Scott Simon

Hanks watched "about 8 million hours" of Mister Rogers to prepare for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Hanks doesn't necessarily consider himself "a nice guy" but rather "a joyful person."

NPR's Scott Simon examines the personal experiences of the three U.S. career diplomats who have testified this week in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

Written on four tablets, three of which date back no later than 1730 B.C., the recipes are considered to be the oldest known. And they taste pretty good, says a scholar who re-created them.

A year after the musician and activist was beaten by Ugandan security forces, he continues to protest President Yoweri Museveni's authoritarian rule, with plans to run against him in 2021.

The actor discusses her "arduous" role as a 53-year-old Yale professor in the dark play, The Sound Inside. "It requires a lot of technique," she said. "Because I don't want you to see the technique."

The Berlin Wall was a concrete manifestation of the barrier between democracy and oppression. NPR's Scott Simon marks the 30th anniversary of the day it began to come down.

Former NPR producer David Rector has died.

The classical flutist came back from the hospital after receiving an Alzheimer's diagnosis and felt compelled to write. The result is a stunning memoir that mixes poetry and prose.

Bernardine Evaristo's new award-winning novel follows a dozen different characters, aged 19-93. "I wanted to put as many black British women into it as possible," the author says.

If you caught heat for neglecting to send a romantic text last Valentine's Day, you might now be vindicated: Server maintenance slowed 170,000 texts to a glacial pace. They were recently delivered.

NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Democratic presidential hopeful and South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg along with voters who asked about the mayor's leadership plans.

The South Bend, Ind., mayor explains his health care overhaul plan — "Medicare for All," as well as private insurance — and differentiates it from other Democratic presidential candidates' plans.

President Trump has chosen to attend Saturday's Ultimate Fighting Championship over the many other things to do in New York, such as comedy shows, jazz performances and live theater.

Amidst the enormous protests against inequality, Chileans turn to song. Music once used to protest the brutal dictator Augusto Pinochet in the '70s has been revamped for the demonstrations.

Washington reprises her Broadway role in the Netflix adaptation, as a black mother whose black son has gone missing. The film is a walk in the fearful shoes of the parent of a black child, she says.

NPR's Scott Simon ruminates about news of 39 people found dead in a trailer in Essex, U.K., and why people would risk their lives for that journey.

John Kenney has followed up Love Poems (for Married People) with Love Poems (for People with Children). It includes poems such as "3:32a.m. and I am sure the infant is taunting me" and "Baby wipes."

The humorist asked three strangers to pick a random day, month and year out of a hat — December 28, 1986, as it turned out. And then he set out to document every single thing he could for that day.

Is it an animal? A type of fungi? No, it's "the blob." The amorphous "slime mold" may not have a nervous system, but it's the star of a new exhibit at the Paris zoo.

Martin, who's working on the long-awaited sixth volume of his series A Song of Ice and Fire, rarely gives interviews — but NPR's Scott Simon recently caught up with him onstage at an awards ceremony.