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For 30 years, it was kept secret.

When Frank Calabrese Jr. was a teenager, his father came home one night and took him into the bathroom for a chat."He used to like to talk in the bathroom with the fan going and the water running in case there was any kind of bugs in the house," says Frank Jr.

The devastatingly destructive earthquake in Japan is being called the largest in the country's "recorded history."The phrase "recorded history" carries meaning because we humans are a chronicling race.

Al Letson is the host of the NPR and Public Radio Exchange program, State of the Re: Union, which travels the nation telling the stories of communities — what pulls them apart and brings them together.

Before the civil rights movement that made Birmingham, Ala., a dateline in history, it was a famous steel town.