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In 1997, Ry Cooder sparked an international interest in Cuban music as producer and guitarist on the hit CD Buena Vista Social Club. He recently returned to the same studio where that album was recorded, this time to collaborate with legendary Cuban guitarist Manuel Galban.

In an arched portico off Mexico City's central plaza, street musician Carlos Garcia makes beautiful music with an unlikely instrument: a simple leaf.

With his first hit, Berry began a career that would reinvent rock 'n' roll with each new song.

Culinary anthropologist Vertamae Grosvenor recalls how food figured in slave life. "Imagine planting, harvesting, cooking, curing, canning, smelling, serving foods that were not for you," says Grosvenor. And then, thanks to Juneteenth, "Imagine freedom -- after centuries of stirring the pot for others, you could do it for yourself."

All Things Considered book reviewer Alan Cheuse's picks list of summer books.

Lawmakers had a number of scares in recent years: a shooting at a GOP baseball practice, the pandemic and the Jan. 6 attack. But there are no clear plans for Congress to function in a catastrophe.

Comments by a German Bishop on a talk show over the weekend have fueled debate about whether Pope John Paul II might retire his post before he dies. Robert talks with Father Thomas J. Reese, Editor in Chief of the Roman Catholic magazine America, and author of Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church. They discuss church canon, which does allow a Pope to retire if he feels he cannot fulfill his duties. Few have taken such a step. Reese explains what happens if a Pope becomes incapacitated before retiring. Reese's book, Inside the Vatican, is published by Harvard University Press, 1998.

When Jacqui Frazier and Laila Ali enter the boxing ring tomorrow night, they will revive a rivalry inherited from their fathers -- legendary boxers Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali. But the women are fighters in their own right. The Kitchen Sisters -- producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson -- begin their two-part series on the fight with a profile of Jacqui Frazier. (8:47

Comic Judy Carter explores how American stand-up and situation comedy has changed in the last few years.

In the first of a two-part series, NPR's Madeleine Brand reports on the new "Supermax" prison in Boscobel, Wis., built to house the most vicious criminals from other prisons. It cost $44 million to build, and yearly operating costs are projected at $10 million. It appears that economic and political considerations played an important part in the decision to build the facility, which has room for 500 inmates.

David Greenberger reviews a new CD called "Rigging the Toplights" by a Chicago trio called Pinetop Seven. While many of the lyrics onthis album are dark and fearsome, Greenberger hears a strangely hopeful message in them. ("Rigging the Toplights" is released by Self-Help/Atavistic(ALP310). For more information, visit www.atavistic.com.

Dizzy Gillespie's legendary 1942 composition fueled a jazz revolution called bebop.

NPR's Joanne Silberner reports on how one local hospital in Brooklyn, New York, has adapted to the changing demographics of its community. Coney Island Hospital's patients were once ethnic whites, but a rise in the number of Asian immigrants, especially Pakistani Muslims, has created new challenges for the hospital staff. (8:23) Check out the Changing Face of America series.

The United Nations begins a special session on AIDS Monday in New York. The conference will call for governments and NGOs to contribute $10 billion annually to AIDS treatment and prevention programs. Lisa Simeone speaks with Thoraya Obaid, head of the U.N. Population Fund, about cultural considerations that come into play when dealing with reproductive and sexual activity.

Lisa talks with two police officers, a father and son, from California, who are using their musical talents to teach kids about safe driving. One of them is a polished Elvis impersonator. The other, a hard-rock rapper. They perform live throughout the state and have released several CDs. We'll hear excerpts from some of their songs. (7:46) *** The CDs are not available commercially (they are only given out at school performances), but listeners can get more information on the program online. http://www.ubco.org/

NPR's Renee Montagne travels to Owensboro, Kentucky, to report on America's last public execution. In August of 1936, 20,000 people watched Rainey Bethea die by court order on the gallows.

Host Jacki Lyden visits four families in Israel and the West Bank who have lost children in the bloody conflict in that region. Since the most recent violence began on September 28, almost two hundred children under eighteen have died, 164 Palestinians and thirty-seven Israelis.

Lisa talks with author Michael Chabon about the legend of the golem, the mythical man made of clay. Chabon researched the golem while writing his latest novel, Kavalier and Clay, which just won the Pultizer Prize for fiction.

The top of 14,000-foot Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano on the big island of Hawaii, is one of the last best places to do astronomy. But astronomers now have devised a way to make "the seeing," as they call it, even better. Join NPR's Christopher Joyce for a visit to Mauna Kea.

In 1966, Michael A. Baronowski of Norristown, Penn., took a tape recorder with him into combat in Vietnam. Lance Cpl. Baronowski was in the demilitarized zone when he captured sounds of jokes, songs, bombs, and bullets. He died later that year in an ambush in a village — but not before sending these recordings home. (Produced by Christina Egloff with Jay Allison.)

Noah speaks with L.M. Taylor, the mayor of Pavo, Georgia about the reason his town is featured in a country music video for Alan Jackson's song, "Little Man." The song laments the demise of small Southern towns, brought on by the emergence of strip malls and major national chain stores. Pavo, a town of 774 people, is a perfect example.

NPR's Tom Cole sits down with blues guitar legend Eric Clapton to talk about his childhood in Surrey, England, his difficult relationship with his family, and why "reptile" is a term of endearment.

Host Lisa Simeone takes a tour of a new exhibition at the Smithsonian's Museum of American Art with curator Larry Bird, charting the birth and boom of the do-it-yourself art form called Paint-By-Number. She also has a hand in painting an outdoor banner on the Museum's facade, 40 feet up.

After a seven-year prison term, James went through a rigorous education process including job training, drug counseling and support meetings. James watched others in the program drift back to crime while he struggled to overcome the obstacles that ex-offenders face when trying to re-connect to family and society.

LaQuedra Edwards had put $40 into a lottery vending machine at a supermarket in Los Angeles when "some rude person" bumped into her, causing her to buy a different lottery ticket than she intended.