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Stalin, a biography by Oxford University historian Robert Service, adopts a new view of the Soviet leader. Service says Josef Stalin was not the uneducated and coarse man he was often perceived to be. In fact, Service says, Stalin deliberately fashioned that image for himself.

Dinosaur Jr. helped define and shape indie and alternative rock in the late 1980s and early '90s. The reunited band is now back on the road after issuing re-mastered versions of their first three albums: Dinosaur, You're Living All Over Me, and Bug.

Los Angeles is home to almost four million people of every ethnicity — and sometimes, they don't share that home very peacefully. Author Nina Revoyr takes a tour of the city's Crenshaw district, the setting of her novel about family secrets and the 1965 Watts riots.

Congress is considering whether to renew parts of the USA Patriot Act that are due to expire soon, including a provision that allows library records to be turned over to law enforcement. As part of our continuing coverage of the Patriot Act, Larry Abramson has this report on a library system in northwestern Washington state that had its ethics tested when the FBI came to call.

The confidential informant known for 30 years as "Deep Throat" is finally out of the shadows, identified as senior FBI official Mark Felt. Now a younger generation strains to understand what the fuss was all about. Ken Rudin summarizes the Watergate scandal.

The Department of Health and Human Services releases results from the first major national study of abstinence-only education programs.

On March 2, 1962, a giant rolled into Hershey, Pa., and rolled up 100 points on the New York Knicks. The giant, of course, was the legendary Wilt Chamberlain, the center for the Philadelphia Warriors. He was a player who changed the NBA forever.

One of the biggest unanswered questions facing the Supreme Court is whether Chief Justice William Rehnquist, or any other court member, will retire this year. The 80-year-old Rehnquist is battling a serious form of thyroid cancer. NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg talks about who might succeed the chief justice.

Preston, Idaho, has seen tourism boom since the film Napoleon Dynamite became a cult hit. The town is about to hold its first Napoleon festival. Scott Simon talks with organizer Penny Christensen.

Jacki Lyden talks with biographer Lyndall Gordon about the life of Mary Wollstonecraft, the 18th-century feminist and author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Gordon describes Wollstonecraft's violent upbringing, her radical views on education, and her failed love affair.