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There's a book that can help you walk the walk and talk the talk of fictional spy hero James Bond. Steve Inskeep speaks with Author Christopher Hitchens about The Book of Bond by Sir Kingsley Amis, published in 1965 under the pen name William (Bill) Tanner.

The star of NBC's 30 Rock talks to Terry Gross about his tough childhood, how he made the grade in the comedy college that was Saturday Night Live, and why even though he may cry a little on the radio, "the funny bus is still sitting downstairs." (Rebroadcast from Oct. 22, 2009)

David Lipsky says that his favorite comic, Runaways, is both a brilliant reading experience — and an embarrassment festival. The tiny digests by Brian K. Vaughan have been a fount of guilt, awkwardness and grave personal doubts, but he still pulls them out on the subway, because they are just that good.

The humorist, who made his name with personal essays and other nonfiction, tells Steve Inskeep that his return to fiction kept taking him to surprising places. But the unhappy endings? Those he could have predicted.

In April of 1943, the body of a British Royal Marine washed ashore in Spain, carrying top secret letters about Allied plans to invade Greece and Sardinia. Or so it seemed. In reality, the body was that of a homeless Welsh laborer, and the letters were fakes designed to direct German attention away from the real Allied invasion target: Sicily.

Cookbooks usually come in two varieties: glossy food porn with impenetrable recipes or easy peasy with canned shortcuts. Somewhere in the middle you'll find Pam Anderson's Perfect One-Dish Dinners, a collection that has all the flavor — without skimping on the shortcuts.

In the U.S., racing on gravel roads has become the dominant form of bike racing in just a few years. Organizers have prioritized diversity and inclusiveness in a way that other sports have not.

Sam Phillips once referred to Howlin' Wolf's voice as "where the soul of man never dies." Phillips, who worked with dozens of great Memphis musicians, never changed his mind. Rock historian Ed Ward examines the evolution of Wolf's singular talent.

Singer-songwriter Carole King started young: She was just 15 when she founded a doo-wop group with her classmates. The act never took off, but King eventually became one of the biggest-selling artists of all time. She tells the story of her career so far in a new memoir, A Natural Woman.

When Yamen Mekdad and Mark Gergis met in 2018, the pair combined their love of Syrian cassettes into a project aiming to save them — and share them more widely.