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The editor in chief of Newsweek and the Daily Beast joins NPR's Steve Inskeep to talk about women taking on big cultural challenges, and the stories of how they got there.

In The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind and Brain, Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel writes of turn-of-the-century Vienna, where artists mingled with writers, scientists and physicians, and explains how the brain perceives a work of art.

Three Kings Day is when the three wise men are believed to have visited the baby Jesus. Many cultures, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean, are celebrating on Friday. Festivities are also going strong in East Harlem, Miami, Los Angeles, even Disneyland. Host Michel Martin speaks with Gonzalo Casals, who organizes a parade in East Harlem.

The Newsweek editor returns with a list of new reads about people with surprising lives — a CIA investigator, a successful businesswoman who started life as a child soldier, and a private-equity pioneer whose domineering personality drove his loved ones away.

After 35 years and 186 artists, only two honorees have been Hispanic — Placido Domingo in 2000 and Chita Rivera in 2002. "When you paint that picture and you leave the Latino artist community out of it, there's a huge hole," says Felix Sanchez, president of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts.

Kyle Mullen, a 24-year-old, died after completing a 5 1/2-day assessment designed to test SEAL candidates' endurance and mental rigor. A second candidate is in stable condition, the Navy said.

Rocky Balboa's sprint up the stairs of the Philadelphia Art Museum is a scene that would have once been impossible to film. Camera innovator Garrett Brown made it possible when he invented the Steadicam. The jack of all trades will be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in May.

Washington is hosting the Fall Festival of Indian Arts this week, which features poetry, music and a fusion of classical Indian dance with modern dance. Its founder Daniel Phoenix Singh grew up in a poor, fundamentalist Christian family in southern India and didn't see a live Indian dance performance until college. He works in IT during the day. He talks with Michel Martin about his journey into dance and his work bringing Indian dance to the U.S.

Pediatric nutritionist Dr. Deb Kennedy, author of The Picky Eating Solution, talks with NPR's Eric Westervelt about catering to kids who put up fights at the dinner table.

Daily Beast and Newsweek editor Tina Brown explores the work of newspaper columnists through readings that propose a new way of looking at the 2012 election and the scandal at Penn State.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has announced the recipients of this year's fellowships. Twenty-four innovators in art, science, writing and more will each receive $500,000 over the next five years.

When artwork funded by the National Endowment for the Arts caused a commotion in the late '90s, the agency developed a transparent strategy for doling out public funds. That strategy will be applied as the NEA doles out the $50 million it received as part of the stimulus package.

At 92, film legend Kirk Douglas has returned to live theater for a one-man show that's a biography of his life and career. The last performance is Sunday at, fittingly enough, the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, Calif.

In a final salute to National Poetry Month, Elizabeth Alexander talks about moving poetry away from the ivory tower and into people's lives. Alexander read a poem at President Obama's inauguration and is a professor of African-American studies at Yale University.

Daniel Chester French's solemn white marble sculpture of Lincoln has presided over history since its 1922 dedication. A new exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., looks at its creation.

Many police departments use forensic artists to help solve crimes. From composite sketches to facial reconstructions, the work of these artists combines creativity, science and detective skills. Artist Karen T. Taylor and anthropologist Mary Manhein discuss the science behind forensic art.

The Smithsonian Institution has returned more than 200 sacred artifacts to the Yurok Indian tribe in Northern California in one the largest repatriations of Native American artifacts in U.S. history. "Words can't explain how we feel," says Thomas O'Rourke, chairman of the Yurok tribe. "Today, when I thought about it, I cried."

Cities are experiencing heavier storms and flooding as the climate gets hotter. But due to outdated rainfall records, many are still building infrastructure for the climate of the past.

Singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan talks with NPR's Steve Inskeep about her creative process and some of her favorite musicians. Last fall, McLachlan released Afterglow, her first CD in four years.

With President Biden set to appoint the first Black woman Supreme Court justice, Black women in the legal profession reflect on the limits and promises of representation.

At least 35 Iraqis die and more than 100 others are wounded in a pair of car bombings: a suicide attack at the gate of a Baghdad military base where new Iraqi army recruits were being processed, and a second bombing in the town of Balad, north of the capital, that killed members of Iraq's Civil Defense Corps. NPR's Emily Harris reports.

Vice President Dick Cheney, House Chaplain Rev. Daniel P. Coughlin and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert speak at a memorial service for former President Ronald Reagan at the Capitol Rotunda. Reagan's body will lie in state for public visitation until Friday. Hear NPR's Michele Norris, NPR's Andrea Seabrook and NPR's Pam Fessler.

Writers often have precise rituals for putting their thoughts on paper. Spy novelist Daniel Silva admits his approach is manically methodical. As part of the Creative Spaces series, Silva invites NPR's Michele Norris into his den to talk process.

in Kabul, preparations are being made for Afghanistan's upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections. Foreign organizations are trying to give the country's political parties the information, tools and tactics they need to become viable parts of the democratic process. Hear reporter Rachel Martin.

World-renowned master chef Julia Child died Thursday at the age of 91. She spent three decades explaining the mysteries of classic French cuisine to modern American audiences. Child hosted several cooking shows on public television, earning Peabody and Emmy Awards in the process, and wrote nine cookbooks.