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NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Eugene Ludwig, former Comptroller of the Currency, about how some government statistics get the economy wrong.

Cinematographer Luc Forsyth documents the back-breaking manual labor and niche community of tree planting.

Almost a year ago, the U.S. economy started its plunge. This week, NPR is launching American Indicators, a series that will personalize the big economic stories we hear every day.

Early risers across the Northern Hemisphere will be able to see an eclipse Thursday morning when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun.

Somali writer Nuruddin Farah's latest novel, Crossbones, centers on a family's return to Somalia on the eve of the Ethiopian invasion. As war breaks out, each character looks for personal peace in a society rife with violence and tension.

The Big Thief singer and guitarist holed up in the mountains of Western Massachusetts to record not one, but two albums, simply titled songs and instrumentals.

President Trump's authority to reduce two national land monuments in Utah now faces legal challenges, as his administration considers what to do with 25 other protected territories under review.

Median household income fell for the third straight year. Earnings were flat for people with jobs. But those jobs are disappearing.

You know the feeling: You're driving and you spot a little-known memorial that makes you want to pull over and find out more. It could be a monument to some local hero or to a long-forgotten historical moment. Join NPR on a summer-long road trip exploring the deep histories of these spots.

Many avid readers know the sense of sadness that can come along with the end of a book. For Ammon Shea, that feeling led him to an idea: Why not read one of the longest books out there, The Oxford English Dictionary?

Composer Allen Shawn lives a phobic life. He doesn't like heights, bridges, tunnels, subways, elevators, open spaces or closed spaces. "The degree of my self-preoccupation is appalling," he writes in a new book.

Garden writer Bonnie Blodgett didn't know what her sense of smell meant to her — until she lost it. Her new book, Remembering Smell, describes what it's like to live in the world without being able to smell it — from the sweet aromas of springtime to the stench of sour milk.

School teacher Maria McCann did her homework when writing this erotic, historical novel about the English Civil War. Lionel Shriver says she couldn't stop reading about this torrid romance between two 17th century soldiers.

Newbery Medal-winning author Rebecca Stead says her latest, Goodbye Stranger, is about love and how it helps a trio of seventh-grade girls stay friends through the challenges of middle school.

"It's a little space, well-measured and precise, in which you have to keep the ball bouncing," says Álvaro Enrigue. His book, Sudden Death, pits the Italian painter against the Spanish poet.

Jon Ronson, the bestselling author of The Psychopath Test and The Men Who Stare at Goats, has spent his life exploring mysterious events and meeting extraordinary people. His newest book, Lost at Sea, is a collection of true mini-adventures he has written along the way.

At the age of 59, the British science-fiction writer was diagnosed with a form of Alzheimer's. Now he's publishing an edited version of a book he first wrote when he was 17. He can't read because of his disease, but Pratchett continues writing — with the help of dictation software.

Like Shakespeare's Prince Hal and The Godfather's Michael Corleone before her, Caroline Kennedy may be yet another beneficiary of being born to a powerful family. But need this automatically exempt her from being a capable senator?

Author Miroslav Penkov's new book is a bittersweet, slightly magical history of his native Bulgaria, complete with cross thieves, tragic lovers and a young man who buys the corpse of Lenin on eBay for his Communist grandfather.

Swedish author Henning Mankell has become famous for his Kurt Wallander detective stories. Now, he is back with the 11th and possibly last installment, The Troubled Man.

The process of becoming a man isn't always an easy one, but poet Saeed Jones says that reading Real Man Adventures by T Cooper, can make the journey more joyful.

Author Michael Cunningham was fascinated by fairy tales as a child — but he always wondered what happened after the story ended. His new collection, A Wild Swan, tries to answer that question.

Colum McCann's latest book, Thirteen Ways of Looking, takes on parenthood, loss and just how arbitrary life can be. McCann says talking about traumatic experiences can be "a fantastic catharsis."

In Christopher Buckley's latest political satire, They Eat Puppies, Don't They? a lobbyist teams up with a conservative policy wonk to spread a rumor that China is plotting to assassinate the Dalai Lama. Together, they create a huge disinformation campaign that nearly sparks World War III.

We visit the new Grand Egyptian Museum, a spacious museum outside Cairo dedicated to displaying artifacts from ancient Egypt. It has finally opened its doors after decades of planning and construction.