18:15 minutes (4.18 MB)
Michael Connor talks to the authors of a new study on volunteering. They discuss finding the right activity and the benefits of volunteering, including helping you change your mindset, enriching your lifestyle and deepening your own sense of well-being.

To honor 9/11 this year, I promised to do a small, but good deed: I've pledged to sort cans at a local food bank.

You're planning a vacation to a remote corner of the world, to see breathtaking scenery and wildlife. You want to take in as much as possible with minimal impact. And you want your money to go toward helping local communities continue to protect their natural resources. The International Ecotourism Society (TIES), an international nonprofit, "promotes responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people." That's ecotourism in a nutshell - in a protected rainforest in Brazil, for example, or a wildlife reserve in South Africa. So what could be wrong with this? Read on.