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The new jazz opera Forgotten: The Murder at the Ford Rouge Plant chronicles the unionization of the Ford Motor Company. The story centers on the questionable 1937 death of union organizer and Methodist minister Lewis Bradford, a distant relative of the opera's composer, Steve Jones. NPR's Bob Edwards speaks with Jones.

T.C. Boyle is the author of 15 books, including Drop City, nominated for a National Book Award last year. Boyle's fiction is known for its wit, biting satire, historical sweep and verbal pyrotechnics. For Intersections, a Morning Edition series on artists and their influences, Boyle says his literary reputation owes much to rock 'n' roll.

Edward R. Murrow brought rooftop reports of the Blitz of London into America's living rooms before this country entered World War II. After the war, Murrow and his team of reporters brought news to the new medium of television. NPR's Bob Edwards discusses his new book on the broadcasting legend. Hear NPR's Renee Montagne's extended interview with Edwards, and read an excerpt from Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism.

Music critic Chris Nickson has a review of the new "best-of" collection from the Ukranians. The band is best known for its quirky covers -- many of which are on Istoriya: The Best Of The Ukrainians. Nickson says their more traditional songs are worth hearing, as well.

Paul Winfield, the third African American nominated for a best actor Oscar, died Sunday of a heart attack. He was 62. Winfield earned his Academy Award nomination for his turn in the 1972 film Sounder. In 1995, he won an Emmy for his portrayal of a federal judge in the TV show Picket Fences. NPR's Bob Edwards has a remembrance.

What began as a modest effort to ease racial tension in rural Kentucky coal country produced an unexpected musical result: Hick-hop is a compelling mix of uniquely American musical genres: bluegrass and rap. NPR's Howard Berkes reports.

Actor and writer Spalding Gray is confirmed to be dead, two months after he was first reported missing. His body was pulled out of New York's East River Sunday. Gray, best known for Swimming to Cambodia, was 62. NPR's Neda Ulaby recounts Gray's career.

Classically trained piano player Regina Spektor grew up in Moscow during the 1980s, but when she moved to the U.S. as a teenager, she began to sing and write pop music. Mikel Jollett reviews her third and latest pop CD, Soviet Kitsch, as well as her previous CD Songs.

A new science fiction museum has opened in Seattle as part of Paul Allen's high-tech Experience Music Project. The Microsoft billionaire, whose personal collection inspired the idea for a museum, hopes the facility attracts droves of sci-fi fans from around the galaxy. Jeremy Richards of member station KPLU reports.

The new movie I'll Sleep When I'm Dead untangles a violent mystery. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan thinks the story is anything but straightforward film noir.