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Ed Gordon discusses Wednesday's scheduled launch of the space shuttle Discovery with NASA's acting chief operating officer Frederick Gregory, a veteran of three shuttle flights and the first African-American shuttle commander. It is the first shuttle mission since February 2003, when the Columbia shuttle broke apart while re-entering Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven crew members.

Cambodian musician Daran Kravanh survived the "killing fields" and genocide under the Khmer Rouge regime, with the help of an unlikely ally: an accordion. Being a musician kept him alive during the brutal antil-Western genocide.

Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security Secretary, testifies in Congress about protecting local transit systems from terrorist attacks. Democrats are questioning the Bush administration's spending priorities and security for mass transit.

British novelist Ian McEwan discusses how Londoners are reacting to this week's terrorist attacks. He says people in the city remained remarkably calm in the face of the attacks, and that the bombings actually brought out a sense of solidarity among the city's diverse population.

NPR's Puzzlemaster Will Shortz quizzes one of our listeners, and has a challenge for everyone at home. This week's winner is Marge Civil from Colorado Springs, Colo. She listens to Weekend Edition on member station KRCC in Colorado Springs.

Celebrated film producer Richard Zanuck, whose latest movie is director Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, discusses his wide-ranging career and Hollywood today.

StoryCorps, the oral history project, opens a new recording booth in New York, at the site of the World Trade Center. An initial piece of the planned memorial, the booth will provide a way for those who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, 2001, to share their stories.

Bernard Ebbers, who as the once-swaggering CEO of WorldCom oversaw the largest corporate fraud in U.S. history, wept in court Wednesday after a judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison -- the toughest sentence yet in the string of recent corporate scandals.

Last week's attacks are believed to mark the first suicide bombings in Western Europe. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly reports on the implications of the spread of a tactic that's long been mostly a phenomenon of the Middle East and Iraq.

Mimi Valdes is editor-in-chief of Vibe magazine and a commentator for TV specials such as Black in the 80s. Her booklist features a mix of new fiction, classic drama and nonfiction.