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Polish exile and philosopher Leszek Kolakowski is the first recipient of the John W. Kluge Prize. The $1 million prize is the first international award in the humanities and social sciences -- areas not recognized by the Nobel Prize committees. Hear Librarian of Congress James Billington, who chose Kolakowski from a worldwide list of nominations.

Carnivale is a fantastical epic set in 1930s Dustbowl America. The episodes are full of literary and Biblical imagery. The show is the latest project from the cable network HBO. NPR's Laura Sydell reports.

Singer and songwriter Deanna Varagona is a member of the eclectic orchestra Lambchop. She's also a guitarist who dabbles in free jazz and indie rock. But Varagona, a Tennessee native, formed a country trio to make her second solo album, The Goodbyes Have All Been Taken. Hello. Meredith Ochs has a review.

Writer Augusten Burroughs has two best-selling, often funny memoirs to his credit. His first, Running With Scissors, portrayed his early years with his mentally ill mother and her equally mentally ill shrink. His second, Dry, was about getting sober. Now Burroughs has a book of stories, Magical Thinking.

A newly renovated Museum of Modern Art reopens in New York City this weekend with a new admission fee of $20, significantly higher than most museums across the country. Hear NPR's Robert Siegel, MoMA Chief Operating Officer James Gara and New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik.

It takes 33 pages to list all the recordings of cellist Janos Starker. After 72 years of playing the cello and instructing students from around the world, he has written a memoir. NPR's Susan Stamberg talks with Starker about a life spent in music.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age by Kevin Boyle.

At the American Museum of Natural History, a lost world is taking shape. Artists, writers and scientists have joined forces to create the most up-to-date dinosaur show ever. NPR's Christopher Joyce reports.

In Finding Neverland, his latest film, Johnny Depp plays Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie. NPR's Elizabeth Blair speaks with Depp about Barrie and some of the other eccentric characters he's inhabited.

John Waters' films have been described as raunchy, perverse and hilarious. So it comes as no surprise that he would pick a scene from a 1959 William Castle horror movie as one of his own favorites. Waters talks with NPR's Susan Stamberg.