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Every year Half Moon Bay, Calif., holds a giant pumpkin contest. The winner weighed 2,363 pounds and is the heaviest pumpkin in the competition's 44-year history.

The Kentucky Historical Society is partnering with the Museums of Historic Hopkinsville-Christian County to document the shared histories of African…

Noah talks with Wanda Urbanska and Frank Levering, authors of "Moving to a Small Town." The husband and wife team left Los Angeles for Mount Airy, North Carolina in 1986 in search of a better life in rural America. "Moving to a Small Town" is a collection of a advice and anecdotes for people interested in moving to rural America. Urbanska and Levering say that the atmosphere of a small town can be gauged by looking at the sense of collective history held by a town's population. "Moving to a Small Town" is published by Simon & Schuster.

Linda talks to Drew Gilpin Faust, author of "Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War." (University of North Carolina Press) The book tells the history of white slaveholding women whose lives changed dramatically because of the Civil War. In their letters and diaries, they talk about how they are not prepared to take on household tasks and manage slaves in the absence of their husbands. Even though they are anxious for the ward to end, they do not question the morality of slavery.

professor of history at the University of Virginia, about his new book >Arguing about Slavery. Miller discusses Congressman and former President John Quincy Adams' nine year struggle to overturn the Gag Rule, which prohibited any discussion of slavery. Adams finally prevailed in 1844, arguing that the Gag Rule violated the Constitutional right to petition the government.

Outside the Chicago Museum of Science and History, you can actually walk through U505, the only remaining intact German U-boat, captured by the Allies on the high seas during World War II. But Chicago's winters have taken a toll on the U505. NPR's Rick Karr reports that its caretakers are trying to find the ways and the means to bring it in out of the elements for good.

Folklorist Stephen Wade examines the history of the folk ballad "Pretty Polly." The story told in the song came from a real incident in England in the 1700's, and was originally printed up for people to read. But over time, storytellers and singers set the story to music, and as people emigrated to America, the song came with them. Appalachian singers started using the banjo and guitar for the music, but the story has remained essentially the same since the late 1700's.

The arts have always been a part of American education - though often a small part. Sometimes they were used to encourage creativity...and sometimes, as during the turn-of-the-century wave of immigration, the arts were used to develop manual dexterity to prepare kids for the workforce. Now, for the first time, the arts are part of the national core curriculum through Goals 2000. Phyllis Joffe reports on the history of arts education in this country.

NPR's Sarah Chayes reports from Paris that French authorities have jailed a son of the late president Francois Mitterrand on suspicion of illegal arms sales to Angola. Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, once his father's adviser for African affairs, is being investigated for influence peddling, complicity in arms trafficking and money laundering. The jailing of Jean-Christophe Mitterrand has raised questions about France's long and complicated history of ties with Africa.

Host Lisa Simeone visits the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona where a new exhibit chronicles the history of Indian Boarding Schools. Starting in 1878 thousands of Indian children were sent, often by force, to boarding schools, in the hope the the schools would teach the children to 'be American.' Lisa talks with Margaret Archuletta, the curator of the exhibit, along with Brenda Child, historical advisor to the exhibit and author of the book, Boarding School School Seasons.