C.L. talks to Rhonda Fleming Hayes, author of Garden For Life and answers your questions.

The fourth episode of the Catching the Codfather podcast.

There aren’t many things that will get me out of bed at 5:30 in the morning. But bagels—or really just the prospect of learning how to make them—is one. Recently, I stood in Wellfleet’s Bagel Hound with owner Ellery Althaus, while the windows were still dark, staring a pile of dough.

New England utilities and grid operators are working to reduce demand on the grid during times of peak use. In the long run, those efforts could help mitigate how much more infrastructure New England needs to build.

New England has some of the highest energy costs in the country. Cold winters, along with other rising expenses, have rural towns looking for ways to save money. Many have embraced a switch to electric appliances, powered by home-grown renewable energy as a strategy to spare pocketbooks and help the planet.

Pope Leo reiterated the Catholic Church's teaching that the death penalty is "inadmissible," in a video message released hours after the Justice Department said it would allow firing squads for federal executions.

Gunfire and explosions have rocked Mali's capital Bamako and other key cities in one of the most significant coordinated attacks in years, as armed groups, including jihadist insurgents and separatist rebels exploit worsening insecurity in the Sahel region.

Two runners in this week's Boston Marathon stopped to help a racer who had collapsed just short of the finish line. NPR's Scott Simon says their generosity is its own kind of "personal best."