How do you deliver a message of social justice, peace, or environmental consciousness in a way that guarantees an audience? Find out in the songs of Christy Moore, Dougie MacLean, Máire Brennan, Sally Barker and others.

This episode originally aired the week of June 9.

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The head of Louisville's Sewer District says the fish kill on the Ohio River last night may have resulted from an algae bloom, rather than a chemical spill as was previously reported. The sheen on the Ohio River was noticed south of Rubbertown by cameras at Dow Chemical’s plant, and about 20 Asian Carp were found dead. It was initially thought to be a chemical release from somewhere upriver, but water sampling by three separate entities was negative.

This may not come as a surprise, but a survey released today by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that people who use Facebook several times a day average 9 percent more "close, core ties in their overall social network compared with other internet users."

The survey notes that the average American has just over two (2.16) friends they'd call confidants. That number is up from 1.93 in 2008.

We're pretty obsessive fans here at NPR Music. We make lists. And because the Internet periodically demands these sorts of things, we've put together a multi-genre listening list of our favorite 25 records of the year to date. Plus, here's our listeners poll — it's massive — where you can vote and tell us how wrong we were.

Several colleagues of Officer Bryan Durman, the Lexington police officer killed in the line of duty last year, took the witness stand Thursday. It marked day two of testimony in the Glenn Doneghy murder trial. When Durman requested backup to assist with his call on a noise complaint the night of April 29, 2010, Officer Teri Gover (GOH'-ver) responded. By the time she arrived on the scene, she discovered Durman had been struck in a hit and run crash.

From the country that brought us the French Paradox — healthier people who pretty much eat what they want — there's a new study that suggests olive oil may help reduce the risk of stroke in older people.

More than 7,000 people age 65 and up in took part in the French project, which looked at how much olive oil they consumed and whether they had strokes.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian eye doctor who long served as Osama bin Laden's deputy, has been officially chosen as al-Qaida's new leader. Zawahiri was already the group's operational commander and main spokesman, and he was widely expected to succeed Osama bin Laden. Some al-Qaida members have complained that Zawahiri is uninspiring and divisive as a leader, and terrorism experts say he will need to demonstrate that he can direct the terror network as skillfully as bin Laden did.

The Northern Rocky Mountain states are bracing for what could be major flooding this month. The snowpack in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Utah is at a record high for this time of year. As temperatures rise, that snow is melting. If it gets too hot too quickly, snow will come off the mountains faster than rivers can handle. Some have already overflowed their banks.

Rep. Anthony Weiner was a rising star who wanted to be the next mayor of New York. Instead, he's out of Congress and in rehab.

Over the last few weeks, people in the suburbs of Fairfield County, Conn., have been reporting sightings of a mountain lion roaming the woods. Then a mountain lion was hit by a car on a highway and state officials said the large cat, which has been declared extinct in the East, must have been someone's pet. But now more reports of mountain lion sightings are coming in from the wealthy town of Greenwich, and officials are considering the possibility that there may be a second mountain lion loose in the 'burbs.