Search results for

For many young readers, Dahl is a beloved author. But to Lucy Dahl, he's also Dad. "Matilda was one of the most difficult books for him to write," she says. "I think that there was a deep genuine fear within his heart that books were going to go away and he wanted to write about it."

Food labels have become battlegrounds. Government regulators, companies and food movement activists have been fighting over what belongs on the label. (GMOs? Trans fats? Claims that bran prevents heart disease?) We asked four big thinkers for their dream food label.

France is deep in debate, wondering if there's a resurgence of an old colonial racism, or if people have just become more tolerant of bigots. The questions stem from a series of race-based taunts against Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, who is black.

The health care fix announced by President Obama on Thursday may be good news for some consumers, but it creates a big headache for insurance companies and regulators. An insurance industry trade group warns the last-minute change could destabilize the market and lead to higher premiums.

A mollusk named Ming was that old when it was dredged up in the ocean off Iceland several years ago. It was named Ming in honor of the Chinese dynasty it was born into.

Carol Burnett won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in October. The award ceremony will be broadcast on PBS Sunday, Nov. 24. Fresh Air's Terry Gross interviewed Burnett in 2003.

Author Doris Lessing died Sunday at the age of 94. Lessing won the 2007 Nobel Prize for literature for a life's work which included around 40 books and collections of essays and memoirs. Her book, The Golden Notebook, has been called the first feminist novel — a characterization Lessing rejected as "stupid."

Iran's leaders are active on Facebook and Twitter, and frequently reach out in English via social media. Both services remain officially banned in Iran. But journalist Robin Wright, an expert on Iran, calls their online overtures "the most ambitious public diplomacy campaign since Iran's 1979 revolution."

On Sunday, people made their way to church through the rubble and debris caused by Typhoon Haiyan. Parishioners say that in the days after one of the world's most powerful storms crashed into Tacloban, the church has been a focal point for the community, a place to be together and to mourn.

The actor's new memoir, A Story Lately Told, ends just as her Hollywood career is taking off. It covers her early life growing up in Ireland, the daughter of Maltese Falcon director John Huston. The two first collaborated on 1969's Walk With Love And Death, a project that proved disastrous for their relationship.