Arts & Life

"Many of us spend more than half our waking hours at work," writes Buettner. So he recommends you find the right job, limit your workweek to 40 hours, take vacations and go to happy hour for some satisfying socializing.

Books
Arts

How To 'Thrive': Short Commutes, More Happy Hours

1:03pm February 18, 2013

by NPR Staff

Dan Buettner visited some of the happiest populations on Earth to figure out what makes them tick. After five years of study, he argues the real keys to happiness lie not in wealth or beauty, but in fundamental changes to the way we live. Buettner lays out his findings in his book Thrive.

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Arts

Sometimes, Food Additives Are Pretty Innocuous

1:03pm February 18, 2013

The uproar over what critics call "pink slime" in some ground beef refocused attention on what's in the food we eat. Most packaged foods contain at least one item you wouldn't recognize. But many food experts caution that just because you don't know an ingredient doesn't mean you shouldn't eat it. This segment was originally broadcast on April 11, 2012.

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Books
Arts

'Immortal' Cells Of Henrietta Lacks Live On In Labs

1:03pm February 18, 2013

by NPR Staff

It was one of the most revolutionary tools of biomedical research: the immortal HeLa cell line. But few people know the cells belonged to a poor Southern tobacco farmer named Henrietta Lacks. Rebecca Skloot spent years researching Lacks and tells her story in The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks.

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Herman Koch is a Dutch writer and actor. The Dinner is his sixth novel; it originally came out in Dutch in 2009, and has since been published in 25 countries.

Books
Arts

'The Dinner' Asks: What Will You Do To Protect Your Family?

6:42am February 18, 2013

by NPR Staff

Herman Koch's new novel The Dinner asks the uncomfortable question: How far will you go to protect your family? Two couples gather for dinner to discuss their teenaged sons, who've most likely committed a terrible crime. Will they report it? Or will they cover it up to keep their sons safe?

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Arts

The Movie Connie Britton Has 'Seen A Million Times'

5:00pm February 17, 2013

by Lily Percy

Actress Connie Britton could watch Colin Higgins' comedy Foul Play a million times. "From watching a movie like Foul Play, I have always wanted to bring a sense of humor to really every role that I'm playing," she says.

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John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, pictured above in January 1970, are the subjects of Jonathan Cott's new book Days That I'll Remember. Cott met Lennon in 1968 and was friends with the couple.

Days With John And Yoko: A Writer Remembers

5:00pm February 17, 2013

by NPR Staff

Rock writer Jonathan Cott met John Lennon in 1968 and formed a working relationship with him, as well as with Yoko Ono, that would span more than two decades. Cott was the last journalist to interview Lennon, just three days before the singer was killed.

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Books
Arts

Tales Of Transformation Make 'Vampires In The Lemon Grove' A Stunner

7:54pm February 15, 2013

by Meg Wolitzer

Karen Russell's new collection of short stories has dead presidents reincarnated as horses, girls turning into silkworms, and vampires who quench their thirst for blood with lemons. Reviewer Meg Wolitzer says that in Russell's world we aren't fixed in space and time but can change at any moment.

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Tony Kushner based his screenplay for Lincoln in part on Doris Kearns Goodwin's biography of the president, Team of Rivals â but he read many other histories and biographies, in addition to Lincoln's own writings.

Arts

Kushner's 'Lincoln' Is Strange, But Also Savvy

1:11pm February 15, 2013

Tony Kushner wrote the screenplay for the film Lincoln, which focuses on the 16th president's tumultuous final months in office. Kushner read more than 20 books before writing about Lincoln, a man who had "an enormous capacity for grief that didn't deprive him of the ability to act."

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The bright colors and throwback feel of the Chilean drama No mask the very real political consequences of the 1988 plebiscite it depicts. (Pictured: Gael Garcia Bernal as Rene Saavedra)

Arts

The Story Of 'No' Is The Story Of Modern Chile

8:39am February 15, 2013

by Mandalit del Barco

The Chilean political drama No is the first film from that country to be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Academy Award. The powerful, poignant film uses an unlikely main character to chart the surprising end of a dictator's reign.

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Sandip Roy and his great-aunt, Debika Ghosh, took this picture after she told him about her great romantic escapade.

Arts

An Affair To Remember In Pre-Independence India

3:05am February 15, 2013

by Sandip Roy

It began like a typical Bollywood story. Boy meets girl in pre-independence India. They fall in love. Her family says no way. So one night, she escapes. NPR commentator Sandip Roy recounts how his great-aunt jumped off a moving train for love, and went on to have a happy 60-year-long marriage.

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