All Things Considered

Weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz checks-in with Three-Minute Fiction judge Luis Alberto Urrea to hear how the reading process is going and to hear some of his favorite stories thus far.

"Never Would Have Made It" is the biggest gospel hit of the past decade, and the man who sings it, Marvin Sapp, is quite possibly the biggest name in gospel today — a development that still surprises the Michigan pastor.

"I'm blown away by how that song has had the impact that it has had on so many people," Sapp tells NPR's Guy Raz. "All of us, I've learned, have gone through 'never would have made it' moments, and that's the reason why I believe that it resonates so strongly in so many people's lives."

Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng escaped house arrest. Now it is thought he traveled 300 miles to Beijing and is now being sheltered on the grounds of the U.S. embassy. With more, NPR's Beijing Bureau Chief Louisa Lim joins weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz.

Since winning American Idol in 2005, Carrie Underwood has become one of the most popular country artists in the business. At the age of 29, she is tied with country legend Reba McEntire as the Female Country Artist with the most number one hits on the Billboard charts. Not bad for a girl from Checotah, Okla.

Today at All Things Considered, we continue a project we're calling NewsPoet. Each month, we bring in a poet to spend time in the newsroom — and at the end of the day, to compose a poem reflecting on the day's stories.

It's been 20 years since Los Angeles erupted in violence after four LAPD officers were acquitted in the beating of Rodney King. And still, the city is not in agreement on what to call the events — riots, an uprising, a rebellion, or unrest? Melissa Block and Robert Siegel hear some of the options and opinions.

Seth Grahame-Smith is the author of Unholy Night.

I know it's strange to be thinking about October right now, but whenever I write, in a way that's always where I am. Growing up in Connecticut, it always held a special place in my heart — "a rare month for boys," as Ray Bradbury begins Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

And I'm Robert Siegel. In the Netherlands today, a U.N.-backed international court convicted former Liberian President Charles Taylor of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The court found that he had provided sustained and significant support to rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone during that country's brutal 11-year civil war. The counts against Taylor included aiding and abetting murder, rape and enlistment of child soldiers.