Jan 6th, 2009 · Steeped in the Piedmont blues of the North Carolina hill country, the trio breathes new life into the African-American string-band tradition. The group brings a claw-hammer banjo, fiddles, snare drum, bone percussion and even a kazoo to Mountain Stage.
Dec 24th, 2008 · On Jingle All the Way, Bela Fleck and his band The Flecktones breathe new life into the Christmas canon, approaching classics like "What Child Is This" and "O Come All Ye Faithful" with their distinctive, genre-bending fervor. Hear the session from WXPN.
Nov 19th, 2008 · A photographer and a comedy writer went through over 50,000 head shots and picked out those that "took our breath away." The book that resulted is a bizarre tutorial in the art of getting noticed, starring an actress who will only wear pink and other entertaining dreamers.
Nov 8th, 2008 · Jeffrey, Wyo., is a modern-day ghost town. Once home to a booming uranium mining industry, the town crumbled after uranium prices plummeted in the 1980s. Its 50 remaining residents react to the possibility of a new uranium boom.
Sep 12th, 2008 · John McCain's track record with evangelicals has been bumpy at best. But his vice presidential pick is breathing new life into a powerful voter bloc. Marlys Popma, McCain's coordinator of evangelical outreach, explains how the Republican campaign is trying to appeal to conservative Christians.
Sep 7th, 2008 · On Aug. 20, 1988, Michael Stuckey was among the firefighters who found themselves surrounded by flames in Yellowstone National Park. Their fire-retardant clothing was catching fire and they could hardly breathe. For hours, the crews sat, waiting for the fire to move past them.
Aug 14th, 2008 · The winning entry in a contest for bad writing came from Garrison Spik. The assignment was to write a terrible first sentence for an imaginary novel. Spik won $250 with this: "Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city, their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped 'Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.J."
Aug 12th, 2008 · The Beijing Olympics are underway and world-class athletes are in the spotlight. How is the air they're breathing? We get an air quality update from Kenneth Rahn, professor emeritus of atmospheric chemistry at the University of Rhode Island.