Morning Edition is your perfect morning companion: gentle, but straightforward, explaining the vagaries of international diplomacy, reporting weather and even recommending the best film in town.

Follow live coverage of the inauguration ceremony in Washington DC and hear the President’s address. Columnist Clarence Page offers his view from the national mall; Jodi Kantor of The New York Times talks about the President’s agenda; and historian Kenneth C. Davis talks about second term inaugurations throughout history. Plus: hear excerpts from Sunday’s Martin Luther King Jr. event at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Fresh Air is one of the most popular programs on public radio, breaking the "talk show" mold, and Gross is known for her fearless and insightful interviews with prominent figures in American arts, politics, and popular culture.

Reporters scour the globe for the most direct and compelling information, from the spread of AIDS in India to the inexplicable fluctuations of the Brazilian economy.

Reporters scour the globe for the most direct and compelling information, from the spread of AIDS in India to the inexplicable fluctuations of the Brazilian economy.

In this episode: Over the course of her career the singer Nina Simone left audiences with many different impressions – from relatable to distant. But her contributions to music, and to the struggle for civil rights, are indisputable. We look back at the cultural and political icon.

Plus: a fired-up performance by the Dallas-based gospel-funk group The Relatives. 

This New Sounds brings musical accompaniment for drama in the form of the Portico Quartet, a young instrumental band, who play mostly acoustic music using wind instruments, bass and percussion, including a 21^st century instrument called the hang.  (The hang is a dimpled dome-shaped, tuned metal percussion instrument that sounds like a cross between the steel drum and the mbira (thumb piano) and looks like two woks welded together.)