NPR Staff

Author Jesmyn Ward invited prominent writers from her generation to pen essays for The Fire This Time. It's a nod to James Baldwin's work of a similar name, which warned of today's racial tension.

The politics team is back to discuss the controversy over Donald Trump's response to the parents of a fallen Muslim-American soldier and what impact this could have on his campaign.

The rush of victory or crush of defeat in the Olympics can flash by very quickly. But if you slow those moments down, there's a lot to learn about human behavior.

After receiving backlash for writing a post about gender in the tech industry, Bindu Reddy launched a new social network with the goal of hosting anonymous conversations without harassment or abuse.

The actress, who won a Tony in 1997 for her role in Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida, returns to Broadway after 15 years, to play nightclub singer Shug Avery in a revival of The Color Purple.

Professor Adam Summers is a "fish guy." He uses fish to get engineering ideas. His latest project is to CT scan every type of fish — all 33,000 of them.

Bell's new film is about three suburban moms who find themselves ground down by the endless chores of motherhood. She says its creators (two men) wrote it as a love letter to their overworked wives.

Nadja Spiegelman — daughter of graphic novelist Art Spiegelman and New Yorker art editor Françoise Mouly — has written a memoir about her mother, her grandmother, and their flawed family memories.

Actor Jonathan Pryce is playing the Jewish moneylender in a new touring production of The Merchant of Venice that reimagines Shakespeare's supposedly-comic villain as a tragic and universal figure.

This week the NPR program Invisibilia talks with a guy who despised our mindless worship of celebrities. So he devised an elaborate prank. It succeeded in ways he never would have anticipated.

Arnaldo Silva and his daughter Vanessa supported each other through chemotherapy treatments several years ago. Now, they are facing another fight.

Discontent and skepticism are central to this presidential campaign, says Gov. Jerry Brown, who ran an idealistic, outsider presidential campaign in 1992 but has governed California as a pragmatist.

Ruby Gilliam is 93 years old, a lifelong Democrat — and the oldest delegate at the party's national convention this year. "It's almost like a dream come true," she tells NPR's Audie Cornish.

When Michelle Obama referred to slaves building the White House, she gave a nod to a back story that needs to be appreciated, says Clarence Lusane, author of The Black History of the White House.

"I will feel horrible if Donald Trump is elected, I will feel horrible if Hillary Clinton is elected," says Green Party candidate Jill Stein. She says the two big parties lock out other voices.

Blake Crouch's new science fiction novel tells the story of Jason Dessen, a father and physics professor who suddenly finds himself in a parallel universe — in which he's unmarried and famous.

It often feels as if social media serves less as a bridge than an echo chamber, with algorithms that feed us information we already know and like. So, how do you break that loop? We ask some experts.

Alaska's a state that's "not too precious about itself," Eggers says. In Heroes of the Frontier, he follows an out-of-work dentist as she moves her small family to an unfamiliar home.

Bookseller John Evans recommends three vacation reads: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sport of Kings by C. E. Morgan and Under the Big Black Sun by John Doe and Tom DeSavia.

Jim Saint Germain was kicked out of his home when he was 14 and was close to losing much more. That was when his school dean, Carlos Walton, stepped in. He lent his home to the boy, and gave his love.