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In 1861, Elizabeth Packard was forcibly removed from her home and committed to an insane asylum because she disagreed with her Calvinist husband's religious beliefs. Playwright Emily Mann tells her story in the Kennedy Center's presentation of Mrs. Packard.

19th-century Harvard students needed botanical models. They turned to a pair of glass artists who specialized in invertebrate zoology. The results, on display at the Corning Museum of Glass this summer, are so lifelike that they've inspired poets and novelists.

Hollywood puts the planet in peril again with Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer. The comics were hip enough to last for more than 40 years, but the movie treatment is far from must-see cinema.

Virginia filmmaker Tom Davenport is best known for his movie adaptations of Brothers Grimm fairy tales — set in Appalachia. Now he spends much of his time making sure people see the work of other filmmakers. His Folkstreams.net is an online archive for documentaries on a range of folk culture, virtually all of them impossible to find anywhere else.

The Van Cliburn Foundation's Fifth annual International Competition for Outstanding Amateurs is underway this week. NPR's John Ydstie talks to one of the semifinalists, 46-year-old Greg Fisher, a former child prodigy who has worked at his family's glass and mirror installation company in Edmond, Okla., for the past 30 years.

There are exactly 103 roads named after Catholic saints in Los Angeles. J. Michael Walker has spent eight years exploring these roads and avenues, researching their namesake saints and finding connections with the people who inhabit them.

In the final part of Morning Edition's series about Shakespeare, co-host Renee Montagne examines the theory that the Earl of Oxford — not the man from Stratford — is actually the bard and author of the world's most famous plays.

Research shows that sleep deprivation makes people emotionally volatile and temperamental — a fact that hasn't escaped the notice of some reality TV producers, who deny contestants sleep in an effort to kick up televised drama.

There are no velvet ropes at the Velveteria in Portland, Ore., where visitors can rub velvet — or velveteen — art, including portraits of Jesus, Elvis, Liberace and Michael Jackson.

Big oil, big buildings, big hair — the TV series Dallas made its glittering debut 30 years ago this month. Neither its namesake city nor TV has been the same since. Longtime Dallas TV critic Ed Bark discusses the show, the city and "Who Shot J.R.?"