Michele Norris and Melissa Block remember former All Things Considered commentator Jo Carson, who died earlier this month in the place where she was born — John City, Tenn. She was 64. She was a playwright, fiction author and children's book author.

Melissa Block speaks with our regular political commentators E.J. Dionne, of the Washington Post and Brookings Institution, and David Brooks, of the New York Times.

Is it possible to play hooky from real life and return to the magical wonder of learning in a classroom? Writer Ben Dolnick investigates the intellectual doldrums that plague life after graduation.

Another tweet, another text, another trite, impersonal way that we choose to communicate with each other in the modern age. Writer Gwen Thompkins describes the ties that bind us to the well-written letter.

In Take Shelter, Michael Shannon dreams of an apocalyptic storm, and builds a backyard bunker for his family to survive. Critic David Edelstein says the film is terrific. (Recommended)

Spurred by the Dominique Strauss-Kahn scandal, French feminists are taking on what they see as one of the most entrenched and subtle barriers to gender equality in France: the word "mademoiselle." They say the term is irrelevant and insulting.

Idris Elba returns to his Emmy-nominated role in BBC America's Luther tonight. His history playing conflicted men who understand both sides of the law has brought him acclaim, but one particular rumor about an iconic role just keeps coming up — and he's doing nothing to make it go away.

It used to be that guys were guys and girls were girls. But now everyone's a guy and Frank Deford is confused.

A Harvard School of Public Health study of more than 50,000 nurses suggests the more caffeine they drank, the less likely they were to be diagnosed with depression. Researchers are calling for more study on why this might be.