NPR Staff

Kurt Braunohler is now a successful working comedian, but for years he struggled to get work. In applying for one major role, he claimed that he could speak fluent German. That wasn't exactly true.

When a search is halted before everyone is found, search-and-rescue volunteer Shaun Roundy says, it stays with him. "Every time you're in that vicinity, you just wonder, where is that person?"

Each week, Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin brings listeners an unexpected side of the news by talking with someone personally affected by the stories making headlines.

As a criminal justice reporter for The Associated Press, Michael Graczyk has covered hundreds of executions of death row inmates in the state ...

When it comes to singers, there have been few voices considered as majestic as soprano Jessye Norman's. The celebrated opera singer from Augusta, Ga. has meticulously built a career on her own terms, choosing her projects intelligently and carefully guarding her vocal resources, which have often been described ...

Crimson Tide, The Lion King, Inception, Gladiator — that's just a handful of the many movies that feature award-winning scores by Hans Zimmer. Lately, Zimmer has lent his ear to soundtracks written by a new generation of aspiring film composers. He's been judging a contest for ...

Hundreds of thousands are out of work, yet employers say they struggle to fill positions. Oil refineries in L.A. often have temporary work, but even entry-level jobs require specialized training.

"Jazz improvisation is supposed to be the highest form of communication," says the 83-year-old sax legend, who is about to release the third volume in his prized Road Shows series.

Cartoonist Matt Freedman chronicled 60 days of cancer treatment in illustrations and in writing. "I didn't think of it as a book or a journal to share," he says, "but simply as a kind of experience."

Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar says he believes the entire LA Clippers corporate organization is better off now that owner Donald Sterling has lost his standing with the NBA.

Sterling was banned for life from the NBA last week for racist remarks made on a recording released by TMZ Sports. ...

Poker is a favorite metaphor for life, and Colson Whitehead says it's not a bad comparison — especially for big city life. "I think you survive in New York just by having fewer bad things happen to you," he tells NPR's Scott Simon. "And I think that's true for poker ...

Seven European military observers are free Saturday, more than a week after they were seized by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. The move comes as Kiev applies military pressure to separatists who have claimed territory and buildings in the region.

Tensions hit a new high in parts of Ukraine Friday, ...

Richard Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, offers a primer on the history of capital punishment.

Regular political commentators, E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post and David Brooks of The New York Times, discuss the Ukraine crisis and Donald Sterling's comments on race.

The Scottish trio makes music unbound to any one genre, with songs reflecting very different backgrounds. The group discusses friendship, influence and what it takes to make the cool kids dance.

Almost half of college freshmen surveyed last year had enrolled in schools that weren't at the top of their list — not because they didn't get in, but because of costs.

Frank was severely depressed when he left his wife and three children to live on his own in 2009. But at his oldest son's baseball game two years later, he realized he couldn't stay away any longer.

A jury awarded nearly $3 million to the Parrs, who say leaks at a natural gas site made them ill. The family won the suit without having to prove that the drilling company broke environmental laws.

Expect to see margarita specials and sombreros galore throughout this weekend — even though, in most of Mexico, May 5 is no big deal.