Jamal Joseph was a 15-year-old honor student when joining the Black Panther Party. He later faced a 12-year sentence in Leavenworth Penitentiary for helping fugitive Panther members. Behind bars, he taught a theater group, and now he teaches the arts at Columbia University. His new book is part of Tell Me More's Black History Month memoir series. Advisory: This conversation may not be comfortable for some listeners.
(Ugurhan Betin / iStockphoto.com)
Advertisers collect information about us with every digital move we make. They then target ads to us based on that information. Communications scholar Joseph Turow worries that advertisers will use such data to discriminate against people and put them into "reputation silos."
(Courtesy of the filmmaker)
An absorbing new documentary by Danish director Lise Birk Pedersen charts four years in the life of Masha Drokova, who became famous as the girl who publicly kissed Vladimir Putin. Critic John Powers says it "offers a fresh glimpse into how Putin's Russia actually works."
(T. Susan Chang for NPR)
It takes a few leisurely hours to draw the magic out of meaty beef bones. Boiled at length, they produce a savory base for all sorts of soups, from borscht to pho.
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Fawzia Koofi almost died on the day she was born, but survived against all odds and became the first female deputy speaker of Afghanistan's parliament. Koofi plans to run for president in two years, and in a new memoir, describes her hopes for the country's future.
Many consumers try shopping consciously by going to local stores or ones owned by certain faith or ethnic groups. Maggie Anderson and her family spent a year trying to shop exclusively at African American-owned businesses. They chronicled their efforts in the new book titled Our Black Year. Maggie Anderson talks with host Michel Martin.
(Mario Tama / Getty Images)
New Orleans hosts one of the biggest Mardi Gras celebrations on Tuesday. Local self-described Mardi Gras Indians are known for their eye-catching regalia, but police have seemed to look critically at them. Host Michel Martin speaks with Clarence "Big Chief" Dalcour of the Creole Osceola Mardi Gras Indians.
(Lionsgate)
Nick Nolte is nominated for an Oscar for his supporting work in Warrior, which might appear to be your basic kicking-and-punching catharsis. But commentator Mark Blankenship says it's actually far more frightening.
Steve Inskeep talks to former Sen. Russ Feingold about his book While America Sleeps. Feingold, a Democrat, represented Wisconsin for 18 years, during which he authored landmark campaign finance legislation and was the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act. His book details what he calls the failure of American institutions to respond to the challenges of the post-Sept. 11 era.
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How much do we read into ourselves when we write a diary? Author Patrick DeWitt recommends the dark, deep journal of a man suffering from a nervous breakdown.
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We're streaming our video, downloading our books and doing away with the hard copies that used to help communicate our personalities to one another. Bob Mondello points to a surprisingly early vision of that kind of digital future — and asks what's behind the worry it expresses.
Host Audie Cornish talks with writer and director Barak Goodman about his latest project, Clinton, part of the American Experience: Presidents series. The first of two installments airs Monday night on PBS.
Bernie Madoff's investment scandal inspired financial analyst Christina Alger to write a novel based on the personal and financial turmoil created by the collapse. It's called The Darlings, and Alan Cheuse — writing professor at George Mason University — has a review.
(Jean-Luc Bertini)
Stories about life on Native American reservations often focus on alcoholism, drugs, violence and poverty. In Rez Life, David Treuer shows the brighter side: "There might be more hardship, but there's more joy," he says.
Many Americans use Presidents' Day to reflect on the nation's core values, but the founding fathers often had complicated relationships with those ideals. A new exhibit explores that issue. "Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello" highlights the lives of slaves owned by the third U.S. president and the author of the Declaration of Independence. Host Michel Martin speaks with the exhibition's lead curators.
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Through his many New Yorker covers, Barry Blitt has become one of the pre-eminent satirical cartoonists of America's recent presidents. Now Blitt has trained his eye and pen upon our first president in a new children's book, George Washington's Birthday.
(Andrew Macpherson / Disney)
McKenzie, half of the New Zealand musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, wrote five songs in the recent Muppets movie. "Man or Muppet" is nominated for Best Original Song at this year's Academy Awards. [extended cut]
(Fernando Leon / Getty Images)
The Colbert Report is set to resume production Monday, after a hiatus last week that was brought on by concerns over the health of Stephen Colbert's mother. Lorna Colbert, 91, lives in Charleston, S.C., where the Comedy Central star grew up.
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The Academy Awards are almost upon us, and among this year's nominations for best picture, five were based on books. But for author Tessa Harris, that number isn't high enough. She has three books that should be movies — and you can recommend others in the comments section.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Mary Walker was an enslaved woman who fled north to freedom and ended up owning one of the more famous houses in the Boston area.
HOLYOKE, Mass. — At the city’s The Care Center, one class helps women learn that they face the same issues that artists and writers have been dealing with for years.
BOSTON — At a time when many Americans believe there’s a profound lack of civility in society, leading thinkers gathered Friday to talk about civility in history, culture and the media.
BOSTON — Harvard music professor Robert Levin, who recently completed three previously unfinished pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, talks about the challenge of completing the works of such a giant of the classical music world.
BOSTON — The PAX East video game convention will stay in Boston for at least another 10 years.
BOSTON — Wellesley College owns 573 hand-written notes that were sent back and forth between the prominent Victorian poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett. The letters track an old-fashioned romance that blossomed into marriage.
BOSTON — The founder of StoryCorps, David Isay, is out with a new book “suited” to Valentine’s Day. The book features some of the best love stories the oral history project has collected.
BOSTON — The very first American-made love cards were produced in Worcester by Esther Howland — the “mother of the American valentine” — in 1848.
LOS ANGELES — Adele, who captured the world’s heart with an album about a broken romance, emerged as the top winner at Sunday’s Grammy Awards, winning six trophies including the prestigious trifecta of record, song and album of the year.
BOSTON — The organization that runs the Grammys has slashed the total number of award categories this year from 109 to 78, and one Berklee College of Music professor says that will have a “devastating” effect on the careers of his students and other musicians.
Dozens of Boston musicians are on this year’s nominees list for the 54th annual Grammy Awards. We’ve collected a sampling of these Boston musicians.
BOSTON — The new grant, along with about $4 million already committed, puts the arts expansion initiative much closer to its $10 million goal, which will be used to go directly toward arts education in all Boston public schools.
BOSTON — Two Boston arts organizations are being highlighted for nurturing the next generation of art lovers.
BOSTON — The Kennedy family has transferred ownership of the main house on its storied Hyannisport compound to an institute named for the late U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
BOSTON — In the contemporary art world, big biennial shows are popular destinations for fans and consumers to discover new work. Anxiety is emerging as a theme at this year’s biennial at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln.
BOSTON — Following Opera Boston’s abrupt closing, Boston Lyric Opera presented a panel discussion on the viability of opera in the city. Listen to it here.
BOSTON — On Tuesday, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library is releasing the last secretly recorded tapes from the Kennedy White House. The tapes are from his final three months of his life in the fall of 1963.
LINCOLN, Mass. — The DeCordova Biennial — the largest group show dedicated to showing fresh artwork created all over New England — premieres at the sculpture park and museum in Lincoln Sunday.
BOSTON — For the first time, renowned conductor Benjamin Zander is offering an apology for employing a registered sex offender to video record children at the New England Conservatory.
