Does anybody know what this type of thing is called? Many themes have it, but I’m sure there’s a plugin for it.=, but if not, I could find a tutorial I don’t want just a regular jquery slider, or a “carousel” — unless there’s a carousel that does what this does.
Basically, there’s a main featured image, with 4 smaller blog excerpts with images to the right. You click on one of the excerpts, and that becomes the featured image. So it looks like this:

If I can figure out what you call this type of thing, I’m sure I could take things from there. Any guidance in this regard would be greatly appreciated!
The javascript effect you’re thinking of are called “sliders.” You can check out the source code and design your own here:
http://www.jqueryslidershock.com/