Daily Schedule

On today’s show: Cognitive scientist Paul Bloom explains why he thinks that a moral sense of good and evil is hardwired into our brains from birth. Director Nancy Biurski talks about her documentary about Tanaquil le Clercq, the ballet star who was a muse to George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins before she was paralyzed by polio at the age of 27. Roddy Doyle discusses his new novel The Guts, which picks up the story of his bestseller, The Commitments, almost 30 years later. And we’ll look at how John Foster Dulles and his brother Allen Dulles led the United States into foreign conflicts in the 1950s and how we’re still feeling the aftereffects today.

Your morning companion from NPR and the WNYC Newsroom, with world news, local features, and weather updates.

Scott Stringer has been in the Comptroller's office for a month; he talks about pressing Albany to allow New York City to raise the minimum wage, auditing the finances of the Queens Library, and more. Then: Author Amy Chua caught heat for her 2011 book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. She and husband Jed Rubenfeld discuss their controversial new book about ethnicity and success, The Triple Package. Plus: Reuters's Timothy Heritage reports from Sochi about whether Russia is ready for the Winter Olympics.

The Peabody Award-winning program features Terry Gross’ fearless and insightful interviews with big names in pop culture, politics and the arts.

A wrap-up of the day’s news, with features and interviews about the latest developments in New York City and around the world, from NPR and the WNYC newsroom.

A wrap-up of the day’s news, with features and interviews about the latest developments in New York City and around the world, from NPR and the WNYC newsroom.

In this episode: From Russia With Soundcheck week continues with Regina Spektor, the Moscow-born, the New York-based indie-pop star, who schools us about a personal hero, the late Soviet-era singer Vladimir Vysotsky.

Then, a look at "Samizdat" -- the name given to an underground, DIY counterculture that was a huge part of life in the old Soviet Union. There's an exhibit of Samizdat artifacts consisting of pamphlets, books, cheap cassettes and more collected at George Washington University's Gelman Library. The exhibit's curator, Mark Yoffe, explains the movement.

And, Brooklyn band Hospitality performs songs from it's second record, Trouble, in the Soundcheck studio.

Listen to more music written for, about, and in cathedrals on this New Sounds (part 2 of 2.)  Hear the famous 12^th century hit tune first performed in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, “Viderunt Omnes” by Perotin, an example of organum, as sung by the Hilliard Ensemble. There’s also music by Joby Talbot which musically describes one of the great cathedrals in Spain - Léon.   Then there’s trombone music by Stuart Dempster from a recording made in the Great Abbey of Clement VI in the south of France –part of the Papal Palace in Avignon.  All that, and much more.