Arts & Life

Jelly Belly has developed a champagne-flavored bean, but don't expect an alcoholic kick from this candy.

You'll Get No Alcoholic Kick From Champagne-Flavored Jelly Beans

3:42pm April 03, 2015

by Marc Silver

Some 16 billion jelly beans are consumed every year in the U.S. alone, and every year new flavors hit the market. But the origins of the popular confection are "lost in the mists of time."

Books
Arts

Mantel Takes Up Betrayal, Beheadings In 'Bodies'

3:22pm April 03, 2015

Hilary Mantel is the first woman to win the Man Booker Prize twice, first for her 2009 novel, Wolf Hall, and also for its 2012 sequel, Bring Up the Bodies. She discusses the books with Terry Gross.

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The times, they may be changing — but the cast of AMC's Mad Men find it difficult to change with them.

Arts

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same As 'Mad Men' Winds Down

3:21pm April 03, 2015

by Eric Deggans

AMC's award-winning drama Mad Men returns for its final season Sunday. NPR TV critic Eric Deggans says these last seven installments explore how little people change, even in tumultuous times.

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Arts

The PBS Version Of 'Wolf Hall' Unfolds Like A Real-Life House Of Cards

3:13pm April 03, 2015

by John Powers

The show, based on Hilary Mantel's acclaimed novel, stars Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's chief minister. Critic John Powers says it's darkly lit, finely acted and thoroughly compelling.

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Books
Arts

Questions For David Levithan, Author Of 'Hold Me Closer'

2:21pm April 03, 2015

by Petra Mayer

Tiny Cooper, the breakout star of the 2010 novel Will Grayson, Will Grayson, steps center stage in its companion novel — a fully realized version of an epic musical Tiny's written about his own life.

Books
Arts

If Drugs Could Talk: In 'Delicious Foods' They Do

1:11pm April 03, 2015

by NPR Staff

In James Hannaham's novel Delicious Foods, addiction itself is a character — it even narrates some of the chapters. The book imagines what slavery would look like in modern America.

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Arts

Law And Order: Special Fairy Tale Victims Unit

12:15pm April 03, 2015

In the enchanted forest, fairy tale villains are interrogated by the elite Fairy Tales Victims Unit. These are their stories. Can you solve whodunit from these fabled motives?

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Arts

Color Me Badd

12:15pm April 03, 2015

The geniuses at Crayola always crank out crazy crayon names, from "Mac & Cheese" to "Inchworm." Can you deduce real crayon names from ones we made up?

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Arts

Get Them To The E.R.

12:15pm April 03, 2015

All the answers are celebrity names that end in the letters "e-r." What Community star would throw down the gauntlet in a rap battle against his alter ego Childish Gambino? Hint: Not Danny Glover.

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Arts

Pair It Down

12:15pm April 03, 2015

Why are Doc Holliday and Dr. Martens a paradox? Because they're a "pair of 'Docs.'" Every answer is a word that begins with the letters p-a-r-a, followed by the word that two clues have in common.

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