Kat Lonsdorf

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with the author Abraham Verghese about his new novel The Covenant of Water in which a family in India is haunted by a medical mystery.

NPR's Juana Summers talks with writer Camonghne Felix about how Simone Biles won her eighth U.S. Championship Sunday night — a record — 10 years after she first ascended to the top of her sport.

The water comes from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Although most scientists agree it does not pose an immediate environmental threat, some are worried about the long-term consequences.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Fazelminallah Qazizai, a journalist and NPR's producer in Afghanistan, about life in the country two years after the Taliban took over.

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with researcher Andrew Lebovich about the aftermath of the coup in Niger, where leaders of the military say they will prosecute the country's deposed president for treason.

Nicki Minaj spent years hustling in the rap world before she even put out an album. Then in 2010, it all came together with a celebrated guest verse and a debut album that took hip hop by storm.

Sixto Rodriguez, the musician whose story was documented in the film Searching for Sugar Man, has died at 81. He had minor success in the U.S., but was surprised to learn his music was a hit abroad.

In 2003, T.I. and other Atlanta rappers created new subgenre of rap: trap music. Twenty years later, its influence is everywhere.

Hip-hop was born at a party in 1973, but it'd be another six years until the first commercial hip-hop records. People have differing views of it, but the release of "Rapper's Delight" changed history.

In August 1973, an 18-year-old DJ Kool Herc played his sister's back-to-school fundraiser in the rec room of their apartment building. But he and his friends sparked something much bigger.