We hear the story of one writer’s magnificent obsession with the great American ballad, House of the Rising Sun.

Dominican-American novelist Junot Diaz on his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.”

The New Yorker’s Bill Buford takes us from the cacao plantations of Brazil to the booming high-end market for extreme chocolate.

In an archive edition of On Point, we talk with the Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch about on music, sports, life, and his new hip-hop fueled, B-ballin’ film, “Gunnin’ For That #1 Spot.”

In an archive edition of On Point, we jam with guitar legend Leo Kottke and Mike Gordon of Phish.

What a year: Obama, bailouts, and the economy in crisis. Russian tanks in Georgia. The Beijing Olympics, and more. Our news roundtable looks back at 2008.

In an archive edition of On Point, we look at Sacred Harp music, a centuries-old American tradition of shape-note singing and its revival around the country today.

Photographer Annie Leibovitz talks about the most important public - and personal - images of her celebrated career.

The Christmas Revels invade our studio for old Wessex carols, a Somerset Wassail, and Thomas Hardy’s “Under the Greenwood Tree.”

Theologian Martin Marty and physician Jerome Groopman join us for a conversation about hope in turbulent times — where we find it, and how we hold on.

A new look at frontier medicine, and the wildest tonics of the old Wild West.

Caroline Kennedy reaches for Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat. We look at the politics, the history, at Caroline, and the national mythology, all in play.

From the “Huck Finn” to “The Feminine Mystique,” author and critic Jay Parini talks about the books that really changed America.

Multi-million dollar bonuses for Wall Street executives — even now. We ask what mega-bonuses have meant, and mean, for the US economy.

NFL wives speak out. Are their husbands suffering brain damage from playing in the National Football League?

The Fed flirts with zero, Caroline Kennedy steps up, coup rumors in Baghdad. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

We go on the road to hot and sour China and beyond with intrepid cookbook authors Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid.

John Maynard Keynes wanted to save capitalism from itself. Now he’s back, in a big way. Economist and biographer Robert Skidelsky looks at the Keynes comeback.

An Indian-American writer, who’s gone back to India in search of opportunity, talks about how he sees India and America now.

Move over Mr. Ponzi, Bernard Madoff is here. We’ll look at the scam that’s rocking rich Americans, and a whole lot more.

Hip-hop activist Sister Souljah is back — with a new novel, “Midnight,” about love, race, and the gangster life.

It’s more than a month until Inauguration Day, but the U.S. capital is buzzing — and bracing for an event of epic proportions. We’ll check in on what’s coming on Inauguration Day.

Bad-boy poet Rimbaud lived hard, died young, and inspired generations — for better and worse. Novelist and biographer Edmund White tells the tale.

36 million people in America don’t get enough to eat. We’ll look at hunger in the land of obesity.

We’re going with the critics to the holiday movies — “Australia,” “Revolutionary Road,” “Valkyrie,” “Cadillac Records,” and many more.

Blagojevich makes “bleeping” a headline. Detroit prays for a bailout. Obama taps an energy chief. Our news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

We talk about style and our times with the fashion designer who helped turn Target into Tar-jay.

We talk with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of “Team of Rivals,” about Lincoln, FDR, LBJ, and their lessons for Barack Obama.

Oscar-winning filmmaker James Moll on his powerful new documentary about the meeting of two women: a Holocaust survivor and the daughter of the Nazi commandant who terrorized her.

We ask what it would take to remake the U.S. auto industry — and whether the government can really do it.

Jhumpa Lahiri dazzled. Dexter Filkins brought the war home. Toni Morrison found “Mercy.” We’ll look back on these and many more of the best reads of 2008.

Washington talks of help for homeowners. One plan has mortgage rates at 4.5 percent. Great news, but for whom? We look at the plans.

American colleges in trouble. Students and families strapped by recession, endowments crushed. Costs, soaring. Is academia headed for Chapter 11?

The White House, Pentagon, and American business, all hacked. We look at the new front lines of global confrontation.

With auto dealerships collapsing, we look at the wild history of car sales and salesmen - all the way back to selling ponies.

Detroit begs again. Mumbai isn’t over. Obama fills the Cabinet ranks. Our news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

We look back on money, greed, and the bubble with a hedge-fund poet.

American infrastructure may get a huge Obama shot in the arm. So, what should we build? Rebuild? And where?