Arts

The GOP has "given in to the politics of anger—the belief that riling up the base can make up for failed attempts to broaden the electorate," the senator says. "These are the spasms of a dying party."

Cook became famous for her parts in Leonard Bernstein's Candide and Meredith Willson's The Music Man. Then, when Broadway roles became scarce, she reinvented herself as a concert and cabaret artist.

Nakajima played the iconic giant reptile in a dozen films, donning the suit that he says weighed about 220 pounds and wreaking havoc on model cities and rival monsters. He was 88.

NPR's Ron Elving reviews a massive new tome on the life of Edwin Stanton, certainly one of the most contentious and controversial figures in Abraham Lincoln's cabinet of rivals.

The Amen break is a drum riff that's been sampled in more than 2,000 songs by artists as diverse as N.W.A. and David Bowie. It was created some 50 years ago by a funk and soul band called The Winstons, and they've finally started getting some recognition.