NPR Staff

Before he became Fox Mulder, Duchovny was working on his Ph.D. in literature at Yale. He was going to be a poet — or maybe a novelist — or maybe a playwright ...

This week, the Fountain, Colo., Fire Department repurposed some firefighting tools for a chillier job: Rescuing cows that had fallen through a half-foot of ice into the freezing water of a local pond.

In The Age of Dignity, Ai-jen Poo says rather than viewing aging from a place of scarcity and fear, we should see getting older as an opportunity. And, she writes, we must fix our flawed care system.

What comes to mind when you think of Scandinavia? Great education systems? The world's happiest people? Healthy work-life balance?

One man, a British transplant living in Denmark, sought to set the record straight about his adoptive homeland.

Michael Booth is the author of a new book, The Almost Nearly Perfect ...

John Dehlin started a popular podcast and website called Mormon Stories as a space for people to question Mormon teachings. Next Sunday, he'll face a disciplinary hearing where he expects to be officially excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Dehlin is charged with apostasy for publicly ...

When 66-year-old Robert Schwimmer was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2013, he didn't take it all that seriously. His doctors told him it was "operable," and that was the only word he seemed to hear.

Now he's in hospice care and, as he tells NPR's Rachel Martin, he accepts that ...

They were five guys struggling to make music careers for themselves, ranging in age from 12 to 21. When a Florida businessman put them together to make a band, there was chemistry, tight harmonies, creative facial hair — and a formula for success.

Twenty years later, the teenybopper pop boom ...

If you know any college seniors, now might be a good time to send them some encouraging words. The class of 2015 can't be blamed if they're feeling a little worried: They're facing one of the most important transitions of their lives.

In a matter of months, they're about to ...

On the eastern edge of North America there's a sprawling Canadian island known for its dramatic coastlines, expansive barrens, and dense evergreen forests. Not exactly the place where you might expect an indie-rock band to find a following.

The seven-piece orchestral group Hey Rosetta! has always called Newfoundland home — ...

Kid President has a vision for America, one of ferocious positivity. And corn dogs. Robby Novak — now 11 years old — and his older brother-in-law Brad Montague created the character in 2012.

In a series of YouTube videos, Robby appears in a suit and speaks to America from a ...

Jynne Dilling Martin spent six weeks living on the bottom of the world and watching scientists work. The experience inspired many of the poems in her new collection, We Mammals in Hospitable Times.

Diana Krall's new album is a collection of songs she first heard on vinyl, from The Mamas & the Papas to Elton John to the Eagles — the album's title cut is a lesser-known song by Bob Dylan, "Wallflower." Krall spoke with ...

Emmanuel Jal was only 8 when he was dragged into Sudan's long civil war. Like 12,000 other children, he was recruited as a soldier, fighting and killing alongside South Sudanese armed groups.

Only a few, like Jal, have managed to escape.

This week, the United Nations says that it has ...

Wendell Scott becomes the first African-American NASCAR driver to be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Friday. Although Scott faced racism during his career, his son says he would never stop racing.

In part two of David Greene's conversation with Bill Parcells, the legendary football coach discusses how he dealt with players' drug use, and redemption for the former Baltimore Raven running back.

In God's Bankers Gerald Posner explores the history of money, power and the church. During World War II, he says, the Vatican made money off of the life insurance policies of Jews sent to death camps.

In Natalie Babbitt's celebrated classic, a young girl stumbles upon a secret spring and the family the spring has given eternal life to. Babbitt says she wrote the book to help kids understand death.

Wilder's memoir reveals that she witnessed more violence than you'd ever know from her children's books. The South Dakota State Historical Society can barely keep up with demand for the autobiography.

They're the instrument anyone can play — but only two places in the U.S. make them, and only one makes the colorful plastic kind most people know. Karen Michel pays a visit to the latter.

Lost in a deep depression, Marie Mutsuki Mockett visited a temple owned by her mother's family near Fukushima. There, she found traditions and ways of thought that helped her work through her grief.