All Things Considered

Monday through Friday on News and Talk and News and Classical 3:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

On May 3, 1971, at 5 p.m., All Things Considered debuted on 90 public radio stations.

In the 40 years since, almost everything about the program has changed, from the hosts, producers, editors and reporters to the length of the program, the equipment used and even the audience.

However there is one thing that remains the same: each show consists of the biggest stories of the day, thoughtful commentaries, insightful features on the quirky and the mainstream in arts and life, music and entertainment, all brought alive through sound.

All Things Considered is the most listened-to, afternoon drive-time, news radio program in the country. Every weekday the two-hour show is hosted by Robert Siegel, Michele Norris and Melissa Block. In 1977, ATC expanded to seven days a week with a one-hour show on Saturdays and Sundays, currently hosted by Guy Raz.

During each broadcast, stories and reports come to listeners from NPR reporters and correspondents based throughout the United States and the world. The hosts interview newsmakers and contribute their own reporting. Rounding out the mix are the disparate voices of a variety of commentators, including Sports Commentator Stefen Fastis, Poet Andrei Codrescu and Political Columnists David Brooks and E.J. Dionne,

All Things Considered has earned many of journalism's highest honors, including the George Foster Peabody Award, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award and the Overseas Press Club Award.

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News/Talk

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Supreme Court Considers Life Sentences For Juveniles

Credit Paul J. Richards / AFP/Getty Images

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday in two cases that ask whether it is constitutional to sentence juveniles to life in prison without parole.

By Nina Totenberg

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The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in two murder cases testing whether it is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment to sentence a 14-year-old to life in prison without the possibility of parole. There are currently 79 people serving such life terms for crimes committed when they were 14 or younger.

2:16 pm

Tue March 20, 2012

'Shoah' Director Details Memoirs In 'Patagonian Hare'

Credit Helie Gallimar / Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Claude Lanzmann published his memoir, Le Lièvre de Patagonie, in France in 2009. The Patagonian Hare has now been translated into English.

By editor

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Seventy years ago, in the middle of World War II, a couple of hundred miles north of Toulouse, Claude Lanzmann was a high school student — and an assimilated French Jew. Every day he faced the risk of arrest.

When Lanzmann was a teenager, both he and his father independently joined the Communist Resistance. He writes about that in his newly translated memoir, The Patagonian Hare.

2:06 pm

Tue March 20, 2012

Trayvon Martin: The Lingering Memories Of Dead Boys

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Credit Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Attorney Benjamin Crump speaks to the medial, holding cellphone records and a police report. He represents the family of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was was killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman on Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla.

Credit Rayon Richards / Algonquin Books

Tayari Jones holds degrees from Spelman College, Arizona State University and the University of Iowa.

By editor

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Tayari Jones has written for McSweeney's, The New York Times and The Believer. Her most recent book is Silver Sparrow.

Like many Americans, I have been glued to the television eager for details about the tragic murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. I am not sure what I hoped to discover, as each new piece of evidence is more disturbing than the last.

1:37 pm

Tue March 20, 2012

'The Medium Is The Massage': A Kitchen Sink Of Sound

Credit Courtesy of the artist

Artwork for The Medium Is the Massage.

By Oliver Wang

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Few 20th century thinkers predicted the 21st century era of social media and the Internet better than Marshall McLuhan. Beginning in the 1960s, the Toronto-based philosopher and scholar began to theorize about how television and radio were changing society, creating what he termed the "global village."

2:18 pm

Mon March 19, 2012

In Illinois, Candidates Make A Final Delegate Dash

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Credit Seth Perlman / AP

Standing in front of a statue of Ronald Reagan on horseback, Rick Santorum speaks at a campaign rally Monday in Dixon, Ill.

Credit Steven Senne / AP

Mitt Romney speaks at the University of Chicago on Monday.

By David Schaper

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It's another furious dash to the finish line as delegate-rich Illinois holds its Republican presidential primary Tuesday.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is looking to increase his delegate lead. And he's still searching for that decisive win over his main rival, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

2:17 pm

Mon March 19, 2012

'How Creativity Works': It's All In Your Imagination

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Credit Nina Subin / Courtesy Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Jonah Lehrer is a contributing editor at Wired magazine and the author of How We Decide and Proust Was a Neuroscientist.

By editor

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What makes people creative? What gives some of us the ability to create work that captivates the eyes, minds and hearts of others? Jonah Lehrer, a writer specializing in neuroscience, addresses that question in his new book, Imagine: How Creativity Works.

Lehrer defines creativity broadly, considering everything from the invention of masking tape to breakthroughs in mathematics; from memorable ad campaigns to Shakespearean tragedies. He finds that the conditions that favor creativity — our brains, our times, our buildings, our cities — are equally broad.

12:00 pm

Mon March 19, 2012

Apple's Dividend Underwhelms Some

By editor

Robert Siegel speaks to Roben Farzad, a senior writer at BusinessWeek, about the implications of Apple's decision to pay dividends.

Music Reviews

11:37 am

Mon March 19, 2012

Zieti: Music As An Act Of Resistance

Credit Courtesy of the artist

Zieti member Tiende Djos Laurent with drum.

By editor

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From its start in the late '90s, Zieti faced tough odds. Arranging gigs in Abidjan, Ivory Coast was a high-risk, do-it-yourself affair for the band. And that was before the country underwent a military coup, a rigged election and a brush with civil war. Zemelewa was recorded by 15 musicians in four studios on two continents. For all that, you can sense the band's solidarity, as if merely making this record was an act of resistance.

1:54 pm

Sun March 18, 2012

'A Salesman' Lives On In Philip Seymour Hoffman

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Credit Bridgette Lacombe /

Credit Brigette Lacombe for New York Magazine /

Philip Seymour Hoffman (center) is the latest Willy Loman in a new revival of Arthur Miller's classic, Death of a Salesman, directed by Mike Nichols. Hoffman stars with (from left) Andrew Garfield, Finn Wittrock and Linda Emond in the 63-year-old, Pulitzer Prize-winning play.

Credit Eileen Darby / Getty Images

Lee J. Cobb (center) starred in the original, 1949 Broadway production of Death of a Salesman.

Credit Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Playwright Arthur Miller (left) on set with Dustin Hoffman, who played Willy Loman on Broadway in 1984, and in a CBS Television adaptation of Miller's play in 1985.

Credit Eric Y. Exit / AP

Brian Dennehy and Elizabeth Franz starred in the 50th anniversary Broadway production of the play in 1999.

By Tom Vitale

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When Philip Seymour Hoffman took the stage on March 15 in the new revival of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, he became the fifth actor in 63 years to walk the boards of Broadway in the shoes of the blustery, beleaguered salesman, Willy Loman. In the last six decades, each incarnation of the play has resonated with a new generation of theatergoers.

1:48 pm

Sat March 17, 2012

Betting On Two Pairs Of Filmmaking Brothers

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Credit Paramount Vantage

Two pairs of filmmaking brothers are both releasing movies this weekend. In Jeff, Who Lives at Home, by the Duplass brothers Jay and Mark, Pat (Ed Helms) and Jeff (Jason Segel) encounter each other in a day fraught with fateful events. Also opening is The Kid with a Bike, a Belgian slice-of-life drama from the Dardenne brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc..

Credit IFC Films

Wild child Cyril (Thomas Doret) forges an unlikely relationship with town hairdresser Samantha (Cecile de France) when his father abandons him.

By Bob Mondello

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Call it an accident of the calendar: two pairs of filmmaking brothers both opening movies on the same weekend, both films about the awkwardness of growing up. Jeff, Who Lives at Home is a post-mumblecore slacker comedy from the Duplass brothers, Mark and Jay. The Kid with a Bike is a Belgian slice-of-life drama from the Dardenne brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc.

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3:14 pm

Tue March 20, 2012