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The Unger Report

Coming Out of the Closet Is So Yesterday

Last week, Lance Bass, a former member of the boy band 'N Sync announced that he's gay. Humorist Brian Unger shares his thoughts on the politics of coming out of the closet -- and the real challenges of engineering an "outing" to make a big impact.

Coming Out of the Closet Is So Yesterday

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Photo Op: An Occasional Series

A Lyrical, Multimedia 'Journey Through Time'

A multimedia project by acclaimed photographer Frans Lanting, featuring an original orchestral score by composer Philip Glass, tells the compelling story of life from its earliest beginnings on Earth to the explosion of diveristy of species today.

A Lyrical, Multimedia 'Journey Through Time'

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Photo Op

Visions of Two Lebanons

Photos from an American freelancer living in Beirut capture how the war between Hezbollah and Israel is affecting the largely Christian north and the Muslim south in very different ways — and also how the tragedy links both sides.

Visions of Two Lebanons

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Performing Arts

Play Captures Life Under South African Apartheid

This summer, at the Culture Project in New York City, five South African actors are telling their "true life" stories about growing up under apartheid. The piece is called Amajuba : Like Doves We Rise.

Play Captures Life Under South African Apartheid

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Media

For Photographer, Lebanon a Different Kind of War

New York Times photographer Tyler Hicks has spent the past 2 1/2 weeks in Tyre, Lebanon. Although covering a war story comes with a grave risk, Hicks has been able to get up close to the action, capturing images that are hauntingly intimate. Hicks has covered conflicts across the globe: He explains what's different about this assignment.

For Photographer, Lebanon a Different Kind of War

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Books

'Londonstani': A Streetside Slice of Culture

Laden with vernacular and violence, Gautam Malkani's debut novel Londonstani follows four Asian teenage kids in London's rough Hounslow borough. The result is a comic but sometimes harrowing portrait of immigration, identity and status.

'Londonstani': A Streetside Slice of Culture

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Summer on the Porch

Sitting on the Porch: Not a Place, But a State of Mind

All Things Considered asks you to sit down a spell as it examines an important place in summertime mythology, the front porch: its history, its role in American life and literature and its rich symbolism.

Sitting on the Porch: Not a Place, But a State of Mind

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National

San Francisco Works to Keep Families in Town

San Francisco has seen an exodus of families with children as the price of housing has skyrocketed. Enrollment has fallen and schools have been closed. But now the city is making efforts to encourage developers to build more affordable housing, and to make the city more family friendly.

San Francisco Works to Keep Families in Town

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Arts & Life

Art and History Intersect at a Paris Shop

On the Left Bank of the River Seine, directly across from the Louvre museum, a crowded little shop has provided supplies to artists for more than 100 years. Cezanne bought oil paints there. Picasso liked their gray pastels. The shop, Sennelier, is a Paris repository of art history and commerce.

Art and History Intersect at a Paris Shop

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Katrina & Beyond

Spear-Fishing for Flounder in Bay St. Louis

Noah Adams goes spear-fishing for flounder in Bay St. Louis, the Mississippi town hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina last August. His fishing partner is Doug Niolet, a retired Hurricane Hunter pilot who flew into the eye of Hurricane Katrina two days before it made landfall on the Gulf Coast.

Spear-Fishing for Flounder in Bay St. Louis

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Media

Al-Manar, Hezbollah's Voice on the Air

Hezbollah broadcasts news and messages on a television station it operates in Lebanon called Al-Manar. Ibrahim Moussaoui, the foreign editor for the station, talks with Noah Adams about the station's role in Hezbollah's continuing battle with Israeli forces.

Al-Manar, Hezbollah's Voice on the Air

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Religion

Ancient Psalms Found Preserved in Irish Bog

Robert Siegel talks with Dr. Pat Wallace, director of the National Museum of Ireland, about the recent discovery of an ancient book of psalms in the midlands of Ireland. The text, which survived in a peat bog, is thought to have been written more than 1,000 years ago.

Ancient Psalms Found Preserved in Irish Bog

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Middle East

Charting a Hellish Journey Out of Lebanon

Americans continue to try to flee Lebanon as the conflict between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants enters its third week. Fawaz Gerges, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at Sarah Lawrence College who was visiting relatives when hostilities broke out, recently completed what he calls a "hellish" journey back to the U.S. with his family.

Charting a Hellish Journey Out of Lebanon

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Music

Joan Jett Rumbles Back with 'Sinner'

The hit song "I Love Rock and Roll" by punk rocker Joan Jett stayed at number one on the Billboard charts for seven weeks back in 1982. Now decades later, Jett and her band, the Blackhearts, are playing songs from her first album in a decade to a new generation of punk fans.

Joan Jett Rumbles Back with 'Sinner'

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