Ari Shapiro

Mandatory life without parole for juveniles in murder cases has been banned for five years. But an Associated Press investigation revealed that the ban has been enforced unevenly across the country.

Billy Manes, a leader in Orlando's gay community, died suddenly last week at the age of 45. Ari Shapiro met Manes in the days after the Pulse night club shooting last year and has a remembrance.

"Likable characters are usually completely forgettable ... " he says. "We love villains ... because they show us these disturbing complexities." His sun-drenched summer novel is set on a Greek island.

For her project, "Stains on the Sidewalk," photographer Amy Berbert is memorializing each murder in Baltimore last year with a photograph taken on the "same day, same time, same place."

Amid protests during recess, Sen. Dean Heller stayed on the sidelines in his state's health care tug-of-war. Heller is one of the few moderate Republicans expected to have swaying power in the vote.

The Smithsonian's first brewing historian explores everything from immigration to urbanization through the lens of beer. And with the boom in microbrewing, she says beer's story has come full circle.

The Chesapeake Bay cleanup depends heavily on farmers taking steps to keep runoff from entering the bay. But the Environmental Protection Agency's plan to help them do it has been controversial. NPR's Ari Shapiro talks to one Maryland farmer who changed his mind about the EPA efforts to clean up the bay.

After years of failed attempts at cleaning up the dead zones, the Chesapeake Bay, once a national disgrace, is teeming with wildlife again. But success is fragile, and it might be even more so now.

Titus Andromedon "doesn't have money to pay the rent; he can't keep a job; he gets racially profiled," Burgess says. "I mean, so what that he ... wears women's clothes?"

Trumpeter Hugh Masekela and producer Stewart Levine organized the 1974 festival and produced the new album Zaire 74: The African Artists, which captures performances by Miriam Makeba, Franco and more.

The clash between science and religious belief lies at the heart of Sarah Perry's new novel, set in a marshy, windswept English town menaced by a serpentine monster that may or may not truly exist.

Gus Unger-Hamilton and Joe Newman tell Ari Shapiro about their songwriting process, how alt-J put its spin on a classic folk song and how the band has progressed over the years.

Mike Mills' chicken wings have been named the best in the country. He is even in the Barbecue Hall of Fame. His new book with daughter Amy Mills shares the gospel of barbecue with home cooks.

What did it take to get through Ellis Island? For a few years, it took passing a puzzle test. NPR's Audie Cornish talks with Adam Cohen, who wrote about it in Smithsonian Magazine.

Once Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn became famous as Sylvan Esso, they immediately felt the burdens of replicating their success. Three years after their electro-pop debut, they're back with What Now.

Maj. Janine Garner's photo was swept into the online group in which users, including some fellow troops, graded or demeaned military women. Now she is joining with other Marines to return fire.

The Facebook executive lost her husband in 2015. She says, "Rather than offer to do something, it's often better to do anything. Just do something specific." Her new book is called Option B.

The duo met in college and loved right away how their voices "cradled one another. " They speak with NPR's Ari Shapiro about learning to work together, and perform selections from their debut.

This week, Isabelle Meggett Lucas got to visit her childhood home — in the Smithsonian, which moved the house from South Carolina to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.