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NPR's Scott Simon talks with graphic artist Karla Ortiz about the issues of consent and compensation around the use of AI in the art world.

Nafissa Thompson-Spires' new story collection is full of characters coping with being not just black in a white world — but the only black person in their worlds. She says that's a hard role to fill.

Take a pinch of Hitchcock, a bit of Gone Girl, stir in a mysterious author and you've got the recipe for something unusual: One of the rare debut novels to hit number one its first week on the market.

The docket this year has nothing quite as riveting as last year's same-sex marriage cases, or the challenge to President Obama's health care overhaul from the term before. But once again, the court is facing hot-button social issues and questions of presidential and congressional power.

In California, activists and environmentalists are seeking to halt construction of a new $500 million rail yard next to the Port of Los Angeles. Activists say the massive project would mean even more pollution for nearby neighborhoods that already have some of the worst air in the country.

If you pay attention, you can see or hear a wide variety of birds, especially in migration season.

Washington, D.C., in the 1830s was a city of ferment. Free blacks were moving in, eventually outnumbering the city's slaves — a development that made whites very nervous. Those tensions came to a head in the now-forgotten race riot of 1835, an episode detailed in author Jefferson Morley's new book.

Dav Pilkey has just released his 10th Captain Underpants book. The series, packed with potty humor and goofy illustrations, delights reluctant readers and horrifies many grown-ups. Pilkey says he wanted to create books that would appeal even to readers who struggle, the way he did as a child.

In Who Could That Be at This Hour?, a prequel to A Series of Unfortunate Events, Daniel Handler satirizes pulp mysteries and uncovers the parallels between detective fiction and childhood. In both, he says, an outsider is trying to make his way in a mysteriously corrupt world.

Before the Civil Rights movement, segregated American cities helped give birth to the Chitlin' Circuit, a touring revue that provided employment for hundreds of black musicians. Rock historian Ed Ward profiles two recent books which illuminate the conditions these musicians endured.