The State of Things

Composer Steve Reich combines recorded voices, instruments and repetitive patterns into the unique style of music called minimalism. He has used that music to explore themes like the Holocaust, cloning, and the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. The Kronos Quartet will premiere Reich's new piece "WTC 9/11" at Duke Performances on Saturday, but first host Frank Stasio talks with Reich about that composition and his pioneering body of musical works.

Amy Hempel is among America's most beloved short story writers. She's also a famous writing teacher – at Harvard University, Bennington College and the Sewanee Writer's Conference, to name a few placeAmy Hempel is among America's most beloved short story writers. She's also a famous writing teacher – at Harvard University, Bennington College and the Sewanee Writer's Conference, to name a few places where students have benefited from her tutelage.

At the corner of Angier Ave. and Driver St. in Durham sits Joe’s Diner. The special there is a 1 lb. all-beef hot dog, but what’s really special about the place is the relationship between its owner, Joe Bushfan, and the restaurant’s financier, Dan Hill. The unlikely partnership between Bushfan, a former celebrity bodyguard, and Hill, an insurance broker, started as a chat about business investments and has grown into an effort to revitalize East Durham’s neighborhoods.

Members of adolescent social cliques tend to dress alike, talk alike and share the same interests. But, a new study out of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill suggests that more dangerous behaviors – specifically engaging in nonsuicidal self-injury – are also contagious among friends. UNC psychology professor Mitch Prinstein joins host Frank Stasio to talk about investigating seemingly infectious harmful behaviors among young peer groups.

David Halperin’s new novel "Journal of a UFO Investigator" has extraterrestrial abduction, human-alien hybrids and spacecraft galore. The content reads like a straight science fiction tale at first, but beneath the fantastic story is another one about a boy facing loneliness and the imminent death of his mother.

Congressional hearings to investigate the “radicalization of Muslims in America” begin today on Capitol Hill. The hearings, called by New York Rep. Peter King, who is the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, are being criticized as racist for singling out the Muslim community in an exploration of homegrown terrorism.