North Country Public Radio for a three-part series examining the history, effectiveness and cost of solitary confinement practices. The series airs Sunday, Aug. 23 on Weekend Edition, and on Monday, Aug. 24 on Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

After more than 12 years anchoring All Things Considered, senior host Melissa Block is moving into an expanded role with NPR News as a Special Correspondent. On Friday, Aug. 14, Melissa shared some of her favorite moments from the hundreds of interviews she's done over the years. In her new role, Melissa will be focusing on in-depth reporting and developing podcasts.

Starting in September, NPR National Desk Correspondent Kelly McEvers and London Correspondent Ari Shapiro will join Audie Cornish and Robert Siegel as weekday Hosts of ATC. The enhanced lineup will give all the hosts more opportunity to pursue reporting projects outside the studio. Kelly will remain based at NPR West, establishing a bi-coastal presence for ATC as Morning Edition already has.

StoryCorps is giving high school students and their teachers an assignment over the Thanksgiving weekend: preserve the voices and stories of an entire generation of Americans. StoryCorps founder Dave Isay is asking teachers to assign students to interview a grandparent or elder as part of a social studies, history, civics, government, journalism, or political science class, or as an extracurricular activity. All that's needed to participate is a smartphone and the StoryCorps mobile app to upload the interviews into the archive at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Teachers can request materials on the StoryCorps website.