Renee Montagne

NPR's Renee Montagne speaks to songwriter Patterson Hood about his band's new album, which threads dark tales of our perilous times and tries to end on a note of optimism.

Friday night's powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake was centered near Ridgecrest, Calif., about 100 miles north of Los Angeles. There are reports of damage, power outages, but no loss of life.

NPR's Renee Montagne speaks with KGET reporter Eytan Wallace on the latest updates on a 7.1 magnitude earthquake in Ridgecrest, Calif.

The school is fictional but the anxiety is real — the plot bears striking resemblance to actual college admissions scandals. "There's a sense that parents will stop at nothing," says Bruce Holsinger.

A new film follows the indie rockers' rise in the 1990s, the traffic accident that disrupted their lives and their recent return — after three of the members became Orthodox priests.

The young protagonist of Kate Atkinson's latest historical novel finds herself working for British intelligence during the war — and suddenly confronting that experience years later.

A typical album from the Australian band The Necks may have only one long track — music that stretches out in a jazzy mesmerizing flow. Pianist Chris Abrahams talks about their latest, called Body.

Boz Scaggs lost his home and a trove of lyrics scribbled on legal pads and cocktail napkins in wildfires last year. Writing his new album, Out of the Blues, helped him process the loss.

The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world, but California is leading the charge to reverse that trend. Since 2006, the state has cut its rate by more than half.

When Andrei Kaplan returns to Moscow to care for his grandmother, he hopes to write an article based on her Soviet-era stories. But things don't go according to plan in this new novel by Keith Gessen.