Most James Beard awards go to haute cuisine, but one prize recognizes classic neighborhood joints. And increasingly, the winners are immigrants whose cultures haven't yet dissolved in the melting pot.
A hands-on tour of the city's landmark Italian Market includes time to appreciate the scents and sounds — and opportunities to sample the district's delicious chocolate, cheeses and fresh pastas.
Governments have tried to erase the evidence of some squares' troubled pasts, but that doesn't mean they've been forgotten. A new book gathers writers' thoughts about famous squares around the world.
It was a simple idea: Would you, our listeners, tweet us poems for National Poetry Month? Your response contained multitudes — haiku, lyrics, even one 8-year-old's ode to her dad's bald spot.
"I didn't go out there to ruin everyone's day or undermine the moral fabric of America. I was making jokes." Gervais talked with NPR's Rachel Martin about his new movie and how he approaches humor.
Words Unlocked, a poetry contest for juveniles in corrections, has drawn more than 1,000 entries. Its judge, Jimmy Santiago Baca, says it was a poetry book that helped him survive his own prison term.
Rachel Martin talks with Angela Duckworth, the psychologist who brought the idea of "grit" as a marker of success into the American mainstream. Her book posits that achievement is about persistence.
When the assistant at a multinational corporation skims a tiny fraction of the company's billions, it sets off a chain of unexpected events. Camille Perri tells Rachel Martin about her new novel.