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His new book, Dissident Gardens, follows three generations of an activist family. The book is fiction, but its characters were inspired by Lethem's own story. Originally broadcast Sept. 9, 2013.

Credit (or blame) goes to France, which wanted more babies in the 19th century. Like most government plans to influence birthrate, it didn't quite work.

Hear the acclaimed pianist discuss and spin his favorite Liszt recordings.

Voter turnout is heavy as Palestinians go to the polls in Gaza and the West Bank to elect a new parliament, the first in a decade. Unofficial exit polls show the ruling Fatah movement winning more than 40 percent of the vote, with the Islamist group Hamas garnering more than 30 percent.

Rock pioneer Bo Diddley, who died Monday at the age of 79, leaves behind a sound that helped build a musical genre. Born in Mississippi and raised in Chicago, Diddley played guitar on street corners before being discovered by Chess Records.

In the information age, the unexplored is hard to come by. Author Richard Harvell recommends three titles to take you back to a time when the unknown was a little more accessible — and to remind you of the power of wonder and imagination.

These five outstanding novels take us to unfamiliar eras and exotic locales — ancient Israel, Elizabethan England, 1920s Paris — while confirming our common humanity.

Millions of Americans are still out of work, and they're getting hit even harder as unemployment benefits continue to dry up. Host Michel Martin speaks with NPR Senior Business Editor Marilyn Geewax about why benefits are being reduced. Mike Rivas has exhausted his unemployment benefits, and joins the conversation to talk about how he's getting by.

From the dark-hued voice of a tenor in full cry, to the bustling style of new genre-bending composers, NPR Music's Tom Huizenga and host Guy Raz spin an eclectic mix of new releases.

Colombia's government has announced peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a Marxist insurgency that has been fighting a brutal conflict for nearly five decades. But memories of previous, unsuccessful attempts at peace are still fresh for civilians in the rebels' mountainous heartland.

Weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz talks with NPR's Corey Dade about the Trayvon Martin case and Stand Your Ground laws, and Michelle Alexander, a civil rights lawyer, legal scholar and author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.

It was quite a feat for KEXP to get the whole Hercules & Love Affair crew on the air.