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From Darth Vader to Scarlett O'Hara, the best fictional characters reflect something about who we are and how we got here. In Character, a six-month series from NPR, explores indelible American characters from fiction, folklore and pop culture.

A museum touring Eastern Europe makes use of old love letters and gifts from relationships gone wrong. The Museum of Broken Relationships gives new life to the leftovers from break-ups, one-night stands and ugly divorces. Scott Simon talks to the museum founders.

It sounds like a battle between graphic-novel superheroes, but the NBA's championship matchup, which starts tonight, pits two teams that couldn't be more different against each other. Starting with the marquee tilt, LeBron James vs. Kevin Durant, here's a look at five stellar storylines.

It's time to rev up the old minivan and hit the road for summer vacation. But how to keep the kids (and adults) from getting bored? Audiobook expert Adam Boretz recommends stories so good you'll forget to ask, "Are we there yet?"

Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez bring us Grindhouse, a deliberately cheesy homage to the low-rent double feature — and believe it or not, critic Bob Mondello says "What's not to love?"

The opera star is known for her musical obsessions, her latest being the music and repertoire of 19th-century diva Maria Malibran. Bartoli has built a traveling shrine to Malibran, and they're currently on tour together.

The White House plan to help struggling subprime borrowers has an unexpected backlash. It's coming from consumers who say reckless borrowers in trouble should not be rescued. But housing advocates believe subprime borrowers deserve to be helped, because so many were misled by deceptive or fraudulent lenders.

Hollywood actor Richard Widmark, who often portrayed killers, cops and Western gunslingers, died after a long illness. He was 93. Widmark made his film debut in 1947 as a giggling killer in "Kiss of Death." David Thompson, author of the Biographical Dictionary of Film, discusses Widmark's career in film.

Molly Haskell has taken a new look at all the guilty pleasures and raging complexities that inhabit Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind in her book Frankly, My Dear: Gone With the Wind Revisited. Haskell explains how the characters are looked at differently today.

British playwright and Nobel laureate Harold Pinter has died. He was 78. Pinter was known for his brooding portrayals of domestic life and his barbed politics.

Farm robots are here, not just in Star Wars. Some dairies already use milking machines that clean udders and monitor cow health, plus do the milking, and a fully automated tractor is coming out this fall.

There's a real difference in the type of names people give their children in red states as opposed to blue states. It's the opposite of what you might expect.