Search results for

Three Democrats are hoping to provide a legislative lifeline to tenants facing eviction. But the bill faces some steep hurdles in Congress.

For the first time, the federal government is making a sizeable investment in wildlife road crossings. The goal is to help slow extinctions, and also protect people from animal collisions.

Juana Molina is part of a new generation of musical experimenters from Argentina. On Segundo, her debut CD, Molina mixes the sounds of electronica with the waving rhythms and undulations of traditional South American music. Critic Tom Moon has a review.

Bob Hope, master of the one-liner and world-famous comedian, dies of pneumonia at 100. A star in vaudeville, radio, television and film, Hope helped define the monologue. He was best known for entertaining U.S. troops at bases around the world. Pat Dowell has a remembrance.

Brian Stokes Mitchell's not-so-impossible dream was a Broadway revival of Man of La Mancha. NPR's Jacki Lyden reports that Mitchell's run as Don Quixote has won new fans for a timeless character and the show's approachable star.

The Matrix Reloaded, the long-anticipated sequel to the Matrix, arrives on movie screens Thursday. Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Laurence Fishburne reprise their roles as leaders of a human rebellion in a machine-ruled dystopia. Critic Bob Mondello reviews the film.

The low-budget, Oscar-nominated documentary, Spellbound, examines the subculture of the spelling bee circuit, following winners and losers from around the United States. It's scheduled for release at the end of May. Bellamy Pailthorp of member station KPLU reports.

The new Walt Disney Concert Hall, with its swooping lines of stainless steel, is giving Los Angeles' dull downtown a starkly different look. NPR's Susan Stamberg takes a hard-hat tour with the hall's designer, world-famous architect Frank Gehry. See a photo gallery of the project.

The Mordecais were among the first Jewish families to settle in the South after the Revolutionary War. A new book tells the story of how they struggled to assimilate into American society while retaining their identity as Jews, a story that still resonates in today's America, author Emily Bingham says. Read an excerpt from the book.

Chunks of concrete from the Berlin Wall are sold as memorabilia. Germany's parliament recently gave one chunk as a gift to the United Nations. But the artist who painted it says he deserves to be compensated for his artwork. NPR's Emily Harris reports.

Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court of the United States, talks with NPR's Nina Totenberg about her new memoir and her long road to the nation's highest court.

Pat Dowell profiles Canadian Director Guy Maddin, whose new movie, Pages from a Virgin's Diary, is a screen adaptation of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's production of Dracula. Maddin describes his movie making technique as "primitive," because he strives to give his story telling a dream-like effect. He was motivated to make this movie by curiosity about elements of female sexuality and male jealousy in the Dracula story.

ChevronTexaco announces it will stop sponsoring the Metropolitan Opera's Saturday radio programs in 2004. The move ends the longest-running commercial sponsorship in American broadcasting, which began in 1940. Hear Will Berger, author of The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Opera.

On Bob Hope's 100th birthday, NPR's Susan Stamberg looks back at the man who entertained audiences for nearly every decade of the 20th century in a career spanning stage, radio, movies and television. See historic photos of Hope and hear samples of his comedy and music.

A new reality TV show aims to promote fashion and understanding between gay men and their straight counterparts. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy features a group of five gay men, experts in food, fashion and culture, who come to the rescue of straight men in need of a makeover. NPR's Robert Siegel talks with David Collins, the show's executive producer.

Actor Buddy Ebsen, best known for his role as Jed Clampett on the TV series The Beverly Hillbillies, dies at age 95. Ebsen, who started his career as a dancer on Broadway shows and MGM musicals in the 1930s, also starred as a private investigator in the 1970s TV show Barnaby Jones. NPR's Bob Edwards has a remembrance.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is presenting a two-play cycle called Continental Divide. The David Edgar production portrays a governor's race from the separate perspectives of the Republican and Democratic parties. Dmae Roberts reports.

College baseball players and fans head to Omaha, Neb., for the NCAA 2003 Men's College World Series. Organizers expect to sell more than 250,000 tickets as the country's top eight college baseball teams compete for the national championship. Hear Deborah Van Fleet.

Host Bob Edwards talks with music commentator Miles Hoffman about the history and beauty of Moravian church music, which was first played in America during colonial times. A Moravian music festival is now under way in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. {Music played in the segment: Most of the music in this piece, including the introductory music and the ending music, comes from Lost Music of Early America - Music of the Moravians. Boston Baroque, Martin Pearlman, director (Telarc CD-80482) The lively cut of the wind ensemble (which Bob describes as "very festive") is from David Moritz Michael: Parthien 10-14 Pacific Classical Winds (New World Records 80580-2) The cut of the Civil War Moravian band is from A Storm in the Land Music of the 26th N.C. Regimental Band, CSA. The American Brass Quintet Brass Band. (New World Records, 80608-2)

Bob Hope turns 100 years old today. To commemorate the birthday of this great entertainer, All Things Considered re-broadcasts a speech Hope gave at the National Press Club, first aired on NPR twenty-three years ago when he was 77.

Barry White, the honey-voiced baritone known for his sultry, romantic songs, dies at a hospital in Los Angeles. White, 58, had been in poor health for several years and died while awaiting a kidney transplant. The soul singer became a star during the disco era, but had a resurgence in popularity in recent years. He won two Grammies for his 1999 album, "Staying Power." NPR's Scott Simon has a remembrance.

Actor Gregory Peck electrified Hollywood with his 1962 portrayal of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. Peck died in his sleep Thursday at his Los Angeles home. NPR's Renee Montagne talks about Peck's career with film historian Damien Bona.

An original, annotated manuscript of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony fetches $3.5 million in a Sotheby's auction. NPR's Jeffrey Freymann-Weyr looks at the place that this symphony, with its "Ode to Joy," holds in Western culture.

Gregory Peck, one of the enduring stars of Hollywood's golden age, dies at his home in Los Angeles. He was 87. More often than not, Peck played the hero. He won an Oscar for his 1963 role as the quietly courageous defense lawyer Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird. Pat Dowell offers a remembrance. (Please note this correction: "Listeners to the first feed of our program last Thursday may have heard an error in our obituary for Gregory Peck. Pat Dowell placed the story of To Kill a Mockingbird in Mississippi. That led Chuck Bearman, chief of staff in the office of Mississippi's secretary of state, to write. As he pointed out -- It was not set in Mississippi, but in Alabama.")

The new animated movie Finding Nemo tells the story of a fish family learning life's lessons. The computer-generated film is from Pixar Animation, the pioneering force behind Toy Story, A Bug's Life and Monsters, Inc. Film critic Ken Turan of the Los Angeles Times offers a review.