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The problems with decrepit hotel rooms and stray dogs in Sochi, Russia, are stealing the headlines, but they are hardly the first Olympics to stumble. NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Esquire Magazine's AJ Jacobs about some of the more inglorious moments in Winter Olympics history.

A Spanish-led consortium working to build a new lock system to accommodate larger ships says it will stop work until a deal is reached.

A Spanish princess will appear in court Saturday to face charges of tax fraud and money laundering. It's the first time a Spanish royal has ever been tried in a criminal case. From Madrid, reporter Lauren Frayer talks to NPR's Scott Simon about the latest in a series of scandals that have sent the royal family's approval rating to an all-time low.

Gray wolves are a controversial and polarizing animal in much of the American West. Wolves have slowly come back from extinction, forcing people to learn how to coexist with the cunning predator. One farmer is teaching his cattle to huddle together as bison do when threatened — there is safety in numbers.

António Zambujo sings fado, the style of music often called Portugal's blues — but his work owes more to João Gilberto and Chet Baker than to his contemporaries in the genre.

Will Sochi be a city of super-sized, expensive venues that sit mostly empty in the future? Maybe having different cities host the Olympics doesn't make much sense.

David Hand, an emeritus professor of mathematics at Imperial College in London, believes that miracles and rare events actually aren't so uncommon. Hand speaks with NPR's Rachel Martin about his new book, The Improbability Principle.

Vote-trading scandals in the 1998 and 2002 Olympics forced the International Skating Union to make major changes to its judging system, including obscuring which judge issued which mark. Sports correspondent Mike Pesca discusses the issue of transparency and subjectivity in Olympics judging with NPR's Rachel Martin.

Every few years when the winter Olympics come around, reporter Robert Samuels' heart begins to flutter. Samuels talks with NPR's Rachel Martin about his lifelong passion for the sport.

British graphic designer Nick Hudson bicycled 500 miles along the Hudson River valley, striking up conversations with local artists and craftspeople as he went. Those stories — from maple syrup producers, sculptors, boat restorers and more — have been collected in a new book, Conversations on the Hudson.