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Every year, research firm CB Insights offers up a report on the fastest growing and most highly valued private companies in technology — basically, the ones most likely to go public. Audie Cornish speaks with Anand Sanwal, CB Insights' CEO, for a look at the top tech IPO's expected in 2014.

After a small brewery owner got a letter from a law firm representing Starbucks, he saw a chance to draw distinctions between the two businesses — and to be funny.

Throughout the year, stories about gun violence in the city grabbed the country's attention. Now at the end of the year, the city's crime rate is again big news because it declined so much in 2013, to its lowest level in decades. It's a reality that often doesn't fit the perception of the city.

According to the U.S. Energy Department, the drop is because big household appliances are more efficient than ever. The department also predicts home electricity use will continue to fall in 2014.

Later this week the American Dialect Society will announce its word of the Year. Renee Montagne discusses word contenders with linguist Ben Zimmer, who is the language columnist for The Wall Street Journal.

Olivia Laing illuminates the complex relationships between writers and alcohol in The Trip to Echo Spring — Echo Spring being, of course, the euphemism Tennessee Williams used for the liquor cabinet in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Reviewer Jane Ciabattari says the book is "beautifully written, haunting, tragic and instructive in the best sense."

They look like fettuccine come to life — little flatworms that glide along riverbeds and perform miracles. Chop off their tails, they grow them back. Split them in half, they grow whole again. But chop off their heads, and not only do they grow new heads, but those new heads contain old memories! Whoa!

What words are you sick of hearing? The wags at Lake Superior State University are out with their annual nominees. Others include "hashtag" and "twittersphere."

Follow along as NPR Music remembers some of the great musicians who died this year.

It may come as no surprise that since Ask Me Another tapes in a bar, we are no strangers to the bottom of a glass. (With responsibility, of course.) On the seventh day of Christmas, Ask Me Another gave to me: cocktail recipes inspired by the show's games, contestants and guests.