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In the 50 years since the Surgeon General's landmark report on smoking, what's worked to convince people not to smoke, and what hasn't? NPR's Scott Simon talks with Kenneth Warner, professor of public health at the University of Michigan, about cigarette consumption before and after the report.

On the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty" speech, the clash between Republicans and Democrats on how to alleviate poverty has come front and center. Republicans insist that anti-poverty programs have failed; Democrats say they have worked and should be expanded.

Playwright Tracy Letts won the Pulitzer Prize for August: Osage County, a story of secrets and family dysfunction. Now it's been released as a film, for which Letts wrote the screenplay. The story and its characters came from his own experiences, Letts says.

Patients feel more satisfied with their care when their doctors take a minute to sit down beside them. But harried doctors often fail to remember niceties like that. All the memorization of medical school seems to crowd out common courtesy, especially for interns just starting to see patients.

From its earliest days to its current state, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can largely be tracked by charting the lives of these arch-rivals. The two played major roles in shaping events, yet the enduring conflict has now outlasted both of them.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon died Saturday at the age of 85. Israelis mourned the death of the celebrated politician and army general. But Palestinians reacted differently to the death of the controversial leader, who pushed for Jewish settlement of Palestinian territories.

Nuns sue to avoid contraceptive coverage. A baker refuses to make a cake for a same-sex wedding. These ongoing battles bring into question the scope of the right to religious liberty in America. Where do one person's rights end and another's begin?

From Connecticut to Minnesota to California, correctional authorities are finding all kinds of reasons to produce food inside prison walls. A new video provides a glimpse of one of these projects, a vegetable garden inside San Quentin State prison outside of San Francisco.

Sunni leaders in Iraq are trying to retake control of two important cities in Anbar province. That's raising fears in Afghanistan, where al-Qaida operatives still reside near the border with Pakistan. The Washington Post's David Ignatius talks to NPR's Rachel Martin about the rise of al-Qaida-affiliated groups and America's relations with Afghanistan.

The new Baseball Hall of Fame inductees were announced this week — and it's not just who got in and who didn't that's causing a stir; the voting itself has people talking. Sports correspondent Mike Pesca speaks with NPR's Rachel Martin about that and the reduction of New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez's suspension.