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We Americans love our dogs. More households include dogs than children. And so the editors of The Bark, a magazine that began as a newsletter advocating a legal off-leash area for dogs to play, had no trouble finding enough writers and material for a book of essays, short stories and commentaries on all aspects of humans and their dogs. NPR's Ketzel Levine reports.

Cirque Du Soleil, the renowned performance troupe, is capitalizing on the success of its ongoing Las Vegas show "O" with a new production for adults only. "Zumanity," which opens Saturday, may be the riskiest show the Montreal-based company has ever produced. Jeff Lunden reports.

In the '60s and '70s, an obscure northwest corner of Alabama became a recording mecca for rhythm and blues, rock and pop artists. Now the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio is up for sale.

The music playing as fashion models strut down the runway can be as important as the clothes they're wearing. As part of a Morning Edition series on the fashion industry, NPR's Neda Ulaby looks behind the scenes at the process of building the sound of a runway show.

Leni Riefenstahl, renowned and despised for her depiction of Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Triumph of the Will, dies at 101. Riefenstahl maintained she should be above criticism for the 1934 film, which has been called the best propaganda film ever made, but she spent more than half her life apologizing for it. NPR's Bob Edwards has a remembrance.

The line-up of new television shows for the fall season is heavy on sitcoms and light on reality TV -- a departure from the trend of the past few years. Hear USA Today television critic Robert Bianco.

Comedian Whoopi Goldberg is known for her blunt take on race issues, and her new sitcom, Whoopi -- which premieres Tuesday -- is no exception. The show features British-Iranian actor Omid Djalili, who makes comic hay out of everything from ethnic profiling to bombs -- dicey topics in the post-Sept. 11 era. NPR's Neda Ulaby speaks with Djalili.

Grammy-winner John Mayer's latest album, Heavier Things, finds the singer-songwriter pulling back from his driving guitar licks to focus more on melodies. Mayer speaks with NPR's Michele Norris about his new album and offers a preview of some of the songs.

The award-winning film, The Magdalene Sisters, examines a now-defunct practice of the Catholic Church in Ireland. More than 30,000 women and young girls considered "immoral" were sent to live in "Magdalene Asylums." Their sins, sometimes as benign as flirting, earned these women a life of hard labor and punishment. Los Angeles Times and Morning Edition film critic Kenneth Turan has a review.

Record producer Sam Phillips, who helped launch the careers of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis, dies of respiratory failure at age 80. Dubbed the inventor of rock 'n' roll, Phillips founded Sun Records in 1952 and was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. NPR's Bob Edwards has a remembrance.