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Actress Edie Falco plays Carmela Soprano, wife of Tony Soprano on the HBO drama The Sopranos. The role turned her from a relative unknown to a TV star. She's had roles on Law & Order and Homicide: Life on the Street. She starred in the independent films Judy Berlin, Trust and Laws of Gravity. This interview first aired October 5, 2001.

Voice and acting coach Patsy Rodenburg. She's worked with some of the world's leading English-speaking actors, including Judi Dench, Daniel Day-Lewis, Maggie Smith and Nicole Kidman. Rodenburg is the Director of Voice at London's National Theatre and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She's the author of the new book, Speaking Shakespeare, and The Actor Speaks: Voice and the Performer.

Now on her fourth decade at the top of the country music scene, Dolly Parton recently joined Morning Edition host Bob Edwards in the NPR studios to talk about her childhood, her long, lucrative career and her latest CD, Halos & Horns. Listen to Parton's convincing take on one of rock 'n' roll's sacred cows, Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven."

In 1941, a group of young women in Northern Virginia formed a book club to pass the time while their husbands got started on their careers. More than 60 years later, the six surviving members are still reading, and still meeting. Howard Berkes reports for All Things Considered.

Since they were first noticed by European explorers in the 1700s, totem poles may have been misunderstood as frightening statues worshipped as gods. But some say early totem poles were actually billboards for powerful native families, announcing the privileges they enjoyed. NPR's Robert Smith traces the history of totem poles for the Present at the Creation series.

Peter Foy has directed the flying segments of stage productions for more than half a century. On Weekend Edition Saturday, he talks with Scott Simon about his long career, from working with Mary Martin in the '50s to the upcoming non-musical production of Peter Pan in Baltimore. Simon also takes a turn as Peter himself.

NPR's Joe Palca reports on the winners of this year's Nobel Prize for Chemistry. John Fenn of the United States, Koichi Tanaka of Japan and Kurt Wuethrich of Switzerland won the prize for developing tools to analyze and study important biological molecules called proteins.

Puzzle master Will Shortz quizzes one of our listeners, and has a challenge for everyone at home. (This week's winner is Gordon Gerwig from Sacramento, California. He listens to Weekend Edition Sunday on member stations KXJZ and KXPR in Sacramento.)

Actor Christopher Reeve. A 1995 horseback riding accident left him paralyzed from the neck down. Recently, with intensive physical therapy, Reeve announced that he has regained motion and feeling in his fingers and in other parts of his body. This is incredible news to scientists, who assumed he would never move again. Reeve was totally paralyzed for five years. Then, one morning two years ago, he found he could move one finger. Reeve is still dependent on a wheelchair and respirator. He's just written a book, Nothing Is Impossible: Reflections on a New Life. His other book is Still Me. Reeve is most famous for starring in the Superman film series (I, II, III and IV).

NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports from the Calabria region of Italy -- home of the 'Ndrangheta, the most secretive and elusive of the Italian Mafias. A new CD collection of generations-old songs glorifying a culture of violence and vendetta is a best-seller in Europe. Hear full-length cuts from the CD, and get English translations of the lyrics. (9:00) La Musica Della Mafia, Il Canto di Malavita is available on Pias America, Catalogue# PIASA 8.