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December 11, 2012 Our comics blogger examines the new 'Man of Steel' from a historical perspective and asks, Is Zack Snyder making Ma and Pa Kent ... interesting?

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December 9, 2012 The children's album was the brainchild of Emmy-winning actress Marlo Thomas and featured a bevy of celebrity voices. Today's parents love its themes of gender neutrality and individuality, though Thomas says society still hasn't completely grasped the idea.

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On Weekend Edition SundayPlaylist

December 7, 2012 On this week's show, we talk about people who have had great second acts and people we'd like to party with — or rather, would like to party with if we were "party with people" kinds of people. Which only some of us are. Oh, we'll explain it.

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December 5, 2012 Television has made enormous strides toward respectability and seriousness in the last 15 years or so, but it's gotten addicted to bloody violence.

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December 5, 2012 The new album It's Okay To Do Stuff pays tribute — sort of — to the 40-year-old Free To Be ... You And Me.

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December 5, 2012 Jimmy Fallon, The Roots, and Mariah Carey perform a stripped-down holiday standard.

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December 4, 2012 It's holiday box-set season, and Fresh Air critic David Bianculli shares some favorites for the TV-lover on your list. "Giving someone a gift of a TV show," he says, "is somehow very personal. You're giving something that you love, and that, in many cases, will occupy many hours ... of their time."

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On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

December 4, 2012 PBS remixes another of its iconic shows, and this time, it's all about books.

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On Morning EditionPlaylist

December 3, 2012 For this week's Sandwich Monday, we try McDonald's new CBO sandwich. CBO stands for "Cheddar, Bacon, Onion," but they have to put an asterisk after "Cheddar," because it's not really cheese. We don't know why they don't have to put an asterisk after "food."

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December 2, 2012 A discussion of highbrow holiday movies collides with admissions of gorging on cornball Christmas fare where Santa brings people love and magic happens.

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On Weekend Edition SundayPlaylist

November 30, 2012 NPR's Neda Ulaby investigates the etymology of random, a word comedian Spencer Thompson calls "the most misused ... of our generation." It turns out that Thompson's frustration is a bit misplaced — random has been around since the 14th century, and its usage shows how life, like language, evolves.

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On All Things ConsideredPlaylist

November 30, 2012 On this week's show, we use a certain Lindsay Lohan vehicle as a jumping-off point to talk about how you make a good biopic. Then, we'll let you know how we're doing on our fall television pool, and we'll close with what's making us happy this week.

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