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In 1831, Nat Turner led a slave rebellion in Southampton County, Va., that killed more than 50 white people. An independent film debuting on PBS examines The Confessions of Nat Turner, William Styron's controversial 1967 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Turner's alleged jailhouse statements and other versions of Turner's story. Pat Dowell reports.

Fiction and historical distance can sometimes allow us to examine our current worries in a different light. Ann-Marie MacDonald sets her second novel The Way the Crow Flies at the height of the Cold War. She uses the tensions generated by the U.S.-Soviet arms race to explore a contemporary issue: governmental secrecy. Martha Woodroof reports.

NPR's Michele Norris talks with David Evans, editor of Air Safety Week, about methods of investigating airline disasters, and NOVA's documentary Crash of Flight 111, which airs tonight on PBS. The program describes the events -- and investigation into -- the crash of an airliner off Nova Scotia that killed 229 people in 1998.

The warships passed through the Turkish straits into the Black Sea on Tuesday on their way to waters near Ukraine. Russia insists the movement is part of a planned naval exercise.

The latest album from the Danish folk duo Harald Haugaard and Morten Hoirup is called Om Sommeren, or "In Summer." The CD underscores the distinctions that set Danish folk music apart from its Scandinavian cousins. Music critic Chris Nickson has a review.

In contrast to Annie Liebowitz's posed celebrity portraits, Charles Peterson gets the sweat, anger, and noise of the Seattle scene on film in his new book, Touch Me, I'm Sick. Marcie Sillman reports on the challenges of capturing performance in the static medium of photography.

Folk music pioneer Pete Seeger sang with Woody Guthrie in the 1940s and led protests for civil rights and against the Vietnam War in the 1960s. At 84, he's still inspiring a fresh generation of artists, who have recorded his songs in a new collection. Hear songs from Seeds, The Songs of Pete Seeger and extra portions of NPR's Bob Edwards' interview with the legendary performer.

Jack Paar, who pioneered late-night talk TV on The Tonight Show before telling his viewers farewell while he was still in his prime, died Tuesday. He was 85.

The Iranian producer and drummer Mushtaq and former Specials frontman Terry Hall have collaborated on a new CD, The Hour of Two Lights. The songs draw on a number of musical styles to create what the duo call "contemporary nomad" music. Music critic Michelle Mercer has a review.

Seabiscuit, the story of a small, downtrodden horse who managed to mesmerize an entire nation, gallops onto the screen Friday. Adapted from the best-selling book by Laura Hillenbrand, the film chronicles how Seabiscuit's unlikely triumphs on the racetrack helped revive Americans' spirits in the latter half of the Depression. Hear filmmaker Gary Ross.