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Arts

In 'Heartland,' Writer's Block Can Be Murder

7:00am January 18, 2018

by Juan Vidal

Ana Simo's brash and unsettling debut novel straddles the line between pulp noir and slapstick; it's the story of a struggling writer who decides that murder is the cure for her decade-long block.

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Daniel Pink's 'When' Shows the Importance Of Timing Throughout Life

7:01pm January 17, 2018

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with author Daniel Pink about his new book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. In his book, Pink examines the importance of timing in various aspects of life.

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Are Implanted Medical Devices Creating A 'Danger Within Us'?

3:11pm January 17, 2018

by Dave Davies

Medical journalist Jeanne Lenzer warns that implanted medical devices are approved with far less scrutiny and testing than drugs. As a result, she says, some have caused harm and even death.

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The Girls in the Picture, by Melanie Benjamin

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'Girls In The Picture' Traces A Friendship In The Flickers

7:00am January 17, 2018

by Jean Zimmerman

A century ago, Hollywood had no stars. Movies were silent and the actors were anonymous. Melanie Benjamin's new novel outlines how actress Mary Pickford and writer Frances Marion changed that.

Frankenstein: The 1818 Text, by Mary Shelley

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See A Famous Monster Come Alive In 'Frankenstein: The 1818 Text'

7:00am January 16, 2018

by Genevieve Valentine

Most stage and screen versions of Frankenstein are based on a later edition of Mary Shelley's classic — this new reprint of her original text shows the story growing and changing with its author.

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New Picture Book Illustrates How 'Love' Is Always Around

8:33pm January 15, 2018

If you're lucky, you know what love is before you can even say the word. When you're a little kid love is a piece of toast, the color of a sunset, music from the radio. That's the message of a new picture book called, Love. NPR's Kelly McEvers talks with author Matt de la Pena and illustrator Loren Long.

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'They Didn't Want Me There': Remembering The Terror Of School Integration

3:31pm January 15, 2018

by Dave Davies

In 1957, three years after the Supreme Court declared segregated schools unconstitutional, Melba Pattillo Beals was one of nine black students who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Ark.

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From Madison Park To Washington, D.C. With Eric Motley (Rebroadcast)

2:13pm January 15, 2018

Raised by adoptive grandparents, Motley found his way to the Oval Office as a special assistant to President George W. Bush. Now, he's telling a story about what a good community can do, even when things are bad.

Georgia Gilmore adjusts her hat for photographers in 1956 during the bus boycott trial of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Montgomery, Ala. She testified: "When you pay your fare and they count the money, they don't know the Negro money from white money."

Meet The Fearless Cook Who Secretly Fed — And Funded — The Civil Rights Movement

8:16am January 15, 2018

by Maria Godoy

Georgia Gilmore organized black women to cook without raising the suspicions of their white employers, and poured the proceeds into an alternative transportation system for Montgomery bus boycotters.

Kaveh Akbar — himself a poet — posts in-depth interview with his favorite poets every week on DiveDapper.

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Arts

Kaveh Akbar Is Poetry's Biggest Cheerleader

10:00am January 14, 2018

by Jeevika Verma

Akbar, a poet himself, waves his pom poms for the form at DiveDapper, a site dedicated to in-depth interviews with his favorite poets. He says he wants to live his life "in joyful service" to poetry.