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This year's games welcome the largest proportion of women Olympians in history. Among them are 50 Muslim women, who defied the odds to attend. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.

Singer/songwriter, guitarist Richard Thompson. He first became known for his work with "Fairport Convention." He's since gone solo and is known for his dark songs, which blend elements of British folk ballads and the blues. He's released a number of solo albums, including Mirror Blue and Rumor and Sigh. Rykodisc also compiled a retrospective of his work Watching the Dark: The History of Richard Thompson. Currently, Thompson is performing a show he calls "A Thousand Years of Pop Music," which includes British and American folk songs, jazz and pop.

Author Steve Coll details the complicated family history of Osama bin Laden, one of 54 children born to Mohamed bin Laden. The elder bin Laden transformed himself from an illiterate bricklayer into an immensely wealthy and powerful businessman.

In a new anthology of baseball essays, sportswriter Stefan Fatsis celebrates his beloved, 31-year-old baseball glove. He talks to Robert Siegel about how he set out to find out about his mitt's history and what he learned along the way.

Greg Patent hunted down the secrets of ethnic baking in more than 30 nations. His new book, A Baker's Odyssey, collects recipes for the delectable treats, with insights into their culinary history and cultural significance.

Short story master Alice Munro would be justified in resting on her laurels at this point in her career — she's won Canada's Governor General's Literary Award three times, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. But in her new collection of stories, called The View from Castle Rock, Munro veers off into a fresh direction — exploring family history through fact and fiction.

In 1851, two chess masters sat down for a practice game in London. What should have been a throwaway game intensified and was quickly dubbed "the immortal game." David Shenk, author of a new history of chess called The Immortal Game, describes the historic match.

Before Tony Montana, there was Meyer Lansky. True-crime writer T.J. English recounts the history of a mob-ruled Havana before the 1959 revolution.

On Jan. 4, 2007, Nancy Pelosi made history as the first female speaker of the House. She talks with Deborah Amos about her new book, Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters. Pelosi comes from a devoutly Democratic family, and she charts her journey from stay-at-home mom to politician.

In a tiny village in central Cameroon, musician Blick Bassy discovered his sound. Bassy now lives in Paris, but he continues to sing in his native language, Bassa. Bassa is one of the 250 or so languages spoken in Cameroon, and Bassy fears it is dying out.