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Chris Smither has been honing his bluesy, folk-centered acoustic sound for four decades now — and critics and fans say he's getting better with age. Hear his conversation with Morning Edition host Bob Edwards, and listen to five full-length cuts of Smither performing live in NPR's Studio 4A.

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Rob Bourdaud'hui, a British-born U.S. resident and former disc jockey, about what he's listening to this summer. Listen to clips of his ideas.

Noah talks to Dr. Charles Yesalis, an epidemiologist and expert on performance enhancing drugs at Penn State University, about drug use among the Olympic athletes. Yesalis says the new I.O.C. test for EPO won't detect use by athletes who quit taking the drug a week or so before the games. (5:00) >>> Anabolic Steroids in Sport and Exercise, by Dr. Charles Yesalis, is published by Human Kinetics Publishing, Jan. 2000.

She covered Iran for some 20years for Newsweek and the New York Times. Her new book Persian Mirrors:The Elusive Face of Iran (Free Press) was just released last month. It illustrates the culture of Iran: its press, its movie industry, its restaurants and homes. She speaks today on Irans political position during the Middle East crisis. She is a Senior Writer at the Washington bureau of the New York Times. She lives in Washington, D.C.

The government of Tartarstan -- part of the Russian Federation -- has decided to switch from using the Cyrillic alphabet to the Roman alphabet. The switch is timed to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of self-rule in Tartarstan. Robert talks with Martha Brill Olcott, a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Brill co-authored Getting It Wrong: Regional Cooperation in the Commonwealth of the Independent States. (4:30) Brill's book is published by Carnegie Press, 0ctober 1999.

She's best known for her one-woman plays based on hundreds of interviews she did with diverse people who experienced a crisis in their community. They include Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 about the Rodney King verdict, and Fires in the Mirror about the Crown Heights disturbances. Her most recent show House Arrest took her to Washington D.C.to interview politicians and pundits, and it involves a community not in crisis. Deavere Smith has also written a new memoir, Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines (Random House).

Singer and composer Randy Newman's wry and sometimes raw musical commentary has become a big part of the American cultural landscape. In his new solo CD, The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 1, Newman revisits some of his biggest hits.

Director Ron Howard discusses his latest film, Cinderella Man, a rags-to-riches true story of boxer James Braddock, whose improbable rise during the Great Depression embodied the hopes of the suffering. Howard says that what makes the movie intriguing is the combination of the protagonist's actions both in life and sport.

NPR's Jack Speer reports on the aging Woodrow Wilson Bridge in Washington, D.C. It's just one of the thousands of bridges considered obsolete in the U.S. The Federal Highway Administration is citing structural problems and the strain of increased use as its reasons for replacing the Wilson Bridge and others like it on schedule.

The Alliance Defense Fund is one of the leading Christian public-interest law firms fighting hot-button social issues in the courtrooms. The ADF has funded more than 1,300 cases, including the legal battle over Terri Schiavo and the successful effort to invalidate same-sex marriage licenses in Oregon.