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NPR's Steve Drummond reports from the Mississippi Delta on "Teach for America." For more than a decade the program has been sending recent college graduates into poverty-stricken areas to teach for two years.

The top of 14,000-foot Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano on the big island of Hawaii, is one of the last best places to do astronomy. But astronomers now have devised a way to make "the seeing," as they call it, even better. Join NPR's Christopher Joyce for a visit to Mauna Kea.

Lisa talks with two police officers, a father and son, from California, who are using their musical talents to teach kids about safe driving. One of them is a polished Elvis impersonator. The other, a hard-rock rapper. They perform live throughout the state and have released several CDs. We'll hear excerpts from some of their songs. (7:46) *** The CDs are not available commercially (they are only given out at school performances), but listeners can get more information on the program online. http://www.ubco.org/

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis has performed pop music with Sting, hip-hop with Buckshot LeFonque, and jazz with a host of giants like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Art Blakey. His new CD offers another challenge. Marsalis teams with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra on Creation - a collection of the works of various French composers. Liane speaks with Marsalis about his newfound confidence with classical performance and some of the lessons he learned along the way. (17:49) Creation is on Sony Classical

NPR's Renee Montagne travels to Owensboro, Kentucky, to report on America's last public execution. In August of 1936, 20,000 people watched Rainey Bethea die by court order on the gallows.

Host Jacki Lyden visits four families in Israel and the West Bank who have lost children in the bloody conflict in that region. Since the most recent violence began on September 28, almost two hundred children under eighteen have died, 164 Palestinians and thirty-seven Israelis.

Lisa talks with author Michael Chabon about the legend of the golem, the mythical man made of clay. Chabon researched the golem while writing his latest novel, Kavalier and Clay, which just won the Pultizer Prize for fiction.

The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, produce a profile of Laila Ali, daughter of famed boxer Muhammad Ali. Tonight she enters the ring with Jacqui Frazier, daughter of another renowned boxer, Joe Frazier. Both women compete professionally, but their match is a lot more than professional - it renews their fathers' historic rivalry.

Noah talks with Tom Debaggio, an herb grower and writer with early onset Alzheimer's. His wife Joyce and son Francesco also participate. This is the third conversation Noah has had with Tom.

Scott talks to writer Hampton Sides about his new book Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission. It tells of the perilous rescue of American and British Prisoners of War held at the Cabanatuan camp in the Philippines following the Bataan Death March. (11:45) The book is published by Doubleday.