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Writer Michael Pollan. His book, The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World takes a look at four plants cultivated by humans: the apple, the tulip, potatoes and marijuana. Pollan demonstrates that plants and humans have developed a reciprocal, co-evolutionary relationship: do we plant potatoes, or do potatoes seduce us into planting them? Pollan questions the assumption that we are in charge of our agriculture. The book is now in paperback.

All Things Considered asked NPR listeners to send in questions about the conflict over Kashmir, and then posed those questions to South Asia scholars. Hear the experts' answers, and see their suggestions for online resources on the Kashmir region and conflict.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews a number of CDs devoted to the music of Hoagy Carmichael: Stardust Melody (Bluebird); Hoagy Sings Carmichael (Pacific Jazz); Stardust Melody: Beloved and Rare Songs of Hoagy Carmichael (A-Records); Bill Charlap: Stardust (BlueNote).

For years, Amy Borkowsky has been collecting hilarious and embarrassing messages left by her mother on her answering machine. Now she's put them on a CD and wants the world to hear them. On Morning Edition, host Bob Edwards reviews some of the messages with the former ad executive turned standup comedian.

At 17, Jesse Jean was a failing student in danger of falling victim to Washington, D.C.'s, street crime.

Catholic priests are at the center of the current child sex abuse scandal, but the realm of possible predators extends to anyone with access to children. Health professionals say early conversations with kids about sexuality may actually be the best protection. NPR's Brenda Wilson reports.

Composer and lyricist Richard Adler. In the 1950s, he collaborated with his partner, Jerry Ross, on the Broadway musicals Damn Yankees and The Pajama Game. He later became an impresario and organizer of events. His wrote a memoir, You Gotta Have Heart. The Pajama Game is currently being revived by City Center Encores in Manhattan.

Writer Alec Wilkinson is the author of new memoir, My Mentor: A Young Man's Friendship with William Maxwell (Houghton Mifflin) about his relationship with writer and editor William Maxwell. Maxwell was fiction editor for the New Yorker from 1936-1976 and worked with such authors as J.D. Salinger, John Cheever, John Updike, Eudora Welty and scores of others. Maxwell was the author of a number of novels, including Time Will Darken It, and So Long, See You Tomorrow, as well as several short story collections. He died at the age of 91 in August 2000. Wilkinson is a staff writer for the New Yorker, and has been there since 1980. He's the author of several books including, Midnights, Moonshine, and Big Sugar. We'll listen to a rebroadcast of a 1995 interview with Maxwell (3/29/95), and to an interview with Alec Wilkinson shortly after Maxwell's death (8/4/2000).

Since the 1973 release of his first album, Closing Time, Tom Waits has won fans over with his original songwriting and distinctive, gravelly vocal style. He has two new CDs out this month: Alice and Blood Money.

Hidden in the dense forest of central Africa lies a clearing where each day and night, dozens of elephants gather. African forest elephants are elusive, and such a clearing is rare. NPR's Alex Chadwick takes you there on the latest Radio Expedition, for Morning Edition.