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How Reddit Emerged From A Rejected (And Very Different) Idea

6:36pm October 05, 2013

by NPR Staff

Alexis Ohanian is co-founder of the popular social news site Reddit. His new book, Without Their Permission, tells the story of the site, from startup to Internet giant.

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Thank You for Your Service, by Brian Finkel

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'Thank You For Your Service' Follows America's Soldiers Home

2:58pm October 03, 2013

by NPR Staff

Journalist David Finkel embedded with the 2-16 Infantry Battalion during the troop surge in Iraq, then recorded their stories in his first book, The Good Soldiers. Now, his new book chronicles the struggles of those who made it home, from their recurring nightmares and suicidal thoughts to the challenges of getting help.

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American-born British poet and playwright T.S. Eliot received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948.

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On Eliot's 125th, His 'Waste Land' Hasn't Lost Its Glamour

9:55am October 03, 2013

by NPR Staff

This year marks the 125th birthday of Nobel Prize-winning poet T.S. Eliot. To celebrate, a re-issue of the first edition of his seminal poem has just been published, with an introduction by New Yorker poetry editor Paul Muldoon. NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Muldoon about the poem's lasting influence.

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Jamie Moyer, shown above pitching for the Colorado Rockies in May 2012, made his major league debut back in 1986. He says that after decades in the major leagues, he'd occasionally have to remind himself that "in baseball terms, I really was old, but in e

At 49, Jamie Moyer's Pitching Career Goes Into Extra Innings

12:57pm October 02, 2013

In a new memoir called Just Tell Me I Can't Moyer explains how he became a better pitcher in his 40s than his 20s. Moyer's story isn't just the tale of a talented guy who hung on a little longer than others; with the help of a sports psychologist, he managed to gain control of the mental side of his game.

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Chris Matthews Looks Back On A Time 'When Politics Worked'

2:49pm October 01, 2013

In his new book Tip and the Gipper, MSNBC's Hardball host Chris Matthews reflects on his time as a top aide to Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neill during Ronald Reagan's presidency. He compares O'Neill and Reagan's unlikely friendship to today's approach of "government by tantrum."

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How Our Stone Age Bodies Struggle To Stay Healthy In Modern Times

10:00am October 01, 2013

In The Story of the Human Body, evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman explains how our bodies haven't adapted to modern conditions. The result is "mismatch diseases" — ailments that occur because our bodies weren't designed for the environments in which we now live.

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How Two Brothers Waged A 'Secret World War' In The 1950s

6:30pm September 29, 2013

by NPR Staff

Sharing power in the Eisenhower administration, John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles were the forefathers of using covert operations to upset foreign governments. Journalist Stephen Kinzer, who wrote a book on the siblings, says Americans are still paying the price for them.

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'Faithful Scribe': Tracing Ancestry Through Pakistan's History

7:10pm September 28, 2013

by NPR Staff

In The Faithful Scribe, Shahan Mufti examines the history of Pakistan and that nation's relationship to the U.S. He interweaves the story of his own family with the tumultuous story of the nation. Mufti talks with NPR's Arun Rath about the future of the world's first Islamic democracy.

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From Kolbasa To Borscht, 'Soviet Cooking' Tells A Personal History

6:52pm September 28, 2013

by Ellah Allfrey

Anya von Bremzen's new memoir is a delicious narrative of memory and cuisine in 20th century Soviet Union. She writes about her family's own history and contemplates the nation's "complicated, even tortured, relationship with food."

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Garrison Keillor has been the host of A Prairie Home Companion since it began nearly four decades ago. He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1994.

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News From Lake Wobegon: Garrison Keillor Has A New Book Of Poetry

11:16am September 28, 2013

by NPR Staff

The host of A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer's Almanac has published his first poetry collection called O, What a Luxury: Verses Lyrical, Vulgar, Pathetic and Profound. "I love rhymes," Keillor says. "I love to write a poem about New York and rhyme 'oysters' with 'The Cloisters.' "

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