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We are standing in front of a huge bank of screens, in the middle of which is a glowing map that changes focus depending on what the dozens controllers are looking at.

The room looks like something straight out of a NASA shuttle launch. The men and women manning the floor are dressed in identical white jump suits. With a flick of a mouse, they scroll through dozens of streaming video images coming into the center.

This is Rio de Janeiro in real time.

"This whole building is based on technology and integration," said Pedro Junquiera, the chief executive officer of the Rio Operations Center.

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NPR's Ken Rudin and Ron Elving offer a tearful goodbye to Michele Bachmann, a premature but constitutional welcome to James Comey to head the FBI and some Boardwalk Fries to President Obama and Gov. Christie. But they're not sure about Eric Holder's longevity as attorney general.

Dan Kennedy is a writer at heart, but if you ask him what he's versed in, you're bound to get a myriad of answers. The author and host of The Moth podcast spent some time fighting fires, so he knows a thing or two about wildland fire suppression tools. He's also held a marketing gig at a major record label, which inspired his bestselling memoir, Rock On: An Office Power Ballad. So when we asked Kennedy what he'd like to be quizzed on, he didn't respond with something broad like TV or movies — try "terrestrial and aquatic insects that trout eat to survive."

More From This Episode

On the Indonesian island of Sumatra, a backhoe stacks freshly cut trees to be made into pulp and paper. Asia Pulp and Paper, or APP, is Indonesia's largest papermaker, and the company and its suppliers operate vast plantations of acacia trees here that have transformed the local landscape.

APP has sold billions of dollars' worth of paper products to Staples, Disney and other big U.S. corporations. But environmental groups have accused APP of causing deforestation, destroying the habitat of Sumatran tigers and orangutans, and trampling on the rights of forest dwellers.

Asril Amran is the head of a nearby village. He says that the plantations have ruined the local environment.

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