Shelf Life

If you're a graduating medical student, today is a day of destiny for you. On Match Day, med students find out where they will learn how to be doctors. Bill Radke talks to Brian Eule, who wrote a book about the secretive matching process.

Sociologist Janet Poppendieck spent some time trying to make sense of how school meals are prepared and served. She talks with Kai Ryssdal about her new book on school nutrition programs.

The Yugo may be one of the worst cars in history, but it can teach us a lot about the auto industry. Author Jason Vuic talks with Kai Ryssdal about how the 80s car caused a frenzy of excitement, and then horror.

Author Lionel Shriver talks with Kai Ryssdal about her book, "So Much for That," in which the protagonist's plans for early retirement change when his wife gets cancer. She talks with Kai Ryssdal about the American way of health care, and putting a dollar value on human life.

Columnist Edward Jay Epstein talks with Kai Ryssdal about the economics of making movies and how films are financed.

Journalist Jeff Biggers talks with Kai Ryssdal about his book, "Reckoning at Eagle Creek," the myth of clean coal, and why it's the new tobacco.

Mark Yost, author of "Varsity Green," talks with Kai Ryssdal about some of the corruption that occurs in college sports.

The music industry has a long history of selling sound, but it hasn't always been harmonious. Author David Suisman talks with Bob Moon about the early days of popular music.

Fiction writer John Lanchester talks with Kai Ryssdal about his book, "I.O.U.," and the true-life story about what has happened to the global banking system over the past few years.

Author Gabriel Thompson talks with Kai Ryssdal about his new book, "Working In The Shadows," and his experiences being employed in jobs on the bottom rung of the economic ladder.