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January 13, 2013 As a young girl reeling from the revolution in Iran in 1979, author Roya Hakakian discovered the great Persian poet Ahmad Shamlou. His poems made her realize the importance of breaking from tradition. Has a poem ever changed your thinking this way? Tell us in the comments.

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January 12, 2013 In Sonia Sotomayor's new memoir, My Beloved World, the associate Supreme Court justice opens up about her childhood in the Bronx. NPR's Nina Totenberg calls it a moving and unexpectedly personal look at the court's first Hispanic justice.

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January 12, 2013 Last year "marked the warmest year on record for the contiguous U.S." Mike Luckovich was feeling the heat last summer, while David Fitzsimmons predicts no change in our response.

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January 11, 2013 Juliann Garey's novel, Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See, is a searing exploration of mental illness. Author Ellen Forney says it's a vivid and accurate depiction of bipolar disorder.

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On All Things ConsideredPlaylist

January 11, 2013 Does music have a history? Why? Listening to Bowie, and reading Gary Marcus's Guitar Zero provoke commentator Alva Noë to wonder.

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January 11, 2013 The oldest rock in the world isn't even a rock. It's a teeny grain, a zircon, found inside a bigger rock. But what it's telling us is huge. It's rewriting the early history of the planet.

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January 11, 2013 President Obama's nomination of former GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense is encountering opposition. Randy Bish doesn't think the Vietnam veteran would be a good fit, while for Matt Wuerker, just who is up in arms over the purple heart winner's nomination is telling.

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January 11, 2013 A recent report from the Department of the Interior suggests that the Colorado River is drying out. But commentator Craig Childs says sometimes the answers are simpler than they seem.

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On Morning EditionPlaylist

January 10, 2013 In his new book, Jared Diamond describes how readily people in small-scale societies learn to speak many distinct languages. After reading Diamond's book, commentator Barbara J. King takes time to consider what we in the U.S. may lose in a sea of monolingualism.

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January 10, 2013 This year's flu season began early and in strength. Joe Heller wishes he could say, "It's only a movie," while Jimmy Margulies offers divinely inspired advice.

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January 9, 2013 Susanna Sonnenberg's life has been full of interesting women, and in a new memoir she tells their stories. Reviewer Meg Wolitzer says that She Matters: A Life in Friendships is a beautifully written book about the bonds, and the boundary issues, between women.

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On All Things ConsideredPlaylist

January 9, 2013 One of the country's speediest, most daring and dangerously tall climbers seems to be walking across the sky until his foot touches the moon's edge. But he doesn't stay for long.

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