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Washburn almost left the U.S. for China, where she'd planned to spend the rest of her days practicing law. As luck would have it, though, her growing fascination with learning the banjo led her to an unlikely recording career. Washburn's new album is titled City of Refuge.

Hamburg-born Astrid Kirchherr met the Beatles in 1960, before they were famous. She took some of the earliest photographs of the group and was engaged to Stuart Sutcliffe, the Beatles' original bassist, before he died of a brain hemorrhage in 1962.

Instead of adding hot water to brown dust with freeze-dried marshmallows, NPR's Steve Inskeep decided to learn how to do hot chocolate right. Pastry chef David Guas walks Inskeep through his recipe for Mexican hot chocolate, which features vanilla beans, almond extract and cinnamon.

Mad cow disease and related illness are thought to be spread by an infectious protein, not a germ. But some prominent scientists don't agree. NPR's Richard Harris travels to a National Institutes of Health lab in Montana, where a group of scientists have been trying for several decades to get to the bottom of brain-wasting diseases.

Carl Hancock Rux began his career in the arts as a spoken-word poet. He has ambitiously matured into an author, musician and playwright. Rux discusses his new novel, Asphalt, and his CD, Apothecary Rx.

When it comes to awards in theater or television or dance or literature, Frank Deford observes, candidates don't worry about losing out because of a personal flaw. Only sports applies that off-the-field standard.

NPR's Ayesha Rascoe plays the puzzle with listener, Karen Brock, and puzzlemaster, Will Shortz.

For Brig. Gen. William Grimsley, down time for reading does not necessarily mean a break from the battlefield. The deputy commanding general of the Army's fourth infantry division tends to choose heavy nonfiction about combat, wars and world history when he reads. He shares his summer reading list.

The controversial, best-selling Egyptian novel The Yacoubian Building describes a country that is corrupt, unfair and thuggish. Now it's being made into a star-studded film.

The Bob Dylan Center opens in Tulsa on Tuesday. It contains more than 100,000 pieces from his archives.