Conductor Marin Alsop investigates the alluring power behind the grand opening of Also Sprach Zarathustra.

A late relative left the husband-and-wife duo with two precious gifts: a creaky old farmhouse to record in and a wealth of woodsy songs to sing.

In The Orphan Master's Son, Adam Johnson sensitively imagines life how ordinary North Koreans struggle to endure work camps, professional torturers and the repressions of an all-powerful state.

Eleven-year-old Glory, feels like she's about to have the worst summer of her life. It's 1964 in Hanging Moss, Miss., a year that will teach her about bigotry, loyalty and bravery. Former librarian Augusta Scattergood talks with host Scott Simon about her first young adult fiction novel, Glory Be.

President Obama bypassed Congress this week in appointing Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and filling vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board. Republicans called the appointments an unconstitutional power grab and said they were made while the Senate was still technically in session.

Ellis Avery's novel The Last Nude imagines the hidden affair between art deco painter Tamara de Lempicka and her model Rafaela. From afar, the boldly colored paintings appear polished and cool-headed, but up close, Avery says, you can see they were created in a state of passion.

Moose encounters are a regular part of life in Alaska, where about 1,500 roam Anchorage in the winter. They cause traffic jams, destroy trees and shrubs, and get their antlers tangled in Christmas lights. For Alaskans, it's often a love-hate relationship.

The hip-hop group's founding members, Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson and Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter, explain their story-driven new album, undun.

Military prosecutors say Army Pvt. Bradley Manning downloaded troves of secret documents from a computer station in Baghdad and passed them to Wikileaks. If investigators recommend that Manning face court martial, it could land him in prison for the rest of his life. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports.

The songwriter grew up in a small Mennonite community in Canada, but skipped town at 18 to live on a commune in Chicago. His lyrics reflect a life spent wandering and connecting with strangers.