Search results for

Our panelists tell us three stories of political adversaries coming together, only one of which is true.

Opposition to a bill allowing gay couples to adopt has been unexpectedly fierce in the country, which legalized civil unions more than a decade ago. In a rare move, and to the surprise of many, even the French Catholic Church has become involved in the debate.

The cello ensemble plays all 20 of the songs written and published as sheet music — but not recorded — by Beck.

The gong business is still a hit for Andrew Borakove, a comedy television writer turned gong salesmen. Despite the rocky economy, his doors have been open for eight years. "We've watched the world go up and down," he says, "but when you're selling gongs, there's no up or down, it's just round."

It's that time of year when best-of lists abound, and Fresh Air's critics get in on the game: David Bianculli chooses his top television shows, David Edelstein names his favorite films, Maureen Corrigan weighs in with notable books and Ken Tucker tunes into to some of the best albums of 2012.

The shape-shifting musician often sounds like a completely different artist from one song to the next. On his new Song Reader, he leaves the sound in the listeners' hands.

This week is the annual "new names in the news" quiz. You're given some names that you probably never heard of before 2012, but who made news during the past 12 months. You say who they are.

As a new class of million-dollar political donors rises, conservatives are fighting for continued secrecy around their contributions. Strategist Karl Rove is citing a 1950s Supreme Court case that protected NAACP members, arguing that conservative donors are also being subjected to intimidation.

After the 1917 Russian Revolution, there was a debate over what to do with the spectacular jewels that had symbolized the power and wealth of the czars. Most have remained in the Kremlin, but some can't be traced.

NPR's Elizabeth Blair has the story of Abel Meeropol, a man with two extraordinary life stories. He wrote the song "Strange Fruit" about lynching that became one of the most important songs of the 20th century AND he and his wife adopted the two boys who were orphaned when their parents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, were executed in 1953. (This story initially aired on Sept. 5, 2012, on Morning Edition.