Search results for

Host Scott Simon talks with Jeffrey Beard, secretary of the California Department of Corrections, about high incarceration rates and the social effects they have on communities. Beard is a member of a National Academy of Science committee studying the high rates of incarceration in the United States.

Host Scott Simon talks with the Republican governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, who on Friday announced he will appoint an emergency financial manager for Detroit. The city faces a $327 million budget deficit and more than $14 billion in long-term debt.

The Texan won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958 — and wooed Russians in the process. Van Cliburn died Wednesday at 78.

It was a big week at the Supreme Court. The court heard arguments on a case challenging the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act. Plus, the Obama administration filed an important brief in an upcoming gay marriage case. NPR's Nina Totenberg joins host Scott Simon for analysis.

Mokhtar Belmokhtar is believed to have been behind the attack on an Algerian gas plant in January. The Chadian military said Saturday its forces had killed the senior commander for al-Qaida's wing in North Africa in an attack on a rebel base in Mali.

Actor David Duchovny could watch Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather a million times. "If I'm flipping around channels, I'll see it's on and I'll say, 'OK, I'll watch it for a scene or two' and then I can never turn it off," he says.

The enormous, automatic spending cuts known as "sequestration" went into effect on Friday. Guest host Celeste Headlee talks to NPR's Mara Liasson about the politics of the spending cuts and to NPR's Tamara Keith about what to expect in the coming weeks. We also hear from some people across America about how they will or will not be affected by the loss of government money and possible furloughs of federal workers.

Director Roberta Grossman talks about her new film, which traces the evolution of the song that everybody knows — but nobody knows much about — from Jewish folk melody to unmistakable party favorite.

The U.S. military called its Oak Ridge, Tenn., facility "Site X." During World War II, thousands of workers there enriched uranium for the first atom bomb — even if they didn't know it at the time. Author Denise Kiernan's new book, The Girls of Atomic City, follows some of the women who worked there.

Karl Rove had a sharp message to California's Republican Party Saturday. He implored party leaders to "get up off the mat" and work to revitalize the state GOP. Republicans hold no statewide offices in California and have given up a supermajority to Democrats in the state legislature.