The decline in honey bee populations may not be as disastrous as some accounts have put it, but Rosemary explains there are some ways to help out the local apian population.

Like many children of the 1960s, Heather King went to church, in her case, in a New Hampshire Seacoast town. But she grew up not believing in much of anything. Alcohol, she says, became her god. And she spent decades in devotion.

Her acclaimed memoir Parched tells the story of sleeping around, morning drinks in crummy bars, stumbling through law school and finally hitting bottom and getting clean. Heather stayed sober, got married and raked in the dough as a hard-working L.A. lawyer, until she hit the wall with that life too. Middle-aged and exhausted, Heather King found a model for transforming suffering in the teachings of the Catholic Church - the last place she thought she’d end up.

Author and NPR commentator Heather King joins Word of Mouth live in the studio to discuss her latest memoir, Redeemed: A Spiritual Misfit Stumbles Toward God, Marginal Sanity, and the Peace That Passes All Understanding.

We also hear from younger people facing different challenges to finding and keeping their faith. Balancing peer pressure and individualism can put belief to the test for teenagers and college students. That may be especially true on a campus like the University of California-Berkeley, where "subverting the dominant paradigm" is a popular rallying cry. Some Christian students there feel they have to lose their religion just to fit in. Producer David Gelles reports on a small organization that's having a big impact on the spiritual lives of some Berkeley students.

Today on Word of Mouth, we’re looking at the effect of active combat on the brains of returning soldiers. About 97 percent of American troops wounded in Iraq come back alive - the highest survival rate of any American war to date.

Many of those injured return with wounds that are invisible to the naked eye. They suffer from brain trauma. Not only the post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, which has been in the news, but other injuries which can be even more debilitating as losing a limb. Their symptoms may include memory lapses, constant headaches, mood swings, nausea and insomnia. Many of these veterans remain undiagnosed. According to the RAND Corporation, as many as 300,000, or one in five combat veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, screened positive for possible concussion.

New theories on the causes of brain injury range from blasts causing pressure waves to ripple through blood vessels and damage brain tissue, to electro-magnetic pulses generated by the blasts. Some experts are worried that this research might create fear of a mysterious, unknown epidemic, like what happened with Gulf War syndrome.

Eric Hagerman wrote about brain trauma in soldiers for Popular Science, where he serves as a contributing editor. He joins Word of Mouth to discuss the latest research into brain trauma.

(Photo by Tom Mulrooney)

The State of New Hampshire is on the lookout for a serious tree killer.

We're not talking about the wooly adelgid here.

This new danger is called the Asian Longhorn Beetle.

And Kyle Lombard rates its threat level right up there with dutch elm disease and chestnut blight.

Lombard studies forest insects and diseases for the Division of Forest and Lands.

He tells NHPR's Mark Bevis that this beetle recently showed up just south of the border in Worcester, Massachusetts.

In September of 2002, Ben Byer was a 31-year-old actor and playwright living in Chicago, married with a young son, when he was diagnosed with the fatal neurodegenerative disease ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. There’s no known cure for ALS, and 90 percent of those who get it die within five years.

The disease left his hands too weak to hold a pen. So Ben began keeping an audio and video diary, which soon turned into a documentary film project. He travelled the world, grasping for a cure to the mysterious disease – everything from a controversial stem cell surgery, to traditional Chinese herbs, to vitamin supplements, to vibrating beds.

His film is an exploration of his own mortality, and our society’s treatment of the sick. Ben Byer died last month. His sister, Rebeccah Rush, produced the film, called Indestructible, and she joins Word of Mouth to tell us more about her brother.

Watch the trailer for Indestructible below:

(Photo of Ben Byer floating in the Dead Sea by Roko Belic)