It's so rare for a new opera — let alone a new American opera — to be recorded even once. But few new operas have been so rapturously received as Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, which recounts the true story of a Catholic nun, Sister Helen Prejean, and the convicted rapist and double murderer Joseph De Rocher before he was executed by the state of Louisiana.

How well do you remember what's actually in the Affordable Care Act?

Last week's Supreme Court decision upholding President Obama's signature domestic achievement has thrust the measure back into the spotlight, where it's likely to remain through the presidential election.

Once major storms pass, hard-hit communities sometimes discover an unexpected silver lining: a miniature economic boom, as insurance checks pay for homeowners to rebuild and businesses to restock.

Americans remain about as polarized over President Obama's health care law as the nine members of the Supreme Court, according to polls taken after last week's ruling.

Another week brings more surprises in our search for the albums everyone can love. According to our most recent poll, a third of you haven't heard the one record we've probably pimped more than any other on All Songs Considered: Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago. Really? A third of you haven't even heard it?

Kin: Songs by Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell, released last month, is a collaboration between a best-selling author and a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter. Karr and Crowell sing songs about growing up in Texas in the '50s, material they've each grappled with in their own work. Karr's best-selling memoir The Liar's Club deals with themes of family, love and loss.