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President Obama delivers a statement Monday about the technical issues consumers have been experiencing in signing up online for health exchanges under the Affordable Care Act. Steve Inskeep talks to NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson for a look ahead at the president's remarks and a sense of what the political impact has been so far.

As the economy improves, political debates change. President Obama says it's time to focus on stagnant middle-class incomes. Republicans are trying to come up with their agenda for the middle class.

Scott Weems' book HA! explores the science of when we laugh and why. He describes the part of your brain that's active when you laugh, and the controversy over whether ducks are funnier than chickens.

Austen Ivereigh, author of a new biography of Pope Francis, says the media have misjudged the pope's comments on abortion and homosexuality — but that Francis is a radical in other respects.

Katy Simpson Smith's novel, set during the American Revolution, was inspired by her research on mothers in the South. "Death was sort of the specter that haunted every aspect of life," she says.

Blake Crouch's new science fiction novel tells the story of Jason Dessen, a father and physics professor who suddenly finds himself in a parallel universe — in which he's unmarried and famous.

Glen Weldon's book The Caped Crusade traces the evolution of Batman, and argues that his anger and obsession are only part of the character; his childhood anti-crime oath makes him a hopeful figure.

"I see the world and then I describe it," says Sara Baume. Her debut novel, Spill Simmer Falter Wither, is a "very atypical love story" between a troubled man and his adopted one-eyed dog.

The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict is the earliest known prison memoir by an African-American writer. Written by Austin Reed in the 1850s, it was discovered at an estate sale in 2009.

Steve Inskeep talks with former NPR foreign correspondent Anne Garrels about her new book Putin Country: A Journey into the Real Russia.