NPR is making an announcement today that is sure to upset a loyal core of its audience, those who comment online at NPR.org (including those who comment on this blog). As of Aug. 23, online comments, a feature of the site since 2008, will be disabled. With the change, NPR joins a long list of other news organizations choosing to move conversations about its journalism off its own site and instead rely on social media to pick up the slack. But NPR stands for National Public Radio, so a decision to limit "public" input at NPR.org seems especially jarring.

NPR is taking steps to deal with its generational programming crisis, announcing that Car Talk will be moved off the lot in September 2017, five years after the show ended new production, and three years after co-host Tom Magliozzi passed away.

NPR political correspondent Mara Liasson performed acrobatics before a live audience of radio listeners today (9/2/15) — twisting herself into a pretzel to avoid mentioning (whisper:) Bernie.

What makes narrative podcasts and radio shows so good, and so popular?

The most talked-about novel written in French recently is not by a Frenchman, but by an Algerian, newspaper editor Kamel Daoud. It's called The Meursault Investigation, and it's a response to the most famous novel ever written by a French Algerian, a mainstay of the 20th century canon: The Stranger, by Albert Camus.

Vigilante guards — some associated with militia groups — have begun appeared outside recruiting stations around the country, ostensibly to protect them in the wake of the Chattanooga shootings.

Put on your headphones and listen to 199 of NPR Music's favorite songs from 2015 (so far).