NPR Staff

In the early 1990s, a team of researchers decided to follow about 40 volunteer families — some poor, some middle class, some rich — during the first three years of their new children's lives. Every month, the researchers recorded an hour of sound from the families' homes. Later in the ...

If Donna Summer was the Queen of Disco, then it's fair to say her king was Giorgio Moroder. The Italian-born producer presided over some of her biggest hits, including "I Feel Love" and "Love to Love You Baby" – and pioneered electronic dance music in the process.

Four ...

Black-eyed peas and rice are thought to bring good luck when eaten on New Year's Day, typically converging in a dish called Hoppin' John. Those same two ingredients are also staples of Indian cooking.

"To me, the flavors of black-eyed peas are really quite amazing when combined with the ...

The enigmatic Miss Havisham has haunted the popular imagination for more than 150 years. She appeared in Great Expectations, one of Charles Dickens' best-loved novels: It's been read widely since its publication, and was made into several immensely popular movies.

Havisham is a ghastly, aging bride in a tattered ...

Chang-rae Lee's new novel, On Such a Full Sea, opens in a surprisingly contented dystopia: Hundreds of years in the future, the world has unraveled; in America, the government has crumbled and the population has fled. But its abandoned cities have been given new life by immigrant workers, moved in ...

If you're a fan of the NBA, Grey's Anatomy or Major Lazer, you're probably familiar with Bunji Garlin, the man behind this year's international soca anthem, "Differentology." While the Caribbean tune has been acknowledged via popular TV shows and electronic dancehall DJs alike, Garlin's hit resides within a ...

This week on the podcast, we meet a tour guide leading camels through the wilderness, and a pinball manufacturer who wants to shake up his industry.

Plus, DJ Bettos Arcos plays some Christmas music from south of the border.

Each week, Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin brings listeners an unexpected side of the news by talking with someone personally affected by the stories making headlines.

Jamison Manwaring came out to extended family and his church community last spring in a YouTube video. More than 20,000 people have ...

The vicious sectarian violence in the Central African Republic continued last week as Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, visited on Thursday to make an appeal for peace.

It was a particularly significant trip for the ambassador: She began her career as a journalist and an activist, ...

Saturday is the winter solstice — the longest night of the year. For many, winter's darkness is depressing. But others seem to bloom, thrive, even come alive in the dead of night.

It's not just vampires who seek the dark: it's poets, painters, musicians and artists of all kinds.

Writer, ...

Petula Clark's show business career spans more than 70 years, from the time of the Blitz to the era of the blog. She found signature hits, including "Downtown" and "I Know a Place," in the 1960s and '70s.

But she began her career decades earlier, as an 8-year-old ...

It sounds practically made up — a children's monthly magazine that published works by William Faulkner, E.B. White and Eudora Welty when they were just kids. But it's true.

It was called St. Nicholas Magazine and, as Weekend Edition literary detective Paul Collins tells host Scott Simon, ...

Saxophonist Paul Winter has a longstanding tradition of celebrating the longest night of the year with a concert. For the 33rd year in a row, Winter presents his annual Winter Solstice Celebration, recorded last year at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Upper Manhattan.

This particular ...

In a sequel, Ron Burgundy makes the leap from local to national news. "We felt like we needed to jack up the stakes," says director and co-writer Adam McKay. He and star Will Ferrell ...

Most of us like to think we comport ourselves with a certain level of civility. But apparently, phone calls with customer service representatives of all stripes can lead us into more colorful speech. And some people like to track it.

"There's just something about big data and sailor-cursing that complement ...

Throwing a perfect holiday party is no simple task. Do you want a swanky cocktail party, an intimate dinner party, or a huge New Year's bash? A whole host of decisions revolve around the menu — and don't forget your gluten-free or vegan invitees. Then there's the decor (is tinsel ...

Each year, millions of people from different faiths make religious journeys. They travel far, to Mecca, Jerusalem, the Ganges River or Lourdes, France, to walk the paths of prophets, saints and martyrs.

"Pilgrimage is something built into the human condition," says George Weigel, author of Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches. ...

Each week, Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin brings listeners an unexpected side of the news by talking with someone personally affected by the stories making headlines.

In 2008, attorney Kimberly Motley picked up and left her native Milwaukee, where she lived with her husband and two kids, and moved ...

The ancient classics of Western literature — Homer, Sophocles, Euripides — were written to be sung. But what does Greek music from 2,500 years ago actually sound like? And how could a modern reader possibly deduce those melodies with only the text for reference?

Armand D'Angour, a musician and professor ...

From blues to funk, to country and rock, Tennessee is the place that's given voice to the likes of Bessie Smith, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, Isaac Hayes, Chet Atkins, and many, many more. This winter, the ...