NPR Staff

In Orange Is the New Black, Poussey Washington is a former military brat serving a six-year sentence in a minimum security women's prison. But even as the Netflix show enters its third season, Samira Wiley, who plays Poussey, has no idea why her character is incarcerated.

"Being honest and being ...

Kate Tempest is a woman of words. The English rapper, poet, playwright and novelist keeps language — and the stories that language brings to life — at the core of everything she does. Her subjects are everyday people: their hardships and failures, their loves and losses.

Tempest's debut album, Everybody ...

In her new novel, Dolen Perkins-Valdez wanted to look beyond the traditional frame for Civil War stories. Her book is set in Chicago, and opens as the nation is struggling to heal.

Jazz heads have known him for years, but Antonio Sanchez got a boost in 2014 for his drums-only film score. The bandleader has two new albums of his own: Three Times Three and The Meridian Suite.

Judy Blume, the incomparable writer for young adults has a new novel for adult adults, about something totally unexpected: People falling from the sky, and how that can change onlookers for life in ways they only see when they're grown. In the Unlikely Event is a story told by a ...

"The monastic life is very plain and ordinary," says Father Cassian Folsom, the founder and prior of the Monks of Norcia, ensconced in the St. Benedict Monastery in central Italy. "You get up, and you pray, and you do your work and go to bed and then the next day ...

Many people may not have read the article but millions of people have seen the cover photo for "Call Me Caitlyn," next month's issue of Vanity Fair, which introduces Caitlyn Jenner to the world. She is the Olympic gold medal winner formerly known as Bruce.

But what was the process ...

As the city struggles with a surge in violence and the aftermath of Freddie Gray's death, Kurt Schmoke says that the roots of the problems run deep.

Len Berk loves lox, the salt-cured salmon that goes so well with bagels. The 85-year-old New Yorker is a veteran salmon slicer at a gourmet food shop in Manhattan. But it wasn't always that way.

NPR's Melissa Block talks with Bill Pohlad, director of the film Love & Mercy, about creating an intimate portrait of Wilson — in both The Beach Boys' heyday and the troubled years that followed.

The electrified new album Wilder Mind turns the band's "arena folk" sound on a dime. "It's almost like being a teenager again," says singer Marcus Mumford.

The Joint Chiefs chairman has been deeply involved in Iraq for more than a decade. In an NPR interview, he says he's not surprised by the slow going against ISIS, calling it a "long campaign."

It's been 70 years since a nuclear bomb was used in war, but in spite of that passage of time, it still has a great deal of relevance as a strategic construct even if they are unlikely to ever be used. Countries that possess nuclear weapons can pursue a more ...

Gaston Acurio is the world's premiere cheerleader for Peruvian cuisine, and he's just written a cookbook. It features 500 recipes from around the country — including more than 20 kinds of ceviche.

Hundreds of ancient artifacts have been damaged or destroyed during violence in the Middle East. Researchers are using the power of crowdsourcing and 3-D imaging to re-create the ancient artifacts.

In her new book, social researcher Wednesday Martin examines the sometimes puzzling culture of motherhood in that most exotic of locales — Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Long a studio musician, the pianist is now moving center stage with a new album. "I'd always been writing songs, keeping them to myself," he says. "I just let go. I figured, what have I got to lose?"

In a small New England town, visitors come to a tiny white chapel dedicated to the souls of dogs. But how it came to be is its own complicated love story.

Three young men grow up in Southern suburban towns that don't feel like home. They're artistic, political, rebellious — and they don't see that reflected in the culture around them. But they find each other, and they find music. And before long they're a band called Algiers — ...