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Jazz pianist Keith Jarrett. Called one of the greatest improvisers in the history of jazz, Jarrett was famous for his wildly passionate solo recitals. In 1996, Jarrett came down with a mysterious illness-- an interstitial bacterial parasite-- that caused him to stop performing for about two and a half years. Jarrett has started performing and recording again, but he still keeps a low public profile, so his condition will not worsen again. His newest CD, Whisper Not (Universal Classics), will be released next month. His other recent CD, Melody at Night, With You, was a solo album Jarrett recorded at his home studio in rural New Jersey.

2: Miami Herald columnist and novelist CARL HIAASEN. "Strip Tease," Hiassen's fifth novel and latest gonzo thriller, is a yarn, pitting a seemy Florida politician against the star stripper at Miami's Eager Beaver club. Mr. Hiaasen has spun tales of environmentalists feeding tourists and senior citizens to alligators ("Tourist Season), of a villainous South Florida plastic surgeon who kills a woman during a nose job ("Skin Tight"), and about the amusement park, "The Amazing KIngdom of Thrills,' where one of the novel's heavies is loved to death by an amorous dolphin ("Native Tongue").

Journalist and musician JAMES MCBRIDE. His recent book, is "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to his White Mother" (Riverhead) about his mother who was white and Jewish, but refused to admit her race. MCBRIDE's father was black. For years, MCBRIDE knew nothing about his mother's early life. It wasn't until he started work on the book, that she opened up to tell him that her father was a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi in rural Virginia, a racist, and he sexually abused her. MCBRIDE has written for "The Washington Post," "The Boston Globe," and "People" magazine

The race for New Orleans mayor will be decided on Saturday. Voters displaced by Hurricane Katrina will be able to cast absentee ballots until the polls close.

Country crooner Brad Paisley doesn't believe in taking himself too seriously. One of the songs on his new CD, Time Well Wasted, laments the needless death of flowers in the name of love.

Despite what his supporters say, President Bush has far more in common with Richard Nixon than Ronald Reagan. That's the idea put forth in economist and syndicated columnist Bruce Bartlett's new book, Impostor.

The White House is sending a complicated message about its intentions toward Iran. Daniel Schorr, senior news analyst for NPR, says the administration is attempting to convince Iran that military action is possible, while trying to convince Americans that military action is highly improbable.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has delayed indefinitely making a decision on whether the emergency contraceptive Plan B should be sold over the counter, prompting the resignation of Susan Wood, the agency's director of women's health. Are there legitimate safety concerns or has ideology trumped science, as some critics claim?

A new book uncovers the research of John Work, who accompanied folklorist Alan Lomax on a trip to the Mississippi Delta in the early 1940s. They documented the music heard in churches, blues joints and cotton fields of the South.

The Smithsonian's newest museum is dedicated to one of the hemisphere's oldest subjects, the history and culture of Native Americans. NPR's Juan Williams tours the National Museum of the American Indian, which opens in Washington, D.C., in September.