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When people ask me, "What was it like to grow up on Long Island?" I give them a copy of Alice McDermott's novel That Night. "Read this," I say.

Denzel Whitaker, Nate Parker and Jurnee Smollett are cast as the three debate students in the The Great Debaters. They visited NPR studios to discuss the film's powerful story and its impact on them and their ideas about race relations in America.

"Katrina Cottages" – the alternative to FEMA trailers — are kind of a cross between a trailer and a house. But barely 2,000 of them are in use. The federal program to distribute them has been mired in red tape — over contracts, permits and zoning.

The sound of New Orleans Jazz is unmistakable. If you're in the Crescent City, there's one place you're sure to find it: Preservation Hall. A new, jam-packed box set celebrates the Preservation Hall Jazz Band master tapes that survived Hurricane Katrina.

Writer Jonathan Hayes was escaping a painfully dull Boxing Day dinner when he was introduced to Dorothy Sayers' The Nine Tailors for the first time. Hayes says Sayers helped nudge the English mystery novel out of the drawing room and into the real world.

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced Monday that he is asking advisers whether to disband the Mahdi Army. Iraq's prime minister has said Sadr's supporters will be blocked from participating in upcoming elections if it isn't.

NPR's Danny Zwerdling is at the South Pole, reporting for the Climate Connections series. Michele Norris talks to Zwerdling about what the pole looks like, why scientists flock to the bottom of the Earth — and just what it takes to stay warm in wind-chill temperatures nearing 50 degrees below zero.

Pressure to send more troops into Afghanistan presents military planners with a logistical challenge. Factor in training and recovery time — and a "surge" in Afghanistan isn't likely until the spring of 2009.

Listeners responded to the story on the trial of Salim Hamdan and the interview with an Ohio mail carrier seeking the right to wear his kilt to work. And one listener corrects a detail from the review of "Mamma Mia!"

We make a lot of noise here on Earth with our TV and radio broadcasts, and some of that sound escapes into space. But how far will our signals travel? Can Lucille Ball's laugh be heard across the universe?