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Jay-Z is one of the most successful hip-hop artists of all time. On Fresh Air, he discusses growing up in Brooklyn surrounded by drugs and violence, and the stories behind many of his famous songs.

Jose Saramago tells the grim tale of a city devastated by an epidemic of blindness. Myla Goldberg says Saramago vividly illustrates disaster's potential to bring out both the best and the worst in people.

In an interview with Terry Gross, taped in front of a live audience in New York City, the Daily Show host deconstructs his upcoming "Rally to Restore Sanity" on the National Mall and explains how The Daily Show comes up with material.

Beloved chef Madhur Jaffrey prepared for a life on stage and screen as an actress — but her longing for the food of her childhood led her to her other career. She looks back on her days in film and in the kitchen with NPR's Renee Montagne.

NPR asked four chefs to divulge the dish that most reminds them of the holidays. Atlanta-based food chemist Shirley Corriher says her favorite is her grandmother's sweet potato pudding, while Dorie Greenspan thinks fondly of gingerbread cookies -- and what happened when her son was young.

Alt.Latino hosts Felix Contreras and Jasmine Garsd join Weekend Edition Saturday's Scott Simon to discuss modern interpretations of traditional Latin holiday music.

Curtis Wilkie is the author of The Fall of the House of Zeus, in which he chronicles the life of Dickie Scruggs, a trial lawyer who made millions in lawsuits targeting the asbestos and tobacco industries — and then wound up in prison for attempted bribery.

Founding Father Robert Morris was a laissez-faire capitalist and subject of perhaps the first American congressional inquiry. In Robert Morris: Financier of the American Revolution, author Charles Rappleye argues that the war couldn't have been won without him.

Now researchers in the U.K. are using maps to study variations in the way health services are delivered. The approach, pioneered at Dartmouth in the U.S., shows that the care provided can be quite different even when doctors are paid salaries.

Ballet's history is not just about choreography and technique — it's also a history of nationalization, the changing ways we view the body, shifting gender norms and class struggles. Historian Jennifer Homans chronicles the art form in a new cultural history, Apollo's Angels.