Weekend Edition on KASU

Ciaran Hinds seems to show up in every other movie you may have seen over the past decade, including There Will Be Blood, The Road to Perdition, Harry Potter and The Debt. He's currently starring in the hit television series Above Suspicion based on the Lynda La Plante novels. Host Scott Simon speaks with Hinds about his career.

Danny DeVito's a short and funny guy with a long and winding career in movies, TV, on-stage and online. His latest project transports him to the land of Truffula trees and singing fish. Host Scott Simon speaks to DeVito about voicing the title character in the new adaptation of Dr. Seuss's book, The Lorax.

Estelle Swaray is a Londoner. But for the past few years, the British singer best known for the song "American Boy" (her 2008 Grammy-winning hit with Kanye West) has called the U.S. home. It was a particular American boy, she says, who convinced her to make the move.

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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

The northeastern Greek town of Soufli flourished in the 19th century because of its vibrant silk trade. Silk farming declined in the 20th century with the invention of synthetic silk, but a few families have hung on. Despite the economic crisis, one of those families opened a silk museum in the hopes of drawing tourists and life back to a forgotten Greek town.

Joanna Kakissis sent us this postcard.

(SOUNDBITE OF A SONG)

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

There's a limited humanitarian effort already underway in Syria. The Red Cross is in the process of evacuating injured people from the embattled Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr. At least 27 people are reportedly receiving medical treatment after being driven out in ambulances yesterday. The evacuation comes after a week in which Baba Amr was pounded by some of the heaviest artillery attacks by the Syrian government.

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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Time now for your letters.

(SOUNDBITE OF TYPING AND MUSIC)

SIMON: Today a correction, so maybe some music that's a little more suitable.

(SOUNDBITE OF KLINGON BATTLE THEME)

Events as disparate as the cruel, escalating violence in Syria and the congested, unnerving conditions where Apple's iPads and iPhones are made at the Foxconn assembly plants in China raise a recurring question:

When do a country's internal affairs become the business of the world? And when do we make that our personal business?

You can take that question back through atrocities, crimes and outrages of recent history.