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As half of the comedy duo Cheech and Chong, Tommy Chong made a career out of making jokes about being stoned. Along with Cheech Marin, Chong recorded six gold comedy albums and starred in seven films. He currently has a recurring role on FOX TV's That '70s Show. He recently spent nine months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to sell drug paraphernalia.

Singer Mavis Staples is best known for her part in The Staple Singers. The group will be awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2005 Grammy Awards. We rebroadcast an interview with Staples from June 2, 1989.

Shiffrin, a two-time Olympic champion, did not to finish the women's slalom race on Wednesday. She previously won a gold medal in this competition in 2014 during the Sochi Olympics.

Writer Suzan-Lori Parks has won acclaim for depictions of African-American life. The author of Topdog/Underdog discusses two of her favorite dramatic scenes, from The Sound of Music and Taxi Driver.

Rock historian Ed Ward reviews Bob Dylan's new autobiography, Chronicles, Vol. I.

Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons talks about his latest role as the title character in a film adaptation of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice -- a play some consider to be anti-Semitic for its portrayal of the vengeful Jewish moneylender Shylock.

Day to Day presents Sliced By An Artist, a radio play written by elementary school student Kenny Juarez when he was 9 (he's now 11). Actor Dustin Hoffman narrates the story. It's a fantasy about a drinking straw trying to avoid his father's fate of being shredded for a piece of artwork.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews the new three-DVD set More Treasures from American Film Archives. Distributed by The National Film Preservation Foundation, it's a collection of 50 American films made between 1894 and 1931.

Marika Partridge reviews the mandolin dance sounds of Sam Bartlett. His self-produced, instrumental CD Evil Diane features some of America's best unknown acoustic players, fiddlers and pipers. Indiana native Bartlett is a prolific writer, often composing his reels and jigs from the road on his mandolin.

Hollywood is rife with film biographies this year: Ray Charles, Bobby Darin, Alexander the Great, Alfred Kinsey, and Che Guevara have all gotten the movie treatment. NPR's Bob Mondello says the one that opens Friday, the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, qualifies as the crowd-pleaser of the bunch.