NPR Staff

In his collection Barefoot Dogs, Antonio Ruiz-Camacho offers varying perspectives on the kidnapping of a Mexican patriarch. He asks: "How do you reach closure when someone you love has disappeared?"

Scott Budnick hit it big in Hollywood as an executive producer of the Hangover movies. Then, in 2013, he decided to leave it all behind and focus full time on helping young people in prison.

Be it progressive metal bands like Tool and Meshuggah or a 19th-century poet who died at 21, jazz artist Tigran Hamaysan mines all kinds of influences to arrive at a signature sound.

Mary Aiken, who examines digital fingerprints to help solve crimes, is the real-life inspiration for the lead investigator on CSI: Cyber. She says she works where "humans and technology collide."

Paying for college gets more expensive every year.

According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Americans owe more than a trillion dollars in outstanding student loan payments.

The result can be a lot of pressure for college grads. The four seniors participating in our Howard Project — Ariel Alford, ...

Gillian Jacobs, known for her role as Britta Perry on Community, directed a short documentary on the computer programming pioneer. She says Hopper wasn't fond of the hype over her accomplishments.

Singer and guitarist Isaac Brock speaks with Arun Rath about Strangers to Ourselves, the group's first album in eight years — and what he's learned in the meantime about being in bands.

The new Netflix comedy series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, co-created by Tina Fey and starring Ellie Kemper, offers a harrowing twist on the "small-town woman moves to the big city" story.

StoryCorps' Military Voices Initiative records stories from members of the U.S. military who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lance Cpl. Erik Galvan, 19, was walking ahead of his squad looking for improvised explosive devices. It was 2011, and he was three months into his deployment to Afghanistan.

The group ...

When you leave the house, do you ever turn on some music to keep your cat company?

What kind do you choose? Tom Jones crooning "What's New Pussycat?" A ballad by Cat Stevens? Perhaps Al Stewart's "The Year of the Cat"?

Nonsense. Cats don't to want to hear humans singing ...

This week, American listeners will get an introduction to three of the best-known voices in South Africa. The Bala Brothers are Zwai, Loyiso and Phelo Bala, and they have been commanding attention in their home country since the 12-year-old Zwai became the first black member of the renowned Drakensburg boys ...

One hundred years ago, 128 Americans died among more than a thousand in the sinking of what was then the greatest ocean liner in the world. In response, the U.S. entered World War I.

That's the story of the Lusitania, right? But Erik Larson, one of this country's most successful ...

Dame Edna Everage says she's approaching 60 — but from the wrong direction. The housewife and superstar — a creation of Australian comedian Barry Humphries — has been making audiences laugh, weep, have acid reflux, and ruminate deeply on the human experience for six decades.

Now, she's embarked on Dame ...

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On Wednesday, the Department of Justice issued a scathing report about the Ferguson, Mo. police department, citing evidence of "clear racial disparities that adversely impact African-Americans." These disparities in arrests, vehicle stops and the use of force, the ...

On March 11, 2005, Kevin Berthia wanted to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. California Highway Patrol Officer Kevin Briggs talked him out of it. The two met recently to discuss what happened that day.

The luxury liner Lusitania departed New York City en route for Liverpool on May 1, 1915. World War I was raging in Europe, but the passengers on the world's fastest liner were sure they were in no danger — despite a warning from the German Embassy in Washington that "travellers ...

The drama, about the aftermath of a racially charged home invasion, challenges its many characters' viewpoints. Ridley says he wanted to explore "what happens when those truths start to fall away."

Russian journalist Yevgenia Albats, who followed Boris Nemtsov's career for 27 years, says he was one of the few Russian political figures willing to directly criticize President Vladimir Putin.

There is agreement on both the political left and right that a majority of college professors in the United States are liberal or left-of-center. But do liberals stifle free speech — particularly that of political and social conservatives — on college campuses?

Social conservatives often argue that campuses, as a ...

Health is more than the sum of its parts. Sometimes in surprising ways, factors such as childhood experiences, housing conditions, poor diets and health care access drive who ends up sick — and who does not.

As part of our series "What Shapes Health," created in partnership with the Robert ...