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David Rockefeller, grandson of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller and a chief architect of the family's philanthropic efforts, has published his memoirs at age 87. He speaks with NPR's Scott Simon.

The Senate returns for a lame-duck session more active than most. Momentum is building to pass a Homeland Security bill, and Republicans are preparing to retake control of the upper chamber in January. NPR's Linda Wertheimer reports.

The electric chair is on its way out as an instrument of death in the United States. Nebraska is the last state to offer no alternative method of execution. A book by Richard Moran chronicles the history of the electric chair. Moran speaks with NPR's Scott Simon.

Host Liane Hansen talks with Jack Hermansen, whose company, Language Analysis Systems, has created a tool that helps law-enforcement officials and corporations track difficult-to-spell foreign names. The Name Reference Library was used by Immigration and Naturalization Service agents to reconstruct the movements of the 9/11 hijackers in Florida.

Host Alex Chadwick talks to Loune Viaud, this year's winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. Viaud is Director of Strategic Planning and Operations at an AIDS clinic in Haiti. Ms. Viaud is being recognized for her advocacy of health as a human right.

It's holiday film season and that usually means big budgets and special effects. But the film Drumline puts the emphasis on storytelling. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan offers a review.

Alfredo Duran who was 24 years old when he was part of the Brigade 2506, the group that invaded Cuba. And Robert Reynolds who was chief of the CIAs Miami station during the Bay of Pigs.

Renee Montagne talks with bluesman R.L. Burnside about his new album Wish I Were in Heaven Sitting Down. She also speaks with Matthew Johnson, head of Fat Possum Records.

Fresh Air's film critic doesn't much like the new film, based on the best-selling novel of the same name. It stars Laura Linney and Scarlet Johanssen.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews Mad Men, the drama about advertising execs during the Kennedy years. Season two of the Emmy-nominated series begins on Sunday night on AMC.