Search results for

Mehdi Mahmoudian worries Iran could experience an endless cycle of violence unless — or until — it achieves democracy.

NPR's go-to librarian returns to some old favorites from her personal shelves. "All the books on my bookshelves are books that I loved," she says. "Those are the only books I keep." Her picks include a trilogy of novellas filled with British humor and an Irish mystery.

Here are some of the most illuminating stories that we've read this week about the uprisings across the nation, and what brought the country to this moment.

The title novella of Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's debut is set in the near future in Charlottesville, Va., where descendants of Sally Hemings' take shelter from a racist mob in Thomas Jefferson's manor.

Ursula Villarreal-Moura's debut novel movingly portrays its protagonist coming to terms with an imbalanced, difficult, and sometimes harmful friendship that was also a key part of her life for years.

Scientists have sequenced the genome of Ludwig van Beethoven from two-century-old locks of hair, and found clues about the ailments that plagued him in life.

A massive computer competition works to identify the patterns that can predict where someone will end up in life. But whether this competition has a winner may depend on your viewpoint.

Fourteen years after her first album as St. Vincent, Annie Clark makes a sharp turn in time with Daddy's Home, a '70s rock revue that nails the sound, if not the spirit, of its influences.

Playwright Tarell McCraney and filmmaker Barry Jenkins drew on their own childhood experiences in making Moonlight, a film about a boy growing up in a Miami housing project.

With 155-mph winds, Irma is headed for Florida. More than 5 million people have been ordered to evacuate.