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Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka was the first black African to win the Nobel Prize in literature, in 1986. He tells NPR's Michel Martin that the best part about it was the money. His latest work, Of Africa, is a study of the continent that has dominated his career.

Thousands of votes poured in from our listeners, telling us their favorite albums for 2012. In the end, a record that didn't come out until this fall wound up in the number one spot.

It was a tremendous year for upbeat music that reflected on aging and ennui in wise, wonderful ways.

Critics say Egypt's draft constitution, which was drawn up and approved mostly by Islamists, doesn't represent all Egyptians. They say the draft gives key Islamic scholars too much power on a broad range of legislative issues.

An unemployed couple prepares to divorce in order to protect what little assets they have, and a 15-year-old suffers the fallout of his parents' bank heist. Many of Corrigan's top 2012 reads tell stories — imagined and real — about people who felt like they didn't know what hit them.

We've all heard them: explanations rooted in evolutionary biology for why "promiscuous" males mate with many more partners than "choosy" females. Barbara J. King traces these widespread assumptions to a famous 1948 study on fruitflies — a study that a group of modern-day scientists now say was badly flawed.

In the Internet era, single-artist albums are suffering, but despite the make-your-own playlist options provided by mp3s and streaming services, compilations are thriving.

Writer-director Victoria Mahoney marries her experiences as a biracial woman to the drama of an unstable family in Yelling to the Sky. Critic Mark Jenkins says the film, which stars Zoe Kravtiz as a troubled teen, struggles to build convincing relationships among its disadvantaged characters.

With U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice withdrawing her name from secretary of state consideration Thursday, attention turned to Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., as a possible successor to Hillary Clinton. And that would have repercussions on Capitol Hill and in Massachusetts.

He created incentives that 11-year-olds could relate to. (Somehow, "Come to school and you'll be better off in 20 years," just wasn't working.)