NPR Staff

Verlyn Klinkenborg's essays about life on his farm in upstate New York have run in The New York Times since 1997. With a long family history of farming, his agricultural roots run deep into the soil.

"All of my aunts and uncles farmed; all of my cousins still farm," he ...

During the 19th century, a panopticon was a prison or asylum with an all-seeing eye. Some of the C-shaped prisons with central watchtowers still stand in the U.S. and Europe.

Jenni Fagan's new book borrows the panopticon idea as the setting for a gritty, often poetic, novel. The story is ...

In the 1980s, if you moved in certain circles — or picked up the newspaper — a certain white powder was everywhere, common as dust.

But cocaine use in America has dropped by almost half since 2006, The Christian Science Monitor reports. The National Survey on Drug Use and ...

In January, English musician and record producer Colin Bass found himself in the midst of an extraordinary assignment. Bass had traveled, with microphones and recording equipment in tow, to the Sahara desert to meet up with a musical group called Etran Finatawa.

"They come from Niger, next to ...

Here's a great piece of travel writing, storytelling, mythmaking and hero worship — all rolled into one book with a near record-breakingly long title. It's by magazine writer Michael Paterniti of GQ, and it's called The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World's Greatest Piece of ...

Boring movie titles may not lure audiences into theaters, but they are luring users on Twitter. The #dullermovies thread challenges tweeters to pick an enticing film title and deflate it. People have come up with must-not-see films such as Ferris Bueller Goes to School and I ...

John Oliver has brought oracular authority to a three-month fill-in stint on Comedy Central this summer. With Jon Stewart off directing a film, the anchor chair at The Daily Show has been occupied by the show's senior British correspondent, John Oliver, whose own stand-up show on Comedy Central is just ...

There's no shortage of R-rated male buddy comedies, but this summer's raunchy flick — complete with drinking, sex and swimming pools — isn't one of them. The To Do List, written and directed by Maggie Carey and starring Aubrey Plaza, chronicles the coming-of-age, sexual escapades of a teenage girl.

Set ...

Twenty-two years ago this summer, Bryan Lindsay was riding his bike when he was hit by a van and almost killed. He was 7 years old.

Rowan Allen was the paramedic on the scene that day. "When the call came in, it was just before my shift ended that day," ...

Lake Bell has acted in the movies It's Complicated, What Happens in Vegas and No Strings Attached. She's been on television, on HBO's How to Make It in America and the TV series Boston Legal. And she is now starring in a movie she has written and directed. It's called ...

Asian-Americans and Latinos trace their roots half a world away from each other — literally. But their cultures, and especially the foods they love, have more in common than you might think. These days, they're colliding in new and interesting ways – from Korean barbecue taco trucks to

"You very quickly forget whether it's a male voice or a female voice. ... Because he's such a terrific musician, and so expressive, the fact that it's a man singing in a woman's range becomes irrelevant, and what we hear is the music."

That's how Morning Edition music commentator Miles ...

Marti Olesen's favorite summer recipe is plucked straight from the garden — and the faster it gets to your plate, the better. She calls it Diane's Dad's Summer Sandwich.

"I've been eating this sandwich for 27 years, and I am the epitome of health — and beauty," Olesen laughs.

Olesen ...

Jorge Ramos anchors the top-ranked newscast on Spanish-language TV, Noticiero Univision, alongside Maria Elena Salinas. Sometimes called "the Spanish-language Walter Cronkite," Ramos has been a vocal — and influential — proponent of an immigration overhaul. (In recent summers, Ramos' network Univision has topped the prime-time TV ratings for all ...

Zimbabwean musician Oliver Mtukudzi will be 61 this year, and his latest album, Sarawoga, is his 61st.

It is also, perhaps, his most personal. Sarawoga, which means "left alone," is a poignant response to the death of his son Sam in 2010.

He tells Tell Me More guest host Celeste ...

Patricia Mulvey discovered her favorite taste of summer during a disastrous trip to Mexico in 1995. The bright moment of that trip was the Ensenada Slaw. She describes it as "a lightly dressed, crisp vegetable salad with a touch of heat from hot sauce and a touch of acidity from ...

Susan Jones has no shame in admitting that she's not the world's best cook.

"Whenever someone says, 'Everybody bring a dish,' I'm not happy," she says.

Jones is from Indiana and is the editor and publisher of the New Carlisle News. She's also been a board member of Historic New ...

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., is fighting for her bill to curb sexual assaults in the military. Her measure would give independent military prosecutors, rather than commanders, the power to decide which cases should be tried in military court.

Military leaders fiercely oppose moving that authority outside the chain of command, ...

In the 1980's, few bands bridged the gap between hardcore punk and what would become alternative rock quite like Minnesota's Hüsker Dü.

The personalities in the trio, however, were not as harmonious, and their partnership dissolved before the decade's end. Guitarist Bob Mould went on to a successful recording career. ...

Meg Lukens Noonan's adventure began with a simple curiosity. She happened across a website belonging to a renowned, fourth-generation tailor, John H. Cutler, and noticed a photograph of a $50,000 coat.

It looked "like any old blue overcoat that you might find in Macy's," she tells NPR's Jacki ...