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Drivers will find this summer's gas prices are lower than last year's, the result of a spike in crude oil production. Government forecasters say a gallon of regular gasoline will cost about $3.50 this summer — a slide of more than 10 cents from last year.

Energy Department analysts say that "the regular gasoline price will average $3.53 per gallon over the summer," citing lower crude oil prices. "The annual average regular gasoline retail price is projected to decline from $3.63 per gallon in 2012 to $3.50 per gallon in 2013 and to $3.39 per gallon in 2014."

As Danielle Karson reports for NPR's Newscast Desk, increased U.S. petroleum exports could keep domestic prices from taking a sharp dive, despite a slight slump in demand.

"U.S. refineries are also exporting a record amount of diesel and gasoline to developing countries, including China, where demand for diesel is through the roof," Diane reports.

Oil industry analyst Patrick deHaan tells Diane that if gas companies "build domestic inventories too much, it will hurt their bottom line. Maintaining exports while not allowing inventories to grow out of control, is what they're likely trying to accomplish."

Last Memorial Day, the U.S. average for a gallon of unleaded was $3.636 — "down about 15 cents" from 2011, CNN reported. But prices rose at the end of the summer, due in large part to Hurricane Isaac.

The International Monetary Fund recently urged governments to cut subsidies and allow higher gasoline prices, seeing it as a way to encompass the costs of increased traffic, pollution, and global warming, in addition to exploration, production, and transportation.

As David Wessel, economics editor of The Wall Street Journal, told NPR's Linda Wertheimer on Morning Edition, the IMF "says that subsidizing energy or mispricing it aggravates budget deficits, crowds out spending on health and education, discourages investment in energy, encourages excessive energy use, artificially promotes capital-intensive industries," and creates other problems.

"Some governments spend more on energy subsidies than they do on education and healthcare," David said. "And nobody really thinks that's a great idea."

But, he added, "David Lipton, the number two at the IMF .... says it's better to do this the right way than to do it right away, but it's important to do it."

A little over three years ago, filmmaker Josh Seftel's father passed away. After that, he says, it became difficult to keep up with his mom. He didn't use the phone very often and she didn't like email.

But then he got an idea.

He got his mom, Pat Seftel, an iPad and flew to Florida to teach her how to use it. Pretty soon they were video-chatting regularly. A filmmaker by nature, he began recording and turning the conversations into short episodes for Youtube, called My Mom on Movies.

They take on the big topics in the entertainment and pop culture world. Everything from whether Denzel Washington is aging well to her stance on Lena Dunham's tattoos.

"I've learned a lot about my mom through these, which is one of the best parts," Josh Seftel told NPR's Rachel Martin.

He says he didn't know that she had appeared as a dancer on Dick Clark's American Bandstand and that she enjoys reading Fifty Shades of Grey.

Josh Seftel says having the Web series allowed him to go beyond the usual conversations any of us have with our parents.

"We get stuck on these scripts," he says. "We talk with our parents about, 'When are we going to see you next? What are we going to eat when we see you? What time are you coming?' What I find with these conversations we're doing is that we're connecting as friends."

For her part, Pat Seftel is glad — and pleasantly surprised — that her son started this project.

"I sort of feel lucky that my son is interested in even doing this with me," she says. "You know, I'm just his mom."

The office is immaculate, as you would expect in an upscale neighborhood in Sao Paulo — all sterile, white, modish plastic furniture and green plants. Behind the reception desk are pictures that would look more appropriate in a pop art gallery than a private maternity clinic.

The list of services at the clinic in Brazil's largest city is long: fertility treatments, specialized gynecology and, of course, obstetrics. But one thing they rarely do here is preside over a vaginal delivery.

Dr. Alexandre Sasaoka struggles to remember the last time he assisted at one. We do them, he says, but rarely.

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"To be able to do art, it was a luxury to me. My focus was to survive here, and seeing American students — one was particularly shocking to me ... this student was literally trying to commit suicide, he was hanging himself. I thought, in the labor camp, I knew what it was like praying to die, why this American student, young person who is blessed with freedom, and his pain was so unbearable that he had to end his life. And of course the department chair eventually got involved, and he survived. And also the burning of American flag, and also the portrayal of a mayor of Chicago, [Harold] Washington, they painted him with a bra, and I did not understand what [the] mayor did to deserve this. So it's a strange environment, very surreal."

On low points in her life here, including being raped by an acquaintance

"I just feel like, as low as I went, it's my own fault, even with the rape. And I feel like little things that Americans did to me, for me. For example, my friend ... American classmate who I called in the middle of the night, about one o'clock after I ran off, and she came and she says, 'did you call 911? Do you want me to call 911 for you? I'm taking you to a police station. Don't act like it's your own fault. You're in America and you have your rights.' All these things, the little things, it just warmed my heart and it kept me going."

On becoming a writer

NPR Coverage Of Anchee Min