Arts

A Flock of Dumpling Ducklings: What's inside? Roasted Beijing duck, of course.

Move Over, Pot Stickers: China Cooks Up Hundreds Of Dumplings

7:52pm August 29, 2013

by Anthony Kuhn

Dumplings are a huge part of Chinese culinary tradition, and restaurants there cater to the nation's obsession with a dazzlingly array of dumpling shapes and fillings, including green frogs stuffed with bullfrog meat and a flock of birds filled with roasted Beijing duck.

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Chaos, panic and disorder: Rebecca Hall stars as a barrister whose assignment leads to all kinds of bad things in the security-state thriller Closed Circuit.

Arts

Rebecca Hall, Finding New Thrills In The Family Business

7:22pm August 29, 2013

by NPR Staff

The British-American actress co-stars opposite Eric Bana in the surveillance-state thriller Closed Circuit. She joins NPR's Robert Siegel to talk about playing a barrister, working with her celebrated Shakespearean father and being inspired by her opera-singer mom.

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Rochelle Fowler watches with tears on her face as Lady Houdini works to break free. Harry Houdini made the water torture cell famous more than 100 years ago.

Lady Houdini's Escape Act Breaks Through Not Just Handcuffs

6:23pm August 29, 2013

by Sadie Babits

Kristen Johnson, also known as Lady Houdini, goes far beyond the role women usually play in escape acts. "It was important for me to be a strong example for young women in particular," she says.

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Arts

The Secrest Series Opens Season With The Carolina Chocolate Drops

10:16am August 29, 2013

by David Ford

David Ford chats with singer/songwriter Laurelyn Dossett about the Carolina Chocolate Drops. The band has collaborated with Dossett previously, and will be performing at the Wake Forest University Secrest Series, Thursday, September, 12th at 7:30pm in Wait Chapel. Laurelyn Dossett will be giving a pre-performance lecture at 6:40 in the Balcony Room of Wait Chapel.

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Conan O'Brien interviews Bruce Willis in a 2005 episode of Late Night With Conan O'Brien.

Arts

Conan's 'Uphill Climb' To Late-Night Throne

1:57pm August 28, 2013

When O'Brien took over for David Letterman on NBC's Late Night, he had virtually no on-air experience. In a 2003 interview, O'Brien tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross about his efforts to fill Letterman's shoes and how his Irish-Catholic repression fuels his comedy.

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Comedian Jimmy Kimmel interviews Mel Brooks on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Arts

Jimmy Kimmel: Making Late Night A Family Affair

12:04pm August 28, 2013

This month, the late-night talk-show host sets up camp in the 11:35 p.m. slot, which puts him head-to-head with Jay Leno and Kimmel's idol, David Letterman. Kimmel has put a personal mark on his show by bringing in his family to help him make it happen.

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Julia Child poses with "the chicken sisters" before an episode of The French Chef in which she teaches us how to roast a bird.

Julia Child Was Wrong: Don't Wash Your Raw Chicken, Folks

9:52am August 28, 2013

by Maria Godoy

The doyenne of TV chefs imparted much wisdom to American cooks, but one piece of Child's advice you should ignore is to wash your raw poultry before cooking. It spreads germs. Everywhere. Yet studies suggest 90 percent of Americans do it, so food safety researchers are launching a campaign to squash the habit.

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Arts

Open Dream Ensemble Presents "Big Shoes"

9:45am August 28, 2013

by David Ford

Open Dream Ensemble is a project of the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts and an outreach program of UNC School of the Arts.

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Jan Scannell, former accountant, has taken on a new identity as "Jan Braai," a South African TV show host and media personality promoting the idea of National Braai (barbecuing) Day, celebrated each year on Sept. 24.

'Braai Day' Aims To Bring S. Africans Together Over Barbecue

5:30pm August 27, 2013

by Gregory Warner

Jan Scannell is a 32-year-old former accountant with a dream: to establish a national holiday in South Africa like July 4 called Braai Day. Braai is a South African barbecue of meat or vegetables over wood embers.

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Books
Arts

'Bummers, Blisters And Boondoggles': A Jokester Joins The Army

2:59pm August 27, 2013

by NPR Staff

Humorist and late-night radio voice Jean Shepherd spent time in the U.S. Army during World War II. He never made it overseas, but the stories he mined from that experience have now been collected in a new volume, Shep's Army.

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