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August 2000: Trapped at the bottom of the Barents Sea, 23 Russian sailors waited in vain for rescue. Eighty-eight of their fellow sailors were killed in an explosion aboard the submarine Kursk -- the pride of Russia's evaporating navy. All Things Considered host Robert Siegel talks with journalist Robert Moore about his latest book, A Time to Die, detailing the mistakes and political fumbles that led to the tragedy.

Drugmakers spend billions of dollars each year trying to persuade doctors to prescribe their medicines. One company currently is in federal court, charged with illegally marketing its drug Neurontin for uses not approved by the FDA. And a family in Minnesota is asking why doctors prescribed the epilepsy drug to treat their son Dustin for manic-depression. NPR's Snigdha Prakash reports.

David D'Arcy reports on this year's Sundance Film Festival, widely regarded as the most prestigious showcase for independent films and documentaries, which opens tonight. One film features a handful of the 40,000 Cubans who left their island on rafts in the 1990s.

Autism is a disease that often drives people apart. It separates children from parents, and can leave parents feeling abandoned by researchers who offer no cure and little hope. But the MIND Institute, founded by fathers of autistic sons, is trying to change that by making parents key players in the search for a cure. NPR's Jon Hamilton reports.

Authors promoting their books often travel from city to city stopping for interviews at as many broadcast outlets as possible. For chefs with new cookbooks this means more than being able to talk about their work, it means being able to demonstrate it on camera. Media guru Lisa Ekus runs a T.V. kitchen training ground for chefs ready for the big time.

NPR's Susan Stamberg visits Seattle's Pike Place Market and shares her legendary recipe for Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish with some of the market vendors. Some of them aren't so sure about it...

Noah talks with Tom DeBaggio, his wife Joyce and his son Francesco, about the progression of Tom's early onset of Alzheimer's. We visited him for the first time three months ago, at his family herb farm in Chantilly, Va. DeBaggio says there is a difference in his condition from the last time we spoke. The disease is progressing more quickly than he had hoped it would.

Legendary jazz singer Abbey Lincoln has been hailed by one critic as the "Last Great Diva", and says herself that she sings in the tradition of Sarah Vaughan, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday.

Veteran newsman Robert Trout has the second of two reports about the history of the Republican party, through his own reporting on the last 17 conventions over a period of nearly seventy years. Today, Trout picks up in the late 1940's and early 1950's, and the fight between moderates and conservatives -- between the forces of Dwight D. Eisenhower and Robert A. Taft. Eisenhower won. But the pendulum swung back in the 1960's with the nomination of Barry Goldwater. Ultimately, Trout points out that the struggle between moderate and conservative still marks party proceedings today.

NPR's Noah Adams travels to Chantilly, Va., for a conversation with Tom DeBaggio, his wife Joyce and son Francesco. Tom DeBaggio was diagnosed in the spring of 1999 with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. This is the fourth in a series of interviews with the DeBaggio family. In today's conversation, Tom describes his loss of familiarity with most of the material in his new book about the growing and the use of herbs, his willingness to give up driving when the time comes, and his acceptance of the need for an identification bracelet. He also tells of a harrowing experience one night when he accidentally took an overdose medication used in his Alzheimer's treatment. Book referenced is The Big Book of Herbs: a Comprehensive Illustrated Reference to Herbs of Flavor and Fragrance, by Arthur Tucker and Thomas DeBaggio Interweave Press, Loveland, Colo. ISBN 1-883010-86-1.