Fresh Air

Writer Katherine Standefer tells us about long QT syndrome — and the implanted cardiac defibrillator that helps regulate her heart. In her new memoir, 'Lightning Flowers,' she writes about how the device changed her life, and about trying to get medical care with little income 11 years ago — just as Congress was trying to establish the Affordable Care Act. "One of the greatest gifts is to feel alive while you are alive," Standefer says.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the new album from Susan Alcorn, a pedal steel guitarist who played in country and western bar bands. And book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews 'We Keep the Dead Close' by Becky Cooper, a true crime story about the murder of a Harvard student in 1969 that went unsolved until two years ago.