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.

Read an exclusive excerpt of Anthony Marra's new novel, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena.

In 1839, Great Britain and Russia were playing the world map like a chessboard — and for no reason other than geography, Afghanistan got caught in the middle. In Return of a King, historian William Dalrymple tells the story of Britain's calamitous invasion.

The New York rapper's political and layered rhymes have been pegged as "conscious rap," a label that has now become pejorative. His latest album challenges that image, paying homage to old-school hip-hop and working with the present.

The Supreme Court began recording arguments nearly 60 years ago, but for much of that time, audio was difficult for the public to hear or available only after long delays. But now, the court's entire audio collection has been digitized for easy public access.

Morning Edition's new project, Cook Your Cupboard, invites cooks to send in photos of food items they aren't sure how to use. In our first installment, NPR listener Marcy Misner has beans, vinegar and almond milk, and food writer Nigella Lawson gives her some guidance on where to go from there.

Is it naive to believe that improved Internet access can help open up truly autocratic regimes like North Korea? Google executives Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen, authors of The New Digital Age, say the power of information is underrated.

A new book by Christopher Clark describes the series of events that precipitated one the most complex and catastrophic conflicts of modern times. "It seems to me that our world is getting more like 1914, not less like it," Clark says.

Following the GOP's losses in the 2012 elections, there has been a lot of hand-wringing about what the party should do next. David Brooks, Laura Ingraham, Mickey Edwards and Ralph Reed take on the Republicans' future in the latest Intelligence Squared U.S. debate.

Shows like Good Morning America and the Today show can have a big impact on a broadcast network's image and bottom line. NPR's David Greene speaks with media reporter Brian Stelter about Top of the Morning, his new book about the high-stakes world of morning TV.

In their new book, The New Digital Age, Google's Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen discuss balancing privacy and security in the digital age — especially in countries with no history of privacy legislation — and the lack of a delete button on the Internet.

Oscar-winning director and actor Robert Redford is back in theaters with The Company You Keep, a look at aging American counterculture revolutionaries. He spoke with NPR's Robert Siegel about his career, his passion for journalism and how a thoughtful teacher helped encourage him.

Over the next few weeks we'll be asking NPR women about their careers — and inviting you to join the conversation. The first question goes to Susan Stamberg, one of NPR's "founding mothers."

Gas may fuel factories and automobiles, but many humans run on coffee. All this week, we're exploring the world of coffee. Test your knowledge of this vital brew with our coffee quiz.

When the only known poem Winston Churchill wrote as an adult went up for auction in London recently, it was expected to fetch a pretty penny. But the poem failed to fetch a buyer, and now its fate is unknown. New Yorker Poetry Editor Paul Muldoon takes a critical look at "Our Modern Watchwords."

Jean Thompson's The Humanity Project follows the fortunes of a number of hard-luck people — and looks at the bizarre, sad and funny ways we fail to help others.

Amy Speace was a stage actor before beginning her music career. For her latest album, How to Sleep in a Stormy Boat, she let Shakespeare guide her songwriting.

The Divine Miss M has had a colorful career, but even she's not as outsize a personality as larger-than-life Hollywood superagent Sue Mengers, whom she portrays in the new solo show I'll Eat You Last. Midler spoke with NPR's Rachel Martin about the role, her career and her love of classic Hollywood.

In his latest book, the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food turns his attention to how we use the four classical elements to transform plants and animals into food, and argues that home cooking can remake the American food system.

Nate Klug is a poet and candidate for ordination in the United Church of Christ. "Poetry is a form where the language is under so much pressure," he says, "and that can really bring about wonderful surprises and insights in our ways of talking about God or thinking about our faith."