The Story

This is the time of year when ice fishing begins in earnest. Imagine this: a brutal winter in Minnesota, 35 degrees below zero, winds howling. And there are 30 men pulling a seine fishing net a mile long and 12 feet deep by hand under the ice. Curt Piechowski is one of the last surviving members of a hardy Polish immigrant family that developed that thriving business.

As Japan tries to contain the crisis at the Fukashima Daiichi Nuclear Plant, the world remembers another nuclear disaster, Chernobyl. This week marks the 25th anniversary of the explosion. Ursula Sladek was a young mother in Germany in 1986, when radiation was detected in her town. Also in this episode, Dr. Elena Bodnar lived in the Chernobyl area and treated children there. The experience shaped her career, both as a physician and an inventor.

Pius Gabriel grew up in Sri Lanka, and then moved to the US to attend college. He had just retired from a career in the US military when he heard the news of the tsunami. In late December 2006 -- the anniversary of the disaster -- Pius joined Dick to talk about "his" orphans, and his work there.Since that interview, Pius has returned to Sri Lanka. He managed to survive what embassy officials called a suicide mission.

What made Robert Hawkins take a rifle and shoot strangers last week in Omaha? Today, Dick talks to Josh Stroder, a young man who had something in common with Mr. Hawkins. When Josh was 14, he went to high school in a rural area and didn't fit in. He started getting bullied and before long, he was feeling at odds with everyone. Also in this episode, Gary Yohe is the lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations agency that accepts the Nobel Peace Prize today with Al Gore.