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Social historian Stephanie Coontz's new book is Marriage, a History: from Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage. The historical review of wedlock reveals an institution that has adapted over centuries — but faces new crises today.

Los Angeles is home to almost four million people of every ethnicity — and sometimes, they don't share that home very peacefully. Author Nina Revoyr takes a tour of the city's Crenshaw district, the setting of her novel about family secrets and the 1965 Watts riots.

Evangelical Lutherans in America are debating the emotional issue of homosexuality at their national assembly, held this year in Orlando, Fla. The two items dominating the agenda are whether sexually active gay clergy should be ordained and whether the church should bless same-sex unions.

The Department of Health and Human Services releases results from the first major national study of abstinence-only education programs.

On March 2, 1962, a giant rolled into Hershey, Pa., and rolled up 100 points on the New York Knicks. The giant, of course, was the legendary Wilt Chamberlain, the center for the Philadelphia Warriors. He was a player who changed the NBA forever.

Preston, Idaho, has seen tourism boom since the film Napoleon Dynamite became a cult hit. The town is about to hold its first Napoleon festival. Scott Simon talks with organizer Penny Christensen.

One of the biggest unanswered questions facing the Supreme Court is whether Chief Justice William Rehnquist, or any other court member, will retire this year. The 80-year-old Rehnquist is battling a serious form of thyroid cancer. NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg talks about who might succeed the chief justice.

Jacki Lyden talks with biographer Lyndall Gordon about the life of Mary Wollstonecraft, the 18th-century feminist and author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Gordon describes Wollstonecraft's violent upbringing, her radical views on education, and her failed love affair.

DJ Kool Herc is known as the father of the DJ breakbeat, part of the foundation of modern hip-hop. He also wrote the introduction to the recent history of hip-hop, Can't Stop Won't Stop. Kool Herc kicks off Fresh Air's Hip-Hop Week. (This interview originally aired March 30, 2005.)

The Base Closure and Realignment Commission overturns the Pentagon's recommendation to close Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. The decision preserves the state's second-largest employer.