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A new book sheds light on one of the discoverers of the structure of DNA in the early '50s. Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA highlights the contributions of a chemist whose work went largely unheralded for decades. Howard Berkes talks with author Brenda Maddox. NPR Online has the interview in its entirety.

One of China's most notorious prisons is in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. For years, hundreds of people seeking independence for Tibet have been jailed at Drapchi prison. There are fewer political prisoners now, and Tibetans are using more sophisticated -- and less painful -- ways to oppose Chinese rule. NPR's Rob Gifford visits Drapchi prison for the fourth story in his series on Tibet.

Since they were first noticed by European explorers in the 1700s, totem poles may have been misunderstood as frightening statues worshipped as gods. But some say early totem poles were actually billboards for powerful native families, announcing the privileges they enjoyed. NPR's Robert Smith traces the history of totem poles for the Present at the Creation series.

Romeo and Juliet's love story has inspired composers throughout the ages. On this Valentine's Day, commentator Miles Hoffman takes NPR's Bob Edwards on a romantic journey through the music influenced by Shakespeare's tragic couple.

As bombed rained down on the streets of Kyiv, Aleksandra Makoviy wanted to make sure that her 2-year-old would be safe. The only way to do that was by writing her phone number on the girl's back.

On the 40th anniversary of the desegregation of Ole Miss, NPR presents a series of stories examining the events of that time, what has become of the people involved, and the campus today. For All Things Considered, NPR's David Molpus and Cheryl Corley talk with current Ole Miss students, professors and administrators.

California's record $35-billion budget deficit is anything but a game, but a Sacramento Bee columnist has made it one. Daniel Weintraub challenged his readers to study where the money goes, and then plug their proposed spending cuts and tax increases into an online budget game. NPR's Andy Bowers reports on some of the novel solutions players came up with.

John Lee, who has spent most of his civil service career in the police and overseeing security matters, has much less policy-making experience than previous chief executives.

Fifty years ago, a toxic mix of dense fog and sooty black coal smoke descended on London, essentially suffocating thousands to death.

For more than 20 years, Washington, D.C., has been home to a unique musical genre known as Go-Go. Defined by its Latin-tinged drums and audience participation, Go-Go has yet to find much airplay outside of the nation's capital. Host Madeleine Brand talks with the man known as the Godfather of Go-Go, Chuck Brown, about the genre and his new CD, Your Game...Live at the 9:30 Club. (7:01-7:46) {Chuck Brown: Your Game...Live at the 9:30 Club, Liaisons Records: 2001}

As NPR Cultural Correspondent Rick Karr reports in a two-part series, smaller Internet media companies increasingly are being subsumed or edged out by media conglomerates.

The Blind Boys of Alabama have been singing gospel for more than 60 years. But with their new CD, the group puts a reverent spin on some blues standards. NPR's David D'Arcy reports that the Blind Boys can turn just about any song into a gospel song — as long as the words are sacred.

Lisa talks with Jane Gottesman, author of Game Face: What Does a Female Athlete Look Like?, a collection of photographs of women in sports.

NPR's Ivan Watson reports that Sierra Leone's civil war seems to be ending and rebel commanders are turning over hundreds of child soldiers to the United Nations. The UN estimates that some 5,000 child soldiers saw combat during the 10-year civil war.

The Stuckists are fed up with the contemporary British art scene. As NPR's Rick Karr reports from London, the group of painters says modern art in the UK is made by and for an elite clique.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 82, has been vaccinated against COVID-19 and received a booster shot. She's the highest-profile U.S. official to contract the virus since former President Donald Trump.

Host Madeleine Brand talks with the Tucson-based band Calexico, who try to capture the spirit of their region in music - a soundtrack to the Southwest. (6:30) {Calexico, Even My Sure Things Fall Through. Quarterstick Records, Chicago, IL: 1998-2001}.

NPR's Barbara Bradley reports on the four directors who have led the Federal Bureau of Investigation since J. Edgar Hoover. The FBI's most recent director, Louis Freeh, leaves a bureau clouded by scandal and accusations, but his predecessors didn't have an easy job, either.

Small-town American life has been idealized for generations, but since the 1920s, the populations of most rural area have actually been in decline. And with fewer residents, small towns have seen their economies shrink as well. NPR's Snigdha Prakash reports from Broken Bow, Nebraska, where a new program is trying to counter that trend by training rural entrepreneurs.

NPR's Alex Chadwick continues the National Geographic-NPR Radio Expedition about the Tortugas Ecological Reserve near the Florida Keys. Chadwick talks with the scientists studying coral reef life in the underwater wilderness area, and tries not to get seasick.

In the fourth installment of her series on favorite summers, NPR Special Correspondent Susan Stamberg talks with Andrew X. Pham about the summer he first returned to his homeland of Vietnam. Pham says that visiting the country 20 years after his family fled the Vietcong was painful and deeply cathartic. (7:37) {Book Information: Pham, Anderew X. Catfish and Mandala : A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999}.

NPR's Linda Wertheimer spoke with Allan Langheinrich, a master tool and die maker and meteorite enthusiast who maintains a rock cutting and preparation facility at his workshop in Ilion, New York.

Back in the seventeenth century, explorers told of seas teeming with giant marine creatures. A group of researchers concluded that these were an accurate account of life in the oceans at the time. As John Nielsen reports, these fabulous aquatic ecosystems collapsed as humans started to hunt these creatures.

Theaters no longer screen shorts before the features, and some of the Internet sites that many hoped would provide perfectly-suited forums for shorts are now defunct. Yet there is more than one film festival devoted to them. NPR's Howie Movshovitz reports on the future of short films.

A scientist at the University of the West of England inserted electrodes into four species of fungi, and discovered that the mushrooms seem to use electrical impulses to communicate internally.