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Deborah Wiles isn't afraid to write about life's most serious issues. Her popular books deal with the joys of childhood — but they also grapple with intolerance, death, rejection and the difficulty of having to do what's right instead of what's easy.

A self-proclaimed "backup singing ninja" with a host of famous friends and admirers, Hogan has just released her first solo album in 11 years.

Shearwater makes epic, artful, bracing rock out of unlikely ingredients. The resulting concoctions are known to explode into bellowing catharsis, courtesy of singer Jonathan Meiburg and his crack band. But Shearwater's most blistering moments coexist nicely with the portentously brooding, fearlessly serious likes of "Hidden Lakes," from The Golden Archipelago.

On this week's All Songs Considered we share NPR Music listeners' picks for the top new artists from the first half of the year.

Last week, NPR launched a summer fiction contest called "Three-Minute Fiction." The idea is simple: Listeners should send in original pieces of fiction that can be read in three minutes or less. So far, listeners have written more than 1,300 stories. The winning stories will be read on the air.

This week the NPR program Invisibilia talks with a guy who despised our mindless worship of celebrities. So he devised an elaborate prank. It succeeded in ways he never would have anticipated.

Audie Cornish and Robert Siegel read emails from listeners about whether giving the middle finger is offensive.

Andy Tri is the acting bear project leader in the forest wildlife and populations research group with the MN DNR. He joins John and Heidi on the Tuesday…

The country has beat back the winter surge, and experts credit Americans' improved compliance with precautions like mask-wearing. But we could we still face a resurgence if we let up.

The river enters Delhi relatively clean but by the time it flows out, it's a "toxic cocktail of sewage, industrial waste and surface runoff," says an environmentalist. Urbanization is partly to blame.

The new animated short, follows the story of an African-American father trying to do his daughter's hair. NPR's Michel Martin speaks with creator Matthew A. Cherry about the story.

The U.S. is seeing a surge in avian flu. It's in chickens and cows and even sickened a few humans. Here's how other countries have dealt with the virus.

This year's race — which includes beloved stars, up-and-coming talents and a pair of songs from a successful but controversial musical — feels wide open. That doesn't mean all the songs are equally worthy.

The White House's Thanksgiving practice doesn't go back as far as you might think and has been sustained by a special interest group — the turkey lobby.

Of all the folk songsters from the 1960s, Mitchell has proven to have the strongest influence on jazz singers. Joni's Jazz features her collaborations with stars like Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock.

NPR's Juana Summers talks with writer and critic Lawrence Burney about his new essay collection out titled No Sense in Wishing.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Maria Godoy and Regina Barber of the Short Wave podcast about a new Nipah virus outbreak, Australian pink diamonds and the mating life of cockatoos.

Family size around the world is dropping. That choice by couples is triggering a population shift that's sending shock waves through economies.

There will be fewer plans to pick from this time around. But people can still expect plenty of options for prescriptions drugs and privately run insurance through Medicare Advantage.

A new CDC report shows at least 16,000 lives were saved over a 12-month period. Experts say the U.S. is experiencing the biggest drop in fatal overdoses seen since the opioid crisis began in the 90s.