Smithsonian exhibit tells America's history through objects of entertainment
NPR's special correspondent Susan Stamberg visits with curator John Troutman at the Smithsonian exhibit "Entertainment Nation."
Arts
Queen Latifah and Billy Crystal are among the 2023 Kennedy Center honorees
Billy Crystal, Renée Fleming, Barry Gibb, Queen Latifah and Dionne Warwick will be honored for their lifetime artistic achievements as the 46th class of Kennedy Center honorees.
Facing book bans and restrictions on lessons, teachers are scared and self-censoring
Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson explains how new laws about teaching race, racism, gender identity and sexuality have created new fears and burdens in schools and classrooms.
Birmingham soul band St. Paul and the Broken Bones gets folksy in new album
For "Angels in Science Fiction" front man Paul Janeway wrote songs about fatherhood, love and starfish.
In Marvel's 'Secret Invasion,' it's a human hero who's the cure for superhero fatigue
Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury never forgets he's a Black man navigating the world, which makes him feel like James Bond meets Shaft.
The Academy of American Poets names its first Latino head
Ricardo Alberto Maldonado will become the almost-90-year-old academy's executive director and president.
Remembering acclaimed editor Robert Gottlieb
Gottlieb, who died June 14 at 92, edited Joseph Heller, Toni Morrison, John le Carré and, for more than 50 years, Robert Caro. We listen back to an interview with Gottlieb from just a few months ago.
Two new novels illustrate just how hard it is to find a foothold in America
Brandon Taylor's The Late Americans is a sexually-explicit, cynical novel about young people striving. Such Kindness, by Andre Dubus III, grapples with injury, addiction, masculinity and loneliness.
'Rich White Men' reinforces the argument that inequality harms us all
While not a new concept, Garrett Neiman makes distinct contributions to the conversation; as a rich white man, he has insider's access to that population — and doesn't shy away from self-indictment.
In 'The Fight for Midnight,' a teen boy confronts the abortion debate
Dan Solomon's YA novel The Fight for Midnight takes place during former Texas state lawmaker Wendy Davis' filibuster of a bill that would restrict access to abortion. The protagonist is a teen boy.