Pop lyrics seem to have taken a turn towards the "me" and "I" variety, according to a new study. The study analyzed three decades of songs, and concluded that song lyrics have become more narcissistic in recent years, reflecting current youth culture. Is that really true? Maura Johnston, music editor for The Village Voice, lends her thoughts on this topic.

We want to know: Do you believe you are narcissistic? Take this test and find out.

Although electronic typewriters are still being manufactured, the last of the manual machines are up for sale as the last Indian company to make them is shutting down production. However, typewriters will likely continue to be sold amongst collectors like Richard Polt, who owns 250 of them. He says that one of the best reasons to use a typewriter today is that they come without the distractions of being on a computer (like the Internet).

"Wretches and Jabberers" is a buddy movie, a road trip movie and a moving adventure. But this new film is different than your typical mainstream fare. The documentary stars two autistic friends and advocates who do most of their communicating through typing. The story follows Larry Bissonnette and Tracy Thresher, as well as their assistants Pascal Cheng and Harvey Lavoy, as they travel around the world, meet other autistic people, and advocate for autism rights.

Nina Simone was just one of the immense talents to grace the stage of the National Black Theatre over it’s long history in Harlem. Others like actor Ruby Dee, and poets Maya Angelou and Nikki Giovanni also performed there. We look at the important cultural legacy of the National Black Theatre, which was founded by the late Barbara Ann Teer in 1968.

With national unemployment at record levels, an economy seemingly reluctant to get out of first gear, and experts struggling to solve a foreclosure crisis, it may come as no surprise that Americans are watching more television. According to the Nielsen Company, we’re watching a lot more TV than we used to. Nielsen collects viewer data and television ratings, and says that the average American now watches about 34 hours of television on any given week.

Nassim Taleb is the philosopher and former trader who correctly predicted that the mathematical models Wall Street used to measure risk would lead to a massive financial crisis. His new book, ‘The Bed of Procrustes,’ scrutinizes the economy, as well as human knowledge and values. The book features "practical and philosophical aphorisms," and includes fortune-cookie sized sentences that attempt to "expose self-delusions you have been living with but have never recognized."

John Legend has racked up six Grammy awards and gathered a loyal fan base. His long time projects with The Roots have given him a place in the contemporary music scene that most musicians would envy, and his nods to influences like Stevie Wonder give him crossover power for an older audience as well. Legend joins us to discuss his latest and more pointedly political album, "Wake Up," on which he and The Roots collaborated yet again.

The American Ballet Theatre traveled to Cuba for the first time in 50 years to participate in the 22nd Havana International Ballet Festival. The last time the dance company took the stage in Cuba, Fidel Castro had just taken power. We hear music from the Karl Marx theatre and talk with Rachel Moore, the executive director of the American Ballet Theatre, about the trip.

At 26, Danielle Evans is already the kind of writer who makes other writers jealous. She's still fresh from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, but she's already been chosen – twice –  for The Best American Short Stories, and both Salman Rushdie and Richard Russo have praised her work. There's already a lot of buzz around her new book, a collection of eight short stories called “Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self.” She joins us to talk about the challenges of being a young black writer in a world that's not over race, but may be over talking about it.

Haitian American novelist Edwidge Danticat has been busy, of late.  She has two new books hitting bookstores this fall: Eight Days is a children's book about a boy trapped in the rubble after the earthquake in Haiti, and Create Dangerously is a book of reflections on the task of the immigrant writer.

The daily life of any young child is filled with creative observations of the world we wish we could recapture as adults. Author Emma Donoghue has managed to capture, to stunning effect, those creative perceptions from the perspective of a five-year-old boy named Jack, in her new novel, “Room.”

But the story begins in a deceptively dark place when we learn that Jack and his 27-year-old mother are trapped. They’re held captive by Jack’s father and have been since Jack was born.

Snooki did not invent celebrity – and chances are she won't break it either.

That's according to Professor Fred Inglis, author of "A Short History of Celebrity." Inglis is a cultural historian, and he takes the long view on our fascination with the likes of Tiger Woods, Marilyn Monroe and Angelina Jolie. Over the past 200 years, says Inglis, it has become easier and easier to live vicariously. 

Co-host Celeste Headlee is broadcasting from member station KUVO in Denver, Colorado today and tomorrow, and in southern Colorado, there’s a story that’s been brewing up a storm of opposition. The controversy starts with the work of two well-known artists: Jeanne-Claude and Christo. The pair are most famous for draping fabric over public monuments and natural landscapes, like the famous Gates Project in New York’s Central Park. Jeanne-Claude passed away this past November. Her longtime husband and collaborator is working to finish some of their last projects.  The Over the River Project is one of them.

Author James Ellroy has continually returned to dark themes surrounding women, death and sex throughout his writing career.  Now, the author of such thrillers as L.A. Confidential and The Black Dahlia examines his personal ties to those themes in his second memoir, "The Hilliker Curse: My Pursuit of Women."

No matter what one's position on a given war, it’s often hard to put language on it. War is so colored by politics and the press, it’s sometimes hard to understand why people are fighting—as our recent wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan make abundantly clear.

But literature can help us. It can give us the context to understand war, because even if there are politics in a story, they’re deeply personal—they’re about people, and not just soundbites. Novels often recognize that there really aren’t concrete winners and losers. And, more often than not, they acknowledge the surreality of war.

Our friend, Patrik Henry Bass, senior editor at Essence Magazine, has read many books about war. And he’s here with some that have helped him to better understand how it touches people’s lives.

Everyone knows that beloved actor Leonard Nimoy will forever be associated with his most famous role: "Star Trek's" Mr. Spock. Of course, Nimoy went on to have a successful career in acting for decades after "Star Trek." Becoming known for just one iconic character can challenge any actor: Nimoy even wrote a pair of books balancing his own identity with Spock's. The first, "I Am Not Spock," was published in 1977, and the second, written nearly 20 years later, was called "I Am Spock."

Nimoy continues to work on another artistic passion that has a lot to do with the exploration of identity and self: portrait photography. His latest photo exhibition is called "Secret Selves." It's being shown at Mass MocA  (the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) and also at the R. Michelson Galleries in Northampton, Mass.

Chilean hip-hop artist Ana Tijoux sees herself as a musician first, and a rapper, second. The combination of clear homage to the kings and queens of soul, hip-hop and funk come through in her music, and sets a backdrop to her smooth style. Tijoux was born in France, after her parents fled Chile during Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.

The last time anyone got to hear Jerry Garcia play live was on July 9, 1995, when the Grateful Dead performed in Chicago. At the time, no one knew it be their last show: Exactly a month later – fifteen years ago today – guitarist Jerry Garcia died.

Today we take a look at the cultural impact Garcia and the Dead had (and still have) on music lovers, from the band's beginning in the '60s through today.

We want to hear from you. What are your favorite jam band experiences and what are your favorite jam band tracks?

We continue our summer reading series with journalist S.C. Gwynne, who brings us his new book, "Empire of the Summer Moon," about the final battles between Comanche Indians and white settlers. It's the story of the last great chief of the tribe that was once the most powerful in the nation. 

Tell us: What summer reading would you recommend?

American Beat poet, author, cartoonist and musician Tuli Kupferberg died this week at the age of 86. Although Kupferberg wasn't a household name, his band, The Fugs, ran in the same circles as The Velvet Underground, Andy Warhol and Frank Zappa and the "Mothers of Invention."