(Bonny Wolf for NPR)
The side salad has undergone an evolution in mainstream America, from the simple heavily dressed chunk of lettuce, to vibrant kitchen-sink medleys. Now, in many areas, a bounty of local, seasonal ingredients is at our fingertips, helping to elevate the side salad to star status.
(Paul Morigi / Courtesy of Bloombury USA)
For years, the Tea Party has held individualism up as the great American value. But columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. says that Americans historically have prized communitarianism just as much. In Our Divided Political Heart, Dionne argues that America is at its best when it balances the two.
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If you're looking for advice on leadership, it's good to start with a four-star general. In his new memoir, former Secretary of State Colin Powell offers advice and anecdotes drawn from his childhood in the Bronx and his military career — and reflects candidly about the lead-up to the Iraq war.
Tia Mowry of Sister, Sister fame is now all grown up, she just had a baby, and she's in the spotlight again with her twin sister in the reality TV show, Tia & Tamera. Host Michel Martin speaks with Tia Mowry about her career and her new book, Oh, Baby! Pregnancy Tales and Advice from One Hot Mama to Another.
(Courtesy of the American Repertory Theater)
The stand-up comedian and star of In Living Color was recently nominated for a Tony Award for his portrayal of Sporting Life in the opera Porgy and Bess. "I think the character of Sporting Life is a salesman so he has to be flamboyant, the life of the party," he says.
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In The Right-Hand Shore, Christopher Tilghman returns to the racially charged landscape and the crumbling plantations of his book Mason's Retreat. Fresh Air critic Maureen Corrigan calls the prequel "the real deal."
Hulu is bringing a new slate of original programming to live alongside its offerings from broadcast and cable, and one is a show about movies from Kevin Smith.
Analysts expect this fall's election to turn on the economy. President of the American Enterprise Institute Arthur C. Brooks wants to deepen the debate on the economy by discussing which economic policies are morally right. Brooks talks to Steve Inskeep about his book, The Road to Freedom: How to Win the Fight for Free Enterprise.
(HBO)
Martha Gellhorn was one of the first great female war correspondents. But her reputation as a journalist was sometimes overshadowed by her marriage to Ernest Hemingway. A new HBO film looks at the relationship between this passionate power couple.
(Claire O'Neill / NPR)
Each month, NPR's All Things Considered invites a poet into the newsroom to see how the show comes together and to write an original poem about the news. This month, our NewsPoet is Carmen Gimenez Smith. Want to write your own poem about the day's news? You can put them in the comments below.
(HBO)
The Emmy-winning actor talks with NPR's Audie Cornish about the popular fantasy drama — and about the rules of his own personal game.
(Melinda Sue Gordon / Paramount Pictures)
Actor and writer Sacha Baron Cohen is famous for taking his characters — Ali G., Borat, Bruno — into the real world, interacting with people who have no idea that they're dealing with a fictional character. But his new movie, The Dictator, is a scripted comedy about a tyrant on the loose in New York.
(Dana Edelson / NBC)
On this weekend's Saturday Night Live, Kristen Wiig got an emotional send-off.
(Frazer Harrison / Getty Images)
We take a brief moment to discuss what Justin Bieber is wearing. Seriously.
An April spent in an Italian castle? Yes, please. The four women of Elizabeth von Arnim's The Enchanted April are lucky to have a grand adventure. But author Madeline Miller recommends the book even if you're stuck at home. Do you have a favorite book about exotic travel? Tell us in the comments.
(Harriet Russell)
For Nancy Pearl, beach reading doesn't mean light reading. NPR's go-to librarian has dug up a diverse mix of titles old and new — a selection of mystery, memoir and more — that will leave you with some substantial summer reading.
(iStockphoto.com)
The end of Round 8 of our Three-Minute Fiction contest has finally arrived. We've read through more than 6,000 stories, and now our judge for this round, novelist Luis Alberto Urrea, has picked his favorite.
Travel writer Paul Theroux's latest novel, The Lower River, is about a former Peace Corps volunteer who returns to Malawi years later and finds the village he left much changed. Host Rachel Martin talks with author.
(Melinda Sue Gordon / Paramount Pictures)
From bumbling interviews as Borat to taking off his clothes in front of Rep. Ron Paul as Bruno, there isn't much actor Sacha Baron Cohen won't do for a laugh. The story of his latest persona, Admiral General Hafez Aladeen, might seem inspired by recent revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East, but he insists the character was in development before the Arab Spring.
BOSTON — Boston’s theater community converges on the Paramount Theater Monday night for the 30th annual Elliot Norton Awards.
Fresh off the walls of New York City’s Frick Collection, a small installation of three monumental works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir opens Saturday at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Sharon Brody’s essay on the sale of WFNX-FM is eliciting many mini-remembrances of the independent rock station.
When the sale of WFNX-FM was announced Wednesday, WBUR’s Andrea Shea interviewed Stephen Mindich, publisher of the Phoenix Media Communications Group, to talk about the sale of 101.7.
BOSTON — “Woody Sez,” a musical about folk legend Woody Guthrie, will be simulcast for free on a big screen on Harvard’s campus.
GLOUCESTER, Mass. — In the late 1980s, woodworker Gregory Bover decided to build a pretty incredible gift for his wife, an internationally known harpsichordist. Twenty-five years later, her new instrument is finally finished, and Tuesday night it will be played in public for the first time in Rockport.
BOSTON — On May 24, the Boston-based, Celtic-American punk rock band Dropkick Murphy’s will make its Pops debut for “Red Sox Night.”
NEW YORK — Digital tricks and physical humor on the stage can look unconvincingly wooden if it isn’t done by the best — as a result, physical humor is becoming a lost art in the theater.
BOSTON — Roman Totenberg, the world-famous violinist and Boston University professor of music, died early Tuesday morning at his home in Newton.
World-renowned concert violinist and teacher Roman Totenberg, whose professional career spanned nine decades and four continents, died Tuesday at the age of 101.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass — Aayesha Siddiqui shares the life lessons she learned at this year’s ROFLCon.
BOSTON — Retired State Police Trooper Dick Clemens, who was the model for the trooper in Norman Rockwell’s 1958 painting “The Runaway,” has passed away. He was 84.
BOSTON — Free opera is rare, but a local contemporary music company is offering free seats to a world premiere.
BOSTON — WBUR’s Nate Goldman talks with “Tron Guy”
BOSTON — The so-called “social media queen of rock and roll” broke Kickstarter records this week raising money for a massive world tour and traveling art exhibit.
Held this Friday and Saturday at MIT, the convention brings together thoughts leaders, Internet celebrities and fans to celebrate and understand Internet culture.
BOSTON — “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess,” a reinterpretation of the classic folk opera that began production in 2011 in Cambridge, has garnered 10 Tony Award nominations.
Since the late 1990s, Cambridge author M.T. Anderson has been crafting smart, often dark books for teens that also draw adult readers.
After more than 18 years helping New England filmmakers find financing, Lyda Kuth debuts her own autobiographical documentary at the Independent Film Festival Boston.
