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Renowned British broadcaster Alistair Cooke, the longtime host of PBS' Masterpiece Theatre, has died at his home in New York at the age of 95. No cause of death was given, but earlier this month, Cooke retired because of heart disease. For 58 years, Cooke's Letter from America program was heard on the BBC's World Service and Britain's Radio 4. NPR's Bob Edwards has a remembrance.

Alan Cheuse reviews A Hole in Texas by 88-year-old Herman Wouk, a fictional account of a scientist involved with the Texas-based Superconducting Super Collider project. Set in the 1990s the novel has both Hollywood and Congress woven into its plot.

A museum and indigenous Hawaiians are in a custody battle rare carved artifacts, some of which have been repatriated to sacred burial caves. The story is the latest in NPR's Hidden Treasures series.

Four years ago, Danish director Lone Scherfig scored a surprise hit with Italian for Beginners. That film followed the strict rules of the Dogme95 movement, which holds that filmmaking austerity inspires creativity. In Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, Scherfig moves beyond Dogme, offering a dark comedy that embraces Hollywood technique. Beth Accomando reports.

James Abbot McNeill Whistler's painting commonly known as "Whistler's Mother" has left its home in Paris for a rare tour stop in Detroit. Museums routinely use one-time loans like this one to stage major events and generate increased revenue. This practice has become more difficult with the rising costs of security after Sept. 11. Celeste Headlee from Detroit Public Radio reports.

Today marks the 80th anniversary of a New York Philharmonic tradition: the Young People's Concerts. They predate the late Leonard Bernstein, but it was under the legendary conductor that the concerts became an entertaining force for a generation of American children. Some of those children are now musicians in the New York Philharmonic. Jeff Lunden reports.

NPR's Linda Wertheimer and NPR's Bob Mondello discuss disaster films over the decades -- and what they tell us about our fears.

What are the various strategies behind presidential advertisements targeted to potential voters of color? NPR's Tavis Smiley gets answers from David Axelrod, a Chicago-based media strategist, and William Benoit, the author of Seeing Spots : A Functional Analysis of Presidential Television Advertisements.

The Boston band Tarbox Ramblers has roots in prewar gospel and blues. The group's latest album takes off from their first record, using the old songs as a jumping-off point for leader Michael Tarbox to write primal gut rock and roll. The CD is called A Fix Back East. Meredith Ochs has a review.

Herman Wouk, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Caine Mutiny and The Winds of War, talks to Bob Edwards about the first novel he's written in 10 years -- the only one with a science theme.