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Many people fervently consider alleged NSA leaker Edward Snowden a whistleblower who did a great service by revealing information about the U.S. government's secret surveillance programs. His release of highly classified national security documents, they argue, has sparked an important public debate that could ultimately force a needed overhaul of the NSA's surveillance programs.

Others feel just as strongly that Snowden is a traitor who has revealed highly sensitive information to unfriendly countries and put national security at risk. He undermined the NSA's ability to track important developments within al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups and in countries like Iran and Russia, his critics argue, and deserves to be prosecuted.

Two teams recently faced off on the motion "Snowden was justified" in an Oxford-style debate for Intelligence Squared U.S. In these events, the team that sways the most people by the end of the debate is declared the winner.

New York City firefighters Sophy Medina and Thomas Olsen don't work together very often, but their first Valentine's Day as a couple was an exception. They worked the same fire that night — and then ended up at the same hospital with minor injuries.

"There really wasn't much romantic about the night it was," Tommy tells Sophy, now his fiancee, on a visit to StoryCorps. "I kept coming over. I sat in your bed and was talking to you."

"We were wearing big, stinky, heavy gear," Sophy recalls. "We're all, like, sweaty, and everyone smells like a foot. ... The only thing that was romantic was the idea that it was Valentine's Day, and that we still managed to spend it together somehow," Sophy says.

The couple are now parents of a baby boy, Luca, who was born in December. "I worry about you when you go to work," Sophy tells Tommy. "When I was pregnant I would think about it a lot, like if something happened to you."

"Yeah, just never know. Blindfold yourself and put yourself in an oven — that's pretty much it," Tommy says. "If you asked me when I first got on the job, 'Oh, you're gonna have kids and marry a firefighter?' I'd be like, 'Never.' But if [a fire] happened on our block, we could take it out."

"You're such a nerd," Sophy replies.

"We'd take it down. You could be my backup."

"I would," Sophy laughs.

Audio produced for Morning Edition by Jasmyn Belcher with Emily Kwong.

When Kwagne Elian came down with a high fever, the young woman in Cameroon did what many of us would do in the United States: She went to a private health clinic in her neighborhood.

But unlike the clinic at the local CVS here in the U.S., the one Elian goes to is illegal. And it's the target of a crackdown by the government.

The countries who send large contingents to the Olympics love to watch the "medal count" tally. But at the Sochi Winter Games, the countries with the most medals don't have the most gold medals. That's why by some counts, Germany and Norway are leading the way, while the Netherlands, U.S. and Russia all trail.

In keeping with a trend that began early in Sochi, the U.S. has collected more bronze medals than any other country at the Winter Games. The U.S. is currently tied with the Netherlands for most medals, with 20 apiece. The Americans' 10 bronze medals represent half the team's total.

We don't mean to suggest that an Olympic medal of any type is anything less than extraordinary. One of the most striking stories to emerge from these games was the U.S. skeleton silver medal that thrilled Noelle Pikus-Pace – and the bronze that painfully eluded Colorado's Katie Uhlaender in the same event.

But interesting patterns in the distribution of medals have taken shape as the Sochi Games enter their final days. The U.S. athletes have proven to be adept at either finishing third – or winning it all. In addition to the 10 bronze medals mentioned above, Americans have collected six gold medals in Sochi; they've finished second only four times.