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Author Steve Coll details the complicated family history of Osama bin Laden, one of 54 children born to Mohamed bin Laden. The elder bin Laden transformed himself from an illiterate bricklayer into an immensely wealthy and powerful businessman.

Jessica Queller was a young writer working on a hit TV show in Los Angeles when her beautiful, vibrant mother died — of ovarian cancer. After Queller tested positive for the breast cancer gene mutation, she had a prophylactic double mastectomy — and chronicled her experience in the book Pretty Is What Changes.

Fresh Air book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, a new collection of short stories that chronicles the cultural alienation that exists between Indian-born parents and their American-born children.

Theologian Dwight Hopkins provides a historical perspective on black liberation theology. Hopkins is an ordained Baptist minister and a professor of theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

The Rev. James H. Cone founded black liberation theology, which has roots in 1960s civil-rights activism. In an interview with Terry Gross, he explains the movement — and comments on controversial sermons by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's longtime minister and a black liberation theology proponent.

Actress Helen Mirren has played countless royals — Cleopatra, Queen Charlotte, Queen Elizabeth I and II. It's no coincidence. Aristocracy is in the blood. Even the working class women in her family were "queenly," she says.

Ahead of Saturday's presidential election in Zimbabwe, Heidi Holland, author of Dinner with Mugabe, explains her theory of how Zimbabwe's leader of 28 years went from hero to deluded dictator.

In a new anthology of baseball essays, sportswriter Stefan Fatsis celebrates his beloved, 31-year-old baseball glove. He talks to Robert Siegel about how he set out to find out about his mitt's history and what he learned along the way.

A new book offers a fresh perspective on Christian fundamentalism, arguing against the common stereotypes of being rigid and unapologetically dogmatic. Author Brett Grainger discusses, In The World But Not of It: One Family's Militant Faith and the History of Fundamentalism in America.

Julio Diaz ends his daily subway commute one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner. One evening, his routine was broken when a teenage mugger took his wallet at knifepoint. But neither of them could have predicted what happened next.