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Pat Duggins has covered nearly 100 space shuttle mission, but until recently, he's kept his feet planted firmly on the ground. Duggins recently got his first chance to enjoy zero gravity while aboard the sub-orbital flight known as The Vomit Comet. The parabolic flight creates the feeling of weightlessness.

NPR's Scott Detrow talks with Megan Greene, a senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, about the stock market ups and downs in the year since the coronavirus was declared a pandemic.

Beloved chef Madhur Jaffrey prepared for a life on stage and screen as an actress — but her longing for the food of her childhood led her to her other career. She looks back on her days in film and in the kitchen with NPR's Renee Montagne.

It may not be in your history books. But it ended with scores of sunken ships, hundreds of missing soldiers and Revolutionary War hero Paul Revere facing charges of cowardice and incompetence. What went so wrong on the New England coast back in 1779?

For his 22nd novel, celebrated author and former intelligence officer John le Carre found inspiration in a real Russian criminal. Our Kind Of Traitor details the shady activities of a crime lord named Dima operating in Moscow's underworld of dirty money.

Octavius Catto led the fight to desegregate Philadelphia's horse-drawn streetcars, raised all-black regiments to fight in the Civil War, and pushed for black voting rights — all before the age of 32. Despite all that, he's barely remembered today. But a new book sheds life on his groundbreaking work.

Citizens of London is Lynne Olson's history of three Americans who helped steer the United States toward World War II. Edward R. Murrow, Averell Harriman and John Gilbert Winant sold the war to the American public and to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

One of the biggest actresses of MGM's Golden Age, also lived a quiet life as an inventor. During World War II, Hedy Lamarr invented a form of wireless communication that led to Bluetooth, GPS and more.

When 18th century Jewish peddler Jacob Cerf reappears in the 21st century, he finds he can read minds and will people to do his bidding — but he's also a common housefly. Rebecca Miller's Jacob's Folly traces Jacob's mission to get back at God.

When Mike and Hilary Gustafson opened the Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor, Mich., they put an old typewriter on the store floor so patrons could peck out their thoughts — now compiled in a new book.

President Trump's major foreign policy aims have included curbing the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran. With North Korea, he's tried carrots; with Iran, sticks. Neither one is working.

In her new book, Cokie Roberts explains how women like Mary Todd Lincoln and Jessie Benton Fremont influenced Washington's men of power when they weren't even allowed to vote.

The 63rd annual Grammy Awards were given out Sunday night. And while the stars were on display, it was a very different kind of ceremony for music's biggest night.

Henry Folger once spent nearly a year's salary on a William Shakespeare first folio. In The Millionaire and the Bard, Andrea Mays chronicles his obsession with collecting the playwright's work.

Israeli writer Etgar Keret wrote his first piece of nonfiction the day his son was born. Later, when his father became terminally ill, he decided to publish his essays as a "living tombstone."

When a CEO blamed "distressed babies" for cuts to benefits last year, Deanna Fei discovered her infant was national news. She reflects on how she coped with a baby on life support — and in headlines.

The star of The Wire and Treme remembers fleeing the storm — and returning to devastation. As his community coped with "post-traumatic stress," he says, Treme "became a group therapy in New Orleans."

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen fled Vietnam with his family when he was 4 years old. His new short story collection explores the refugee experience — and draws from his own.

Nafissa Thompson-Spires' new story collection is full of characters coping with being not just black in a white world — but the only black person in their worlds. She says that's a hard role to fill.

Edward Carey's new novel Little, which he also illustrated, is based on the mysterious life of Madame Tussaud and the origins of her famous wax museum.

Mountain Stage celebrates music from those we lost in 2020 with performances by Jerry Jeff Walker, Tony Rice, Billy Joe Shaver and John Prine.

A New York Times investigation that ran this week found Facebook failed to counter Russian interference it knew about in the 2016 election. We speak with Rhode Island Congressman David Cicilline.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney paid about $3 million in federal income taxes in 2010. Romney's tax returns show most of his $21.7 million income came from his investments. The former Mass. governor has been under pressure in recent weeks to release his tax returns. Some media organizations received an advanced copy of the candidate's return.

A stellar voice cast helps ground this fantastical tale of a fledgling superhero's first forays into a job where the stakes — and the violence — are all too real.

The soldiers of the secret 23rd Special Forces played a unique role in World War II: to deceive the enemy and draw their attention away from real combat troops. The unit was made up of artists, designers, architects and sound engineers.