On today's show: Civics 101: The Congressional Budget Office 10-Minute Writer's Workshop: Ben Winters A Winter/Mud Season Meal with Keith Sarasin Overheard this week features The Dead Pilots Society , Jackie Robinson's thoughts on racial taunts , and the time Barbara Frum spoke on live radio with a man holding hostages in a Toronto bank.

On today's show: A Series of Tubes with Rob Fleischman Liviu Babitz is CEO and founder of Cyborg Nest and talked to us about the "North Sense" a small bluetooth device that vibrates when the wearer is facing north. Producer Devin Strolovitch looks into a groundbreaking radio drama from 1943, "Sorry, Wrong Number." Listen again at prx.org . Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives by Tim Harford is now out in paperback.

On today's show: Civics 101: Office of Scheduling & Advance We spoke with Derek Thompson about his book Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction . "The Staten Island Ferry Disaster" from producer Ryan Sweikert . Listen to this story again at PRX.org . 10-Minute Writer's Workshop: Mario Batali

On today's show: Civics 101 answers a common question from listeners: What is the Electoral College ? The Denver Braille Challenge. Listen again at prx.org . Dana Goodyear joined us to talk about an article she wrote for The New Yorker about the Mountain Lions of Los Angeles .

On today's show: Director Michael Venn , Producer Karlina Lyons and Recovery Advocate Sandi Coyle talk about their new documentary The Heroin Effect . The film premieres Thursday, March 30th at The Music Hall in Portsmouth. "The Golden Age of Black Baseball" - Before Jackie Robinson, there were the Negro Leagues -- home to some of the greatest untold stories in baseball. Listen to this story again at prx.org . Lez Zeppelin . All girls. All Zeppelin. We talked to Steph Paynes , founder and lead

On today's show: Nancy Schafer is former director of the Tribeca Film Festival and curated the [FRAMED] documentary series with screenings on Thursdays beginning March 30th in Collboration with Next Stage Art Project. Information on screening and tickets here . "Live and Let Spy" from BackStory with the American History Guys . You can listen to this story again at PRX.org . Hallie Ephron on the craft of writing, competition amongst sisters, and her upcoming visit to the New Hampshire Writers'

On today's show: We spoke with Alyssa Mastromonaco , former Deputy Chief of Staff at the Obama White House and author of Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? , co-authored with Lauren Oyler . "The Staten Island Ferry Disaster" from producer Ryan Sweikert . Listen to this story again at PRX.org . Elizabeth Lesser is a founder of the Omega Institute and Omega Women's Leadership Center and presented a TED talk titled "Take 'The Other' to Lunch" in which she advocates opening up dialogue between people

NHPR and The Music Hall present Writers on a New England Stage with Krista Tippett recorded live at The Music Hall in Portsmouth. She’s the New York Times best-selling author of Einstein's God and more recently Becoming Wise , and host of the public radio show and podcast On Being . Since the program launched in 2003, she's spoken to hundreds of activists, scientists, scholars, religious leaders and spiritual seekers. Becoming Wise draws from that store of accumulated knowledge to reveal

On today's show: We spoke with Dr. Su'ad Abdul Khabeer about her new book Muslim Cool: Race, Religion, and Hip Hop in the United States . "After Living Through 'Hell,' Dropping Happy Beats" from producer Britta Green. Listen to this story again at PRX.org . Virginia took a trip over the border and into Vermont, where a coalition of theater companies are taking on Sweeney Todd . You can buy tickets here . 10-Minute Writer's Workshop: Lindy West

Sweeney Todd , the 1979 Sondheim revenge tragedy musical set in Victorian London, is a challenging and musically complex play to stage even for professional companies with big budgets - even more so for the Vermont based non-profit, Main Street Arts. Sweeney Todd is part of a larger strategy to build community and coordination between a number of small arts organizations on either side of the Connecticut River - a collaboration that defies the sinister nature of the plot.