Arts & Life

Books
Arts

In Somalia, Surviving A Kidnapping Against 'Impossible Odds'

1:19pm May 14, 2013

by NPR Staff

In 2011, Jessica Buchanan, an aid worker in Somalia, was kidnapped by land pirates. For 93 days she fought off despair while her husband, Erik Landemalm, wondered if he'd ever see her again. In a two-part interview, Buchanan and Landemalm recall Buchanan's capture and her dramatic rescue by Navy SEALs.

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Vice President Spiro Agnew (right) and former President Lyndon Johnson view the liftoff of Apollo 11 from the stands at the Kennedy Space Center on July 16, 1969.

In 'Passage,' Caro Mines LBJ's Changing Political Roles

3:39pm May 13, 2013

The fourth volume in Robert Caro's monumental biography of Lyndon Johnson is The Passage of Power; it explores the period between 1958 and 1964 during which Johnson went from powerful Senate majority leader to powerless vice president to — suddenly — president of the United States.

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Bing Crosby: From The Vaults, Surprising Breadth

3:27pm May 13, 2013

by Kevin Whitehead

Four albums of reissues and archival recordings from Crosby's own vaults are getting a high-profile release; they demonstrate that his influence on modern singing is so huge, we barely notice it anymore. He could sing anything from Latin to Hawaiian to The Great American Songbook.

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After Leaving Senate, Snowe Is Still 'Fighting For Common Ground'

9:18am May 13, 2013

by NPR Staff

In a new book, former U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe explores how to fix the gridlock in Congress. Earlier this year, the Republican from Maine left the Senate out of frustration with the partisan stalemate. "It has to change, for the country," she says. "People deserve ... better representation."

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Books
Arts

Why You Should Give A $*%! About Words That Offend

8:41am May 13, 2013

by NPR Staff

Curse words change over time — back in the ninth century you could say the "s" word and no one would be offended. But we always need a set of words that are off-limits, and in her new book, author Melissa Mohr explains how the words that shock us reveal a lot about society's values.

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A scene from Hayao Miyazaki's 1988 film, My Neighbor Totoro.

Arts

The Movie Mark McKinney Has 'Seen A Million Times'

6:51pm May 12, 2013

by Lily Percy

Writer-comedian Mark McKinney could watch Hayao Miyazaki's anime film My Neighbor Totoro a million times. "It still makes me laugh, it still makes me smile," he says.

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Robert Ripley traveled the world collecting souvenirs like this Balinese lion mask.

Books
Arts

The 'Curious' Story Of Robert 'Believe It Or Not!' Ripley

6:26pm May 11, 2013

by NPR Staff

Neal Thompson's new biography traces the life of the newspaper cartoonist who became an international celebrity and media superstar. Ripley's pioneering mix of the strange, the shocking and the barely believable shaped the way Americans saw the world.

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Swedish-born guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen has released more than two dozen albums.

Yngwie Malmsteen: 'I've Always Been A Little Bit Of An Extremist'

10:11am May 11, 2013

by NPR Staff

Malmsteen is the king of the neoclassical shred guitar. The Swedish musician and composer has somehow bridged centuries, from Paganini to his own arpeggiated acrobatics. Here, the guitarist speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about being a family man and growing up on Bach and Jimi Hendrix.

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A young Sarah Polley and her actor father, Michael Polley, on a long-ago day; the photo is one of many family memories that surface in Stories We Tell, a superb meditation on dramatizing memory from the director of Away from Her.

Arts

Polley's 'Stories': A Family Saga Strikingly Spun

5:58am May 11, 2013

by Bob Mondello

A director's film memoir of her theatrical family is transformed by surprising discoveries about her parents' past — and her own heritage. Sarah Polley's film becomes a superb meditation on how we dramatize memory. (Recommended)

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Are you the next Radio Diaries teen diarist?

Hey Teenagers! We Want To Hear Your Stories

8:49pm May 10, 2013

NPR and Radio Diaries are looking for personal, surprising stories from teens. Write it, photograph it (and record it if you want) and submit it to the storytelling site Cowbird. Two entries will be picked to produce audio stories with Radio Diaries and a selection will be featured on NPR.org.

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