Ari Shapiro

Long ridiculed for her unusual name, Marijuana Pepsi Vandyck recently turned her hardship into success. After studying perceptions around "black names" in white classrooms, she completed her Ph.D.

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Marijuana Pepsi Vandyck about her recent PhD completion despite the hardships she's faced because of her birth name.

The writer, better known for his dark animated comedy about a has-been horse, has written a collection of surreal short stories called Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory.

Carlos Santana speaks with NPR's Ari Shapiro about his latest album Africa Speaks and explains how to maintain a constant thirst for music discovery.

Apple announced it will not offer iTunes in its new operating system. Amy Wang of Rolling Stone explains why iTunes "completely changed the way that people buy and listen to music."

Tyndall Air Force Base suffered billions of dollars worth of damage from Hurricane Michael. The Air Force wants the base fully online, but there are challenges, including a new hurricane season.

Sinkane's lead singer Ahmed Gallab talks about the band's latest album, Dépaysé, Sudan's regime change and the resilience of his people.

Floridians are still reeling from the Category 5 storm's effects. They've been waiting more than 230 days for Congress to pass a disaster relief bill. And the new hurricane season is about to begin.

Scientists know how the storms are created, but it's nearly impossible to predict where a tornado will touch down, says Patrick Marsh, an NOAA meteorologist.

Hurricane season begins June 1, but the Florida panhandle is still reeling from Hurricane Michael, which made landfall last October and caused an ongoing housing crisis.

In her U.S. debut as Don Giovanni, Lucia Lucas became the first known trans person to sing a principal role on an American opera stage.

Louis McDonald Jr. is 63, recently retired and "really unlikable," says novelist Mary Miller. But on a whim he takes home a dog named Layla, and the two of them "become a little team."

Barenbaum says she was inspired by the story of Albert Einstein's race to prove his theory of relativity. The novel digs into questions of philosophy, time, and whether rules are meant to be broken.

Brothers Matt and Brad Shultz of Cage the Elephant have learned to lean on each other through a chaotic childhood and the recent losses in their lives.

Myla Goldberg's new novel is written as an exhibition catalogue for photographer Lillian Preston, who's fictional — but her story of ambition and controversy in 1950s New York is real and relatable.

In the 16th century, Hernando Colón assembled one of the greatest print-media collections the world had ever known. For centuries, its reference book was missing — until it turned up in Denmark.

Weyes Blood is the project of musician Natalie Mering. Her latest album, Titanic Rising, covers topics of climate change, loneliness and life in an age mediated by screens.

The singer-songwriter turned her 2010 concept album into a folk-opera stage production and earlier this month, the show made its Broadway debut.

The new Netflix series takes a hard look at the effects of our behavior on the natural world. Series producer Alastair Fothergill says that this is a different, more urgent type of show.

Beira, a coastal city in Mozambique, had a system in place to protect against flooding. Still, it was destroyed by the cyclone. Mayor Daviz Simango reflects on what went wrong.