NPR Staff

Writer Gregor Hens doesn't smoke anymore, but he still thinks about it every day. He says he started writing his memoir as a way to deal with the longing.

When Vernon Dahmer said publicly he would pay the poll tax for black people in Mississippi who wanted to vote, it started a chain of events that is still felt by his family today.

Killer Mike and El-P, who make up the rap duo, discuss facing a politically tense new year with a bold new album — and a keen memory of the nation's recent history.

Donald Trump says he'll turn over management of the Trump Organization to his sons to avoid a conflict of interest. But ex-presidential ethics lawyers say he must assign his properties to a trustee.

Mike Sutter is eating at a different San Antonio taqueria every day of 2017 for his "365 Days of Tacos" project. And he's discovering a lot about the city's culture in the process.

There's a place in Tucson, Ariz., where many cultures combine. The Catholic Mission San Xavier del Bac is over 300 years old, and white and Latino Catholics as well as two native tribes call it home.

In 2016, the album that sold the most physical CDs worldwide wasn't anywhere near the top of the charts — and one of the best-charting records of the year couldn't be bought at all.

NPR listeners first heard Barack Obama in the 1990s before he became a politician. Here are some of his earliest appearances as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review and as an activist.

Shanthi Sekaran's new novel tells the story of a Mexican woman who has entered the U.S. without papers and an Indian-American chef struggling to have a baby.

The Republican senator from Alabama is Donald Trump's pick for attorney general. He faces the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. Watch the hearing live and catch up on the key issues.

Young people have always used language in new ways, and it has always driven older people crazy. But the linguist John McWhorter says all the LOLs are part of an inevitable evolution of language.

The candidate for chairman of the Democratic National Committee — and Obama's labor secretary — was critical of Democrats' organizational efforts in an interview with NPR.

Venture into the black markets and you'll find foods unavailable in the cheaper state-run grocery stores. The military isn't just running the markets — it's getting rich off them, an AP probe finds.

Harvard Professor Ronald S. Sullivan Jr. talks about his work on criminal justice reform, and the last minute clemency requests to President Obama.

NPR's Michel Martin talks with Octavia Spencer about her latest film, Hidden Figures. It tells the story of the black, female mathematicians who helped launch the first American astronauts into space.

A 90-year-old Texas woman is trying to make "Juneteenth," a holiday that honors the freedom of slaves, a national holiday. She's walked around the country and will end her petition in Washington, D.C.

Weaver talks about her new film, A Monster Calls, which tells the story of an adolescent boy who seeks solace in his imagination from the sadness and anger of losing his mother to a terminal illness.

The film Hidden Figures is inspiring a new generation of young female coders of color. NPR checks in with some teenagers who like the movie.

The tradition of giving a goodbye address goes all the way back to the nation's first president. Author John Avlon says George Washington's farewell was remarkably prescient and prophetic.

Lukas Forchhammer, leader of the Danish band, grew up in a commune-like section of Copenhagen. "It was more of a rural upbringing," he says, "even though it was in the center of our capital city."