No, it's not the setup to a joke. John Mellencamp, Stephen King and T-Bone Burnett are the creative team behind Ghosts of Darkland County, a stage show based on a true story of small-town tragedy.

Colorful, fake coral gives aquarium visitors an eco-friendly glimpse inside a reef. At the National Aquarium in Baltimore, a new reef exhibit presents an artistic challenge to the coral fabrication team.

Sarah Murnaghan's family took up a legal fight to push the 10-year-old higher on the adult organ waitlist. In addition to trying to secure new lungs, mother Janet Murnaghan says the system needs to change.

The singer, best known as the voice of the alt-bluegrass band Crooked Still, is releasing her solo debut. It's full of songs from and inspired by the Irish folk tradition she grew up with.

Andrew Hudgins is a prominent poet, but what he'd really rather be doing is telling jokes — the more daring, the better. His new memoir, The Joker, explores the way uncomfortable and taboo jokes create learning and communication, and the important role they've played in his life.

Restaurants face particular challenges adapting to the new health care laws. The CFO of one restaurant chain says it's not as simple as just cutting employee pay or raising prices to bring in the extra money needed.

With the help of her son Lawrence Blume, Judy Blume has adapted her 1981 novel into a film. The widely beloved coming-of-age author speaks with NPR's Audie Cornish about turning the book into a movie, and how the themes in Tiger Eyes echo her own life.

Shengqiao Chen and Zehao Zhou met 20 years ago after a ship that was smuggling Chinese immigrants into the U.S. ran aground just outside New York City.

When Elaine Vilorio moved to the US as a young child, she encountered new notions of race. Now a high school senior, she talks about crafting an identity that's 'racially black and culturally Hispanic.'

Chef Roblé Ali has prepared meals for big names, including President Obama and Michael Jackson. He climbed the ranks in the restaurant world and now, he runs his own catering service and has a reality TV show. He talks to guest host Celeste Headlee about serving clients with unusual tastes, and shares tips on hosting summer parties.

The bassist has made the rounds with some of the best jazz musicians in the world, including Wynton Marsalis and Herbie Hancock. But for McBride, staying in the swing of things means reaching audiences. Guest host Celeste Headlee speaks with McBride about his new album, People Music.

If you've ever wondered how to say "May the Force be with you" in Navajo, you're in luck. On July 3, a new translation of the 1977 classic will be unveiled on the Navajo Nation reservation in Arizona.

Three for a Song is a performing trio with a love for the 1930s, during which some of the greatest songwriters who ever lived wrote music that would enter the canon of American popular song. But the group has recently added a quirk to its repertoire: performing songs that were never popular.

The Chinese moviegoing audience is too big for American studios to ignore. But getting a film shown there can mean making concessions to Chinese government officials.

Born to Chinese parents, conjoined twins Eng and Chang Bunker became famous throughout the world as "Siamese twins." After years of being displayed at exhibitions, they settled in the mountains of North Carolina in the 1830s. NPR's Michel Martin learns more about their remarkable story from descendant Alex Sink.

Rajat Gupta was one of the wealthiest and most successful men in America. Why would he throw that away on an insider-trading scheme? A new book from financial journalist Anita Raghavan tries to uncover the motivations of a man who lost everything in the Galleon Group scandal.

Vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant and pianist Aaron Diehl, both in their 20s, have already racked up major industry prizes. They took radically different paths to get there, but on Salvant's new album, they find ways to honor old traditions as young people.

Sherman worked a tight niche: classic songs rewritten to tickle a Jewish audience's funny bone. A new biography, Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allan Sherman, explains how the performer's 1960s crossover fell in line with a collective awakening to ethnic identity in America.

Journalist Anna Badkhen chronicles life in a small Afghan village in her new book, The World Is A Carpet. A village of 240 people, Oqa survives on an old-time tradition of carpet weaving. Residents earn about 40 cents a day for carpets that eventually sell for $5,000 to $20,000 abroad.

On her second solo release, the Fiery Furnaces singer mines the music of her birth decade. "I'm not embarrassed to say I love the sound of an Elton John record or I love the sound of a Carole King record," she says. "That's my taste."