New Yorker writer John Colapinto developed a vocal polyp when he began "wailing" with a rock group without proper warmup. His new book explores the human voice's physicality, frailty and feats.
Journalist Jon Fasman says local police are frequently able to access very powerful surveillance tools with little oversight. He writes about the threat to privacy in We See It All.
In a memoir, Cicely Tyson recalls an improbable journey through a six-decade career. She says several roles "hurt me deeply because it happened simply because of the color of my skin and my sex."
Natalie Haynes's new book tells the epic story of the Trojan War from the perspectives of the women involved in it. And that means all the women — from Troy and Sparta, goddesses, Amazons and more.
Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman in America to earn her medical degree. Her sister Emily followed in her footsteps. Janice Nimura tells the story of the "complicated, prickly" trailblazers.
Evan Osnos talks about Joe Biden's enduring quest to become president. He says Biden has a different mindset today than he once had: "He's a man who is at peace." Originally broadcast Oct. 27, 2020.
Paleoanthropologist Daniel Lieberman says the concept of "getting exercise" is relatively new. His new book, Exercised, examines why we run, lift and walk for a workout when our ancestors didn't.
NPR's Noel King talks to Tyler Stovall about his book: White Freedom: The Racial History of an Idea. It traces the complex relationship between freedom and race starting in the eighteenth century.
After the Capitol was cleared of insurrectionists on January 6, there was work to be done — and it wasn't lost on many that cleaning up the mess would fall largely to Black and Brown people.
Katherine Seligman's new novel makes alive and visible the lives of people we often walk past. It's the story of a young woman surviving on the streets of San Francisco with a few friends and her dog.
Adam Jentleson traces the history of the filibuster, which started as a tool of Southern senators upholding slavery and then later became a mechanism to block civil rights legislation.
In his new story collection, Kevin Barry proves to be a master at evoking the landscapes of both western Ireland and the human heart; he seems to have an innate sense of why people do what they do.
When now Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was "accused" of being "too ambitious" on the campaign trail, it spurred her niece, activist and author Meena Harris, into action.
Robert Jones Jr.'s debut novel is a love story between two enslaved men on a Mississippi plantation. He says that it was very important for him to depict love and art in the midst of sorrow.
