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The black male achievement gap has always been a hot-button topic. But a new film - 13 years in the making - attempts to address that issue by chronicling the experiences of two black boys as they navigate a prestigious private school. Host Michel Martin speaks with filmmakers and parents, Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson, and their son Idris Brewster, about the film American Promise.

If you haven't heard of the Quadrantids, don't worry. Even NASA calls them "a little-known meteor shower named after an extinct constellation." But in the Northern Hemisphere, they can be well worth watching.

Scandinavian crime novels have become so popular that some publishers even have a name for the genre — "Scandi-crime." Many of these books keep readers right on the edge of their seats. But reviewer Rosecrans Baldwin says Before I Burn by Gaute Heivoll takes a more subtle approach.

In the Oscar-nominated film The Wolf Of Wall Street, just about everything is over the top – including the side dishes. But extravagantly priced sides are no Hollywood fiction.

Diane Johnson has spent much of her adult life living in France, writing novels like Le Divorce. But it was not until a visit home, to the Midwestern town of Moline, IL, that the Johnson discovered that her pioneer ancestors had lives worthy of writing about. Her new book, Flyover Lives reconstructs their stories.

Janice Keihanaikukauakahihulihe'ekahaunaele had pressed the state for cards with her full name. Now she's got a new driver's license and an official state identification card.

A Russian ship carrying an Australian scientific expedition has been trapped since Monday. But a Chinese icebreaker is expected to soon free it from the ice. Other ships are also on the way. The 74 people aboard the MV Akademik Shokalskiy plan to then continue their expedition.

There was a time when people in the know in Memphis described James Govan as Otis Redding's natural successor. A new compilation collects some of his unreleased recordings.

The Everly Brothers influenced an entire generation of popular musicians. Don's voice usually handled the melody, but Phil gave the higher accompanying harmony to that melody, which defined the brothers' sound. Phil Everly died Friday from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 74.

Dorothy Holm of Minnesota couldn't speak in the weeks before her death in 1996. She spent some of that time writing capital letters on the fronts and backs of 20 index cards. Her family couldn't figure out what she might have been trying to say. Crowdsourcing on the Web led to an answer.