Search results for

Gac Filipaj graduated this week with honors from Columbia University. The 52-year-old Albanian refugee not only fled civil war to come to the U.S., but worked as a janitor at Columbia for nearly 20 years while taking English classes and earning his bachelor's degree. NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Filipaj about finally achieving his goal.

Two families united by marriage but divided by class are the focus of an intensely compelling slice of noir about moral rot and class warfare in post-Soviet Russia. Critic Ella Taylor says the film by director Andrey Zvyagintsev (The Return) smolders with existential unease.

A new study looks at how paralyzed people are able to move robotic arms with their thoughts, due to a microchip that is implanted in their brains that sends neural signals to a computer. Robert Siegel speaks with the lead author of the study, Dr. Leigh Hochberg, neurologist and engineer at Brown University and the VA Medical Center in Providence, R.I.

The invention of the vibrator is the focus of a romantic comedy set in 1880s London and starring Hugh Dancy, Felicity Jones and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Critic Jeannette Catsoulis says the film is disappointingly limp, turning the story of a device that rocked sexual politics into coy costumed farce.

For Ask Me Another's inaugural season, we picked the brains of more than a dozen game writers from across the country to devise the puzzles you hear each week. A few really stood out. Meet Shawn Kennedy and Dan Schofield.

Back when the dinosaurs ruled the Earth, some hardy bacteria took up residence at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Eighty six million years later, they're still there. And a new study says they're living out the most Spartan lifestyle known on this planet.

The key witness in the perjury trial of baseball star Roger Clemens is on the stand this week testifying that he injected Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs. Nina Totenberg talks to Melissa Block.

"She closed the book, placed it on the table, and finally, decided to walk through the door." This moment would now be frozen in time. Her head still swayed and her eyes still clouded with tears. Her mind swirled with a million thoughts as she shivered with the gravity of what had just occurred.

A new law grants doctors access to information about trade-secret chemicals used in natural gas drilling. Doctors say they need the information to treat patients who may have been exposed to chemicals. But the law also says doctors can't tell anyone else — not even other doctors — about what's in the formulas.

Steve Lehman's new album Dialect Fluorescent ends with a song called "Mr. E," a composition written by jazz legend Jackie McLean. But the connections run deep between Lehman and the alto saxophonist he considers a personal hero.